61.4km out of 1364km so far

Embrace the rain George, it’s part of the adventure! It seems like the more it rains, the easier it is to deal with it. It rained hard for most of the night, or at least that’s what it sounded like in my tent, acting like a drum with every drop. Rain and sun kept playing games with us all day long. It started raining again as we were packing up the tents, just to stop 10 minutes later. While we went to see the dunes, the sun came out, so we thought we should let the tent dry in the sun to dry. But by the time we got back the rain had started again, so that was no use at all. The dunes were spectacular though and someone could spend a whole day there hiking all around the area. Apparently people use sandboards there which sounds like a cool idea, but I am not so sure about the motor vehicles that we also saw in the area.

Leaving our campground spot

The near by dunes

As we continued south, we spotted an interesting viewpoint so we stopped to check it out and have a snack. As we stopped the hot sun came out and this time a big portion of the sky was blue. So we took our gear out again. Until we finished with the snacks and talking to a fellow cyclist, everything dried out as the rain started again. We were so lucky to take advantage of such a short window and we managed to dry everything. On the road the rain hit us really hard, but I was glad that my tent was at least dry.

The viewpoint. It took 10 minutes for these clouds to hit us

The rest of the road took us through some forestry hills and a couple of small towns. We stopped at Reedsport for a little break. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant where they served us an epic sized burrito, enough to please our cycling stomachs. Then a quick coffee and internet stop at the nearby McDonalds.

Interesting how they leave a strip of trees by the road.

At Gardiner

Crossing the bridge to Reedsport

The weather still kept been indecisive. The warm sun would come out for 10 minutes followed by yet another hard rain. Maybe I should have invested to a waterproof cover for my camera, so I could take more photos on the way, in days like these.

Excavator doing its thing

We decided to end the day just before North Bend. There were a few campsite in the area so we were trying to decide which one to use. We stopped at the KOA, which happened to be the first one on the road. After a long conversation with the owners, we got convinced that this would be by far our best option. They charged $6 for bikers and apart from the typical KOA comforts of showers, laundry, wifi and dining area, they let us put the tent within another big tent to protect from the rain. After spending the past couple of days in the open, this fells like a 4 star accommodation!

Not bad at all!

85km out of 1302km so far

Embrace the rain. That’s what I said to myself at 5am when the rain started again. It had stopped by the time we got up, but the exterior of the tent was wet enough. As me and Garry started packing up, a partial sun came out briefly, so we spread and hang the tents in an attempt to dry them out. It kind of worked, but the sun was keep hiding, so we decided to pack them half dry and start our day. Half an hour later it started raining again and the wind kept blowing the opposite direction with us, but not as hard as the day before.

Garry on the lead

At around noon, we crossed the bridge of Waldport and stopped in the town for some early lunch and internet access. You can’t go wrong with all you can eat pasta, salad and garlic rolls, so we stuffed as much calories and carbs as possible to keep us going until our destination.

$9 all you can clog your arteries

The bridge leading to Waldport

I noticed my pedals and some other parts of the bike were a bit rusty from last day’s rain. On the way out of the town we stopped to a local co-op bike shop to spray some WD-40 on the rusty parts. We moved on and it didn’t take long to lose Garry. We were both stopping on every other corner to either take photos, or put raincoats on. We both knew our next stop, so I was hoping to meet him again at the campsite.

The road today was mostly right by the coastal cliffs. The scenery once again breathtaking with the mist and rain adding a nice atmosphere. At times the rain became a little too heavy, but luckily we humans are waterproof. It’s funny, two days now I am trying to dry my towel and some other clothes. I didn’t want to put them together with the rest of the dry clothes, so I hang them at the back of my bike, hoping that the sun will eventually come out. Of course it didn’t and these items have now been double washed.

One of the two highlights of the day, was this section of the coast, where the waves are so strong, they lift up white sand from the bottom and crash on the rocks. It took almost like waves of mud. It would be fun to swim in there, but it looked a bit dangerous

White sandy mud

House with muddy view

More mud rushing through narrow rocks

Cottage sold

Cyclist friendly tunnel

Ocean waves

Second highlight was sea lions. There is a whole tourist attraction where you go and visit some of their caves. I didn’t bother with that, but I managed to see some of these magnificent animals from a great distance. Incredible how they go about their days in such a hostile environment.

3 sea lions

8 humans photographing the sea lions

Stop for a quick one

Crossing the bridge right before Florence

I got to the city of Florence around 5pm and after a short stop for supplies, I cycled a further 5km south to locate the campground. It seems to be behind some massive dunes, so I will probably be checking these out next morning.

Some of the dunes

As I was trying to decide on where to pitch the tent, there comes Garry. I thought he would be well ahead of me, but somehow he got carried away with his photography. We put our tents on wet ground, had some dinner and called it an early night in.