Fort Dick to Orick, CA

Sunday, 7/19 - 50 miles. Got a late start this morning. We made a morning campfire because the people in the next campsite left early and left behind a nice pile of unburned wood. The morning started with a large climb that took a long time (especially when only going about 3 mph) and a lot of energy to reach the top.
Then it was followed by a series of smaller climbs and one other large climb that took us through the Redwood national park and an adjacent state park. Many of the redwood trees have amazingly large diameter trunks. We ran into quite a few touring cyclists heading south today. San Francisco seems to be a popular destination for many cyclists. We ran into one guy who had started from his home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and was close to finishing. We also talked to two guys riding from Chicago along with some other cyclists. Parts of the coast are still beautiful but somehow I think the Oregon coast is more enticing than the California coast although the difference seems to be hard to quantify. Some of the towns we have passed through today are both small and best described as "hardscrabble." We had planned to camp at a private RV park tonight but it looked somewhat "sketchy." We asked the waiter in the restaurant we had dinner in about camping at the RV park. He said "sure you could camp there but if it was me I wouldn't stay there." That left us with two alternatives - a motel in town or another private campground about 7 miles away. It was already late so we opted for the motel. The motel is quite old but relatively nice. It is actually very large with 2 bedrooms and a separate kitchen area. One other observation is that motorists are much more tolerant of cyclists on WA and OR than in CA. Several motorists in CA objected to our presence on the road and some RVs passed us closer than really necessary. A few days ago a pickup truck passed us on a narrow bridge and a women in the passenger seat was unhappy we were on the bridge. She shouted at us - "didn't you read the sign." Her comment was perplexing because the sign on the bridge warned motorists that bicyclists could be on the bridge which meant cyclists were allowed on the bridge. Plus, we were on an official state bike route that was signed. As of today we are about 40% done from a mileage perspective. I think we are about 340 miles approximately from San Francisco.