Bike the OR Coast

Day 4 - Inn at Cape Kiwanda to Inn At Otter Crest







It was a slow morning, partially because we wanted to just relax and enjoy the room at the Inn at Cape Kiwanda – which was lovely as usual. Ruben, Elias and I had food brought to the room, Keith, Marc, Hilary and Joseph fended for themselves. (Well Joseph had mom’s help :) )

The other reason for our late start was that it was pissing rain. Not pouring. Just pissing. I was hoping that it was just because the area of the coast we were on and that it would clear in Lincoln City.

Let me give you some background here. On the ride 10 years ago, Keith, Marc, Ruben and Jim camped at the base of Cape Lookout the night of Saturday, August 5. They started out the next day with that 750 foot hill climb, came down into Cape Kiwanda, and followed the Three Capes loop back to 101. They had lunch in a nice small cottage restaurant in Neskowin called the Hawk Creek Cafe. By the time they got out of lunch it was raining pretty hard. 10 miles later, as they were pulling into Lincoln City, Ruben said “It’s my birthday, the next hotel we see we’re stopping for the day, my treat.”

Turns out it was the Shilo Inn at the north end of Lincoln city. Just as Ruben was plunking down his visa to pay, the sun came out. They decided to stay anyway, and he did what he loved best: soaking in the hot tub and then fell asleep in front of the Sunday football games.

So here it is 10 years later and it’s raining on this same stretch of road. Hence my hope it would clear. It didn't. This is how bad the boys looked just a few miles down the road.










This was an eagle I saw in a nature preserve in Neskowin. Jacki: Elias' comment when he saw it was "Spot the Falcon" :)

Elias and I drove to Lincoln City, but took a small detour to the Otis Café to pick up some of their yummy bread. I had heard from a friend that this tiny “blink and you miss it” café had some excellent food. She was right. I picked up one pumpkin and one molasses bread. I had her cut a couple of slices for Elias who was getting hungry, given it was now close to noon. Now I’m not a big fan of pumpkin bread but I tried it. It was fantastic.

After the Otis adventure, he and I went to the outlet mall. I bought a pot so we can make hot oatmeal the next day we camp out (which should be Wednesday night.) While I was there, I got a message from Hilary saying she had arrived at our agreed upon lunch location: Kyllos. I got a call from Ruben as I was leaving the mall, telling me they had arrived and when I got there could I please bring them a towel.

Less than 5 minutes later I understood why. Have you ever seen a wet cat? These guys looked almost as miserable. Well not TOO miserable. But Keith couldn’t stop chattering.

Lunch was ok – everything was a little too fatty, but the clam chowder in a bread bowl was quite good. The guys at ate a LOT of food. I suspect their metabolisms have completely popped up. Elias kept stealing my black beans "behind my back" and wound up with a face full of black bean sauce.




Marc and Hilary stayed in Lincoln city for the night, so we said our goodbyes after lunch. Then Keith and Ruben dried off the bikes and wrung out their clothes the best they could and climbed on board. They crossed the world’s shortest river (The D River, shown here) and scurried down the road. I say scurried because they must have biked about a mile in the time it took me to take one more picture and drive around the corner to get out of the parking lot. I caught up with them at a light and noticed how incredibly cut Ruben’s calf muscles are right now – they’re completely sculpted from the 3 days straight of riding.

As I drove on ahead I felt for them… it was between a drizzle and a moderate rain the whole 20 or so miles. I took the Otter Rock loop and went down then UUUUUUPPPP the hill. The road split into two narrow one-way sides – southbound had a nice large bike lane on the west side of the road. The rain then mixed with the large droplets of water coming off the tall pine trees that surrounded the road.

I was just starting to wonder if I had the right directions when I came upon the entrance to the Inn at Otter Crest. The Inn is a series of buildings nestled into a cliff. This place is actually a series of condos that are rented out as a hotel rooms and time-shares. It was probably quite modern when it was first built in … what … the 70’s? Actually it’s pretty nice – each unit has a fantastic view of the water. Even the pool that has a gorgeous view of the ocean. Our room wasn’t ready when I arrived (check in is at 5pm, not 4 as I had thought), so Elias and I occupied our time for a while in the activity room, playing a video game and some ping-pong. Just when I couldn’t take it any longer, the room became available. I checked in, then waited with Elias next to the car for a guy in a cart to pick us up: no cars can go near the rooms.

While I was waiting, Ruben and Keith showed up. They were COVERED in grime, striped up their back. I wish had my camera on me, it was priceless. As Keith said later: no wonder he felt like he was going so slowly on the last section of road: he was carrying half or Oregon’s road grime on him.

We got into our room and Ruben got into the tub, clothes and all and started to scrub. We managed to get his clothes surprisingly clean, but the tub is a mess (envision the Cat In the Hat Comes Back with the big pink cat ring, only this wasn’t pink).


We found the teleferik (cable tram/elevator) and took it down the hill. Actually while we were waiting for it to come up to get us, I commented that it seemed almost haunted the way it moved so slowly and it was so empty (the car has windows on it, so you can see when no one is there.) Ruben said I've seen too much Scobby Doo, but that's exactly what it reminded me of.



We were a little early for our reservations at the Flying Dutchman restaurant so we explored for a bit, including the 84 step stair down to the beach and the playground. The restaurant is ok – but it’s one of those places that decide to call French Fries “Pomme Frittes” and butter “burre” just to make the dinner sound better than it is. In the end it was just a little bit fatty. The glass of Inn at Otter Crest Pino Gris was ok – better than the “Wine by Joe” Pino Gris I had the night before, but not as good as a LOT of others I’ve tasted.

Our night was capped off by attempting to access the internet (it was down, grumble) and doing laundry. Tomorrow Marc will catch up with us and the boys will ride from here to Florence where we will stay at Le Chateau… which we suspect is not nearly as fancy as it’s name.