While I was still on the GAWR, my friend, Jana asked if I wanted to do a bikepacking trip on the beach…literally, riding our bikes on the beach from the North Jetty in Ocean Shores, WA to Moclips. I said, “Sure, why not?”
This would also include Jana’s border collie, Radar.
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| The one and only Radar! |
Jana picked me up about 11:10. It’s about 90 minutes to Ocean Shores. We were timing it so we would hit low tide at 3:00 so we could get across the Copalis River on the beach.
We got to Jana’s friend’s house in Ocean Shores where we would park the car. We visited with Anna, then commenced with packing the bags on the bikes. Having just done this for 75 days, it didn’t take me long (even though I was riding Billy, my Priority 600X). I then held on to Radar while Jana packed her bike.
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| Rolling to the beach! |
Jana had told me when she rode the beach earlier in the summer, she was doing about 10 mph. We got over to the beach.
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| A little pushing to get to the hard pack sand. |
We started riding on the hard pack. We were definitely NOT doing 10 mph! That was due to the pretty decent headwind. At first we thought that the sand just wasn’t as firm, but really, it was the wind.
Radar would get to run for awhile, then he’d need to ride in the basket to not completely wear him out. We did a thing where he would run for 5 minutes, then ride for 5 minutes. After awhile, because we were going pretty slow against the wind, Jana let him run for 10 minutes.
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| Basket time! |
We came to Conner Creek. We saw one kid ride it. Jana rode it, then I did. It was pretty easy.
About a mile later, we came to the Copalis River. It wasn’t low tide. To test how deep it was, Jana threw something in the water that Radar went after. He was very soon swimming. Okay, that was not going to work. We rode back down the beach. With the tailwind, we were finally doing the aforementioned 10 mph!
We had about 1 1/2 hours of daylight left. We would have to get off the beach at Copalis, then ride the highway to Pacific Beach State Park, which would be about 10 miles. We decided to ride back across Conner Creek, then find a place to camp in the dunes. Jana unloaded her bike. I watched Radar while she rode into Copalis to get more water. She wasn’t gone long.
We got our tents set up.
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| My brand new Big Agnes! |
We cooked dinner, and enjoyed the sunset.
We only rode 17.3 miles, but it was hard work! If we could have made it across the river, we would have made it to Pacific Beach State Park. We were so close!
Day 2
We didn’t have to rush this morning. We had decided there was no reason to get to Pacific Beach or Moclips as it would just be gratuitous road riding. Also, since it’s Labor Day, people would be heading home, so more traffic. No, we just decided to ride back to Ocean Shores.
When I got out of my tent to pee, I was welcomed by this.
Today there was very little wind, and it was fairly warm. I took the sleeves off my vest. Since we weren’t going that fast, Jana let Radar run for about 3 miles before having him ride in the basket for a break.
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| Also, no cars. |
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| Way more blue sky today. |
We passed a few parked cars, then got to the section where no cars are allowed.
Of course, there were way more birds in this section.
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| Fly birdies fly! |
The tide was high, and the riding became much more difficult as we had to ride in softer sand. We saw there was a beach access road. Enough beach slog riding, we diverted out to the road. We rode a side road for awhile. Radar was even able to run as there were no cars. We looked at and talked about the merits of the various beach houses.
Before long, we were back at the car for 14.3 miles. It was a fun overnight, and I think a bit harder than expected. It was really fun having Radar along.
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