Portland to San Francisco Bike Trip - Day 4
Day 4 Stats - August 22, 2006
- Florence to Reedsport
- 23.30 miles, 1099 ft. elevation gain, 236.41 miles total (9220 elev)
- Ride time 1h 52m, trip time 2h 24m, start time 10:30am
- Average speed 12.7 mph, max 29.4
- Cities visited: Florence, Gardiner, Reedsport
- Total flats to date: Aimee:1, Pam:0, Preston:1
Leisurely start on this relatively short day. Slept in and then grabbed breakfast at the Beachcomber in Florence's Old Town. The Beachcomber is one step above a tavern, featuring locals drinking Hamm's at the bar at 9am on a Tuesday morning. The $3 stack of pancakes were delicious nonetheless.
Still overcast but warmer than previous days. Long sleeves and leg warmers again. Excellent road conditions today, ample shoulder and not too much climbing. Moderate traffic, but still too many RVs (a couple of RVs driven by incompetent old drivers narrowly missed us today... grrrr).
Met a disabled biker today (no legs) riding a recumbent bike that he pedals with his hands only. His range is about 30 miles a day before his arms give out. They started in Northern California, rode up to Seattle on inland roads, and are now heading back along the coast. Also met a nice couple from Seattle, also riding recumbents. Traded road stories for quite some time. We worry about the folks riding recumbents because they seem less safe than traditional bikes (specifically recumbents are wider, so sometimes they are riding outside of the bike lane and in the lane of car traffic!)... but maybe they think we're crazy for riding regular bikes :)
Arrived at our lodging for the night, the Rosewood Bed and Breakfast. Very nice house and proprietor (Dennis, a retired schoolteacher who has lived in Reedsport for 20 years), $75/night. Dropped off our bikes, took a brief rest, and then drove down to Winchester Bay for lunch.
Explored the beach and sand dunes for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. The sun was out and intense, but we couldn't bask in its glorious warmth because of extreme winds. Had a great time running around on the dunes and rolling around in the sand. Didn't spend too much time out there, though, since we didn't want to enervate our strength before tomorrow's riding.
Returned to the B&B and napped. Woke up and grabbed pizza at the restaurant down the street from the B&B. Aimee was disappointed that the cooks smothered the entire pizza in pepperoni, instead of just half of the pizza like requested. Came back and socialized with some of the other B&B guests and then turned in for the night.