Cycle
Day 7
I woke up to Flurin jamming out on his concertina, which I didn’t know what it was, but to me, it resembled a miniature accordion. The concertina solo was followed up by a sing-along to the iconic “On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson. As funny and cheesy as it was, I was getting stoked to get on the road again!
After chatting with Flurin some more, I learned that when he was my age, he would bike around Europe playing music on the streets to earn money to fuel his adventures. This eventually led him to a career as a musician/comedian.
Tanner’s knee injury has officially stopped him from continuing, so he plans to rest in Portland for a couple weeks or until he heals. The rest of us hop on our bikes and head out at separate times throughout the morning. The day ahead was fairly chill, I had about 50 miles to bike, and I planned to take the loop around Cape Meares, but first I had to get into Tillamook.
After arriving in Tillamook, I stopped at a food truck and had a delicious burger. I chatted with one of the workers after I realized she was from the area I was born in Iowa. I couldn’t leave Tillamook without some ice cream so I grabbed a pint and set off to eat some of it down the road.
The undisputed ice cream champion of the world! I actually ate the ice cream on the side of the road with some of the dairy cows so that was a “full circle” experience.
After devouring the ice cream, I set off to see what the road conditions were like for the loop around Cape Meares. I wasn’t sure if I could bike it since there were some gnarly landslides in 2o13 that caused them to close the road to vehicles. Luckily, pedestrians and cyclists could still access the road so it really created a post-apocalyptic vibe. Roads had gnarly, giant cracks and splits, with trees laying all over.
I came across a sunken town called Bayocean which was founded in 1906 and was supposed to be a resort town. Not too long after, the ocean tides ate away at the land and by 1960 only 5 of the 59 homes had been moved in time before they were swallowed up by the sea.
The beaten and battered road eventually led me to the lighthouse at Cape Meares. I was impressed by the variety of birds that patrol this cape and it was fun to watch from above.
Afterward, I biked towards Cape Lookout State Park to set up camp, which turns out is right on the beach. Well kind of, you can’t camp on the beaches in Oregon, but I’m situated about 20 feet from it. I can’t wait to listen to the waves all night!
This seems like the best campground I have come across yet, we all had our own privacy in the hiker/biker campground. I enjoyed a nice relaxing walk along the beach, making my way down to a cape before turning back around. The stars tonight were incredible, I woke up in the middle of the night and stayed out for a bit to admire the sky.
Stats from today:
- 5o miles biked
- 1,500 vertical feet climbed
- 1 pint of Tillamook ice cream
- Too many stars in the night sky to count
Day 8
I decided to add day 8 in this article because not much happened, in fact, I didn’t hop on the bike. I decided to take a rest day and enjoy the beach, nap, read, and try to fix my bike pump. Unfortunately, my dad’s old bike pump has reached the end of its life and I need to get another one. I ordered one to be shipped to a Rite-Aid in Florence, so fingers crossed I make it there with no problems.
It rained on and off throughout the day, so I felt like I made a good choice to use a rest day today. It has been nice to step away from it and let the legs heal. Tomorrow, I set off for Lincoln City. 
Rest day yummies. Photo Credit: Luke Guilford
Stumbled on to your journey and am excited to keep up! Don’t stop with the daily writings, it’s well done and entertaining.
I’m also from Iowa – what city are you from? I was born in Cedar Rapids and early childhood in Grinnell.
Hi Andy, thanks for following my story, I’m stoked to hear you’re enjoying it! That’s great, I’m originally from Indianola, so it keeps me coming back to see family.
Cheers