Day 30, Crescent City, California

Yesterday we spent the day in Bend, Oregon. We were keen to meet the man who designed our Giant Loop luggage system who also happens to be a good friend of Toms. We figured therefore that he must be a decent bloke. So we had a nice breakfast with Dave Wachs and spent a little time persuading him to persuade Tom that they should all come to NZ for a visit.
Dave, amongst his many talents is also an artist which I think explains a bit if his well balanced nature.
Of course our Dave Mac and I thought fit to give a bit if feedback on the excellent Giant Loop system by suggesting some protection for the straps. Dave W kindly suggested we might read the instructions about using bicycle inner tubes and we thought maybe at that point we should keep quiet. Needless to say we did a little visit to a bicycle shop that afternoon.
We also had a look to see whether we could get a new motorbike tyre but found nothing suitable so will carry on with the munted one.
Great day today. We rode south from Bend through the forests. A stunning cool morning that left me feeling so cheery I found myself waving at all sorts of strangers who must have wondered. Both of us were enjoying the morning which was briefly blighted for me when a little chipmunk ran out in front of me and did a little Alvin shimmy left, shimmy right and eeugh!
Hope that doesn't bake onto the exhaust.
At least it was quick.
We stopped at a beautiful ( yet again ) lake with mirror glass surface next to these old lava flows- see pics.
We then decided to do a bit of off roading on our way to another lake( diamond lake). This involved riding a little loop through some dense bush around a locked gate (Dave is the bad influence) that led to a great little sandy double track for 30 miles over Windigo Pass. Nice
We eventually made our way south via a stunning gorge to Crescent City in Northern California. Having enjoyed the Redwoods near Santa Cruz we are keen to see some of the giant ones here as well as revisit some of the places Dave remembers from his trip here with his family 40 years ago( would you believe it).
In the space of 1 hour today the temperature dropped from 36 to 11 Celsius. Hmm. Forgot about the coastal fog.
Somewhere in the last few days we decided to skip the last bit of the Trans America Trail. We have definitely done the best bits back in Colorado and Utah and realised we can just find our own off road routes as we like. Despite that the TAT riding was great so thanks Sam.
Well, who knows what tomorrow will bring. Till then..