Experience: I'm not sure why "they" put so many hills in today's route, I mean couldn't I just take the flat roads?? But the rolling hills made today all the merrier. I felt like I had a challenge at every turn, a challenge I could accomplish only to be greatly rewarded with long, easy descents and time to sit back and enjoy the views. The roads were mostly quiet and car-free, making the bustling metropolis of Lincoln City feel like a madhouse.

The day started with a beautiful hang gliding launch site, and only got better and more beautiful.

I leapfrogged with Mike, another bikepacker. He started his adventure on Orcas Island, lived in Ashland for decades and is a za zen practitioner. He's a seasoned bikepacker, and did most of this route 25 years ago with his 5 year-old son in a trail-a-bike. A group of incredibly friendly lady cyclists met me while I worked on my rack, and we laughed about the joys of zip ties. A camp I met Rob and Alexa, young and bright section hikers. They tried to hike on the beach as much as possible, brought upland only when the rocky coast left no space to walk and no boats could be found for a ride.

Weather: more consistent and pleasant temperatures than previous days, Sunny, occasionally windy.

Roads: smooth and clean with nice wide, wide shoulders. Except for the rough unimproved road of Old Hwy 101.

Spotted: a slug, sliming it's way along, beetles, fawns trying really hard to cross the road safely, chipmunks, squirrels, a guy working a front end loader in the middle of Old Hwy 101- around a blind corner, with no warning, cones or anything.

Cape count:

Fort count:

Camp site lowdown:

Fun meter: Amanda's fun meter is off the charts! Any description is insufficient!

Achy breaky body parts: My wrists long for the dampening features of my Roubaix'

Mechanicals: Descending a hill on Old 101, I heard a scraping noise that sounded like my pannier scrambling on the asphalt. I knew that was impossible, but it took a few more of these incidents for me to realize something must be broken behind me. Sure enough, the bolt that holds my rack to the right side of my rear triangle went missing. The weld on the top left back corner of the rack also failed, probably from the tension of the unbalanced weight due to the sagging right side of the rack. I sealed the right side with zip ties and hoped for no more bumps until I could reach a store with a better fix.

Deep Thoughts ®: For some reason I couldn't get my offline songs to play on Spotify. Yearning for music, I opted to sing my own song. It went something like this:

Chorus:

A third of the way,

A third of the way,

Yeah, that's how far long, I've gone yet today.

Two thirds to go,

Two thirds to go,

How far will I make it, now I do not know.

Verse:

Big block of wood,

Big block of wood,

Stuck in the road, yeah, you'd move if you could.

Bird in a tree,

Bird in a tree,

Your song I can hear, yeah, but you I can't see.

Big puffy cloud

Big puffy cloud

Hiding the sky, yeah, in your holy shroud.

And, as you can guess, the verses go on indefinitely....

Photos From the Tour

Are Your Curious What I Ate While on this adventure?

I brought no cooking supplies and depended on the local markets and eateries. Here’s a selection of foods enjoyed on the trip.