Day 10! The Type of Wind We Like, Mostly

We got off to another early start, excepting the time it took to change that trailer wheel tube yet again, sigh, and then the extra two miles I had to do going back for my shorts that had fallen off while drying in my pannier. Grrr. Still, we were off in the early morning fog and, 7 miles out of camp (9 for me), including the first of the Seven Devils (name of the road we were on with 7 climbs) of the day, we stopped for our usual oatmeal breakfast.

This morning's lunch spot was an estuary interpretative center, which was closed. The view would normally have been spectacular, I'm sure, but we were in fogged in. Still, Davan enjoyed a short loop with signs about estuaries while Anthony and I made breakfast. Even closed and foggy, she considers it a highlight of the trip and has requested a return trip.

Sadly, the fog stayed with us for all of the Seven Devils, denying us the view we had so rightfully earned. The climbs were kind of fun, though, not too challenging or long and descents to go with the climbs, of course.

We'd had plans to stop at another lighthouse this day, but it turned out to be about 10 miles off the road, we realized after going about 2 miles toward it, so we aborted. Even our little lighthouse lover approved of that decision. 20 miles is a lot of extra miles on a bike, let me tell you.

We'd been riding a couple of miles inland most of the day, but at Bandon, we were back on the coast and, boy was it windy! The winds were the seasonally prevailing winds from the north west, so, for the most part, they were at our backs. This was nice.

We quite enjoyed riding slowly through Bandon with the distraction of little shops and restaurants (just to look at), nice houses and a pretty beach with lots of rock formations.


Our friend, Stanford, happened to be at this same view point later in the afternoon and he kindly took a picture of all three of us:



Thanks, in part, to our tail wind, we got into camp pretty early, despite grocery shopping in the afternoon and it being a 60+ mile day. 61.36 for most of us and 63.36 for the shorts retriever.

With the early arrival, Davan and I had a serious hankering to play on the beach, this being our last night on the beach...at least according to the plan, but I'll get to that in a moment. First, the beach:

If you are thinking that's Davan in the water in the above picture, you're sadly mistaken.

We played quite a bit, despite the wind, before heading back to our campsite. We'd been hoping for one more communal fire for our last night on the beach, but it wasn't to be. Humbug State Park's hiker/biker camp was unlike any other we've stayed at, with private spots for each party.

We did see one interesting new person join our hiker/biker party this evening. We never did meet him, but this young man came into camp shortly before dusk with a unique trailer - his surfboard with wheels somehow attached under it. He unloaded said surfboard and headed off to the beach until it was quite dark, presumably surfing. Combining two loves, I guess.

So, back to the whole "planned route" thing. Anthony had, as I mentioned before, planned the route to the coast and after the coast. One road, a 40 mile stretch with 17 of that being a climb with a serious grade, was in doubt. Was it paved? Anthony was pretty sure it was, but not totally sure. With doubt in mind and not wanting to face a road of that intensity made of gravel, we were considering staying on the coast another couple of days and not cutting in until we were in California. This would mean that we would definitely not make it back home, but my parents were willing to come get us if we didn't...and then we'd really have done the whole Oregon coast...we were feeling iffy.

We went to bed leaning toward just going for it, keeping in mind that we could turn back if necessary, but not totally decided.