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Wednesday 22 August 2012

Day 20: The Return of the Broken Spoke - Prairie Creek Campground to Arcata.

No elk this morning unfortunately, but lots of fog. We left the campground after 10 after waiting for the fog to clear. Heading back out out onto the 101 South we hit the small town of Orik in search for some wifi (we had been in contact with some warmshowers hosts so needed to reply). There was a great cafe where the owner was real bike friendly, even allowing us to leave our bikes in the second room while we sat in, only intending on buying a coffee, we decided to take an early lunch as its not often we get to sit inside.
Dave ordered a burger, while i took the unconventional lunch of strawberry and rhubarb pie with ice cream - mmmm. It was all so good. There was country music playing, my coffee cup was never empty, we could have stayed there all day.

Back on our bikes entering the Redwoods National Park, the 101 takes you through two lagoons which were really pretty. The 101 however was not, sonwe toom the side tour aroundto Patricks Point.

All the side roads have pretty rough road surfaces and can be much hillier than the highway, but they are so much more relaxing to travel along.Entering Patricks Point State Park we headed actually right down to the point leaving our bikes for a well deserved stretch of the legs. The point was stunning, but we could hear sealions barking at each other from the other side of the rock, but they were all sheltered by the fog so no pics I'm afraid.We did see one bobbing in the water but was too quick to get a pic.

There was a climb if only about 300ft but i think i got a little over excited on the eay down... And i did it again, i broke a spoke!! And yes it wss on the cassette side - argh. We were 29 miles from the next bike shop in Arcata and had no other choice but to release the break out and keep on rolling, slowly but surely.
Back out into the busy highway was not a nice place to be, so using our ACA map we took a side path along clam beach drive which was so much nicer than highwy riding. But it really wasn't our day as we didnt realise part of the path was unpathed - not what you want with a fully loaded bike with a broken spoke. It was a few miles back, so we decided to roll them over the gravel. It was really hot and the bikes reslly heavy, but made it to the other side of the path. We started chatting to another cyclist called Dennis who was local and told us about which bike shops to go to in town. It was 5:40 and we wete 6 miles from town, we had to take the highway.
Arriving in town about 6:15 we followed Dennis's directions, first cycle shop closed, the second wlso closed but a gut appeared and said they would squeeze us in first thing in the morning. There was nothing more we could do but find somewrhere to stay.
Arcata is a really nice uni town so it was bustling with young people and great for us as we found place that sold 12 buck 18'' pizzas and 2 buck beers. With our ever increasing appetite, we managed to eat the whole thing, but i was wasted on a beer - oh dear.
Miles today 44. Total miles 845.




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