May 16, day 13 Florence to Bandon

May 16, day 13 Florence to Bandon

Starting odo 6712

Actually I'm staying at the nearby Bullards Beach State Park.

The day starts out with clearing weather, and I decide that I'll ride
after all. The forecast had been pretty high for rain.

Gradually the residents of the hiker/biker camping area get up. The
area itself is beautiful, with huge tall trees and lots of moss. There
are a bunch of little nooks in a rough circle, each with it's picnic
table.

There are two girls from Victoria, a hitchhiker from the Netherlands,
a solo guy from Vancouver, the couple I met waiting for the ferry for
Port Townsend, and me.  I am very bad at remembering names, so I hope
you forgive me on that!

Everybody was fun to talk to probably because they were all
interesting people, and also because they were all having a lot of fun
doing their trips!

The couple, Michael and Marylyn have decided to take a rest day, then
they will head back as they have run out of time. The two girls will
be doing a short day, 30 miles. Shyam is also headed south, probably
more than 30 miles, so this will fit into my "plans" which is
generally to go as far as I can.

So I start out with Shyam (I hope I got your name right). Well,
actually he started first and I caught up after a few miles. He is
riding with a bit more gear, and is going a bit more slowly than me.
He plans to ride all the way to the southern tip of south America!

We ride together for a while until the days first serious hill. I end
up sort of drifting further and further ahead. At the top of the hill
I take some pictures and make a P stop. As I start down, the rain
starts and I stop twice to put on more clothes. After the 2nd stop
Shyam flashes by. At this point I am ready for some breakfast, having
only eaten cookies thus far, so we stop at a small cafe in Gardiner.
When we pull in, we see the two girls are already having their
breakfast. We all chat about the route and various touring things,
then they leave.

  As we get ready to go, I tell him to go ahead and I'll try to catch
up after using the bathroom. Shortly after I get going again, a McD
shows so I stop briefly to check my email. I am pretty diligent after
that, but I never catch up. I think that I may have passed him somehow
without knowing it.

The weather has cleared up and become partly sunny. After working over
a few hills, the road descends and becomes flat with a light tailwind,
and I make great progress until reaching North Bend where the map says
I have to walk my bike across the mile long high bridge. This totally
knocks the wind out of my sails, and I am pretty slow going through
the city. I stop and eat a bagel and cream cheese before leaving the
city. Up to this point I had hoped to reach Port Orford, but that is
looking like a dim possibly.

In a few more miles I reach Charleston, and the route turns onto the
very aptly named Seven Devils Road. Immediately all progress grinds to
a halt as the road twists wickedly upward, and I am thrown into first
gear for the next 30 minutes. As soon as I think the climb might be
done, it starts going up again. Then there is a kind of plateau where
you descend maybe 50-80 feet then hit a short steep climb to regain
the altitude. The views are very pretty but I am feeling a little too
pressured by those little hills to enjoy it as much as I should. Then
the route turns onto Beaver Hill Road, which sort of continues this
pattern until you turn onto Whisky Run Lane. Now the 2nd half of this
stretch goes by in a flash as you descend back to the now flat Seven
Devils Road, which takes you to 101 and then to Bandon. It is like
pushing on a door just as somebody opens it from the other side, you
feel like you'll never get to Bandon, then bam, it's done!

Right before Bandon is the state park which I check out, then head
into Bandon for dinner and a relaxing beer.

Then I ride back to the park in the dark ( gotta love having lights on
the bike) and set up camp, shower and retire to update today's entry.
It's 11:30 now and I'll watch an episode of anime and go to sleep.