Eric's Bike Adventure 1995

Trip Log Part 6: Sunset Bay to Crescent City

• Sunset Bay to Bullards Beach, Friday, July 21, 1995

  There were actually quite a few cyclists at Sunset Bay. Myself, Wayne, Jonathan, Jack, Peter, Gavin, Coretta, and one other couple.

  

  Peter (above on the left) was carrying over 110 pounds of stuff on his $6,000 custom-build titanium touring bicycle. I guess the lighter bike meant he could carry more stuff. Gavin and Coretta were cycling down the coast as something to do to kill time before taking off on a friend's boat. They got married in the spring, and puttered around Hawaii for a couple months, then came back to Washington, and bought some bikes and started riding south.

  

  I remembered I brought juggling balls along, so I pulled them out and Jonathan said he could juggle too. Weight of juggling equipment was now justified!

  Today was going to be a slow day. The first slow day of the trip so far! There is an old estate with a garden just down the road from Sunset Bay, where the Irish folk band Golden Bough would be playing in the early afternoon. The hilight of the performance was a 5 minute Irish ballad of the story of Hamlet. Some of the most accessible Shakespeare I have yet seen.

  

  I had decided to stick with Wayne and Jonathan, so we didn't get on the road until mid-afternoon. Still no sunshine, just more grey overcast skies. The above picture was of a beach on a rocky outcropping where we saw some sea lions stampede around after a bull came up and acted threatening to some others. They are obviously not entirely land-based animals, so a stampede looks pretty silly.

  We pedaled through some hills that had signs saying they had been logged in '90, '91 and '92. They looked like a barren wasteland. Occasional stumps, but more like a moonscape than an earthscape. The land that was logged five years ago is just barely starting to show life now. The others had basically nothing green on them at all. I understand that we need trees, but I don't understand how anybody can feel good about creating a scene like that. I don't know that much about forestry, but this kind of land clearing seems obviously irresponsible and short sighted.

  We rode to Bullard's Beach State Park, just outside of Bandon. We tossed our stuff at the campground, and biked into town. Bandon is a cute town with a "historic" district, where we discovered the Sea Star restaurant/care. If we had known (and made reservations), we could have stayed in a hostel right behind the restaurant. The restaurant had some of the best food of the trip. I had salmon for dinner, and a slice of blueberry apple pie for dessert. The pie was amazing, but huge! I could barely eat half. After dinner, back to camp for a dew-covered night in the bivy sac. I realized then that if I did another trip, I would bring a tent, not just a bivy sac.

  Day total: 33.8 miles, Trip total: 324.4

• Bullards Beach to Gold Beach, Saturday, July 22, 1995

  

  The next morning, we packed up, and ate again at the Sea Star. The breakfast food was as good as the dinner food. The road trekked inland a little, and then curved around Mt. Humbug, a tree-covered cone a couple hundred feet tall.

  On a downhill on this stretch, my front panniers started rattling and shaking a lot more than they should have. After stopping at the next turnout, I discovered that one of the bolts holding the pannier rack onto the bike had rattled loose -- but hadn't lost the bolt yet. To have only one loose bolt in over 300 miles of trip didn't seem that bad, though. I tightened up the bolt, and went on. I was lucky not to lose the bolt, since I didn't have another that was long enough for that pannier mount. Moral: remember to tighten all the bolts on the bike after it's been shipped!

  

  Almost just around the corner from the bolt shaking loose we had to stop for pictures of this lovely Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was outside the Prehistoric Gardens. For a fee, you can wander through the forest and gaze at a fine array of artificial dinosaurs. Thanks, but no thanks. One dinosaur in the middle of the forest was kitch enough.

  We continued on to Gold Beach, where we camped out at the County Fairgrounds. This region of southern Oregon is sparse for campgrounds, so it was important to plan where this night would be in the morning, before pedaling. Without the Adventure Cycling map, we wouldn't have known that there was camping available here at all.

  Day total: 61.0 miles, Trip total: 385.4

• Gold Beach to Crescent City, Sunday, July 23, 1995

  

  The last day of Oregon cycling! Almost halfway through the trip. The coast in southern Oregon is beautiful. A little ways down the coast, we saw a sign for Thunder Rock Cove. The only description of this in the coast biking book said "The cove is awesome." Good enough for us, we went to investigate.

  

  The picture of the cove doesn't do it justice. The water was a pristine turquoise. It was amazing when it was overcast. It must be really incredible in full sunlight. The cove has a sea arch (presumably visible from the Arch Rock viewpoint 1/4 mile beyond this cove) where it connects to the ocean. There didn't seem to be any way to get down to the cove itself, so the beach and cove were undisturbed. The outcropping where we could see the cove was about 60 feet above the water, and a great view to the other side of a guy out fishing.

  After hiking back up, the next view was from a 345 foot high bridge over Thomas Creek, which was a pretty impressive view down. Then, on to Brookings, and then over the border to California.

  

  After crossing the border, you get to visit the Agricultural Inspection Station, which is supposed to help keep the California agriculture free from foreign diseases and pests. We were waved through. I guess they think it's not a risk -- cyclists will eat all the fruit they brought with them, perhaps. The scenery actually changes quite dramatically after crossing the border. The hills gave way to farmland. The last couple days had been warmer than farther north. And unlike Oregon, there were many migrant farmworkers around the fields. I hadn't seen any in Oregon, and certainly no Spanish posters. We also saw our first (and only one of two I saw) "Bicentenniel Bike Route" signs, which were supposed to map out this same route for cyclists during the 1976 American bicentenniel goings-on. After several miles, heading inland, I kept wondering what all these fields of funny looking plants were. Then, we got to a field that was blooming. The fields were all of Easter Lilies, in bloom in late July.

  Lots of more flat farmland until, finally, Crescent City. This would be Jonathan's last night, so we all splurged and split the cost of a motel room.

  Day total: 62.2 miles, Trip total: 447.6