Day 37: Panther Flat to Crescent City

September 21, 2011

Route from Panther Flat campground to Elk Prairie campground (days 37-38). Terrain view looks best.

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The temperature only got down to 60F overnight, uncomfortably warm for my sleeping bag. I got on the road at 8:30.

The riding was easy, downstream along the Smith river. The sky was mostly sunny but the road was in dense shade most of the time. It's a deep narrow canyon. In a few places the road is on a narrow ledge between vertical rock and a guard rail. No shoulder and no escape. My tail flasher was on as usual.

The traffic was light, perhaps because the road has little recreational traffic in the morning. Most people come in the afternoon for sunshine and warmer temperatures. The river is fairly warm and is popular for swimming.

Floods have scoured the channel of the Smith river down to bare rock.

10 miles before Crescent City I escaped highway 199 for good, turning left onto South Fork road, then right onto Douglas Park road.

Modern covered bridge on Douglas Park road.

After about 2 miles the pavement ends and giant redwoods begin. I'm now in Jedediah Smith State Park, a little-known gem. It has outstanding redwood groves as well as excellent riverfront.

I think the tree is wider than the road.

The road has some tourist traffic, 1 or 2 cars per minute. But the 1-lane 2-way dirt road forces motorists to go very slowly. It's very tranquil.

US 199 also goes several miles through giant redwoods, but this road is shorter and offers a much more intimate and peaceful experience.

I pedaled the half mile spur road to the Stout Grove trailhead. I hiked a mile in the Stout Grove area through some of the most magnificent specimens of redwood. I think it's the best giant redwoods short hike anywhere. Better than any I've done at Redwood National Park and Avenue of the Giants.

The trail also goes to a summer-only footbridge that links the Stout Grove to the park's main campground on the highway side of the river.

Summer-only footbridge across the Smith river at Jedediah Smith State Park.

It's wonderful to walk among the giant trees, but the canopy is so dense that it was a chilly 55F.

I'm not sure where the name changes, but at some point Douglas Park road turns into Howland Hill road.

The dirt road is mostly uphill, climbing 600 feet in 6 miles. At the top of the hill the redwoods end and pavement resumes. I presume the redwoods end abruptly because they were cut down long ago. The road descends steeply to Crescent City.

I think the dirt road through Jedediah Smith State Park is the best place for a cyclist to see giant redwoods. The 1-lane road is in the forest, not just near the forest. I saw several cyclists on the road, but no other loaded touring cyclists.

I arrived in Crescent City at noon. I had a Chinese lunch and bought groceries, then went south of town to the beach. I planned to go much further today, but the next segment has two big climbs and I'm already tired. So at 1:30 PM I got a room at the Curly Redwood lodge. It's an old motel that was built from a single huge curly-grain redwood tree.

Back to the Pacific Ocean in Crescent City.

It was sunny outside when I took a nap at 3 PM. But it was foggy and much colder when I woke up at 5 PM. I had dinner at Fisherman's restaurant across the street.

The restaurant has pictures taken after a tsunami destroyed Crescent City's harbor on March 11, 2011. Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake/tsunami and nuclear crisis dominated the news, so it wasn't widely reported that the earthquake sent a tsunami all the way across the Pacific. It was only 7 feet at Crescent City, but the fast moving water piled all the docks and boats into one corner of the harbor and washed 5 people out to sea (4 were rescued). It put 275 fishermen and fish processors out of work, but the damage was minimal compared to the 21-foot tsunami that leveled the downtown business district in 1964. That one came from a 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska.

Crescent City harbor after the March 11, 2011 tsunami that originated near Japan.

Distance: 25.1 mi. (40 km)
Climbing: 856 ft. (259 m)
Average Speed: 9.8 mph (16 km/h)
Hiking: 1 mi. (1.6 km)

Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 1,861 miles (2,995 km)

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