Day 7-Two Wheels and Sure Foot Back to Hiking!

Today was a beautiful day! Of course, it didn’t start out that way. Oh no, per the usual, it was raining during the night and into the morning. There was a brief time while I was packing up, that it wasn’t raining, but when I went to make my breakfast, the rain started coming down again. Instead of cooking my breakfast, I just had a bar and some nuts. 

It finally stopped enough that I took my poncho off before we started riding. Today was laundry day, so we rode the 5-ish miles into Newport, and to the laundromat that I’ve used before. I strategically placed all my dirty stuff into my little day pack, and stripped off the clothes I was wearing that needed to be washed at the laundromat. I still had a clean t-shirt, underwear, and my swimsuit bottoms (could have also put my skirt on…which I did to change back into my riding bottoms. 

It rained again while we were doing laundry. 

After our clothes were back to smelling like Tide (instead of the tide), we wheeled over to the Newport Cafe for brunch. 

I had stuffed blueberries and cream cheese French toast (and sausage). It was delicious!

Our next stop was Bike Newport. Doug was hoping to get some new bike shorts, but they only longer carry clothing. They also no longer offer showers or laundry. Really, the shop was a disappointment. It used to be the bike shop on the Oregon Coast. Not anymore…

We we’re headed back to the route when Doug realized he didn’t have his rain jacket (by now it was quite sunny). He’d left it at the laundromat. I waited for him while he went back to retrieve it. Then, we were on to the Newport Bridge. 

Tilmann gazing at the bridge. 

It was somewhat treacherous as usual. After one car carrier passed me while there was an oncoming car, I just rode in the middle of the lane the rest of the way. 

We made a stop at Seal Rock. 

Good action shot of the waves crashing over the rocks. 

Doug has rethought the idea of the kickstand. When I took this photo, he said, “Dead bike.”

We rolled through Waldport until I got the most amazing smell of hot popcorn. The popcorn place was still there! We stopped and each bought a bag. I got peanut butter popcorn, and Doug got your standard caramel corn. It was about 2:00, and we decided we were hungry, so we sat at some picnic tables by the Alsea Bay with a view of the Waldport bridge (a much better bridge to ride over).

Waldport Bridge 

We rode straight through Yachats without stopping, then shortly after started the climb up Cape Perpetua. 

Downhill from here!

Cape Perpetua Campground was just down the hill. Last time I stayed here, I found out after I had paid that there was a hiker/biker rate. We couldn’t find anything that said that this time. We talked to the camp host, and she said that was the old managers, and they weren’t supposed to do that. It’s $31/night here! Fortunately, Doug has a Golden Pass, so we only had to pay $15. 

We got our tents set up, then grabbed our trekking poles, and set off to hike up to the top of Cape Perpetua. 

Two Wheels and Sure Foot back to hiking thankfully, only temporary).

Views from the trail. 



The rock shelter at the top

Sure foot and Two Wheels

Back at the campsite, there was this explosion of food panniers (okay, this happens every night).

We might need two picnic tables when Jen joins us!!!

After dinner, we saw some people walking by with blankets. We asked if they were going to go watch the sunset. They were, and since that seemed like a good idea, we also walked over to the Visitor Center to watch the sunset. While there, we met Nans. She volunteers at the Visitor Center. We talked while waiting for the sunset. She would like to do some touring, not on busy roads. I told her about Bikepacking.com and Dirty Freehub for some routes. The sun went down (no green flash).

Going

Going

Gone

Goodnight!