Category Archives: Bike Tour

My plastic box panniers have been holding up well. I think they’re doing a good job- this morning I woke up with little turds on top. Whoever left them was unable to get to my loaf of bread.

Hopefully there will not be many more pictures of dung on this blog.

Saw some dinosaurs, but didn’t feel like paying admission to go see the rest of the prehistoric garden.

Another decent bridge on the way into Gold Beach. Not terrible to ride over, but some folks may wish to use the sidewalk.

Shortly after this was Cape Sebastian, which kind of kicked my ass. The worst part was that the top didn’t even have a good view. It had a really steep road leading up to an alleged viewpoint, but it was so steep that I left my bike at the bottom to go check it out. Nothing worth mentioning was up there! Maybe with more walking there was, but it wasn’t clear how far or what change in altitude. Oh well.

I came down and was rewarded with a lot of this kind of scenery, then I guess another cape.

These guys thought it was super scenic.

Is a cool rock, right?

Somewhat cooler rock.

This bridge was freaky! Looking down at the creek was surreal. It was a very tall bridge, but not very long and I couldn’t see its structure at all. There was a path to get to a point to view it, but as far as I could tell it went down to the creek bed first. I wasn’t up for a 354 foot climb back up after such a long day, so I googled this one:

Thomas Creek Bridge

Kind of glad I didn’t see that one before going over it!!

Tomorrow I’m taking it slow, since I am about 30 miles from Crescent City, and I can’t pass it until I pick up my mail on Friday. I guess I’ll be looking to see how close I can camp for $5 or less, and probably cooking my next few meals. I couldn’t resist a burger and beer tonight. I’m glad I didn’t, but my wallet might have a different opinion.

I have to keep up with these, or I won’t be able to write anything at all about them!

Right after lunch yesterday, when I was looking for the bakery, I came across a place selling wind chimes:

It was really windy at the time, so now I am going to attempt this blog’s first video!

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…trust me, it was a sweet video with a lot of wind chimes going all at once.

Found these bones by the highway. They don’t look human, do they?

I think this one was at Battle Rock.

Those white guys were dicks, right?

Walked under a cool bridge to get to the beach last night at Humbug Mountain, where I took many pictures.

Got this one as the light was fading, and thats when the Nikon got to come out and do its thing. Can’t wait to see some of those on a big monitor!

That’s it from day 15.

Coming down off Cape Sebastian the wind was gusting so hard that my beard flew up into my eyes a few times. The sad thing is that with all that climbing there was no good view from the top. Apparently there was a “viewpoint” sign, but it led to a series of extremely steep hills without a clear indication of which way to go for the pretty view. I tucked my bike behind a sign just off 101 and tried the hills on foot, but had no reward until the end of the descent.

For some reason rocks sticking out of the ocean almost always look cool to me.

Just taking a quick break to are what my Internet situation is, and have a breather in Ophir, and I saw that I had about 15 spam comments in my blog that I had to delete. It must be something with the iPhone client or something- my other blog rarely gets spam comments.

Anyway, while I was sitting here a guy walked up and told me he had a big. Ag of snap peas that a farmer gave him, and asked if I wanted some. Heck yeah I wanted some!

I guess you get some bad and some good when you’re not looking for either.

A couple of cool things happened today. As I reached Humbug Mountain, I also reached 600 miles for the trip. I think that means I’m more than halfway back to the bay area. Another cool thing is that I finally found the ripe blackberries!!

When I finally found them, I only needed a few minutes to completely fill my water bottle. After lunch I stopped at a bakery in Bandon and got a fresh loaf of bread, and stopped at the last grocery before Humbug Mountain (side note- I keep mixing it up with Big Sur and want to call it ‘Big Hug’) and picked up a quart of milk and a can of tuna. Dinner tonight was absolutely awesome. Tuna out of the can, soft hunks of fresh wheat bread, and a desert of more bread with honey (from a local road-side place), and blackberries less than an hour off the bush. Washed it down with the milk, and it was so good!

Net access on my phone is a bit sketchy here, but I’ll try to get the rest of today’s pictures up at some point in the morning.

I went to Moe’s Bikes in Coos bay, and Moe had a look at my rim and said it was going to be just fine. I went ahead and bought a new tire and tube, and made decent time to Bandon, where I had an excellent Cuban sandwich in Old Bandon.

I’m trying to get to Port Orford, though I’m not in a huge hurry for the next day or two since I have a mail drop arriving in Crescent City on Thursday or Friday. No sense showing up early for that!

Not much to report today, no riding. I slept late, and I think I had a lot of body recovery. My allergies have been going off and on.

Tony gave me a ride to see a few of the local spots, and that was cool. I got to see some things I probably wouldn’t have stopped for, or known to go out of my way for.

This is a cool rock formation caused by erosion. The ocean was very calm and flat and low while I was there, but I heard that sometimes in winter the waves are 15 feet high and pound the coast violently. I’d kind of like to see that, but not on a bike tour.

A botanical garden!

I’d never seen one of these before, it’s a monkey puzzle tree.

There was a section full of roses- mate not good for the allergies, but pretty!

Check out how big these leaves are!

Also saw a pond full of lily pads. I think I got better pictures with my camera.

I made it to Coos Bay, staying at Tony’s place. The Internet comes through again, and the kindness of strangers!

The wheel didn’t give me any trouble, but I know that it’s better not to press my luck. I’m going to hang out until Tuesday, then I’m going to replace the thing- but this time I’m getting a new tube and tire, and will go ahead and get an extra tube or two. Tony warns me that some stretches of the California coast get kind of remote.

In addition to stocking up on repair stuff, I’m also going to mail home a few tools that I don’t need. I’ve decided that Seattle to Oakland is enough biking for me this time around, so I won’t need my pedal wrench again. If I get the strong new wheel, I can lose the big crescent wrench and freewheel removal tool. Apparently I’d need a chain whip for those to do me any good anyway. I’m doing OK not blowing up my ground pad most nights, and I could probably do without my U-lock, and just use the heavy cable that I normally use for my wheel, and the padlock that I brought for hostel lockers. I could wrap some length of duct tape around a pencil so that I’m not still carrying the extra large roll.

I’m doing alright physically, but I know that if I carry less weight then less things will break, and I will make more miles per day. This has been an amazing journey, but I am ready for it to be half over. I’ve done 13 days and 542 miles, and have seen and done some cool stuff. I’m fairly sure that if I do just that much more then I will be good and ready to go get a regular job and start working on other endeavors.

Some pictures from today- first, a triangular jetty thing that they use in Winchester Bay for cultivating shellfish:

It looked quite large!

Next, the bridge that I was so strongly encouraged to walk over:

The wind was gusting like crazy, so I carefully put my phone away. I wanted better pictures, though, so I said “no way did I haul this heavy DSLR and lenses for 500 miles on my bike to not take a picture of this!” So I think you can look forward to a few good ones when I do the Flickr gallery.

Here’s the plaque, if you’re curious about the bridge:

Notice the quantity of finger in the shot, due to my death grip on the phone. I was actually using a two handed grip here, for two reasons. First, I dropped my iPhone back in Shelton due to ‘cycling hands’ and so I’ve been careful ever since. Second, the wind was gusting hard enough that I could imagine the phone being ripped from a weaker grasp. I must have been over a hundred feet above salt water (AppleCare protection plan does not cover this).

That’s all for tonight, unless I think of something else. Now I get to make some couscous and read my book.

Sitting in Reedsport and charging my phone over a coffee with free wifi seems like a great time to upload these.

Yesterday’s breakfast spot- tasty and friendly!

I passed through an area that was so pretty, people were literally hanging out painting it. Beaver creek, I think.

You got your stuff, objects, and whatnot, but need to part with some things? Here’s the place!

Looking at this bridge in Waldport, and some of the other cool bridges that were going in during the 1930’s, with solid engineering, aesthetics, and art deco touches, I have to wonder if I’m seeing and feeling some of the things that so obviously moved Ayn Rand to write as she did about bridges and other structures. They’re pretty, and functional, and apparently (for her) kind of a turn on. Almost makes me want to go on a 60 page monologue that boils down to a justification of being an asshole. Don’t worry guys, I’ll restrain myself!

Climbing the road toward Yachats, some of the most beautiful coastal scenery came up. Holy cow!

If I’d had time and felt inclined, it would have been possible to walk down all those switchbacks and experience those tidal areas up close. Some day I’d love to come back and do that!

Another sweet bridge.

Forget the name of this cape, but I saw a whale!! I got a picture on the Nikon, so you will see proof in the Flickr gallery, but it wasn’t much of a picture. Oh well, at least I saw one!

I made it through the second Oregon tunnel yesterday, and hopefully that was it. This one was better than the other one; not as steep in the tunnel, shorter, and it didn’t seem to be in the middle of such a bad climb.

Well, my battery is up to 78%, and this lunch break has been almost two hours long. Better get back on the bike so I can get to Coos Bay without having to turn it into a death march.

This morning I took my tire off the new rim, and gave it a through inspection. Here’s the one and only crack:

Oddly enough, there was some sort of white substance on the inside of the rim, straddling the crack;

It makes me think that maybe this is where the rim was joined- I guess welded together? I don’t know how rims are manufactured.

Anyway, I see no sign of the lip giving out, other cracks starting to form, or other conditions that look likely to allow sudden catastrophic failure as long as fire pressure is high.

I decided to continue on the Coos Bay under my own power. Tony offered to pick me up, but from where I was I know that it would be a couple of hours of driving for him on the round trip. If the situation was more desperate I would take him up on the offer, but I think I can do a few careful miles on this without much risk. That’s my own judgement, and for anybody reading this who is thinking about riding on a broken rim, I’d discourage it!!

I left this morning and made it to Reedsport, where a lot of cyclists were having lunch. Check of out!

The majority of these folks were doing a cross-country ride as a cancer fund raiser. They were just on road bikes, and they have a support van. They’re going another 50 miles today, and they passed me going quickly earlier in the day. I guess they must be doing a solid 80 to my 45. That’s a way to do it!

For brunch I had an Elk patty, here’s a picture for you foodies:

Exotic, right?