DAY 16: Elk Prairie to Mckinleyville

today was round 4 of pretty chill days. we rode 34 miles through pretty easy terrain. right out of the gate we made sure to keep our eyes open for elk, as we were in a place called elk prairie. we immediately saw a family of oak chillin in the grass. after gawking at them for a bit we continues on. about 10 miles later we passed an RV park and saw like 40 elk just casually hanging out in the yard. we pulled over to take pictures, the elk didn't even give a shit that we were there.

the day went on, we climbed some hills and went down some hills. we saw some cool trees. the weather was all over the place. we would go from really hot full sun to super chili fog bog. there was a lot of stopping for wardrobe changes.

after about 27 miles or so we stopped in Trinidad for lunch. Trinidad is a pretty cool little town sitting in the middle of redneck wasteland. it has a nice little light house and really great views similar to the Oregon coast. we left town on a road called "scenic" something or other which really lived up to its name. the road conditions were actually pretty shitty and full of huge pot holes and often times going to straight gravel. those of us with larger tires had no problem, but some of our group got a bit slowed down. anyway, this road was the highlight of the day for me. it had great views and I thought the shitty conditions were kind of fun.

the day ended at clam beach county park where we are camping for the evening. this park is right outside of Mckinleyville and is basically full of borderline hippy juggalos walking around asking to trade for "trips." the sketch level of this camp ground is pretty high... however, we were fortunate enough to have a nice family post up in the spot next to us for the night instead of some sort of oogle drum circle mushroom gods.

I have to say I have been pretty impressed with how smoothly out group of 11 has been Travelling together. we have been pretty timely and finding camp spots hasn't been too much of a challenge. tomorrow will be our first real day of riding with 51 miles to tackle. hopefully we can keep up the pace.