VANCOMEX: 16th September – Crescent City to Eureka

Still no Tim – so frustrating for him, but hopefully the antibiotics will have kicked in for tomorrow.

An 8.00 start after a good breakfast. Our first full day cycling in California and now within touching distance of the great Redwood trees – something we’ve all been looking forward to. Within 7kms of leaving Crescent City we climbed our biggest hill so far – a 1200ft climb over 5kms – not one peak to climb but three. It provided our legs with an early test, but we came through it strongly. This was the first of several long climbs today, but our legs are now much stronger after 10 days on our bikes. At the top of the climb we were treated to some fine sunny views above the fog in the valley below and then had nearly 6kms of fast descent - very scary at timesl!

At 10.30 we stopped for coffee and a large sticky bun at Klamath and then crossed the Golden Bear bridge where two grizzly bears stand guard at the entrance of the river.

We had loads of scenic cycling today keeping off the US101, the best experience being the ride along Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway through the Redwoods – absolutely awesome! At 2.30 we lunched at Trinidad (magnificent paninis) and then had more scenic cycling to Arcata where we experienced the annual town celebration – a local band was playing and there seemed to be a really great party spirit in the town. So many wiedos in such a small town. Chris was very envious of all the men dressed up in women's clothing or tarzan outfits! Tom made a friend - see photos.

After a final 10km slog along US101 we reached our stop for the night at Eureka having completed over 135kms for the day. During the day we found it difficult to judge how many layers of clothing to wear when cycling. Peddling up-hill was hot work, then cycling down in the sea mist was freezing cold. Within a few minutes of cycling one could experience real extremes of temparature.

Overall, another very good day all round – great coastal scenery, amazing Redwoods, sunny spells and some great riding on cycling paths. Chris did a great job nagivating today. Tomorrow we will have completed half our journey - still a long way to go!!

There were several contenders for TWIT of the day. Chris forgot the camera, Brian fell off his bike, Maurice failed to stop for photos of Elks. The winner was Tom for producing bright blue surgical gloves to mend a puncture. There was too much flaunting of the cloves and Chris's rear-end came under threat - please refer to photos.