Bike the OR Coast

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..