Washington State and Oregon Coast Tour
Day 13, 93 Kms.
Early to rise - again. The return trip to Humbug Mountain was uneventful, except for the presence of predictable headwinds, which fortunately were not too strong. I usually hate going back over a route which I have previously travelled, but on this trip it was unavoidable and at least the scenery was a consolation.
Back at the park I occupied the same spot we had two nights previously and Tim soon followed me in. Larry was nowhere to be seen. We had lunch and went to the beach; it was so hot that we couldn't walk on the sand with our bare feet! When we returned, Larry was just pulling in; turns out he went for coffee and breakfast with the two young ladies of our previous acquaintance, and then taken his time riding. He looked hot and tired, as he had ridden at the hottest part of the day, but would soon perk up at the promise of food.
I must mention at this point, that Larry was the "gourmet" (I use that term loosely!) cook of our threesome and delighted in making full meals on his one burner stove with two pots. Nothing was a challenge, steak, chops, potatoes, vegetables, you name it! He also revelled in purchasing some form of meat daily - as he knows that I don't eat meat on a regular basis - and making a grand performance of cooking it in front of me! I found it quite amusing!
Day 14, 98 Kms.
We returned to the restaurant by the ocean, in Port Orford, for breakfast and then decided to skip the Seven Devil's Road on the return trip. We stayed on Highway 101, and although inland, it proved to be a nice ride anyway. At North Bend we picked up some groceries and again hunted for some small containers of fuel, no luck though. By this time, Tim and Larry were getting pretty low on white gas.
Now that darned bridge at North Bend had to be crossed again! This time I elected to ride on the (high) sidewalk, I was fine until two large trucks went by and their back-draught sent me all a-wobble! I lost my momentum and couldn't get started again on the narrow sidewalk without the feeling that I would veer off onto the pavement. I walked the rest of the way across as did Larry. Tim managed to stay upright and mobile all the way across!
Just after the end of the bridge we turned off left to find a Forest Service campsite at Bluebill Lake, which at the start of the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area. We were a bit confused with the map at the area entrance and proceed on to find one camping area full of dune buggies, tents, campers and other accoutrements of the ATV crowd. We chatted with one fellow and he said we would be more comfortable (read... we didn't fit in) at Bluebill Lake. "That's the lake we're looking for," we said. He gave us vague directions and off we rode. The first turn left, had a sign declaring Bluebill Lake, but also another sign - a red circle and slash through a tent - gave us some concern! We hunted through the bush a bit and decided that we were in the wrong place as even my map showed campsites in the immediate area. So we decided to have a quick ride to the end of the road and then we would either have to camp with the noisy ATV's or find something else back further up the highway. Just a few hundred yards down the road there was another entrance also proclaiming Bluebill Lake, and there was camping, yahoo!
The campsites were all pretty well sand with sparse grass and a few bushes around, but very adequate. After dinner, we were carrying out our usual bike check and I found a nasty cut in the sidewall of my rear tire with the tube just peeking out. I had a spare folding tire and installed that, thinking myself lucky that I didn't suffer a blowout. Larry, on the other hand, was still fiddling with his spoke wrench every few evenings, as his wheel still needed constant truing, too bad we couldn't take it back to the builder! Bluebill Lake was very small and we guessed that it was prime for mosquito breeding; we were correct in our assumption and as soon as dusk arrived we disappeared into our respective tents!
Day 15, 80 Kms.
I had a quick breakfast of oatmeal, bananas and tea, packed up and set out, as I knew the others would be a while; Larry was busy cooking up bacon and eggs for Tim and himself. I didn't mind, and it was very peaceful riding in the cool early morning before the traffic volume picked up. I stopped at a few interesting places on the way and of course, the inevitable ice cream break! Tim and Larry were still not in sight so I continued on back to the Honeyman State Park where we had camped previously.
The hiker/biker area was empty and I had my pick of campsites. While looking around I noticed that someone had a left a pretty nice bicycle pump behind. I was sure that they would curse that blunder in the near future! But what I also found was something that my travelling companions would be happy about... approximately 1 litre of white gas remaining in a leftover 1 gallon can! I guess that the benefactor must of had a similar problem in finding small containers of fuel and decided to fill what bottles he/she had then left the rest for other campers; a very nice gesture. As soon as Tim and Larry showed up I showed them my booty, they were both very happy as they would of had to ride to Florence and back with fuel for the evening - or use my stove!
After seeing pretty well the same faces at each campground while travelling south, it was refreshing to see some "new blood" arriving at the camp. One cycle tourist was carrying some unusual baggage... Jhom, I think his name was, from Holland. He came over and we all chatted about touring and poured over some maps for a while; he was a very pleasant fellow. He went off to set up his tent and as usual we always tend to watch - out of the corners of our eyes - the performances of others. Well, he got everything set up OK and then, out of one of his rear panniers, pulled out an enormous pair of wooden clogs! Certainly not the comfort footwear I would drag around on a bicycle tour! But, each to their own! And they were probably comfortable and light, albeit bulky!
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