July 24--Day 10 of Bike Adventure

July 24 Crescent City to Eureka, CA (85 miles)

The morning started out slow. All but 4 of the riders headed out right after devotions. The four remaining riders: Blake, Carmen, Jenn, and Mike. Mike and Jenn are the sweeps today. Blake discovered he had a flat before leaving. He and Mike changed the tube. Carmen headed out on her and returned 5 minutes later. She did not know which way to go. She and Blake headed out together, and returned a few minutes later because Blake had an other flat tire. Finally, we're off.

Morning climb through Redwoods State Park outside Crescent City. The fog had yet to lift in the forest and the early morning sun shown through the tree branches, which gave the trees a magical quality.

The first rest stop was at the end of this segment of the ride. The climb and descent was a total of about 8 miles. I wish I had been able to get out of the van to take some photos as we traveled through the Redwood Forest. I'm glad that I'll have another opportunity south of Eureka, when I'll be back on my bicycle.

There was a herd of elk along side the road. We stopped to take a few photos. The were on the left side and the ocean was on the ride. The elk seemed to be tame. Three of them were right up against the road and they did not move when walked up to take photos. Most of the elk were young. There were two with small sets of antlers. One the elk was calling to the other elk. The elk's call sounded like a porpoise or a whale than like a land mammal.

Yurok Tribe—Native American

Stone Lagoon Station Humbolt State Park

Our second rest stop of the day.

As we approached the rest stop there were cars parked everywhere and a large group of people on the hillside. As we got closer we could see that some of the folks were wearing some type of Native American headdress. I asked the folks directing the traffic if I could walk up to observe the ritual. They said I could as long as I did not take photos or video.

The group watching consisted mostly of Native Americans, and a few non-Native Americans. A young tribal member was speaking when I reached the group. He was explaining that the group would be climbing to the top of the hill, which would take about 2 hours. The ritual would continue on the top of the hill and then there would be a communal meal for all those gathered at the top. Tomorrow they would continue walking toward their destination Redwoods. The entire journey would take roughly two days. After he finished the speaking the young men performing the ritual made several tonal calls, joined hands and rhythmically moved forward and backward. Throughout the ritual different members would sing out with a tonal call, sometimes short and other times longer. The leader of the group, or at least the young men I believed to be the leader he was in the center of the line. He would crouch down move forward then back and then to the right and then to the left. Periodically the men would stomp their right foot hard on the ground, and at one point they all jumped up together. The entire segment of the ritual I witnessed went on for 10 minutes or more. At the conclusion of the segment, a tribal elder stood up to explain the ritual.

He started off by thanking God for the opportunity to witness such a beautiful ritual. He said this is the first time in 150 years the ritual has been performed. The ritual began on the other side of the lagoon. The men performing the ritual came across the lagoon in canoes, part of the ritual was performed in the canoes. During the ritual those engaged in it lift up praise to God and give God thanks for the blessings received through the abundance in nature, and they push down to the ground all that is evil and bad. The stomping is symbolic of driving the evil into the ground. The purpose of the ritual is to restore goodness to the earth, to restore balance between humanity and nature, and remained humanity of how fragile the ecosystem is. It appears that some of the young Native American women are also part of this ritual, since there was an equal number of them wearing grass skirts and handmade woven skull caps.

The third rest stop was along the ocean at mile 65ish. It was a beautiful location, which was good since it turned into a three hour rest stop. It was so long that I fell asleep at one point woke up and we were still there. In my groggy sleep state, I said, “this looks just like our last rest stop.” I thought we had driven off and stopped somewhere else. The last riders, Carmen, Blake, and the sweeps were way behind the other riders. Jenn got a flat about 2 miles before the last rest stop, which really delayed her and Mike.

I was getting worried with such a long rest stop because I needed to be at the bike shop by 5:30 PM to drop my bike off. Made it to the bike shop. My bicycle is now in the able hands of the bike mechanic at Revolution Bicycle Repair in Arcata, CA. The bike shop is a Giant dealer. They had a number of Giant road bikes, sadly no Advanced Defys, but several of Composite Defys, otherwise the mechanic could have cannibalized the Advanced Defy to repair my bike.

Reached the church around 5 PM. Need to shower and be ready for dinner at a church member's home by 6 PM. Showering at the local high school. The first group headed to the shower. They were gone forever. When they returned, we learned that there is only one shower room functioning at the school, which means taking turns—all girls and then all boys. The girl's shower room was the functioning shower room. We boys went first and then the women.

Back to the church and off to the family's home cooking us dinner. It was nice walk to their house, although a little on the chilly side. It was good that I took my jacket with me. I was part of the first group to arrive, and although it is tradition to let the sweeps eat first it was already 7 PM. We went ahead and served ourselves, homemade beef stew and rolls. I sat out on the back patio with 8 or so others. We kept sitting there after we finished eating. Sandy, the wife, came out and told us to look further into the backyard. There was a fenced in area beyond there yard. Inside the fenced area were “wild goats.” The goats do not really belong to anyone, in fact people come by and drop off goats. The person the owns the land “uses” the goats to the keep the grassed “mowed.” Sandy set up croquet for those who wanted to play. I thought about playing, but the yard was not really suited for croquet and I was getting cold, northern California is not all that warm. Finished my ice cream and went inside to sit with the rest of the group. The husband and wife are sort of hippies who belong to a Pentecostal Fundamentalist church, which is an interesting mix. I checked out their dvd collection. They had movies like Carrie and Live Free or Die Harder and a bunch of religious dvds.

Jason, Andrew, Hannah, and I played a few hands of Spades after dinner. The couple lent us a few movies. One of the movies we borrowed was the last Batman movie in prep for tomorrow's visit to the cinema to see the new Batman movie.

I was only able to stay awake for an hour of Batman. I was tired from all the van riding/waiting. The infection on my leg appears to be clearing up and if all goes as planned I'll have my bike back by the end of the day tomorrow.