Day 26 - 28

Day 26.

Day 26 was not the most scenic day all inland, from Yachats to North Bend 72 km's. and it was overcast and cold the whole time. I stopped for a cold wet lunch at Reedsport. I was wet with sweat that hadn't dried because of the lack of sun, cold and aided by the fact that I was wearing my wind breaker. I got to Winchester Bay about 40 km's and felt like calling it a day. Then at Tugman City at about 50 km's the thought went through my mind again, but I pushed on to North Bend which was not much to speak about, but after showering I went to a Mediterranean Cafe and had a really nice Shwarma and a couple of glasses of wine.



Interesting bike

I had kind of resigned my self to riding to San Francisco and catching a plane to LA but my lovely wife pointed out the day before that I would be seriously irritated with myself if I carried on cruising along and didn't try and push to at least get to LA. Riding 2 to 3 hours had been fun and isn't that what a holiday is supposed to be. How inconveniently well Mandy knows me.

The next day I needed to either stop at Brandon 45 km's or Port Orford 90 km's. I had felt good doing 72 km's and after the pep talk, I was going to try for Port Orford. I had done calculations while sitting at the restaurant the previous night at Florence. To get to Laguna Beach by the 22nd of July I needed to average 77.5 km's per day for 23 of the last 26 days, only taking 3 rest days. I could probably afford to do slightly less in the first week and catch up in the last week.

I went to bed early to get an early start.






Day 27.

I had planned to get up at 6 and leave at 7.30 which I did. I cycled to Bayview, 10 km's and stopped for a breakfast, crossed a bridge into Charleston where the climb started, I hadn't walked up a hill for a few weeks but that was all going to change. Almost immediately the gradient was too steep and I needed to walk. The mountain never seemed to stop, you would get to the top start coming down to be met by another up hill. On the 5th climb back up someone had spray painted on the road "it's not cheating to push your bike". I was walking at the time, at least it gave me something to chuckle about. By the time I had done 27.5 km's I had been cycling for 2 hours an average of 13.75 km's per hour. A god awful start if I wanted to cycle 90 km's. At bottom of the hill my average had gone up to 14.5 km's per hour. When I got to Brandon I was already tired and staying there seemed like a sweat idea. My family had all bandied together behind Mandy pushing me, I smelt a conspiracy. Tiff's message "Dad I got 90% for maths, work hard like me and cycle 90 km's". Haha turning my words against me. It was about 12.30 so I stopped for fish and chips. The wind was howling, if I had that behind me the last 47 km's, would be a breeze, excuse the pun, haha I was living in hope. That said the second half was way easier, I had the wind behind me most of the time, by the end my average was speed was 16.8 km's per hour, with 5 hours 25 minutes in the saddle.

As I rode into Port Orford it seemed boring and ugly, I also hadn't seen the normal Motels at the entrance to the town and I was getting worried. There was a short steep climb that pointed to viewpoint also had a sign to Motel as I got to the top, I was rewarded with an incredible view of the pacific, which I hadn't seen in the last 100 odd miles, an absolute contrast to the bleak town. The Motel was relatively cheap with beautiful views overlooking the pacific.

The last few days there had been quiet a few more cyclist, most had a similar amount to luggage to myself, and a few have a fair amount more. I had seen one cyclist that day that had panniers similar size to mine but was also pulling a trailer. If I was packing 25 kg's he must have had at least 50 kg's. Luckily I was stopped at a store drinking a cool drink. If he had cycled past me up a hill I may well have been very disheartened. Just before Brandon I had spoken to a German lady also on her own for a couple of minutes, she had also come from Vancouver and was camping just outside Port Orford. When I saw the camp site I had thoughts of maybe I should camp, but all I had with me was a can of oysters and a packet of crisps and some protein bars. The large majority of cyclist camp, now that I am getting further South where the weather should be warmer, I would hopefully shortly run out of excuses not to camp.

My daily routine when I finished riding was to shower, then look at where I would ride to the next day before updating my blog. The next day I needed to either ride 45 km's to Gold Beach or 90 km's to Brookings, the assent was 75% more than the ride to Port Orford so it would be a seriously tough ride. One of the big problems this trip has been trying to slowly increase distances while working out what town's to stay in. The distance seems to either be to close or way to far and I have far to often chosen the to close.

That night I went to dinner at the Norwegian Fish and chips. On the walk back I could feel my legs were really sore making me lean towards the short ride tomorrow.

Day 28.

The next morning I woke up early, got going by 7.30, I would see how my legs felt before making the final decision between Golden Beach or Brookings. The ride started with 3 steep climbs my legs made the decision for me. My energy levels were very low and the 45 km's to Golden Beach felt way tougher than they should have been. At about 28 km's I stopped at a beach for about an hour, during that time I made a booking for Golden Beach Inn for 2 nights. I was going to take a rest day and then try push the longer distances again.

I got to Golden beach at about 12.30, went for lunch while my room was still being prepared. As I had said I needed to do 77.5 km's per day to make Laguna Beach, which in 3 days would be 232.5 km's. In the last 3 days I had only managed 210 so I was 22.5 km's short. I was hoping that the next 3 I would be able to make closer to the target, and that I could catch up the difference towards the end.

I booked accommodation for Friday at Crescent City 88 km's away, and out of Oregon into California. I was hoping to stay the Saturday night somewhere close to "Humboldt Lagoon State Park" which was a further 72 km's, but could not see any motels close to that, I thought I may have to resort to camping. I was going into the Redwood forest area and I definitely wanted to have some time to view some of the giant Redwood trees.

My legs were now seriously sore again, it kept going through my mind "How after 5 weeks of riding can my legs be so sore". Maybe delusional but I had expected my legs to be sore for a week or so.