San Francisco – Brookings: Redwoods


After San Francisco, we continued along the Pacific coast with destination Seattle. However, there was still the rest of California first.

San Francisco – Bodega Bay – Mendocino

After spending a few days in San Francisco, we crossed the almost 75 year old Golden Gate Bridge, which had it’s anniversary just a few days later. We weren’t the only tourist on this famous bridge of course but it was still great to cross it by bike. Our destination for the day was the Taylor State Park and there we had an encounter of the not so nice kind. A lot of state campgrounds offer special group campgrounds for hikers and cyclists (hiker/biker). Those are cheaper and can’t be reserved. We arrived on this campground and started to build up our tents, when another guy walked towards us and saying angry, that he had reserved this site in the morning and now just came back with his bike. I explained him that those sites can’t be reserved. He didn’t really listen, just told me that I should go back to France and walked away. I’m actually Swiss but it looks like for him all foreigner he doesn’t like are coming from France… Later, a ranger told him the same and gave him, as a courtesy, another site a bit further away. However, we heard him shouting around the rest of the day. One of the reasons was probably too, that he had a lot of beer with him…
We continued the next day along the Tomales Bay (part of the San Andrew Fault), emptied the great bakery in Tomales Bay and camped in Bodega Bay. There, we met a whole group of cyclists and had a great evening with them.They were cycling south (of course) and we continued north on the next day.
However, we didn’t get that far because there was a great Cafe Aquatica in Jenner where we stayed for a bit before continuing. It was very windy (from the north…) and the street was very hilly. Therefore, we didn’t get as far as planned that day…

Mendocino – Avenue of the Giants – Eureka

After Mendocino or more exact Fort Bragg, the highest hill on this part was waiting for us. We heard from a lot of people that it is hard but some also told us, that it is over rated. And actually it is. The hill before the main hill is much steeper but both can be done pretty easy. It just takes time. We finally reached Legget, where you can drive through a Redwood tree (and two cyclist pay more than one car with up to six people…). Afterwards. we continued through the “Avenue of the Giants” where the street crosses forest of very old and high Coastal Redwood trees. Very impressive!

Eureka – Klamath – Brookings

In the mean time, we reached the north of California and also the weather got much wetter therefor. After we had almost no rain in the southern part of the trip, we almost had to adjust to the fact that you also can cycle and tent in rain ;-). However, during those very rainy days there was luckily another great Cafe in Trinidad where we enjoyed a great soup with Strawberry Brownies and dried our clothes. When one of the ladies there started to clean up I asked if they are going to close soon. She told me, that they were already closed. They just were so nice to not push us out that fast. But we anyway had to continue also if it was still raining… It stopped the next morning but started again the day after when we slowly moved out of California and entered Oregon. More about that in the next blog entry.

All the best,

Stefan

PS: Have a look at the pictures in the Gallery as well!


About Stefan

I'm a telecommunication engineer by profession and like to discover the world by bike. I think, that it is the perfect speed to move but still be in touch with the world and the people which live there. And I'm very happy, that my wife Susanna is joining me now on those adventures. If you are interested in other journeys we did so far, please also check my website www.biketravel.net. Stefan, Switzerland

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4 thoughts on “San Francisco – Brookings: Redwoods

  • Sandra

    Hallo Stefan
    vielen Dank für deine ausführlichen Berichte, welche immer spannend zum Lesen sind. Wau, ihr seit über die Golden Gate Bridge gefahren… kann mir vorstellen welchen Eindruck das hinterlassen hatte. Diese Brücke ist einfach so etwas von eindrücklich. Wenn ich dir Flossen für die weitere Reisen in den Norden schicken soll, lass es mich wissen 🙂
    Ich wünsche euch weiterhin ein gute und problemlose Reise. freue mich schon auf den nächsten blog.
    Liebe Grüsse aus der heissen Schweiz
    Sandra

  • Marco

    Salut,
    wow, schon in Seattle, gratuliere!! Da habt ihr ja ein weiteres grosses Etappenziel erreicht. Wünsche euch weiterhin gute Fahrt gegen Norden. Schwinge mich am Sonntag am Napf-Marathon auch aufs Bike.
    Gruess aus dem sommerlichen Luzern