by Liz

Day’s mileage : 51

Running total : 731

This morning I was powered by waffles alone right up to lunchtime. They worked a treat – this has felt like my strongest day’s cycling so far. Water abounded all day, large and small lakes, rivers, estuaries, a glimpse or two of the ocean, as well as the promised water from the heavens. We were fine, stayed nice and dry in our waterproofs.

All morning the spruce forests on either side of the road were laced with pale pink rhododendrons, and bird song echoed where the forest rose steeply on our left. We passed several stretches of frog heaven, as I like to call them – usually a slightly smaller body of water full of lily pads and flowers – and a few beaver heavens, with floating tree trunks in place of lily pads. Sadly we also passed our first beaver, who had met an untimely end. 

The road rose gently but persistently for a good couple of hours and finally we crested the hill around 11.15. There to our left and right the landscape opened up with views of an enormous crow’s foot lake below us to the left and to our right layer upon layer of forested ridges, with an inlet and some knobbly mountains beyond. Delicate lilac lupins were in flower along the roadside.

After passing through Reedsport, we stopped to eye up a lay-by beside the 101 as a possible lunch spot, and noticed a deer looking down at us from higher ground in the woods. The lay-by didn’t pass muster and we had lunch at Winchester Bay, overlooking the marina, with three golden eagles hunting above the harbour. We enjoyed some miles of quiet, hilly road through majestic spruce forest, past the Umpqua Lighthouse, before rejoining the 101.

At a viewpoint, a man from Eugene did a grand job of fluffing up our feathers, asking all about our trip and not holding back on the amazement and awe front. We pedalled off feeling a good few inches taller. A nice morale boost. 

A few miles later, the headwind was picking up as we approached the bridge over Coos Bay into North Bend. The rain stung our cheeks, cranking up the day’s wet weather experience. There wasn’t far to go, and a cup of tea and a hot bath were first on the agenda in our little house in Coos Bay town. Dinner is smelling very promising as I write, courtesy of Philip, and the downpour continues, thankfully now on the other side of the window.