30th June 2016 - Orleans CA - Kms to date: 872

Kms today:291


Decided not to have breakfast at Steve’s diner in Shelter Cove as biscuits and gravy did not appeal!!! Left Beachcomber Inn at 7.30am and headed up the windy rutted road to Redway. We asked a local where we could have breakfast and they asked whether we wanted to eat healthy. We weren’t fussy so they pointed us in the direction of Deb’s Diner and they weren’t wrong. After breakfast we headed north to the Avenue of the Giants which is a huge redwood forest.

Alan looking small by a huge Redwood.

The Redwood canopy.

This truck is made out of a solid Redwood trunk.

There were massive redwood trees over 2000 years old. It was really amazing to ride under these huge trees. We then headed on to Eureka for lunch and refuel. It was so chaotic that we moved on to Arcata where we had all kinds of trouble finding somewhere for lunch. We landed at V&Ms burger joint in the back blocks. A local told us that the council didn’t allow the big fast food chains to open franchises in Arcata.....  good thing too. After lunch we headed for the hills to Willow Creek CA. As we climbed into the hills the temperature began to rise and soon it was 37C so off came the jacket panels to convert it to a summer jacket. The views on the way up the mountains were fantastic and a few photos were taken.

Our fearless riders on the highway to Willow Creek.

At Willow Creek we headed north to our final destination in Orleans CA. Klamath Lodge which was our lodgings for the night was located 3.8kms before Orleans down a precipitous rough gravel road. Thomas who was in charge whilst the owners were away greeted us with the enthusiasm of a methodist preacher. We had to fight our way around the security gate and down more gravel road to our palatial cabin which consists of two rooms one with three single beds and the other with a pretty poor excuse for a lounge kitchen.

Alan tucking into wieners and garlic mash!!!

We discovered that there was no restaurant anywhere within a hundred miles so I jumped on my GS and tore up the gravel driveway to the mighty metropolis of Orleans CA which consists of a bunch of derelict buildings and a store. The selection in the store was somewhat limited. I bought a six pack of beer which is always a good start plus a packet of wieners and some powdered potato mix. To make this all a bit more edible I lashed out with a couple of ice creams for dessert. After consuming our gourmet dinner Colin and I wandered down to the Klamath river to check out the action. Lo and behold we saw a black bear fishing at the waters edge on the other side of the river. Colin took a few photos and managed to scare the bear away with his garlic breath from the potato mash.

Yogi bear feeding on a fish.

Back to the ‘cabin’ for dessert and our last beer. We played Gin Rummy until Colin got sick of beating me.