Come on lads, Leggett

With wind blasting down the coast at 30mph from the North this morning, we considered spending a further day of rest with Jim and Susan, solving the World’s problems whilst sitting round their dinner table eating great food and drinking fine wines. But we needed to ‘bite the bullet’, set off and stop the procrastinating excuses of “we can’t cycle, it’s too windy”. Fortunately for us, Susan (what a star) had prepared a glorious breakfast to send us on our way. With a healthy balance of complex carbs (granola and fresh fruit), protein (boiled eggs) and good luck (a big hug) we were confident that today was going to be a good day…

Our 66-mile ride today from Fort Bragg to Garberville was very tough indeed. If it weren’t for the unbelievably strong winds rolling down the mountains from the North and being pushed in by the Pacific from the West, we would have completed today’s 5,726ft mountain climbing, 7,773 calorie burning, record-breaking ride in 7 hrs rather than 8 … and the calorie figures don’t even factor in the 30-mile headwind… it’s no wonder we’re sooo pooped this evening. All that said, we did experience some mind-blowing stuff today, and we’re not talking about the lax California laws concerning the consumption of Weed. No, we’re talking about the Mighty Redwoods …dudes and dudettes …they are f’ing massive, and we haven’t even seen the giants of Oregon yet. There was one Redwood in a town called Leggett that was so big you could pay $5 and drive your car through it. Literally, they (whomever “they” are) have cut a hole at the base of its trunk for people to drive their cars through. Wanting to experience this great privilege, we rode to the very place where this behemoth stood and asked to cycle through it.

“Yes of course sir” said the lady from behind her desk in her makeshift office, “that’ll be $6”.

“6 dollars?” Kat replied.

“Yes, 6 dollars”, the lady repeated, slightly confused by Kat’s tone.

Kat then explained “So it costs $5 dollars to drive a car full with 6 people through a tree trunk, but $6 dollars for 2 cyclists to perform a similar act?”

After a long, thoughtful pause and an expression on the lady’s face that resembled a light being switched on for the first time in 50 years confirming that her longstanding pricing model was fundamentally flawed, she replied “Yes, 6 dollars”.

… we didn’t cycle through the tree!

Not perturbed by this minor setback we, like the Littlest Hobo (that’s Hobo) made our way back into the wilderness taking some great pictures of the dramatic changes in scenery (minus the Mighty Redwood of course) and eventually arrived at our lovely hotel by 6:30pm. We struggled down to the restaurant and ate well. Now, back in our room sans TV, we write the blog with weary hands and tired eyes.

Goodnight Everybody.

Us x