May 8th--Harris Beach to Elk Prairie

Some highlights:

Walk to beach and sea stacks at Harris Beach with Jorgen
Star fish
Arch rock
Breakfast with Jorgen at surf-themed bagel place
White-trash mocha
Historical marker re: Japanese attack
Ocean View Dr.
McVay's Rock
Ocean View Dr, again, in CA
Smith River
Dachsunds
0n Dogs, fear & mess'ing
Lake Earl Dr.
Entrails on the shoulder
Lake Earl
Lakeview Rd., "boat launch"
Back Country Bikes
Pebble Beach Dr.
More seastacks, but with fog
Battery Point Lighthouse
"Check me out" gull
Crescent Harbor
Library, several conversations about bike theft
Natural foods store: no cytomax, carrot juice, lara bars, coconut juice
Redwoods info center: no intelligence on Coast Drive
Climb up to 1200' on Del Norte Coast
Sketchy descent with lots of trucks and crappy road surface, no shoulder down to Wilson Creek Beach
Trees of Mystery
Paul Bunyan pissing himself
Creepy topiary with phallic appendage terminating in a water pipe
Yurok housing authority
Bridge over Klamath, with golden bears
Klamath
Casino
Klamath Beach Rd.
Douglas Memorial Bridge, totally destroyed
Decision to take inland route instead of going to beach
Alder Camp Rd., beautiful ride up along stream, with no traffic
Meet with Coast Dr. at top of hill.
Alder Camp a State Prison
Partly-paved Coast Drive
Fog
Long stop at the intersection of Coast Dr. and Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway (old Hwy 101).
Another half-mile climb to the top.
Totally gorgeous and amazing, slow descent amongst old-growth giant redwood and Sequoia trees, seemed to last forever, hardly any traffic, with the notable exception of the Revcon "RV" from Alaska.
"Big Tree" sign
Grand arrival at Elk Priaire.
Stopped to see if anyone around to recommend food.
Natalie and Martin went toward campground and i stayed to look in the phone book.
Found La Hacienda.
Called up and they closed at 8pm (currently 7pm), claimed to be 1.5 miles from Elk Prairie
Found Natalie and Martin and immediately decided to go to the restaurant
Went to the camp to drop off some stuff and put on warmer clothes
Passed grazing elk in the middle of the campground
Quickly got everything together and got rolling.
Registered for campsite and ignored elk (as far as taking pictures was concerned)
Passed numerous large herds of grazing elk en route to Orick
Restaurant was more like 6 miles, in "downtown" Orick
Decent vegetarian menu, very nice staff, felt bad for arriving 10 minutes to closing.
Had wet fish burrito (Natalie's comment about how gross that sounds)
Burritos were enormous logs
Natalie didn't finish
Charged electronics
Wondered about puking on way "home"
Low light, low traffic
Went almost immediately to sleep