Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Day 18 - Humbug Mountain to Brookings

Distance 51miles

Our good friend and travel buddy Natasha (wish you were here!) once said it wasn't a trip with Chris and Jenna without a moment where you thought you might die. Today was that day.

It was a beautiful day starting out, we woke up to hummingbirds and Chipmunks in the campsite. It was the first day where it was warm enough to start our ride in shorts and a tshirt.

The day begins on the scenic coast we left off on yesterday, and winds through some pretty neat rock cuts. Six miles in we take obliagtory photographs with a giant Trex, but skip the forest walk to see the rest.
I guess we must look dead because there are vultures circling overhead already.

We then appreciate the nerdy surveyor who has marked mile 314.15 along the coast.

Ten miles in we're on highway 101 with an awesome tailwind and beautiful ocean views. Here's where we make our first mistake. We miss our first turn off which was supposed to take us winding up a few valleys. After a short stop to check the maps we decide we're okay to continue on the highway, where the only downside is the RVs and logging trucks. Thankfully the shoulder is wide. We see a sign for a scenic bike route down the old highway  and take that instead. That helps add a few more hills into our day.

We arrive in Gold Beach and have some cheese and crackers on the lawn of the local highschool (don't worry they're out for the summer) to fuel up before our first big climb up Cape Sebastian.

The climb isn't as bad as we thought. We get to the top and turn towards the scenic viewpoint, where our guidebook says you can see south all the way to Crescent City, California. What it doesn't say is that the bike after the turnoff it's straight up hill. I turn the corner and can't gear down fast enough, and hop off my bike to walk it up. Chris continues to the top and checks out the north view point while I walk. When I get to the fork we debtae going to the south one as its down and back up another scary set of hills!
We ride down (Chris rides down, I ride my brakes) and I walk my bike up yet another hill. We are treated to a beautiful, but rather windy view.
We turn around and I decide to be brave and ride up the hills. By some miracle I make it, but I have to talk myself up it and at the top my heart is racing like never before! I barely have time to catch my breathe before we're headed back downhill.
On the downhill the wind is blowing so hard we feel like human parachutes. I try not to hit my brakes and keep telling myself if a car can do it, I can do it.
We get near the bottom and Chris says he's turning into the viewpoint (thank goodness for intercoms, they're amazing). I go to shift and lose control of my bike to the scariest wobble. I thought I was going down hard, but somehow manage to correct and save myself. I coast into the viewpoint very thankful to be in own piece.
After a couple of windy minutes watching wind surfers we continue on to the Samual Boardman scenic corridor. We were excited for this section, but didn't quite realise a scenic corridor meant the following:
1- lots more hills, and no cool ocean breeze
2- lots of viewpoints, which are either overgrown or require a hike into
3 - so many more opportunities for steep hills (no thanks)

We do one hike out to see an arch, but decide the rest of the hikes and hills will be for another day!

We arrive to Harris Beach Campground and walk a mike or so into brookings for dinner.
The campground is amazing and right on the water, but Oregon is still determined to hide it's fmsous susnets from us!

Tomorrow - California!
Thanks for the amazing ocean views and hot showers Oregon, we will be back.

SORRY FOR THE LACK OF PHOTOS! The reason, dear friends, is a story for another day ;)

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