August 14, 2017
Day 42 Patrick's Point to Arcata: Read The Fine Print
The morning dawned foggy again, but since Jim had very cleverly parked our tent under a tree, we were nice and dry, so packing up went quickly. The plan was to head down to the town of Trinidad for breakfast before riding to Arcata, a short distance away.
In the book we have used as our guide, they suggest staying off of 101 at this point, but we heard from the Park Ranger that the road we were to take was full of ups and downs. Still tired from our hiking adventure, we weren’t too excited about doing a bunch of hills this morning, and since we were leaving fairly early, we opted to hop back onto 101 for the 6 miles to town. Good decision! The shoulder was wide and traffic was very light. We made good time and got into Trinidad, stopping at a gas station to ask where we could get breakfast. We were directed to the Trinidad Bay Eatery and Gallery, a short distance down the road.
When we arrived, our helmets were dripping from the thick fog and our glasses so wet we could barely see. We were happy to get off the bikes and into the cozy warm atmosphere of the restaurant. We ordered our breakfast and hot coffees and enjoyed just sitting in a warm, dry place for a while.
Breakfast done, we started back on 101. We thought we would just stay on it, as the road hadn’t been that bad this morning, rather than taking any of the scenic routes suggested in the book. Often time, scenic has meant hills, and we just didn’t want to deal with them today. However, once we got back on, the traffic increased, the shoulders decreased and the speed limit increased, all of which led to the decision to get off of 101 and try the scenic route, hills be damned.
The turnoff for Little River State Park came up and we were relieved to find that instead of going up and down, we were on a lovely quiet road along the beach paralleling 101 – perfect!
When this road came to an end, we took a look at another option, the Hammond River Bike Trail. As we looked at the map posted at the trailhead, Kevin from Minnesota walked up to chat. He was camped nearby and was heading up to Oregon. He told us he was just moving around the country, carrying what he needed in his backpack and seeing what was out there. He was celebrating his 3rd time being 21 and didn’t have any responsibilities back home. It was interesting chatting with someone who was also travelling light, but in a different way. We said our goodbyes to Kevin, each of us wishing the other safe travels and we headed off down the trail.
What a great choice this was! We were off the highway on what was mostly a paved path (just one section, about ¼ mile of gravel) with one hill to climb. We were along the ocean and able to ride side by side and just enjoy the beautiful views – what a great way to spend the morning!
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Eventually, the trail ended and we rode along past some farms before finally coming into Arcata.
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After stopping for another coffee, we made our way to the Redwood Lily Guesthouse. Hmm…. this is there the title of today’s post comes from. We had read somewhere that this was a lovely alternative to staying at the nearby KOA campground in Eureka, and the website seemed to indicate that it was a BnB type of place in an older home with lovely rooms. Sounded good to us! However, I guess the proof is in the fine print, and I should have paid more attention to the descriptions (and reviews) as when we arrived, it was to find that our home for the night was kind of a super hippy hostel situation. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It is actually a pretty cool house and the rooms are very nice. But there’s shared bathrooms and only 1 shower (a very cool one though, upstairs with a skylight so you feel like you are showering in the trees). But, not really what we were wanting. Oh well, once we realized our mistake, we walked into the town to discuss options. We discovered that the town centre is really pretty funky and so booked a room for a second night at a local motel so we could fully explore this place. So, the rest of this day will be devoted to getting the journal up to date and working on videos. The sun has decided to shine again, so hopefully the evening will include a walk through town and a nice dinner somewhere. I do love camping and creating meals out of doors, but is sure is nice to let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up sometimes. Yep, this retirement touring is the way to go!
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Today's ride: 38 km (24 miles)
Total: 1,531 km (951 miles)
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