I awoke to a beautiful sunrise and continued on Mattole Road. People had said this road kept outsiders from visiting and moving to Petrolia. Maybe so. It was full of hills and turns. A farmer was just turning onto the road and I said shanking my head, "this road..." "Try driving it!" he said.
A few miles later I was running up a hill, inspired by my talk with Ken. An angelic looking older gentleman with beautiful blue eyes and braided blond hair stopped to tell me I should slow down if I hoped to make it wherever I was going. "You've come a long way haven't you," he said. Somehow he could tell. I still had quite a distance to cover and I didn't want to get injured, having just come back from a string of injuries and having had no problems save the blister on the trip so far. So, I did slow my pace a bit, maybe he was right.
The second half of Mattole wasn't so bad, once the road climbed to its highest point it ran flat along a ridge top, then descended over a couple of miles to Ferndale. The second half of the road was also cooler, shaded by large trees growing in fern filled forests on either side.
I met a man on a bicycle as I came to the town, he was on his second cross country trip. He had business cards, Paul Loen.
The CCT headed through the town's main street, which had lots of restaurant options. I stopped at the Mind's Eye coffee shop, charged my phone, and bought a coffee and some of the produce from the stand outside. I asked the clerk if they knew whether pedestrians were allowed on the Samoa bridge connecting Eureka to the beach. The guidebook had said pedestrians weren't allowed on the bridge and so the trail (actually the alternate route of the trail, which I had taken to avoid hiring a boat through Humbolt Bay) detoured around a lake instead, to make its way back to the water and the regular CCT route. Ken had recommended taking the Samoa bridge, and I remembered how I wished I had taken Rienhold's advice on the street in San Diego. A patron in the shop chimed in that he saw people on the bridge all the time and that the real bridge I needed to worry about was a bridge in Ferndale, just a couple of miles ahead, where there was no shoulder and bikers had to press a button to cross. Just then, the shop's owner walked in, and the patron told her my story. She was impressed that she offered me a free muffin and coffee for the road. She said I could have done my laundry there if I had had time. I wished that I could have!
I made one more stop at a convenience store on my way out of town to pick up snacks. I had thought I had had faint cramping one night in one leg or foot, so thought maybe I should have some potassium and got a tray of fried potatoes. The woman told me they were free! And gave me a second tray too. She wanted to throw in fried chicken but I said the potatoes would be plenty.
I walked on eating the muffin and potatoes as I went. Luckily there was a trash can to discard my trash, so I could be free to run. The bridge was up ahead, I could see what the man had been talking about and was glad he had warned me to be careful. I pressed the bike button, which made a light blink, alerting traffic. Running as fast as I could manage cars began building up behind me. With no shoulder I decided it would be safest to run in the middle of the street and have the cars wait. The man at the coffee shop had suggested asking a car to follow me over the bridge, the car behind me was doing that. As soon as there was a break in the stream of cars on the other side I switched and let the cars behind me go. I had to do this a few times but finally made it across. I stopped for a Diet Coke at the gas station just after the bridge, running across the bridge had been nerve-racking.
The sun began to set and I jogged along, hoping to make it to a hotel in Eureka for the night. I remembered thinking that Eureka seemed like it was almost the end. I followed the CCT's turns on the road. I had to look far ahead at the route sometimes to be sure the CCT wouldn't end at a desolate point where I was supposed to have hired a boat to take me across to the other side. Especially critical since I had such limited cell reception.
The CCT alternate route went along the 101, which was a freeway for a couple of miles before it turned into a highway with sidewalks on either side. This was the route... so I went for it. If there were any other way the CCT would have taken it. There was a nice wide place to jog near the center of the freeway and I happily ran down it. A police officer pulled up with his lights on and I met him at the side of the road. Apparently someone had called me in, running on the freeway was technically prohibited. The police officer looked at my garb, "where are you staying tonight?" he asked. "The Comfort Inn" I told him, I had looked at the map ahead of time, and really was planning to stay there, the first hotel close to the route. "You've come a long way haven't you? And you're not going to stop running on the freeway no matter what I say, will you?" I nodded. "Okay, so run on the outside here, and if you get hit it's on you. Alright?" "Alright!" Relieved I ran on.
I called ahead and reserved a room at the Comfort Inn. A car stopped to ask if I was okay, I gave them a thumbs up sign. And a mile later on the highway section another car pulled over to ask the same, I yelled that I was okay. A few miles later I arrived at the hotel and gratefully checked in. The man on duty asked me how old I was, I guess I look like I'm 20. I had called asking him if the rooms had hair dryers, he had said they "probably" did. Isn't that something a hotel worker should know? How hard was it to check. I was too tired to call back and ask again. In person he confirmed that they definitely did have hair dryers.
Trail Notes:
-Took alternate route (starting earlier) to avoid hiring a water taxi through Humbolt Bay
From the pampas grass. The Lost Coast Trail was also full of stinging nettles.
End of Mattole Road
Ferndale
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