I was extremely tired last night as we went to be late. Unfortunately, Chad and I spent much of the night battling raccoons who were trying to steal food out of our panniers. They unwrapped Daniel's saddle bags to snatch his Doritos and we could hear them munching loudly on doritos all night long. They are clever little guys-- they also managed to UNZIP Laura's panniers and steal a pepper and some cheese-- however, we recovered her food before they devoured it.
Anyhow, the day started with a really nice climb up Seven Devils Road, which crossed seven little peaks as we headed south. The ups and downs reminded me a lot of the riding in the East Bay Hills in CA, and made me remember how much fun this kind of terrain is. It was also nice to have a break from the 101-- there were virtually no cars and we had the road to ourselves, nearly all the way to Bandon.
The scenery has changed a lot-- the green lush forests have given way to rocky, dry scrub-- similar to Eastern Washington, a beautiful contrast to our days further north.
We stopped for a nice lunch in Bandon, then continued through some side streets past lots of large, abandoned- looking homes (vacation homes?) and to the Face Rock Viewpoint, where the wind was absolutely HOWLING. The scenery was incredible, though-- huge rocks that looked like sea lions stacked in the water.
We rode through Langlois where the wind picked up again and literally carried us into Port Orford. We did some grocery shopping there and headed for Camp at Humbug Mountain State Park, where we were able to watch the sun set on a black sand beach. unreal! After the sunset we made veggie Phad Thai and added some peanut butter...delicious. We were extra-certain to clean up our food so that we would have no raccoon encounters. We also met some more people at camp-- a man named John riding from Cour de Alene, ID to Texas via the cost, and a nice guy named Nick who is headed to San Francisco from Chicago. All these rides make ours seem very easy.
We also decided that tomorrow we will probably part ways with Frank and Rike, as we would like to make a big push across the California border and they are more interested in spending another night in Oregon and taking their time. So it is our last night in Oregon-- a little bitter-sweet, as we have had a phenomenal time!
Today's stats-- 58.5 miles, 2841 ft of climbing, 11.3 mph
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