Day 2

Mileage: 32
From: Carl G. Washburne State Park
To: Mapleton, OR


The days are already blurring together. It feels like we’ve been doing this for a week already, but not in a bad way. Today was another sort of low mileage day. We got to a late start after sleeping 11.5 hours. We are on an incredibly weird schedule, but I guess it works. We ate lunch at 4:30. Hopefully we adjust to west coast time soon.

We rode through a tunnel with another bike button / flashing sign. Right when we got through it, we heard seal noises and got excited. Turns out that it was actually sea lions! By then I think we were at the top of the hill after climbing all morning, but I think the sea lions that followed were worth the climb.

First we saw the sea lions at a look-out point on a cliff. Then about ¼ mile farther was “the sea lion cave,” a very tourist-y but interesting stop. We took an elevator 200+ feet down to a cave where the sea lions hang out on the rocks. There were only about 15-20 sea lions today in there, but the cave itself was cool. Waves burst in and broke on the sea lions’ rock. Admission was $9, but it was worth seeing once. We also got smashed pennies, some tasty popcorn, and huckleberry cordials.

We rode (mostly downhill ☺) to Florence. We went to a Fred Myers, which is sort of like a Target or Walmart, but a little bit nicer. Lauren got some new underwear that’s not cotton, and we finally got fuel and groceries. We also picked up some local Tillamook yogurt, which we ate right away. Tillamook yogurt is amazing.

We were discussing seafood shacks, when a local gave us some advice and pointed us to Weber’s Fish Market. It was very good. We had a local dungeonous crab cocktail as an appetizer, and it was way better than any west coast crab I had ever had before. I had smoked salmon chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, Lauren had peel-and-eat shrimp, and Dad had squid that came in big fried sticks.

Riding from Florence to where we’re staying was sort of a comedy of errors. I was leading, and I thought it was Lauren behind me, but it turns out it was my dad. He was riding really close to me, and I kept hearing him coasting. So I’m thinking, “Ok, so Lauren wants to go faster.” I kept speeding up, until finally it got to a point where I couldn’t go much faster in my comfort zone, so I was like “Fine, let her pass me if she wants to go faster.” Awhile later, my hands were incredibly numb, so I asked, “Mind if we stop?”

I heard my dad, who I thought was in the back, say ok. So I stopped. Unfortunately, Lauren was the one in the back and didn’t get the message in time. So she ended up falling over into the guardrail because she didn’t have time to clip out (we’re still getting used to clipless pedals). Then I find out that I was working my dad too hard, so he was drafting me, and Lauren had actually fallen behind and was having trouble keeping up. We were going more than 20 mph loaded down with stuff, and there I was thinking they wanted to go faster…. Lesson one in drafting.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the falling. We got to this elementary school / pool in Mapleton where we’re staying, and we went up a steep hill with a fork at the top. I slowed to ask which way we should go, realized I was going too slowly for balance, and tried to clip out. My right foot made it, but my shoes have gotten so loose that I just pulled my foot right out of my left shoe without actually unclipping. I fell over, skinned my left knee pretty badly, and my bike landed on me with the shoe still attached to the pedal. Stupid men’s shoes.

Falling on these bikes is weird, because it happens so slowly, but doesn’t take long to tilt past the point of no return. They’re difficult to handle when being still or going slow.

The place we’re staying tonight was listed on the map, but it’s just a weird field behind a pool/playground. We used a little bathroom before a maintenance lady locked it, and we tried to wash our jerseys in the sink because they’re starting to smell. After another late lunch, we ate E.L. Fudge and hot chocolate for dinner.


Nice view of the coast with a light house in the distance


Sea lions chilling out on some rocks below the cliffs (man, are they loud!)


Outside the sea lion cave


Inside the sea lion cave


More coast

There are really so many nice pictures of the coast, so if you want to see some more, click on one of these pictures to follow the link to my album. You can flip through all of the pictures that I took there!