September 13 - Sunday - Doug started off the day with a flat rear tire. He patched the tube and we ate breakfast. We got all loaded up only to notice that the tire was flat again. A young man cycling from Portland was in the room next door and Donna chatted with him awhile waiting for Doug to make some phone calls and fix the tire again.
We finally got on the road about 9:00, an hour later than we had planned and there was a slight headwind.....not a good sign.
The ocean view was pretty murky too.
That is Humbug Mountain with its head in the clouds.
This nice viewpoint is just where the road turns sharply inland to go around Humbug.
You just never know where you are going to find dinosaurs!
The slighest bit of blue starting to show up to the north.....Oh yeah.....we're headed south.
Looking back at Humbug and the very rugged coastline.
We stopped at the Ophir rest area for a break and found a whole Honda 2000 club setting up a photo of their prized possessions. One of their party was challenged to a dunk in the ocean. He did it but he sure didn't stay in very long. The cranberry oatmeal cookie was as delicious as promised.
The bridge over the famous Rogue River as we approach Gold Beach.
Mom and Leslie.....this picture is for you.
We reached town about 12:30 and stopped for lunch at the Barnacle Bistro....good food and good music.
And interesting art as well. We left an hour later with Cape Sebastian looming before us. This is the highest point on the whole Oregon Coast bike route, 4.5 miles of up with a steeper grade just before the top at 712 feet.
A hour later this encouraging shoulder message greeted us at the top. One thing that helped is that we were protected from the headwind until just before the top. Not the case on the way down the other side. The wind blew so hard that it actually slowed us down a few times as if we had hit the brakes.
Back down at sea level at Pistol River.
The ceiling is lowering again but maybe our luck will hold.
But of course there are pictures that need to be taken.
It started raining about halfway up the hill out of Pistol River (about 3:30). And it rained, then rained a little harder and it kept raining, along with the headwind, for the whole 2 hours it took us to get to Brookings. We only stopped to rest our legs, eat something and take this one picture. We stopped at the first motel that was very close to a restaurant. Turned out there were at least 8 other cyclists taking refuge in the same motel including the young man from Portland and the 3 guys that rescued Donna's handlebar bag.
Didn't have to do laundry....we just had to get them dry! The warm shower was extra wonderful.
56.4 miles for today for a total of 419 miles
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