Days 8-10: Time for Fun and Beautiful Sites

This post will cover three days of our adventure. Day 8 was a rest day in Cannon Beach. Day 9 was my ride from Cannon Beach to Pacific City, and Day 10 I rode from Pacific City to Newport. The weather has been anywhere from good to great. We have had a lot of foggy mornings and overcast days, but at least no rain (except for one overnight). The last couple of days, the sun has broken through, and that has been really nice. We haven't seen much wind either. Normally, the wind is out of the northwest (which would likely help a cyclist) or the west. I have heard that strong winds out of the west can be dangerous, especially when crossing bridges. So far, so good.

These three days have been action-packed. Chris and I have been busy (more on that at the end of the post), and the scenery has been spectacular. I had heard the Oregon coast is scenic, and it seems like every corner we turn, we see more evidence of that. My Relive videos show some of those pictures, but photos never seem to do it justice.

Riding

Day 8: Rest day in Cannon Beach

More details below under off the bike.

Day 9: 60 miles, 3527 elevation (3 wheees, no ughs)

This ride had a little bit of everything. The sites were great. The weather is cool and overcast. I met Chris a little more than halfway through the ride at Tillamook Creamery. The brand I know for cheese has its headquarters in Tillamook, Oregon. And they have a nice tour and restaurant. I met Chris there for a little layover. After that, I continued on. The ACA route got me off Highway 101, which was nice for a while. Then, I got to a mostly gravel road with a 10-13% grade. It was so steep, I walked about a half mile for fear I would fall over. I pushed through and saw some beautiful sites along the coast, including huge sand dunes and lots of ocean views. There were some big, long climbs today, with other grades pushing 10-15% at times.

As I drew closer to Pacific City, I noticed Chris driving in the opposite direction. She was coming out to meet me. She turned around and pulled over. At that point, she kind of pulled rank and told me that I shouldn't ride the last 8 miles into Pacific City. Traffic was getting heavy and there was zero shoulder. I promised her that if she ever thought something was too dangerous, she could tell me to stop riding. She didn't quite say that (maybe she would have). As we drove in with the bike on the back of the car, I could see that she was right.

My Garmin stopped again about halfway through the ride. That means you get two Relive videos for this one day.

Day 10: 52 miles, 2897 elevation

Yesterday I learned one lesson on riding safely: listen to your SAG. Today, I learned another: follow the ACA route. About 10 miles into today's ride, the ACA route took me off of Highway 101. But it was a longer detour with a bigger climb. Traffic was light, so I decided to stick with the highway. Mistake. Shortly after, traffic picked up and I started a long, steep (mostly 6-8% but up to 14% grade) climb. The highway had three lanes, two going up the hill. But the shoulder was pretty narrow (about 18-24") and soon traffic was picking up. I better learn my lessons.

The rest of the ride was generally great. Some of it was on the highway, but the shoulder was wide. Much of it was back roads or winding through towns. There were so many scenic moments I had to stop for, I wondered if I would ever get to Newport. I finally did and met Chris for lunch. (Sorry for the sideways video, no time to try and fix that, we gotta get to bed).

What we did off the bike

On Day 7, after arriving in town, Chris and I walked through town and did some shopping. That night we found a pizza place near the hotel that we convinced to show the Packers-Commanders football game.

On Day 8, being Cannons, we both wanted something that said the town's name on it. She found a sweatshirt and I didn't. We did a morning beach hike to Haystack Rock, the iconic rock off Cannon Beach. At low tide, you can see a lot of marine life near the base of the rock.

In the afternoon we hiked the Crescent Beach Trail from Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. Fun hike through the woods and down to the beach. See pictures below.

On Day 9, we met at the Tillamook Creamery for a tour of the cheese factory and grilled cheese sandwiches. The factory was pretty cool. See the Relive video for some photos of that. After arriving in Pacific City, we went to the beach which had a really cool sand dune at one end. We climbed about halfway.

Finally, on Day 10, after lunch, Chris and I visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium and saw so much underwater diversity. We learned a lot, too. Maybe the highlight was the puffin.

We also went to the beach to see a sunset. This was our first day where you could see the sun without clouds. The sunset was good but not great. We still have a few weeks to get that perfect sunset picture, but there is one below.

Lots of fun stuff on the Oregon Coast and more for us to explore. Over the next few days we will stop in Florence, Bandon, and Gold Beach, Oregon before crossing the border into California on Thursday.