Day 18

For the last two days, I’ve pedaled through and around the Avenue of the Giants, aka the original U.S. 101. I don’t know when I exited the official “Ave” but I spent a good chunk of my ride today alongside the South Fork of the Eel River. The emerald green clear water and the verdant hillsides were brilliant in the sun. To tell you the truth it was DARK in that forest! Very little light penetrated the canopy so when I came to a clearing, I tried to soak up the sun like the bluebelly lizards I saw resting along sun-warmed road edges. 

What was my redwood takeaway? Besides majestic, imposing, indubitable, and intimidating, I think Sequoia smperverins can teach us about being resilient, dependent on one another, and how to make clean air! Those trees breathed life into me! Since most of the groves are in the State Park system, you can still see places where old logging roads depart from the Ave and into the hillsides. Also, those stumps, foot holds, and windfall are all reminders of the abuse they’ve endured. They have indeed survived, even as the environment around them is constantly being reshaped. We need not take them to the brink, however. 

Tomorrow I intend to be back on the coast and following another famous ribbon of asphalt, California Highway 1, or simply “the 1”. The winds are supposed to push me with enough force to go about 10 miles farther than I would normally go. I should end up south of Fort Bragg.