Whale of a Time

This stretch of traveling has been top notch. Way back in the headwind-days of Eastern Montana we dreamed of craggy, coastal spits of land and the blue Pacific stretching for miles into the horizon. Now we finally have it.

Yesterday morning we did our first stretch of riding into Tillamook. Yep, that's right. The cheese Tillamook. We passed by a massive creamery on the outskirts of town before getting down to business. 1st stop: Camping store. My Dad bought a new orange dry sack for keeping his sleeping bag rain-free. (More reliable and long-lasting than the previous black trash bag.) We also bought some tent seam sealant. I loaned my Dad my old 2-person tent and it is less than 100 percent waterproof. Does that make it a favor or a slight? Hopefully we'll remedy that soon.

We've had several challenging climbs the last two days, thankfully none of them rising higher than 800 feet. Just as we were reaching the summit of one yesterday, a couple of touring cyclists caught up to us. They were in their 60's and rode bikes with electric motors. The outrage!

At one of our breaks we stopped at a fish hatchery. They had a small pond stocked with trout and a dispenser for tiny food pellets for the fish. We gathered up some fish food and tossed them to our new friends the trout. They were enormous! At least two feet long, and thick. Once the pellets hit the water it would only be a second or two before one of the many competing trout would surge to the surface for their snack. Swift and powerful.

We made our home last evening at a county campground in a place called Pacific City. The place was festooned with wild rabbits. They were incredibly docile and seemed totally unbothered by humans. Some were entirely black and others a mix of white and dark. A pair of deer behaved much the same way. When I returned to the site from brushing my teeth at the end of the evening the two were sniffing around my bike and I got as close as 8 or 10 feet away before they finally sauntered off.

Once we got to a small town called Depoe Bay the wildlife viewing continued. Here it was whales. A boardwalk runs right along the highway and looks out to the bay opposite the town. Lots of people gathered to see bursts of air shoot up from their blowholes or a tail break the surface of the water or several moving together. You had to watch closely as they spent lots of time underwater but we saw at least 3 or 4. That was fun. The rain has been sporadic. At times we've gotten soggy but nothing too bad.

We closed the day's riding pedaling past coves with caves and inlets where the water surged in and out among rocky formations and a few solitary trees clung to the thin bits of soil keeping them upright. After six days of riding it's time for a rest day. I'm typing from the Rodeway Inn in Newport, Oregon where we'll take tomorrow off. The luxury of a motel was definitely a motivator in propelling us for today's 50 miles. For dinner we walked about 30 feet to a Chinese restaurant just next door and Rach was the only one to clear her plate. Does that mean she won or lost? (My Dad and I have leftovers.)

Thanks for reading.

Breakfast planning meeting

Cheese town

The sun!

Lots of up

Sorry trees

Good lookout

The sand dunes

Breakfast in the rain, taking shelter

Mister Floppity-Hoppity

There were loads

Sunken Simon

Too cold to get in the water

Fish

Beyond Lincoln City

Whale watching