Coastal Trail 'Bike Route'

We continue to try to find ways to get off the bikes and go for a hike, but it is hard to do overnight hikes in the parks here as there is no way to leave gear behind in a secure place as we did during our last bike tour in New Zealand. So instead of starting with a hike in Redwoods National Park we decided to try a trail promoted as a bike trail along the original 1930s coastal highway to access the Redwoods. The day and route started out beautifully, with views of Cresent City and the coast southward, and a great flat hard packed trail. We were warned that there was a steep uphill where we'd gain 1000 ft of elevation in 1 mile. We thought that sounded tough but do-able - what we didn't know was that it was a trail of loose cobble that we couldn't have ridden with mountain bikes, let alone our loaded touring bikes.... so we spent a couple hours and used a lot of sweat and energy pushing our bikes up the trail. At the top we started riding again only to be descending a similarly loose and challenging trail - let's just say we had some regret about the route we had chosen until the grade levelled out and we were actually riding on the old highway surface through an enchanting forest of towering redwoods. What a joy to be riding quietly along in the forest taking in grove after grove of redwoods. By the time we arrived back at the highway some 10 miles later we were super glad we had taken the road less travelled. But we wouldn't recommend it to others!Read more