Portland to San Francisco Bike Trip - Day 3
Day 3 Stats - August 21, 2006
- Lincoln City to Florence
- 73.30 miles, 2979 ft. elevation gain, 213.11 miles total (8230 elev)
- Ride time 5h 45m, trip time 8h 02m, start time 8:40am
- Average speed 12.7 mph, max 29.7
- Cities visited: Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Newport, Waldport, Yachats, Florence
- Total flats to date: Aimee:1, Pam:0, Preston:1
Woke up 7:20am. Pretty good night's sleep. Ate free breakfast at hotel.
Overcast all day. Starting temperature around 55F, but didn't feel nearly as cold as yesterday's foggy start. Jackets and leg warmers all day. Ditched jackets around 3pm (temp had climbed to around 65F).
Pretty heavy morning rush hour traffic out of Lincoln City, not very fun. A flat tire for Aimee followed by a delay due to a traffic accident on Hwy 101 both conspired to give us a slow start for the day. By the time we stopped for a snack break at the Bob Jones bridge near Otter Rock, we'd only done 12 miles in 90 minutes.
Rode through the side streets of Newport and across the Newport bridge (perched precariously on the bridge's lilliputian shoulder). Nice views. Saw a sea lion swimming in the water.
Stopped for lunch at Ona Beach State Park, very pleasant. Picnic tables, serene river. Ate our Tillamook cheese curds and smoked cheddar cheese, salami, turkey, grapes, and potato chips freshly purchased by our trusty SAG driver. Only 30 miles done at this point, we all realized we had to pick up the pace considerably...
Rode on and on, into Yachats. Almost caught up with a pair of camping cyclists we'd met the day before at Pacific City in front of the surfer restaurant (we called them the Transgender Cyclists since we couldn't determine if one of them was a man or a woman). They were from San Francisco and had travelled by train to Vancouver, B.C., and were pedaling back to SF.
After Yachats, we entered some hills, and really started mowing down the miles because we realized we needed to if we were to arrive in Florence at a decent hour. Paused to snap some photos of sea lions frolicking in the waves. Survived our first (and hopefully only) tunnel experience just past Heceta Head by madly pedalling as fast as possible (we made it no problem).
Met two bikers (man and son) from Vancouver BC. The man had biked the entire Pacific Coast 20+ years ago and was now reliving part of the trip (Oregon coast only) with his youngest son.
Snapped some photos of the lovely sand dunes. Then slogged it out until we got to our hotel. Pretty decent shoulder. Stayed at River House Motel (looks kinda dumpy from the outside, but really nice on the inside - $86/room). Motel has great location walking distance from Florence's Old Town, the nicest town we've been in so far on this trip.
Strolled through Old Town. Dinner at the Firehouse Restaurant (angel hair pasta, tri tips, French dip, and lasagna). Heath bar Blizzard from DQ for dessert. Home to the hotel by 8:30. Ahhh... Felt good to chill out and watch TV.