Tour de Bocrie

Though we were still tucked behind the over 50 mile long Oregon Dunes, the morning was shrouded in thick fog, so we never saw the end of the hill we had to climb right out of the chute. As we moved further from the ocean, we saw glimpses of daylight and the sand dunes that had buried the forest.

This is an ATV riders paradisewith miles of dunes to traverse. While they played, we climbed, dropped and climbed again through the fog. We stopped at this Veterans Memorial just outside of North Bend with a very poignent quote by our first president.As we bike throughwe see almost clear skies and the ocean in the distance.Before noon "we" stopped in to check on the local fishing. We mentioned to them that we were heading to Seven Devils' Road. There said something about us thinking it was the devil if we were doing it on our bikes......and they all laughed.......Ha, Ha, Ha.....it wasn't funny. Seven Devil's Road was much longer than 7 miles, certainly had way more than seven killer hills and we definitely cursed the devil that named it. Once we finally reach the crest, we see just how far we are from the ocean.The ride into Bandon was mostly downhill, which is really good, as we are spent. This is a darling town
and we would have taken more pictures, if the wind wasn't blowing 30+ mph off a very cold bay.
Jerrism: In a 50 mile day, it's not the first 50 that's the toughest, but the last 50!

Play Misty for Me!
You've heard it before, it's cold and foggy, etc., etc. The course takes us on the Beach Loop Road out of Bandon, which is only a few miles long, but it takes us about an hour to get through it. Thank goodness it wasn't for any hills, but the view.

We barely had to paddle to see a different view everywhere we turned; Tabletop Rock, Face Rock......you see the face? Cat and Kittens Rock (not sure on this one)
and all these rocks are on practically on the beach.The homes and trees along the wayare incredible as well.
But we really needed to get some miles on, so off we go. The fog was trying to liftand offered some great views.
We reach our halfway point of Port Orford just before lunch, so plenty of time for some sightseeing, especially since it was now nice and sunny.This port actually lifts the boats out of the water because of the huge tidal flows.
Unfortunately, in the time it took us to eat lunch, the wind changed (from the south) and the fog blew in;
and it was thick and cold. It was amazing to see it roll in,though it hid some incredible sights......can you see the phantom rock? But, the fog seemed to turn the water a beautiful Caribbean blue.

It was a wicked ride 30 miles into a strong head wind, so the sight of the bridge to Gold Beach was definitely welcome, though we almost lost Jerry to another day of fishing. The Rogue River meets the Pacific here, and there had to be 50 boats in the river fishing for salmon. But we are tired and ready to thaw out in a hotel room.

Foggy or overcast (whatever you want to call it) and cold, but not windy, we were psyched. Once again our course took us on the sightseeing loop out of town.

We were not disappointed. We needed the boost as he had a straight up 800 foot climb ahead of us, which occasionally offered us a view of the water.After our first straight hill up, we had four more sharp up than down hills, but each offered spectacular, albeit not sunny, views.This is Arch Rock.Luckily, though is was not sunny, we were able to see more of the coastline than in the last couple of days.Can't imagine what it would look like with sunshine.We encountered several seagulls that would not get out of the way of the camera until their picture was taken.However, the coast is what we came for.
Searching for lunch in Brookings, we found the King Daddy of all Duckies.
Our duckies were very excited.
The southern tip of Oregon and northern tip of California is the Lily Capital of the World......Lily! As we approached our destination, Crescent City, we were once again treated to a flat, coastal, scenic route.
This is the REAL Pebble Beach, California.And an incredible lighthouseto beckon the salmon fisherman (and weary bikers) safely home.

We started late today (9 am) as we were 'taking the day off' so only doing 20+ miles. At our regular sugar rush-filled breakfast, we saw the sun trying to break through to the south, so we gobbled down breakfast and headed out of the door into ..... fog!
Crescent City is "The Gateway to the Redwoods"

and it is NOT just a tourist trap slogan. Though we highly recommend it on a bike so you can actually absorb the beauty, it's a bear of a ride, through ..... ten miles straight up in two hours....in the fog.
Amazingly, it appeared as the true gift it was sunshine; in time to light the redwoods to their full majesty. They are amazingly tall, huge (note bike at base of tree), and awe-inspiring. We dropped out of the hills to see our first glimpse of the Pacific Coast as the fog was lifting; lifting just enough to show us our next hill.
Again, the sun did beautiful things to the color of the water.
The view of the sea was short lived as we climbed back into the redwoods and then dropped into a narrow yet beautiful valley.
We're not huntin' wabbit, we be huntin' Elk....
But look Elmer Fudd, we sess one
wait a minute, we found more than one!
With 40 miles completed we decided we'd done enough.
Bar Note: Justin, had dinner at one of the best biker bars ever.

Happy Birthday flowers for Mom!

This morning we awoke to crystal clear blue skies and crispy cool air. We had a short hilly trek through the trees to the coast; hoping we'd still find sun next to the ocean. Around the shaded corner and there it was,sunshine and beautiful lagoons.Ocean on one side, large pine and fresh water on the other.Each cove offered a different view, but we had to go around each half moon of land; there is no straight or flat road here.It really didn't matter, it was all gorgeous. In Trinidad, our halfway point for the day, we saw more of the dramatic coastline in a most incredible color blue and as calm as we'd ever seen the Pacific ocean.Just one morethen off to Eureka for the night and a rest day tomorrow,

Sorry, we were lazy today, so no great photos of the really cool Victorian homes that populate the town. Took our bikes for a massage and tune-up at Henderson Bikes; they did a fantastic job, thanks guys.
BUT, we must wish ODU a Great FIRST Football game tomorrow in like ........... forever!

GO MONARCHS!!! Have fun everyone, like we really need to say that!

The weatherman promised us a south east blow (in our face) and rain. It didn't seem to matter, as for the very first day on the west coast, we felt warm (60's) air.
Our course today took us inland on a tour of the countryside. The skies were threatening,

but the scenery beautiful.Small towns and country storeswere nestled between the fields. In Ferndale we actually felt we'd stepped back in time. We had seen a sign that invited us to, 'Come smell our Dairy Air'.It was very apparent what it meant. We followed the Eel Riverto our destination, Scotia. It's a short ride today, as to go any furher would put us out or television reach for the Virginia Tech game this evening. Fortunately for me, there is only one hotel in this townand it's a beauty. It's a small, very sleepy town owned by the Pacific Lumber Company which is evidenced in the construction of several of the buildings including the museum.
Great place to get away if you want peace and quite in very nice surroundings.
Game On, gotta go.

Reedsport, Oregon to Scotia, California

314.5 miles