Sunday, July 14, 2008 - Humboldt County!!!! Wooo!

If everything would have worked out on the Colorado Trail, I would be finishing it today. Instead, today I am climbing the highest and most steep hill of the trip, just south of Legett. Alan, Christian, Lee and I did some 'drafting' this morning, a technique used by group cyclists so that they can work less and ride faster due to less wind resistance on the group.

After a while, Christian and Alan took off ahead up a hill, and Lee and I stuck together for the rest of the day. The air was thick from the Northern California forest fires less than 75 miles east. We had the opportunity to see a herd of beautiful, massive elk that were grazing just off the highway.
When Lee and I got into Arcata, he spotted me 20 bucks to get something to eat and we downed a pitcher of beer and ate some incredible hamburgers. Now somewhat drunk, we wondered around town hunting for Humboldt County's finest. Lee went into a music store and bought a Neil Young album and the store clerk showed us where we could find Arcata's most popular export. After wondering around the city square for a little while, we finally found what we were looking for.

Not long after that, we ran into Katie, Kristen and Chris again. Apparently, Katie and Kristen had once again decided to change their plans. Katie was just going to go back home to Alabama and Kristen decided to tough it out with us boys all the way down to San Diego. Katie is renting a car, driving out to Sacramento, and then from there, she plans on flying back to Alabama.

Excited that Kristen was back in the game, we all rode out of Arcata satisfied.

When Kristen, Lee and I rolled into Eureka, Shannon and Colleen called and said they were getting a hotel because Colleen was feeling sick. Lee wanted a hotel as well, so I decided to join, too. Matt, Alan, and Christian had already made it to the destination of the day 20 miles ahead, so I felt bad.

We stayed at the Heritage Motel in Eureka. Shitty. Eureka is a typical meth town. Colleen and Shannon bought some beer and wine and we ordered pizza and played drinking games. We packed seven of us into the room, but I've never slept more comfortably on a hotel floor.

We didn't wake up until 10:30. We all pitched in for a breakfast of cereal, milk, bagels and cream cheese before we loaded up our bikes. The hotel manager wasn't happy to see the seven of us filing out of the room, but in Eureka, I'm sure the guy had bigger problems to worry about that a bunch of well-to-do college-age kids piling in his hotel room.

We left Eureka after hitting the grocery store. Lee spotted me some more cash since all the banks were closed, it being a Sunday. Then we began another long, hard day on the rolling hills of Northern California.