spirits can be broken

I'm not sure if it was the acknowledgment yesterday that we were in pain or just a bad stretch of highway 101, but today challenged our spirits.

We started north of arcata and the fog rolling off the bay was so thick it created rain-like drops on our tent. Spoiled by Oregon's sunny weather, the cold made our joints ache and our feet slow on the cranks. Snot dripped from our noses and dew gathered on our wool sweaters. And then we entered 40 miles of city, traffic-ridden, poor-pavement section of highway 101 that was riddled with freeway exits and on ramps. It sucked dirty bike gears.

The only hope for today's ride was making it to Avenue of the Giants- a 30 mile stretch of easy road through major Redwoods.

The stress of the day wore hard on us. We focused on keeping our feet moving, one turn at a time to keep the bike moving knowing that shortly we'd be rewarded with the best scenic ride throguh the Redwoods.

And we made it. And then we jammed through the ride taking in enormous trees and the beautiful Eel river.

The best two parts were:

1) Nick, a nice Humbolt biker who chatted us up. He said, "I assume when you bike through Napa, you will drink the wine. So when you bike through Humbolt, you should smoke our weed. Would you like some Humbolt?"*

2) When we arrived at camp at Myer's Flat, we ran down to the Eel River to take a dip. Words can not describe how refreshing fresh river water is. We played in the deep current for 15 minutes of pure happiness. I love fresh water.

Today was hard; no bones about it. Tomorrow is our first day off and we need it greatly.

* While I loved Nick's offer, I had to join the 50 percent of bike tourists that decline his gesture.