Tailwinds and Thor's Well

7/23 Day 12 - There was a lot we wanted to see on this particular day so when we got up we got out of there quickly. We packed up everything and ate breakfast while packing. The bathrooms were on our way out so we brought our bikes down with all our gear. We left the campground around 9:30.

The terrain was relatively flat and for the first time we had a strong tailwind. We made it 30 miles by lunchtime so we stopped in Yachats for lunch. We ate at a place called the Drift Inn that had a cool history. It was a bar that opened in 1929 that got shut down due to prohibition. But the guy turned it into an ice cream parlor downstairs and a bar with boxing upstairs. After prohibition it turned into a bar and grill where people of all sorts hung out. Eventually the guy died and the place got new owners. But they tried to keep it looking like it did originally. It was cool.

After that we went to Cape Perpetua. It was only a few miles down the road and we had heard that the coast was really cool there. Over the years the ocean has carved out caves and inlets of rock that create really awesome waves and spouting horns (these are holes that get carved out of the rock that shoot water out of them like a geyser). We stopped at the park there and watched the waves crash against the rocks for a long time. Then we headed over to a spout called Thor's Well. It is a small hole that occasionally shoots water out, but when it does it's really cool. There was also another hole there that was about 10ft in diameter. It didn't shoot water as spectacularly as Thor's, but it did look like a toilet, which was entertaining.

After that we wanted to visit these sea lion caves that we'd heard a lot about. We biked up there and went in, but I overheard someone saying that the elevator down to the cave was broken. So all you could do was go out to this deck where you may or may not see some sea lions. We decided it wasn't worth $12. They did have a "cave cam" that showed a live feed of the sea lions. It was good enough for us.

We left there and headed to the campground. We stopped for groceries first though. Somewhere along our ride (I think it was right before the spouts) we were passed by Frank (Of the Frank and Josh duo). We assumed that they were far ahead of us by that point but they obviously weren't. We bet that we would see them at the campground.

When we pulled up to the hiker/biker site the first bikes we see are Frank and Josh's. Weird. We set up and ate dinner. As soon as they got back from whatever they were doing we made them tell us why they were still where we were. Josh apparently had a flat tire and busted a spoke. They had to take a few days off for repairs etc. it was nice to see them again. Frank made an awesome fire that we hung out by until pretty late. We didn't have s'mores which was a bummer but it was good catching up with them and hearing other people's stories too.

The end of another great day! :]