Sep
20
2009
by Mr Cubes
Devils Lake to Beachside (47.4 miles)
Total Miles: 2,949.8
I now that I am supposed to do stretches before each ride, but choose instead to just take it slowly for the first hour. Which means that when the first hour is uphill, I'm really not going very fast at all. But it is still quite embarrassing to be overtaken by a jogger. Especially when he shouts out a cheery 'Hello!' to prove that he isn't struggling for breath in the slightest. I then entered that strange competitive state where I had to beat him by a certain landmark, though obviously wasn't willing to share the rules of the game with him. One-sided? Yes. Fair? No. Did I win? Of course I did.
On a more positive note, I had noticed that I am no longer counting down miles anymore. There were times on the Cassiar Highway where I would count every single kilometre post, which is quite demoralising when you are doing 140 for the day. Maybe I am that much fitter now, or maybe there is just so much more to keep the mind occupied.
After passing through Depoe Bay which claims to have the world's smallest navigable harbour (The rest of the country is probably embarrassed at such a claim), I found a small roadside Chinese restaurant that was offering a smorgasbord. Very difficult to turn down and after an hours worth of eating, I wobbled back onto the highway. Leaving the restaurant as I had entered was another cycle tourist who was riding on a recumbent and as such it meant his speed was so poor uphill that I managed to catch him up later in the day. We chatted for awhile, which allowed me to find out his name was Barry and originally from Manchester, but had moved to Los Angeles in the 1970's. So then I went off again, though this part of the highway was fairly rolling so he always caught me on the downhills and then I would get clear again on the uphill. Until I suffered another flat tyre...
This one seemed to just be a slow puncture, however, so I pumped it up again and hoped it would last to the next town, Newport, as I now only had three inner tubes, two of which had holes in. And luckily it did last for the rest of the day as the Pacific Coast Route detour meant I missed out on Newport completely. Shortly after was the small town of Waldport which had an impressive bridge and very little else. Certainly no bike shops.
Straight after leaving Waldport, the sign for Beachside State Beach appeared and I had managed to get there with air to spare. This meant the first task for the evening was to patch up the inner tubes and after getting myself a nice little camping spot, just a few feet from the beach, I got to work. About an hour later, with the task completed, Barry rolled in on his machine. To me, riding it just looks like a lot of effort, even though the seating position is more natural.
After making up some dinner I took a stroll along the beach, something I have rarely done despite riding along it for so long. Was just turning to evening, with a nip in the air, so I couldn't see a single other person out. 
A strange feeling coming from the overcrowded beaches of Europe.
It had been a very enjoyable day on the bike, with a little bit of everything thrown in. I had also crossed the 45th parallel, meaning I was halfway between the North Pole and the Equator (equivalent to the Bay of Biscay in Western Europe). I wonder how long it'll take me to get to the same point, somewhere near the end of my journey, in the Southern Hemisphere...