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. 

FDOC-Day 10-The Not Much to Look At Day

I can’t remember if I mentioned the two British women who were also at Honeyman last night. This morning, I asked their names…Olivia and Felicity. Perhaps we will see them again as we are taking a day off tomorrow, and they were doing a short day today. 

Last night at around 10:15 I heard a snarling sound. It woke me up from a sound sleep. I have no idea what it was, but suspect the ever present trash panda…aka raccoon. Anyway, I only heard it once before going back to sleep. We’ve been putting our food in the lockers. Maybe it was mad because we didn’t leave anything out???

This morning, I was ready to go at 8:00 on the nose. Matt still had a few things to do. Per our usual plan, I headed out. I knew today was a more inland day without much scenery or things to stop and see. 

Just following these signs today. 

I figured Matt would catch me around Gardiner. I stopped here and there, mostly to pee, because I had drank a lot this morning.

The route climbs quite a bit up to a ridge where it then goes along for a bit before descending off of it. 

That could be ocean way off in the distance. 

I rolled through Gardiner. Still no Matt. I stopped after crossing the Smith River (named after Jedediah Smith who explored around here from when he was 19 until his death at age 32) to have a snack, upload last night’s blog post, and do my Spanish. 

I continued on to Reedsport. I rolled through, briefly stopping to get some cash from an ATM, but it was out of service. Still no Matt. 

Three or so miles south I came to Winchester Bay. The last time I came this far south, Oregon had rerouted the bike route to just stay on 101, instead of going along the bay, then up to the Umpqua Lighthouse before returning to 101. I had told Matt to watch for the bike route sign to stay on 101. Well, since the last time I did this in 2019, they have gone back to the original route of going along the bay and up to the lighthouse. But, while the sign said to go right, after that sign, there were no more signs. No problem for me as I have gone this way before (in 2009 with Julie). But, I thought Matt might have trouble. So, I stopped and texted him about the return to the original route, and to follow the Bay around and up to the lighthouse. He said he was in Reedsport. In hindsight, I should have just waited for him to get to Winchester Bay. 

I continued around the Bay to the sign for the turn to the lighthouse. There was no Oregon Coast Bike Route sign, so when I got up to the lighthouse, I texted Matt again to follow the signs to the lighthouse. 

Umpqua Lighthouse 

The dunes at Winchester Bay (lots of ATVing happens here. 

At some point, Matt texted that he couldn’t figure out how to get to the road around the Bay. Later, he said it took him 45 minutes riding around until he found the road. 

After the lighthouse, the road descends quick and steep, only to then go right back up, just as steeply. While you would miss the lighthouse, I think it’s easier just staying on 101 (and I should have just told Matt to stay on 101…would have saved him a whole lotta time and trouble).

I finally popped back out on 101. After several more miles of boring riding, except for this somewhat funny sign…

“Leven No Trace”

I came to the dreadful bridge into North Bend. 

Even though there is a button for cyclists to push that activates flashing lights alerting drivers that there is a bicycle on the bridge (and the speed limit becomes 30 mph), I always get yelled at going across this bridge. Today it was a asshole truck driver. I just kept pedaling. He was able to easily pass me as there are traffic lights at both ends of the bridge, so breaks in the traffic. 

I pulled off at the little park on the other side of the bridge. I looked on my phone to see if there was a bakery on the route. I found one called Espresso Mill and Bakery. I texted Matt to tell him that’s where I would wait for him. 

I got to the place at 3:00 (48.6 miles in for the day). I got a text from Matt asking if it wasn’t a steep hill (there were a number of steep hills). I told him it was on a slight downhill and described what he would see (black trailer, fake grass, Tilmann parked by the grass). 

I the meantime, I ordered a cinnamon roll and a peach smoothie. I had a lovely conversation with Phil, the owner’s dad. He was covering for his son today. 

Eventually, Matt made it. Poor guy had not been having a great day, navigation wise. However, he had a good crossing of the bridge, so that was something. He ordered food and coffee. I looked to see how much further we had to go. It was 6.9 miles. 

Once we headed out again, it started raining again (it had rained a bit before the bridge). As we were going up a hill, Matt passed me. Not too much further (because I was still relatively close behind him), he very suddenly, went down. One moment he was riding, the next moment he was down…no wobble or anything, just bam! He was okay, got the bike back up and off the road so he could get the left front and rear panniers back on all the way. He said he thinks he hit, then slipped on the edge of the white line. Just icing on the cake of a somewhat shitty day for him. He’s a trooper though. We made it to Sunset Bay State Park (or in today’s case, No Sunset Bay SP) around 4:30 or so. The booth was closed, and there were no pay envelopes. I told Matt we’d just pay the host, but then I saw a Ranger, and he said to just pay in the morning when the booth was open. No problem as we are taking a day off here tomorrow (weather is supposed to be better) so we can go out to Cape Arago (and a rest day will be nice after today). Oh, and it turns out Matt left Honeyman nearly an hour after me. That didn’t help his ability to catch up to me either. 

By the time I can upload this post (and tomorrow’s), we’ll be nearly done. There is no service here. 

 

FDOC Day 9-And Now We Are Two…

After much discussion last night and this morning, Sue decided she would call it good, and plan an exit strategy. Even though she was having fun, a high level of fatigue was setting in, and she wasn’t able to get enough recovery overnight (not having her sleeping pad didn’t help). I told he that as long as she wasn’t leaving because she felt she was slowing us down, that she should listen to her body, and do what was best for her. Having previously taken the bus from Newport to Corvallis, she k ew how she could get further to Albany, and catch the train back to Olympia. We all agreed we had had a great time, and Sue had done more than she ever thought she could, or had done before. I told her we would adventure again!

Per the usual, I was ready to roll before Matt. We’ve determined that it works okay for me to head out when I’m ready, because he is much faster than I am. Today he caught me at an hour and twelve minutes in to the ride. Then he goes on, in this case, to Yachats, and Bread and Roses Bakery. I still stop and take photos along the way. 

Sun on my face at Seal Rocks. 

Heading over the bridge at Waldport. 

Delicious food here!

Today was the farmers’ market in Yachats. I got a crepe at the market, then got a Strata and Chai at Bread and Roses. After our long break, we took off for the climb up Cape Perpetua. The next stop was the Devil’s Churn, Spouting Horn, and Cooks Chasm. 

Churn

Spouting Horn (but more “oozing” than spouting 

Cooks Chasm, and look at that spout!

When we took off again, I didn’t see Matt u til Fred Meyer in Florence. I did t bother to go down to the Heceta Head trailhead to the lighthouse. I’ve done it numerous times. After the tunnel, I did get this usual shot. 

Heceta Head Lighthouse. 

And, of course, the sea lions down on the rocks. 

Andafewswimming around. 

Apparently, a fly chose to photo bomb this seagull photo. 

We both got a few groceries at Fred Meyer, then went to Mo’s. It’s a must stop. 

Slumgullion and cheesy garlic toast. Yum…except for how full I was after, and still had to ride 4 more miles (a fair amount uphill).

We are camped at Honeyman SP in theNew H/B camp. It’s a vast improvement from the old one, and much closer to the restrooms/showers. 

We managed to get here earlier than yesterday’s ride, but we went 23 miles more (didn’t have to do laundry). I even had time to break out my chair to sit down and do this blog post! However, now it is dark and chilly. Time to wrap it up, and hit the tent. 

FDOC-Day 8-WHALES!!!

In all the times I’ve ridden down the Oregon Coast, I’ve never seen whales. Today, definitely made up for it! 

We got a later start today at about 9:30. We just had 30 miles to do, but we needed to stop in Newport to do laundry. We rolled out of Lincoln City and onto the viewpoint that is Boiler Bay. 

After a bit of a break at Boiler Bay, we continued on through Depoe Bay. Since we had just had a break, we just rolled on through. Pretty much the same through Gleneden Beach. We made the turn onto Otter Crest Loop, and stopped just after the Ben Jones bridge. 

Down in the cove there was a grey whale! Here’s afewof the many photos I took. 

See the tail fluke?

Blowing 



Diving

Nose poking up. 

When we finally tore ourselves away from the whale watching, we started the climb up Cape Foulweather. Really, it’s my favorite climb on the Coast. It’s a one way road for cars, with a nice wide bike lane. At every viewpoint, I could see a whale. 

Yep, I saw a whale from here. 

When we went into the gift shop at Cape. Foulweather, I could see whales the 500 feet down below. It was so cool to see so many grey whales!

We did the descent down from Foulweather back to 101, then on into Newport. We stopped at the bike shop so Matt could have his derailleur looked at. 

While the guy was working on Matt’s bike, Sue and I went around the corner to the laundromat. We got started on laundry, and Matt joined us shortly. 

With the laundry chore done, we headed to Nana’s Irish Pub for some grub. We all had fish and chips. It was about 5:00 when we left the pub. We just had to ride across theNewport bridge, and then about a mile toSouth Beach State Park. 

The obligatory bridge photo. 

The tug was pulling the fishing boat into the harbor. The other boat was a Coast Guard boat. The tug was going really slow, apparently, so as to not swamp the fishing boat. We weren’t sure why it was pulling the boat backwards. 

Going over the bridge, we had a massive tailwind. A big pickup truck stayed behind us the whole way! It was the best crossing of that bridge that I have done!

We arrived at South Beach at about 5:45. The day was just a bit over 30 miles, but still a long day. The campground is full, but the H/B camp is just us, and one other person that snuck in after dark. Perhaps we’ll meet them in the morning.