Harris Beach State Park

Monday September 30th

The weather turned in our favour!  After a couple days without us, Maggie and Bryan apparently decided to ride with us (more so, Bryan decided to ride with Erin instead of Maggie, and Maggie continued not waiting for anybody but I'm fast enough to keep up with her).  This would be the only day so far that Erin has had the chance to ride with anyone other than me since the first day or two of the trip.  

Harris beach is a considerable distance south (60 miles) and marks the first of a few book days (same distance as the authors of riding the pacific coast) that we did with Bryan and Maggie continuously.  We've done book days before, but always just the two of us (once it was two book days in one! ).  Erin's knee trouble continued despite the now warmth, so we moved her seat forward a bit in the hopes that it would change the angle of torque (though it lessens power) thru her knees.  It helped but further considerations to take advantage of the aero bars (tons of power by laying down almost across the handlebars with forwards facing grips) meant angling the seat forward and kind of messed up the knee improvement.  Still, the concern for Erin's speed and comfort in terms of gear and position is now forefront and being remedied methodically.

The ride was nice, if a bit hilly, and the campground beautiful.  The REDWOODS ARE COMING!  Soon.  For now, we ate dinner at a little mexican style restaurant  (Rigel loves Chile relenno, but dislikes a tamale). And the camp ground has a laundromat!  What a treat to get things clean again.  Because being dirty in dirty clothes gets itchy and sticky and stinky.

On the way out of the campground, we found apples in a tree and harvested them.  Bryan and Maggie resumed riding without us.  

Humbug Mountain State Park

September 27th to September 29th.

We had a plan to stay at Sunset state park and then go to humbug the next night.  We didn't make it to where they stayed though (and missed out on dinner i hear) but the next night we had planned to meet at humbug mountain.  So we set out south and went first to Bandon (not Brandon! ) and met a fellow there that had stayed where bryan and maggie did at sunset state park and confirmed their direction (thanks jeff! ). The road included a momentous hill, but generally pretty rolling and well insulated from the now head wind by trees.  Thank you trees!  The headwind is a tell tale sign, however, which we are now well acquainted with.  More of that soon.

South of Bandon we started coming across Ocean Spray factories and the cranberry road began (the cranberries spill out of the over-filled trucks so that, if one were so inclined, one could eat a pound of cranberries ever half mile by picking up all the spillage).  The hills were okay, the shoulder was okay for the most part too, but the headwind was quite cool and erin was getting a severe ache in her shoulders, knees, and hands.  We stopped and picked up riding tights in Bandon (they cut the wind like a miracle and keep the muscles warm as well as fast drying) and then found Alpaca wool neck warmers along the way too.  The pain continued, but probably was greatly lessened.

The rain was trying to start, though lightly.  We were getting hit with rain right back to Astoria, but now people were giving us warnings about severe winds coming.  Apparently a typhoon in Japan means a pretty good storm (50 mile per hour winds) in Oregon. We were aiming for Humbug, however, and the night was coming.  We ended up riding after dark, down dark winding hilly mountain passes (where the road is partially dropped away into the ocean along the cliff edge) with only our bike lights arriving in a gully/valley of humbug mountain around 7pm. The rain was still threatening to fly though, so we set up a 12 ft by 16 ft tarp we bought and made dinner and hung our food. 

Then the storm hit.

The tarp did stay up despite the winds, but the angles on it changed and the water was draining onto sloped ground and going under the tent.  what a hassle.  Frequent maintenance visits, one complete campsite move, 3 days, max wind speeds of 90 mph in gusts, and a tree that fell on the mountain side 40 meters away or so up the slow.  We have been carrying 2 full (small - 20 litre) panniers of food with us and dipped into them pretty heavily over the weekend.  By monday, though the weather was iffy, the wind was dying down and cabin fever  (under tarp, neck craned, cooking still getting soaked by horizontal rain fever? ) was set in pretty good so we continued on.

Coos Bay

September 26th

We stayed at Honeyman State park next to the dunes and woke up in our forest gloom.  The trees keep out the sun, and so, even though it was clear, the dew and condensation from breathing thru the night really builds up on the tent.  We noticed black spots on the body and fly of the tent from all of the wet we've been thru.  The instructions on the tent say to set up within 8 hours if the tent is packed wet and the temperature is over 80 (or something like that - warm) and within 24 hours if below that.  Though we've set up in a 6-10 hour timeline daily, there's little chance for the tent to actually dry as we're rarely in direct sunlight for long.

A typical riding day, given the time of year now, goes something like:

6:30, dawn twilight.  Awaken. 

7am, clothes changed and sleeping bags packed

7:30 am, taking down tent and folding tarps

8am, loading bikes and eating

8:30 - 9am. on the road.

11am, first snack

12:30, lunch

3, more snacks

4pm, arrive at a campground, meet bryan and maggie if we're travelling with them, begin to set up, and start dinner.  Typically I will make dinner while erin puts the tent back up.

6pm, Have dinner during twilight or around sunset, and usually feel extremely exhausted as soon as the day's light is gone (biology! ) and then go to sleep shortly after.

Anyhow, we were supposed to ride to the coast west of coos bay (Sunset bay state park) but the day was getting late (4pm) and Erin was feeling particularly run down and so we started scouting around the area for a campground.  We didn't find one in the coos bay area despite going to the tourism info centre and asking and calling all the local rv parks so we cycled south of town and asked someone with roadside property to use their extraneous lawn for tenting which they graciously permitted.  Our first wild camp!  Sort of. Given we had consent, definitely not a stealth camp (set up after dusk, leave before dawn). Also, given the grass was mowed, hardly a wild camp. Nevertheless, a triumph because we were in bed shortly after sun set, safe, and fed.

Washburne to Jessie M Honeyman State Park

Wednesday September 25, 

Finally a break in the rain!! The ride started out uphill, of course, then went through a tunnel and then more uphill on the edge of a steep cliff but topped off at a sea lion cave, where I was able to sample fudge and popcorn.  They couldn't garantee sea lions to be in the caves at this time of year so we opted out of a $10 ride in an elevator and looked around the gift shop instead.  I didn't make any tea for the morning so I bought some espresso.  The lady making it forgot what she was making and ended up giving me about 6 shots of espresso instead of the normal 2 so I was quite hyper for the rest of the day.  Still only had to pay for 2 shots though! yay! 

The ride down the mountain into the sand dunes was absolutely spectacular. Ocean on one side and forest/dunes on the other.  It was nice and clear that day so we could see quite far along the coast as well.  During the ride Rigel found some chantrelle mushrooms, got a local to identify them properly, and preceded to sit in the Fred Meyer parking lot cooking them up with some fresh veggies for a pre supper, supper.  

Once we set up camp, Rigel and I went for a walk amoung the sand dunes.  It was amazing.  Alot like Spirit Sands but much sandier and bigger.  We spent a couple hours walking on the berm and climbing the giant hills and endind the day watching the sun set on top of the tallest one.

  

Newport to Carl G. Washburne State Park

September 24th, 

It was sad to leave the wonderful walls and heat of the motel but with a bundle of muffins and bagels from the free breakfast we started pedalling again.  And then it started raining, again.  It seemed like we couldn't escape it. We stopped and sat under trees and buildings' awnings as much as we could but it soaked us through.  Err.. it soaked Rigel through as I actually brought rain gear.  He just has this really thin sort of material that is water resistant. I am usually the driest one out of all of us.  Even the people we were biking with part time had very little rain gear.  But they also were not carring two panniers of food and two tarps and all the other luxuries we have....I think this is where we decided its time to cut down on the amount of food we carry. There are enough grocery stores along the way I think we can start planning meals the night before.  

After a wet but wonderful ride (view wise, not terrain) we cut the day slightly short and stayed at Washburne State Park.  It was a gorgeous park with the huge trees and mossy ground but it never stops raining when you are camped in the trees.  So another night went without the ability to dry anything.  

After a nice long sleep (as we pretty much go to bed when the sun does) I woke up at 7 to see that racoons had been snooping in the only pannier on my bike and had found my stash of powdered milk and unopened candy.  Man what a mess they made but at least they didn't chew through my bag.  Alas, nothing like a clean wet pannier to start the day with.  I now store anything and everything edible in the food bags that get hung every night. Except my tea since they apparently can't get into davids tea canisters.   

And..We found wi-fi!!

Just a quick hello to say we are okay.

We will be posting blogs for: Pacific City, Newport, Washburne state park, Honeyman State Park, Coos Bay, Humbug mountain state park and Harris Beach State park shortly.  Unfortunately, the federal government closed down the campground we were planning in staying in tonight by not passing a budget so we've gotta go out and figure where we're sleeping tonight. But, in short, there was a typhoon or the remnants and we've spent the last week soaking wet but we're now in california and things seem to be going  a lot better.  We'll be in touch soon!!!

Pacific City to Newport

September 23, 

The ride to Newport started out nice and cloudy but soon turned into a rainy mess.  Going through Cape Foulweather made that quite clear when we decided to ignore the route guide and stay on the 101 going up a huge hill (second big hill of the day) in the pouring rain.  The only fun part about the ride was going through a small town right on the edge of the ocean and as you get close to the cliff edge a giant wave comes up and splashes you.  Quite cool since I was already soaked from the rain.  
As we came into Newport we caught up with Bryan, Maggie and the new friends we made at Pacific City, at the local bike shop.  While getting our bikes tuned up by the awesome staff we decided to skip the campground 5 miles up the road and stay in a motel for the night.  After some sweet talk we got the guy down to $55 for the four of us in a large enough room for three beds and our bikes.  We hung up the tents to dry (finally), did laundry, ate food and went to sweet sweet sleep in real sheets on a real bed. Lovely.

Boiler Bay

Tillamook and Pacific City

September 22nd, 

Nehalem to Tillamook was a rainy adventure.  Tillamook is a centre of bovine based agribusiness.  That is to say, we bought jerky and went on cheese and wine tours at the Tillamook cheese factory and the Blue Heron winery.  Yum!!  We weren't very excited about cycling very far given the rain.  About 30 miles and then we visited the tourist centre for directions to an old airport museum (largest wooden structure standing in the world:  housed the blimps that patrolled the north west) and a small active airport and most importantly, RV and camping park.  The park warden was out so we pitched a couple tents, made use of the amenities and then made our way again early in the morning.

On Saturday we made it to Pacific city and were pleasantly surprised to have a reprieve from the rain.  All indications were for more rain, hail, and other catastrophes.  Someone must've expected the clear weather because a scheduled surf competition in Pacific City was condensed down to one day of action.  We chose to splurge ($8 per person) and stay at the Kiwanda RV resort for the night.  The busting weather though has turned our one night into two.  On the plus side, hot tubs, pool, free showers, and a primo forest for setting up camp has been quite enjoyable.  The other cycle tourists that have happened into the space we're in are taking lessons on how to set up tarps and  have a dry space to cook and chill.  Well, I think we can share a dry picnic table for one day anyhow.  

Nehalem State Park

September 19th,

Yesterday we took to some giant hills on our way to meet up with Bryan, Maggie and Kirsten for Kirsten's last couple nights with us.  We were supossed to camp at Oswald West State Park but they have shut down the campground in the last couple years so we decided to keep on south to Nehalem. The campground is huge here with around 300 sites complemented by a long ultra fine sandy beach. Its quite strange to stand on the edge of the land looking out to only see the horizon.  

We went through the tunnel wonderfully located on the side of a really really long hill and luckily when we were in it there were no big trucks to squeeze in beside.  I rode close to the side but Bryan told me once we met up with him, that he rode in the center of the lane and made all the vehicles drive behind or pass him. Maybe I'll become more dominent on the road in tight spots too.  

We are spending another night here then riding to Tillamook tomorrow which is home to a cheese factory! I'm pretty excited about this part of the trip.  We've been enjoying Tillamook cheese all throughout the trip. And while in Seaside I found some free wine tasting coupons in a brochure which we will be sure to make use of.. :) 

View coming into Nehalem

Oregon!

September 17th,

"If you want to be seen, you go to Cannon Beach.  If you don't want to be seen, you go to Gearhart.  If you want to be obscene, you go to Seaside."
This is what our couch surfing host told me last night.  Seaside is the tourism town in the strip that is 20 miles long in Northern Oregon just south of Astoria.  Gearhart is a wealthy "second home and summer cabin" community with very few consumer services and barely a restaurant and Cannon Beach is an art and culture center with a disproportionate number of art galleries.  

Seaside is normally known for its surfing but right now the normally huge southern swells are fighting a wind going northerly rather than the usual southerly winds (also means cycling is about 35% slower going south with the current weather pattern.  Fortunately, ever since a jetty was built here, the beach has gone from a rocky shore to a incredibly nice fine grit clean sand.  The beach here is superb. The chocolate/candy shop in Seaside is also superb. 

We are staying with a pair of teachers in Gearhart.  They impressed us with their very fine dinner prepared last minute (reminds me of last Easter/Christmas at Grandma Wells').  We received lots of encouragement in our travels as well.  They have a small field of flowers as a side business with a flower stand on the highway for self-serve sales.  Apparently a fairly lucrative project.  The area is also rural enough that they are able to keep a few chickens in a chicken coup with their greenhouse.  What a beautiful way to live! Sleeping in a real bed is also proving to be quite the treat. 

erin here:

Backing up a bit...the ride down from Cape Disappointment to the 101 made me feel like I was on a rollercoaster! The road was so hilly you go from 35km/hr down to 8km/hr on the uphill in seconds, and the bends in the road on the downhill are so sharp the road is angled. Boy did that give me butterflies! And the best part about it was the quality of the road, unforunately narrow shoulders but not a crack in it the whole way.

On the way to the state border we went through our first tunnel, pushing the 'bicycle in the tunnel' button on the way in.  Supposed to be going through another further south which sounds much longer and harder to ride..uphill and curving to the left. Yikes. 

In light of Pete's nagging about riding more visibly we stopped at a bike shop today and picked up some more lights for our helmets and wheels. The ones for the wheels are motion activated so they create quite the glow when the wheel is spinning fast.  Can't wait to try 'em!

Twin Harbors to Cape Disappointment

South Bend

September 15th,

Hello Cape Disappointment! This is our final state park in Washington before heading over the Columbia River and into Oregon. Nothing too disappointing here except the giant hill to get up here.  Rigel and I left Twin Harbors Saturday morning around 8 and rode two days worth in our book to the state park; about 130km! It was a pretty flat ride the whole way with a few big hills throughout.  We've met up with Maggie, Bryan and Kirsten again and now Kirsten's parents and partner, Kris, have joined us for the night.  

We had great weather for our ride but now since were back on the coast its raining and misting again, very different from the thunderstorms of Manitoba.  Apparently there is a nice beach here but I think we will mostly stay in our campsite tonight since its so cold and wet out. We did ride into Ilwaco today for some clam chowder and fish and chips, delicious! Later we are going to cook up a tuna steak and drink more local ciders.  

Next stop we head into Oregon, either Astoria or perhaps Seaside.  Rolling the couch surfing dice again!  In Twin Harbors I ended up painting 2 more small watercolours, and Rigel tried out surfing for a couple days. The crazy things is that, even though the sun is hidden by misty cloudy fog all the time, Rigel still got a bad sunburn around his eyes from removing his glasses to Surf.   

Twin Harbors

September 11,

We did not end up riding in the dark back to camp at Potlatch as the fellow Bryan, Maggie and Kirsten were staying with gave us a ride in a truck back to our tent.  Alex seems to entertain himself now fishing, but is a retired security agent "for the federal government." Not sure which one, the US presumably.  Monday we woke up, left a note for the rest of our group, and rode south west.  45 miles to lake sylvia (making it the longest ride we'd done yet) and got there at 4pm, but decided to keep going to Twin Harbors.  This is a ride from the book!  We did a full 1 day, 75 mile ride as described in the book.  We were on the road at 8:30, and were setting up camp at 8:30 in Twin harbors in the dark.  That's a long day.  Still, we get a couple rest days out of the deal that we are enjoying for sure.  

Twin Harbors is a fishing community and yesterday we enjoyed a video about oyster farming done in town before buying a pound of "small oysters." Each one was more than a mouthful, and we probably had 20 in the tub.  We cooked them up with a lemon, white wine, dehydrated onions & garlic and butter.  Delicious!  Erin wasn't hungry enough for it though and now questions how much she likes oysters.  Dam! Still, just meant I got a huge meal out of the deal.

We've been eating 4-10 meals a day depending on our level of exercise.  I'm finding that erins fatigue level is directly related to how well fed she is.  eat more often, less complaints about soreness and how long the ride is.  Hoping to surf tomorrow.  Soon we'll be into Oregon.  The beach here is incredible.  Here's a photo of our Twin harbor camp. 

Townsend to Potlatch

September 9,

(Rigel Writing) In Townsend we stayed at the camp ground in town at an old Fort.  The boat festival in town was a good excuse to rest without covering much distance.  There was dancing, big wood boats being shown, and a whole fair. We camped in a tiny site that really couldn't accommodate our group size, the only saving grace was an invitation to "use the paths."  Still, the rain stopped and we started to dry out.

After Townsend we went past (South of) Quilcene and camped halfway up Mt Walker.  It was an exhausting ride with a big altitude climb at the end.  The weather further cleared and we benefitted from more drying.  Still, I had hand washed some clothes in Townsend and they could not dry much past hand-wrung all day.  The campsite, called "falls view" is a hole with no water, rotting picnic tables, and a gorge for water access.  Still, given that the whole region is a temperate rainforest, the trees were still incredible as with all the previous places.  Huge tall things swaying by meters at the top like grass in a field.

Today we arrived in Hoodsport and discovered the active marine industries here from a hydro electric dam to a hatchery to different farmed foods in the ocean.  A local fisherman shared his salmon while Bryan, Maggie, and Kirsten who had ridden ahead and set up on his lawn stayed in town, we went further ahead to the Potlatch campsite and stayed there about 5 miles further down the road.

Now for a ride in the dark down a nearly shoulderless highway.  Turn on the lights and head for the tent!

Last night was Rhododendron park, now port Townsend

September 6,

Rigel Here:

"It rained, and it rained, and it rained.  Never in all his life, and he was 4 was it? or 5?  Never, had piglet seen so much rain."

Two nights ago there was a lightning storm and it lasted an hour and was spent. The sky cleared up and was beautiful.  That was Friday Harbor.  

Last night, the lightning lasted over 5 hours.  It was raining before we went to bed.  It was raining when we got up.  It was raining when we got on the ferry.  Then we sailed somewhere drier.  Huzzah!  Now we are in Port Townsend and dreading another drenching as we are all quite thoroughly damp.  We've started trying the "rely on the kindness of strangers" technique by tapping the couch surfing website.  

There is a wood boats festival this weekend at Port Townsend so we'll either stay here on a dry couch, floor, bed, etc or we'll cycle onwards to Quilcene and couch surf there (hopefully again).  The requests are out.  On the plus side there is a camp ground right in townand the forecast is for sunshine next week.  That will be welcome. 

The view off the ferry was so grey that the horizon, sky, and even water were all equally obscured by a grey mist that only let up when the land or waves were close enough.

San Juan Island

September 5,

We started the trip Tuesday Sept 3 by taking an 11am ferry from Tsawassen to Victoria and then in the evening from there to San Juan island.

The customs officers pre-screened us in Victoria and there we got another cursory conversation on the island and a wave to pass.  Arriving as the sun was setting, we set up  our tents and ate trail mix at a local fair ground camp RV site with hot showers, power,wifi, and running water.  Not bad for $7 each.  In the morning, we planned to hit the beaches in the sun and explore the island, however the weather has turned marginal and so I sit writing this quick post in a soggy tent in the rain.  The weather can turn quickly though so we will re-emerge when the sun comes out.  

Tomorrow is forecast thundershowers.  Our site host, Serena says we can stay here for up to two weeks.  I highly doubt we'll take her up on even half of that offer as there are more islands ahead of us before we hit the mainland, and ferries between them are free!

Tonight we plan to eat fish and chips at a local restaurant for a late lunch and then rehydrated vegetables in a stew for dinner. Fun!

Summer in Vancouver

September 2,

(From Rigel's PoV)

Starting mid June Erin and I came to Vancouver after a short stop in Calgary so I could see family that I haven't seen much in the last few years.  My nephew, Zen, turned 5 this July and I guess I visited him about 10 times over the course of the summer.  Mom has been coming to terms with her rheumatoid arthritis that she discovered she has and trying to avoid the pain thru diet changes.  Camilla is putting off going to grad classes while she works in the field she was going to go to school for anyway which is in the planning department of the City of Vancouver and her boyfriend, Daniel, is an entrepeneur with all sorts of adventurous stories about trying to get things done on Vancouver island with kelp and such.

I would definitely like to continue working on the wave power generator dad and I came up with in collaboration with friends and get a working model of it together.  The biggest and best waves for a wave power generator are between Vancouver Island and Alaska, but I will not be doing it this year, it appears, as I am about to go on a travelling adventure!

Speaking of which, Erin bought herself a Surly Disk Trucker, which is the disk-brake version of their classic steel touring bike and I bought myself a Steelwool Tweed which is another steel touring bike with disk brakes.  We bought both bikes after we arrived in Vancouver this summer and plan to adventure on them with all of the camping gear and modifications we bought at MEC and neighbouring shops over the summer.

We added aero handle bars to our bikes so we can almost lay down while cycling straighter highway sections as well as lights, bottle holders, front and rear racks, paniers, sprung brook's leather saddles, clipless peddles, reflectors, mirrors, handlebar bags, and trip computers.  We had to buy almost all of our camping gear from a tent all the way to a tiny can opener blade.

Today is Sunday, tomorrow we have to pack up all of the stuff we're taking and load our bikes to our satisfaction, and then clean up dad's house where we've been staying so his life can go back together and our stuff is safely stowed in a closet or what not.  Tuesday morning we will be starting our by going to Swartz Bay on a ferry, and then cycling to Sidney, and then a ferry again (after customs I suppose) to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  Unfortunately we'll be ariving after 7:30 pm and haven't figured out how we're going to get to a suitable camp ground before dark - so we'll discuss it more tomorrow but so begins the adventure!