Day 29: Beachside State Park to Reedsport

September 13, 2011

Map of today's route. Terrain view looks best.

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I got on the road at 8:45. 57F, foggy, calm wind. The road has a lot of rolling hills, but at least the wind is calm after 2 days of headwind.

I had breakfast #2 in Yachats, only about 6 miles down the road.

The sea was too calm to give a good splash.

The weather was cloudy all day but the clouds were high enough that I could usually see the top of the nearest mountains.

Another ocean view from highway 101 north of Florence.

Highway 101 has no shoulder when passing through Siuslaw National Forest, north of Florence. In this section I heard a non-stop honking sound approach from behind. A motor home drove by with its stairway unfolded, with the car behind honking nonstop. The motor home driver finally got the message and pulled over in the next turnout ahead of me. I thanked the honking driver.

As usual when on the coast, several touring cyclists passed me today. I often passed stopped cyclists, but I don't ever remember passing a touring cyclist on the road.

I quickly snapped this picture before taking a telephoto picture of the lighthouse from the same place.

Looking south, the mountains end and dunes begin.

I had planned to do the Sea Lion Caves tour. But when I went inside, their live video feed showed that the sea lions weren't in the cave. So I didn't do the tour.

Sea Lion caves gift shop/cafe. An elevator goes to the "world's largest sea cave".

Final descent from the mountains to the dunes.

I had lunch in Florence with Brian and Nancy, the tandem couple that I met back in Lincoln City. Their motel tour started in Vancouver, Washington and they're pedaling the coast from Astoria to Crescent City.

Florence is where the Oregon Dunes begin. The highway goes inland because it's not practical to have a highway on the ocean side of the shifting dunes. The Oregon Dunes region has few ocean views because a giant dune is always between the highway and the ocean.

Dunes sometimes close off a bay, turning it into a lake.

Dunes migrate east one foot per year. This dune is migrating into the highway.

I turned into the Oregon Dunes overlook area and hiked the nature trail to the top of a big dune that had partial views of the ocean.

Then a few easy level miles to the Umpqua river bridge which is very long but not very high.

Umpqua river drawbridge just north of Reedsport.

Nancy took this picture of me on the Umpqua river bridge.

I arrived in Reedsport at 6 PM and shared a motel room with Brian and Nancy. I've never done that before. It worked out pretty well. No loud snoring.

Reedsport is mostly a fishing and industrial town. Very different from all the tourist towns I passed during the last 5 days.

Once again today was overcast all day. I had to charge my phone with AC power because there have been no solar charging opportunities for 3 consecutive days.

Cycle Oregon spent the night in Reedsport last night. The town is still decorated. I'm glad that 2000 cyclists aren't in town tonight.

Reedsport is the end of the Oregon coast segment of this tour. Here's a weather summary of the 5 days on the coast:

Day 1: Tailwind, morning fog, 5 hours of sun, evening fog
Day 2: Tailwind, sunny all day after 8 AM.
Day 3: Headwind, fog all day.
Day 4: Headwind, cloudy all day.
Day 5: Calm wind, cloudy all day.

September usually has good weather, but I only had a tailwind 2 out of 5 days, and only had sunshine 1.5 out of 5 days.

Distance: 57.4 mi. (91.8 km)
Climbing: 2668 ft. (808 m)
Average Speed: 10.8 mph (17.3 km/h)

Today's ride: 57 miles (92 km)
Total: 1,443 miles (2,322 km)

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