Hello again! We left camp this morning a bit delayed because we thought we lost Chad's wallet-- turned out that it was in my backpack. We did, however, manage to leave camp without our clothesline-- which Frank and Rike had already picked up for us once.... so we have lost our first item. It could have definitely been worse!
Today's ride was not especially scenic. It was probably the pinnacle of impolite drivers, actually. We were honked at by multiple rv's, and one guy in an SUV even flipped me off! The most rediculous one, though, was crossing a bridge. In Oregon, they have great bicycle infastructure for tunnels and bridges-- at the beginning of the tunnel or bridge, you push a button that illuminates lights on a sign that says "bicycles in tunnel" or "bicycles on bridge." Anyhow, we pushed the button, then began to cross this bridge, and some guy yelled at us, "you don't belong here!" We just smiled and waved, which seems to be the best remedy for this type of treatment.
All in all actually, the drivers have been extremely polite and we get lots of encouraging honks and waves. Today the mean ones just seemed to be in higher concentration.
Anyhow, we arrived at camp relatively early, as it was a short, fast day. When we got there, the hiker-biker site was overflowing-- there were 18 people on bicycles staying there! Amazing. We met a retired couple spending a year touring on bicycles, another couple doing the same Seattle to San Francisco route as us, and saw Rachel and Jake, a couple we had met awhile back. There was also a group of 4 women on recumbants, some of them going all the way to Mexico! Frank and Rike are still riding with us, and the four of us decided to get a seperate camp to keep the hiker-biker site from overcrowding. As we got set up, two other riders we had met earlier arrived-- Laura, a young woman who rode her bike out west from GEORGIA and is headed to Grant's Pass, and Daniel, a funny guy who is traveling light, eating multiple variations of Snickers-based meals that we had met the previous night. Laura and Daniel joined us at our camp, as hiker-biker had become very crowded.
We walked over to Sunset Beach to enjoy the sunset, and it was amazing-- the bay is enclosed on 3 sides by rock walls, and the sun set between the rock walls, right in front of a rock in the water, which the wave crashed against as the sun sank into the sea. Unbelieveable!
On the way back I had a nice chat with Rachel, who works for a clean energy foundation in San Francisco. We talked about the future and possibilities of the new green economy, and it occured to me that almost everyone I've met on this trip has or is in some way involved in clean energy, green building, or organic farming. It made me very excited about the future, although I also have to take into consideration the fact that the people I'm meeting are travelling by BIKE, which makes them a bit more green-minded than the average Oregon Coast traveler.
We stayed up much later than we should have chatting, but it was fun to have a social night. That is all for today-- we rode 53.23 miles, climbed 2263 feet, and averaged 12 mph.
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