27.2 mi / 9.6 mph / 1817 ft. climbing
Home: Harris Beach State Park hiker/biker campsite

Another short-ish day (but with big climbing) let us stay until checkout at the motel, which allowed Rett to take more advantage of the WiFi and have a video call with her sister.

Once out, we had yet more of the primeval southern Oregon coast, with such ill-defined separation between sea and stone, that the two freely mix with no regard for conventional boundaries. And with mild tailwinds, we could enjoy that lack of boundaries more than the previous day.

This, at the end of Oregon, was definitely a part of the coast that Joel and I hadn’t seen on our ride, and even with a second time through, there is still surely a world of sights we missed.

Our early arrival (yet already full for everyone but hiker/bikers) at Harris Beach State Park allowed us to take a walk down to explore the beach, which followed the same boundary-less layout we’d seen all day, but it was made even more baffling by the fact that it, and the park, sat essentially within the town of Brookings. I tried to imagine what it be like if the the Chicago lakefront was structured in this way, and determined that it would cause far too many accidents on Lake Shore Drive to be allowed to remain intact.

Back in the hiker/biker area, we met Laurent from Montreal, who had ridden from west to east across Canada over the summer, and, realizing he had a month and a half left before he needed to return to work, decided, what the heck, I’ll ride from Seattle to San Diego too.

The surprising thing is that we were the first cyclists he’d seen in camp since leaving Seattle (whereas we’d seen an average of 2-3 per night). Perhaps a sign that he is the rear-guard for this southward-traveling caravan? And now with him passing us, leaving us as the rear-guard? Yikes.

Anyway, I decided to buy some firewood, partly to keep us warm on the cold night, but partly to help make community. The three of us had great fun around the flames, sharing stories, good advice, and me feeling bad for all the knowledge of US politics that takes up useful space in many Canadians’ minds.