Day 18 - Brookings, OR to Port Orford, OR

Day Total - 54.6 miles
Trip Total - 681.4 miles
Reason #286 not to go north: Southbounders going faster up the hill than you're going down it.

The air was chilly and the skies ominous when we woke up this morning. The forecast called for strong headwinds, but we weren't feeling much in the campground. As we ate breakfast though, the trees began to move just a bit. Then more and more. By the time we left around 9:30, we knew we were in for a tough day.

The root of the problem wasn't so much the wind as campsite location. The next hiker/biker camp was 53 miles to the north at Humbug Mountain State Park, so that was, barring a stop at a motel or an RV park, our only real option. As we got on the road, traffic was fairly heavy, but it dropped off quickly as we got away from Brookings. Most of the first 15 miles was through Samuel Boardman State Park, where there are frequent scenic viewpoints along the coast. I stopped at a couple, much to Kevin's consternation. The wind wasn't getting any lighter, and the clouds to the north looked worse by the minute.

After about 20 miles, we cam to the Pistol River. Apparently, it's a favorite spot for windsurfers, and I can see why. With only sand dunes to break the wind (not very effectively), it took all of our strength to keep going forward on a very flat stretch. The winds in Santa Cruz had nothing on this - it was a testament to how much stronger we had become that we were able to make it through and still have energy for the rest of the day.

We needed that energy too, because right after Pistol River came the climb over the headland at Cape Sebastian, a steep 700 foot ascent that is the second-highest on the Oregon Coast. At least the hill and its tree cover blocked most of the wind. We were actually going almost as fast up the slope as we had been into the headwind on the flat!

This is the hilariously steep road to Cape Sebastian.

On the descent, the headwind was back. At first, it was steep enough that we could still keep a swift pace, but on the lower sections, we had to pedal hard just to keep from getting pushed back. In fact, we passed two southbounders in this area, and they were going faster up the hill than we were going down it! Fortunately, we were dropping into the town of Gold Beach, about halfway to Humbug Mountain. We stopped at Dairy Queen to get food and coffee, and more importantly, warm up and dry off. Though it hadn't been raining hard, there had been an on-and-off drizzle all day, and there wasn't any sun to counteract the chilly wind.

After lunch, we stopped by the grocery store across the street before heading on our way. We crossed the Rogue River, then got off 101, instead following the wide river's north bank. A few miles later, we turned up a side valley. Even though it was only a few miles inland, the weather had changed dramatically. The wind was all but gone in most spots, and the sun even came out from time to time. The valley itself was also quite a change - dense forest on the side slopes with farms and pasture in the middle.

With about 10 miles to go until camp, we rejoined 101 for the remainder of the day. We could soon see Humbug Mountain covered in clouds in the distance, but we still had a couple hills to conquer before we got there. On the last climb, by body simply ran out of gas. Fortunately, it wasn't like on the Santa Cruz day, when I nearly passsed out on the bike. I just needed to stop and eat, and then I was able to continue with no problems.

That big mountain collecting the clouds is where we were headed for the night.

A few miles from camp, we got under Humbug's cloud cover. We weren't worried at this point though, and after a few winding miles along a creek, we were in camp. We had biked over 50 miles through terrible headwinds, worse than anything we had encountered to this point, and averaged 10 mph. And we had done it without excessive difficulty, not to mention one of the most challenging climbs in Oregon thrown in for good measure. Our traveling companion for the past few days, the Starving Cyclist, did not make it though. He was packing up as we left camp in the morning, but he never showed up at Humbug. In fact, only one other cyclist joined us in the hiker/biker that night, the fewest we have had in quite some time.
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