57.3 mi / 4:05:42 time / 13.9 mph avg. / 2194 ft. climbing
Staying at Devil’s Lake State Park

The 300-site campground with 4 cars to a site, people sleeping outside in camp chairs, and a guy sneezing so loud that a woman several sites away shouted “god bless you!” got surprisingly quiet on this Labor Day’s eve. Either that or we were plenty tired and fell right asleep regardless of any fireworks or morons revving their F-350s. The morning broke foggy but had cleared before we even got out of camp.

Today’s ride included a big loop around Tillamook Bay, where a surprising amount of green pastureland found a home between the surrounding mountain peaks. It was a very windy day, but luckily they stayed behind us for the most part. 37 miles in we came to Pacific City and the Pelican Brewpub, crowded with the last gasp of summer’s tourists. There was another giant rock in the ocean here, which is just one part of the beauty along this route. I’m guessing the Oregon coast doesn’t get a lot of visitors from far away, given that the temperature tops out in the low 60s even in the best conditions, but for touring cyclists, it’s world-class.

After the brewpub, we had one of the biggest climbs we’ll have on the Oregon coast. Averaging 7% and bringing us up over 700 feet, I could only stick with Joel for the first quarter of it, and then had to let him go while I trudged the rest of the way up at 5.5mph. It wasn’t fun getting dropped, but when I stopped thinking about myself it made me quite happy. Despite that effort, I’ve been loving these Oregon downhills. Somehow they always feel like they give me more back on the way down than I put in on the way up, which is the opposite of how hills usually feel.

We might have had an easier time if the route up that hill recommended by the Oregon Coast Route map wasn’t closed, but it was at least really nice that we learned in advance that it was definitely closed, because often a road for “local traffic only” is still passable on bikes. On a homemade sign that read “NO WAY Through for Bikes or Cars” someone had added “It’s true 🙁 -Biker 8/12). Sucks for him, but he surely helped many cyclists who have come after.

Then we were into Lincoln City, which is a real city but nonetheless has a state park smack dab in the middle of it. $6 for a hiker/biker site and free showers and you have a winner. We’ve seen 10 other touring cyclists in two days, but tonight finally got to chat with one staying here as he sat at an empty site plugged into the electric to charge his full-sized laptop. Classic. Him and his girl are on a slow 3-year meander from the Yukon to Argentina. Even though a lot of people find my 4 week trips pretty hard core, I’m always envious of people who have the time and guts to do rides that go way beyond.

We walked over to a seafood restaurant where the food was good but the setting was otherworldly. The building rose on stilts above the wide sandy beach where kites dove and wheeled, while the low sun over the ocean passed through a thin veil of fog which kaleidoscoped its light into a billion shards, filling the sky and the room with a dreaming glow. It was an atmosphere that I already know will stick with me for a long time to come. And it’s only Day 2. Nice.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2012 at 10:25 pm and is filed under 2012 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.