Day 7: And on the Seventh Day...

He rested... kinda. Today was another fun packed day. If I had to theme the day, it was learning from my elders. I think I learned more about US history today than any other day for the past few years. Did you know that the coastline of Oregon is designated a highway?

First and foremost, a HUGE shoutout to the Oregon State Park service! The hiker/biker camps are fantastic. I might of said this already, but it’s worth saying again. Lots of biking amenities. That it’s a bike stand with full tools in the cover photo of this post.

Today started slow. I got out of bed around 8:30, and cooked a slow breakfast. (For those wondering at home, on this trip I can do about 5 packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast. That’s about right calories wise.) Max rolled out of his tent a bit later, and I asked what his plan was. He said he was ready to get moving, so I gave him a bit of a teaser of what I had planned for the day and got moving. A bit later, he changed his mind and said he’d join me!

Our first stop of the day was the lighthouse at Cape Blanco. We were some of the only people there, so we got an extra long tour, which was great. I felt a bit bad for Max, because his English is not great, but he said he really enjoyed it too. Some fun facts about lighthouses, and this one in general. Being a lightkeeper was a bit of a sought after job back in the day. The coast guard would come and randomly inspect both the light house and the lightkeepers family quarters. If either failed inspection, you were fired. Lighthouses along the coast flash at different intervals, such that ships can know which lighthouse they’re looking at. For example, Cape Blanco flashes every 8 seconds where the lighthouse in Bandon flashes every 40. To this day, sailors still use that information. All the equipment for the lighthouse had to be made on sight, or brought up the coast at low tide! That includes a river crossing. The 800lbs. lenses of the lighthouse is turned by a 0.6 HP motor. This lighthouse was used by Japanese planes dropping bombs in the forest in WWII (trying to start a forest fire.)

After we spent a good amount of time at the lighthouse, it was time to go into town. Inspired by the lighthouse, I thought maybe we could try and walk along the beach into town. I asked a park volunteer about this and he said it shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s about 4 miles, just go at low tide. We were about to do that, bike I checked on my phone the direct distance: 7 miles. That’s too far, so we biked the 10 miles into town. So sad! It’s also possible to hike the Oregon Coast, and one of these days I’m gonna do that!

Our first stop in town was for lunch. We went to a really cool family run bakery and deli called Golden Harvest Herban Farm and Bakery. The food was good! And I picked up a vegan carrot cake for dessert. (Max has never had carrot cake before, so I had too.)

After lunch, we were off to the Port Orford Lifeboat station. This was a coast guard station where they’d launch rescue crews for shipwrecks. I think this was my favorite stop of the day. Did you know why “Jerry Cans” are called “Jerry Cans?” It’s because British/American gas cans in WWII would fall off a truck and break where German gas cans wouldn’t. The U.S. and Great Britain adopted the German design, and because the British called the German’s “Jerry” they were Jerry Cans.

For those that have seen the movie “The Deadliest Storm” (or something like that, the one about the Coast Guard on the east coast), there are scenes in the movie where the boat is totally submerged. Apparently that actually did happen! The boat is self righting in 14 seconds (although modern day coast guard boats right in 8 seconds). And... they had one of display. We didn’t get to go inside, but it was cool to see.

The reason we were even talking about Jerry Cans is the crew members had to haul two 5 gallon cans of gas down 542 steps to the boats whenever they went down (and you thought Lake Michigan was bad. That’s about 90 lbs (45 in each hand) down to the boat.

We walked down some of the steps, but not all. We still got to see this amazing view. I bet it’s not as nice when there’s a storm...

Our final stop in town was the grocery store, where we got food for our BBQ for the night! We bought enough in case Austen made it on his 95 mile day, but he stopped short, so sad! After a brutal bike back north into the wind (I’m glad I’m headed south) we took a shower, cracked a beer, and got a fire going.

It takes an embarrassingly long time to get a fire going in this wet climate. Today I spent more time prepping the fire, and only needed one match, but it’s constant minding of the fire to get it going. However, we soon enough had a roaring fire, and had brauts cooking. (And chili roasting!)

Dinner was very filling, and followed by the delicious vegan carrot cake. Unfortunately, the two of us couldn’t finish the entire cake, so I brought the remaining half over to a group of older campers that were out talking. They were more then glad to accept the cake, and we had a nice long chat about biking, places to visit, and the beach bill that made the Oregon Beach a highway. Apparently it’s only 90 words long! There names were Chris, Mike, and Tom. And they were all from around the area. Most come out at least twice a year to visit the coast. Sounds like it’s time to move to Oregon :)

From today I have two new trip ideas along the Oregon coast. Idea one, bike + surf. This requires me to get good at surfing, but I think it’d be awesome. There seems to be tons of good surfing here. The second is, as I mentioned, to hike the Oregon Coast. That would require a good amount of prep, and would be a slog through the sand, but I think would be a blast. Apparently you have to cross most rivers at low tide.

Finally, I as I said goodnight to Max, he gave me a really nice compliment. I think part of the reason he stayed was to practice his English with me, which I was more then happy to help with (it’s easier for me to understand him then him to understand me.). Anyway, very touching, and definitely nice to hear. Thank you Max! It was fun exploring Port Orford with you!