Days 1 and 2: Some Data and More Photos

My combined Days 1 and 2 post from the road was pretty slight -- since I wrote it in the middle of the Day 2 ride, during the only period in which I had connectivity. So herewith some more detail and data, written at a bit more leisure (but, admittedly, less "you are there" verisimilitude) from the comforts of home. Not quite Wordsworth's "emotion recollected in tranquility," but it will have to do!

Day 1 started in Fortuna, CA and ended in Richardson Grove, CA, after about 63 miles. Here's the RidewithGPS profile (since, as was the case with every day except Day 5, my Garmin corrupted, and failed to preserve, my actual ride data whenever I tried to save the information at the end of the day). Fortunately, I always studied the data first, and my recollection is that the actual cumulative climb on Day 1 came out closer to 4300 feet, as compared to the 4551 feet below. It could just be inaccuracies in the Garmin's altimeter, but I also suspect the RidewithGPS profile might include ascents from valleys which are actually spanned by bridges, thereby tending to overstate the total climbing. If anyone has a better theory, please comment away!



This was the day for redwoods, with the highlight being about 25 miles ridden on Avenue of the Giants, through amazing forests of these majestic trees. It's tough to photograph them and capture the scale, but of course I tried:

And, of course, there were some cows along the way (for those readers who were missing them -- you know who you are):

Day 2 saw us doing some serious climbing to get out to the coast. The start was at Richardson Grove, CA, and we ended up at Caspar Beach, CA, about 67 miles later. Here's the ride profile (my recollection is that the actual cumulative climb, as recorded on my Garmin, was closer to 5800 feet -- tough enough, but not nearly as staggering as the 7648 indicated below would have been):



As may be evident from the profile, we had two serious climbs before getting our first real glimpse of the Pacific at about mile 37. The first was an approximately 5 mile long climb, with a gain of 1400 feet -- a Category 2 climb. The second was shorter, "only" 2 miles, but steeper, gaining about 700 feet in that time -- a Category 3 climb. For those non-bike geeks out there, significant climbs generally fall into categories of either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, with 1 being the hardest and 5 being the easiest. The categorization depends on both duration and gradient. Of course, there are a lot of climbs that aren't considered difficult enough to have a categorization (and purists reject even the concept of a Category 5). And then there are the dreaded climbs that are known as "hors categorie" (think Alpe d'Huez in the Tour de France) -- because they are so tough and cruel that even Category 1 doesn't sufficiently capture their difficulty. Fortunately, we didn't have any of those (or 1s) on the ride -- a single Category 2 and Category 3 on the same day was plenty!

Our first glimpses of the Pacific were breathtaking -- and a wonderful reward for all that climbing. The rest of the day was equally stunning, with the road clinging to the coast and offering spectacular views of the ocean and jagged rocks peeking out of the surf. So, of course, you get a few more pictures: