Pacific Coast Tour – Day 22 – 23; Washburne State Park to Bullards Beach State Park – Through the Dunes

Day: 22
August 8, 2021

Distance: 43 miles (858 total)
Washburne State Park to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park

We woke up with a spring in our step since today we would get to go to the sea lion caves.  But first we had a long, yet surprisingly easy climb to get there. We passed the Heceta Head lighthouse, and had a fairly easy tunnel to ride through and then we were there! We set our bike out of the way, paid our entry fees, and took the elevator down into America’s largest sea cave which was full of stellar sea lions. We spent way too much time watching them swim, lounge, pose and fight. But it was a well worth it stop.

The next chunk of the Oregon coast is basically all sand dunes. I was honestly expecting to see more as we rode, but the 101 was pulled back off the coast a little ways and tucked away in the forest. I guess building infrastructure on sand is hard or something. It did allow for us to stop at Darlingtonia a botanical garden of carnivorous plants, so that was neat.

In Florence, about halfway through the dunes we decided to stop for brunch where I had loaded hashbrowns and Andrew had avocado benedicts. There were even a couple other tourers stopped at the same diner, although we didn’t have a chance to chat.

After lunch was more sand dunes so we decided to stop for a hike at the day use area. It was a mile hike through mostly sand, so if we were smart we would have put on sandals, but we’re not so there was lots of sand dumping afterwards. Andrew had been hopeful to find some snowy plovers that nest in the dunes, they had the area roped off and everything, but I guess part of the reason they’re protected is because there aren’t many of them to find. So no snowy plovers for us.

We had what we thought was a double climb still to go, but I guess we’ve gotten strong enough that we hadn’t even realized we had already done the first half of the climb, so that was a pleasant surprise on our long downhill to realize that we didn’t have to climb again. We found a couple tourers on the road that we tried to chat with for a bit, but it was just too noisy and the cars too rude. They ended up carrying on past our end point for the day. 

We had one last ice cream/slurpee stop (mochi ice cream too!) before we made it to our campground for the night, Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.  We opted to ride up to the lighthouse, but skipped the extensive tour they offer so that we could go set up camp.

The Umpqua campground was full of hiker bikers. We spent most of the evening chatting with the others. And unlike the other nights, everyone was heading south! (going north on the northern bit of Oregon is the tail end of one of the Transamerica routes, so we had seen a lot of tourers going against the winds to finish their ride). At Umpqua though, there were three others heading south at a much faster pace than us, averaging like 70 mile days with hard deadlines they had to meet which just sounds miserable. And then another couple taking their time averaging 25 mile days which sounded pretty sweet. But since we’re enjoying these 40ish mile days and do have a meetup planned with Andrew’s mom in Ferndale, we won’t be riding with anyone tomorrow.

Oh and there was also a hiker hiking the Oregon coast, but with several of the trails closed from wind storms she’s had to do a lot of road hiking and hitchhiking, so we gave her our spare safety pizza so she’s safer and looks more approachable -who doesn’t love a good safety pizza? (It sounds like cars have been even ruder to her, and it’s got to be worse on foot with the higher speed difference. It’s sad how mean some people can be, although for the most part drivers have been friendly to us).

We’ve had a couple campgrounds close to lighthouses, but this was the first one where the foghorn was in the forefront of your consciousness. After well past dark we went to sleep with the kind of pleasant not quite consistent humming.

Day: 23
August 9, 2021

Distance:  47 miles (905 total)
Umpqua Lighthouse State Park to Bullards Beach State Park

We had a slower start today out of the campgrounds thanks to the added chit chat and comradery, but we weren’t in any rush. It was nice seeing what other peoples’ routines are.  The expected 25 mph tailwinds for the day also made it easy to take our time getting started.

We had a 20 mile mostly pleasant ride to get out of the dunes and past Coos Bay where another of the “bad” bridges awaited us. We even pulled off to a weigh station because why not? It said us plus our bike weighed 450lbs in case you’re wondering.

The Coos Bay Bridge is a mile and a half long with a pretty steep hill for ships to go under. We pushed the “bike on bridge” button and sped up and over making what I think was pretty good time; we were pretty exhausted afterwards at least.  Luckily we had a nice driver get stuck behind us who gave us lots of space and a thumbs up at the end.

After recovering our energy from the bridge exertion, we made our way to the Safeway in North Bend. Andrew may have bought way to much food due to sales, and food envy of the other bikers.

We had to huddle in a random parking lot behind a retaining wall to eat lunch away from the wind, but I can’t complain about an awesome tailwind. Although it was a little dicey at moments when we had to zigzag east/west instead of directly south. 

In the afternoon we got a break from the 101 traffic. We turned onto the “seven devils road” which as you can imagine was very hilly. It wasn’t there for us, but apparently at some point someone had gone through and chalked all the hills labeling each of  the “devils”.

On the downhill back to the 101 we passed by a popular mountain biking trailhead and got a “woah, not what I would expect to see here” in reference to our loaded tandem which I got a chuckle out of.

Tonight’s campsite is at Bullards Beach State Park. Another night with other bikers, but all different from last night, although those guys we met up with on the road the other day (Vint and Geoff) found their way here as well. It’s nice to see familiar faces. It’s daunting hearing some of the distances these guys do. I’m happy with our pace so far at least.

Next Post