After benefiting from clearer skies due to rain the previous day, we now faced a section near a forest fire area. Leaving Gold Beach, smoke drifted from a side valley across the highway to the ocean. To our great fortune, the air improved shortly thereafter, so we were able to negotiate the "big" 200m climb just fine.

As the descent began, a lookout point was signposted. Hoping to take a nice photo above the fog and smoke, we tackled a big climb at the turnoff. We finally had to give up and push the tandem. Because of the dense forest our GPS did not show exact data, we saw in retrospect that it was an 18%-20% slope.

In the end, the detour to the viewpoint was not worth it. There was no beautiful view to admire, but we made there after the first meters of altitude of the day a refreshment break.

After some more exhausting hills we left the beautiful coast of Oregon.

At the border to California we could pass the control station for agricultural products without any problems, although we had read from other cyclists that they were not allowed to import fruits there into California.

With the change of state, the landscape also changed, we rode a bit inland through agricultural land. There we saw a large herd of elk by the road wheel. Then we reached the first redwood forests with gigantic trees. Due to the darkness in the forest, we rode with lights again for better visibility.

In Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park we pitched our tent deep in the forest. The state park was so big and densely overgrown, so Moritz used the GPS to find the shower after dinner. Without GPS the "short" 500m walk would have been almost impossible to find. The distance to the shower on the easily findable road would have been over a kilometer.