Day 28 Reedsport to Umpquah Lighthouse Park: We Reach The Ocean (and don't go much farther)!

July 31, 2017

Ok, this is the second time I have typed this page, so hopefully I will remember all the witty things I said originally!

After a great sleep, we woke up to find a cool morning mist on the water by Bill’s house.

the view from Bill's dock in the early morning - magical!

For the first time in a long time, we had to put on warmer layers! We enjoyed a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt before saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts – such amazing kindness, we will never forget! Thanks Bill, Glenn and Molly!!!

Glenn, Molly and our wonderful host, Bill - you are truly amazing!

this is Bill's camper - I love the name!

just before we left, the fog had already lifted and the day was getting warm

Having said our goodbyes, we scooted down the hill. Now we were in the Tsunami zone! At the bottom of the short short hill to Bill’s there are signs for the evacuation route should there ever be a tsunami. Funny thing is, one sign points up Bill’s street and across the way, the sign points up the other way – sure do hope no one ever has to actually use this route!!!

tsunami evaquation this way, or wait, maybe the other way?

We stopped pretty quickly to shed layers as the morning had heated up and had a few minutes of Facetime with our grandson, Taylor, who just turned 7. It was fun to chat with him – we miss our grandkids!

We stopped at the Sourdough Bakery at Winchester Bay for an iced decaf. While sitting outside, we met Scott from Alabama, who was out west escaping the extreme heat in his home state. The talk soon turned to football (why does that always happen, Jim?) and we discovered that he is an Auburn fan. Our son-in-law, Matt is also a big Auburn fan, so we had lots to talk about between all of our teams.

After our little break, we rode on down to the dock area to get our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean on this trip. It was such a thrill to finally reach the ocean, we were both beaming. We were stopped for a celebratory selfie when Nick, who lives in Medford, drove by. He stopped, hopped out of his truck and offered to take our picture – what a nice guy! He asked us if we were enjoying Oregon and we told him that not only was the state beautiful, but the people we have met have been so wonderful. Yes, we really do love Oregon!

After our little view, we stopped back at the bakery to pick up a few things to eat later, as we had decided to stay at Umpquah Lighthouse State Park. Yes, I know. When you look at the mileage for this day, you will say, “but you only rode 15 miles!”. This is true, but we really wanted to enjoy our first day by the ocean, so decided to stay here, where we could have more views. However, the park is a big uphill from the town, so we had to make sure we had enough to get by for the day without having to go back to town.

The hosts at Umpquah were great and we were soon set up at the hiker/biker site there, which was quite lovely, set back in the trees. It was pretty chilly, though, so on went the woollies once again.

a great place to camp, even though it was pretty cold - notice we've got our long sleeves on!

After setting up, we went for a walk to check out the lighthouse, which overlooks not only the ocean but also the dunes, which this part of Oregon is famous for. We had just missed Dune Fest, which, by the sounds of it, we were happy to have done. Apparently, below the Lighthouse during Dune Fest, you can’t even hear because the noise of the dune buggies below is so intense. For a dune buggy enthusiast, this would have been great, but for us, not so much.

After the lighthouse, we walked along a path that led us down onto the dunes. We sat there, above where people can ride, enjoying the feeling of our feet in the sand while we watched some of the dune buggies drive around. It does look like fun, but not something we wanted to do on this trip – maybe another time.

when we got closer to the dunes - the sand is so soft and was very warm

We got back to our little spot to enjoy an afternoon snack of cheese, crackers and a glass of wine. We found a nice sunny spot to enjoy this little repast and then just sat and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

Later in the day we went for another little stroll before coming back to our site to make dinner. We were using some of the backpacker’s dinners we had purchased before and found out that you really need to check on the portions as one dinner, which was supposed to serve two, was really only enough for one. Good thing we had another one!

The wind really picked up after dinner, so we cleaned up and retired to the tent to play backgammon until it was time to go to sleep. This was the first night where we had to wear layers to bed to keep warm – yikes! Tomorrow we are headed to Coos Bay where we have a room booked. We want to do a little more route planning and need to solve the wifi problems we are having. That’s it for now. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Today's ride: 24 km (15 miles)
Total: 1,039 km (645 miles)

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