Day Seventeen
Elk Prairie campground to Fortuna, 70 miles
Today was a transition from the quiet forest of the Drury Scenic Parkway to the manic gotta-get-there-fast of US 101 the California Freeway. I first hit 101 in Reedsport, OR. Until just north of Trinidad, CA, 101 serves as the main street of towns it passes through. From Trinidad south, it bypasses towns. I got off the freeway at Trinidad and found a quaint little town and a fantastic lunch. Much of today’s ride, and pretty much anytime I am on 101 going south, I’ll be riding a freeway shoulder. Of course, this means cars and trucks whizzing by a high speed, but it also means a predictably wide, smooth and clean shoulder, which is much safer than the narrow and occasionally disappearing shoulders I’ve been on in recent days.
The official Pacific Coast Bikeway leaves 101 frequently. Sometimes the actually bikeway is on nice, quiet, rural road. In other stretches, it may be quiet but the roadbed is awful and its windings add miles to the trip. This is not a leisurely ride for me, unfortunately, I’m having to bang out some serious miles to keep on schedule, particularly this stretch from Coos Bay to Ukiah, so I am forgoing the official bikeway in favor of the more direct but better engineered and louder US 101 freeway.
Today, I opted for the bikeway around the west side of Arcata Bay, whereas 101 cuts along the bay’s east side. Despite the headwind and occasional pothole repairs on top of pothole repairs, I got to see the rural nature of this area as it has probably been for a century or more. Family farms with low fields of hay, but mostly pasture for cattle, which dotted the landscape in small herds. One farmer I passed seemed to be in a standoff with a large bull with huge horns. 50 yards down the road, another large bull with huge horns was standing in the road staring at me. I picked up my pace and gave him a wide berth, but he didn’t seem very interested in me. It looks like making a living here is hard. Everything looks second hand, and while initial construction and engineering of structures looks sound, it all looks tired. It’s an austere place with hard weather. Everything looks rainswept and sandblasted.
I hit Eureka at rush hour, and it was nuts. Eureka itself looks like South Tacoma Avenue in the 1980s, just tacky on tacky, and the traffic was bumper to bumper and impatient. 101 is the main drag here, and it’s two narrow lanes and curb—no shoulder, not much of a sidewalk. I decided to negotiate sidewalks with the occasional pedestrian rather than wrestle for respect in the roadway. As a rule, the national chain stores seemed to be well maintained, and local stores seemed to be short on cash and behind on maintenance. It’s easy to see where Eurekans spend their money. No “buy local” vibe here, and it shows.
South of Eureka proper the surface street 101 became freeway 101 again, and traffic sped up and thinned out. Nothing more to speak of, really, about today’s ride. Strangely, I again felt a surge of energy in the last quarter of today’s miles, feeling stronger through mile 60 than I did for most of the day prior. Fortuna is a town south of Eureka that appears to be making an effort. Houses are painted, local shops appear to have customers, and landscaping is watered and alive, instead of planted, ignored, and dead.
Tonight I am in a motel that should have cost much less than it did, but I’m too tired to shop. When I opened the door to my room, I discovered that it was already in use—by two strung-out, startled and annoyed junkies. The manager had programed the card key incorrectly. And if she did that with my key, who knows if she gave out a wrongly programed key with my room number to someone else. I hid my valuables when I left the room to get something to eat and assured Joan that I swung the deadbolt when I went to bed.
I have left the coast and won’t see it again until Bodega Bay, 225 miles to the south. Much of tomorrow’s ride follows a single river, rather than crossing over hills into drainage after drainage, as I have been. I will ride through the Avenue of the Giants, which parallels 101. I have two more high mile days to Ukiah so I will motel it tomorrow night too, staying at a place called Royal Tree Villas in Leggett, some 75+ miles away. Laundry is done and the bike is serving as a drying rack. My damp gear is laid out all over the room, so there is a fair amount of repacking to do before I hit the road tomorrow. Time for sleep.
