Tag: Brookings

Day 7: These hills have hills

We rose with the sun… Then said screw it and slept in a few minutes more. Boiling water the night before allowed for a thermos of hot coffee in the tents… An amazing luxury.

MJ and I got out a full hour earlier than normal, knowing we had a nice easy ride to the border and on to Crescent City, followed by two monster 1000 ‘ + hills standing in the way of our campsite in Humboldt County. Day 7 also featured the longest ride of the trip so far: over 70 miles. Basically, a decent challenge.

After a big forage at the Safeway, we hit the first hill that was the gateway to Redwoods State and National Park. The Goblin groaned a lot as it turned out the hill had 3 peaks. It also featured a crazy pavement project that made one of the upper downhills a little more treacherous than fun. The final downhill felt like flying over the coast as the blue waters of the Pacific lapped at the coastal rocks in the distance.

Some tourist trap in Klamath served as the intermission for hill number 2. Two miles of steep granny gear later and we were rewarded with an epic 5 mile downhill ride through a forest of redwoods that seemed to get progressively larger around every bend.

Day 8 looks to bring me to the same campground where last fall’s Climate Ride began. A fitting way to connect the experiences… And maybe begin exorcising some of the (few) demons of that trip. Look out Leggett…

MJ tip of the day
Use an old, unused phone number for all grocery discount cards… You’ll remember it easily and the marketing people will never be able to contact or find you! Genius! And… mysterious….


Don’t forget you can track this madness on a real live map at and also on Twitter.

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Day 6: Best day ever, except when it wasn’t

Day 6 was looking to be the final day of the Oregon ride. A little back of the napkin calculations over dinner the night before had MJ and I determining we were behind on our projected SF arrival target, so Day 6 looked like a good day to make up some miles with a flat 30 miles after Brookings.

Some of the hillier parts of the ride stood in the way before that – Seven Devils (apropos name) from Day 5 notwithstanding. I had a really strong start as the Goblin munched up some decent hills, putting us ahead of the game as we descended into Gold Beach. One of our favorite podcasts offers the phrase “best day ever!” as a rallying cry, and it totally fit.

Snap!*

Two spokes on the rear wheel went all kaplooey (hypertechnical biking term). Spokes are important… when perfectly tensioned they keep your wheel, well… wheel shaped. Miss a few and eventually your wheel will wobble like a kid who sat on the Tilt o’ Whirl one ride too many. A quick google, a quick call, and I knew we were 30 miles and a series of climbs away from a bike shop in Brookings. Oregon would have us for one more day after all.

Turns out the Goblin’s rear wheel had seen its best days… A new wheel (thanks Eric) and we’re ready to rock some California ridin.

Playlist today featured obscure 90s songs including that one by Primitive Radio Gods with the really long title. No, you do know that one. Trust me.

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*Not to be confused with 90s exclamatory favorite, “oh snap!” but I guess it would have worked if I had said that following the spoke incident.
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Don’t forget you can track this madness on a real live map at and also on Twitter.

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