After another night of no other cyclists, I left Carl G. Washburne shortly after 8:00. Just a couple of miles up (literally) the road was Heceta Head. I rode down to the beach, parked Betsy and hiked up to the lighthouse.
As you can see, it was a beautiful day! There weren't very many people there as it was relatively early.
After the lighthouse, I continued the climbing, going across the Cape Creek Bridge and through the tunnel. This is another tunnel with the button to push to alert drivers of a bicycle. As I did at the Arch Cape Tunnel, I made it through without any cars passing me.
I pulled off after the tunnel at a place where I could look down and see the sea lions and Harbor Seals on the rocks below. 
There were also several hawks (or they could be turkey vultures) floating on the the updrafts. 
I passed the tourist attraction of the Sea Lion Caves (where you can pay to ride an elevator down to the caves, see Sea Lions, and smell the horrific stink--no thanks).
Coming down from Heceta Head, I stopped to check out this view of the Dunes.
I rode into Florence, stopped at Fred Meyer for a few groceries to tide me over until I reach Eugene tomorrow, stopped at Safeway for wifi, then road to Old Town for lunch at Mo's. I had my favorite Slumgullion (clam chowder and shrimp) and garlic toast. This was my first meal in a restaurant for this trip. It was delicious!
After I left Mo's, I saw this duck walking down the street. I asked I I could take a photo of "Ducky" with Betsy. Ducky's handler offered to take the photo with me and Ducky (and Betsy too, of course).
After crossing the bridge, it was just a couple more miles to Honeyman State Park where I checked in and set up my camp before heading over to the dunes. There were no other cyclists here, but I didn't expect any as I was quite early--1:30.
I hiked up to the top of the dune by the day use area on Clearwax Lake. It is hard work--half a step back for every step forward. I stopped to watch the sand boarders (picture snow boarding--only on sand). Seemed like a lot of work for short rides part way down the dune before crashing. The ones that seemed to get the longest ride were sitting instead of standing.
I came back to the H/B site and found a critter (I suspected the evil squirrel) had chewed a hole in the side of one of my front panniers. The hole is about the size of an old silver dollar. I patched it with duct tape and Tenacious Tape. As usual, the critter didn't get any food (too much plastic bags). 
Before I went to take a shower, I hung the panniers and trash bag in a tree. When I got back, the trash bag already had been gotten into. I put the bag on the picnic table and sat down to read. Pretty soon, the evil squirrel returned. He jumped up on the table. I shooed him away. I went back to my book. He came back. This time I threw a rock, but I missed him. I moved the bag to a log and gathered more rocks. I sat in my chair and waited for the Evil Rodent to return. Sure enough, he came sneaking up on the log. I waited patiently for him to come near the trash bag. As soon as he did, I threw another rock at him--DANG! Missed again! The ER returned quickly. This time when he got close to the bag, I threw the rock and knocked the bag off the log. I don't think I actually managed to hit him, but I haven't seen him since! I'm sure he is out there though--plotting his revenge! Meanwhile, I will gather more ammunition!
1 comment:
Hi, Colleen. I had an ER incident. One chewed a hole in my plastic bowl which was sitting on the table and was CLEAN--or so I thought. Fortunately I had a smaller one I could use. They also chewed on my coffee mug, but didn`t really damage it.
Sounds like your trip is going well except a bit lonely. We had a bunch of folks camping at the hiker/biker area over the weekend. Hope you find some more cyclists as you ride south.
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