In May 2013 Lisa and I joined Chris Harris and Lenny Allen in Ferndale CA (Humboldt County) for the Tour of the Unknown Coast, considered by many to be California’s toughest century. It might be. It is certainly CA’s roughest century with some of the crappiest roads I’ve ever ridden. It goes through some amazingly beautiful areas, the Avenue of the Giants – the 300 foot high redwood trees, the rugged coast, and some gorgeous and very challenging hills.
The route heads south out of Ferndale through the Avenue of the Giants, heads west over the Panther Gap Cat 4 climb to the town of Petrolia then north along the coast and ending with the last 20 miles of very tough uphills: the legendary “wall” and then the even tougher “endless hills”.
I wish I could offer you some photos, but alas, none. There are some good ones on the TUC website.
If you can tolerate the attitude, there is a piece by Rapha (the overpriced cycle clothing maker) about the TUC which is sorta fun.
If you want a tough century, this is one. Tough terrain and “heavy” roads with potholes and bad patches everywhere. I had not had a flat tire in over a year and got 2 pinch flats from one pothole at the 10 mile mark. Chris helped me replace the tubes and we continued on together. We rode the Avenue of the Giants together and met up at the top of Panther Gap. We descended together and when we crossed the bridge at Honeydew Chris got his front wheel caught in the boards and broke the wheel. He had to sag to the end. Warning: walk the bridge. We met up with Lenny at the lunch stop, Lenny being the gentleman that he is waited a long time there for us. Lenny and I rode together to the base of “the wall” where I left before than him knowing he was faster than me. The last 20 miles were really hard. We had ridden The Wall and the Endless Hills a few days before and they were tough but do-able. It was a different story after riding the first 80 miles of the TUC, those hills killed me in the century ride.
The riding was amazing, but the rough roads took away a lot of enjoyment. There was no fun to be had descending because you had to be ready to dodge road hazards all the time. Not much traffic was a plus, but the warning painted on the road at the start really set the tone: “Caution – rough roads next 100 miles.” When it comes to the Tour of the Unknown Coast they aren’t kidding.