I typed this in my tent last night and posted it today since I didn't have internet where I was.
Waldport Oregon to Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park (4
miles south of Florence, Oregon) 39 miles for the day.
Another fabulous day of riding the Oregon Coast! I was kind of slow getting up this
morning. I expect it will still take
some time for my body to get used to what I’m putting it through. I was a little sore, but not as bad as I
thought I would be. I got up, had
breakfast, packed up, and headed down the road.
After a few miles all of my aches and pains were gone. I was back on the road and happy to be there!
Here's (Insert bike name here) taking a rest after a long hill climb
This is the Haceda Head Lighthouse
Yesterday I ended up getting a little more sunburned that I
thought. I didn’t really notice it until
I was laying in my sleeping bag and my legs, back of my neck, and my face were
really warm. I looked in the mirror this
morning and realized, even though it was cloudy most of the day, I should have
put on sunscreen. So today I put it on a
few times throughout the day. Sunburns
can be painful!
Today I rode through some very steep stretches of road with
almost no shoulder for cyclists. Most of
the 39 miles I rode there was plenty of room, but roughly 8 miles I was riding with
about 6 inches of road to myself. Some
of that piece of road I was borrowing from the cars coming up behind me. Most drivers are very courteous and slow down
and move over as much as they can to give me room. Some drivers don’t. I went through my first tunnel today! That was very interesting. At the start of the tunnel there was this
button for cyclists to push that would activate flashing lights and signs to
let drivers know there was a cyclist in the tunnel. I have flashing lights on my bike too, so I
felt pretty good about it. I waited
right at the entrance to the tunnel for about 5 minutes and made my plan for
heading through it as safely as possible.
I got kind of tricky with it. I
figured if I pushed the button and got the lights blinking right when I saw a
car coming they would slow down when they saw me and the flashing lights. Then I figured if they slowed down enough I
would pull out in front of them and let them be right behind me as a warning to
other cars coming from behind. In my head it made perfect sense. I saw a car coming, I pushed the button to
start the lights, the car slowed to almost a stop, I pulled out in front right
into his lane, and he had no choice but to drive 10 mph right behind me all the
way through the tunnel. It worked
perfectly! It was almost like a blocker
in football but in reverse. He was
blocking cars that were coming up from behind.
Once I got through the tunnel I pulled off to the side of the road and
waved at the driver. He waved back
almost like we both knew what we just did together just then. There ended up being four more cars and an RV
right behind him. So I kind of figure
this method eliminated the chance of getting hit by all of those cars and the
RV.
Here is a link to a short video I shot after I made it through the tunnel:
Once I got up to the top of the hill I rested for a little
while before heading down the other side.
On my way down it was very steep and I ended up breaking my speed
record! I hit 36 mph on the way down,
which was super cool because at the very bottom of the hill the speed limit was
35mph. So I was going just as fast as
the cars at this point. They weren’t
even trying to pass me!
This was my view before heading down the hill super fast!
This store was at the bottom of the hill. (Insert bike name here) needed a rest!
After the store I had a fairly long stretch of flat and hot
riding before getting to Florence, Oregon. When I got there I was at about 35
miles for the day. I felt like I could
go further, but looking at the map during lunch I noticed there were too many
campgrounds up the road. There was one
campground 4 miles south, so I headed there, set up camp, and called it a
day. I ended up riding
slightly over 39 miles today.
Here is my route for today. The graph on the bottom shows the elevation of the hills I climbed.
I met four very nice cyclists in
the campground. There was a couple who
were riding a tandem bike from Forest Grove, Oregon, a guy from Santa Maria,
California who was heading south toward home, and a guy that rode north from San
Francisco and tomorrow is heading east from Florence all the way across the
country to the East Coast! I can’t
imagine the summer heat he’s going to have to deal with! No thanks!
I’ll stay on the coast where, as I sit in my tent typing, it is a nice
53 degrees. The high today was in the
upper 60’s and it was perfect!
The tent spaces were very neat little areas cut out of the bushes
This is the view of inside my tent with all my stuff around my sleeping bag
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