Day Two Hundred Forty-seven, 091102 - Brookings, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-seven, Date Monday, November 2, 2009
Time in Saddle: 5:28
Distance for the Day: 47.84 miles From Port Orford To Brookings, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 12,192 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 408’/148’, Highest: 708’ Accumulated: 2940’
Speeds: Avg: 8.7 mph, Max: mph
Weather: 39° mostly clear and cool, warming to the mid 50s during the day
Expenditures: $25

To see the full Moon set on the ocean, I woke up at 5am and got up at 5:39am. The sky was clear, so I broke down and packed away my gear, and was ready to roll by 6:25am. It was still dark enough to see the beautiful stars and the Spring constellation, Leo, while the Winter constellation Orion was heading into the west, soon to be hidden in the Sun’s glare. It was cold but dry, as I made my way less than a hundred yards up the road to a spot where I could pull off to see the Pacific Ocean’s western horizon. I watched the Moon set on the Pacific, but before it reached the actual ocean edge, it disappeared a thin layer of mist above the ocean’s surface at 6:57am – the same mist that prevented last night’s green flash. I saw some workers in a couple of trucks drive up the road above the gravel pile site where I was sleeping, so I missed getting caught or disturbed this time around. I knew I wouldn’t be hitting any towns or services for a while this morning, so I had a quickie breakfast of meat stick, breakfast bar and Pay Day bar, before continuing south along Oregon coast heading for California;

I stopped in at a café in Gold Beach from 10:20am to 11:45am to get a mini mart breakfast of hot cocoa, blackberry tart, and bagel with cream cheese ($5), whilst charging my iPod, notebook, camera, and cell phone batteries. They had wi-fi, so I went online to handle email, and also bought a couple of Judy Collins’ first albums from Apple’s iPod Store (Maid of Constant Sorrow, and Golden Apples of the Sun - $9 for both), and loaded them onto my iPod. Riding down the Oregon coast today was nice – great weather, and gorgeous views of the coastline; I stopped fairly often to take lots of pictures.

I hit Brookings at 4:20pm and stopped at a mini mart to get a quickie hot dog dinner and food supplies ($7). This was the last town before getting to the California border, and my last chance for finding a Joby tripod, which I didn’t. But, I did find a small tripod with slightly bendable metal legs ($4) at a Fred Meyer store (kind of like Wal Mart – sells everything from groceries and clothing to food and electronics – I’ve been seeing them through several of the mid-to-northwestern states). It wasn’t a Joby, but would have to do, as I definitely needed to do a self-portrait at the “welcome to California” sign. The Sun set at 5:09pm, and I set out to go look for some stealth camping.

Just at the outskirts of town, I found a short, somewhat steep road that went up to a dirt road about a hundred yards behind some houses. I was able to pass under a chain across the way, and found a spot behind a length of bushes that hid me from the backs of the row of houses (N42 3.195’ W124 15.968’). It was around 5:40pm, well after sunset, and getting darker, but I hung out for a bit to check the site’s suitability. I could hear kids running around and playing over by the houses, and there were dogs, too. I’d have to be extra quiet to keep from disturbing the dogs. I started setting up my tent around 6pm, and by 6:36pm I got inside, and was ready to eat, drink soda, and read, which I did until about 9pm. It got windy during the night, and that woke up several times, but other than that, I got plenty of rest to recharge the batteries.

Day Two Hundred Forty-six, 091101 - Port Orford, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-six, Date Sunday, November 1, 2009
Time in Saddle: 6:11
Distance for the Day: 58.27 miles From Coos Bay To Port Orford, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 12,144 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 56’/408’, Highest: 599’ Accumulated: 2743’
Speeds: Avg: 9.4 mph, Max: 38.7 mph
Weather: 40° clear
Expenditures: $20

I woke up at 6:41am and got up at 6:53am while it was still mostly dark, clear, cold, and a bit dewy. I saw Venus for the first time in a while – it had started to move towards the Sun, more, so was closer to the horizon. I stopped at a mini mart for breakfast of hot cocoa and muffin + restocking drink supplies ($5), and continued on at 8:21am south on Hwy 101. I stopped in Bandon at around 11am to look for a Joby tripod (no luck) and got lunch at a small restaurant –mushroom burger, fries, and soda ($11). It was now mostly cloudy and cool, with a high cumulo-stratus layer, but not much chance of rain. I had to go over some mountains – went up and down a few hundred feet here, a few more hundred feet there, and got to as high as 600’ ASL, but after getting to Bandon, things leveled out, again. There were more hills coming up, but on the coastline, this is to be expected. Daylight Squandering Time ended, the previous night, so the time was now 12:20pm, and I stopped in Langlois to get food items from a mini mart ($4) before continuing on. Oh, yes: I saw ants for the first time in a long time – I was kind of amazed, seeing them, because I didn’t notice when I stopped seeing them. Isn’t that funny.

I stopped to watch the sun set on the Pacific at 5:11pm, and saw a faint hint of the green flash with my binoculars, but there was a bit too much mist over the surface of the ocean to allow the necessary “clear to the horizon” condition for a really great green flash. The disk of the Sun did warp and warble wonderfully, though. After sunset, I continued on, looking for a stealth camp, and almost immediately found a nice one in the form of a big gravel pile in a medium-small lot, elevated a bit above and right off the highway (N42 38.587’ W124 24.368’). Some traffic noise would still get to me, but on this stretch of the highway, the traffic really dies down after dark, so I should be good. There was a bit of space around behind it, with enough room to hide, and nice level spots to pitch my tent. The weather was perfectly clear, but not too cold at 58°, so I set up and got inside by 5:40pm – boy, it was early. I would have to read and listen to music for a few hours before going to sleep. The nice thing about a site like this, being hidden behind a big pile of gravel: I could use my headlamp to read without the worry of being sighted. How nice! So I read, munched, drank soda, and listened to music until 10:30pm, before I went to sleep. I heard a small band of coyotes yipping and yowling twice during the night – the first time pretty far away – the second time, a lot closer; probably within 100-200 yards away. They don’t bother humans, so I wasn’t too worried. A couple of fine points when setting up or breaking down a tent: it’s good to be aware of any slight tilt to the spot you set up on, as it’s a bit more comfortable if one’s head is on the “uphill” side, rather than the “downhill” side. Also, when breaking down, it’s easier to pull the tent pole segments apart if you pull from the end the tube segment that is furthest from the connected joint, rather than closer to the joint. Also, wearing gloves will keep the metal tent poles from sucking the heat out of your hands, thereby preventing them from turning into blocks of ice.

It being Daylight Standard Time, again, I would have to wake up around 5:30 - 6am so I could be ready by around sunup at 7am to make maximum use of daylight during this time of the year when the days were getting shorter.

Day Two Hundred Forty-five, 091031 - Coos Bay, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-five, Date Saturday, October 31, 2009
Time in Saddle: 5:26
Distance for the Day: 52.08 miles From Florence To Coos Bay, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 12,086 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 107’/56’, Highest: 382’ Accumulated: 1975’
Speeds: Avg: 9.5 mph, Max: 36.0 mph
Weather: 53° light overcast in the morning
Expenditures: $21

I woke and got up at 7:17am – a bit late for me, and not too surprising since I hadn’t slept but 15 minutes since the night-before-last. It began to rain really hard just after midnight for a while, with gusts pushing my tent around. At around 12:30am, I put my earplugs in and went back to sleep. The river rock did have good drainage, so I was able to brake down and pack away my gear without being too soggy, and was ready to enter Florence to look for breakfast by 8:41am. I stopped at a mini mart, and got a breakfast of hot cocoa, and a blueberry Danish + some food and drink items ($6). I got into Reedsport at 12:40pm, and stopped at a café to get a bowl of chili and soda ($9) to eat with the other half of my Subway sandwich. I also charged up the notebook and phone, and read my book. I took off again at 2pm to continue south along the Oregon coast. I have to say, I’m very impressed with the coastal bicycle route Oregon created. It’s not perfect; there were times when the shoulder disappeared, usually when the mountainous roads become curvy, and then there’s the sometimes rough road surfaces, or those thorny creeper vines. All in all, though, it’s been excellent. Kudos to Oregon! Not much happened today – I just plugged away, getting in the miles. There were some pretty areas along the way, and I’d stop every now and then to take some pictures.

Stopped in at a combo café/bookstore in Coos Bay, OR to get a hot cocoa and scone ($6). As the evening began to darken at about 6:45pm, I found a spot in front of an elementary school at the southern end of town which was above Hwy 101 on a small hillside (N43 21.242’ W124 12.023’). It was still pretty noisy, but I managed to sleep without earplugs – I don’t like to put them in if there’s a chance that passer-bys could notice my trike and maybe mess around with it. There was a house nearby with a couple of people, who could have seen me but apparently didn’t. I set up my tent and got in with food, drink and book which I ate, drank, and read until 9pm. There were a few dog walkers that passed by, but they didn’t bother me, and I slept mostly well except for the occasional wake up from traffic noise. For a Halloween night with a beautiful almost-full Moon, it passed pretty quietly.

Dau Two Hundred Forty-four, 091030 - Florence, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-four, Date Friday, October 30, 2009
Time in Saddle: 5:05
Distance for the Day: 43.36 miles From Newport To Florence, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 12,034 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 58’/107’, Highest: 449’ Accumulated: 2290’
Speeds: Avg: 8.5 mph, Max: 32.8 mph
Weather: 55° overcast, becoming clear in the evening
Expenditures: $14

After blogging the entire night, I left the Newport Café at 7:15am and began heading south, out of town. I stopped at a Hilton hotel to see if I could use their wi-fi to upload my blogs/pictures, but they don’t let non-guests into their system, the meanies. I continued out of town, and plugged away, but I wasn’t getting away with no sleep, this time. I was starting to wander a bit on the shoulder, so stopped at a state beach parking lot to hit the head and take a short 15-minute power (trucker’s) nap. It helped, and I continued on to the town of Waldport, where I found a Subway at 10:40am. It was a bit early in the day for lunch, so I determined that if they had, or if I could access, wi-fi there, I’d have lunch and upload my blogs. They did, and so I did ($10). I successfully uploaded the twelve (12!) blogs and their pictures that I slaved through the wee hours last night to satisfy your lust for vicarious thrills. I hope you’re satisfied! ;-) And, I did it in a bit less than two hours – amazing how fast it goes once all the ducks are lined up, ready to go. I left the restaurant at 12:45pm to continue on south, but was for sure, now, not going to make my next big target town, Reedsport. The weather was still overcast, but it was beginning to break up some, and the Sun came out after a while. I stopped along the highway to investigate what sounded like a LOT of sea lions, and it was exactly that – several hundred of them, in fact. From where I was, I could look down on them a few hundred feet below through some trees on the steep mountainside, just beyond the highway. They were barking up a constant roar, going, “or or or or!” I took pictures, went a bit further up the road and found a view pullout where you could see them better (but further away), and took more pictures. There was also a gorgeous view of a lighthouse on the rugged headlands with a bank of fog coming in off the ocean – just beautiful! A little further up the road, I stopped in at the tourist attraction called Sea Lions Caves, not to visit the caves (which are accessed via an elevator), but to just get something to satisfy a craving for chocolate. They didn’t have any candy bars, but they did sell fudge, so I got a quarter-pound chunk of rocky road ($4), and ate it right then and there, while looking around at the nifty stuff in the gift shop.

At about 5pm, as the light of day began to noticeably dim, I checked in at a park campsite north of the town of Florence to see what the rate was for a cyclist to camp. It was $20 a night – half-off if you had a National Parks annual pass (which I do), but I still didn’t feel like shelling out $10 just to set up my tent, so I moved on into northern Florence, and immediately found a possible stealth camp site: a real estate development with a brand new street, one non-activated streetlight, and no houses built on it, yet (N44 1.565’ W124 6.101’). It was a bit lower in elevation from the main road, and there was a low ridge of dirt that hid me from the closest passage of cars. I stopped there, unclipped my feet from the pedals and stuck my legs straight out onto the pavement, and rested a bit from the extra-double-long day’s efforts. I wasn’t just doing nothing, though: I was checking this site for potential problems in the way of security patrols, pedestrian traffic, or whatever, and indeed – a police car came down the dead-end road, went to the far end, turned around, came back, and stopped to chat with me. I wasn’t too worried, because a) I knew my body English said that I was too tired to be any kind of threat; and b) I figured my trike and gear further enhanced my image as a harmless traveler, unlikely to have any reason or motive to cause any kind of trouble. The cop asked if I was just resting, to which I replied in the affirmative, and I added that I was thinking of overnighting there. I asked him if he thought anyone would mind, but he couldn’t say, as it was private property. I then told him I would set up there for just overnight, and if anyone objected, I would move. He thought that was a good idea, or at least didn’t object, and left me to my business. I love cops that have that kind of attitude. Yes, I was technically trespassing on private property, but he didn’t get all totalitarianistic about it because no one lived there, yet, and I obviously wouldn’t be bothering anyone or damaging anything. He had more important things to do than harass an obviously clean, forthright, and honest fellow such as myself, so he let me be. He was a professional with judgment, and I always appreciate that. I waited until it began to get a bit darker before setting up my tent just off the roadway, on some smooth, medium-sized decorative rounded river rock (good drainage, should it rain, even though the day had cleared up). I was inside and reading, munching, and drinking soda by 7:17pm. I changed my socks and underwear, as they were getting a little stinky (I hadn’t changed or even taken any sponge baths since Seattle – you probably didn’t want to know that – sorry). Not too surprisingly, I find I don’t feel like washing down when I’m already cold and/or cold and wet. Plus, I can get away with it, as I can go a pretty long time without personal hygiene before getting overtly stinky when I’m cold. I guess, like meat or fish, I ‘keep’ longer when refrigerated. I went to sleep at 9pm with the bright Moon shining on my tent, though I rigged all my gear for the rain that I’d heard was coming.

Day Two Hundred Forty-three, 091029 - Newport, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-three, Date Thursday, October 29, 2009
Time in Saddle: 7:55
Distance for the Day: 72.49 miles From Tillamook To Newport, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 11,991 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 60’/58’, Highest: 780’ Accumulated: 3750’
Speeds: Avg: 9.1 mph, Max: 33.6 mph
Weather: 43° textured overcast in the AM turning to light rain for most of the day, and becoming steady rain the last 1/3rd of the day, until evening, when it diminished and stopped
Expenditures: $22

I woke up at 6:15am, and got up at 6:40am. I found that if I get up too early, it’s still too dark by the time I’m ready to roll to safely travel, so I’ve adjusted my get-up time to about 6:45am. It wasn’t raining or drizzling when I broke down, so I spent a little extra time using and wringing out my hand towel to dry off my mattress and tent so they wouldn’t be wringing wet as I folded them up. I was ready to roll by 7:40am with the day just getting light enough to ride safely (good timing). For a while, I tried using the one extra Subway bag I had on one of my gloved hands to see if it would keep it drier – it did, but it made the twist grip gear-change extra-hard to operate, so I abandoned the idea. The first half of the day was a constant heavy drizzle and/or light rain. After a few hours of that, I began to get wet under my rain gear. By the time the day was two-thirds done, I had to stop a couple of times to towel off the excess moisture from my shirt, and I couldn’t stop moving for long, or I’d get hypothermic. I stopped in Beaver at 10am for a quickie brunch of hot dog and candy bar ($3). I made Neskowin by 12pm, Lincoln City by 3pm and Depoe Bay by 4:30pm. At one point north of Beaver, the official Oregon Coastline Bicycle Route diverged from Hwy 101, and went west to the coast on Sand Lake Rd. I checked it on Street Atlast, and thought it looked like a longer route (going out to the coast), and thought there might be more wind and rain out there, so opted to stay on 101. I suspect that was a mistake, because the mostly wonderful shoulders on the official route disappeared, and when there was any shoulder at all, it was at most a foot or so wide. This put me into the traffic lane of Hwy 101 with plenty of cars, monster mobile homes, log haulers, double-long tractor trailer rigs, and ‘oversized load’ transports – all on this skinny-ass two-lane highway. Fortunately, no major conjunctions occurred, everyone behaved (though I did get a non-descript yell from a young male in a truck), and I was able to get back to where the official route rejoined Hwy 101, where the good shoulders returned (whew!)

Just south of Depoe Bay, I stopped at The Lookout Observatory and Gift Shop at the aptly named Cape Foulweather (http://www.lookoutgiftshop.com/) and got some local intel from the guy there. I needed a 24-hour Denny’s to dry off while eating and working on my blog for the evening – there wasn’t one, but there was the Newport Café, which was 24-hour – I could go there. They didn’t have wi-fi, but I don’t need wi-fi when I’m writing and prepping pictures. From the gift shop, the official cycle route again diverged from Hwy 101, and this time, I took it. It worked out very well, going along a nice road that didn’t’ rise as high as the highway, and I only saw one other car on it. It all-too-soon re-joined Hwy 101, and I took that the rest of the way in to my goal for the day, the town of Newport – it was 6pm. Early on in entering the town, I found a Walmart, so went inside to see if *they* carried Joby tripods – no luck. I then spent a little time locating the 24-hour café (N44° 38.207' W124° 3.200'), and went in at 6:45pm, ordered up a mushroom burger, fries, and soda, and stayed there all night blogging until 7am. During my time there, I also got a slice of cheesecake, and pancakes (total of $26). The price I pay for all night blogging. But, I also got totally dry.

Day Two Hundred Forty-two, 091028 - Tillamook, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-two, Date Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Time in Saddle: 7:08
Distance for the Day: 66.22 miles From Astoria To Tillamook, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 11,918 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 282’/60’, Highest: 605’ Accumulated: 2864’
Speeds: Avg: 9.2 mph, Max: 36.9 mph
Weather: 42° thin, solid overcast
Expenditures: $41

Woke up at 6:41am got up at 6:45am; shaved – I try to shave every few days; a truck did roll by – it must have gotten through the locked gate, but he didn’t mind my being here; did hear some kind of far off explosion in the wee hours, but don’t know what that was; there was a sign that said “Live fire in progress when flagged,” so I wondered if the explosion had anything to do with that, but I doubted it; saw the red glow of sunrise, but that’s now gone, and it’s just a cool, moist, gray day; 7:57am and ready to roll off this mountain I climbed; 8:44am stopped at mini mart for hot cocoa and muffin; spent $25 and continuing south along the Oregon coastline; stopped in Seaside at 11am for a few additional food and drink supplies ($4) and continued on; stopped in Cannon Beach to look for Joby tripod at Radio Shack (no luck), but did buy a new Velcro strap for my water bottle holder at the hardware store next door. I keep losing the straps for that thing – hopefully, this one will stay with me until the end. Further south, I stopped in Manzanita for more food items ($4). I came coasting down a long grade, and the windchill in combination with the lack of pedaling got me a little hypothermic. I stopped to wolf down the 2nd half of my Subway sandwich, quick (I wanted to make the next big town, Tillamook, before dark), and pounded on.

Went to a pizza parlor ($8), plugged in, and found a wi-fi signal from the nearby Radio Shack; answered email, checked weather, checked my route, and blogged; stayed from 6:15pm to 9pm closing; got to talking with the pizza place owners, they suggested an abandoned former Safeway building, I found a spot behind it up the loading dock to be high and dry, somewhat, and set up my tent up there at about 9:30-10pm (N45 27.763’ W123 50.558’); inside with twisty chips, soda, and new book, which I read until 11pm and then went to sleep; it wasn’t raining, but it was lightly drizzly; it might have lightly rained during the night but not bad.

Day Two Hundred Forty-one, 091027 - Astoria, OR

Day Two Hundred Forty-one, Date Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Time in Saddle: 4:25
Distance for the Day: 42.13 miles From South Bend, WA To Astoria, OR
Accumulated Trip Distance: 11,852 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending –52’/282’, Highest: 326’ Accumulated: 1781’
Speeds: Avg: 9.5 mph, Max: 33.9 mph
Weather: 42° partly cloudy with a few bouts of light rain, warming to the mid 50s
Expenditures: $27

I woke up several times through the night, as every now and then a rain squall would hit my tent with the noise of spattering drops and a gust front pushing my tent around. I really woke up at 6:15am, and waited until 7:15am to get up, and secure my gear. I lucked-out – there was a hole in the weather, and it was currently clear overhead, but I was pretty much surrounded by large, rainy looking clouds. The wind made the breakdown a challenge, again, but this time I was better prepared for it, and used my four water/Gatorade bottles to help keep things from running off. I was ready to roll at 8:03am, and plowed forward, with a quartering tailwind to help me along the way. I got rained on lightly a few times, but not too bad.

I crossed the Columbia River on the Astoria Bridge, and thereby passed into Oregon, at 12:57pm. (By the way: that picture ["Looking back north..."], below, is a rare shot. No pedestrians are allowed on that bridge, but since the right-hand lane was closed due to construction work going on, and no traffic was using that segment of the roadway, anyway, I stopped long enough to snap a few shots before getting admonished by a construction worker for converting from 'cyclist' to 'pedestrian.') I arrived in Astoria at the other end of the bridge at 1:15pm, and went into town to look for a Joby tripod (no luck). I then stopped in at Subway for a meal deal + 3 cookies ($14), and while eating, I charged my notebook and camera batteries, downloaded pictures off the camera’s SD card, and also downloaded the voice files from the new digital recorder. I left Subway at 3pm, asked a local where the library was, and on my way found what turned out to be a great bookstore, Lucy’s Books. I went in and asked if they bought used paperbacks – they didn’t, so I just gave them my Stephen King “The Green Mile,” since I was done with it, and couldn’t carry it with me. I then found a Dan Brown paperback thriller “Digital Fortress,” and brought it to the counter to purchase it. The gal said, ‘even Stephen,” and just traded it straight across for the King novel I gave them. Cool. They also had free wi-fi, and sold cookies, hot cocoa, and homemade chili, so instead of going to the library, I parked myself there from 4pm until they closed at 8pm to transcribe my recorder notes. I got hot cocoa, cookies, a soda, and chili ($13).

When I left at closing, I got to talking with a local guy and told him I was going to go looking for stealth camping, and he came up with a suggestion: there was a park at the top of the hill up 16th street, just past the Astoria Tower at the top. I thanked him (I should have strangled him!) and went to find this site. That may have been the longest, steepest grade I’d done for the entire trip, including the roads up to my Auntie Elsie’s in Los Angeles, which were also very steep, but not as high. I must have climbed at least 200 feet in less than a half-mile. I had to stop several times to rest, and it got me sweating despite the cold of the night. I did find the park, however, and bypassed the closed gate to enter. I didn’t find any covered picnic tables, but I did find a gravel spot off the road that overlooked a suburb of Astoria around Youngs River (N46 10.721’ W123 49.157’). In the moonlight filtered by a high, thin overcast, it was very pretty, so I set up there. I was inside, reading my new book, munching, and drinking Gatorade by 9:30pm, and went to sleep at 10:30pm. There was a street down below, but it was far enough away, I didn’t worry about anyone seeing my reading light. All in all, the guy who suggested this site did steer me in the right direction, but he should have pointed straight up!