FDOC Day 15-Tagging the Border

Sun’s up for a final short ride!

This morning I waited for Matt to finish getting packed up, and we headed for the border together. We stopped out front of Darlynn’s hotel to let her know we were headed to the border (5 miles to go). 

The lighthouse in Brookings (by the Beachfront Inn). 

We followed Oceanside Dr until it came back out to 101. From there it was just a bit over a mile to the border. 

Matt riding up to the border sign. 

We arrived around 8:30. While we waited for Darlynn, we took a few photos. 

The trusty steeds have arrived. 

Selfie time!

Mike (actually not from Seattle, lives in England, but is Australian) rolled up. We took his photo with the sign for him. 

There’s Mike!

Darlynn arrived and we took more photos. 

Woo Hoo! 

We loaded the bikes and bags into the pickup and went back to Darlynn’s hotel room. I took a quick shower, and put on my clean shirt and mostly clean pants. We drove back north, telling Darlynn about our days riding south. We saw a few cyclists heading south, and even a couple heading north. Stopped for “World Famous Hot Dogs” in Langlois (they’re not that great). Talked to one of the northbound cyclists we saw when he pulled in. 

We continued on, and stopped at the same place in Bandon for dessert, and coffee. Each time Mazie the boxer got to get out and stretch her legs. She was my backseat buddy. 

Smile Mazie!

We are still making our way home (it’s a long drive), but we’ll be there in less than an hour. Mazie has conked out, pretty sure she thinks she doesn’t get dinner tonight (she’s had some treats). 

This was a good tour. The first few days weren’t so great with all the rain, and we were sad to see Sue go (but she made a good choice). Even though I’ve done this ride too many times, I still learned new things, like how to take a bus if you want to skip some hills. I really admire Sue’s resourceful skills in making it work for her. I think both Sue and Matt also learned a lot. I’m sure this is not the last adventure for either of them. 

An extra special thanks to Darlynn for bringing new tires to Matt, and for coming to Brookings to bring us home at the finish. 

 

FDOC-Day 14-The Final Full Day of Riding

Here’s a couple of photos from Humbug Mtn I forgot to put in last night’s post. 

My campsite at the top of the H/B. 

Matt’s campsite below me. 

I got a slightly earlier start this morning. Matt thought he was way ahead, and thinking he’d only be about 10 minutes behind me. Bwahahaha…let’s face it, I’m tough to beat when it comes to packing up. Slow on the road, but getting to the road, I’m fast (well organized and efficient). 

The day started out warmer than we’ve had the whole trip. No puffy jacket needed at the start. No long finger gloves. Could have even gone without my leg warmers (took them off at Ophir Wayside).

The scenery was very nice. 

One of my favorite parts is the Old Coast Rd. 

For a chunk of it, it’s a one lane road. There are some rollers, but little to no traffic. Quite pleasant. It goes all the way to the bridge over the Rogue River into Gold Beach. 

Patterson Bridge. 

Matt still hadn’t caught up to me by Gold Beach. I looked at Google maps for a coffee-bakery. I found one at the other end of town. I made my way there, then texted Matt where I was. He showed up not long after I had gotten there. He hadn’t seen my text, but he saw my bike out front. 

After a break and refuel, we continued south for the biggest climb of the day up to Cape Sebastian. It’s not the worst climb, but it is long. And today, it was hot. 

Gotta get over that 

A Matt and Colleen selfie. 

Of course, Matt was at the top long before me, but he waited for me to arrive. 

Nearly there!

Ahhh…now that is my favorite sign!

Coming down Sebastian in the past, I have setapersonal speed record of 49.7mph. Unfortunately, Tilmann can’t seem to get that high off speed. I was only able to reach 34.9mph. 

Not too long after Sebastian, we entered the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor. This is the beginning of all the brown signs. Some are worthwhile, others not so much. We pulled off at Arch Rock (worthwhile).
Arch Rock. 

Then shortly after, Natural Bridges. 

Also worthwhile. The rest were nothing special. 

I arrived at Harris Beach State Park after Matt. He was already at the H/B site. We had finished our last full day of riding. 

Matt’s wife has driven down to Brookings. After showers, And setting up our camp (and talking to the several other cyclists here-Olivia and Felicity, Mike, Tate and Rochelle, and a hiker too), Darlynn came and picked us up for dinner. We had a celebratory (slightly early as we still have to ride the 8 miles to the border tomorrow) dinner at a Mexican restaurant. 

Tomorrow morning we will tag the border, then head home. 

Matt, Mike, and I. 

Our final camp. 

 

FDIC-Day 13-Doing ALL the Devils

We woke up to a little fog this morning, but could see it was going to be a blue-sky day, and was it ever! First time I’ve actually removed my arm warmers! 

I left at 8:00. Matt left around 8:25, his earliest start. Because he didn’t see the lighthouse yesterday, I turned off the road at Lighthouse Way to see if I could get a photo for him. I asked a woman who was getting stuff out of her car, if there was a view of the lighthouse. She said there was one from their carport. She said I could go take a photo from there. 

Still a bit of foggy-ness. 

Back on the road, I took the Walker Ln shortcut to Seven Devils Rd. The climbing starts right away. None of the climbs are super long, but they are steep. When I got to where the route becomes Beaver Hill Rd, for something different, I decided to stay on Seven Devils. The reason the route doesn’t continue on Seven Devils is because it turns to gravel. Tilmann can handle gravel well enough. Plus, I knew it was downhill because the last time, I talked to people who were going northbound, and had missed the turn from Seven Devils onto Whiskey Run. They said how hard it was going up the hill to where it went back to pavement. Anyway, I decided to give it a go. 

As you can see, it was more of a packed dirt/gravel. Quite smooth. It was a very steep downhill, but I was really enjoying it. I was thinking this is a great way to go! Then…it went back up. At least it wasn’t as long of an uphill as the downhill had been, but I saw 12% on my Garmin. There was another steep downhill followed by, you guessed it, another steep uphill. As I was going up, a garbage truck came by. I stopped to let him by. He stopped and said, “Do you want a tow?” He was joking, of course. 

Eventually the road turned back to pavement, yet there was still a third significant climb. It turns out staying on Seven Devils is 3/4 of a mile shorter, but I think it has more overall elevation gain. Still, it was a mostly fun alternative. 

As I was nearing where Whiskey Run comes back to Seven Devils, I saw Matt pull out onto the road. I was too far to yell, or catch up to him, but we had a plan to stop at Face Rock Creamery in Bandon. As I came down the hill toward Old Town Bandon, I could see Matt ahead…past the Creamery. I caught up to him out front of the Bandon Coffee Cafe and Bakery. That was fine by me. 

We both had breakfast sandwiches and various other treats. 

Next up was the Beach Loop Scenic route…

Face Rock

My imitation of Face Rock

The other rocks 

Devil’s Kitchen. Have no idea why this is called Devil’s Kitchen. 

Maybe that big rock is the kitchen table???

Back out on 101, Matt eventually got ahead of me. I chugged along, listening to music on my Bluetooth speaker. When I got to the Langlois Market (world famous hot dogs), I stopped for a break, and got something to drink. I wasn’t hungry enough for a hot dog. 

I caught up to Matt in Port Orford at the wayside. We had just a few miles to go to Humbug Mtn State Park. The ocean was beautiful! 
Such a pretty color!

Nice wide shoulder to allow gawking at the ocean. 

After 58+ miles (our longest day), we arrived at the park earlier than we have any other day…before 4:00! Olivia and Felicity are here too, and a guy who it British, but lives in Seattle. Kate said she was coming here too, but she has not arrived yet, and it is 7:30, and pretty much dark. Currently, we are outnumbered by Brits. 

Time to cook some dinner. Tomorrow we’ll get to Harris Beach in Brookings. We are going to try to get a yurt. We’ll see. I don’t care either way because the weather is awesome!

FDOC Day 11-A Day Without Forward Progress

We have enjoyed our day off. It was nice to sleep a bit later this morning, especially since it was still raining. 

I made a delicious breakfast of sautéed apples over a bed of oats, chia, and hemp cooked cereal, and some hot cocoa. 

We sat around chatting, then noticed it was already after 1:00. We got our acts together, and rode out to Cape Arago. We stopped first at Simpson Reef. 

Sea Lions barking. 



One of these things is not like the others. 

Then we rode out to the Cape. 

The view from the Cape. 

The ocean was quite spectacular!

Can you see the three pelicans?

Riding back, we stopped at Shore Acres. Again, the waves were really crashing. 

We took a walkthrough the botanical garden. 

A little fountain action. 

Bottlebrush

A late bloomer. 

After riding back to the campground, we walked down to the beach. 

Finally some full sun!

Sun going down. 

When we got back to the campsite, we had company! Kate is from England, and has been riding for several months (the last 5 being in South America). I very much enjoyed talking to her. She’ll probably be also going to Humbug Mtn. tomorrow too, so we’ll hopefully see her again. She’s thinking of going back to South America after she finishes in the U.S. I told her I was going to Chile in November. Maybe she’ll also do the Caraterra?

We just have a couple of days left until we reach Brookings. We’ll tag the border, then head home.