Day 8 - Friday 9/18/2015 New Port/Waldport to North Bend

A long day of riding - but a short blog on my part.  After breakfast in Newport, we loaded the cars and drove to the ride start - about 18 miles south.  A bit cool, but warmer weather in the forecast and no rain gear.

Once again our route took us along US Hwy 101 (anyone seeing a pattern here?)

From Newport south, through the towns of Waldport, Yachats (pronounced Ya Hots), Cape Perpetua, Heceta Head, Florence, along the Oregon Dunes landing in the small town of North Bend.  Kathi and I took a few side trips, fabric shopping and light house observing.

Heceta Head Light House

Today is bike clean up day.

Cycling notes:  

Jerry's Notes:."

Today was just spectacular.  This is the Oregon Coast that I have heard about.  I told Tom that it is really fun to have a new surprise every 20 minutes or so as you descend from a headlands into a coastal plain with endless beaches and a new vista.  I particularly enjoyed the wild rocks offshore that just don't exist in Southern California.

Roads were for the most part good, so we all made good time and it is so much more fun when it is easy to peddle, the scenery is flying by and the time on the road is minimal.  I think we were on the road just over 5 hours for 75 plus miles.

Saint Patty is the one who makes this trip extraordinary for Tom and myself.  We would be sunk without her assistance, not only in the cooler lunches and mid morning breaks, but in finding out if we can ride across bridges, finding the best restaurants, motels, etc..  She is the reason that these trips come off so smoothly and we all appreciate the incredible effort she puts in to make it all happen. Thank you, thank you, Patty.

So far we have had incredible luck with restaurants.  The same can be said for the motels - tonight's, however could be the exception.

Hard to believe that we are 1/3 done and just beginning to roll.  Onward to California!

Tom's Notes:

I agree with Jerry.  Today showed us why we chose this route.  Really great views today.  We kind of glance at another beautiful beach and say "ya, another spectacular ocean view--let's keep riding"

Statistically we also had a good day.  No bad headwinds, and only a couple of mentionable hills, but no lung busters like we had the last couple of days.  We even had a tailwind towards the end of the ride.  Today was 79 miles in 5:10 which is a respectable 15.2 mph average.  We had a net elevation gain of zero (we're riding from beach town to beach town), with 3600 feet of climbing.