Journal
Elks and Blackberries
FYI, I don't have a lot of pictures for the first half of this entry...but keep reading! There are pictures of elk at the end :)
At 36 miles this was our shortest day, but at 1217ft elevation gain, this was also our largest, continuous climb.
We packed up and left Jedediah Smith Campground at our usual 8:30am departing time. The ride started with a "small" warm up hill right at the beginning of the ride. At the top there was construction that caused a two-way one-lane situation. The man managing traffic stopped us and instructed us to go after all the cars. The traffic going in the other direction wasn't let through until we'd all passed. Once off downhill there would be no cars behind us and there was no way we'd catchup with the cars ahead of us.
It was open road in both directions resulting in the most epic downhill ride of the entire trip.
The one time that road construction wasn't an inconvenience.
We weren't anticipating this so unfortunately, I didn't have my camera setup to capture any of it.
Shortly after the downhill we stopped at a park to eat lunch. The only town nearby was Cresent City, where we stopped to get some McDonald's for breakfast. After that, there really wasn't anywhere to stop and buy lunch so we had to make it. Bagel sandwiches, chips and a little bit of chocolate did just fine. Forty-five minutes later we were back on the bikes. We made a quick stop in Klamath, a super small town with a single gas station and, from what I could see, about 4 streets. We had just stopped to pick up more desserts.
Then it was on to our last climb. I'm glad this one was at the end of the trip. By the end of the very first set of hills of the trip, I had trained my mind to never expect the moment where the ground flattens out, if you do that you are constantly disappointed - detrimental for morale. Instead, you accept reality and realize the only direction you should be concerned with is forward. In a crazy way, it became meditative where rhythmic pedaling calmed and cleared my mind. This last hill was actually relaxing for me.
At one point, I pulled off the road into a rest area just to listen to everything around me.
When there weren’t any cars around, the silence was deafening. I know it sounds cliche, but there's really no other way to describe it.
The descent this time around was gradual. Way more scenic, we were surrounded by monstrous redwoods (much bigger than at Jedediah Smith) and there were barely any cars on the road. For a good 8 miles I just stopped pedaling and cruised down marveling at the trees around me. It was at this moment that I decided that next bicycle trip it would be absolutely necessary to invest in a GoPro.
We finally got to Elk Prairie Campground. On the outskirts of the campground, there was a large prairie that elk liked to hang out in, hence the name of the campground.
We checked in with no problem and went to explore a bit.
We did the Elk Prairie Loop, a short hike about 1.6 miles. Along the way, Curt and Sean picked more blackberries to eat for dessert.
We were barely on the trail when Curtis and I stopped to take a picture. Sean who was a little bit up ahead, turned around to see where we were and shouted "Oh sh*t!" Obviously we turn around to see what caught his eye, and what do we see? A male elk behind us crossing the trail not very far away from us! Those things are huge!
