PC04 - Bandon to Gold Beach

I puttered around my hotel room this morning drinking coffee until about 9 when I started packing up.  The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.  

As soon I I climbed the first hill in town I started getting amazing views.

I was barely out of town when I picked up speed on a little down hill and before I could stop, slow down or get my feet out of the pedals I plowed through a flooded section.  After two days of wet feet my shoes were finally drying out a bit. The road was flooded with 4 inches of water and I received two shoes full of water.  Squishy.

After about 10km I rejoined 101.  The traffic was definitely lighter than the previous days.  It seemed to be mostly vacationers and logging trucks.  The logging trucks fly through.

There was a lot of up and down today for over 900m of climbing but there were only 3 climbs according to the apps.  That means you can often pedal hard going down and the momentum will take you to the top.  I do some of my fastest cycling that way as it takes some of my gravitational attraction out of the equation.

I stopped at a market and picked up a sandwich for lunch and hot dog for a snack.

My lunch spot had a bit of a view.  There was a historical marker about the first white settlers having to stand their ground on that little rock - named Battle Rock - because the local Indians objected to their land being claimed by the settlers. The settlers snuck away in the night to return with a bigger force.  The marker did say the Indians had not made any deals to give up the land but it had been given away anyway.

After lunch there were several places where 101 tried to go for a swim.  There road had some uneven repairs and a few sections the outbound lane was several feet below the northbound.

At the top of one of the longest climbs of the day I caught up to two cyclists as they stopped for a break at the top.  I joined them.  It was a father and son from Fairbanks, Alaska.  No they flew most of the way here.  We chatted for a bit and then I rode off.

The last 20km were off 101 and that was really pleasant.  There were many large ocean facing houses along the way.

As I neared town, just before the bridge, I noticed a large number of boats right in the section where the river water mixes with the ocean water.  Is it salmon time?  There seems to be a lot of fishing tours available here.

Just over the bridge was my Motel 6 and it seems to be one of the better ones.  As I approached the motel office I see another cyclist checking in.  We agreed to meet up after showers.  We walked into town for a beer and some dinner.  David is from Sweden and he is on a one year sabbatical traveling the world.  He cycled from Calgary with little cycling experience.  Before that he was in Nepal,  Thailand, Vietnam, ... He is meeting his daughter in San Francisco next week.