Bike the OR Coast

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 :)