Day 1 - Brookings to Eureka
Glorious day today. The nine rolled at 8:00am, with sunny skies and a brisk tailwind that had our support crew scrambling with how fast we were moving. But first we had some awesome breakfast alfresca where Mihai did his magic with some breakfast burrito's, coffee, and smoothies. We loaded up the pockets with essentials and set off on our adventure. The obigatory stop at the Border of California, to prove, in fact, we started at the tippy top and will end at the very bottom.
Today I also had some hidden surprises besides the leg opening length of 115 miles. We tackled some dirt segments along the redwood forest that made today super special for those that like dirt, and hair raising testments to why roadbikes should stay on roads. I could see both arguments, but since I setup the course, I wanted to find a little dirt to give us some solitude on an otherwise hiway only transport. We also ducked into some road equivelent to single track around Trinidad, and sort of stayed off the main highway 101.
The result was a lot of smiles, a 14.5 mph average speed in 7:14 hours, 5,400 feet of climbing. We also managed to finish together. A testament to just taking it easy, enjoying the chamber of commerce day and 'chilaxin' and taking in the scenery.
