Day Eight – Crescent City CA to Redding CA
Miles: 222
We hit the road by 6:00, filled up our tanks and headed to breakfast at Fisherman's Restaurant on the South side of town. Pretty decent place and we were in and out just after 7:00. Our plan to ride into the Redwoods meant an in and out but with the day starting off with a heavy fog we decided to just ride south on US101 and hope for the best. It was really foggy as we rode through a portion of the Redwoods. We stopped at one point but there was nothing much to see. We continued on broke away from the US101 in an attempt to break free from the fog. It worked and we found ourselves at the High Bluff Overlook still inside the Redwoods Park. It was a really good overlook and we tried to continue south on Coastal Drive but it was blocked to traffic. We circled back and stopped at the old Douglass Memorial Bridge near the town Klamath. The bridge was lost during a flood in 1964 but a portion of the bridge remains. There is an historical plaque there now explains what happened to the town; quite interesting. Next up was Patrick's Point State Park where we walked out to an overlook of the famous Wedding Rock. I don't why it's famous but there many pictures of this. We watched as some hikers walked around the rock and noticed one individual up on the very top. We continued south on Patrick's Point Rd which ran parallel to US101 and was not in that great of condition but we were not in a hurry. After about 8 miles and just before re-joining US101 we stopped at Luffenholtz Beach at another , and our last Pacific Ocean overlook. Back on US101 for a short jaunt, we headed east on CA 299 and bade farewell to the coast. CA 299 also known as Trinity Highway begins as a four lane highway but quickly converts to a two lane twisty road following the Mad River and reaching 2,267' at the Lord Ellis Summit. Going back down we jumped off the highway on Chezum Rd and rode the tight twistys down to the Chezum steel bridge across Redwood Creek. Many small farms and homes on this road reminding me somewhat of other rural areas in the southeast. We joined back up with Trinity Highway before reaching Berry Summit where we stopped at an overlook called Burney Vista Point. Once CA299 came down the mountain and into Willow Creek it begins to follow the Trinity River and the road is quite good. It was beginning to warm up as we moved away from the coast and we stopped in Weaverville at the Trinity County Brewing Co. for a pint and enjoyed the break. Since we didn't ride the miles we had planned it was only 3:30 by the time we reached Redding but the thermometer was saying 105.8F so we were happy to reach our motel and jump in the pool to cool off. The Motel we were staying in was definitely old school but very well kept, and we probably spent more than an hour in the pool before heading to dinner. We started at Final Draft Brewing where we had some really interesting wings that had a peanut butter sauce with something hot in the mix. Very different, but also very good. We ended up at Woody's Brewing for the last one. We were back at the Motel by 9;00 and decided to hit the pool one last time.
