Kiki Bikes Across America

Wednesday, August 12th – Dunes National Park, OR – Cape Blanco, OR

I set my alarm early again to get up and out and get in a long day. I wake at 5:15 and roll out by 6:30am after packing up the tent and all wet again – it rained overnight. Gah…I’m done with the rain.

On the ride from Reedsport to North Bend, three cyclists pass me and I later catch up to one (the one riding on a single bike, not tandem) and we ride all the way from Reedsport to North Bend (approximately 20 miles) together chatting occassionally and me following his pace. Bob, the other cyclist, is riding the coast with his brother, sister-in-law, and two friends Patti and Tom from San Francisco area. Bob’s from Miami and his brother and sister-in-law live up in Portland, so they all met up to do the ride down the coast together. And they’re lucky enough to have a sag vehicle driven by Bob’s wife Joann. Once in North Bend, I set up the tent in front of the visitor’s center and lay out the rain fly, tarp, and my sleeping pad to all dry out. Meanwhile, the bunch of cyclists leave and go eat lunch.

Group of cyclists I rode with for about 30 miles today.

After all my stuff is dry, I head to the post office to pick up Torey’s small point and shoot camera he mailed me along with the long lens mom sent for me to use for my SLR, since mine broke way back in Kentucky. After the post office, I decide why not climb some ridiculous hills with all my heavy gear, so I head up the steepest hill in town and then realize this can’t be right, this doesn’t look right at all. I wasn’t paying attention and thought that the main road to my right was too easy for the route, and therefore I must have to continue straight up the 45 degree hill! Haha, wrong. I goofed up and wound up doing a lot of unnecessary and steep hills in the towns of North Bend and Coos Bay. Oh well, once I got straightened out, I was fine.

I wound up catching up to the group of cyclists from before lunch and rode with them until Bandon, OR – something like another 25-30 miles from North Bend, I believe. They would be spending the night in Bandon, Oregon. I planned to continue on, but once in Bandon, I kept meeting people on the street and chatting (2.5 hours later and I finally hit the road again). In Bandon, I talked to a couple with three big dogs and we chatted for a bit. I also talked to Clyde and Colleen who just opened C’est Verte and they were really interested in the trip and all. As I was leaving their store, I chatted briefly with three passing by on the sidewalk, Ken, Deb, an Tony (three motorcyclists from Canada exploring the coastline). And finally, I left thinking I only had a few miles to ride down to Bandon State Park, but apparently I couldn’t even get there from Hwy 101 easily and the GPS told me wrong, leading me through private drives so I couldn’t get to the park.

Instead, I decided to just push on as best as possible, refused to backtrack and lose miles, so I rode with a super sore butt another 35 miles or so down the road. It was getting late and I just wanted to be in bed asleep somewhere. I finally reached Cape Blanco at about 8:45pm and it was practically dark. I had a few minutes to set up camp in a grove of trees with no lights from the campground. But tt was the greatest feeling rolling into camp and knowing I’d have a nice little spot and sure enough I did. I was the only one at the biker/hiker camp.

My private biker/hiker site at Cape Blanco campground.

I set up camp, showered, and cooked some dinner and then hit the sack with no intentions of waking up early in the morning. I knew my butt would need a bit of sleep and rest to heal up after such a brutally long day in the saddle.

GPS Stats:
98.8 miles
11.5 avg speed
32.7 max speed
08:35 moving time

Computer Stats:
100.92 miles
11.6 avg speed
35.0 max speed
08:39:28 moving time

Snake count: 2 dead

Comments are closed.