Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Three Capes

7/22 Day 11 - Today started out a little slow. We woke up around 8, but didn't leave the campground until 10. Right off the bat we had a very large hill to climb - Cape Lookout. It took us an hour to go 3.4 miles up, but only 10 minutes to go 3.4 miles down. Getting to the top was rough. After that the terrain was mostly flat with a few hills. We knew we had two more hills (capes) to go up later though, so we didn't get too excited about the flatness.

We went through a lot more resort towns today and got some really great views of the ocean. The sun was shining most of the day too, which is always great for morale. We went through Pacific City (home to a large fleet of Dory boats... Idk?) around 12 and watched people drive their little Dory boats right up on the beach. It was weird. But all the people there seemed to think it was pretty cool. There was also a huge (maybe bigger than Sleeping Bear) sand dune that people were climbing that looked like torture. It was really pretty though.

We were going to stop for lunch eventually but never really found a good spot. We thought we were going to stop in a town right before the biggest hill of the day, but we never found a park or anything. So we pressed on without lunch. There was a route that takes you up this 750ft hill at much less steep grades, but we just wanted to get it over with so we stayed on 101. Surprisingly, it didn't take us that long to get to the top. It was definitely a walking hill, but we made it all the way pretty quickly. Once we reached the top it was only a few more miles to the next town, Lincoln City.

We passed the 45th parallel in Lincoln City, but somehow missed the sign for it. We were both pretty bummed about that because we crossed the 45th parallel on our Lake MI tour. Anyway, we found a place to make lunch finally at a park. We made couscous for the first time and it was delicious. :] after that we were on our way to Beverly Beach state park. We had one more big hill to tackle that we weren't looking forward to.

On our way to this hill we stopped a few times along 101 to check out the views of the ocean. We got to see some seals sun bathing at one place we stopped. They were cute. When we finally got to this hill we were happy to see that the route takes you on a much less traveled road at a much less steep grade. It also takes you closer to the ocean, which provided spectacular views of the cliffs and rocks in the bay below. The road is also one-way and has a designated "lane" for bikers. When we got to the top we spent some time taking pictures and ran into some Midwesterners for the first time. They thought that the hill we were on was soooo high. It was funny.

After that it was only a few miles to the campground. We did our usual routine when we got here, except neither of us showered. We were too tired. But we made dinner, then went and charged our phones for a while. After that we made hot chocolate and checked out the beach. Now it's time for bed! 60 miles tomorrow.

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