I am sitting here in Humbug State Mtn State Park after an 83 mile day. I had a wonderful tail wind for a large part of the day and averaged almost 16 mph! I even had to put on sunscreen! The last three days have been a story of covering ground. I biked 75, 84 and 83 miles averaging over 15 mph everyday. It has been fun to cover so much ground so quickly. I am not the strongest cyclist on the road or the most experienced, but my set up is light and fast!
Day 10: started by saying goodbye to Laurel at the coffee shop she had picked my up at 4 days earlier. It was raining and windy and not fun, but the weather cleared up and I quickly hit my pace. I covered the 75 miles very easily and would have gone further, but I was losing light since I started riding at 2pm. I stayed at South Beach State Park, it was gorgeous.
South Beach out side of Newport, OR
A perfect sunset after a long day.
Day 11: was full of hills and unbelievable vistas from the top of each mini summit. The rock gardens in the ocean are stunning along the coast and seem to get better and better as I go. I stayed in Winchester Bay at the Umpqua Light House State PArk. I was ROBBED! by raccoons :) The noisy little buggers found some Gu Gel packets I had forgotten about and I woke up to see one of them finishing of the last of 8-10 Mocha Gu Gels. I had to laugh, thinking, there is one FREAKING WIRED raccoon out there right now! That is a lot of caffein for a human. The Best part of this story is, I met a couple of german fellows in the campsite, Uli and….(I can't recall). Uli warned me about raccoons when you sleep in a bivy and told me he now ALWAYS travels with a tent just to keep the "Damn raccoons out of my stuff!"
Umpqua Light House State Park
Day 12: I cruised some more, I checked the weather while I had a cup of coffee in North Bend OR and to my dismay the rain on the forecast hadn't gone anywhere. What made it worse was that now a wicked head wind was expected to blow starting at about 6pm. I wanted to make it as far as i comfortably could so I set my sights on Humbug. Normally I pick small chunks and each time I reach a goal, I chose to go on or stop. This time I had weather and time to beat, so it felt rushed. I left the campsite at 7:30am and was in Bandon, OR by noon (50miles) I took my time and had some food, then I took the long way around town and saw some sights.
Bandon's sea rocks are fantastic.
After Bandon I saw farmland for the first time since Skagit County, WA nearly 700 miles ago, it was encouraging, the landscape has changed…but that meant stronger gusts of wind. The day ended with a couple of hills as I rolled into camp. I walked to the beach and enjoyed my turkey wrap and sinkers bar dinner while watching baby seals play in the surf. On a side note I also watched a kid ask his parents if he could drink the creek water that was mixing with the sea water…and subsequently convince them it was OK. So there will be a kid in camp tonight with a MESSED UP tummy! As I sat on the beach i could see some weather WAY off in the distance, but it was coming from the wrong way. It was sunny and warm, it was really nice. There is now way its gonna rain tonight, I thought to myself…I updated my loved ones on my whereabouts and headed back to camp, about a mile walk. When i got back to camp I looked up just in time to see two weather fronts collide and spin over the valley. SUPER COOL! Damn, it is gonna rain :)
Farmland outside of Bandon
Day 13: I am only 22miles in today, and the weather is sub-optimal! I booked a super cheap hotel in Crescent City, in part cause i am freezing and wet and tired, in part cause i will need a good nights rest before the hills i have to climb tomorrow, but mostly for motivation…now I HAVE to make it there tonight :)
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