Day 5: Phillipsville, CA to Eureka, CA
June 4, 2014

After yogurt and granola in our room we set off for a glorious 30 mile morning on Avenue of the Giants. It was mostly flat or downhill with redwood groves everywhere. We had some snacks in the trees, saw a weird corn sculpture on the side of the road, and generally enjoyed ourselves.

We had another 3-5 miles on 101 which was terrible, though better than the day before. We decided not to stop for food or bathroom in Rio Dell and pushed on to Ferndale, which took much much longer than we expected. The 3 hills where steeper than we expected and then we had a gnarly headwind for 5 terrible miles into Ferndale. Everything (well, not quite) in Ferndale was closed when we arrived so we had sandwiches at the Ferndale Meat Company (lots of meat and photos of 4H animals aka meat-to-be), followed by 2 pieces of pie at Ferndale Pie Company.

We expected an awful afternoon ride into Eureka but it was better than expected. We took a few side roads and then 5 more miles on 101 (ugh, but there was a big shoulder and good visibility). We stopped at a knock off Whole Foods for some yogurt and fruit. Andrew watched the bikes out front and talked to every crazy person in Eureka. “Careful, there are some real crazies here” one man warned him.

We stayed in a sketchy looking motel across from the Correctional Facility but the hotel was actually the cleanest place we stayed all week! We had dinner at the Lost Coast Brewery which was more or less what you would expect (e.g., not very good). There was a weird mural of animals in clothes outside.

Eureka was a pretty anticlimactic destination but we made it! Eureka!

  • Start: Phillipsville
  • End: Eureka
  • Slept: Town House Motel
  • Miles: 70.3
  • Avg.: 9.5