Day 21, 9/4/08

After a breakfast of oatmeal and bananas and our french press coffee, we got rolling at 9 am - our earliest departure to date. Another day of warm temperatures and sunny skies. Not a cloud in sight. Today was a tough ride. Sixty eight miles total. Highlights included a really nice ride along Cedar Valley road between Ophir and Gold Beach, a backroad with gentle rollers, pretty back country, and very little traffic. We had a monster hill to climb south of Gold Beach, a never-ending grind of a hill, completely exposed to the sun. The subsequent descent was fun, but we were unable to enjoy it completely as the gusts of wind were so strong that they were moving our bikes around and that can be pretty scary as you are screaming downhill at 40-45 miles per hour. So we had to ride our brakes more than we would have liked.

We pulled off the road around Pistol River State Park and locked up our bikes and walked down to the beach and waded into the surf for a good soak. I don't think the soak in the cold waters of the Pacific is Sam's cup of tea. Unfortunately, Sam also took a spill as he was trying to power through the deep gravel leaving the parking lot.

We broke for lunch in Brookings. By then it was a bit toasty out. The neon sign outside Ace hardware said 77, but just a few miles later we saw a thermometer outside a market that said 88. Anyway, it was 3:30 in the afternoon and we were exhausted and had waited too long to eat lunch. We did stop in Ophir at noon, but cinnamon rolls, donuts and a pizza stick only lasts so long.

With today being laundry day, we needed a campground with laundry facilities or near a laundromat and we also had a goal of reaching California by the end of the day. We scored a hit with Salmon Harbor resort. It's a private campground just south of the Oregon/California border with hot showers and a laundry facility. Fee was $22 per night but was worth it. And it was right on the water. Small campground and we were the only tent campers there.

With no market nearby and the closest restaurant closed, our prospects for dinner seemed slim. There was a casino a couple miles north that had a restaurant, but neither of us had the legs or interest to ride over at that hour, which was around 9 pm. Always carrying emergency food, we pieced together what turned out to be one incredible dish. We combined a packet of instant garlic potatoes with the can of tuna we bought in Charleston and 2 packets of Indian noodles we bought up in Vancouver. We also had some ciabatta bread with it and the tuna was amazing. Melted in your mouth. After dinner, we enjoyed a roaring fire we built in the fire pit. Fell into a very deep sleep to the sound of the surf right outside our tent. It was a tough ride, but what a great day.