9/1/18 – Rockaway Beach to Lincoln City

62.3 Miles

2516 ft of Climbing

Boy did I sleep last night! I was in a very busy campground, packed to the gills with Labor Day partiers. There were loud parties going on into the wee hours of the morning, but nothing could keep me from my sleep. Nothing!

When I woke up, this morning, the temperature was 49 degrees, which to this Arizonan, is freezing. It made it hard to get out of my warm cocoon. When I finally did drag myself out, my tent fly was soaked with dew, so I hung it out do dry while I cooked breakfast and broke down the campsite.

One of five college girls I ran into on the road, yesterday, came over to my campsite to chat and use my electrical hookup to charge her devices. Super nice girl. The group of girls probably doesn’t realize how lucky they are to know each other. I don’t know another female who would jump on a bike and go for a three to four day tour with me, much less something longer.

Riding through Rockaway Beach, I ran into these cool rock formations in the water of the jetty, and wondered if they are the reason this place got its name.

If this were Arizona, people would swim out to the rocks and climb all over them, but it’s Oregon, and the water is freezing cold. So far, besides a couple of kayakers, I haven’t seen anyone in the water.

Just a few miles down the road was Tillamook, which claims to be a free museum with free tasting, etc., but is really a bunch of photo ops a huge promotional effort, and a way to make money off of tourists. The place was busier than Disneyland, with the museum, gift shop and food operations completely overrun with people. As much as I love ice cream, I wasn’t going to wait in those lines. No way!

If only there had been time to stop and check out the Air Museum that was on the other end of Tillamook–but I needed to move on down the road.

During the rest of my ride, I rode through a bunch of little resort communities, Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge and Siuslaw National Park. The route was generally flat, with a few little hills here and there, and an almost two mile long super steep climb toward the end.

While riding down the coast three signs are posted over and over and over. The coastal cycling route through Oregon was established by the State of Oregon, and they continue to maintain it and promote its use.

For every “Leaving Tsunami Hazard Zone sign I pass, there is usually an “Entering…” sign across the street. And they are sometimes posted pretty far inland.

Another thing I see over and over again, is river and creek crossings. Basically, there is water flowing everywhere.

And yet another thing I see a lot of is parks. There’s a very high density of city, county, state, and national parks. Devil’s Lake State Recreation Area, where I’m staying tonight, has special campsites set aside for hikers and cyclists. There are free showers; charging lockers with outlets in them, so we can secure and charge all our devices; food lockers to keep food safe from pests; a bike repair station with a stand, tools and floor pump, so cyclists can do maintenance and repairs on their bikes; and individual racks for securing bikes. All this for only $8 per night. I can’t wait to see the amenities of the other Oregon State Park campgrounds that are on my itinerary. And when I get home from this ride, I will definitely be writing some letters to let the State Parks leadership know how much I appreciate the cyclist facilities in their parks.