People were defintely right when they said that once you get to Oregon, the coast will be amazing. With extremely good weather and good company Oregon became some of the best bikespots I've been on. During the week when I had to turn around from Astoria when I dropped my wallet a bicyclist got killed by a big loggingtruck in Norther Oregon. The story was that the 80 year old man got "sucked" in to the truck while it was passing him but as a bicyclist I can tell that's not the case, the pressure from the air is not that strong. The reason is just the simple fact that the truckdriver just don't care and, apparently for him, is more important to maintain his downhill speed for the coming uphill than a human beings life. After being on parts of the coastroad were the sholder is bad and a lot of trucks is passing, you just step of the road as soon as you hear the sound of a big semi.
More than halfway down the Oregoncoast I got to the Oregon dunes which is the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes on the northamerican continent. Rolling in on the camp I met my Mexican friend who been biking ahead of my during the day and also Max from St Paul in Minnesota and Erin from Chicago. After dinner we were heading out to hang out on the sanddunes with a bottle of whiskey and a cigar Max bought during the day. The wind was really strong out on the dunes and after several attempts by Max of light up the cigar with me and Erin as shields, we realized it was not gonna happend.
After crashing in the tent I wook up in the night by the sound of rakoons fooling around outside which was gonna be a coming event further south later on during the trip. Sleepy and with my tent full of sand I woke up in the morning and looked out from my tent. Very close to me a new tent was pitched during the night. Erin and Max was gone and were the Mexican guy had been sitting the night before and having dinner, two Canadian girls were now having there breakfast. I felt kind of confused and for a moment I wondered if someone moved my tent during the night. I put on some clothes and went over to the girls for a chat and it turned out they just arrived pretty late during the night. Candace and Vanessa had just started there trip the day before in Eugene and was gonna bike down the coast to San Franscisco.
I went back north the 3 miles into Florence for breakfast before going south and after a couple of hours or so, I catched up the girls in an uphill and started to bike with them. We stopped in Redsport for a coffe and snack break and Candace was gonne fill up air in her tire. On a servostation the guy there fills it up way to hard and after some miles me and Vanessa hear a "Bang" behind us. The tube exploded and left a 3 inch crack in the fairly old tire. I helped her fixing it by putting in a bit of cardboard inside the tire and with a new tube it hold up to North Bend were we could get over a bikeshop for a new tire.
Southern Oregon was filled with nice weather and amazing coastline and while getting closer to the State of California and the famous Redwood forest I also started to get very close to my 23 birthday. I noticed it some week ago while I was in some store in Norther Oregon bying beer. The lady in the store asked me for ID and said "Have a good birthday on saturday". My first thought were "what?" before I realized that it's actually only a week left:). I guess if I wouldn't by beer on many of the nights after biking, I would have forgotten my own birthday.
Coming over to California it was like a border for the good weather. Cold and foggy weather welcomed us and while stopping on a store along the road for a snack I got one of the funniest comments on my trip so far. Me and Vanessa was standing in the store ready to pay our stuff. The guy who works there smiles and ask us about the trip and were we started. Vanessa says she started in Washington and I say Alaska. the guy is looking at me with a confused smile and say
"Alaska?, Is there a road from there to here?. I thought it was just wilderness" I laughed and said that
"Yes, it's a lot of wilderness but there is actually a road in the middle of it:)". Both of us laughing we went out to the bikes to carry on. Nextcoming day we entered Crescent city were we bought wine and food for my birthdayparty at Mill Creek the same day:). Biking in Northerna California was a lot of passing through smalltown America and when we came to the tiny town of Smith River a fleamarket was going on. People were selling old shit from there garage, homemade stuff and some band were playing on the back of a truck for people who sitting and listening on haybales along the street. We heard some guy yelling across the street "
Hey Bill, don't forget the lawnmover race in the weekend". we were in redneckcalifornia:). Vanessa asked me were I thought people in this kind of desolated town work and I answer, I don't think they do work :).
The coming days we were biking through the redwood forest which was an amazing experince. The trees there are just enormous. The weather was kinda foggy and damp in the first couple of days in the very far north in the state. In Californa we met up with Erin again who was biking on her own when Max had to go back home. The route took us further inland and the weather went from cold to really hot and we were consuming sunblock in the same amount as water. I was now biking with Erin from Chicago with Candece and Vanessa plus some biking crew from Texas just half a day behind us.
Coming in to Eureka me and Erin went over to the campground there were the guidebook advices bikers to stay in town. Neither of us liked it with the big RV:s, playgrounds and the genral bad location so we decided to bike in to town and se what we found there. Eureka is kind of a rough industrial town and asking a guy on the street for a cheap motel were we could stay he mentioned one but finished the sentence with
"But I wouldn't stay there because someone got shot there last week". We found another place thou and headed of to the brewery in town before we went to have souther food on a soulfood restaurant and later, shanty's pub.
After totally missing out on the free breakfast on the motel we got a late start after noon and we had some good days of biking on our way down south in California. we meeting up with the other crew of Bicyclist on camp in Legget and the day after I decide to do a longer day than the rest of the team that felt done by noon. I carried on in misty weather and in Manchester I stopped for camp in a state park. Biking around looking for a spot I started to talk to Paul from southern CA and his wife Roberta. We had a long chat during the evening. The weather this day and the day after was really foggy and damp which made the biking kind of depressing. Your'e biking along the coast with the ocean maybe 60 feets from you but you can't see it.
Even if I been biking alot by my self up in Alaska, Yukon and BC it felt kinda lonely for the couple of days I was biking for my self on the coast. Rolling in to Bodega Bay the weather was clearing up a little bit and I meet Peter from southern California. We start to chat during the evening. During the days before I actually been wondering if I was gonna meet anyone hauling surfboards behind a pedalbike and here he was. With a remodeled babytrailer Peter had loaded the thing with 2 surfboards and his wetsuits. He started up in Mandacino and making his way home to Ojai. We decided to bike togheter down to San Franscisco.
During the night in Bodega Bay a couple of Canadian gys from Vancouver is rolling in to camp. I meet the guys during the day at lunchtime while they were trying to figure out a damage rim in some town. During the night in Bodega we once again woke up by the sound of rakoons messing around with the bags outside. I went out to scare them away and took in my bags in the tent. In the morning I woke up and the Canadian guys was really concerned. 2 of there panniers that had been on the table outside during the night were now gone with some clothes, food and most important, the passports. First we thought that if it would have been the rakonns we would have heard it so we thought they must have been stolen until we took a look in the bushes were we found them. The plastic bags were they had the passports were halfway but the passport were still intact so I guess they backed of when they realized they were Canadians :).
Me and Peter carried on the last couple of days down towards San Franscisco. Good times with beautiful weather, a lot of beerstops during the days on varius bars and the knowledge of soon being up to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge we were happy cyclists. The day crossing the Golden Gate were really beautiful but a local fog covered the bridge so the view from it could have been better. San Franscisco itself is a really nice town and I spent 3 days there until I started to bike south again towards Santa Cruz Were I was gonna visit Brenna I met in NZ last year. Gonna stay here a couple of more days before I doing my last 2 bikedays for the year up to San Fran again to met up Micke for our roadtrip out to Vegas and Grand Canyon.
The pitures to this text was posted in the last post a couple of days ago, enjoy :)
Take care everybody
