20th Jan.

Flaky ice on the tent this morning, and frost on the ground.  A whopper of a hill.  Ascent of ~2200ft, with a 10 miles stretch of continuous climbing, within a 40 mile day.  Known for a while this was coming, so glad to be on the other side of it.  The end of the day downhill was fun, miles of it.  Redwoods all the way, a creek down to one side, winding road. 

Found myself half a mile from the 'Drive-thru tree', the enormous, 'world famous' redwood, with a block cut out at the bottom.  Remember hearing about this as a kid and not quite believing it, thought I had to check it out.  It's true! ...and lives up to the tacky bizarre, with neon-edged gift shop and ghost road-side town, only the gas station open.  Put my tent up, and treated myself to a hot grill steak sandwich (apparently grass-fed), in the neon OPEN deli/crammed shop across the road, in the middle of nowhere.  Aching legs and shoulders.

Kirk had said this time of year was a good quiet time to be passing through this area - the hills, heading inland.  It's one of the many marijuana growing areas, forested ridge areas cleared, not that you can see anything from the road, although you can smell it occasionally.  Autumn harvest time can be a bit edgy apparently, there's a lot of money involved, and it's semi-legal, in a way that's not yet clear or regulated.  Progress it seems, for the people who want to buy it to treat pain, but not so good for the unregulated forest clearing and plantation run-off.