Month: July 2025

Alsea to Florence today. FINAL DAY! Nice cool ride from Alsea to Waldsport where we all met up for coffee at Rays before proceeding down the coast to Beachside State Rec area for the ceremonial wheel dipping in the Pacific. We wanted to go together as a group. We finally saw the great Pacific as we turned left on Rt101. What a sight! I can just imagine when Lewis and Clark saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time as they approached the mouth of the Columbia river at Astoria! But their trip was a lot longer than ours! And a lot tougher. But nevertheless, it gave me considerable pleasure to see this grand ocean after 2 1/2 months on the road. What a trip this has been! I was worried these past couple of days that something might happen to screw it up- a flat, an accident. But the bicycle God was kind to me. Other than 3 flats I have not suffered any misfortune. No accidents, no illness, no muscle problems. I actually feel great right now- bicycling every day gets one in good shape!! After the wheel dip, we had a glorious ride along the coast south to Florence. Kind of like the Champs D’Elysee ride on the last day of the Tour de France. Taking it easy, enjoying the beautiful coastal scenery. The 101 is not the best road to bike on- it is twisty with narrow shoulders in many places and a lot of traffic. You really have to keep your eye on the road. Plus there is ALOT of up and down- a lot of ascent footage today. But we all got into camp at the Heceta Beach Resort noonish. It is cool and windy here- in the 60s, so it will be a cold night tonight as we sleep in our tents for the LAST TIME! Looking forward to not having to pack up tent and sleeping bag for awhile, after tomorrow! We are going out for a celebratory dinner tonight, in Florence. Then off to Eugene in the van to drop our bikes off at the bike shop there, to be shipped home. My wife and son are meeting me there at noon and driving me back up to Portland to spend a few days with my son’s family. Looking forward to getting some normalcy back in my life.

Below are the RidewithGPS stats:

Here is the link to todays video

Coburg to Alsea today.  A short 55 miles but we had a steep 800 ft climb in the mix after 30 miles, with a lot of 10% steep grade, but no issues.  It was early in the day and the road was wonderfully shaded with big trees so not a bad climb.  On the way down we entered this wonderland forest of huge trees and lush landscape.  Looked like a rainforest.  The West side of the coastal range gets all the water!  And no sign of any previous forest fires. It was incredibly pretty.  Directions on the GPS around Alsea got screwed up.  Timmie, who was ahead, followed the GPS directions up a gravel logging road to a dead end and had to come back down.  Fortunately I was a bit behind and I passed our support van where Dan told me of the screwup and gave me the good directions to camp.  Got in around noon.  It is warm, in the 80s but dry so not uncomfortable at all in the shade.  A nice quiet campsite at Salmonberry Park.   Timmie got in another accident today as we were going out.  Some guy making a left turn didn’t see him and he had to swerve to miss the car, hit the curb and fell over.  A little more bleeding- I think Timmie has lost the most blood of anybody on this trip.  But he cleaned himself up back at our Coburg campsite and carried on famously.  That and the misdirection up the logging road made for an unfortunate day for Timmie- but only one more day to go. What could go wrong now????

Below are the RidewithGPS stats: