67.7 miles, 3461 ft ascent, 6:02 saddle time
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| View of the Pacific from Lookout Point |
Breakfast today was “Continental” at the Best Western. Not far out of Dallas we turned west on Rt 22. It was a two lane highway with wide shoulders, but there was debris all over the shoulders and the cars/trucks were going about 70 mph. The debris was mostly gravel, pieces of bark from logging trucks, and the remains of blown-apart truck tire retreads. The pieces of tire tread have in them the remains of the wire that comprises the steel belts. That wire is extremely stiff and can easily puncture bicycle tires. So dodging bits of tire, gravel and bark while loud trucks are zooming by was exhausting. After doing that for 13 miles the highway merged with highway 18 at Valley Junction. The was definitely NOT an interchange designed with bicycles in mind. High speed traffic was coming from all directions on exit and entrance ramps. After making a wrong turn I found my way back to the route, which went off on a side road, which was a great relief…for 2 miles, at which point it merged with highway 22/18 again. Thankfully highway 18 split off from 22 in another 2 miles, so I was on 22 again. I was hoping all the trucks would stay on 18, and many did, but not all of them. 22 became a winding “country” road with narrow shoulders for the next 13 miles. I usually try to ride as close to the white line as I safely can as a courtesy to the drivers. However, after a large truck pulling two trailers of hay made a close pass, I was no longer feeling courteous. I rode about 3 ft out in the lane to force them to move over. Then if I saw or sensed a close pass, I could move to the line as they were passing. That strategy worked well multiple times on this trip. It seems that if a bike is close to the line, some drivers will try to squeeze by without crossing the center line. Moving over forces then to slow down and wait if there is oncoming traffic. Brian had a very close pass on the same section of road when I truck with a long trailer moved back over too quickly.
Needless to say, I did not take photos on this part of the ride. When the route turned off highway 22 onto 130 I was very relieved. There was much less traffic and almost no trucks on 130. On this side of the Cascades the forests are lush and thick with both evergreen and deciduous trees, and abundant shrubs covering the ground. The roadsides have a variety of flowers that grow wild. What a difference from the other side of the mountains.
One downside of roads with no trucks is that the grades can be STEEP. There were some short sections of 10 - 12%. I felt like I was in the Ozarks again!
The terrain is open fields with rolling hills, whic is much like home. This part of Oregon has a lot of agriculture. Today I saw orchards of cherry trees and Christmas tree farms.
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| Christmas tree farm amid rolling hills |
My cousin Peter and his partner Jerry, who live in Portland, drove to Pacific City to meet Brian and I for lunch. It was great to see both of them again and we had a delightful lunch with lots of good conversation.
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| Peter and I |
Pacific City is right on the beach, but when I arrived there was a thick fog that obscured everything. Towards the end of lunch the fog cleared and the sudden realization hit me that this is the Pacific Ocean, that I really did it!
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| The Pacific Ocean! |
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