62.1 mi / 4:45:00 time / 13.0 mph avg. / 2698 ft. climbing
Staying at Indian Creek RV Park

After the big party last night I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, but waking up at 7am wasn’t a big deal. It’s funny how all the cyclists pretty much get up at the exact same time, I guess we’re tuned to the sun, or at least the glow of cloudy fog backlit by the sun. Since we’d be staying at an RV park tonight, which most cyclists (including this one!) generally turn their noses up at, we figured this would be the last time we’d be seeing all these people, so we said our final goodbyes, particularly to  Martin and Pierrette (aka The Canadians) and Samantha, who were all people I really liked. Brian, who continued to be oddly obsessed with me, came by to get a picture of Joel and I, but it was really just a ruse to get a close-up shot of me. Sneaky fellow! Beyond the obsession, for which I can’t really blame him, he seemed like a cool guy, and he had some interesting gear choices he was more than happy to evangelize (Sil-Tarp!)

We got a quick coffee-shop breakfast in Bandon (rode ourselves there this time) at the same place the night before we signed a petition to get a local midwife off murder charges. Then we put in an extra mile by making a wrong turn, and finally got on the correct beachside bypass which brought us back to the fog-shrouded rocks-in-the-ocean views we had seen a few days previous. Yeah yeah, more endless scenic beauty, blah blah blah. Unfortunately it stayed cloudy and cold all day (I wore my long-fingered gloves and hat for the first time riding), but it was still pretty awesome, and ocean rocks in the fog is a different flavor than ocean rocks in the sun anyway. The wind had actually turned around, so we had constant mild headwinds rather the usual big tailwinds, added on to our longest day with the 2nd biggest climbing total, but after a week of this bike touring stuff we’re big enough badasses that it was no big deal.

After a fancy lunch at Redfish in Port Orford (their clam chowder had artistic whirls of colored sauces in it), we leapfrogged our Canadians for the last time, and then, while finishing a rest stop high above an endless stretch of beach, a black Chevy pickup pulled into the turnout. Our parents had arrived! They ran on ahead and secured sites for themselves (in the packed RV area) and us (in the wide-open tent area). On the final approach into Gold Beach, we took another virtually car-free bypass off 101, where we passed a flock of sheep to whom both Joel and I had a good time yelling all sorts of nonsense. After a shower in the bathhouse that was 400% nicer on the inside than it looked from the outside, we joined them for a home- (or camper-) cooked meal of piles of beef stroganoff, kicking it old-school, plus beers brewed and delivered from my uncle (and aunt?) who they visited the night before in Washington. Yum.

Then, since it was freezing out, we all piled into the camper, which surprisingly fit 4 without much difficulty, and chatted and snacked and used the park’s WiFi.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2012 at 9:07 am 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.