8/20/10 - Crescent City then to Arcata - Summer 2019 in the Pacific Northwest - CycleBlaze

August 20, 2019

8/20/10 - Crescent City then to Arcata

We spent a few hours exploring Crescent City today. 

In Crescent City. Love seeing murals.
Heart 1 Comment 0
In Crescent City
Heart 0 Comment 0
Stairwell down to the beach. Rose collected a few pretty rocks.
Heart 1 Comment 0
Bottom of stairwell wearing my five top layers and always-crooked helmet
Heart 2 Comment 1
Charmaine RuppoltI wore a fleece jacket the whole time I was biking on the Oregon/California coast - it saved me!
Reply to this comment
9 months ago

Rode down by the lighthouse and out on the jetty. 

Crescent City Lighthouse. Decommissioned in 1953. Some people say it’s haunted.
Heart 1 Comment 0
Rose talking to Andrew at the end of the jetty
Heart 1 Comment 0

At the end of the jetty were these large, unusual concrete structures. 

At the end of the jetty
Heart 0 Comment 0

Later on I saw one on display with a description. Turns out these Dolosse were placed there to help with tsunami surges. Crescent City experienced a tsunami 1964 caused by an earthquake off Alaska. 

Dolosse on display. Weighs 84,000 pounds.
Heart 1 Comment 0
Interesting about the Dolosse and their predecessor tetrapods
Heart 0 Comment 0
Tsunami in 1964
Heart 0 Comment 0
Cute. In Crescent City near the Visitor Center.
Heart 0 Comment 0
Also at the Visitor Center
Heart 0 Comment 0

A couple of days ago we were eating lunch at a picnic table at the roadside convenience store in Ft Dick. They were very busy with cars and trucks pulling in, leaving. 

One woman who parked and got out of her car came right over and asked if we are cycling south. I replied that we are.  She said that for two dollars we can ride the bus from Crescent City to Klamath and avoid a VERY dangerous stretch of road with no shoulder....just a white line, many curves, and large trees right next to the road. She said it leaves at 3:00. She emphasized that she always advises cyclists to avoid that stretch.  She and I looked over my map, at which point she stated that even the road beyond Klamath is that way as well. And that she has had friends who were killed along that next stretch. I thanked her for the information. Then she said, “Well I must go....I’m late for an appointment” and got into her car and left.  She never even went into the store. Seems she just pulled up there to share her wisdom with us. What a trail angel. 

Veronica and Mike rode that stretch yesterday and she replied that the bus is a great plan. “We were terrified the whole way. Very short curves and hardly ever any railings.” We also shared this information with Julie and Clair, our cycling friends from France. 

Rose has a niece in Arcata that she wanted to visit and who is going out of town tomorrow. So today we rode the 3:00 bus to Arcata with the bikes secured to the rack on the front of the bus. The road was every bit as bad as we were advised. Plus a section with road construction and very little room to get through. 

In Arcata we contacted a flexible WS host to see about tonight. Evelyn and Wallace were available so, after visiting Rose’s niece, we rode a couple more miles to their place. After a tour of their property we set up our tents in the back yard, showered, and called it a day. 

Today's ride: 11 miles (18 km)
Total: 791 miles (1,273 km)

Rate this entry's writing Heart 5
Comment on this entry Comment 0