Florence
.0000318 Mm today, 1.0157 Mm so far
I was feeling lazy again this morning, so stayed in bed doing a couple units of Spanish, not getting underway until around 1200.
Just past Heceta Head, I hit the 2nd and last tunnel on the route in Oregon, with no sidewalk this time, with an uphill grade, but luckily it was fairly short and traffic was light.
Just past the tunnel, I stopped at a pullout, within sight of the Sea Lion Caves entrance, to peer down the cliff to the rocks below and watch a big bunch of sea lions sunning on the rocks and swimming in the sea. I'd heard the racket nearly as soon as I'd exited the tunnel. While stopped, a Chinese couple talked to me, the husband evidently interested in bike touring, the wife calling my trip "heroic". I though that was overstating things a bit.
I rode past the Sea Lion Caves without stopping, since I'd been there before and hadn't been all that impressed.
Later in the day, stopped at Darlingtonia Wayside, to take a look at California Pitcher Plants, AKA Cobra Lilies, AKA Cobra Orchids, a type of carnivorous plant. There was a big group of them in the marsh off the viewing platform, and I had the idea it would be fun to make up some placards: something along the lines of a graphic of a hand holding a hot dog, one of the flowers with big teeth chomping down on a finger, and text saying something like "Warning: don't feed the plants".
Of course, these particular plants didn't really move, but lured insects into to chambers where they got confused. Unable to find the exit, they are eventually trapped by spiky hairs and digested.
Nearing Florence, I achieved the second of two milestones for the day. The first was passing onto the second half of the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route map I'd been using, which happened just past the tunnel. The second was reaching the 1 megameter (1000 km) point of the trip, which happened across from a garden center just before Florence.
Riding into Florence, the famous sand dunes were immediately apparent, towering behind a large supermarket just off 101. I spent some time in Florence, stopping at a giant RiteAid to replace my lost soap, my lost bandana, and picking up a nifty beard trimming device, which was sort of a comb with embedded razor blades, a manual version of those electric hair clippers, but much more compact.
Next I headed to the old town, exploring the couple of streets of shops, and having a late lunch at Mo's on the water: blackened halibut, clam chowder, and garlic mashed potatoes, all pretty good. I went across the street for ice cream, then sat on a bench checking email, before continuing south a bit to Honeyman State Park.
While paying the camp fee, another cyclist, David on a Bianchi Volpe, pulled up. We chatted a bit, but I wanted to get a bit settle so I could see a bit of the dunes before dark, so said I'd come find him later.
I walked out to the dunes, which stretched a couple of miles to the ocean, and trudged up the steep, sandy slope to the crest of the nearest one, then along it a ways to a scenic spot with a view of the ocean and nearby lake, staying there to watch the sun set and the nearly full moon rise, with a couple of dune buggies buzzing in the distance.
Moonrise over the dunes at Honeyman SP, near Florence
Then I headed back to camp and found David's site (given that the campground wasn't crowded, we'd been told we could stay in normal tent sites for the hiker/biker price), and we talked for a while. He was from Redmond, a Metro bus driver, just doing the coast from Astoria to Florence. He was catching a ride to Eugene the next day, to take the train back to Seattle.
After talking with him for awhile, I took a shower and headed to bed.
I was feeling lazy again this morning, so stayed in bed doing a couple units of Spanish, not getting underway until around 1200.
Just past Heceta Head, I hit the 2nd and last tunnel on the route in Oregon, with no sidewalk this time, with an uphill grade, but luckily it was fairly short and traffic was light.
Just past the tunnel, I stopped at a pullout, within sight of the Sea Lion Caves entrance, to peer down the cliff to the rocks below and watch a big bunch of sea lions sunning on the rocks and swimming in the sea. I'd heard the racket nearly as soon as I'd exited the tunnel. While stopped, a Chinese couple talked to me, the husband evidently interested in bike touring, the wife calling my trip "heroic". I though that was overstating things a bit.
I rode past the Sea Lion Caves without stopping, since I'd been there before and hadn't been all that impressed.
Later in the day, stopped at Darlingtonia Wayside, to take a look at California Pitcher Plants, AKA Cobra Lilies, AKA Cobra Orchids, a type of carnivorous plant. There was a big group of them in the marsh off the viewing platform, and I had the idea it would be fun to make up some placards: something along the lines of a graphic of a hand holding a hot dog, one of the flowers with big teeth chomping down on a finger, and text saying something like "Warning: don't feed the plants".
Of course, these particular plants didn't really move, but lured insects into to chambers where they got confused. Unable to find the exit, they are eventually trapped by spiky hairs and digested.
Nearing Florence, I achieved the second of two milestones for the day. The first was passing onto the second half of the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route map I'd been using, which happened just past the tunnel. The second was reaching the 1 megameter (1000 km) point of the trip, which happened across from a garden center just before Florence.
Riding into Florence, the famous sand dunes were immediately apparent, towering behind a large supermarket just off 101. I spent some time in Florence, stopping at a giant RiteAid to replace my lost soap, my lost bandana, and picking up a nifty beard trimming device, which was sort of a comb with embedded razor blades, a manual version of those electric hair clippers, but much more compact.
Next I headed to the old town, exploring the couple of streets of shops, and having a late lunch at Mo's on the water: blackened halibut, clam chowder, and garlic mashed potatoes, all pretty good. I went across the street for ice cream, then sat on a bench checking email, before continuing south a bit to Honeyman State Park.
While paying the camp fee, another cyclist, David on a Bianchi Volpe, pulled up. We chatted a bit, but I wanted to get a bit settle so I could see a bit of the dunes before dark, so said I'd come find him later.
I walked out to the dunes, which stretched a couple of miles to the ocean, and trudged up the steep, sandy slope to the crest of the nearest one, then along it a ways to a scenic spot with a view of the ocean and nearby lake, staying there to watch the sun set and the nearly full moon rise, with a couple of dune buggies buzzing in the distance.
Moonrise over the dunes at Honeyman SP, near Florence
Then I headed back to camp and found David's site (given that the campground wasn't crowded, we'd been told we could stay in normal tent sites for the hiker/biker price), and we talked for a while. He was from Redmond, a Metro bus driver, just doing the coast from Astoria to Florence. He was catching a ride to Eugene the next day, to take the train back to Seattle.
After talking with him for awhile, I took a shower and headed to bed.
posted by Matt at 14:18
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