6-30-09 To 7-1-09

It’s July 3rd, and I am in our room in Eureka. We have not had good luck finding Wi-Fi. Below are two posts I completed off-line. After we get settled, I will blog about the last two days.

6-30-09

80 Miles!

Humbug Campground, South of Port Orford (Blogging off-line)

So we head off on Seven Devils Road. Each “devil” is a hill. We get about half way and the grinding noise is back. We stop and start to look around and the crank comes off. This is not good. Called the bike shop back in North Bend and he says if he cannot fix it, he can have parts FedEx’d from Eugene. So we head back. Some people give us a ride down the hill saving some miles. We get back on the bike (it works if we are careful) The wind is howling. We make it to Moe’s Bike Shop. Al fixes our bike right away.

Decision Time. We have already ridden 20 miles. We have 50+ miles to go. What do we do? Well, we have lunch.

We head south on Hwy 101, not by the map sending us to Seven Devils Road again. This way, though, has three killer hills that never seem to end. My least favorite sign is “Passing Lane Ahead” - that means a hill is coming. My favorite sign is “ Right Lane Ends” meaning the climb is almost over. We just keep riding. There are a couple of possible camping options before our intended destination but we keep peddling. We stopped in Port Orford for dinner makings and ride the remaining 7 miles counting each mile marker as we go. Our new biking friends are amazed to see us. With the backtracking and side trips, we logged 81 miles for the day! We are tired. Dinner, then bed. Only fifty something miles tomorrow!

7-2-09 (Morning)

Sitting in the campground (Harris Beach State Park - Outside Brookings, OR) while everybody gets ready.

It was a long day yesterday. A long 4 mile hill with grades up to 7%. We stopped a lot on the way up catching our breath. There were many “smaller” hills. That dreaded “passing lane” sign came up often. The wind was up and in our face most of the time, so down hills were cold and scary. There was a lot of beautiful scenery until the fog rolled in. No point in stopping at all of the view points when you can’t see. Ev asked if we were having fun yet!

We kept in contact with Doug & Jan most of the day. They drove down the coast, stopping to see some sights. We got into camp and they were close behind. It was good to see them. We had dinner and planned our next ride.

I thought we were riding 62 miles today, but I did not count getting to the California border. It’s 7 more miles. We plan to ride the whole way. There are supposed to be a couple of tough climbs. Jan will have our heavy gear and drive in the camper. Plan B is to stop riding at some point and load the bikes on the camper.

We have to stick to our schedule because of reservations.

Our new friend, Pat, is riding down to Santa Cruz from Washington. We have stayed with him the last 3 nights. He is going to use the “Sag Wagon” to carry some of his gear too. He had considered riding only 35 miles today, but after Doug’s offer for Jan to carry some of his gear, he is going for it.