Day 13. Hail California!

Today was slightly more eventful than yesterday. Although not in any way nice eventful. Just eventful! I set off from Gold Beach with California in my sights, and although there was rain forecast, it was a beautiful sunny morning. I knew that the first hour or so would be quite hilly so wanted to get that out of that way before lunch. I also knew that there was virtually nothing between Gold Beach and Brookings, the next town along.



I was about 15 miles outside Gold Beach when the first of the rain came, although it was not too hard and therefore didn't hinder my progress at all. It was about 5 minutes later that did however hinder my progress. A quite unbelievable hail storm came out of nowhere, and was probably the most intense hail storm I have ever witnessed. Within a minute the road was covered in slippery white hail and it was just my good fortune that I happened to be passing the first building I had seen since Gold Beach, which was also a restaurant. A quick turn and up the hill I went to get undercover. The hail was so hard that it was actually hurting as it hit me!!

It wasn't just the hail though, it had gone from a fresh morning to a freezing morning in about the same time. It was at this point regretted shaving off my beard yesterday! Oh how well it had kept my face warm!

I decided the best thing to do was to have lunch and hope it passed, which it did remarkably quickly. Within 5 minutes of the hail stopping there was beautiful sunshine, which melted the hail as quickly as it had appeared.

After lunch I headed on into Brookings, at this point pondering whether it would be a better idea to stop and stay there for the night. However, as it was only 1 o'clock I thought I may aas well push on to Crescent City, and California!

Five minutes after this decision, and as I was leaving Brookings city limits, the heavens opened again! I took refuge under a tree for 5 minutes before the rain slowed and I headed on. The next few miles were fairly easy, but by the time I got to within 15 miles of Crescent City the heavens opened again. Once again fortune smiled on me as I was passing a supermarket at the time, so stopped for a coffee while the worst of the rain passed.

I had a good conversation with a hillbilly about the road ahead and the weather, and then pushed on again, with the hope that nothing too painful would happen in the next hour. Oh, how I should have realised that today wasn't the day for uneventful. About 5 miles further along the 101 I hit a rock. A big nasty rock on the hard shoulder that came out of nowhere. I knew instantly that this was a puncturing rock. However, it was a slow puncturing rock and as I could see a sign saying 8 miles to Crescent City I thought I might get away with pumping the tyre up as much as possible and hammering it as fast as I could. It kind of worked. I had to stop again about 4 miles outside Crescent City to give the tyre more air (although I could hear the puncture hissing at this point). It was only when I got into town that the slow puncture had become a slightly faster one, and I ended up stopping to do what I maybe should have done in the first place, and fix it! Still, at least it wasn't raining by the time I had to stop and fix it, as it had been when the original incident had taken place.

So, far more eventful than yesterday. And I shall not bemoan an uneventful day again, for that would just tempt fate.

I also saw a sign for San Francisce today. It said 364 miles. So about a week in my world at the moment. Weather permitting! 56.20 miles on the speedo.. I also passed the 700 mile mark today, which was quite satisfying.