Ride Day 80 and a rest day

Today I rode from Umpqua Lighthouse to Carl G Washburne State Park 47 miles 2500’ of climbing. I took an easy slow day on the road today. After an early start from my campsite I went looking for food in Winchester a few miles away. All I found open was a market where I gobbled a sweet roll and a coffee then did 22 miles before stopping for a breakfast sandwich in Dunes City. The road was yet again just a tree lined highway 101 with mostly good shoulders except on the winding hills where they are the most important. I cross the road and ride on the left when there is no shoulder and an inside curve comes up. Lots of cars and trucks cut the inside corners really tight and if one of them comes along the bike rider is a goner. So I break the law and ride on the wrong side of the road because it is safer for me. Some drivers get flustered when they see me on the wrong side but at least they see me and do not kill me which is the point. I only took a few pics cause the trees get old fast. The crabbers told me that the crabbing was not good for the second year in a row. I did see a halibut boat come in with a fish 62 pounds and three chickens which are small halibuts. The Halibut season just opened up here for the pacific halibuts. Salmon fishing has been slow but mostly because of wind and big waves making it hard to fish. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post about a little drama I saw in Coos Bay. I was riding along when all of a sudden there was a loud racket of honking and screaming going on. I looked over and there was an eagle trying to take a gosling from some honkers and four adult geese immediately attacked the eagle and made it give up going for the gosling and slowly back away from the raging geese. They were very protective and would have given up their life to save their babies, very impressive to me. Today the campground is very empty and quiet. I like it cause I need some rest and still need to kill some time so the weather improves ahead of me in Montana and over the mountains. More later Day of rest Today was a day of rest for me. My weight has been dropping too quickly so I want to pack in some calories without burning too many. I still did a short ride down the coast and up a hill to an ocean lookout. I watched for whales and talked to some of the nice friendly people doing the same. Then we spotted whales and everyone got excited. Most of these people had never seen a whale before. They were asking a million questions from me like I was some kind of tour guide. I answered most of them easily so it was not a big deal. I did tell them about the boat I was on that almost got sunk by a whale out at the islands off San Francisco. They thought that was kind of unusual. I met a few other bike riders while out on the road. Three were from Germany, one American guy trying to ride to all 49 lower states, one guy with red bags that did not want to talk, a couple Canadians going from Van Couver to San Francisco, and a couple from Canada with no sure destination but a couple months of time to see where they end up. I enjoyed talking to most of the travelers, learning about the route ahead and hearing the stories of their rides. The Germans (68 year olds) were carrying way too much stuff. They were prepared for anything I think. After seeing them I decided I could lighten my load as well. In the next few days I plan to pare down my gear. I sat around with the camp hosts for a while and we talked about light houses since they are also docents and hosts at various lighthouses. They were a nice couple from Fort Apache Arizona. Later on I returned to the beach to see if I could catch a sunset. I waited and watched all the people on the weekend beach. There were families and couples and groups of young adults. It was all very peaceful as we sat there watching for whales and when one spouted whomever saw it would point and if you were quick you might see the whale too. We saw maybe a dozen whales which is a lot for this late in the season. The sunset was not the best because fog started to set in before the sun went down and it blocked the light. I tried and still enjoyed it. More later…