Day 22 Harris Park to Elk Prairie Park (71 miles)

I awoke early and cooked up some beans and sausages, made a coffee and plugged my phone into charge. I tried to do all this really quickly and quietly as no one else in the camp was up. I looked around and noticed we had a full campsite. The most I had seen while here. Some must have arrived really late as their tents were not set up when I had gone to bed. I wasn't really looking forward to this days ride as it was the furthest I had done so far. It was not only up hill a lot but had the highest gradient on one of the climbs.

I set off and got a good first hour done whilst the traffic volume was low. A big marker on the trip came as I crossed from Oregon to California. I have really been blown away by the beauty of this state. From the bike lanes of Portland, the sights of Astoria, the coast roads of the north and the small fishing towns of the south. I have had an awesome time. I want to thank everyone I have travelled with, camped with and ate with. Mostly I would like to thank Sarah and Beth who took me in and helped out when I first arrived in Portland. I crossed into California through the boarder check point. I didn't get stopped, good job they didn't have the airport detection equipment otherwise I no doubt would have been sounding off alarms. I noticed it did say at the check point that fruit couldn't be taken across the boarder which was worrying as I had a chopped cantaloupe in my bag. Luckily the guards didn't check. I took the standard photograph under the welcome to California sign, stood around to soak it all in. Pondered on the distance I had travelled so far then got back in the saddle and set off again. It was not long before I reached the town of Cresent City and pulled over for a coffee. This is the thing I am not liking about the trip. Every time you stop in a town and lock your bike you either have a zombie come over and start talking to you or they just shuffle over and watch your belongings to see if they can pinch anything. I was only half way through my coffee when I had to go outside and tell one to back away from my bike. It's like the film Shaun of the dead, give me a shovel and I'll brain one of them soon.

Later in the day I was joined by Yorkshire man Mike. He had caught me up as my pace wasn't very quick, just steady. We stopped in a back woods town called Klamath. We hadn't finished locking up our gear when someone came over and asked, "where you heading to?". This person was just a tourist coming out of a shop and was genuinely interested but it then causes zombies to spot you. We both went into the store, bought food and came out to the sight of a zombie man and his zombie girlfriend standing not to far away from our bikes. I walked over and unlocked my bike and heard him mumble the standard zombie question"where you heading to?" I simply didn't make eye contact and said "As if I'm telling you" once I was out of infection range.

The final part of the day was riding through the start of the Redwood Park to our camp this section was only about 3 miles but took almost an hour due to us stopping to look in awe and wonder at the giant Redwood trees. These are the biggest living things on the planet and my descriptive words are simply inadequate. At one point I stood with my bike inside the trunk of a tree and walked completely through the trunk of another. This is the kind of sight I want to see, not the cast of Michael Jackson's Thriller.