well traveled path
Starting location: Cape Perpetua Campground
Ending location: Umpqua River State Park
End of day cumulative mileage: 446.9
I woke up this morning to find that it had rained again last night. It was still drizzling a bit so I decided to sleep more. I ended up oversleeping and didn’t get out of camp until about noon.
I thought this was supposed to be a well traveled bicycle route? Before today I hadn’t seen any other bicycle tourists, but today I’ve seen almost a dozen. I saw the first right as I left Cape Perpetua. It was a girl who seemed around my age. I waved at her from across the road and she flashed a cute smile back. Dang, too bad she was going in the opposite direction.
Apparently as far as touring cyclists go, I am pretty slow. I passed a father and son as they were stopped on the side of the road for a break. They passed me up not too long after. A while later I heard, “On your left,” and two guys pulled up. They rode beside me for a while and we talked for a bit. They started in Portland and were heading to Santa Barbara. They soon pulled away, I guess I was too slow for them. Another guy with a trailer zipped past me. The only two people I passed and kept behind me were a guy who was walking with his bike uphill and one woman who had a huge load of four big panniers and a trailer with her young kid inside. She looked like she was struggling pretty badly going uphill. I felt sorry for her. The hills were tiring to me already, and she was pulling her kid, which made it worse. But now that I think about it, her and her kid combined probably weigh less than me, so maybe I had it worse.
The riding was tough, but the scenery was absolutely beautiful, which made it all worthwhile. Highway 101 had morphed into this narrow winding seaside road which followed the rugged coastline. So I was fine with taking it slow, chugging along in a low gear.
Tonight I’m staying at Umpqua River Lighthouse State Park. Apparently the first lighthouse in Oregon was built here, but it was swept away during a storm. This one is its replacement, which at 120 years is still pretty old.
The view from the lighthouse area was quite nice. There’s a huge sandy area here where people ride dune buggies. I was really tempted to rent one, but it ended up being too expensive.
The great thing about the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route is that there are plenty of State and Federal campsites to stay at, and most of them have cheap rates for bikers. There were a few other bikers here, most seem to be headed for San Francisco, and had started at either Portland or the Seattle area.
Most people when they heard I was going to bike from Seattle to Davis thought I was pretty crazy. But having seen all these other bikers today, I realize I’m not that crazy. It’s actually a pretty well traveled path.
