Panamericana

04.10.08

Yachats – Honeyman SP

55km, cloudy

We didn‘ t leave the motel untill 10:30am. Then we had breakfast at the „Green Salmon“, a hippie-café. I had a delicious Egg/Sausage Sandwich and an hour later we were ready to hit the road.

We stopped at uncountable viewpoints along HWY 101 and watched the huge waves and saw many sealions. Sometimes it even got a little brighter but the sun could‘ t make it through the heavy clouds.

We saw the Heceta Head Lighthouse which is the most photographed lighthouse. We passed another tunnel in which some stupid cardrivers thought it was funny to honk at us. Again many people asked us where we are from, where we started and where we‘ re going. I really enjoy talking to people but after a while it gets kind of annoying to answer the same questions over and over again.

10 miles before we reached Florence another spoke broke! I can‘ t believe it! I got it fixed at the 101 bike and guitar shop in Florence, bought a pair of new brakepads as well and rinsed all the dirt off my bike. Uli and Vera picked me up at the bikeshop, we stopped at the grocery store and cycled through Old Town Florence which was kind of neat with a small harbor and an old bridge.

When we reached Honeyman SP we found out that the hiker/biker sites were already closed for the season but there were some regular campsites we could stay at for the hiker/biker rate.

We had tomato-soup with pasta and hotdogs for dinner, found a good tree to secure our food from the raccoons and went to sleep.

03.10.08

South Beach State Park – Yachats

35 km

Today was a short, wet cycling day. It started to rain at 3 am and didn‘ t really stop the whole day. Though I expected a bad headwind there was almost no wind in the morning.

I started around 11:30 am, it was an easy ride, the climbs were neither long nor steep. After crossing the bridge into Waldport I met Vera and Uli again, the two cyclists from Germany I met yesterday.  We had lunch together – I had some Clamchowder and French Dip – and dried our wet clothes. The woman who worked there warned us about a storm that was supposed to blow with up to 60 miles/hour in the evening.

We hit the road again, the rain became worse and just when we reached Yachats where me wanted to stop at the (highly recommended) Green Salmon Café the storm began. Unfortunately the Café was closed. The Campground was still 13 miles away and only had 2 Yurts which we didn‘ t expect to be vacant on a friday night.

After meeting the 3 cyclists from California again who I already met near Port Angeles in Washington we turned around and cycled back to the Fire Place Motel we passed about a mile earlier. Though it‘ s quite expensive to stay here (compared to the 4 $ Hiker / Biker Sites here in Oregon) I‘ m glad that I didn‘ t ride on to the campground. It really is a storm that‘ s blowing outside! I spread all my wet clothes and my tent in my room to let it dry. According to the weather forecast the weather is supposed to stay like this at least tomorrow. I‘ m still hoping that it‘ ll be good enough to ride at least ‚till the early afternoon. If it stays like it is now there‘ s NO way to cycle tomorrow. But since the weather just was pretty good for about a week I‘ m not complaining – I guess I can‘ t expect sunshine everyday;-).

Have a great weekend!!!

Anja

02.10.08

Rest Day – South Beach

15 km, rain, rain and more rain

When I got up at 7 am it just started to rain. After boiling water for coffee and oatmeal I crawled back in my sleeping-bag and had breakfast. Later I met Adam and Kate, two canadian cyclists who are going to the mexican border Uli and Vera, 2 teachers from Germany in their Sabbatical. They started in Anchorage as well and are headed to Cancun. There they‘ ll get on a plane and fly to Ushuaia to cycle up north from there. After chatting with them for a while I decided to stay another night at the campground.

We spent the day together in Newport. We went to the Maritime Science Museum which was quite interesting. Since we were getting hungry we cycled to a small pizza-place where we ate some really good pizza and spent some time on the internet. Around 5pm we rode to the bike-shop. That‘ s a pretty cool place where cyclists can do their laundry, take a shower and hang out. On our way back to the campground I bought a new battery for my speedometer. But I think there is something else wrong with it because it‘ s still not working very well. I have to figure out what to do about it.