Why not?

C2C4K OR.16.842

Lincoln City to Portland

This morning started with me giving our friends at camp the slip and heading to Starbucks to get some work done before heading out for what was supposed to be around a 65 mile day.  Ryan wasn’t as lucky with our camp friends and had to think quickly to get out of giving them my phone number.

After some coffee, food and work we started the trek north to Tillamook, but after a few miles when we passed a sign at the junction of route 18 that said Portland 87 miles I spoke out and said “lets just go to Portland”.  Ryan, who was on the lead took this as my vote on the matter, and since we operate as a democracy, hung a right and said “Portland it is”.

Portland it was.  The day got hot fast as we headed in land and the scenery changed quickly.  It was a ride with little elevation change, at least compared to what we were used to.  We made good progress all the way to Newport, riding slow and taking water and sunscreen breaks every hour.  The city traffic slowed us down a lot though and the last 15 miles took a long time.  The whole ride culminated in a 1.5 mile climb over Portland south west side, not a fun way to end the day, but the downhill after made it totally worth it! 

We were able to grab a warm showers with a guy name Brian.  Super nice and totally awesome for taking us last minute.  It was Tuesday also, so after dropping our stuff we headed out for our Taco Tuesday ritual, I fell asleep at the restaurant while Erik went back for seconds. We brought Brian a taco back and piled up on the floor in his kitchen area.  We had to sleep in opposite directions to fit all three of us in the space, but it was a roof over our heads.

A long day but a great one, my groin is not happy with me, but here is to four rest days instead of three now.

Miss you Muppet

Lincoln City

C2C4K OR.15.749

Wakonda to Lincoln City

We road over 50 miles today, but it was a relatively boring day.  Some of the scenery was pristine as we have grown accustomed too, and Oregon has some very interesting sections of lush green, deep blue water and large sand dunes that people surf or ATV on.

We stopped in Depoe Bay for lunch and met a man outside the Chowder Bowl who wanted to hear about our trip.  He had many stories of his own and I still enjoy these moments very much.

We moved pretty quickly to Lincoln City so that I could get to a Starbucks and catch up on some work.  We stayed at Devils Beach State park, but not before getting a little lost and taking a decent length detour around the lake that resulted in a nice little climb on the way back.

The most interesting part of this day was probably the two gentlemen who were at camp with us.  Let’s leave it at it not being the most comfortable situation, and if I run into you I’ll give you more the details in person. It was reminder though of the importance that the three of us stick together.

My groin was about the same today, but doesn't seem to be any worse, definitely looking forward to our first zero day at soon.

Miss you Muppet

I will miss the coast

C2C4K OR.14.697

Tugman to Wakonda beach

We most certainly packed a good amount in on this leg.  We got up early and were off before 9:30am.  We hit the road at a good pace. There were times were it felt like we were biking through the Adirondacks.  After about 2 hours and 30 minutes we came across a little local diner before Florence, Oregon.  We had already gone 30 miles so it was a good time to eat, and eat we did.  Another hour of riding before we didn’t feel like our stomachs were going to explode.

After leaving Florence we were back on the coast and made a few stops, including the Heceta Head Lighthouse and Devils Churn.  The ride from Florence to Yachats was remarkable, but the 101 has virtually no shoulder, lots of switchbacks, a very narrow tunnel and a lot of elevation change.  Nothing we aren’t use to but this day was particularly busy.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Devil's Churn

At one point Ryan almost took Erik and I out when he stopped on a steep incline to pick up a colorful hat on the side of the road.  We were told this stuff is called roadkill, and Ryan was the first to actually grab something.  The strap on the back of the hat is broken but he has added fixing it to his chore list.

After grabbing fried chicken and beers in Yachats and eating it in the parking lot, which got us loads of dirty looks, we headed to Wakonda Beach Campground and set up for the night.  It was a nice campground with a decent group of bikers already there.  I’m starting to get a little sore in the groin area and will be looking forward to the 4 daybreak in Portland.

Miss you Muppet

Oh yeah, Erik got the first flat of the trip.  I think that nail had something to do with it.

Some days are just standard

C2C4K OR.13.632

Bollards Beach to Tugman state park.

We got a later start to the day. Hammock camping was great, and I woke up fresh, but most of our clothes were still wet from sink laundry the night before and today’s destination is only 42 miles from current camp.

I think Monkey needs a wash soon.

 We left after noon and got to coos bay.  Given the short day it was a good time to catch up on work and blogging.  We started at McDonald’s but they didn’t have any plugs, I looked up breweries in the area and found Seven Devils. The spot was perfect, I got a few beers in me and around 5:30pm we left for Tugman.  We averaged over 17 mph on the way there, and got to camp well before dark and made some poor man’s pad thai for dinner.  Lee had told us Tugman was much nicer than Bollards, it wasn’t.  It’s a much wooded camp site, so Erik chose to hammock camp again, but I went with the tent. When it started raining at 4:30 in the morning, it was good that I had set up the tent.

People, Wind, HotDogs and Bollards Beach

C2C4K OR.12.590

Cape Sebastian to Bollards Beach

We left Cynthia’s fairly early and headed downhill into Gold’s Beach, where we ate Breakfast at Double D’s with Dedee and Barb.  We all had large meals and lots of coffee. We, as usual, ended up talking with many people at the restaurant, Including John and his wife, who were traveling the coast and Des, a man from Ireland who has been living just outside NYC since 1972.  He is currently riding his motorcycle to the four corners of the continuous states. So from Maine to Key West to Southern California to northern Washington, then home. After chatting for a while, we needed to get some supplies where we then ran into Paulo, a Venezuelan riding his motorcycle around the country. 

The early part of the ride was relatively smooth and easy going, until we hit Port Oxford, where every store in town had wind in its name. We stopped for lunch and immediately started dreading the ride out of town. We eventually got it together though and headed out, dead into the wind, which took us over an hour to get out of just the heavy stuff.

Just as the wind started to become manageable, John, who we met at breakfast, past us in his car.  He pulled over, gave us three hotdogs and told us about Langlois market, known for their world famous hotdog specials with homemade mustard. So after about another 30 minutes of riding we stopped at the market, met the owner and Gayle, a great grandmother, who also worked at the store and just happened to be celebrating her birthday.  So we sang happy birthday with her family to her, got ourselves some ice cream and a few supplies and headed out to finish the ride to Bollards Beach state park.

The ride was easier to the park but still windy and when it was all over we had gone 65 miles all while battling a strong to really

Immediately upon entering the campground I could tell I was going to like Oregon. Hiker/Biker sites were only $5 and included free showers and a charging station for your phone.  There were a few amount people camped out there and we hung out with Lee after getting a shower and doing some sink laundry.

Lee was an older gentleman who has spent some serious time on the road on his bike. It might be fair to say he was a child of the 70’s.

We made the decision to hammock camp for the first time, which was good on two fronts, I really hadn’t used my hammock and was thinking of sending it home, and it probably was the best sleep I had gotten on the trip.

Oregon!

C2C4K OR.11.525

Crescent City to Cape Sebastian.

I got up early at the church to do some work and made coffee for the group.  I don’t do a lot of cooking, but I think I can get into handling the coffee in the morning as part of my contribution to food preparation.  Ryan got up later and made over easy eggs, bacon and toasted bagels with butter.  We’re starting to call ourselves professional eaters, amateur bikers.  I think it’s fitting.

We snagged a group picture with Charlie and headed out, today we were leaving California and heading into Oregon. Our first state completed, albeit well behind the fictitious schedule we set.  The morning ride was relatively flat and we made great time to the state boarder. We had a great time taking pictures next to the Welcome to Oregon sign, and met a gentleman named Sam heading into California.  He told us about this woman who lets bikers camp on her yard at mile marker 333. This was perfect as it was right around the distance we were hoping to go, but we had yet to find anywhere to camp.

Before talking about the day more, i just want to say that getting to Oregon feels like the first major milestone. It seems to have taken a while, but here we are, onto the next phase. Its most certainly a confidence booster.

We made a few stops today. First at the Oregon welcome center where two young girls hooked us up with some sweet stickers, post cards and maps for the ride.  We ate lunch there and headed out.  The Oregon cost is beautiful, and overall I have this sense it will trump California’s. Before going over the states tallest bridge we stopped at a lookout, where we could hike a few hundred feet down to an unoccupied, relatively “secret” beach, thus its name Secret Beach. It required climbing down at least a hundred of feet using ropes, given it being steep and not well tracked.  Monkey got a little dirty on the climb, and at one point I thought I had lost my camera cover for good, but I recovered it further down the grade.

The feeling of physical isolation in a place like the above is surprisingly pleasant.  The calm that you get when you've taken in your removal from buildings and roads and the pace of it all.

We pulled up to Cynthia's house after a nice climb into the wind and met Dale Goode, former special agent for the treasury.  He said Cynthia, the home owner, would be back later, but that we could setup in the yard.  It’s a gorgeous little house, with a spectacular view in the front. Cynthia showed up and gave us a more formal rundown. She has miniature donkeys, chickens and other animals. There was a nice outdoor shower and it was a great place to camp.  We ate some leftovers and called it a night after some stretching and watching a great sunset.

Crescent City

C2C4K CA.10.468

Patrick’s Point to Crescent City

We got up, had breakfast and said goodbye to David, Eric, Jimmy, and Frank, and started the 62 mile ride to Crescent City.  Back in Ferndale the 16 year old had told us about a church that lets you stay for free, with full use of their industrial kitchen and couches in their community room, so our goal was to get there for the day.

The ride to Crescent City was wonderful, with great coastal sections and inland portions where we biked by giant redwoods.  In some ways its fascinating how much the scenery almost becomes common place until you come across a bend or to the top of a climb and once again you are in awe. 

This is our last full day in California and the legs/knees are starting to normalize. I’m almost getting to the point where it feels weird to not be on the bike, but I’m not there quite yet.

Half way to Crescent City we stopped for lunch at this little diner off the 101.  We’ve been stopping at little diners along the way and they are great place to meet people, learn about their small town and have a good meal for relatively cheap.  We cook ourselves a lot but it is good to sit down for the occasional meal.

Mr.SockMonkey demanded we stop to see Paul.

When we got to the Church, we met Katie, who has been hosting bikers since 2013.  She has had hundreds stay there and we signed one of her many guest books.  We also met a young man named Charlie, just having graduated college, he was taking some time off biking the coast before starting a job.  Charlie and I talked at length about religion and morality. We had some slight differences of opinion, but agreed on much. If you read this Charlie, best of luck to you.  You most certainly impressed me with your maturity and good nature. Continue to live life to the fullest!

Needless to say we made full use of the Church’s kitchen.  Ryan made Checked Curry which tasted awesome, but I only had a bit due to the heavy amount of cream.  I made my own checked fried rice and we fueled up for the ride into Oregon and Gold’s Beach.

Patrick's Point

C2C4K CA.9.406

Eureka to Patrick’s Point

I got up early again this morning to do some work. 6 am turned into 7 am, which turned into 8 am, then 9, then right before 10, Erik and Ryan made their way into the complimentary breakfast.   It was close to 12 by the time we left Eureka.

I don’t love biking through the larger towns/ cities.  Especially given the traffic and lack of bike lanes. It might be worse than biking on the freeways, but I guess at least the cars aren’t screaming by at 70 mph.  Which brings up another tidbit, on ramps/ off ramps, navigating those at speed definitely takes a team, and Ryan, Erik and I have a pretty good system at this point.

The ride went fast at first, but slowed down once we got off the 101.  We were definitely lagging today and by the time we got to Trinidad on the coast we seemed beat.  The problem was we were only 30 miles in.  So after about an hour of debating we headed another 6 miles north and stayed at Patrick’s Point.  This ended up being a great decision as the state park there is spectacular and there were plenty of bikers staying.   As usual we made friends with them and below is a picture of Frank, Erik and Dave from right to left.  Frank was riding a “borrowed” road bike and had only a blanket, talk about roughing it.

I took about an hour and a half to go hiking on my own and take some photos.  It was a good time to reflect on the last week and the trip so far.

We’ve gone over 400 miles at this point and are probably about 1/12th of the way through the trip.  While it’s only a short amount, I’ve already feel like I’ve settled into this “style of life”.   We’ve had some hiccups, but for the most part, it’s felt great to remove so much from my life.  To reflect on life and to just breathe.  Breathe and peddle.  To meet new people every day and to take in so much country.  So many little towns, so many people, picking up tidbits of their lives. At the same time maybe it’s so enjoyable because at some point there is an end to it, it’s not all I have.  It’s an experience with a specific end, where I can move onto the next chapter afterwards knowing that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

Down Day Numero Dos

C2C4K  CA.8.370

Ferndale to Eureka

It’s not 26 miles from Ferndale to Eureka, there are just some extra miles on the odometer currently from running some errands and bouncing around town.  Luckily Erik is keeping meticulous track of actual trip legs.  We decided today that I am going to type up both his and Ryan’s journals with my blogs when I make our book at the end of the trip.  Ahh the ideas we hatch at Starbucks.

So I started this morning up much earlier than the other two.  Packing my camp stuff up and heading back into Ferndale to grab breakfast.  I came across Ferndale Pie Company and Ferndale Omelet Factory.  I went with the Omelet Factory and was not disappointed.  I also found out both places are owned by the same person so I was able to get the pie at the end of breakfast…perfect.  I got some work done and the boys showed up later, had their own breakfast and then we hit the short ride to Eureka. 

Ryan took us up one long steep hill after missing a turn, but otherwise it was a fast, uneventful ride.

Eureka is kind of a dump, maybe a better way to put it is troubled in areas.  Either way we did stay at a holiday inn express (Ryan used some of his rewards points) and we got a bunch of errands done, including me logging some time at Starbucks to do some work and blog a little!  We went to Lost Coast Brewing for beer and dinner, which was great, before heading back to the hotel, much needed after 7 days in a tent, and went to sleep. 

Downhill? No wind? Well that is nice

C2C4K CA.7.344

Benbow to Ferndale

I am going to preface this blog with a quick comments on photos.  I've been uploading them to the blog in low resolution to hopefully make reading the blog on a mobile platform easier and to keep everyone from having to wait forever for them to load.  I am however going to try and upload all if not most of my photos in a higher resolution under the photos tab on the right hand side of the website.  If you want to see them in all their glory, they will be there eventually.

We said goodbye to Andrew in the morning, got camp packed up and headed out for the Avenue of the Giants. It was a great part of the ride, probably because it was mostly downhill.  We stop to see Founder’s tree and eat lunch.  I’m getting use to eating lunch wherever and whenever and multiple times.  We have our staples at this point, bagels, some meat sometimes and lots of peanut butter. You want to talk about calories per dollars, down a $4 dollar jar of peanut butter and you’ve inhaled 2,400 calories, good for 3 hours of riding.

After the 32 mile ride through Avenue of the Giants, we got off the 101 and biked through Rio Del on our way to Ferndale.  There we met a group of 4 guys who were riding their road bikes from Astoria to San Francisco at the local subway.  Two of the four guys were cut up real bad, with their jersey’s totally ripped.  They had recently crashed hard as they had been riding in a peleton and one rider hit another rider's back tire, crashing and taking his buddy out with him.  We chatted with them for a while before heading out to Ferndale.  After working up a couple of steep hills we made it into this sort of valley of farm land that we biked through for 6 miles until reaching Ferndale.  It was a little bit of a rough road, but it was a gorgeous part of the ride. 

We then reached Ferndale which is great little Victorian town.  We ate dinner at the local restaurant called the Ivanhoe and blew our budget for the day.  Luckily camping at the local fair grounds ended up being free.  There were a few people bike touring who were camping at the fairgrounds, but the most interesting where a 16 year old girl and 17 year old boy who had taken off from high school a week early to do their trip from Seattle to San Francisco. 

I continue to have a blast with Erik and Ryan and my right knee is feeling better.

Climbing day!

C2C4K CA.6.275

Westport to Leggett to Benbow

Over the past few days Ice and Ibuprofen have been my best friends.  This morning we had breakfast premade the night before in order to get an early start on the day.  So we said good bye to Kyle, our companion for the last two days and headed out at 7:45 am to tackle the climb to Legget which consist of about 3,500 feet of climbing and a stretch where you climb 1,600 feet without any reprieve. 

Yes those are Elk!

Resting the previous day most certainly paid its dividends though as my knees and legs held up throughout the climb.  In a way it was a fun day to take on the challenge.  The climb is as much physical as it is mental and will be one of the more challenging ones on our way to Portland.  It left us exhausted, but uplifted at the same time and was a reminder of how much it means to have my two friends with me on this journey.

See a cropped close up to prove it!

There is virtually nothing in Leggett except for the Chandelier tree.  The Chandelier tree stands 315ft tall and has a diameter of 21ft.  Its age is calculated at a maximum of 2,400 years and you can drive a car through its hollowed out trunk!  Needless to say the three of us road our bikes through it.  Picked up some post cards at the souvenir shop and a little food, stretched and the continued another 25 miles, relatively downhill, but often on the congested 101, to Benbow, where we camped for the night.

Yes cars do fit through here!

When you see the above image, it means its a riding video, from Mr. SockMonekys view.  I'll get better at editing these later, but here is one for now!

At camp we met a man named Andrew who is touring from Oregon to San Diego.  Ryan saw Andrew riding into camp and introduced us, letting him join in on our campsite for the night, saving him some money and providing us with extra company.  We also got to pick his brain about what he has learned from his own touring trips. Needless to say, we’ve run into a few groups or individuals’ bike touring and have passed many more on the road.

We’ve also encountered many people who have asked about what we are doing and why there is a monkey on my bike.  The generosity of strangers and their willingness to help out has been remarkable thus far.  At the same camp we met Jamie and Chuck, who were great to chat with and gave us some pizza and twizzlers.  We also met our camp neighbors who donated some salt and allowed us to borrow their can opener.  Which reminds me of the couple we met at MacKerricher State Park who gave us $20.00 dollars to the community fund and said a prayer for us.  We also met a group of women the day we took off from San Francisco at breakfast.  They donated $40.00 dollars to the community fund also and one of the woman lost her daughter to HER2+ breast cancer.  I told her I would ride for her daughter and tomorrow, when we travel the avenue of the giants, I will do so.

Above is Judy, post master in Westport with her own touring setup, that she takes her friend around in.  She is also a proud Warm Showers member!  Thanks so much for helping me get some stuff shipped home!

Miss you Muppet

Matteo

Down Day Numero Uno

C2C4K CA.5.218

Cleon to Westport

Today was a rest day, we rode 5 miles back to Fort Brag and hung out at Starbucks for 3 hours.  I got to catch up on some much needed work and more importantly have a Pike Place roast.  My close friends Jerry and Judy gave me a Starbucks gift card before leaving, so I was happy to put it to use for the first time.  I can’t thank them enough for all their support over the last 6 months and will be looking forward to some of Judy’s cooking and hanging with them when I get back. 

So after some catchup on work and some much needed down time we ran a few errands in town, I picked up a stove so we could have two, and then around 2:00pm we headed the 5 miles back to camp, grabbed our gear and headed out the 15 miles for Westport. 

In Westport we stayed almost directly on the beach where Kyle joined us again and a younger man, coming from the north, named Mike, also camped for the night. When the map said primitive, it meant primitive, but at least there was a spigot with fresh water.  The sunset followed by the stars at night, unencumbered by any artificial light, were spectacular.  But it got cold and dewy fast.  I huddled up in the tent and at that point had put the camera away.  No star photos but I'll grab some soon. 

Note to self, do a better job of taking photo's with all the people we meet and writing about it.

Miss you Muppet

Matt

The Peloton

C2C4K CA.4.206

KOA at Manchester to MacKerricher State Park

I can feel the IPA’s this morning but nothing that a cup of coffee and a few miles on the bike won’t work out of my system.  It’s pretty cold this morning, in fact it’s been pretty cold every morning and night.  It wakes you up nice, but I could do without having to dawn pants, a down coat and a winter hat, it is California!  I am up early attempting to use the camp wifi to do work, but it sucks and I think I’ve paid twice now for the service with no success.  I do have a decent amount that I need to get done though so it would be nice to find a spot today. I young woman, who is touring by herself shared some conversation with me though while I waited for my counterparts to rise.  She mentioned the best place to head to Portland would be on route 6 from Cape Lookout State Park.  Seeing that she had come that way her self, we're going to take her word on it.

So we road for over 47 miles today and we battled the head wind and long hills as usual but today we discovered the benefit of the peloton, riding as a group, taking 20 minute turns breaking the wind. It definitely made things easier and helped with my bad knee, but towards the end of the day I had some pain again and the cold wasn’t helping with my right knee either.  I am thinking this will be a constant for the trip so unless things change I’ll try not to bring it up again. 

So where to begin today, a lot of my blogging for the past 4 days has revolved around what we have done, but I haven’t reflected much.  To be short, I want to wait at least a week before I start to get into what it means to me to be on the road.  So for now you get a few more pretty pictures and so more of “here is what we did today” and that its.

Tonight we stayed in Cleon at MacKerricher State Park and met a man named Kyle, but not before passing through Fort Brag and crushing some McDonalds.  We went to a small Mexican restaurant named Purple Rose, had some chips and salsa (really good) and a few margaritas (just ok).  Kyle joined us and we learned of his decision to pack up all he owned or wanted to keep, put it on his bike and ride to Oregon to work on a farm.  He was a computer programmer but just seemed to have had enough.

We decided tomorrow will be a down day before tackling the hill to Leggett

Miss you Muppet,

Matteo