We woke early again this morning and were on the road just before 7am. The next coffee shop was over 25 miles away on the other side of some big hills, so we decided to make coffee at camp before we left. This decision proved to be a profitable one because, for the second day in a row, we clocked up over 60km before noon. If we had looked around for a coffee shop we wouldn’t had reached anywhere near that much distance before noon During the first hour of the morning we continued on Hwy 101 but soon had the opportunity to get off the busy highway and join a quiet country road at Ophir. We continued on this side road for over 15 miles, and ended up in the town of Wedderburn. The road was kind in many ways, there was little or no traffic, the inclines were gentle, the road was full of beautiful houses with manicured lawns, and we saw a medium-size doe, at close quarters.
On the outskirts of Gold Beach we joined back up with Hwy 101 and welcomed the sights of the stunning coastline once again. I enjoyed the variety of riding today. It did help that we had a Chetwyndesque tailwind that pushed us through almost to our destination. According to the inaccurate elevation profiles that came with our maps, we were supposed to have finished our toughest climbs by early afternoon, but as usual the day had the last laugh. The period from 12:30-2:00pm, when we arrived at Harris Beach, seemed to be the most difficult. Both Suzanne and I are renowned early morning riders, so perhaps we had just had enough of the sun for the day, because it was difficult last portion of the day.
It was nice to get into camp early. We stretched at the beach and took in the sites of the windy day. Kites were flying, and people were being blown around the beach like drifting sand. All along the coast I’ve seen these large rocks protruding out of the ocean like soldiers standing to attention. They have different names depending which town you are in. In Cannon Beach they are called haystacks whereas in Gold Beach they are called table tops. Whichever name you choose to give them, each one is uniquely shaped by the constant battering of the ocean’s waves. As you can probably imagine, each carving is a work of art.
Today we are about 30 miles from our destination, Crescent City, California, so this evening we needed to make some decisions about the trip. We had planned for the trip to take anywhere from 3-4 weeks. When we arrive in Crescent City tomorrow, it will have taken less than 2 1/2 weeks. It didn’t take long for us to come to the conclusion that we’d like to extend the trip and head to San Francisco. Two years ago we rode from San Francisco to San Diego, so adding the extra 400 miles to the trip will allow us the honour of saying that we have biked from the Yukon all the way down to the US-Mexico boarder. We anticipate the extra millage will take 9 days. We should, in theory, be home within the 4 week schedule we set out with. This means there will be plenty more blogs postings to come. Please continue to post comments. It gives us something to read in the evenings:)
I don’t know if I mentioned this at all already, but right at the beginning of the tour I developed this annoying clicking sound in my left pedal. I experienced the same clicking sound two summers ago when we did the San Francisco to San Diego trip. When I could no deal with the constant clicking then, I took it to a bike shop and he diagnosed that the bearings in the pedal had worn out and I needed new ones. A cost of $80!
Therefore, when the clicking returned I swapped pedals with Suzanne. My reasoning was that my weight combined with my riding style was causing the breakdown. Someone light might not have a problem, and as it turned out when I swapped them, Suzanne was click free.
Until… 3-4 days ago when the pedals on Suzanne’s bike started to click. I resigned myself to buying new pedals. Yesterday we arrived in Crescent City and found a bike shop. After explaining my situation to the owner he was perplexed. He’s never heard of anyone wearing out pedals, particularly in a little over 18 months. He went on to ask me if I had cleaned them? My response was, “Can you clean pedals?”. After an interesting conversation we didn’t buy new pedals. Instead, we bought some grease and last night set about cleaning and lubing my pedals. What you know, Suzanne has biked all day today without the hint of a click.
Next time you have pedals that click, don’t buy new ones, clean them:)
Getting up this morning was difficult. After such a wonderful rest day filled with crabbing, sunshine, and no biking, it was hard to rediscover any motivation to leave Charleston. We packed up the bikes, dropped off our crabbing gear at the bait shop, had a cup of coffee at the Sea Basket, said goodbye to our fishermen friends, Max and his buddies and pulled out of the harbor. I knew that Charleston had found a tiny little spot in my heart forever.
When we woke up, it looked like this.
But by the time we reached the top of the second hill it started to look like this!
The sun was some motivation, and we rode hard till noon, covering 60km before lunch. Banden is a stunning little town with a unique coast line of table top rock structures in the water. It was my favorite beach yet! After lunch in Langlios, we rode a quick 26 km into Port Oxford. A large portion of this was downhill with the wind blowing behind us.
Humbug Mt State Park was thankfully not on top of a mountain. It rested in a quiet valley that was peaceful with a creak flowing through it. Although mentally difficult, it was a beautiful biking day!
We woke later than usual, as is typical of our rest days. Suzanne started the stove for coffee while enjoyed drifting in and out of sleep for another 20 minutes or so. I could already hear people talking as I dressed for the day and soon realized it was Max, our new fishing friend, getting ready to head for the day, in the hopes of catching some salmon. Max and his fishing club, all from California, come to Charleston annually. This is their tenth year. By the time we had met them they had been there a couple of days and expected to spend 10 days fishing. All of his groups were hardcore recreational fishermen and hunters. They had a gruff exterior, but where really kind to us once we had got passed the introductions.
We stayed at Charleston Marina RV park, which is located in beautiful Coos Bay Habour, and for the most part it was full of RV’s and recreational fishermen and fisherwomen. They had a small piece of land reserved for tenting, but the space was also taken up by three yurts. Yurts, for those who don’t know, are circular single-story cabins which hold a couple of bunk beds and a heater. The sides of the yurt are made of a thick canvas and they generally have a little porch in front. If you can’t picture our little tent surrounded by three yurts, two large boats, and a whole bunch of coolers I hope the picture below helps. We would come to rely on Max’s expertise later in the day. Our day in Charleston was perhaps our most exciting rest day in the history of cycle touring. I don’t generally seek out excitement on my rest days, for obvious reason, but Charleston had something many other towns we’ve visited haven’t, crab!
Suzanne really wanted to do some crab fishing, and at first I was a little apprehensive because it sounded more like work than rest. I find it very satisfying when days with little expectation suddenly turn into memorable days. Charleston, Oregon was one of this days. Back to the story… After Suzanne and I had finished our coffee we went to breakfast at the Sea Basket restaurant, a typical commercial fisherman’s restaurant. Think truck stop! F After breakfast we headed to the Crab Shack to inquire about crab fishing rentals. They were happy to rent us all the equipment we needed and the license, but they only accepted cash. Cycle tourists don’t carry cash, so we were lucky that the lady suggested another place close by that would do the rentals on a credit card.
The owner of Basin and Bait was sick, so hisnlovely wife was looking after the place, and as it turned out she was super helpful. First, we needed to buy a 3 day crab license which cost $11. Secondly, we need to rent the crab net. The net was $6 to rent but we had to pay a $25 deposit to ensure we returned it. Thirdly, we needed bait. Now, I don’t know about you but I had no idea what crab ate. Apparently, crab eat any seafood, and as we later found out any type of meat. When discussing the merits of different types of bait, the storeowner said that she would just give us some of her secret bait concoction for free. She ended up giving us a mixture of clams and mink. Yes, mink! The little animal that looks like a big ferret. Who’d have known that not only do crab fishers have to worry about crabs, they also have to worry about harbour seals, too. Harbour seals don’t like mink. Once we secured the bait, the lady also threw in a free bucket, and a measuring stick. Before we left we listened to the most important piece of information. In Oregon, it is illegal to take any female Dungeness crabs, and it’s also illegal to harvest any Dungeness crabs smaller than about 5″ in length. The fine for not adhering to these rules is $1400.
Just as we where about to leave with our net and other miscellaneous crab catching gear we stopped to ask a really important question. How exactly do you crab fish? It turns out crab fishing is easy… Essentially, you fill you bait box up with seafood, or other animals, tie one piece of the net to the dock and then throw the circular net as far as you can into the ocean just as you would throw a frisbee. Then, the most frustrating part is you have wait for 15-20 minutes before pulling it back in.
On our first attempt, Suzanne secured the net to the dock and I launched it as far as I could into the ocean. After 15 minutes we slow pulled the net to the surface and were both disappointed that the net was empty. At the height of our disappointment, a boy no much older than the kids we teach walked over to us and said, the politest possible way, “I don’t know if you know this, but you’re suppose to pull the net in as quick as you can, so the crabs don’t escape.”. Suzanne and I looked at each other and both thought, Thant makes sense. He went onto to further explain that if you needed any additional help he would be more than happy to other his services because this was his second day crabbing and he was now experienced.
On our second cast we pulled the net up much quicker, but were again sad to see no crabs caught in the net. On our third cast web caught a small red crab which delighted us both, but we secretly wanted to catch some large Dungeness crabs. We must have looked a little dejected because a man from Nevada who was crabbing beside us offered us some advice. He told us crabs like bits of flesh to stick out of the side of the cage so they can grab on to it with their pincers. We took his advice seriously and went about rearranging the bait. Just as we were about to recast the group next to us pulled up a large haul of Red and Dungeness crabs. I’ve never see so many crabs in one spot. As they were wrestling with the crabs to try and release some, one of them caught the granddads finger and drew blood! Suzanne and I were more than a little worried at this point. What would do if we got a large haul how would we collect them all without getting pinched?
Our next cast result in a large Red crab, which was large enough to keep. We were both vibrating with excitement. The excitement soon tired to fear when we had to extract it from the net and transfer it to the bucket. I tried several times to pull the crab off the net but he had all his let tightly wrapped on the metal wire at the base of the net. After a short struggle, I pulled so hard I actually pulled one of his pincers off and he finally let go. Apparently, crab’s pincers can grow back, so I wasn’t too distraught.
Everybody else around us seemed to be catching large Dungeness crabs except us, so the friendly guy next to us who earlier offered us valuable advice decided to give us some chicken skin to try in our nets. Crabs apparently love chicken skin because after that we pulled in net after net of Red and Dungeness crabs. We ended up spending most of the day catching crabs, and a had a great time watching and socializing with the other crabbers.
Late in the afternoon we decided to stop and head back to camp to kill, clean, cook, and eat our crab. When we got back we were surprised to see Max and his friend back so soon. Sadly, they had a high unsuccessful days fishing in the ocean and cider to head back early. They we both surprised and I think slightly proud of our catch. Max helped us kill the crabs, and explained how to clean and cook them.
To cook crabs bring water to a boil and insert your bounty. Add salt and lemon pepper for flavour Then, wait for the water to return to a boil before cooking for a further 15 minutes. Once the crabs were cooked we took all 8 of them back to the picnic table located next to our tent and feasted on them.
Crabbing was a wonderful experience and one I would love to do again.
It was cloudy when I woke up this morning. I went into high gear, getting rady for the rain. Put everything into dry bags, pulled out my rain gear, and pumped up my positive attitude. Well it turns out that it IS possible to have a cloudy day with no rain! It remained dry all day.
Another reason I was positive this morning was because I knew for a matter of fact that there’d be a coffee shop or restaurant in the first three miles of our ride. I’m not usually wrong when it comes to map reading, but this time I had been terribly wrong! Not only was there no coffee in Dunes City (not a city at all!). But there wasn’t coffee in Gardiner, 23km down the road, either! It Was 32 hilly Kilometers before I was sipping a hot cup of coffee. As a reward for such a challenging morning, I got myself bacon and eggs to go with the coffee.
In general, it was a fairly uneventful and uninteresting day. Although we were riding through Dunes National Park, we couldn’t see the dunes or the ocean as the road was just a bit inland. The traffic from Reedsport to North Bend was some of the busiest traffic we’ve experienced on the trip. Due to this, we ended up walking over the mile long, narrow, steel bridge going into North Bend. We’re camping nine miles south of North Bend in a RV Park for our long awaited rest day. We’re lucky to have our friends, Jen and Levin staying at our site as well. We had a great evening discussing our trips with them as they’ve been traveling the same road as us, same route, for almost the same amount of time. They’ll be in Crescent City in three days. Check out their blog – kevjenbike.blogspot.com . We’ve got all the amenities of an RV Park – laundry, showers, and restaurants and stores with in a mile of our tent. Although it’s not quite our ten dollar cabin that we had on our last rest day, our muscles are sure thanking us for this much deserved break!
We left Beverly State Park in glorious morning sunlight. We wheeled into Newport, OR early and stopped at another roastery and coffee shop, Newport Bay Coffee Co. While indulging in yet more freshly roasted coffee we uploaded some posts and charged our electronics. After spending well over an hour in the coffee shop we rode through Newport and joined back up with Hwy 101, and experienced some breathtakingly beautiful scenery as we made our way down the coast past Seal Rock, Waldport, Yachats, and Florence. The view of the coastline around Seal Rock was stunning. From high on the hill tops, looking down on the coastline, all we could see for miles were golden beaches and whitecaps relentlessly pounding the beaches. Today’s riding was sublime. At times it was challenging with long accents but the most part it was a day to remember.
In stark contrast, a time I would like to forget during the days ride was when we had to negotiate a tunnel whilst traveling up hill. I don’t know if anyone has negated a long tunnel without being in a vehicle before, but it is deafeningly loud and quite harrowing. Most tunnels we have travelled through on this trip allow riders to press a button which then illuminates a couple of flashing lights at the beginning and end of the tunnel. The reason for these lights is to remind drivers to make sure they are going a maximum of 30 miles an hour. In Oregon, nobody adheres to this rule and it’s pretty scary. Please remember, if ever you are traveling through a tunnel and see the flashing light at the entrance, signifying cyclists in the tunnel, please please please slow down
Today was a fairly long day. 99km passed fairly quickly, and so we were both glad to get off our bikes at Honeyman State Park. After paying another respectable $10 to camp for the night we settled into our hiker/biker spot located in the middle of a bunch of all fir trees. When we arrived there already 4 tents set up. When we woke in the morning there were in excess of 12 tents.
My legs are tired, I have an insatiable appetite, and I’m looking forward to washing my underwear, on our rest day! Suzanne is also excited about we washing my stink underwear too. Oh, the simple joys of cycle touring, when all you have to worry about it cleaning your underwear.
Today was a glorious day. Today is what makes bike touring worth it. We woke up early to blue skies, and although Christopher was struggling to get out of his sleeping bag, I was up and ready to face the day. On a scale of 1-10, my grumpiness level this morning was a 2! I sang the wake up song, got out and made the coffee, packed the bikes, while Christopher moaned and groaned his way into the day. I climbed the five Km hill that started in our campground as the sun peaked through the trees. It tried to ruin my day, but my excitement for the sun far out shone it’s attempts to dethrone me. This was the largest climb in Oregon, and I rode it like a pro! Nothing was going to knock me down today.
Typically, I get nervous when my day starts out so well. Something always throws things off or causes the day to take a turn. Typically, on this trip, it’s been the rain. Well I’m happy to say, the day just flew by, and for the first time ever in my bike touring days, I asked Christopher around 90km if we should just keep going another 30km into the next city. I think this question utterly shocked him. It shocked me to. In the end, we stuck with our original plan to camp after 95km, at Beverly State Park.
There are some pleasures in life that you don’t get to enjoy too often on a bike tour. Unless something turns up at just the right moment, you forfeit the pleasure. For example, if your craving ice-cream all day, and pass by several ice-cream places that you just aren’t ready for yet (eating ice-cream in the morning half of the ride is always detrimental!) and then arrive at your campground, just to find out the next ice-cream store is 2.5 Km up the road, you usually just grin and bear it… Pretending your hot chocolate is like melted warm ice-cream. Well you can imagine the joy on those days when the ice-cream shop is right there, just a block from your campsite. The same is true for beer. We rarely get a chance to have a cold beer except on our break days, but today as we stroll into Beverly State Park, which just happened to have a corner store with cold beer, I knew this day was about as close to being perfect as possible.
We woke up to the familiar sound of pitter patter on our tent roof. The only thing different about today, was I didn’t care. If it’s going to rain everyday this summer, I’m not letting that ruin my bike trip. So with this new found POSITIVE attitude, I put on my new favorite outfit – my rain gear – and started our day by cycling ten miles into Astoria OR. The 4mile bridge into Oregon turned out to be less treacherous than expected due to construction.
After a fabulous coffee break at Columbia River Coffee Roasters, we took the Lewis and Clark road through the back country of Astoria and eventually into Seaside. Soon after the coffee break, the rain stopped!! The further south we got, the warmer it got. By Cannon Beach, we were biking in our shorts and t-shirts for the first time in 8 days. Of course, Cannon Beaches stunning beach was awe inspiring. We stopped to take several pictures and met a wonderful couple named Bea and David Begun who offered their place for us to stay in 50miles east of Florence. Sadly that’s much to large of a detour from our goal to reach California. We were planning to do a short day and camp 5 miles after Cannon Beach, but the campsite never turned up! So 14 miles and two giant hills later we stroll into Nehalem State Park. Was I grumpy? Did I have a bad attitude? Of course not! That’s so unlike me. I saw it as 14 miles and 2 giant hills that I don’t have to do tomorrow. Unfortunately, knowing Christopher, we’ll find some extra hills to climb to make up for it… And that will put my new found positive attitude to the test…but I will overcome:)
We woke up to the familiar sound of pitter patter on our tent roof. The only thing different about today, was I didn’t care. If it’s going to rain everyday this summer, I’m not letting that ruin my bike trip. So with this new found POSITIVE attitude, I put on my new favorite outfit – my rain gear – and started our day by cycling ten miles into Astoria OR. The 4mile bridge into Oregon turned out to be less treacherous than expected due to construction. 
