~300 miles

Alex: Well we did it.  We dumped the bikes off at a bike shop to be shipped back to us and picked up a Hertz one way rental to San Francisco.  It was after noon before we got on our way.  Our plan was to drive down via the same route that we would have been biking had we continued on bikes.

Our biking maps had laid out a “lost coast” alternate route that looked interesting so we decided to drive that to see what that was like.  Let me just say that it was a good thing we didn’t go that way on our bikes.  It would have been the end of our equipment, and our bikes wouldn’t have survived either.  Monster hills and a bad curvy road conditions would have done us in.  Realizing that this 50 mile detour was going to take us 3 hours to drive, we turned around and headed back to 101.  We had a lot of miles to cover and a lot to see in a day.

We drove through the Avenue of the Giants.  Impressively huge trees everywhere.  After a while it was like “how many huge trees can you look at?”  They seemed to go on and on.  We got back on 101 and headed for hwy 1 along the coast.

The drive along Hwy 1 was spectacular.  Similar to many of our coastal rides from the last week.  Lots of ups and downs, lots of twists and turns, lots of surf and cliffs.  We were noting as we were driving how difficult and long a ride this would have been on the bike. We stopped in Mendocino for coffee and pastries (no longer in training).

As the sun was setting, we pulled over and walked to the edge of the cliff to watch the sun set.  As the sun was going down, Steve spotted some whales spouting water as they came up for air.  It was the perfect ending to a great day.  We couldn’t have scripted it better.

We had about another hour or 2 before San Francisco.  Driving hwy 1 in the dark wasn’t as fun.  We enjoyed a late dinner in Sausolito grabbed a hotel in Mill Valley.  Tomorrow morning we’ll drop off the rental car and head out on foot.

Steve; This was our last day riding, and we wanted to savor it.  Unfortunately, it was the windiest day yet, and that made things unsettling, and at times, very difficult.  We left Orick after having breakfast and some devotional time.  Today’s route kept us off Hwy 101, and we were glad for that.  A scenic road along the coast yielded some great views, but required us to traverse some unpaved sections.  Late in the day, our route took us into some dairy pastures where we braved, La Corrida de Vacas (the running of the cows).  Unlike its Spanish counterpart, we were never in any real danger (cow #206 took some special interest in my dirty laundry as she sniffed my trailer).  We finished in Eureka at the Lost Coast Brewery where I am finishing up the blog for the cycling portion of the trip.

Tomorrow, we are shipping our bikes back home and renting a car.  We will travel down to San Franciso along the path we would have cycled.  We are glad for the transition to 4 wheels.

Alex: The cycling trip has been great!  I’ve never done anything like this before and I found myself enjoying each day in its own way.  The riding was hard at times but always satisfying in some way.  The last couple of days I even looked forward to some of the climbs.  Once you get going, it actually starts to feel good (I know, it’s sick).  My body adapted to the days of riding (all except my butt which still hurts).  Steve and I have enjoyed great fellowship and comradery throughout the trip.  We’ve enjoying each other and we’ve had a good time joking around and laughing about our strange experiences.

Physically and emotionally I think we’re done with the cycling portion of the trip.  We could keep going and, if we had the time, I’m sure we’d make it to San Francisco without any problems.  Since Eureka is the last bigger city that we encounter, this is where we need to make the transition.  Looking back, I’m satisfied with all of the miles that we’ve covered…we’ve got a lot of pedal strokes behind us.  We’ve been really blessed with this opportunity.  On the 2nd day, someone told us that it was nice to be rich so that we could do this.  At first I wanted to say “we’re not rich”.  But as I reflected on that, I had to agree that we were very blessed to be able to take the
time and be able to experience this trip.  While this particular adventure takes time and resources, I also realize that there are many other adventures that we can take in life that don’t require time and money…just the desire to make it happen.

One thing I know…that when Steve and I are together, anything can happen.  The biking portion is now complete.  But the adventure continues for a few more days.

Steve: We got a late start out of Crescent City, and faced a pretty tough challenge right out of the box, a 4 mile climb.  The morning fog was still lingering as we climbed into Redwoods National Park. The park was the site where George Lucas filmed the Endor sequences in Return of the Jedi.  It looked just like the movie.  We rode passed a little lady who had parked next to the road.  She was some kind of a wiccan shaman and sprinkled some mysterious pixie dust around the body of a dead raven along the road.  Welcome to California. We stopped for drinks in Klamath and told the clerk we were a little disappointed in the redwoods. She said that those were just the “highway redwoods” and the really good ones were still to come.  She was right.  We entered XXXX park and finished our 2nd big climb.  At the top, we met a retired couple from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They were travelling all over the west for a year and a half.  It was their lifelong dream.  From the pinnacle, the road sloped downwards slowly and we coasted through 7 miles of truly magnificent trees.  We climbed up for a photo next to a particularly large one. The ground was like a sponge.  All the sounds in the forest were hushed by the wet ground and massive trees. Redwoods are now protected, and I’m glad for that. seeing all the clear cutting of timber first hand has been eye opening.  It seems that our appetite for things so far out-paces nature’s ability to produce them, that you have to wonder why we persist.  In the case of redwoods, it takes thousands of years to grow a big tree.  I doubt many businesses have generated a 1000-year plan to replace those they take.  We heard the same message from our host Tim, the retired commercial fisherman in Port Orford.  He talked about the good old days when you could fish for whatever you wanted without any restrictions.  He was clear cutting the fishery, and now the fish are gone, and so too is Port Orford.

Somewhere, the Dr. Suess’ Lorax is nodding his head in sad agreement.

Alex: I don’t have anything to add.  Steve said it all.

Alex: First order of business was to visit the Brookings bike shop and pick up some new inner tubes.  Since we knew we had a short distance that was mostly flat, we took our time getting going in the morning.

Just a few miles out of Brookings, we crossed the California border.  It’s funny, things just seemed different once in California.  It seemed a bit drier, fewer blackberry bushes, and it smelled different.  The country was different…riding through farmland with the sound of sprinklers going.

Once in Crescent City, the route had us riding next to the ocean.  We stopped for a while to rest on the beach.  It was cold and windy (pretty typical from what we hear from the locals).  We were checked in the hotel and about to leave for dinner when Steve realized that his wallet was missing.

We backtracked through the day and figured that Steve must have left it at the Lucky 7 gas station 20 miles back.  We called up there and thankfully someone had turned it in (minus the cash).  At least his license and credit cards were still there.

Not wanting to bike back up there tomorrow we decided that we’d just get a cab to take us up there and back.  This is where the adventure begins.

Steve: Richard, our cab driver, was a long-time resident of Crescent City and a fun conversationalist.  We explained about our trip and suggested that he might want to try to be colorful as an account of our cab ride would be placed on our blog.  I retrieved my wallet without incident.  I had my license; I lost my cash, but it appeared that nodbody had used my credit cards.  Sucks, but could have been much worse.

On our way back to Crescent City, Richard received a call to pick somebody else up.  He asked if we minded sharing the ride with this lady.  We didn’t mind. Richard said she’d probably be thankful enough she’d flash us.  Yeah, right, whatever.   She lived near the Pelican Bay correctional facility, a level 5 prison that once housed Charles Manson.  When we pulled into her driveway, a large woman, we’ll just call her “Rosie” because she looked a lot like Roseanne Barr, weaved her way to the car and poured herself into the front seat.  We were off,  some of us more off than others.  She brought her own booze…something in a fruit juice bottle.  I didn’t need a drink; I was getting wasted on her breath alone.  Fortunately for me, I was sitting directly behind her.  She noticed the chiseled surfer sitting next to me (that’d be Alex).  She hit on him for a few seconds, then noticed that I was there too.  I tried to hide.  At a traffic light in town, we pulled next to another cab from the same company.  “Is that Bob?”, Rosie sloshed.  “I’m going to flash him”.  “No, no, don’t do that” was the unanimous chorus from the men in our cab.  Disaster averted, for now.  We finally arrived at our destination, The Chart House, a noted fish and chips restaurant.  As I got out of the car, I heard Richard tell Rosie, “I promised them you’d flash them.”  “No, no, that’s okay”, I said.  She called us back to cab door, and like sheep, we went.  With a deft and well practiced move, she popped her top off her shoulders, exposing her semi-private parts.  It was like a train wreck; I didn’t want to look, but the whole train was splayed out in front of me.  I turned away quickly with a dismissive, “Thank you.”, and hoped I still had an appetite for dinner.

“Life happens pretty fast. If you blink, you might miss it” – Ferris Buehler

“I wish I blinked” – Steve Gaetjens

Steve: Oha got us out of the house at 7:00am and dropped us in the center of Port Orford.  After breakfast, we walked over to the True Value to find an intertube or two.  No luck.  We bought a patch kit and starting patching.  Today’s ride was our hottest, longest and hilliest.  Lunch was in Gold Beach.  Just outside town, we had a 3 mile climb over Cape Sebastian.  I got another flat (glass).

Alex: This ride was also the most spectacular.  Coastal cliffs, winding roads, beaches everywhere.  This is what had envisioned when we talked about riding down the oregon coast.  Just simply beautiful.  We could have easily stopped every mile to take pictures because there were so many beautiful views.  While this was a long ride, the beauty kept us going and our morale high.

Steve: We left North Bend under gray skies and spitting rain and proceeded out into the country.  Unlike most days, we were not going to be travelling on Hwy 101, but on a country road named Seven Devils Road.  The “devils” were hills, nasty ones. A cyclist had written messages on the pavement telling you which devil you were climbing.  We were glad to read “Devil #6?” followed by a stick figure with a question mark over
his head. “Devil #7″ was a relief.  When we turned down a side road, the message was “Now the fun begins!”.  We rolled down a swervy mountain road, whizzing past logging trucks.  My bike tends to roll much better than Alex’s, so I was out front.  I stopped on a flat section to wait for him.  I waited, and waited. Finally, I turned back and rode up the hill to find him.  He’d had a flat and was repairing it.  I had already had a flat earlier that morning.  We had 2 spare tubes along, so no problems.

We stopped in Bandon for lunch along the docks.  The sun and wind came out. We started out for Port Orford, 27 miles south.  We rode down Hwy 101; I was leading.  After a climb, I would stop and wait for Alex to catch up.  Then, once again, he failed to show up.  I turned around and biked back to find him again fixing a flat tire. I decided to ride behind him for the rest of the day.  Soon after that decision, Alex blew another tire.  We repaired that with a patch kit he had.  As the sun was setting, Alex’s patch started to fail, making it 5 flat tires in a single day. We still had 13 miles to go, no assurance that we could patch Alex’s tire sufficiently, and sore butts.  Time to put our thumbs in the air and see what would happen next.

Something did.

Whatever description I would offer of the kindly grandmother that picked us up will fall woefully short.  As I sit here over breakfast, my mind is still whirring trying to boil down our experiences over the next 12 hours into some kind of narrative.  It’s not easy, folks.

Alex: I’ll give it a try.  She and her husband offerred to put us up for the night.  It was a kind offer and combined with wanting to save a few bucks over going to a hotel, we accepted.  Tim is an older retired fisherman who got in a work-related accident years ago.  He’s a boisterous fellow full of stories that kept us up late.  Marlene (aka mom, aka Oha) is a sweet lady who can’t refuse a wounded animal.  We heard stories of the wounded raptors that she tearfully nursed back to health.

We were very grateful for the ride and their gracious hospitality.  So in the morning when I saw Steve (cooper witching sticks in hand) and Marlene slowly walking around the yard looking for water sources, I just went back to getting my things together.  If you’re ever able to get Steve to sit down with you and give you the full account, it’ll be worth the time.

Alex: Today’s ride was very different from yesterday’s ride.  Instead of riding along the coast, we rode inland just a little bit.  The topography consisted of rolling wooded hills with several small lakes.  The dunes were on our right the whole ride but we didn’t see them except for a few times because of the trees.  Scenically, there wasn’t much to stop and take pictures of so today’s entry is lacking those.

We’ve been on Hwy 101 the last 2 days and we’re ready for one of the side roads for a bit.  Hwy 101 runs pretty fast with lots of logging trucks.

The bridge into North Bend is really high and the wind was strong and gusty.  Even just walking our bikes across the bridge freaked us out a little bit.  That was the least fun moment of the day.  Right after crossing the bridge, we witnessed the North Bend SWAT surround a beat up minivan and arrest an older descheveled woman.  In the following hours, we heard several times the sounds of the North Bend police sirens.

Steve: Today’s ride was fun because it was flatter than usual, and we rode much faster than normal.  As we go along, we’re getting stronger and stronger, so I like to keep pushing harder (I’m sick).  Maybe 2 more days here in Oregon before we reach California.  We’re starting to plan the rides through the redwood forest.  I’ve been looking forward to that most of all.

The legs are in pretty good shape, but the fanny is showing signs of cracking (drums).  Getting on the bike seat is becoming a small ritual, like a mother bird adjusting herself over a clutch of eggs (sparrow and ostrich in this case), I have to find the sweet spot.  One false move and it’s “YAHTZEE!”

(Day 6 post note: After dinner we walked down to the pier.  The night was quiet save for the barking of sea lions.  We were treated to an exhibition of local crabbers.)

Alex: Wow!  This was our favorite day of riding so far.  That extra 1/2 day of rest is what we needed.  We started off the day feeling good.  Just a few medium sized hills made today’s ride very managable.  The views today were magnificent.  Beach, beach, and more beach.  Beautiful views of the coastline.  Waves crashing on rock outcroppings.  Lots of wildlife and seals.

Alex: After my navigational errors from the previous day, there was much discussion about what should exactly occur today.  Since there was only 1 medium-sized hill in the 50-60 miles from Lincoln City, Steve was pushing for a regular day.  Well, we got underway and soon found ourselves facing a pretty stiff head-wind.  I also found that my pain tolerance was not what it was the previous 3-4 days, and what should have been a fairly easy ride was turning into a nasty one.  I tempted Steve with the idea of a comfy chair in a coffee shop in Newport, and he bit.  So here we are right now in the Newport Starbucks.  Good thing because about 1/2 hour after we got here it started raining pretty consistently and it has been going strong for several hours.

If we’re behind on the blog a couple days, it’s because the hotels we’re staying at don’t always have WiFi so we have to wait until the next opportunity to post our update and pictures.

(Some internal thoughts)  Riding along today, I was thinking about all of the landscape that we’ve seen over the last week.  I’m simply struck by God’s artistic beauty and faithfulness to his creatures.  His provision is everywhere from the food just growing on the side of the road to the dense forests that He provides for our use.  The trip has been a collection of special spiritual moments.

Steve: We’ve starting encountering other groups of riders.  I rode along with a couple that had left Seattle the same day we did.  They were headed to Santa Barbara.  Bike trekking is a new world for me, and I’m learning how it’s done.  As I was riding through a green valley, the road was lined on both sides by large hedges of blackberries.  Each hedge was over 6 feet tall, and equally wide, fully loaded with fruit.  More blackberries than anybody could ever pick.  It struck me that there are parts of the world where there is hunger, but here, fruit grows in a vast surplus, just wild next to the road.  I was reminded of a section of scripture (I can’t remember the reference), but God is responding to a challenge about His goodness.  God responds by saying that He is so good that he sends streams into lands to water trees and plants where nobody lives.  God loves to make things grow, for His own enjoyment, even when nobody will notice.  Riding through that valley, I felt like I was peeking into a private place where God loved to make things grow.  God is good, all the time.

Steve: I bonked out today and feel like complete crap. Bonking, for those of you without a cycling dictionary, is when you run out of water and/or food and your legs go dead.  You get completely exhausted…you’re not out of breath, just out of everything else. Dinner was pretty good pizza and that has put me back straight.

Alex: Another sunny day.  We set out from Tillamook at around 10:00am.  Our route map showed two options for getting to Netarts: a) a short direct route (about 5 miles) and b) a scenic route along the coast (about 15 miles).  I talked Steve into taking the longer route.  While I was hoping for an oceanside drive, what we got was a series of brutal hills with very little ocean view.  These hills plus the 2 monster hills we
encountered later in the day, made for a difficult ride.  I was surprised we got in as many miles as we did.  Save for that last hill which completely wore us out we were doing pretty good for the day.

We did see some cool stuff along the way.  At one point we came out of the trees into what looked like a sandy plains, where people were riding dune buggys everywhere.  There were a few nice lookout points where you can look up the coast to see miles of ocean coastline.  We did make a beach stop for a while where we walked in the water and rested on the sand.

Physically and emotionally, we’re a little tired.  We’re talking about taking an easier day tomorrow (Newport is only 25 miles)…we’ll have to see how that goes.  We’re realizing that without at least 60-70 mile per day pace (and a few shortcuts), we’re not going to make it to San Francisco before we run out of time.  We may have to rent a car for the last 100-150 miles or so.  We’re still just taking it one day at a time.