Blog Editor

Editing Post: 2025-09-27 Cancel

Title

Text

This was truly a special day. After starting out riding through a deserted section of the town, complete w/ rather scary-looking homeless, some w/ hostile dogs, we emerged onto a pretty marshland, before heading back to highway 101.

101 here is a four-lane divided highway, fast traffic, but usually decent shoulders. We bumped on and off several times before arriving in Fernwood, which might as well be called Pleasantville. Very cute, well-kept houses, store fronts, and cafes. There was a non-working phone booth. Hadley Gardens was a tiny park w/ cool giant doll houses, shaded walkways, hobbit holes, and a chocolate standard poodle named Fozzie, whose owner is a dead ringer for Catherine O'Hara. Fozzie barked at me until I removed my helmet after which he sat on my foot.

Once out of Fernwood, we climbed through bucolic countryside until we dropped into The Avenue of the Giants. We stopped at the first redwood grove we got to and just wandered for a bit. The contrast between the busy 101 highway and the absolute peace and quiet of the giant trees was crazy. I laid down on a fallen tree for about 10 minutes, just staring up through the surrounding trees. Forest bathing indeed.

We continued through down the ave passing an encampment of squatters who were there 17 years ago, though they no longer have signs telling UN soldiers to keep out. Conspiracy theories are nothing new.

We also stopped at a flower farm that won an eminent domain fight against the guvment and were allowed to stay. You donate a few bucks and they give you clippers to bliss out in the garden and take as many flowers home as you want. They also make fantastic popsicles out of whole blackberreries grown on the farm. I had two.

Finally we arrived campground, maybe the most beautiful and unique campground I've been to. Just boggles the mind that we started at the Peace Arch on the Canadian border and arrived here a couple weeks later, on bikes!

Mileage

Climbing (feet)

Latitude

Longitude

Visible