Day 14

78 miles and nearly 1,000m climbed – and halfway on our journey reached!

What a difference the combination of good weather and beautiful scenery in quiet roads makes!

The first few miles went quickly, speeding along the101 (well we might have got to 16mph).

We duly had our Eureka moment:

And shortly afterwards at Fernbridge we celebrated (with our usual ridiculously large breakfast) getting to our halfway point – we are now closer to Mexico than Canada.

A few miles past Fernbridge we passed through a beautiful town called Ferndale. I didn’t take a photo because we knew I wouldn’t do it justice but it was exactly as you would imagine a Victorian American town to look like. It’s the sort of place that we (foreigners) would expect all US towns to look like in the same way that all visitors to the UK would expect every English town to look like Chester.

15 miles along the road we came to a town called Rio Dell which was having its fair – an obvious highlight of which was the classic car show/competition. The obvious pride in the cars that the owners had and the countless hours they must have put into making them so immaculate was inspiring. I am in awe of these people. Never would I have the skill, patience, tenacity or just plain work ethic to achieve what these car enthusiasts do.

Shortly thereafter we started along the “avenue of the giants”, which we followed for the next 17 miles – a winding road through forests of immense Redwood trees. The road was quiet (most vehicles stick to the 101) and the trees deaden any sound so for long stretches it felt truly magical.

We made it to Myers Flat by 5pm and found a small grocery store that sold not only what we needed to make a healthy meal but also cold lager which we drank outside the store – the effects were immediate and extreme for a single pint. We were giggling and wavering around like we’d drunk far more. And that’s the state we were in when we went for the tree photo: