Ride Day 79

Today I rode from Bandon by the Sea to Winchester Bay about 46 miles with about 3000’ of climbing. The ride was kind of boring cutting inland through forests of cedar, spruce and douglas fir. Not much else along the route until I got to Coos Bay where I watched them loading ships with wood pulp. They also had a huge log pile. I guess they ship the raw logs out too. There were also some nice old wooden ships and tugs down by the marina that I liked seeing. I got an early start today and I was 20 miles along in Coos Bay by 8:30 in the morning. Glad I did start early too because the headwind came up for the last 10 miles or so and really slowed me down and made me work like I was going uphill from there on. I stopped at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park for the night in the hiker/biker camp. I was attacked by mosquitoes the second my bike stopped so I had to spray myself. My hand is a bit swollen from a spider bite last night so I am a bit antibug today. The only bad part of the ride today was going over the bridge north of Coos Bay. It is narrow with no room for bikes and there is heavy traffic with lots of logging trucks and semis. There is a button to push that makes the speed limit 30 with flashing yellow lights to warn cars and trucks of bikes on the bridge but the drivers seemed to ignore the speed limit since most of them were doing 50 or more. It was a bit scary to say the least. I made it though so I must still have some luck going. I had a burger at Double D’s Bar and Grill that almost filled me up but my weight has been going down quickly since I left the bay area so I need to increase the amount of food I eat and make sure there is a lot of protein and fat in it. I considered ordering another burger but did not. I will cook at camp later. The commercial salmon fishermen in the bar said fishing is slow up here and when I told him my friends told me it was good in the bay area he told me it was not good in the bay area or the price would have come down already. I don’t know so I can’t argue one way or the other. I know the sport fishing boats are doing well because they post the results everyday but I have no idea where to check for commercial results. I am going to just relax the rest of the day and have another light day tomorrow. I am still running too early with the late snow this year. I do not want to get caught in snow! There is still 250 miles to Astoria from here so if I average 50 a day I will be there next week sometime. More later…