Some hills near Eureka in California. I was cycling along highway 101 which was designed to straighten out highway 1 and to deal with the problem of it falling into the sea. The traffic on Highway 101 was getting on my nerves getting far to close so when I got to the tourist office in Eureka they suggested a different route. They gave me a map with no contours but obviously mountainous as the streams ran at about a twenty degree angle to the road. They also mentioned in an off hand manner, that there was a storm expected. I choose to ignore both. I just seemed to be going up hill for hours with just the occasional car. Eventually I got to the top and could see the sea. I freewheeled down but just before I reached the sea the road went straight back up again. By the time I got down again it was dark and the storm had started. Signs by the road side read something like "no stopping or I will shoot you" something like that. Now the wind only blows in one direction North-South, the way I was going and the rain was warm but I was many many miles from any camp site. After about an hour or so a second car slowed down and wound down the window and asked me if I was enjoying myself and where was I going. I said, considering how far the campsites were away not really. Told me to throw my bike in the back of her pickup and she would give me a lift.
To cut a long story short she grew marijuana for living in a hill farm. When I suggested she shouldn't be telling me thing's like that she said "We dont get police around here! She dropped me off at a bar "I have some business to attend to" and drove of with my bike in the pickup. She came back eventually and dropped me off at a campsite but kept asking me if I wanted to stop there. I tied my tent to some trees and in the middle of the night I got out to straighten it. It was gone the instant I got out.
I found it the next morning in a tree a couple of hundred yards away. The campsite was completely empty not a single Winnebago there, they had all buggered off the day before. To make matters worth I was within 20 yards of a shower block which I could have spent the night in.
I cycled on and found a motel to spend the next night and wash and dry my gear. Swear to god it was the Bate's motel they used in the Hitchcock movie or the spitting image. Creepy as was the manager.
. Mountains are different beasts to (in comparison) short sharp roads like Hardnott. They're both really hard in their own way. That climb from Austria in the video above looks like it's got the "best" of both 
.
