Jimmy and Leslie’s Mini-Adventure

Today’s Date: September 23, 2025

Today’s Start Point: Gold Beach, Oregon

Today’s End Point: Klamath, California

Today’s Miles: 80.84 Miles

Cumulative Miles: 656.94 Miles

I wanted to get an early start because my chain was really starting to make me nervous. No matter how much I cleaned and oiled it, it rattled and shook by the end of the day. Using all of my spectacular mechanical knowledge, I thought my chain was done for. For those that don’t cycle, a chain stretches over time due to the constant use. Since the chain is stretched, the gaps in the chain don’t line up with the sprockets in the chainrings or rear cassette. If I didn’t take care of it, the chain could break. If I can’t fix a tire, imagine the fun I would have trying to fix a broken chain along the road. I found out that there was a bike shop in Brookings, Oregon, about 25 miles away.

Leaving at daybreak, I rode through Gold Beach and along the coast for a mile or two, with the same rocky outcroppings in the water greeting my view.

Soon I was climbing up and away from the beach and into the forest. The climb was about two miles and pretty steep, but it’s better to face the big climb early when your legs are fresh. After riding through a mixture of forest and hilltop ocean views, before long I plunged back down to the coast. My legs were tired and the bike was noisy, but the view made up for it.

I continued along the coast until I arrived in the town of Brookings, Oregon. Since the shop had been closed yesterday I did not know what to expect-did he have an inventory of chains, did he know what he was doing, would he have time to handle my repair?

It turns out I had nothing to fear, he had the exact chain I was looking for, knew what he was doing and then some, and even though he had a backlog of repairs to work on, he immediately put my bike up onto the repair stand. The owner’s name was Jeff and he had moved to Oregon from Colorado five years ago. It was the only shop around for miles, and he was in the perfect place for when I needed him. The bad news is that he opened the shop about six months ago and was going to have to close it in the next two months. He said he was through handling retail and would just do repairs, there just wasn’t enough business. He told me that contrary to my assumption that this must be bike heaven, he said that there was not much of a bike culture on the Oregon coast. He was going to trick out a van and provide mobile repair services, which sounded great to me but I wish he would have started it when I was screaming at my tires on the side of the road.

After he replaced my chain, he noticed my headset was loose so he tightened that as well (the headset is where the stem of the handlebars attach to the bike). I was thankful he fixed that because there is nothing like having your handlebar come off when you are traveling 40 miles per hour on a descent.

With that I was off, the route taking me away from the coast into some admittedly drab scenery. The good part of drab scenery is that I don’t have to stop and take pictures, I just ride. I made good time as I left Oregon and crossed into California. Thanks Oregon, it was peachy.

After about 20 miles I came to the town of Crescent City, California. At this point, drab turned to magnificent. I first came across Pebble Beach, a beautiful stretch of sand and rocks that had convenient park benches along the route. It was the perfect place to stop for lunch (bagels and peanut butter, of course). I stayed for a while, not my usual style of wolfing down my food and go. The beach was relatively empty so I could just sit back and listen to the barking seals and the sound of the ocean.

As much as I wanted to stay, it was time to move on. I proceeded down to the harbor and to a vista that overlooked a lighthouse. I received a text from Les stating that she was also at the lighthouse. When I looked down to the shore, there she was. I know this would make a wonderful meet cute in a romantic comedy, but I really only had time to say hi and be off.

I rode through Crescent City and had 20 miles to go before getting to our final destination of Klamath, California. Before getting there, I had to ride through Redwood and National State Park. Once I entered the climb, I faced two climbs back to back with a half mile of respite in between the climbs. Remember how I said that it is good to tackle the big climbs early? So it’s just great when the worst climbs come at the end. The first climb was three miles long with an average gradient of 7% and the second climb was two miles long with a slightly less gradient. They were brutal. For the first time on this trip I really felt the heat, compounded by the fact that I was out of water.

It’s too bad my eyes were bleeding because the scenery was tremendous. The tall redwoods came up to the road, so thick that I could only see a few yards into the forest. From my point of view, I was a) trying not to fall off the shoulderless road and b) staring at my cycling computer and trying to figure out when it would stop.

As with all things, the road leveled off and provided an exciting descent through the forest. It seemed to go on for miles. On my way down I met another bike traveler (who looked much like Santa) coming up the other way. He had two questions: how much farther to the top and was there any water before Crescent City. I gave him the good news that he was almost to the top and the bad news that it was dry as a bone until Crescent City.

I kept descending all the way to Klamath, passing the “Trees of Mystery” roadside attraction, established in 1946. As inviting as it sounds, I did not stop. Leslie, however, did stop to partake its charms. According to Wikipedia (so you know it must be true):

“[Trees of Mystery] features interpretive trails through giant redwoods and a number of unusual tree formations, many of which can be seen from its Trail of Mysterious Trees. Its Trail of Tall Tales displays some 50 chainsaw sculptures and carvings illustrating stories of legendary logger Paul Burton and his crew.”

I can’t wait until Les finds the World’s Largest Ball of String Attraction to add to her list.

I finally made it to our inn for the evening, arriving when Leslie did. The Inn has historic in its name so I just knew it would be cozy and quaint. For the record, “historical”, “cozy” and “quaint” are all euphemisms for tiny rooms with no cell service. I have a feeling this draft will not post until tomorrow since I think the internet connection at the Inn still uses a modem (I am not sure that is what they are using but it seems that way).

The bright spot is that the Inn has an amazing dining room that serves the best food in the area. The bad news is that there is a private event tonight so the dining is closed to us common folk.

There was not much in the area but since we are near a Native American Reservation, there of course is a casino. The casino was attached to a Holiday Inn Express, so you know you are dealing with a casino that makes Steve Wynn shake in his boots. Oceans Eleven ain’t hitting this joint.

After dinner (no gambling for us) we went back to the Inn where we relaxed in the “parlor” with the other guests. For the life of me, I don’t seem to get Inns and B&Bs. Sometimes progress is a good thing, such as cellphone connections and rooms that I don’t have to stick my feet out the window in order to fit in the room.