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.