Day 21 - Winchester Bay, OR to Searose Beach, OR

Day Total - 43.2 miles
Trip Total - 816.1 miles
Lesson of the day: repairs are best left to those who know what they're doing.

Kevin really didn't want to get up this morning. We had agreed the night before to stay in bed if it was raining, which is was very early in the morning. But, because we were under a canopy of pine trees, water continued to drip on our tents long after the rain stopped. I got up at 8:30 and tried to get Kevin out of bed so that we could leave by 11. But he insisted it was still raining! Now, he and I have the same tent, and you can't see outside of them. Even so, he continued to claim that he could tell it was raining, even though I was standing outside with nothing falling on me when I wasn't under a tree. Finally, after a little more grumbling, he got up (once I had breakfast ready, of course).

Unsurprisingly, I was ready to leave well before Kevin. I decided to try my hand at fixing my front brake, which was failing to rebound enough and thus sometimes rubbing against the rim. I knew I just needed to increase the spring tension, but the bolt that seemed to adjust it wouldn't bring it high enough. Then, suddenly, the bolt popped out when I was tightening it. I had stripped the thread on the adjuster, which meant there was now no tension at all and the brake was permanently pressed against the rim.



I frantically called the nearest bike shop, about 25 miles up the road in Florence, to see if they were open on Memorial Day. Luckily, it turned out that they were, and they told me to bring my bike in as soon as I made it to town. Meanwhile, we had to remove one of my front brake pads to make my bike rideable, so I had to get to Florence with rear brakes only.

We finally left camp just after noon, one of our latest starts yet. We dropped into Winchester Bay on Highway 101, then continued a few miles to the larger city of Reedsport, where we began to encounter heavy RV traffic. It seemed like everyone in Oregon was returning from their holiday trips, and most were going north, so our side of the road was extremely crowded. For that reason, we pushed the bikes across the very narrow drawbridge over the Umpqua River at the north end of Reedsport.

Continuing north, we were inland, but not totally away from water. We were still in the Oregon Dunes country, which has numerous small lakes backed up behind the dunes themselves. The highway wound among these lakes, and just to add to the charm, the sun came out! It has been cloudy for most of the time we have been in Oregon, but today, we rode mostly under clear skies.

On this part of the ride, we crossed another county line, this time into Lane County, but we quickly learned that this was no cause for celebration. Highway 101 in Lane County has narrow shoulders, very rough pavement (as bad as some as the Humboldt County side roads), and a lot of RV and trailer traffic because of the dunes. It was a tense ride into Florence, which we finally reached around 3:00.

I went to the bike shop while Kevin found a somewhat shady-looking Mexican restaurant to get his daily grease. The fix was surprisingly quick - I figured the brake arm would have to be replaced (the hole was too small to retap), but the mechanic tightened the spring so that it didn't need the bolt to hold tension. It turned out that I was on the right track, but that I just didn't know about another point of adjustment. What matters is that my brakes now work better than they did before I attempted to fix them!

After a stop at Safeway, we continued north, except we now had a stiff headwind. I knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any better. A few miles out of town, the road returned to the coastline after a long inland stretch (since Bandon, yesterday's start point) with excellent views of some low dunes. We were, however, climbing again over a headland. It was slow going on the way up with both of us feeling weak toward the end of the day. We were at least comforted by the fact that what goes up must come down, and this descent had a new twist - a tunnel!

Returning to the ocean north of Florence

Heceta Head

It wasn't a very long tunnel - probably only 500 feet under Heceta Head - but it was an interesting variation on the usual rollers. The turnoff for the famous Heceta Head Lighthouse was just after it, but the tower was covered for repairs, so we didn't bother stopping. Besides, we were only a mile or so from camp at Carl Washburne State Park. The hiker/biker camp was conveniently located at the top of a steep hill, but at least it was protected among pine trees. I chatted with a veteran tourist from Kansas in camp - he and his wife were biking from Portland to Brookings for their daughter's wedding.

After dinner, I walked down to the beach, where I was immediately awestruck by the view. Heceta Head to the south jutted out from the ocean mist, while another headland to the north (Cape Perpetua, I think) was just visible through its shroud. The tall pines gave everything a dark green tint to contrast with the blue ocean and yellow and pink sunset. The clouds to the west looked almost close enough to reach out and touch as they floated, row upon row, as far as the eye could see. I wanted to stay there all night, but it was getting dark and cold, so I hurried back to camp to shower and warm up in my sleeping bag.

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