Day 94 Harris View State Park to Redwoods State Park

Today we entered the sunshine state of California but with one essential ingredient missing - the sunshine. This is not the image of California that I had in my head from the music of the Beach Boys, the Grateful Dead, the Eagles and all the other west coast icons of the sixties and seventies. And of course Pamela Andetson. 

Quite a long hard today as we needed to get to the Redwoods to keep on schedule. I think Dolores feels that she is in Rob's boot camp now after I hassle her to get up at 6AM.

The redwoods were awesome of course but we had the bonus of seeing a 40' gtey whale that had found it's way into the estuary of the Klamath river in the Hoopa Valley Indian Resetvation.

Hopefully it will find it's way back out to sea and hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow. It is quite cold and damp on the campsite tonight.

Miles Today 67
Total         4912

Day 93 Humbug Mountain State Park to Harris Beach State Park

I thought I was doing a big trip until I met Judy leaving the campsite this morning. She left England 15 months ago and is on the last leg of a round the world trip with Only South America left to do.

Anyway today was absolutely amazing with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean and Oregon coast all the way down. And we still have the tailwind.

For the last 3 nights we have had tbe company of Rick and bis son Scott from Portland, Steve from England, a Dutch couple  Eric and Colette who cycled the Transam a ccuple of days ahead of us, a mysterious French girl with a German name Marlene and a German couple on a Tandem. We all seem to be ending up on the same campsite every night and it is very sociable, with campfires lit and people actually going to bed AFTER 8 30PM.

Tomorrow we cross the border into California.

Miles Today    53
Total           4842

Day 92 Sunset Bay to Humbug Mtn State Park

I woke up today in the beautiful surroundings of Sunset Bay where I finally managed to perform the wheel dipping ceremony, but without any sunshine. After cycling back to Charleston to grab some breakfast junk food, we were warned by the locals of the toil ahead up the notorious seven devils road. In the words of Dolores you might be able to describe it as a 'significant' climb Pah! Compared to some of the stuff on the Transam I tbought tbe  7 hills were small potatoes.

We then breezed into Bandon where we had an early brunch/lunch at the Bandon Coffee Cafe. The blueberry sour cream coffee cake was delicious.

After lunch we had magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean as we hugged the coast. This is what I had been waiting for. Yesterday's tailwind was still in evidence and even stronger. Are we going to be blown all the way to San Francisco?

Aftet a late afternoon teastop we stocked up on a few provisions and then headed for camp, hopefully arriving a little earlier than yrsterday.

Distance Today 60
Total              4785

Day 91 Florence to Sunset Bay

After a final farewell breakfast with Sally,Ellen Don and Hubert we finally started our journey south. The Pacific Ocean, supposedly on our right, was nowhere to be seen for the first ten miles and in it's place we had traffic, lots of it. But we were warned and it is high season.

Most of today we passed thtough the Oregon Dunes but unfortunately you don't see much of them on the bike with US101 being some distance from the ocean in this part of Oregon. We did though have the benefit of an all day tailwind, which helped to flatten out some of the coastal undulation.

We had decided to head for the strongly recommended hiket biket campsite at Sunset Bay State Park and it was an excrellent choice, located in a beautiful spot by the sea. And only 5$. A bit out of the way so we had dinner before arriving at a great little seafood restaurant in Charleston. So despite only cycling 57 miles we still managed to arrive in camp at the rather late hour of 7 30PM.

We met lots of friendly people today including six other cyclists all heading south. And it is a great feeling being able to tell people that we have just cycled over 4500 miles across America!

We also had a  very late map meeting at 9PM.

Miles Today 57
Total        4723

First View of the Pacific Coast

Day 90 Florence Layover

Woken up by seagulls  at 6AM  this morning so the planned sleep in didn't happen. This forced me into an early morning shower and breakfast followed by laundry, and a trip to Safeway to pick up a few ptovisions for the journey ahead.. Bteakfast will now be porridge cooked on the mini Trangia in the absence of anything better. I have also put my bike in to the excellent 101 cycles for a new chain and brake pads. Have to say that the bike has been excellent so far with no issues other than my well documented punctures.

Dolo and I are now lounging around coffee bars in the picturesque seaside town of Floremce waiting for the wheel dippers to arrive. It's a bit like a 'posh Whitby' here.

It has also been really good to see Jill who has driven up to join us all for the farewell dinner tonight. She is planning to do a car, cycle, camping trip down to San Francisco with her partnet so she may cycle with Dolo and I some of the way.

Understanderbly the group are on a massive high after completing the Transam and fiinishing the trip. For me it's a bit of a strange feeling as I dont feel that I have finished. It will be passing 5000 miles, cycling over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and reaching my sponsorship target of £5000 that does it for me.

I have now exceeded my target including Gift Aid  but I am hoping that I will be able to raise £5000 in actual donations so that the Gift Aid is a bonus on top. 

So we all assembled tonight and had our farewell dinner. Speeches were made, awards were presented and tears were shed. The food was pretty good too. Would I do a long trip like this again? Definately. In a group? Possibly. On this I have mixed feelings and will no doubt elucidate on this subject at the many dinner party invitations ( or any kind of eating invitation)
that I am bound to receive when I get home:)

Donations      £4168.00
Gift Aid          £  832.18
Total              £5000.18