We had high expectations when heading for Oregon’s coast: all fellow touring cyclist travelling south were enthusing over its scenic bike routes. And we truly encountered many (mostly pleasant) surprises on our itinerary: 1. The landscape, flora and fauna Oregon’s coast is rough, wild and breathtakingly beautiful. Think of endless pebble or black sand beaches with thrift wood, dense Douglas-fir forests ending abruptly over a cliff into the sea, misty veils on grassy dunes in the morning, but also humid, rain-forest like fern coves. In between we spotted white Calla lilies, yellow gorse and manifold azaleas and rhododendron. The below (long!) selection of photographs tries to give an overview of the diversity. 2. The culture Herbal medicine or Farmacy (yes, not pharmacy, because it has the word „farm“ in it) is a big thing in Oregon since the cultivation and consumption of marihuana was legalized. It is of course a prejudice to think, that all Oregonians are former hippies. We perceived it as true, though, that Oregonians generally have an easy-going and practical nature: wearing outdoor jackets even in restaurants is a common thing, as weather can change rapidly. Also food is important and has to taste good; it goes without saying that organic or “home-grown” is even better. In Tillamook we also visited the Air Museum in an WWII-era, wooden hangar, which was originally built to shelter blimps. The various leavings from the US air force base and a wild mix of flying machinery were rather poorly presented, though. It is during such moments that we realize how highly patriotism is regarded in American culture.
The second one were Carina and Matt, touring cyclists from the UK, whom we met during lunch break in Neskowin. It was actually our second encounter and a funny hazard: on our road trip by rental car, we had seen a touring couple crossing the still snowy pass in the Sierra Nevadas and we were impressed by their effort. It turned out it was Carina and Matt. They are also cycling north (about the first ones we met!) and started around the same day in Los Angeles as we did. There were many other parallels too, which we found out in the evening as we all stayed at the same campground. It was great meeting them and maybe we will again further up the coast :-). 4. The milestones We hit some milestones: 2000 km of pedaling, 100 h on the bike and over 20’000 m of altitude. And of course it makes us proud :-). 5. The first flat tire(s) It happened in Newport on Philipp’s back tire. At least it was thorough: a long nail punctured both sides of the tube. Although the tube was repaired quickly, it remained fragile. On a really hot day (35 °C) it deflated on a rough gravel road and we had to entirely replace the tube. 6. The road conditions We agree that the Oregon coast bike route is utterly scenic and well laid out. However, we would supplement that the latter is primarily true if you are travelling from North to South. Pedaling the opposite direction, we often had to search for our path. Also, there are well-maintained and designated bike paths, but often we had the impression that a rough road, needing repair, was simply declared a bike path and thus was fine. Shoulders exist, but often are covered by gravel, waste, metallic splints and thus more dangerous to ride on than on the highway itself. 7. The campsites Hiker & Biker campsites are very well dispersed and maintained along Oregon’s coast in both state and county parks and they are often situated beautifully, even though separated from the rest of the campground. We were only missing food lockers on some of the campgrounds. Luckily we had our bear-proof canister, but neighboring tents had to defend their food towards cheeky and hungry raccoons during night. Our bear vault only has some raccoon-teeth-signature in the meanwhile… And we were astonished that a raccoon, which is only slightly taller than a cat, manages to move the huge container 10 meters away from our picknick table! 8. The weather All these days we could profit from sunny days and mild temperatures in Oregon. Usually it was cloudy or foggy in the morning, but by midday the view had cleared up and even allowed for some astonishing sunsets at the beach and starry nights. Our friend, the northerly wind, was once more very loyal and made sure that we couldn’t race past the beautiful landscape…
2 Comments
Carina Pullen
18/5/2016 04:30:11
Great blog guys! Glad to see you had a good time in Portland too :) We're heading towards Port Townsend in a couple of days from tomorrow, and then to the islands. We might meet again!
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Roger
18/5/2016 22:41:26
Congrats to the (1st) reached milestones. You might be more successful than many project leaders...
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Blog Archive
September 2016
CountersKilometers pedalled
Hours on the bike
Meters cycled uphill
Flat tires
Burgers eaten
Bears sighted
Day by day statisticsFor those interested in our day by day activities and statistics, please download the following document.
World Clock
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