Day 22 - Arcata to Burlington

Distance - 62 miles

Today we were up and out of bed early to tackle a big day, reluctantly departing the land of hot tubs to view more big trees.

EUREKA! Is the first town we roll through. It's old town streets are lined with red brick. One of the streets is filled with colourful graffiti, most of which is quite artistic and well done.

After one small misdirection in town we find our way to highway 101 again.

Off the highway again we take a side road that looks a little like we're in mini Switzerland with lush green rolling hills. From here we're into flat farm lands with loads and loads of cows. We seem to have a lot of time on our hands when we aren't singing horrible 00's songs or kids camp tunes. As a result the road trip game cows on my side has gotten significantly more complicated. Additional rules are as follows:
- instead of cows on my side, must call cows on right or left
- if you're the lead cyclist you don't get points if you call it because you would have an unfair advantage. However, you must call the cows to 'block' the rear cyclist from getting points
- extra points can be obtained if you moo at a field of cows and manage to get the cows attention. 1 point is awarded for every 3 cows
- similarly, you can baa at sheep and be awarded 1 cow point every 3 sheep
- if you correctly count the number of cows in the field you get 1 point per cow. You cannot change your original number if you miscount, and the number must be verified by the other cyclist

We pass through the cute town of Ferndale and have a cup of tea. The fire dept siren goes off quite loudly for a full minute. We sat there dumbstruck as it went off wondering if it might be the tsunami warning, but nobody around looked alarmed. We ask the shopkeeper who says its just the fire signal, and remarks it's likely just an old person who called 911 - it sounds like it happens quite frequently! They also said that it is the same siren for the tsunami warning, and that during the last earthquake/tsunami everyone was a bit confused. Perhaps not the best system!

From there we're back into cows - and the game continues, but we have no idea who's winning. We decide it should be called "Whose Cow Is It Anyway?" because the rules are made up and the points don't matter.
From cows we launch into three nasty HOT hills before we arrive in Del Rio for lunch. We get invited to the BBQ and cornhole tournament in the park - but the BBQ hasn't started and we are 40 miles in and hungry!

After lunch we have another twenty miles to the campground and we enter in to the Avenue of the Giants!
The avenue is amazing. There are loads of massive trees that line the road, and the temperature in the shade is perfect after roasting in the midday sun. We weave alongside the Eel river, which is a lovely vibrant blue.

With 10 miles to go we're getting pretty tired, and it seems to take forever to get to the campground. Two miles out and it feels like we've been out here for DAYS. In the desert. With no food or water. Okay that's a little dramatic. But we left camp at 7 am and it's 4:15 so we need food and sleep to explore more Giants in the morning!

At camp we find ourselves nestled among the redwoods. We set up camp, eat dinner, and are snuggled into bed nice and early - around 8:45. 

Shortly after that the bed rocks... no no not like that! The ground is literally shaking beneath us! At first we think it's an animal, or a big tree falling - but the shaking continues for a several seconds. The whole campsite is hootin' and hollerin' and the crows are equally as excited.

Turns out, at 8:53 there was a magnitude 5.5 earthquake about 25 miles west of us near Petrolia, California. I've never felt anything quite like it - the earth is alive!!!

The gentlemen in the hiker/biker site with us (who is hiking his way from Mexico to Port Hardy) said he hasn't felt anything like it, and that he felt like he was accelerating out of his tent!