Bike the OR Coast

2005-07-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-07-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

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:

2005-07-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-07-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-06-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

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..

2005-06-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2005-06-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

Day 5 - Inn at Otter Crest to Le Chateau in Florence

The day is looking MUCH better already. High clouds, but no rain. The boys' clothes dried nicely under the heat lamps in the bathrooms at the Inn at Otter Crest

We took off around 9:30 and stopped at the Devil's Punchbowl, a really cool natural landform that formed when the roof of two seawater caves collapsed. Unfortunately the camera washed out the picture and the tide was out.

Ruben and Keith said their good-byes, especially to Elias who was very nervous about being so close to the high cliff, even though we kept reassuring him that it was really ok. He was pretty mad at me for trying to get him to challenge his fear for much of our drive to Newport.

Marc caught up with Keith and Ruben on the road to Newport. Hilary and Lauren caught up with each other at an internet cafe, then the boys joined up with us for a cup of coffee. Marc's bike was having trouble, so they asked the lady at the cafe where a bike shop was in town (1 mile back, about 1 block off the road)... They doubled back and Lauren, Elias and Hilary went off to the Oregon Coast aquarium.

The aquarium was very cool as always. I still love the Seal/Sea Lion exhibits. The seals are so cool and playful. In the picture on the left, Elias is "petting" the seal who presses his head up against the window. The adorable critter had his eyes closed at first, then opened it to make sure Elias was petting him. The other picture if of Elias "petting" the sealife in the tide pool exhibit, with Hilary making sure he doesn't fall in.

Hilary received a call a short time later that Marc's bike needed a big repair - the bearings in the rear wheel were full of water and shot. Keith and Ruben continued on by themselves, while Hilary picked up Marc and they had lunch in Newport.

Elias and I started southbound. About 5 miles north of Waldport we saw Ruben and Keith, with Ruben's bike upside down. They were trying to figure why Ruben's rear deraileur was squeaking. It also turned out that Ruben had taken a spill back in Newport and had a nasty road rash (partially covered by a bandaid) on his shin. He did it trying to hop a curb with a flat tire. Oh well, at least he's "pre-dinged."

Fortunately we had some lube/cleaner and we were able to solve the problem before it got worse. I also fixed Ruben's finger with some "minor surgery" which had some small flecks of metal imbedded into the tip... The boys ate a quick snack, and I took Elias to go scout ahead for lunch. I found a place with passable food in Waldport called the Grand Central Pizza. Everything was greasy though. Ugh. Still I did get a solo walk and found a cute little shop with some of the best tie-dyed shirts I'd ever seen. I couldn't resist one long sleeved shirt. It was hard to resist more of them, but I did.

I sent a text message to Marc and Hilary and let them know where we were eating. With Marc's bike all fixed, they caught up with us, and the boys were able to start back on their way around 3pm. It was going to be a long day (60 miles to begin with, then all the mechanical problems), but it's a beautiful ride. Most of the ride are low rollers, but there are 2 large hills - one near Cape Perpetua and one near the sea lion caves.

Speaking of Sea Lion Caves - Hilary had asked me where to see Sea Lions. I told her about the caves, but how you pay money to go down an elevator to the caves, only to have this overpowering stench hit you. We found out from the biking book that sea lions like to hang out at Strawberry Hill - and they were in fact there. Sometime later I gave Hilary a brochure of Sea Lion Caves that I had picked up along the way. I pointed to the picture and said "See? You've seen Sea Lion Caves!"

Also speaking of Sea Lion Caves, Ruben took these pictures when they had crested the hill there...

Hilary, Elias and I checked into Le Chateau hotel right at 4pm. The hotel is functional - not fancy, but not expensive. There is a pool, jacuzzi, and free internet. The beds are big. The rooms are big. The people up at the front desk are nice and helpful. This is as opposed to last night at the Inn at Otter Crest. Beautiful location, ok rooms, but very little service (Did I mention last night that I called and asked for more towels and they never came? It was annoying, but I found the supply closet open and just grabbed some.)

The boys arrived around 6pm and showered. I got a 25 minute swim in the small pool for "training," then showered myself. At 8pm we walked down to the "Old Town" and had dinner at the Traveler's Cove - which was pretty good Mexican food and had a nice view (shown here with a picture of another old town restaurant/chain - Mo's). After dinner we all just retired to our rooms to get ready for Day 6....

2005-06-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-06-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - Nahalem Bay State Park to the Inn at Cape Kiwanda

It's almost midnight on Sunday. I can't believe this morning started out by waking up to a SCREAMING baby... The people who were across the drive in a small tent had a very small baby - maybe 6 months old? In the middle of the night the baby started to SCREAM like it had been starved for days. I was trying to be patient - some people try to let their children cry it out at night, or maybe they were night time weaning. Who knows. But then it happened AGAIN as the soon as the sun came up.

Eventually I saw the woman take the baby and put her in the car and they drove off for a bit. The baby was more settled after that. I wondered: was the baby just miserable? Did they have to take the baby to a MD for an ear infection? I'll never know. But she was much quieter after the drive.

Actually even though the day was off to an inauspicious start, it was a very good day. I actually got a run in - the weather was perfect for an early morning jog. Then I showered and we all ate breakfast (the guys had showered the night before). We broke camp slowly, allowing the tents to dry some more. Around 10am Ruben called Marc to get his status. The decision was made: Ruben and Keith would ride back to Manzanita, I would finish packing up and meet them there with Marc's bike. (Remember the foreshadowing?) Then I had the idea: Have Ruben take Elias on the Trail-a-bike on the 2 mile flat trip back. We didn't need do much convincing to get Elias to agree. Just as I was leaving the campsite, I got a text message telling me where I could find them - shock - a coffee shop :)

I arrived and found Elias happily eating a donut and Ruben happily slurping a latte and Keith happily sipping espresso. I bought myself one and a delicious scone. Marc and Hilary arrived and the boys got ready for their trip. I took this picture just before they left.

Elias and I drove to the Tillamook cheese factory and waited for Hillary. I saw her drive into the parking lot, talking on the phone. She stopped and told me she had just gotten a call from Marc and that he had a problem with his bike and she had to go back and get him. Keith and Ruben waited for a while with him, but started back on their route before she arrived.

Elias and I went into the cheese factory to watch it in action. Elias was more fascinated with the grocery store/food pyramid computer game on a kiosk than the cool workings of the factory. I tried to take a picture or two - a difficult task in low lighting through glass. This shot is one of the 8 oz loafs getting "weighed." The very cool thing is that if one is too light, the conveyer strips slide over and the offending block of cheese moved onto a side conveyor. But all this happens REALLY quickly. I was fascinated by it.

I treated Elias to a small ice cream cone and then we left. As we were heading to the car, Marc and Hilary drove up. Apparently Marc's tired had a slit on it and he had to get it repaired. Later that evening he threw a "Mr. Tuffy" into the tire to help keep the inner tube in and the hole from expanding.

Ruben and Keith caught up with Elias and me shopping at the Safeway. A local reminded us of one of Ruben and my favorites: Rosanne's in Oceanside for lunch. A quick call to Marc and Hilary (who were off looking for a repair solution) and lunch was set for 9 miles away.

We continued on to Oceanside - bit out of the way for Keith and Ruben (and it included an extra hill), but it was well worth it. Marc and Hilary apparently missed the turn to head out to the coast, but we didn't find this out until we had cell reception again in Netarts (there is NO cell reception in Oceanside, and the locals are proud of that.)

Oceanside is almost at sea level, surrounded by hills on either side. It's pretty isolated. And beautiful. Even on a cloudy, rainy day like today.

I remember Oceanside from years and years ago - I would go there (and to Cape Kiwanda) with some friends who were learning how to hangglide. There are a few more buildings, but it's stayed mostly the same. And Roseanne's is still just as good.

I left and so did the boys. To make sure they took the right turn, I waited for them just after the first big hill that took them back from Oceanside to Netarts. If they had gone straight, they would have gone back to Tillamook. Well not likely past "downtown" Netarts, but still.

The next part of their journey was pretty flat along the bay. Then there was a "small" hill, where I took these pictures. To give you some context, here's a picture at the top of this first hill, looking back at the bay. This other picture is of the three rocks in Oceanside. I had to zoom 12x to get this blurry shot.

As I followed along the "Three Capes Scenic Drive," I passed a very large clear cut. Elias asked what had happened, so I explained why loggers do this... that clearcutting is cheap but bad for a forest. Just after the clearcut I noticed the lush green forest looked very pale, yellow and sickly - I thought it was because of the clearcutting. Then I turned the corner and saw Sand lake. This was a fascinating dune with low brush and sea grass. There is an area where ATVs can drive around, but it's cordoned off from the delicate vegetation.

Then came the hill. The BIG hill up to Cape Lookout State Park. Ruben and Keith biked up 1000 vertical feet in approximately 4 miles. This picture is an altitude profile of their day. I can not imagine doing this.

Elias and I arrived at the Inn At Cape Kiwanda around 4pm and checked in. I unloaded the van and got settled in the room, which is fabulous as always. Marc sent me a text message saying they were here and napping. I let Elias play vegetable boy and watch TV. Ruben and Keith arrived, very sore, but very proud, around 5pm. At 7 we ate dinner across the street at the Pelican Brew Pub which has good pub fare, good beers, crappy "Wine by Joe," and another excellent view. The picture is of Keith just outside the pub, in front of the Haystack rock.

Tomorrow we head to the Inn at Otter Crest near Otter Rock. Today appears to be the worst day weather wise and we're not soaked in the slightest :)

2005-06-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 - Astoria to Nahelem Bay State Park

The Best Western in Astoria was terrific. Breakfast was great. They had a waffle maker for making your own malted belgian waffle. Mmmm. Our view was ok. Yes, we can see the water, but over a little industrial dock area. It was a water view though. And if you look to the left you don't see the industrial stuff.

Elias and I went swimming in the pool for 45 minutes. It was warm and they also had a hot tub and jacuzzi. MMMMM. Then Ruben and Elias had a small snooze while we all got set to go.

Finally around 10? 11? something like that, the boys got on the road. I passed them shortly after they left, just before they crossed the Youngs Bay Bridge, and shot these pictures. Unfortunately my camera didn't snap when I took one of Marc...

The first bit of bike trouble happened less than 5 miles into the trip when Keith's tire blew. Marc was out in front happily spinning his feet and didn't know what had happened. Keith and Ruben patched the tire and were back on their way. They all caught up with each other after a bit and made it to Cannon Beach for lunch.

Meanwhile, Hilary and I made our way to outlet mall in Seaside, where I found some window chalk and decorated the car to surprise the guys. They were quite surprised. I started by putting "Bike the Coast, 10 year reunion" on the back. Then on the passenger side of the car it says "Pastry Powered T^uring Machines" (with an 'o' above the ^. Computer science geeks will get the reference to the Turing Machine... it was the name of our STP group 10 years prior, when we trained heavily by using a book called "Bakeries by Bicycle") On the driver's side I wrote our "byline" - "We live to eat, we bike to eat more."

We ate lunch at a place called the Wayfarer, by the Surfsand Inn. The view was incredible. Afterwards, Hilary, Elias and I went on the beach. Elias had a blast and got his pants wet even though I asked him not to (as always). I tried to fly my stunt kite, but found Elias wasn't strong enough to help me get it airborne. Then one of the cross tubes snapped, so I had to go back into town for a replacement.

They boys, meanwhile, biked towards Manzanita and Nahelem bay. There were two big 500 ft elevation gain hills... on that stretch. Worse yet they were back to back. They just got off one hill and had to climb another! They were very proud when they reached the top!

Our camp site was D29 - carefully picked on line to be close to the beach, close (but not TOO close) to the bathrooms, and close to the section that had the play area for Elias. We had electricity, a water faucet, fire pit, picnic table... the only negative was that the "water dumping station" was right in our site. People had to dump their "wash water" in this cone like thing right near our table. They were all pretty apologetic about it.

Hilary came and picked Marc up around 5:30. They slept in a hotel back in Manzanita. He left his bike with the intention of coming back the next morning to start from the camp (hmmm, foreshadowing again?)

Keith, Ruben, Elias and I had "The best sandwhiches ever!" of cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, and whatever else we could find in the cooler and the bag of groceries I had brought. We were just too tired to go anyplace to get some food, plus we were still getting all settled in.

After dinner we hiked the beautiful dunes and attempted to fly the stunt kite again. Ruben's famous last words to me were "are you sure there's not too much wind?" I told him it should be fine. The kite went up! The swivel clip bent OUT! and I fell back on my ass. The kite and the line were fine. It was just the swivel clip that didn't hold :)

After dinner we put a fire in the fireplace and roasted marshmellows for smores. MMMMM. Then we all sacked out.

We were very lucky on this day - it was supposed to rain, but we really had none. Even at night, it did sprinkle, but it never rained hard. By the time we woke up most of our gear was dry... on to day 3...

2005-06-25T00:31:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - Driving 6.5 hours from Seattle to Astoria (usually a 4 hour drive) by way of Portland Airport.

It's 12:30am, Saturday actually. After packing, cleaning, and getting ready all day (actually days), we got on the road at 5pm.

What a waste of time.

It took us 2.5 hours to get from Seattle to Centralia - normally a 1.25 hour drive. Marc and Hilary (driving separately with baby Joseph) have us beat. From their home in NW Seattle to Ft. Lewis (just south of Tacoma, normally a 40 minute drive) took them 2.5 hours.

Fortunately once we got passed the Centrailia area, it was a really quick ride. We veered off I-5 and took I-205 to the airport. I tried to get a good picture of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams, glowing in the sunset, but my camera ran out of batteries, so all I got was this blurry shot of Mt. St Helens from the south. After seeing the traffic (due to construction) northbound on 205, he said "Note to self: take I-5 home next week." I told him likely the construction will be done by then... This, by the way, is foreshadowing. In case you're missing it as it thwacks you over the head.

I did get a good picture of the sunset over the Columbia river once I changed my battery. Minutes later I took a picture of the OR/WA border.

Keith, who was to arrive at 7pm, was delayed as well. We arrived at the airport around 9pm and pulled into the drive. I called Keith and he said he had just put his bike back together and was on his way out. After unlatching the bike rack and pulling open the trunk, we were approached by airport security guard, who gave us a hard time that we weren't actively loading. I told her I just spoke with him and he was on his way out and she threatened to write us a ticket if we didn't relatch everything and drive around the drive. So I relatched everything, told Ruben to drive and started walking into baggage claim.

Just then the security guard says "Ummm, Maam? Here he is" (he came out the door behind me). So I unlatched the bike trailer AGAIN and we loaded him up and got on our way.

Now you have to know I planned just about everything. I have hotels, maps, you name it all for the coast of Oregon - days planned out. What I forgot to map was "how to get from Portland's airport to Astoria." I looked at the AAA map of Oregon and guess that we should go out route 26 to around Seaside and then travel north. However, because of construction, we can't get out of the airport and onto 205 south to get to 26. Ruben's asking what to do. I'm the navigator...

Here's where technology fails to come in handy.

- A friend of Ruben's loaned him a GPS unit that apparently can hook to his bike. Even though I've used other navigation systems, I can NOT (even with the user's manual) figure out how to get the unit to give me the best DIRECTIONS to Astoria. It can give me the LAT/LONG of the Portland airport OR the center of Astoria, but nothing says "Take 26," or "Take 30." So I give up on that.

- Next I have this GREAT phone - the Treo 650 with Cingular. I call my friends who live in Portland. His phone is off. So I don't leave a message. I try his house. The answering machine picks up. I leave a message, but it's not very useful.

- I also pay for the internet on said phone. I figured I could use the web and find the directions to Astoria. Well I do, the simplified mapquest apparently doesn't know "Portland Airport" as the starting location. So I use just Portland, which uses the center of town - something like 15 miles to the west. It says to take route 26, but that it's 90 miles and will take us over 2 hours.

- So I pull out my Mac with a Bluetooth dongle. I try to connect the laptop to the internet through my phone then Ruben's blackberry. NEITHER DEVICE HAS THAT ENABLED. ARGGGGHHHHH!!!

- Meanwhile Keith is calling his wife in California and asking her to find the best route. She queries one site and finds the best way is to backtrack up to Kelso (1/2 hour to the north), then cut over on 30. Sounds reasonable. She double checks on Mapquest and it tells her... to take 26.

By this time we had already FINALLY gotten through all of the trafficy mess and gotten on 205 northbound. We were not turning around and going to 26. We cross the Columbia river again back into Washington. You would think it would all be smooth sailing from there, right?

Remember the foreshadowing?

You got it. We hit the construction traffic going northbound on 205.

Once passed that we had a very quick drive. At Kelso we took 432 to route 4, across the same bridge (in Kelso) that Keith, Ruben, Marc and I traveled 10 years ago for the Seattle to Portland ride. We saw one lone biker, walking his bike up the side of the road.

We arrived at the Best Western Lincoln Inn at 11:30pm. The woman working the front desk was incredibly nice and offered to keep an eye out on our car (with the bikes still locked to each other on the trailer). The place has free internet (WOOT!), a hot tub and pool open all night, continental breakfast from 6-10 am AND a work out room. Supposedly we have a water view, but we can't quite tell that tonight.

Elias is now asleep in one bed. Ruben and I are geeking out briefly before we go to sleep ourselves. Tomorrow the decisions will be: what time to get up, whether to drive the guys across the river so they can technically start in Washington and REALLY go border to border, where to have lunch and whether we still feel like camping at Nahelem bay if it's rainy tomorrow night.

2005-06-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday night. Well really Wednesday morning. I have too much to do before we leave. Well at least the itinerary is set, the hotels are booked, and I've started a list of things we need to take.

Ruben, Marc and Keith have been doing some serious bike riding in the last 4 weeks to train for this. I think the hardest part for them won't be the riding or the hills, it will be getting on the seat the second day. No doubt about that.

Last week Ruben and Keith rode from the Palo Alto/Menlo Park area up into the foothills. They got lost on the way home and wound up riding about 50 miles - with no gear and no dinner. They're nuts. :)

The goal is to get on the road after Elias' camp on Friday, pick Keith up at the Portland airport and make it to Astoria late on Friday night. I just hope there isn't too much traffic on the the drive to Portland...

2005-06-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, in 1995, a bunch of geeks from the Computer Science department at the University of Washington (and their friends) decided to do the Seattle To Portland bike ride. After that ride, one guy, Keith, asked around to see if anyone else wanted to bike from the Canadian border to Mexico. Ruben and Marc said yes, and convinced Ruben's friend Jim to go along as well.

They all took the month of August off - for Marc and Keith it was pretty "easy" - they were in Grad School. Ruben, who had been working at Siemens Medical Ultrasound, told his boss that he was "Either taking the month of August as vacation, or taking the month of August off" (i.e. quitting). They let him have 4 weeks of vacation. I don't recall how Jim got the time off...

Instead of going border to border, they left Seattle with their bikes fully loaded with all of their camping gear, clothes and some food. They took a ferry across to the Olympic Peninsula and started their trek southward on 101, using the book Bicycling the Pacific Coast (second edition) as their guide. Sixteen days later they crossed the bridge into San Francisco. Marc and Jim knew their journey would end there. Ruben on the other hand... well as he puts it, he had just been on a bike for over two weeks. He knew he could go all the way to the border. He just wanted to go home.

Keith made it to the border, parked his bike and crossed into Mexico.

High on adrenaline, testosterone or whatever else, the guys made a promise they would do the ride again in 10 years. Which brings us to today.

This time the ride will be a little different. Instead of Canada to Mexico, "border to border" means Astoria (the northern most town on the Oregon Coast) to Brookings (the southernmost town on the Oregon Coast). Instead of four guys making the trip, it will be only 3 (Jim can't make it this time). And instead of having their bikes fully loaded with gear, two cars will be running as SAG wagons (support vehicles) with all of the gear, some of the wives and children.

I'm one of those wives. I'm the one treking the computer and all of the other (electronic and non) gear. I may let Ruben check is email, if he behaves ;)