King of the hills

10/13/11
As the sun rises I can hear at least 4 distinct different kinds of birds praising the light. In my still asleep state these chirps weave themselves into my subconscious and everybody except me in my dream starts speaking in a kind of bird language. Before I have a chance to be confused by this I awaken and find myself in my cozy cocoon on the ground. I actually slept really well with my hammock/tent in that position. Although I don't think it's ideal, it's good to know that I can set my hammock up just as a regular tent if I need to again. I think the wood chips lying on the flat and well manicured ground helped out a bit too.

I hear rustling down the hill, which means that my Canadian neighbors must be awake too, although I can't see them because there are bushes in the way. I start packing up my stuff and mix myself a little breakfast. As I eat my granola I wonder what the day will bring. I'm eager to get an early start and quickly finish up everything that I need to in order to get back on the road. As I start to leave I stop in to wish the other cyclists a good trip, which soon turns into a 40 minute conversation. We swapped stories and tips and compared gear...the usual cyclist stuff. I found out that this retired couple had just taken to bicycle touring about 3 years ago, but had made quite the hobby of it. They highly recommended a place in Montreal called The Green Route, or Route Verte, which has over 4000km of dedicated bike path. A place I hope to make it someday.

Back on the road the air is cool as I ride in between hills in a canyon-like area that the sun hasn't been able to reach yet. About a mile out and I finally hit and opening and feel the warm rays of the sun. I close my eyes and take it all in. It's a beautiful morning, which will eventually turn in to a beautiful day. As I mentioned before, south of Port Orford gets hilly and the hills start right away. They don't bother me much, I suppose because it's morning and I'm full of energy. I have about 22 miles until I reach Gold Beach, and I plan on arriving there by noon. The coast line is pretty amazing the whole way. I ended up stopping a lot to take pictures, but the pictures just never seem to capture the beauty. More unique coastal rock formations are around every bend and over every hill, the kind you can only find on this coast. There's still an early morning mist hanging around the mountains, and as I look down the coastline, the beaches are hazy but I can clearly see the peaks I'll soon be climbing. Hills upon hills, all day long.

A few miles before reaching Gold Beach there's a road called Old Beach Rd which splits off of 101. I take it the rest of the way until it leads me to the North jetty of the mouth of Rogue River. I didn't remember the Rogue being so wide, but I'm glad to add the view of it to my memory banks, especially on a day a beautiful as today.

I'm not sure how I feel about Gold Beach. It's a small town, and I feel if you were social enough you could get to know just about everybody in a short amount of time. I grabbed some snacks at McKay's Market, and overheard a lot of small town gossip. I guess that's the problem with small towns like this, everybody is in everybody's business. I headed down the road and was enticed by a pizza place that also serves ice cream. My two favorite foods! Haha. I took my time to eat, enjoyed the food, and hit the road again around 2pm. At this point I was trying to make it to Harris Beach Campground, which was still about 30 miles away. I should have plenty of time.

Similar to Port Orford, Gold Beach as a town didn't impress me much, but directly on the south side is another amazing beach. It's the kind of place that if you lived there you would take people who are visiting and say: "See, this is why I live here." Just amazing. Actually, the entire trip from where I started until now had been breathtaking.

Of course, right out of Gold Beach I start up another large hill. I think I was continuously climbing for about 5 miles, until finally after 45 minutes, I reach the top where I ran into another young cycling couple. They were from Eugene, OR and had been on the road for two weeks. They admittedly, were traveling very slow. They expected to be on the road for about 8 months and planned on heading down through Texas, the south and then back up with their end destination in Maine. They had a puppy with them which the woman pulled in a trailer, and the man was the first person I'd seen so far touring the country in a recumbent. They seemed experienced with bicycle touring and gave me a few warnings about cycling through California.

The ride down the hill was a lot of fun, and I again I was able to reach speeds of around 35mph. The beaches and coast looked spectacular, I just couldn't take enough pictures...yet still, the pictures hardly did it justice. Around 4pm I started becoming pretty fatigued. I think all the hills of the day were catching up with me. I was estimating that I still had about 15 miles to go, but couldn't be sure. By that time I decided to just stop and snack and hydrate wherever and whenever I wanted. It had felt like I had accomplished a lot already, and with almost 3 hours until sundown I had plenty of time to make it to my destination.

At one point I took a detour to check out Cape San Sebastian. I'm not sure why I was inspired to do so but I just went with it. As soon as I turned off of 101, I was staring straight at a 16% gradient...which looks almost vertical from a bicyclists perspective. I fearlessly decided to continue on as shifted gears, except I shifted the front derailleur the wrong way! So instead of getting easier the climb became impossible. I tried to recuperate by zigzagging up the road as I attempted to quickly switch into the lowest gear possible, but I didn't have enough inertia or time. Before I knew it I had come to a complete stop, and my back wheel wasn't turning. I fiddled with the break, thinking it was stuck, but to no avail. I looked back at the wheel and realized it had tweaked. At that point I couldn't tell how it tweaked. It could either be a 5 minute fix or I could be thumbing a ride the rest of the way to Brookings. Luckily the wheel had just shifted off the hinge. Maybe the combination of the gear fiasco and the hill has put some strain on it. I was able to fix it by taking off all my bags and just repositioning it. Phew!

Now determined to get up the hill, I started again. I was surprised to find that there weren't any cars at the top. As for the view...I could see for miles both up and down the coast. Apparently this cape was tough to deal with for early coastal land travelers. They had to make a decision to either deal with the soft sandy coastline, find a route up and over the mountain, or head all the way around inland. Although the view was amazing, I wasn't quite sure it was worth the effort, especially since I was already getting fatigued from all the hills. With the said, the ride down the hill was super fun in that scary roller coaster kind of way.

The coast continued to surprise me. Places like Arch Rock and Whaleshead kept me inspired to continue on despite my dropping energy level. They also gave me a good reason to stop, rest and take in the view.

A little before 6:30 I finally reached Harris Beach. Instead of heading straight for camp I decided to sit on the grass and watch the sunset. I'm not sure why, but at that moment I wished I was traveling with somebody. I guess it's moments like sunsets that make me wish I had somebody else to share it with. I remember feeling the same way when watching sunsets when I was traveling through Mexico. Either way it was peaceful to watch, and a great end to a great day.

After the ride today, no matter how exhausted I felt by the end, I think I can safely say that I could ride that same stretch of highway 1000 times and not get sick of it. The views were stunning, the weather couldn't be better, and ride was amazing.

Progress: 50 miles

Random roadside debris: a left rain boot standing straight up.

-D
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