Sep
22
2009
by Mr Cubes
Jessie M Honeyman to Coos Bay (46.6 miles)
Total Miles: 3032.2
No matter what my initial thoughts about a pensioner in denim attempting to cycle the Pacific Coast, I had to be impressed by his attitude. He was awake, packed and cycling before 6.30am. I was in a quandary about my day’s target, but as everyone else was also leaving the site early, I decided to too and just see where the day took me. So despite leaving at 8.50am, I was still last out of the hiker/biker area. With daily highs of around 85-90°F (29-32°C), it’s a good idea to try and get miles in before the sun gets too high and the roads get too busy.
Within the first couple of miles from the State Park I saw the recognisable figure of Barry struggling up yet another hill in his recumbent. By now he was really starting to question his whole route and vehicle choice. This was the last time I saw him though, so I hope he stuck with it and managed to get back home to Los Angeles alright. After this there were some roadworks that lasted for over five miles. In the interests of safety, the flagger kept me to the end, which then meant I was still cycling through it when traffic was coming the other way. Not so safe there then! This did mean that as soon as the pilot car and all the cars with it had passed then I knew I would have the whole road to myself till the pilot car came back the other way. It’s nice to be able to ride in the middle of the road sometimes. And sing like an idiot at the top of my voice (despite it being ‘roadworks’ there were no workers about as far as I could tell).
Stopped in the tiny village of Gardiner to look around the excellent Tsunami Gallery. Some very beautiful paintings there should you ever be passing. Definitely worth a visit.
The next town was Reedsport which had a McDonald’s allowing me to get online and upload a blog quickly. This was the highlight of the whole town as far as I could tell, so didn’t linger long. The road of Reedsport was one very long and steep hill and the midday sun was now beating down fairly hard. At the top of this hill was Umpqua Breakwater which is some sort of clam farm. And then it was downhill all the way to North Bend.
By now it was only 2pm, but I was felling pretty tired. Riding in the heat is extremely 
draining and I was happy to call it a day. After crossing yet another long and scary bridge I looked in vain for either a campsite or other cheap accommodation, but everything except a filthy motel looked a little out of my price range. As I continued to look around I suddenly realised I had come out of the other side of North Bend and was now entering Coos Bay. Jon from Lake Quinault had told me this was a cool town so I decided to take a Best Western here in the centre of town and look around for a day or two. It was certainly the busiest and friendliest town I had stayed in for some time and my first night ended with sushi and a tiny bar with a jazz band. I wanted to relax here for awhile as the coast line continues to climb and fall all the way to Santa Barbara in California, still 1,000 miles away...