Day 27 Camp to Reedsport: Never Believe Anyone Who Says

July 30, 2017

We woke up, thinking "Ah great, only 30 miles to Reedsport and it's all downhill!", so we had our second meal of granola - yum, packed up the tent and off we went through the cool morning air. The morning along here was simply breathtakingly beautiful. It was a shaded, windy road that just moved along by the river. It felt like we were riding through a story, it was just that nice.

The shade ended, and we noticed some route markers that seemed to indicate that we were further out from Reedsport than we had thought - like about 10 miles further. Oh well, we thought, no problem. We will get there a little later, that's all. We hit a few little hills and laughed about how people tell you one thing when they are in a car and its totally different on a bike. Yes, the road was indeed mostly flat - but that doesn't mean ALL flat! We managed though and kept our good humour. We stopped by a disused bridge for a little break and noticed a number of turkey vultures soaring overhead. Hope they aren't thinking that we are lunch!

some of our friends keeping an eye on us

this is how we have a break - set out the chairs...

we saw a few bridges across the river leading to private property. This one caught our eye as it seemed like a pretty expensive bridge for private land - someone knows someone?

The shade completely dissapeared and for some reason, the road builders decided at this point to stop following the river and head up inland instead. Oh, great - a granny gear hill! Right in the middle of our perfectly beautiful day!

some of the farmers working hard as we rode by

We grunted and groaned and made it up and then halfway down the other side we came to the Smith River Store - hallelujah!

finally we arrived at the Smith River Store - root beer never tasted so good!

We went in, and although the pickings were pretty slim, we managed to find some cold water and pop. We had left over potato chips, so we sat out front and enjoyed our perfectly not healthy snack - bliss! As we were cleaning up, 3 cyclists appreared coming from the other direction. By the way they were chugging up, we knew we had a nice downhill continuing.

They stopped to grab cold drinks and we all chatted about cycling. They were out for a little day ride from Reedsport, so we asked about the road going forward. "Oh, all pretty much downhill and you should have the wind at our back too." Sweet!

okay, okay, yes, we are obsessed with red barns. But we still haven't heard why they are red!

We said goodbye and then continued on down the hill. We soon came to a lovely boat launch complete with a bathroom! I hadn't wanted to use the nasty looking portapotty at the store, so I made the decision that this would be our lunch stop. We walked down to the river and splashed around a bit before making our peanut butter flat bread sandwiches. It was a lovely shaded area so we had the chairs out and really enjoyed our little lunch break. Before leaving, as it was heating up and we didn't see much in the way of shade on the road, we both got our shirts wet and I my hair as well. It felt wonderful to ride off feeling slightly chilled for as long as it lasted.

a great little place to stop and get some shade!

After our lunch break, we noticed that the wind had picked up, but it was a headwind! Gah! Now we were riding in the heat, into the wind, and every little hill grated. We vowed never ever to believe anyone who said the road was flat again! Somewhere along this stretch, we passed some riders headed the other way. We all called out a friendly hello. It is one of the nicest parts of cycling, even just a quick greeting from another cyclist can brighten your day!

The day had turned out to be a lot longer than we thought and before we pulled into Reedsport, we stopped to check if I had any cell coverage as I had been out of range for the past two days. We saw that the campground we wanted to go to was several miles past Reedsport and made the decision to find a hotel for the night. As we were deciding on which cheap, not so great motel to choose, the 3 riders we had seen going the other way earlier came up to us. First in line was Bill, on a recumbent bike. He was followed, we soon found out, by his cousin, Greg and Greg's wife Molly. Bill was very interested to know where we had come from and where we were headed today. When we told him a motel he immediately said, "well, I have a room for you if you like", and just like that, we were swept away into the wonderful world of Bill's Reedsport. We took a roundabout way to get to his home on the river as he wanted to get his 50 miles in for the day. I offered him some of mine but no dice. It was a lovely little detour, though, so we certainly didn't mind, chatting with Bill, Greg and Molly as we rode along. We came to Bill's home, just past the Tsunami Zone, which we thought was quite funny.

As promised, Bill gave us a room and we both had nice warm showers while our hosts jumped into the river for a bit of a swim. Once we were all changed and refreshed, we walked to Bill's favourite restaurant in Reedsport, Harbor Light, where Glen and Molly bought the beers and Bill the dinner! They would not let us pay for any of it - simply simply incredible! Bill, having cycled across the states and around Oregon, was interested in knowing all about our adventure and we were excited to hear about his and about the many things that Glen and Molly were up to. Such really wonderful people. We were totally in shock the whole evening thinking that these people didn't know us from anyone and what brought us together was cycling. What other form of travel causes people to reach out in such a way to total strangers? Really, it was a magical evening and there will never be enough words to say how thankful we were to meet Bill, Glen and Molly!

Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,015 km (630 miles)

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