Inching closer to California

10/12/11
Today is end of day seven. My first week on the road. I'm pretty amazed at how little free time I have on this trip. I brought three books with me, a couple of notebooks, some dice and a deck of cards because I figured I might have nothing to do in the evenings. I haven't touched any of them. If I'm not riding, eating, sightseeing, fooling with my tent, maintaining my bike, or blogging then I'm probably sleeping. I noticed that my sleep schedule has changed considerably on this trip. Where as I've always been a night owl, most days now I'm in my hammock by 10pm and up before 7am. I've found the I sleep really well and that I like to have about 8.5-9hrs of sleep.

Going into the trip I figured I'd average 40-60 miles a day. I've been pretty right on in my prediction. If my calculations are right I've gone about 322 miles, which puts me right at an average of 46 miles a day. I never intended this to be a race, I always just wanted to see everything at my own pace. I think I've been doing that for the most part and I'm looking forward to what the next week brings.

I woke up with the sun today, bright and early. I've come to realize that it takes me about an hour to pack up, freshen up and eat something before heading out, so I was on the road by 8am. Just two miles up the road from camp was the city of Bandon. Bandon is a beautiful and clean town. I got the impression that they have more money than some of the other coastal towns. Just before coming into the heart of town I stopped briefly at a little area perfect for bird watching at the Bandon marsh. The tide was low and I think it was heading in, so there were lots of birds walking around poking their beaks in the muck. Now I kind of wish I knew what kind of birds they were...whatever, they were marsh birds.

In old town Bandon I stopped for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Both satisfied me as I simultaneously updated the blog and the Facebook. After breakfast I called a few people, and then figured it was a good time to service my bike. I cleaned and lubed my chain, gears, brakes, cables and pedals which takes about an hour. I had a very leisurely morning and by the time noon came around I headed on down the road.

Bandon has a wonderful scenic route, which is the norm for most of the cyclists passing through. The route takes you along the coast line and I was awestruck by the crazy rock formations shooting out of the water. I can't remember ever stopping to look at those rocks, even though I've driven up and down the coast several times. There are some really unique formations in that area that show a rich geological history of volcanoes, earthquakes, and erosion. One rock in particular, called Face Rock, looks like a face emerging from the water and staring straight up into the sky. Another must see for people passing through.

About 8 miles down the road Beach Loop meets back up with 101, and there is a small Mexican restaurant there. Even though it was already past one o'clock and I had only gone about 10 miles, I couldn't resist getting some tacos to fuel my trek down the coast.

Now full and wanting to make some progress, I was off! The next 8 or 9 miles was filled with beautiful rolling countryside. There were cranberry and blueberry farms, sheep and cattle farms, and just country houses mixed within the hills. Along the shoulder there were quite a few cranberries that must have fallen off of trucks transporting them or something. Every once and a while I'd aim to roll over one of them, because the make a pleasing popping sound getting squished by my tore that can only be liked to squeezing bubble wrap. Other times I'd have to jolt my tire out of the way because I realized that the cranberry was actually a rock.

After about 13 miles I saw some bikes outside of a market, which were obviously of people riding down the coast. I stopped to say hi and fill my water. It was a foreign couple around my age that had started in Bellingham and were traveling down the coast. I think he was Irish ad she was something else, maybe an Aussie. Come to find out I had talked to the man the day before in Charleston, although he didn't make it known that he too was cycling down the coast. They were stopping to snack, and I just wanted to say hi and then keep going.

After another hour of riding I ended up at Port Orford. I didn't think too much of the town until I reached the south side. The sun was shining and the sky was blue when I reached Battle Rock Beach. Again, the rock formations at this place are amazing. Plus there is a nice beach which would be wonderful to hang out at in the summer. Today it was full of surfers and the waves actually looked really good. I thought that the surfers must be thrilled to be catching such tasty waves on a day like today. I watched for a bit and kind of wished that I had a surfboard to join them. Although, today was not the day for surfing it was a day for cycling. So on I must go!

The time was 4:45, and I was kind of at an awkward point. I could travel 6 miles up the road and set up camp or try to make it 25 miles up the road before dark. I guess I would decide when I got there.

Just in case you were wondering, the rumors are true. There are a lot of hills south of Port Orford. I had heard other cyclists mention it, and now I was experiencing it. It wasn't such a bad thing, but I was moving kind of slow. The best part was coming down one of the biggest hills. I had to stop at the top because there was only one lane of traffic due to construction, but as soon as the light turned green I shot off down the hill. I think I reached 35mph, which isn't crazy fast, but on a fully loaded bicycle it felt fast enough. There were several curves that were fun to maneuver because no cars were on the road, and eventually I was led to the entrance of Humbug Mountain State Park. Feeling like it would be wise to stop, even though I still had another hour and a half until sundown, I decided to call it a day.

The campgrounds are nice, and they were apparently renovated just this year or last. The hiker/biker area was renovated too, and it's the first one of it's kind that I've seen actually have areas sectioned off for the individual campers. I was greeted by an older Canadian couple that had started cycling in Seattle and are heading to the Redwoods. I think I'm starting to see more cyclists because the weather has been really nice. My only complaint is that the hiker/biker lacks trees. Since I brought my hammock to sleep in on this trip, I was a little disappointed. Luckily I can use the hammock as a sufficient enough tent and it doesn't appear like it will rain tonight, so I don't have to worry about waking up on soggy ground. We'll see how well I sleep...

Progress: about 40 miles

Random roadside debris: a full skeleton of some dead animal...maybe a dear?

-D
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