Winchester Bay, Oregon - part 2

End of the Tour...

Susan sustained a broken wrist in a fall from her bike while we scouting our camp site at Discovery RV Park on Wednesday. Freak incident, really; we were going about .001 mph and her bike bumped mine and down she went, breaking her wrist trying to catch her fall. The irony is that it was the long and steep 40 mph descents that caused me the concern for a fall, not a stroll thru a campground!

shit happens. we had a great adventure while it lasted. we will finish this tour in the future from where left off ...

back home to re-group. we have many ideas for other adventures this summer !

and, as our team motto goes: improvise, adapt, and overcome.  ciao folks, and thanks for following along.

Winchester Bay, Oregon - part 1

Dave and Roberta from Winnipeg

 

 

 

  

 

Seals sunning on the rocks below us

 

 

 

 

After leaving the park we rode through Florence and ran into Dave and Roberta!  We all stopped a little diner type place and had a late breakfast.  It was great to visit and learn about how Canada and US are the same yet different.  Then once again we were on our way. We hit Winchester Bay at the end of the day.  We stopped at a convenience store for supplies.  This town is so small they don't even has a gas station. This is where I fall off my extremely slow moving bicycle and break my wrist.  I was sure I had just bruised it and had Donnie get me some ice to help with the swelling while he set up the entire camp on his own.  After an hour it was obvious there was something more serious going on.  Donnie got the campground owner to drive us to an emergency room in Reedsport.  I was seen immediately and x-rays confirmed I had broken it.  After some drugs and the doctor manipulating the bones back into place, he gave me a splint to immobilize it and made me an appointment to see an orthoepedic surgeon the next morning in Coos Bay. We caught the one taxi in town back to the campground for the night.  We made arrangements for him to pick us up the next morning the drive us to Coos Bay. Long story short....I went in for surgery that day.  Donnie arranged for a van/SUV to transport us, our gear and the bikes to Los Angeles to pick up the truck.  We stayed a couple days with Donnie's friends again then took off for Houston.   So ended our epic adventure we had pain stakenly planned for months!  We have already decided we will pick up where we left off in Winchester Bay Oregon....so stay tuned.

 

 

 

Carl Washburne State Park, Oregon

 

 

 

 

 

 
We stayed up pretty late last night sitting around a campfire with Dave and Roberta.  We met another tourist that came in just as dusk hit, Justin, who was traveling alone while his girlfriend and her parents drove an RV up the coast.  He has never done this before so he was hungry for some road tips, which everyone was happy to give him. He, in exchange provided us with a bottle of whiskey that went down really smooth in the drizzle.

We all parted early the next morning and made our way down the coast through another tunnel.  It is so strange riding in one of them.  Cyclists have to stop and push a button the flash warning lights that bicycles are in the tunnel but you are still hoping a car won't come through since they are very narrow.

Rolled into Carl Washburne State Park fairly late, just as the sun was going down.  Got our tent up quickly and headed for the showers. 

Met a man that was touring on his bike with his dog in tow in a toddler carrier.  I think I have seen everything now. 

Saw that our friends from Dave and Roberta were also there but didn't catch up with them since it was too late in the day.

   

 

 

 

Beverly Beach State Park, Oregon

 

 

 

 

Pebbles instead of shells wash up on the beach

 

 

octopus trees

 

Day 11 = 7.4 miles

Total = 378.3

Today will be our first rest day.  We stayed at a hotel with the nicest managers last night.  

It felt like they had invited us to their home.  If you are ever in Depoe Bay, stay at the 

Hotel Pacifique.  The town is known for whale watching, but we didn't get to see any.  

I saw another bald eagle, so that was   cool. We cycled to Beverly Beach State Park to 

have some quiet enjoyable surroundings on our off day.  We got here midday and took 

the opportunity to walk along the beach.  They don't have shells on these beaches... the 

tide brings in rocks!  Not what I was expecting....

We got some rain after we checked out the beach.  We were in the hiker/biker section of the

campground so met another couple touring on bikes.  David and Roberta from Winnipeg Canada.  

They started in Vancouver and are going to San Francisco. It's drizzling right now...we 

got hot dogs to cook later when this rain stops and beers on ice.....   

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Lincoln Beach

Day 10 = 35.4 miles
Total = 370.9 miles

First of all, Happy Father's Day to my dad, Monty Murphy and Donnie's, Donald Shelton Sr. - and to all father's reading our blog.

We got a really late start today. We couldn't decide whether to take a rest day or not. Finally we decided to press on to a town closer go a state park we want to spend more than a few hours at. The sun was shining and it would be nice to ride in it for a change instead of the gray clouds we typically have. We only had one really steep long climb today and after that we followed the coast from one beach tourist town to another.

We settled in for the evening in Depoe Bay....splurging on a room with a fireplace and access to a hot tub.

We got far enough today that the plan is to ride the few miles to the state park, check in and get most of the day to explore (on foot).

Pacific City, Oregon

Cape Lookout

Sandlake Recreational Area

Day 9 = 29.9 miles
Total = 335.5 miles

Tough ride today....lots of long steep hills. Saw a bald eagle!!!! I can mark that one off my bucket list. Beautiful scenery. We rode through Sandlake Recreation Area - it is a really cool area where high winds blow beach sand up the mountains to create sand dunes. Residents have to have a permit to remove sand from their property.

Ended the day at Pacific City. Someone left a comment yesterday about this place. We stopped in at the local micro-brewery and had pizza and beer. We are staying at Webb County Park. They have these adorable black rabbits EVERYWHERE. We appreciate and love everyone's comments...please sign your name to them - they are showing published from "anonymous" so we have no idea who is leaving them.

Considering taking a day off tomorrow....we aren't tearing up the miles but we are really working hard for each and every one of them.

Tillamook, Oregon

just outside Cannon Beach

on the way downhill to Manzanita

> Day 8 = 43.9 miles
> Total = 305.6 miles
>
> We started our morning with a breakfast of bagels and peanut butter with jam.....yummy! We began with three bagels which changed to two thanks to a very bold chipmunk. The bagel was bigger than he was. But he didn't keep it all, there was a huge bluejay that had eyes on it.
>
> Met another bicycle tourist today, Robert from San Diego. He is out on his own following pretty much the same route we are for a while. He is riding for cancer. He is trying to raise money so check out his web page "Cycle2cure".
>
> Beautiful landscapes today. We had one really long climb...but the screaming downhill made it all worthwhile. That, and one of the best BLT's I've had in the city at the bottom-Manzanita. We were starving and fortunately this pub was one of the few places open at 1pm (do people not eat lunch in this town???). Donnie also raved about the salmon chowder they had.
>
> We continued on through a nice flat stretch (for a change) and ended up in Tillamook. They are famous for cheese so naturally dinner had to be mac 'n cheese. It was delicious...my compliments to chef Donnie. In fact I want to thank him for a number of things: his patience waiting for me to climb all these hills, his carrying most of our supplies (easily over 70lbs) and most of all his knowledge and experience that is making this so much fun.
>

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Say what???? !!!!!

Cannon Beach

Donnie and Chris

Day 7 = 28.8 miles
Total = 261.7 miles

Went to the local bike shop that was nice enough to receive Donnie's fedex from REI. The name was Bikes and Beyond and I highly recommend everyone to do business with them if you are in the Astoria area. I also got a new handlebar bag. My other one just wasn't staying secure enough to not rattle constantly.

On the way out of town we ran into another cycle tourist.....a guy by himself, Chris. He was going down to San Francisco. He was having some mechanical issues so we directed him to our new fav bike shop.

Nice ride south. Looking at the elevation map of the ride today, we were expecting a very steep climb on part of the route....turns out we should have paid more attention to the distances and not just the rise. It wasn't particularly steep but it was long. I only stopped to rest then kept onward. I didn't walk at all......progress!!!

Settled into a really nice camping spot (with laundry for a bonus) with bunnies and chipmunks running around. Went into town for supplies and dinner. Ran into Chris from this morning again! Small world.

Astoria, Oregon

Just off the ferry

hot chocolate and coffee - yummy!!!!!

Day 6 = 32.5 miles
Total = 232.9 miles

We were excited to move into a new state today. Started the day taking the ferry across the Columbia River. We met the nicest couple while on the ferry. They had a summer home here and showed us pics of the 20 lb. salmon he caught off his deck! Earlier we made fast friends with a chunky black cat while waiting to get on. Reminded us of our pups and cats back home. We are so lucky that we can be gone this long and know everything back home is great.

Lots of ups and downs today.  We just barely got our raingear on before getting rained on and off for much of the day.  Some long climbs up but the long downhills were appreciated ! Had lunch in Knappa Junction and continued westward. We stopped to chat with an Oregon State Trooper who was parked on the side of the road and gave us a map of the state. Between the ferry ride and this cop, we got a great first impression of this state!

Rolled into Astoria....got a hotel room for the night. Have to pick up Donnie's new cycling shoes tomorrow morning that he ordered from REI.

Cathlamet, Washington

Day 5 = 38.1 miles
Total = 200.4 miles

Reminiscent of 'My Cousin Vinny', we had incessant train traffic near our camp all night. nice. still slept hard !

Today we rode from Castle Rock, WA to Cathlamet, WA, a ride of about 38 miles. We knew from our map that this would be a pretty hilly and challenging ride, but we set out to get it done after coffee and an early brunch stop. As expected, longer hills early on, but none too steep. In addition, we had numerous weather changes throughout the day; we had a pretty steady rain at one point. We stopped on a sweet downhill near Cold Creek to chat with a local rider named Art who was quite conversant in local bike touring tips. One thing we noticed along the way were the many small waterfalls coming down through the hills we were climbing. Lots of continued pretty and densely forested land.

Once again Susan did wonderfully with all the climbing and I have to say I'm very impressed with her improvement, thus far. We've gone five days now, not too many miles, but we've had lots of challenging riding to make up for it.

We ended up today at an RV park with cheap tent camping. We have been doing well thus far with cheap camping accommodations. we will enter Oregon in the morning for our first state line crossing and we expect to reach Astoria, Oregon by tomorrow afternoon. I have had a clothing malfunction over the last two days: my cycling shoes have begun to literally fall apart so I had to make an Internet order from REI to have new cycle shoes waiting for me at a bike shop in Astoria. No problemo.

Coal Creek General Store

Castle Rock, Washington

Day 4 = 45.9 miles
Total = 162.3 miles

Turns out our sweet RV park we stayed at last night was right next to a railroad crossing where they have to whistle at the crossing......AT 5am!!!!!  We still slept well and were resdy to start the day.  Had a couple of pretty steep hills today.... also some long climbs. I would loved to say I motored right up all of them, but there were a couple I just had to walk up.  

We ran into another touring couple going north starting from San Francisco (Christine and Ian).  They were on a tandem and were really efficiently loaded up for the trek.  We wished them well and off we went again. After they left we realized we should have warned them about the really nasty steep hill we had just come down.  It was exhilarating downhill - I got to 39 mph!  It was completely unrideable going up.

We finished up the day in another sweet RV park just north of Castle Rock.   Let's hope there aren't trains......

Mt. St. Helens - what is left of it

Just beautiful countryside

Centralia, Washington

Day 3 = 60.2 miles
Total = 116.4 miles

Enjoyed the unplanned hotel.  Made a Safeway run for fresh bagels and we were on our way.  On the way to Elma saw a deer in the middle of the road.  If we had been in a car that would have been an "oh shit " moment but on the bike it's a "oh wow" one.  Ran into another couple touring on bikes from Australia (jill and bruce) they were headed south to north.  We traded some logistics and experience info then wished them good travels and we were on our way again

We were greeted in Elma by the air raid siren going off.  I realized we hadn't watched the news or seen a paper in days.  It could have been the end of the world for all we knew.  Had lunch at a little burger joint since every other restaurant in town was either closed for good or at least just for Sunday.

Nice ride through a valley to Centralia where we stopped to camp in an RV park for the evening.  Not as scenic as the state parks but it has a great shower and laundry facilities.  First chance we have had since leaving on amtrak for laundry.   

From Donnie:  I just want to give props to my honey Susan for her cycling chops especially with hills starting out.  We are having a great time riding and camping.  We are well on our way along our great adventure.

A christmas tree farm outside Oakville

having a great time

Shelton, Washington

Day 2 = 43.2 miles

Total = 56.2 miles

An old mill with a water wheel

Welcome to Shelton!


 day started out a little chilly but we quickly heated up and began shedding layers as we started hitting a few hills. We had a nice flat ride along Hood Canal watching people pick oysters. Ended the day in Shelton. There are no campgrounds here so we had a mexican dinner and stayed at the Shelton Inn.

Belfair State Park, Washington

Day 1 = 13.0 miles
Total = 13.0 miles

Our first full day of riding ended at Belfair State Park.   It was a really busy section of road with lots of cars.  We had a few small hills today but got through fairly easy.  I can really feel the weight of the panniers while riding up the hills...downhill is awesome!  The bike is very stable loaded.  Nice campsite next to a brook/creek.  Sleeping to the sound of running water is very relaxing.

Bremerton, Washington

We missed our bus connection to Vancouver last night because our train was 3 hours late getting into Seattle.   Not to worry....our team motto is improvise, adapt and overcome.  We took a room a few blocks from the train station.  This morning we walked a few more blocks (we noticed a surprising unumber of homeless along the way) rented a car, drove with the bikes to the Canada border, returned the car to Seattle and ended the day at Illinee State Park.  One of the last of the "old growth forests".