Slow and steady today with over 5,000 feet in elevation gain when cycling Burlington to Standish Hickey State Park! Confusion Hill offers a great break for the legs, and Standish Hickey is fantastic for a rest day!
Cycling Burlington to Standish Hickey is the 18th of nearly 30 daily diaries of our cycle trip from Seattle to San Francisco.
If you’d like to read from the beginning, check out, getting to Seattle.Each post in this cycle series will contain our daily journal entries that we kept via Track My Tour, photos captured throughout the day, and the exact route, duration, and elevation gains for the given ride.
Read Our Complete Guide to Cycling the Pacific Coast Highway Here
Let’s dive into Biking the Pacific Coast Highway, Day 17, Burlington to Standish Hickey.
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Cycling Burlington to Standish Hickey
You’d think after 16 days on the bikes on day 17 we’d learn to not always trust Google, but shoot, that wasn’t the case. We trusted the bike route Google Maps offered from Burlington to Standish Hickey and were met with some killer elevation gains, again.
To be fair, cycling in Northern California, no matter what brings on loads of climbing. In fact, much of California does. But today was a rough one. We broke up into separate groups of doubles and each conquered the day the best we could.
Jay and I felt good today. There’s no doubt it was a hard ride, but we completed it! We stopped in at Confusion Hill to give our legs a break off the bikes and see what this mysterious place had to offer. It’s similar to the House of Mystery in Oregon, where things just simply don’t add up!
Riding into camp, we knew we had earned ourselves a couple of drinks, so we loaded up on beer and cider and arrived at camp with just enough time to cool off in the water.
After meeting with the rest of the group about the day’s ride, we all agreed a rest day was in order for the following day.. we were all putting off cycling up Leggett Hill!
The rest day was awesome! The swimming hole at Standish Hickey State Park is great!
Biking Burlington to Standish Hickey Day 17 Quick Facts
- Miles // 47.60 miles
- Saddle Time // 4 hrs 53 min
- Elevation // 5,190 feet
- Accommodation // hiker-biker in Standish Hickey State Park
- Water // fill up before leaving!
- Food // Garberville western-style cafe, bring snacks and store across from camp
Pacific Coast Highway Day 17 Journal Entry
Sunday 23 Aug 2015 22:00
Day 17 Cycling & a Rest Day: We woke up in Burlington State Park to take the road down to Standish Hickey State Park.
The day was good. It was hot and hard, but it was overall an amazing ride. We took the advice of Google again and it took us up a couple of steep hills. Even though we had to go up no matter what today, Google had us go up steeper stuff than if we just stayed on Highway 101…again.
We finished out Avenue of the Giants and had lunch in Garberville, CA. It was a very quaint and unique town with the locals and the older western-style buildings throughout the town.
We would be finishing up pretty high today in elevation and the group wasn’t riding altogether, so we didn’t have the support of everyone cheering each other on.
Michelle and Jack (tandem couple) ended up hitchhiking to camp because they were too tired and knew that the next day’s ride would be even harder with Leggett Hill. Chris and Rachel pushed on, while Heather and I took our time and stopped at the Gravity House.
Confusion Point and a Rest Day at Standish Hickey State Park
This place had some weird geothermal activity going on that made some physics not act typically. People seemed taller when standing north when compared to someone standing south. Gravity was different, magnetism didn’t act correctly, water flowed uphill, and there was a house that was built sideways.
We ended up spending about an hour and a half here relaxing and getting our mind blown before arriving to camp. As soon as we got done, we went over to the store and bought cider and beer. What a refreshment! As we got into the park, we found out that there was a swimming area a short hike down the canyon. So, we quickly set up camp to have an hour or so down in the river.
It was so cool and relaxing down there, this was exactly what we needed after a long hard day’s ride. After spending only a few minutes down at the water, we all knew that we wanted to spend a rest day here relaxing with awesome jumping rocks as well.
The next day we all slept in, made pancakes, and hung out down at the river. In the evening, Chris who is a chef in Vancouver, BC, made us an awesome quinoa meal!
We ended up riding 47.6 miles with 5,190 feet elevation gain and are at a total mileage of 816.64 miles.
Cycler’s Tips for Cycling Burlington to Standish Hickey | PCH Day 17
- Today is a hard day before another really hard climb up Leggett Hill. Pace yourself, and again mentally prepare for a lot of elevation!
- Remember it’s not about how fast you get there, it’s about completing the ride, so be sure to stop and enjoy the little things (and give your legs a rest)!
- Gravity House at Confusion Hill is a great place to get off the saddle and enjoy some strange activity! For five bucks, its a fun stop along the PCH!
- Standish Hickory State Park offers an awesome rest day experience! The swimming hole there is fantastic!
- There is a store right across the way from the campground with everything you’d need for food and drinks, though a bit spendy given the remote location!
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Have questions about day 17, cycling Burlington to Standish Hickey? Need a bit more information about the trip as a whole? Or just want to share your experiences? We’d love to hear from you! Find us on socials @ ArboursAbroad!