Total distance: 308.1 miles
Total climb: 29445'
I had a really rough sleep last night, I kept tossing and turning and couldn't get comfortable. On top of that, I could hear rain start to pour down. The good weather the prior two days must have got to my head because I was too cavalier with camp before turning in and left some stuff out I shouldn't have. Lesson learned: always go to bed like it's going to rain.
In any case, the rain actually relented long enough to get breakfast cooked and camp packed up, but as soon as we hit the road it started coming down hard. It was mostly downhill out of Umpqua, and I've gotten used to riding in wet conditions, but once we got closer to the water life became more miserable.
We had to cross that bridge you can barley make out. It has a tiny pedestrian walkway, for which we had to dismount and hoof it across.
The wind + rain + trucks make it particularly pernicious. Also, walking a fully loaded bike it not as easy as one might think. Especially on the downhill it really feels like it's pulling for its life to get away from you. Anyways, safely on the other side lay North Bend.
It seemed like a decent little city. We wrapped around cape Arago back towards the ocean.
Dino, for some reason I thought of you when I saw this.
Our goal for lunch was Charleston, which we made around 1.
We wandered in to a local spot for lunch called the Portside.
It was a large waterfont establishment, mostly filled with elderly folks and fisherman. We overhead this choice conversation while eating:
Fisherman: Where's my drink?
Bartender: Give me a break, I'm pregnant.
Fisherman: You're always getting pregnant.
Bartender: I know, I can't help myself with that A**hole...
Classy!
On the way out of town we finally saw a drawbridge in action:
Immediately after leaving Charleston, the coastal bike route bears left onto Seven Devils Road (sweet name right?). The touring the pacific book said this road was one of the steepest in Oregon; I was a little weary my earlier post about preferring steep hills was going to come back to haunt me. It did not fall short of its reputation, some sweet soul even left word of encouragement on the road.
Another marker towards the end:
Todd and I were trying to figure out what the heck "7 devils" is referring to. Our best guess at this point is there are seven hills that make up the ridge.
I should add that we saw a lot of deforestation.
It really does look like a scar on the landscape. Todd saw me snapping pics and asked it I was going to chain myself to a tree anytime soon. Probably not, but it is sad to see what damage it does to the area.
By this point the was staring to peek out, so we re-arranged some gear to dry out.
The next major town on the route was Bandon. We passed by Bandon Dunes (a famous golf course), and I was tempted to drop by, but it will have to wait for another day.
The Old Town Bandon is pretty cute.
It reminded me of a nicer Fisherman's Wharf. There were more small stores and boutiques, and lots of outdoor dining. Then we took the Beach Loop around Bandon. It's a residential street on the Bandon coastline with awesome views of the ocean.
South of Bandon 101 opens up into countryside.
I got a little bored and started playing with my camera. Here's a view from the cockpit.
Guess who took this picture?
Can you tell it was me?
At long last we reached out stop off for the night, the Langlois KOA. I'm pretty sure this is my first time at a KOA, but boy are they cush compared to the State Parks. There is water and electric at every site, and even a convenience store by the entrance. Plus the campsites are large and flat.
After dinner it started to sprinkle, but this time I had been fastidious about prepping for water (we even got a tarp earlier in the day), so getting the camp into water proof state was a cinch. I'm now in the tent about to go to bed and it's starting to come down harder. When I was chatting with the KOA desk guy he said tomorrow should be nice, but that was before the rain started. I was going to make this post about how much I hate wind, but again, all my worries are rain...
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