Monday, June 24, 2019

OSBT Day 17-A Short One, But Kind of Stinky!

Steve and I decided (well, I decided for myself, and Steve is tagging along), to just go to Valley of the Rogue State Park about 12 miles out of Grants Pass. We’re hoping for showers. 

Because it’s only a 35 mile day, I was in no hurry to get going. I was even still in camp when Steve rolled out of his tent! And, I took time for a cup of tea. 

I needed a few groceries, and was going to wait until Grants Pass, but in Selma (4 miles into the day) there was a Ray’s grocery store, so I stopped (even though I knew I had a climb coming). Since I got a later start, I was able to eat in Selma (some yogurt from the store). 

Sure enough, not far out of Selma, the road started going up. It wasn’t bad though. In fact, before I knew it, I was at the summit of Hayes Hill. 


Coming down the other side, I was grateful I was heading north. The descent was much steeper than the ascent was!

I came to a weigh station that was closed, but the scale was on. Steve and Clement has weighed themselves with their bikes at other weigh stations, so I decided to do the same. 

I don’t think 200 is quite accurate. I think it should be about 225. 

As I started getting closer to Grants Pass, I noticed there was a bike path parallel to the highway. I hopped on, of course. 

It was noon when I spied a Red Robin. I thought to myself, I haven’t eaten at Red Robin in ages! Well, I fixed that! In fact, I spent over an hour there. It was a good lunch break. 

I left Red Robin, and resumed riding on the bike path. I knew I had to get from 199 to 99. The bike path went off from the highway onto a regular street. I thought it was no problem as I was still heading in the right direction. I came to a busy street thinking it was 99. It wasn’t. It was 238. I looked at Google maps to see the route to Valley of the Rogue State Park. At that time, I got a text from Steve saying he was there, where was I? I told him I was still heading toward the park, that I’d spent a long time at Red Robin. 

When I got to the park, I asked if they had a H/B site. They didn’t, so I said my friend Steve was here and I would be sharing a site with him. The gal had no record of Steve. I had seen he left me a voicemail, so I checked it. When he said he was there, he meant Red Robin! So, I checked in and sent Steve a text letting him know which site I was on. They only have 7 tent sites and they are full, so we are on a full hookup site for $29. At least we have electricity so we can charge our stuff. I asked the gal what would happen if they were full. She said she doesn’t know where they would put us. I told her that Oregon has a law that state parks can’t turn cyclists away. She was unaware. She said she would have to call the park ranger. But, no worries, as we have a site. 

Oh, and I had to sing “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” three times today! 




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