Hint, it very much was not a beautiful day, but the Oregon Coast is absolutely beautiful! And made the fact that I wore rain gear all day well well worth it. It was a packed day, filled with food, stunning views, rain (ugh), talks with lovely folks around here, and of course biking.

The day started as any day does, at 5am. That’s a bit of a lie, that’s when my dad woke up to drive back up to San Francisco. Hopefully he’s close to back by now and enjoying dinner somewhere in the Bay Area. Thank you again Dad!!

After getting three more hours of sleep, I embarrassed myself with an overloaded plate of food to carbo load for the day. I left with a full stomach, and a full bike!

The final rendition of my bike. I think I remembered everything!

Right out of the parking lot of the hotel was the first cool view, the bridge between Washington and Oregon. I’m very glad I didn’t have to bike over it.

Admittedly, I did have to cross a bridge immediately, but it wasn’t that one :). And, I saw a seal on the way across which was cool.

The road is great! Minus being passed at 55mph by semis, and a few F-150s that don’t move over even though there’s definitely room (jerks). One person blew their own own in what I think was support (I was cranking up a hill, and they were going the other way) but it was so loud that I still feel some ringing in that ear.

My first stop of the day was in Seaside at Dundee’s for some donut and hot cider. (It was not warm outside). It was a cute family owned bakery, and a great place to stop. After the donut, I went to view the beach. I think I could look at this shoreline forever (good thing too, because I’m going to be seeing a lot of it for the next three weeks.) It’s gorgeous! Large sandy beaches with huge rocks in the water. Apparently, those rocks are from an old shoreline that existed a long time ago. Bonus points if you can tell me what happened to that shoreline.

Additionally, I learned this is the route that Lewis and Clark took. The only difference is Lewis and Clark did it in December, so I think I need to stop complaining about the weather.

The Steed at the beach at Seaside. I love this bike.

Beach at Cannon Beach, just up the road from Seaside.

I won’t bore you with details of all the beaches I stopped at. Needless to say, it was a lot. At one point I stopped 5 times in a mile.

Cool rock cove at a beach. All the rocks on the beach are great too! They sound like a gigantic rain maker when the waves run over them, then pull back into the ocean!

My favorite beach! It was a 0.5 mile hike out, but there were people surfing out here!! Fun to watch, though I walked on the wrong side of the river. They’re hard to see in the photo below, but they’re out by the point in the picture.

There are so many state parks, county parks, and recreation areas it’s exhausting. But each one was slightly different, and really cool to stop at.

After what I’ll dub “the beach” portion of today was the cliffs portion. And that was beautiful as well!! It was a five mile or so section where the road meandered along the side of a cliff above the ocean. It was cool. At one point during this section, while stopped overlooking the ocean, a guy did a u-turn in his car to talk to me. Turns out, he grew up in Michigan, then moved to Tiburon, then finally moved to the Oregon Coast. He was a super nice guy. He recommended some cider mill in Michigan, not the Dexter Cider Mill, but somewhere else in southeast Michigan, but I don’t remember what.

A view from the “cliff” section of today. I have a few more, but none of them really do it justice. It’s breath taking. A jagged rugged coastline, with beautiful sandy beaches, and a beautiful fog/cloud mixture. A probably could’ve stayed up there and just watched for hours.

The second food stop of the trip was in Manzanita. It was probably the best food of the day. The turkey sandwich was excellent, I liked the beer, and everyone was super friendly. Right next door was a bookstore, so I stopped in and picked up a book called “Just Mercy.” The bookstore had a cool system where all the employees added sticky notes to books they’d recommend. This was one of them, so I picked it up. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Also, next door was the Manzanita library. I didn’t stop in, but it just looked beautiful so I took a picture.

The final section of today’s trip was the in between inland sections. I always forget just how full of water the Pacific Northwest is (although it did a great job of reminding me today.) The forests are flush with greenery, and there are beautiful waterfalls everywhere. The flatlands have some beautiful inland lakes, and nice to just cruise by.

Probably the lowest point of the day was biking through the tunnel. While the tunnel was cool, I was biking uphill through it, with no shoulder. The road is 55mph, and I was probably doing 5. Luckily, there’s a button to hit to warn motorists that there’s a bicycle in the tunnel, but I pushed through as hard as I could to get through the tunnel fast. Nothing gets the heart rate up like the deafening sound of a car coming through a tunnel when you’re on a bike.

Tonight I’m camping on a jetty! Which is pretty cool, basically my camp overlooks the ocean (yikes! Hopefully no tsunamis.) I’m writing most of this at “the Sand Dollar” Where I had an alright dinner with a bomb view of the waves and the ocean

Campsite jetty:

Right nextdoor is a Catholic Church that has an absolutely beautiful location right on the beach.

(Church and beach respectively)

All in all, a very happy Mark for the day.

I’m now snug in my evening attire, snuggled up in my sleeping bag listening to the rain patter (more like assault) my tent. The roar of the ocean should put me to sleep, being so close. What a cool campsite. Tomorrow, another 50ish miles, the Tillamook factory (I’m excited!!), deviating from the 101 to stay close to the coast!

Today was mixed with ups and downs (pun intended.) It rained (again) most of the day, and the views were not as spectacular, but I met a new friend along the way, and am writing this from a heated yurt.

The day started, as most days do, with me needing to pee. However, it was raining outside and I’m a wimp, so I waited for an hour for the rain to stop before rushing out of my tent and beating my 50 yard dash time to the bathroom. (It was worth it.) more relaxed, I tore down camp, with most things damp, and got everything on the bike. After a brief chat with my neighbor (an older gentlemen from Portland that was fishing along the coast in a pretty cool motor home) I was off back on the 101.

My bike in front of my camp? Looks like it might be a nice day, right?

My first stop was at Parkside, a restaurant recommended by the lady that checked me in at the campground the previous night. The food was delicious, and the restaurant host very talkative, which was nice. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a huge appetite, so I wasn’t able to finish almost half of the food.

Almost immediately after leaving Parkside I ran into Austin! Not the city, but a guy on his own bike trip. Austin is peddling down to L.A., across the south side of the country, back north along the east coast, and west again along the north side of the country. He used to be the lead brewer at Buoy Brewing (where Dad and I ate dinner the night before our trip). He’s using this trip as a chance to meet lots of brewers around the country, brew some beers, make some connections, and have a good time. He plans to open a brewery after he’s done with this trip (which I’ll definitely go check out! He seems pretty good at making beers.) You’ll hear more about him later, as we spent this rest of the day biking together, and will likely bike tomorrow together as well.

Austin and my first stop was, of course, the Tillamook Factory. It turned out to be a great stop, as we got tons of great food from it. That is, free cheese. I also got some ice cream (of course, how could I not) and we both got a beer. Austin bring a brewer, I asked him for suggestions which he humbly obliged. It may have only been 10:30am, but we drank down our beers (oops!)

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the day was spent inland. So I only have a few good Coast pictures. I should’ve taken more inland pictures, but didn’t today! Sorry! Needless to say, Oregon is beautifully green, and has plenty of water.

During the riding the weather was...poor.

I’m not sure if you can see from the above picture, but the road is covered in hail. Because it was hailing! Ow. My hand is raw, not from sunburn of windburn, but from being hit by hail while biking.

Both Austin and my final destination for the day was Lincoln City, so we hung out together for the entire day. Conversation ranged from politics to the mechanics of brewing, to life. And everything in between. In 45 miles of biking together you’ve got plenty of time to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.

Upon arrival into Lincoln City Austin and I were both pooped. Austin had woken up at 4 to get started, and I’m just tired. The final ride into Lincoln City was hill after hill (thus the up and downs for the day) and it was exhausting. Luckily, we made it to camp by 5, and after and amphibious assault on the campground (the entrance road was totally flooded), we found the camp host and....reserved a yurt!! And I’m super pumped to be writing this from a yurt right now. All my gear is drying out.

After a beautiful shower, and changing into my even attire, Austin and I went out on the town. Which is to say we had an amazing dinner at a Thai place (it was delicious) and then had some beers at a bar. The bar was surprising progressive for the town.

After beer 6 for the day, it was time to hit the hay. We went back to the beautiful yurt, and went to bed. All in all, another great time. I was super thankful to hosts at the campground.

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Apparently there’s still a blockbuster here.

I’m literally about to fall asleep, while I write this, so I’m signing off. Another 50-70 miles tomorrow! Some with Austin! Some not. Good night!

Today was a treat of a day, so I’ll try and write a treat of a journal entry. If you read any journal entry, today would probably be the day. Today’s journal will be less about my trip, and more about the people I met along the way. You’ll meet Eli, the fisherman who used to work out of Dutch Harbor (Alaska, if it’s ringing bells think deadliest catch), John Maier, the grandfather of brewing in the Pacific Northwest, Abby and Jeremiah, who work(?) at the brewery in Yachats, Nathan, who built (and owns?) Yachats Brewery, and finally we’ll close with my two day travel buddy Austen (I spelled his name wrong yesterday, sorry.) Austen’s story is quite amazing, so it’s worth waiting to the end!

But before we get into all the grandeur of the day, I need to set the scene and start with the beginning. The day began with a slow rise from a warm yurt at 8ish. Austen opted to take a shower, I did not, but shortly we were off the the Pacific Grind Cafe for breakfast. It was a rather eclectic cafe that was pretty particular about how to order, but the food was delicious. And the donuts to die for (maybe I was just hungry.)

The Yurt:

After breakfast came some of the most beautiful riding of the trip so far. Exhibit A:

The coast of Oregon is both rugged and stunning. Apparently, about 17 million years ago a major natural disaster happened, which formed the current coast, but left parts of the old coast in the sea (which is why there are so many rocks in the sea.) A few more beautiful pictures:

It was quite stunning, lots of little rivers twisting through the sand towards the ocean.

But, enough about me. It’s time to meet Eli. Our lunch stop was at a pizza place in Newport, OR. By the time we made it we were both hungry, and got a nice large pie. Sitting down, I started up a conversation with this guy at the part about fishing. Turns out, he really fishes. Likes works on a fishing boat fishes. He goes out to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and fishes 6 months a year. (Or at least, he used to. You’ll learn why “used to” in a second.) According to Eli, the crab haulers have a very dangerous job. But it’s just as dangerous as the fishing he was doing. I also learned that even as you become a professional fisherman, your still tell stories about the amazing catches you made fishing. Eli was quite the interesting guy to talk with. And I was glad I ran into him.

After taking some pizza for road ‘za later, we headed farther into Newport to get our bikes cleaned at the Newport Bike Shop. After two days of biking in rain (and hail!) the bikes could use some cleaning he guys at the bike shop were super helpful and nice. They let us use their hose to spray the bikes down, the came out and greased our chains for use. Most importantly, Austen being a brewer, he told us to go meet up with John Maier at Rogue Brewing, so we did.

And what a treat that was! John is both an avid brewer and and avid bicycle tourist. As I understand it, he doesn’t need a car in Newport, OR. Instead he just bikes everywhere. Additionally, and this is the super cool part, he is somewhat of a legend in the Pacific brewing scene. And that’s super cool! He’s in charge of all brewing at Rogue, and is a very laid back guy. Funny enough, when we met him, he didn’t really want to talk about beers, he wanted to talk about bikes! Anyway, it was super cool to meet John and talk with him. He’s kinda a big deal. He also gave us a six pack for free, and brought us up to the tasting room and gave us a free beer there.

John’s bike, which was probably the coolest touring bike I’ve ever seen. All the parts are from all over the county.

Austen with John:

Barrels at Rogue (photo credit to Austen):

We finally left Newport around 4, crossing this beautiful bridge:

We continued down to Tillicum Beach Campground outside of Yachats, and setup camp there. The campground is beautiful!! It’s right next to the ocean, and we got an amazing site!

I’m loving Oregon camping. All the campgrounds so far are super nice, and have beautiful facilities!

To cap the night off, we went to Yachats Brewery for dinner. Yachats might be my favorite brewery I’ve ever been to. The beers was delicious, the food good, the art at the brewery both beautiful and with a cool story, and the company fantastic. The story starts with Abby and Jeremiah. They were the first two I talked with at the brewery. Both interesting to talk with, they had just gotten back from backpacking in Mexico (as in traveling around with everything they own on their backs and going city to city.) They discussed what made it dangerous and/or safe. The topic of conversation switched to talking more about the art at the brewery. Which, and I think this is super cool, was designed by Abby but painted by customers. Basically, Abby made a paint by numbers mural, and then as customers came in they could fill in the mural. What a cool idea! This is the final result:

After talking with Abby and Jeremiah, I started talking with Nathan. I’m not sure what Nathan’s role is, but he definitely help found the brewery. He maybe the owner, I’m not sure. How he started the brewery was quite amazing. He basically jack hammered into a cliff, 17’ long, and 10’ back, to form the cellar for the current brewery. And apparently that was quite the task! He ended up buying his own dump truck to move all the debris out of the way! (This guy Nathan also loved to talk, we heard lots of stories throughout the night.) Digging our that part of the brewery took almost two years! But now they have a beautiful brewery with some great beer! Go check it out!

Finally, we come back to Austen. Most of the people I met today are due to Austen. John, Jeremiah, Abby, and Nathan for sure. Austen is a brewer, and part of this trip is to build social capital to start his own brewery. He’s biking to LA, then over the Phoenix, then New Orleans, up the east coast, and back west. All in all he’ll spend 7 months of his bike. He and I just happened to start the same day. His goal is to meet someone in every town he goes through, to build out his network for his own brewery. He’s got a ton of experience as a brewer, and wants to start his own thing. It makes my reasons for going on this trip look insignificant when stacked next to his. Anyway, a really cool dude starting his own brewery. Best of luck Austen!! You can follow his journal here! https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=20798&v=Z

Picture of Austen and I biking together.

All in all, quite the amazing day. I think tomorrow I’ll take it easy, and only ride a few miles (20ish) to the Oregon Sand Dunes. I may just hangout there for a day, or rent an ATV and go explore the beach. My service tomorrow may be poor, so I’m not sure I’ll get a post out tomorrow night. But signing off for now, goodnight! I leave Austen tomorrow, as he’s staying in town to brew a beer. I’ll be sad to lose a travel partner, but happy to start going solo again! (Somewhat surprisingly, but going solo is very relaxing)

I sit writing this journal entry at the house of a “warm showers” host just outside of Florence, OR. I was planning on making it farther today, but ran into Christopher when eating lunch at Homegrown, a deli in Florence. But before I get to that story, we’ll have to cover the rest of the ride, because it was absolutely beautiful. If you only have one day to do a trip on the Oregon Coast, Yachats to Florence is the way to go!

In the morning I tore down camp and said goodbye to Austen. It was nice having a riding partner for the past two days, but I felt great being on the open road. I especially felt great today, because I knew I’d want to stop a ton. After a quick breakfast at the “Green Salmon” I was off! (Highly recommended. So far Yachats is my favorite city of the trip.)

A very typical beach for this section of the coast! Nice sandy beach with beautiful rock sections.

Cook’s Chasm. A very beautiful cut between the rocks. Waves cane straight into the cut, and got washed around. I could’ve watched for hours.

The blow hole near Cook’s Chasm. Honestly, not as good as the one we saw on Kauai.

This part of the coast was littered with arched bridges like this one. Very cool to bike over and look at.

One of my favorite stops was at the lighthouse seen in the cover photo and below. It was a gorgeous lighthouse, and the NPS volunteer took my picture a couple times. Additionally, I stopped and chatted with a couple (can’t remember their names now, sorry!) and they asked for the blog link. If you’re reading this, thank you! You made my day!

These next images are the bay in front of the lighthouse, which had people surfing in it! That was a blast to watch.

Here’s a happy Mark exploring every single pull off on the route.

And some pictures of a happy bike.

As a final option for a stop along the coast, there was the Sea Cave. A pretty built-up touristy place, it brings you down 200 feet into a sea cave where you can see lots of sea lions, and just be in the sea cave. It cost $14, and I don’t think it was worth it. It was very dark inside (obviously) and the views into space weren’t that great. But here’s some pictures regardless.

Okay, that was pretty cool.

I just thought this was funny. It was plastered all over the elevator. I seriously hope jumping can’t damage this elevator.

Coming into Florence, I realized that was the end of probably the most beautiful section of my trip. I’d definitely come back. Each of those pull outs I could probably spend a day at! Unfortunately, I came into Florence pretty late, as I spent so much time looking at the ocean. (Totally worth it.)

On the way into Florence I saw this, and thought it’d be fun to try, but it was closed :(.

I found a deli in town, got a sandwich, and was looking for a place to eat it, when a voice cried out from the sidewalk “Hey, you on a bicycle tour?” And I met Christopher. Christopher and I chatted for awhile. He said he hosted Hot Showers guests all the time (I should probably get an account) and I’d be welcome to stay with him if I wanted. I thought why not, so took him up on the offer.

Christopher is an interesting guy. He’s ex-air force, and recently separated (although he didn’t seem to want to talk too much about it.) He has two beautiful dogs, one a big puppy the other full grown (Sorry I didn’t get pictures for you, trust me they’re adorable.) And has a very alpha male personality. We talked about politics and dating. His views were far right, and I disagreed with some of his more, what I would consider more conspiracy theory view points. But all in all, a nice chat.

We chatted for awhile while I ate my sandwich, then I went with him to run some chores in town, got dinner, then went to the beach to watch the sunset. And the sunset was magnificent.

Unfortunately, something Christopher ate upset his digestive system, so we had to race back to his house to deal with the issues that results from that, but it was a gorgeous sunset. Kinda like watching the sun disappear into Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.

Tomorrow I may try to push for a 100 mile day. I’m feeling good, and I think most of the riding is inland. Also, I should have a stiff tailwind. That means I’ll have to cut the ATVing :(, but I kinda want to see if I can do it. Tomorrow night again, I may not have service, so it’s totally normal if I don’t post tomorrow! Goodnight all!

I caved, and didn’t quite make the 100 miles today. I got side tracked by the ATV rental. That being said, still a blast of a day. Passed the 200 mile mark, ripped it up on the dunes, talked with lots of people along the way, got dinner at a super fancy golf course, and had a beautiful place to camp at a hiker biker site.

My bike in front of Christopher’s house.

200 miles!

Much of today was inland, and through some beautiful inland scenery (and some logging!)

My first stop of the day was for ATV rentals. (I caved, I know I said I wasn’t going to, but I did! And glad I did)

Probably would’ve been more fun with a larger group (or even a friend)! But, ATV’s can climb some surprisingly steep hills :) I only did an hour rental, then continued.

The Central Oregon Coast is much like the coast of Lake Michigan. Huge sand dunes, and beautiful coastline. The only difference is the waves are bigger!

Because I was trying to make quite a bit of distance, there aren’t a ton of pictures, but here’s some pictures of the Coos Bay Bridge! (Probably the scariest bridge I had to cross, so I just crossed in the center of the bridge.)

And a really cool looking house I passed.

One thing I’ve learned this trip is, if you think it might be worth to stop and luck, definitely give it a shot. I think I stop more often when biking then I would when driving! I should probably stop more often when driving :). But I’m more then happy to bike an extra 5-10 miles to see something. But not drive an extra 5-10 miles?

So, I stopped to look at Sunset Bay State Park, Shores Acre Park, and Cape Argo Park. The shoreline there is super interesting. There’s a large reef a ways off shore, and shipwrecks used to happen all the time. So a long time ago, someone bought the land, and made a business out of rescuing and returning lost cargo! Brilliant! Location, location, location. After awhile, the land got donated to the state to make it a park, and now people like me (and retirees) get to see it.

On my way out of the park I talked with a nice elderly couple about park. They come here often, and said I had to visit the gardens before I left. (Back to that thing about stopping for most everything.) On there advice, I stopped at the gardens. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was really peaceful. A nice place to sit and reflect.

After the garden, I pushed to my fancy dinner spot, the Bandon Dunes Gulf Course. Apparently, if you golf, you’ve heard of this place. It’s super nice, with lots of lodging, separate parking for caddy’s, and a nice bar called McKee’s. I had dinner in McKee’s, talked with the bartender for awhile about brewing beer (apparently a new brewery opens every 12 hours in the U.S., how often do they close?), and talked with some people at the bar. Then I was off to setup camp and catch the sunset.

All in all I did about 80 miles today, if you include all the side tours. Tomorrow (or today when I post this) I’ll do about 20 miles to Cape Blanco, and stay there a night or two. Then I’ll need to push hard south. I might be out of cell service for the next few days, I’m writing this from the Bandon brewery if you want to see where I am!