Bike the OR Coast

Day 10 - Home!

First there was a yummy breakfast at Besaws on NW 23rd in Portland. This was with Keith, Ruben, Elias and Portland friends Eric (who was sick, but still managed to drag himself out of bed), Kirsten, and Jim.

Then there was the fact that Alaska Airlines not only had a box to sell Keith but they could get his bike on the plane. AND they only charged him for the box. So all that searching for a box was ... well we didn't need to do it. But better safe than sorry.

Then there was the fact that we hit no traffic coming back to Seattle.

Then there was the fact that I got home (the house was still standing - an inside joke) AND, thanks to the kindness of Hans, the sock that I had lost in that dryer in Bandon was already here waiting for me!

WOOT!

Day 9 - Brookings to Portland

We got up around 8am, packed up on and got on the road. On the way back we stopped at the Bistro in Bandon (or Abandon, as Elias likes to call it) at around 11:30. I knew I liked the place when I saw the hand written sign that said they had NO fish and chips and no hamburgers and that kids under 8 may not like the food. We took Elias in anyway, and he found he would eat the linguini with marinara sauce. It was REALLY good food - like well prepared, not overly greasy, made with obviously fresh ingredients. It was really welcome.

We cut across Oregon State Route 38 from Reedsport through Drain. Just after turning eastward, we saw a group of Elk hanging in a natural preserve.

Our next stop was in Eugene, where we asked a bike store if they shipped bike boxes. Eugene is a very pretty town and very friendly too. I barely remember it from my trip 12 years ago when I came down to visit a friend who was going to school there. The trip was a bust for the box, but we did get a snack and a break from travelling.

On our way north we passed the 45th parallel in Salem (southbound we passed it in Lincoln City). According to the GPS unit, the days were getting longer as we got further and further northward. We gained a few minutes of sunlight since Brookings :)

We finally arrived in Portland around 5:30 and checked into the Silver Cloud Inn. After a nice long walk, we settled on a sushi restaurant for dinner and desert of Gelato from across the street. Well I had a Coffee People milkshake in my Coffee People mug from 1996.

Later that evening, Ruben was able to piece together their elevation map from the trip. Here it is in all it's glory:

Day 8 postscript, aka: Technology, oh how it failed them, part II

Friday afternoon and evening was pretty low key. After I drove the guys back to the hotel, they showered. I wound up finding the location of the local outdoor public pool and left them in the room for a bit. When I got to the main road, I looked to the right before making my left. There I saw the Dopelgangers, cranking up the hill to the right, going along the Oregon Coast Bike route southbound. We must have passed them at some point. I wished Keith and Ruben could have seen it.

Marc had troubles with his bike most of the trip, but both Keith and Ruben had trouble with their bike technology. Keith suspects that his bicycle computer shorted out during that long wet day when we went through Lincoln City. It reset that day and a few other times since then. Then to top it off - the last two days of riding he had tracked their average speed down the coast and it was 14.9 mph. When he walked his bike back to the OR/CA border, it was just enough, just slow enough that their average speed went down to 14.8 mph.

Ruben, on the other hand, had this great bike mounted GPS unit given to him. That's how we've been getting those sweet pictures of where they biked and the elevation maps. Well, somewhere around Langlois the GPS unit stopped collecting data. He's still uncertain as to why, but all that data was lost. He spent much of Friday night trying to see if he could recover the data, but to no avail. We tracked the trip going back from Brookings to Portland via Reedsport - so he'll be able to rebuild the profile. Still that was a dissapointment.

After my swim and shower, we all went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. No one said this was the "best Chinese food ever." It just wasn't. It was edible and no one got sick. That's always a plus.

We got to see a beautiful sunset from our room. This was the first one we had seen all trip because of the foul weather and clouds in the evening! After it got dark, Elias and I went to the beach and lit off a couple of small boxes of sparklers. He had so much fun with them. Why are they illegal in Seattle? Sigh.

Day 8 - Humbug Mountain State Park to the California Border







Because of the way the camp site was situated, both tents had to be pitched on a slight incline. Not bad if you can situate yourself so that your head is slightly higher than your feet. The unfortunate thing for me was that it was also tilted to the side. To my side. Elias slipped down the hill, and at one point "reset" himself to the top of the tent. Ruben mostly stayed put. Me? I kept slipping to the bottom and the door side of the tent. It was kind of amusing in a way - especially since Elias and I had a conversation about cars, hills and friction just the day before. Ruben says I need tires to sleep.

Keith woke up first. When I dragged myself out of the corner, I found it was just before 7am. It had been so windy the night before the marine layer never made it to shore, so our tents and gear was mostly dry and the weather was already warm. We still attempted to make another fire. Even with some fire starter that the people in the neighboring camp gave us (out of pity) was STILL couldn't get the wood to burn. Hrm. We left the rest for the next unsuspecting victims.





After breakfast and showering, we broke camp and the guys left around 9:30 am. The first bit of today's journey was a long up hill - to 700 feet. There were two hills in the early morning, but again, they had a beautiful tail wind. The skies were clear. Their top speed (according to Keith's computer) was 42.5 mph. They got to Gold Beach around 11:15 and met up with Elias and me at a small Espresso/Cafe/Bookstore. We each had a small something to eat then got back on the road. I noted a sign that said there was only 25 miles to Brookings, so I expected they could make it in a bit under 2 hours.

I opened my window as I was passing the guys once again (they had started out before me). Just then I hear this WAIL of a siren - the pitch rose then fell rather quickly. I asked Ruben through my open window as I passed "Ummm, I hope that wasn't a real Tsunami warning!" Seeing as it was close to noon and a fast sounding alarm, we figured it was just a test.

Along the way I stopped to watch a couple of windsurfers on the waves. It looked beautiful. Ruben took this picture of Keith crossing the highest bridge in Oregon. Oh and at some point I also passed the Dopelgangers again. They seemed to be consistently about 1 hour ahead of Keith and Ruben.

Elias and I made it down to Brookings pretty quickly: around 1pm and asked to check in early. The woman at the Best Western (Beachfront Inn) was very accomodating. I unloaded the car and Elias and I were veggies for a bit.

I sent Ruben a text message where we were and to call when they hit Brookings. He did - at 2:00 exactly. I put Elias back in the car and we passed them driving to the border.

At 2:21 pm according to the clock, I saw them round the corner so I jumped out of the car and ran across the border. Notice how NICE the Oregon border sign is (and associated landscaping) and how ... well the California sign is in disrepair ...






The boys crossed the border just a minute or so later.







Ruben noticed that the first street passed the border in California is "Elias Street!" Elias loved that! :)










We played a bit at the border as Keith and Ruben cooled down. There was my sudden "shock" of leaving Elias "alone in another state" at age 5... :)









Now we're back at the hotel. And no, they did not bike back.

Day 7 - Sunset Bay State Park to Humbug Mountain state park







Apparently Elias was the one who set up the interior of the tent. I didn't know this for sure until this morning when Ruben told me, but I should have known. The ground was exceptionally lumpy. Why? Well he put *down* the thermarests and they inflated, but he didn't close the valve. We were sleeping on little more than our sleeping bags.

The other problem was that I really didn't have a pillow. Usually we fill the sleeping bag containers with clothes, but I was wearing all my clothes. It was chilly! But the problem was my arms kept falling asleep under my head.

I woke up quite a few times in the middle of the night. One time I heard Keith up and around. I asked him if he was ok - if he needed to get in the car. He just told me that he was having trouble sleeping as well. I couldn't tell what time it was - I was hoping near dawn. I did finally fall into a hard sleep and woke up after a particularly nasty dream where Ruben was acting like a butt head. He claims that was once again his evil twin Skippy.

I realized how cold I was so I got up to go to the bathroom. I expected the ground to be soaked, but it wasn't. It had misted all night, but what I mistook for raindrops were really drops and pine needles from the trees. The camp was none the worse for wear so I don't think the raccoons came back to visit. It was really quiet and very misty.

I came back to camp and started a fire. I also got the cookstove going again and boiled some water for oatmeal packets and hot chocolate. I also put a filter packet of Starbuck's coffee into my big Coffee People mug. When Ruben and Keith woke up I surprised them with "the best mocha ever!"After that we made some yummy regular oatmeal in the pot.

I got dressed and walked out to the registration booth and asked the guy for a good place to run. He gave me a suggestion which turned into about a 16 or so minute run - probably just over 1.5 miles. The trail dumped me out right where the school bus had been rescued the day before - just before the turn off to Shore Acres. It was a beautiful run - right along the ridge with the coast line to my right.

I came back and had the last of the oatmeal and showered. After that we cleaned up and broke camp. At 10 we left, with Elias on the trail-a-bike, and met Marc and Hilary at the Charleston Station - an old gas station turned Bakery/Bagel/Espresso stand. This guy pulled a really good shot, or so says Keith who took time from his Oh!-I'm-off-the-bike-I-must-stretch routine to partake :). I really liked the cinnamon roll - better than Cinnabon's. Marc said the quiche was really good.






Lauren was seen (as photographed by Elias) consulting the book once more to figure out the best possible places to meet for lunch. And to give the guys a heads up on the next patch of road.






The next stretch of road was down (or rather up) a street called "Seven Devil's Road" - which is probably the steepest hill of the trip. It's steeper than Cape Lookout, although not as long at only 500 feet. Once at the top of that hill, the road rolls between 300 and 500 feet for 5 miles, before it plummets near the town of Bandon.

Elias and I had gone on ahead (as did Hilary, but she had taken a wrong turn and got there after me). When I pulled into the town of Bandon I noticed the sun was coming out. I found a Laundromat at the first shopping center, pulled in and started 3 loads of laundry. I sent a text message to Ruben telling him where I was, and then called Hilary to do the same. Hilary arrived and some time later I got a phone call from Ruben who said they were at a bistro in downtown Bandon. I told him I had at least 1/2 an hour more do to of the laundry, so they decided to bike further down the road to Langlois, while Hilary and I bought lunch at the supermarket in the strip mall.

Hilary went on ahead to see if she could find a nice place to have our picnic. I stayed and folded, only to find one of my new biking socks was missing. I spotted it in a washing machine that was in use - a front loading washing machine. One you can't stop. The guy currently using the machine, Hans, said he'd mail the sock to me, if I would give him my address. I offered money, but he preferred just to have an envelope, which I bought from the drugstore also in this shopping center.

I boogied through Bandon (with a short detour to see the cute downtown - note to self - visit longer next time) and met up with everyone in Langlois at a brand new public Library. Even though the weather had turned cloudy and windy, we ate lunch outdoors. There was a nice park with two nice benches and we sat and had our picnic lunch and ate wayyyy too much. we also used that time to finish drying Keith's tent.

While we were eating, Marc decided not to get back on his bike, then later just decided to head back to Florence. They have to be back in Seattle by tomorrow night to get ready for another trip, so this all made sense. We said our good byes at the Langlois Library.

Keith and Ruben pushed on ahead with one of the best tail winds to date. Apparently Ruben was barely pedaling behind Keith and found he was doing 20 mph uphill.

As I drove south I noticed that the weather was clearing and was perfectly clear by the time I reached Port Orford. There we saw the "Ruben and Keith Dopelgangers" - two bicyclists, not fully loaded (just with paniers), one in a bright blue shirt, one in a bright yellow shirt. The bright yellow shirt was the one to catch my eye. It looked like Ruben's bright yellow jacket - the one he was wearing when he left Langlois. Both guys had Keith's build. Watching them bicycle I realized that they were a very evenly matched pair - like the way Keith and Ruben ride.

I continued south to Humbug Mountain state park and claimed our camp site (there are no reservations here.) On the way back to Port Orford (6 miles away) I caught sight of this "Adopt a Highway" sign - "Love Monkeys of Port Orford?!?!??!"





Eventually we met up with Ruben and Keith who were just finishing a shot of espresso over ice cream. I wanted one too, but they had closed just moments before AND Ruben had barely saved me any of his. :( Keith's comment was that it was so windy in Port Orford that the espresso was blown out of their "espresso floats" and they just HAD to drink them quickly to keep the rest from blowing away. Yeah, sure.

So there we were at this park and I suddenly realized I had visited here with Matthew almost 9 years before when *he* was 5 years old. Elias thought this fact was *very* funny.

Elias and I went to the store and bought some chicken sausage for grilling. Ruben and Keith were already at the camp site when we got back. We opted not to set up camp quite yet and instead went out to the beach.










This beach is very interesting - the sand is black from the basalt hills. The rocks on the beach are perfectly oval - not smooth, but smooth looking. There are a lot of drift logs scattered on the beach. Seagulls were playing in the surf, wind and up amongst the cliffs.

I took a picture of Keith that is similar to this picture taken from their ride 10 years ago. On our way back to camp we took this picture just for Lupe! Check out the Tsunami Warning at the bottom. Our camp site was right in a tsunami zone.






When we got back to the camp, we tried to start a fire (all night actually) with some of the wettest wood. We had gotten this really big load of it for just $4.00, but it took most of the night to get it really going. Finally we had our chicken sausage, green beans, roasted green onions, roasted corn and fresh bread from the Coos Bay farmer's market. MMMM, Best cook out ever. :)



While we were cooking, I walked back to the beach and attempted to get a few pictures of Sunset, but there were too many clouds in the way.

Dinner was lovely, then we cleaned up and got ready for bed. Our relatively short (55 mile) last leg of the biking journey is tomorrow, to Brookings and the border. Hopefully the weather will hold. Hopefully the guys' butts will hold. Hopefully I will have internet access and be able to post these last couple of days..

Day 6 - Florence - Charleston/Sunset Bay Camp Ground






I started out early this day because I wanted to try to make a Weight Watchers meeting down in Coos Bay. After Elias ate cereal in the room then a bagel from the continental breakfast, we loaded the car and drove south.

Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to stop and see things like the Dunes - I could only see a little bit from the side of the road. It's about 47 miles to Coos Bay from Florence - with a town call Reedsport a bit under half way there. I made it to North Bend (just north of Coos Bay) in pretty good time. I crossed the big bridge and noted a sign that told bicyclists to walk bikes (it was a tiny sidewalk and apparently very bad side winds). I also noted a bike shop at the south end of the bridge and sent a text message to the boys in case they needed that information. After a few missed turns, I eventually found the meeting a little after 10am. Even though I was late for their 1/2 hour weigh in time, they were nice enough to weigh me in anyway.

Marc, Ruben and Keith left at 9:30, then Hilary left around 11 (they all sent me text messages). The thought was that Marc, Ruben and Keith would make it around 1:30 to Coos Bay, so we wouldn't meet up anywhere in between. They did sent me a text message at 11:14 from Reedsport, so they were making good time to there. It was sunny all day, with a beautiful tail wind that would help push them up hills at 20mph.






Their top speed was 35-40mph on a down hill. There was some question as to why Ruben, on his big hybrid Performance bike, kept passing Keith on his Gary Fisher bike (a hybrid with a cro-moly frame, outfitted for touring). Nearest we could figure it has to do with the wind resistance due to Keith's paniers. Either way, it was getting frustrating to see Ruben pass him on all the downhills - as seen in this series of photos Ruben shot while riding.















After the weigh in, Elias and I set out to explore to see if we could find an interesting place to hang out, perhaps an internet cafe, and another place for us all to meet for a late lunch. I drove to west on Newmark to the end and found a part of town with some small, dead looking shops. Then we drove south on Cape Arago Highway and found the small port town of Charleston. Here I stopped at a drive through espresso stand and got my latte. I also asked the guy where he would go to eat - he said a place called the Portside, across the water.

As I crossed the bridge I spotted a Heron. So Jacki? I win. Unfortunately I couldn't document this fact. I did spot these egrets earlier in the trip, so this will have to do for now.

I checked out the Portside and it looked nice enough. And it turns out that the Oregon coast bike route does not go through downtown Coos Bay (where there are some more interesting restaurants), but it does skirt through North Bend then an edge of Coos Bay, then down to Charleston. I also checked with an Oregon Information booth and got some great maps of the area. That's when I sent the plan to everyone else: Meet in Charleston and go to the Portside for a late lunch... it seemed like it was only around 8 miles south of the bridge into North Bend, the place where they would make the turn towards Charleston (instead of going to Coos Bay).

Elias and I then drove to downtown Coos Bay to see how long it would take for Marc and Hillary to get to their motel. While we were there I let Elias play a few video games, then we went to a farmer's market in the center of town.

The town was pretty small and ... well... a little bit dead. We got a phone call from Hilary around 1pm that she was at the Portside. I told her I'd be driving over in a bit, but puttered around town just a bit more. At 1:30 I got a phone call from Ruben that they were at the north end of the bridge. I took the southern route along Libby road back to Charleston - a twisty windy road that took me a few attempts to find. It was really pretty though. Apparently there's no direct route from Charleston to Coos Bay because of a reservoir that is in the hills between the two towns.

I arrived around 2pm to find Hilary already settled into the restaurant. Around the same time I got a call from Ruben saying that they had JUST gotten over the bridge because they had to walk their bikes (although some crazy guy did bike it across and passed them). It took them almost another hour to make it to Charleston, but at that point their day was done.

Marc said it was kind of nice walking across the bridge. He saw the big power lines, the train/tracks - all of this "big engineering." Plus the bridge and river are just really pretty.

After our late lunch, Ruben attached Elias' trail-a-bike and set out to Sunset Bay state park. I took quick look around the wharf, then stopped for some ice. I caught up with them along the Cape Arago Highway, then they caught back up with me at the camp's reservation booth. The guy at the booth made some comment about my having picked one of the most remote camp sites. I thought that was a good thing.


Our camp sight was along the creek, but still near a bathroom/shower area. I got into my biking gear, we left the car and biked to the end of the road: at Cape Arago State park. Along the way we saw a school bus being rescued from a ditch, a beautiful view of the lighthouse, the sea lions (as well as Keith, Lauren and Elias) lounging on the rocks, the interesting rock formations.














On the way back we visited Shore Acres. Shore Acres is a beautifully landscaped area. Apparently this lumber baron names Simpson had a beautiful house and grounds there years ago, as well as an inn. The house burned down and went into disrepair. Eventually the State of Oregon bought the land, razed what was left of the buildings and repaired the gardens. It's really nice - probably a beautiful place for something like a wedding. The other neat thing about the property is this gorgeous cove down the cliff from the gardens. If we had more time I think we would have gone down to explore the cove. We also saw this overturned and weather worn tree. To give you some scale we had Ruben stand in front of it.

The boys went back to the camp and set up the tents, while I did an extra bit of biking into Charleston. When we got back we had a light dinner and started a fire in the fire pit. Then all of the boys showered. I spent some time getting the old cook stove to work again. Keith will vouch for me: I got very excited when I got it working again. it was really satisfying.

Ruben and Keith went back to town to fill up the car and get a few supplies. We didn't really think this through though. I had my back turned on the food and when I turned back I saw some movement on top of the fence beyond the picnic table. I made some noise and scared it down into the bushes on the other side and stood up on the table. It was a raccoon and it wasn't being scared off! I made more noise and threw some water at it. Elias got pretty nervous, as did I, but I did a quick job of cleaning up the food (I think it was particularly after my apples and peanut butter.). The hard part was I couldn't fit all the food in the cooler AND they had the car so I couldn't put the bag of food away. Oops. I did wash all the dishes across the little drive and threw away all the food. Some people who walked by said there was a whole group of raccoons two sites down helping them to "clean off their picnic table." I hoped that meant that they were busy over there and wouldn't come back here.

I made sure the fire would burn for a while and had Elias get into the tent. I sat guard for over an hour with a stick and the water bottle in hand. I looked like quite the sight. As it got darker and darker, my small flashlight wasn't cutting it. I did remember both bikes had the strong LED lamps on them and I took one off to use that as a flashlight. I felt much better after that. Until it started to drizzle. Then I felt pretty pathetic.

Ruben and Keith came back and I was SO glad to see them. I threw everything I could into the car and got into the tent. Eventually Ruben and Keith went to bed as well.

It plopped and drizzled on us most of the night, which kind of kept me awake. I kept wondering how I was going to break camp in the morning... but that will be discussed in our next post :)