...Where the Giants live (Oct. 12 - Oct 16)

The descent down from crater lake was epic, I averaged 25mph for 50 minutes, but due to a slightly late leave and more climbing in the morning I missed my campsite by ten miles and did some dodgy camping. The rain started that night but wasn't too bad, it gave me a preview the next day between Rouge river and Grants pass, where I got a flat and very wet. Then I hit the road hard, knowing that I was going into bad weather but naively asumming that once I got the far side of the coastal range and into California it would be all sunshine and roses, I was very wrong. I cycled 94 miles into the storm which turned out to be the tail end of a typhoon. It felt like the Pacific had got bored and decided it was going to hop a few hundred feet up and about 100 miles East. I kept going and eventually in a canyon, on the way down to the coast and about 20 miles into California play was suspended due to bad light. I got a wet nights sleep and an even wetter time packing up in the morning. The canyon continued a little further and then got into the redwoods. These trees are truelly unbelievable, I mean epic. One of the photos shows a car going past one so you can get an idea of their width (this was an average sized tree). The next day cycling through them with the mists curling through the trees was very special . The night after I got wet I stayed in a youth hostel overlooking the pacific (not that you could see it through the rain), I found it by chance and dived into it out the weather. Staying at the hostel where 5 other cyclists all sheltering from the storm. It was great to chat to them and hear their stories. Particularly interesting was Barry, an irish guy who decided to go to anchorage (alaska) buy a mountain bike and head down to San Francisco. The last 2 days have been beautifully sunny and at the moment I'm in a town called Eureka, I think i've done about 1,200 miles but my speedo broke on me yesterday so it's hard to be precise. I'm going to try to make it down to SF for halloween, apparently its one hell of a party. Take care all.