Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 16 August 1997
Day 37
16 August 1997 (sunny; nice; mileage = 17.2; between Petrolia and Honeydew
[A.W. Way] Humbolt City Park) -- X - We woke up to much less wind. In the
night, the tent really got a wind workout. It did its job well. I got out
of the tent and walked around the tide pools, since the tide was quite low.
Last night, it was quite high. We packed up and said good-bye to our
excellent beach spot. Right away, April had a flat tire that I just pumped
up. I was hoping it was just a slow leak. It got low again fast tho about a
mile down the road. We stopped at a very scenic pull out and I started to
change it. I was going to just put a new tube in and get going. NOT! The
valve stem had completely come out of the tube while in storage. Grr. We've
hauled this dead weight for 5,700 miles only to have it let us down. It was
also our last tube. Now we have NO spare. VERY bad. We patched the slow
leak and continued along the beautiful coastal road. There were many lucky
cows enjoying the view, too. Too soon, the party ended and we turned inland
for a grueling climb into the mountains. We got to a flat stretch which had
some very nice-looking property. This is a great area. We descended into
Petrolia and found a phone and used it. We also ditched trash and got H2O.
This is a very cool, little place. We had some more climbs and on one of
the drops, we met a stopped group of "roadies." One had hit a rock or hole
(on a Trek 1500!). I stopped to offer help, but no problem. Farther on, we
came to a county campground. We pulled in to check it out. There was an
organized ride going on doing what we'd done in reverse. This was their
camping spot. We talked for a long time to the (unrelated) riders who had
caught up to us at the campground. One was with the organized ride, Lindsey
McWilliams. He was very nice and gave us some contacts of nice relatives in
Ft. Bragg. That was very nice. We decided to camp here and rest up for the
many contour lines on our path. We set up and I checked out the swimming
potential of the river. Some were swimming, but I just waded. There was a
snake swimming, too, and I don't like that. The showers were cold and of
the beach (outdoor) variety, so April and I just washed off with H2O from
the spigots. We made a big meal of spaghetti and tomato sauce with fresh
tomatoes. Very good. There is a very nice full moon tonight which is quite
fine over the mountains which surround us.
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