ETA the following: Having just read the blog of a cyclist I met on the tour, I thought I'd borrow a quote from his writings...

Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.

-Louis L'Amour


As was the case in a thread I shared last year, I could have posted this on the Health and Fitness board, but believe in my heart that this was much more about family time spent camping in the outdoors, and as such felt it more appropriate to share it with the OB.

After a year of returning to ‘cycling shape’, I just completed an 8 day bicycle camping tour of the Oregon Coast. The riding group included my two daughters and the boyfriend of the oldest.

The trip began in Astoria, the northernmost city on Highway 101. Here is the group, ready to launch into the adventure. Just out of the Navy, my older daughter showed support for her sister’s and my alma mater by sporting Texas A&M clothing for the duration of the trek.



Daily rides ranging from about 40 to 60 miles put us in Oregon State Parks each afternoon. Oregon has made a huge effort to promote hiking and biking within the state. With over 20 state parks dotted along the 360 mile coast, just about any outdoorsman could find a place to stay for just five bucks per night, a price that included a clean campsite and a nice hot shower.

The bulk of the ride was along highway 101, with about a third of it utilizing routes that took the cyclist even closer to the coast. If you have never been to the Oregon Coast, you are missing the product of a combination of lush green mountains and the Pacific Ocean.



While the ride along highway 101 included quite a bit more automobile traffic than I expected, the side roads provided a quiet experience for the group. I found the Oregon motorists to be quite tolerant of the touring cyclists and the roads to be of high quality asphalt and well maintained. Following is a photo of one of the side roads that we traveled with little intervention from auto traffic.



We had to pass through a couple of tunnels along the way. Before we entered them we would activate a set of warning lights to notify motorists of our presence inside. We turned on our flashing head and tail lights right after we punched the warning button and then proceeded through the tunnel. I’m not gonna lie, it was loud and somewhat spooky inside when a car approached from either direction.



The first campsite was at Nehalem Bay State Park. An early morning hike on the following day revealed an empty beach on the Pacific. Having been raised on the South Texas Gulf Coast, the combination of mountains and sand was not familiar to me. It was, however, very welcome.



Closer to the water I came across the following sea critter. I guessed it was some type of shrimp, and saw a few of them emerging from burrows in the wet sand. Any of you know what this creature is called? The length of the body was only about half an inch.



On the road that day, we stopped by the Tillamook cheese factory for some fresh ice cream and a self-guided tour of the production area. Before we left, my daughter spotted an Aggie ring on another tourist. We stopped and talked to him for a while, sharing stories about our travels.



The end of day 2 landed us at Cape Lookout State Park. A pair of MSR Superfly stoves served well in the preparation of the night’s meal. We put together a nice dinner of spaghetti, meat sauce, and warm bread.





The beach did not disappoint us the following morning… a classic clash of morning fog, mountains, and the Pacific Ocean.



A short way down the road, and a backward look at the beach we had just visited. I just couldn’t get over how green everything was.



Another day’s ride and another campsite… this one at Devil’s Lake State Park. Along the route, we ran into some of the same riders at the various campsites. Our crew, deemed Team Texas by one of the other groups, quickly became known as the group with the best cooking. This evening brought one of our tastiest meals: fried pork chops, mashed potatoes with garlic butter and chives, sauteed zucchini, and fresh bread toasted in olive oil.





Eventually, one day melted into the other. It became hard for me to remember which park I’d been at in the morning and which park I was headed for in the afternoon. The time spent cycling and camping with my daughters was priceless. The people we met along the way were some of the friendliest I could have ever asked for. Great bonds formed quickly in the few days together with the accompanying cyclists. We stayed at some beautiful state parks… Carl C. Washburne Memorial, Umpqua Lighthouse, Bullard’s Beach, Humbug Mountain, and finally at Harris Beach just outside of Brookings on the southern border of Oregon with California.

At Humbug Mountain, around mile marker number 300, most of the riders were nearing the end of their tours. One couple was trailering a 4 month old and a 2 year old. Another was on their honeymoon. There was also a father/son combination and a couple of solo riders. All of them were great people.

I cooked some stewed chicken, andouille sausage, and potatoes, seasoned with cilantro and lime and shared it with about half of the campsite. We followed this with a couple of hours around the campfire swapping stories and making s’mores. It was quite an evening to remember.





Such a beautiful place to visit… I’m considering relocating there in my retirement. I don’t think the summer weather could have been any better. We awoke each morning to 50 degF temperatures, and even when it got ‘hot’ it was only 75. What a far cry from the 115 degF heat index I returned to at work last week!

The pictures that follow are just a few more of the places we stopped along the way. I could go on forever, but I’ll just share some of my favorites with you.

Alsea Bay Bridge, Waldport, Oregon


A typical campsite, clean and nestled in the tall trees


Carl C. Washburne Memorial SP was a real treat.









The Suislaw River Bridge in Florence, Oregon


Cape Arago

 
The Coquille River Lighthouse at Bandon Beach


Bandon Beach, Oregon


Harris Beach






If you should ever get a chance to tour the Northwest Coast, I recommend that you don’t pass it up. If you ever think about cycling it, feel free to ask questions. I will share any and all experience I’ve had regarding this trip… from getting in shape to selecting your gear to deciding on your route.


[This message has been edited by HuntingGMan (edited 8/5/2012 2:19a).]

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Awesome! Did you ship the bikes? Where did you fly into/out of?

I plan to go to OR soon.

Great Writeup, Gman. You sir, are doing it right!

I am flying up to Portland tonight. I've pretty much got one day to look around. Initially, I was planning on Mt. ST. Helens, but now the coast is looking awefully interesting.

Looks like you had an amazing trip.

I lived in eugene for 1.5 years. the summers up there are amazing, but the winters with all the rain can be pretty long. It doesn't rain like it does here it is just a constant drizzle.

Beautiful pics and sounds like a great time.

Fantastic post.

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Did you ship the bikes? Where did you fly into/out of?

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I picked up a couple of bike boxes from the local bike shop and boxed up two of the bikes for ground freight. My older daughter had recently moved to Oregon, so I just shipped them to her. She loaded up their two assembled bikes and my two boxed bikes and picked us up in Portland.

From there it was a short drive (by Texas standards) to Astoria. The Astoria Chamber of Commerce allowed us to leave our truck in their parking lot for the duration of the trip.

Getting back to Astoria was a little more tricky (and more expensive than I had planned). I had been led to believe that there were buses that ran up and down the coast daily that could carry a loaded bike (or bikes) without issue. This was not really the case.

We had to rent a U-Haul to carry the bikes back to the north and two of the crew had to hop a Greyhound bus to meet us in Portland. A rental car was then used to go get the truck from Astoria. It is possible that some improved forward planning might have made the return leg easier, but this was the best we could do on short notice.

We stayed at a friend's house in Portland, boxed up the two bikes for shipment back to Texas, and caught an early flight out the next morning.

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the summers up there are amazing, but the winters with all the rain can be pretty long.

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This is one thing that worries me a little. I am just getting tired of brown grass on the lawn and triple digit heat in my old age.

My older daughter just spent a couple of years in Washington before moving to Oregon. I can only say that she liked it so much up there, she decided to stay.

The hunting and fishing up there is really good. I had some really good winter days fishing for steelhead.

I was hard for me to adjust to the rain all freaking winter, but the skiing in the winter was really good.

Bend is a great place I think. Gets pretty cold, but not as much rain.

Bandon is one of my favorite places in the world. Go there during the winter if you have time and get one of those condos that directly faces the ocean. It is a blast watching these winter storms come in!

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Bend is a great place I think.

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I have heard good things about Bend as well. Lots of choices, and still a few years to think about them.

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Bandon is one of my favorite places in the world.

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Funny you should mention this. Bandon is the exact location that I told my daughter was the nicest community we passed through on the coast. Watching a storm come in from the comfort of a cozy home on the coast... that is something I could put up with.

Beautiful pictures! We're making our annual pilgrimage to the coast next month for crabbing, clam digging and camping. The Oregon coast is really special. Bend is a great town and would be a fine place to live. Too many people for me, though.

G Man, What kind of training routine do you use to get into good cycling shape? I've been bike riding for exercise this summer and was just getting ready to ask if anyone on here was doing the same.

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What kind of training routine do you use to get into good cycling shape?

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Marcel, first of all, I was hoping to hear from you as a part of this thread. I remembered you telling me that every once in a while a cyclist would get hit on this stretch of highway. Fortunately for us, it was smooth sailing. But the thought was always on my mind and I had to emphasize to our group of riders the importance of keeping out of the 'danger zone' even when it seemed like we were the only people for miles.

In response to the question, I have to preface the answer with the following disclaimer. 'Getting in good cycling shape' means different things to different people. For my purposes, it meant only that I would be able to use the low gearing on my bike to get over any mountain grade that I might encounter, and never have to get off the bike and push it. It didn't bother me to be going up a hill at 4.5 mph, even if the hill was going to last for two or three miles. It was not important for me to be able to climb the same hill at 10 or 12 mph in a higher gear if I had to put that much power to the pedals.

With all that being said, there were only a couple of climbs that required that I go into my lowest gear. And I never once had to push my bike up a hill. The steepest grades we encountered, I believe, were in the 6 to 7% range.

To get myself prepared for all of this, my routine was simple. Ride, ride, ride. I live in the flattest of flat terrain. In the thirty miles that I drive from home to work, the elevation changes only 40 feet. The biggest hills we have are those that are on overpasses at the freeway. So practicing climbs was not really an option.

In the beginning, I would try to ride 10-15 miles, two or three times per week. I would choose a gear that would allow me to spin the pedals at about 85-90 rpm, no matter if I were going with the wind or against it. I hardly ever went more than 16 or 18 mph, mostly averaging about 12 mph on most of my rides. As a touring cyclist, speed is of little value to me (except when coasting for free on a steep downhill grade!).

As time progressed, on the weekends, I would extend the range of the rides to 20-40 miles. Sometimes I would do 20 miles in the morning and then another 20 miles in the evening. Eventually, I would take rides on the weekend that would cover 30-35 miles each, two days in a row. During the final month of preparation, I added a little over 20 pounds of gear to the bike so that I could get used to the extra weight and the changes in handling of the bicycle with all the gear loaded up.

Over the course of the eleven months prior to this trip, I logged right at 2000 miles. This was done in the climate of South Texas... hot and windy. I reasoned that training in wind and heat would allow for a few additional miles through the grades of the mountains as long as the temperature kept in the 60's or low 70's. I was happy with my performance on the tour. I had no problem with a 62 mile day on our way to the Carl C. Washburne Memorial SP. We averaged 11.0 mph on the bikes that day.

I wish you the best in your efforts.

G-man that is inspiring! I want to do this!!

Did you get help thru a third party planning the route or something online you could direct me to?

Marcel, as far as training goes, what area do you live in? Any hills? One way to accelerate training (esp if you are going to elevation) is intervals on hills (plus longer conditioning rides).

I live in Dallas and believe it or not we have two or three spots where we can do hill intervals. And it doesn't have to be a huge hill.

I'd say (for me) the biggest preparation for getting into long rides is just time in the saddle; getting the body (the butt especially) used to it. We do the MS150, some metric centuries, and one or two rides out 95 miles (in one day). I personally don't focus much on speed, more cadence and heart rate.

When I first got into riding, the thing that surprised me the most was how much your neck hurts early on. Noggins are heavy to hold up on long rides.

Agree with the above 2 regarding training. We've done 9 MS150s, one other 2 day 150 mile ride (Galveston - heaven - no hills!) and RAGBRAI (450 miles in a week across Iowa) once.

Time in the saddle plus finding terrain similar to what you will be riding are the most important. Also weather conditioning if you will be riding in the heat. I don't worry about speed either (remarkable to find 3 people in a row unconcerned about speed!).

To train for RAGBRAI I rode 4-5x/week 45 miles/ride in the hill country. 900 total miles in ~8 weeks and I was ready. Biggest thing is the time it takes; luckily I only work part time and am able to train those hours. My husband trained for RAGBRAI almost exclusively on the weekends, same route, and felt relatively well prepared - he did try to get out for shorter rides after work too. Back to back rides are imperative IMO to prepare for multiple days in the saddle.

awesome

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Did you get help thru a third party planning the route or something online you could direct me to?

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Texrover, there are some third party groups that arrange all the logistics of the trip for you. We saw one group of about 20 riders at a campsite one time. They were a part of an organized tour. It looked like they had reservations at pre-determined campgrounds and some type of community cooking arrangements. I have heard of other groups that will trailer all of your camping gear (tent and sleeping gear) from one site to the next. They will provide lunches along the way, make sure that you don't run out of water, and provide you a hot meal in the evening. On these rides, about the only thing you carry on your bike is water and some identification.

The route we chose was essentially that route known as the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route. As you can see, we were completely self-supplied. We would cook breakfast each morning, stop for lunch at a local cafe along the route, and pick up food for dinner at the last town before our daily destination. Each rider's gear totaled about 25 to 28 pounds, I'd estimate.

If you choose the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route, there will be a steady stream of cyclists on that route each day if you chose to ride it in the summer months. By steady stream, I mean that if you sat on the side of the road someplace, over the course of the day you would probably see 10-20 groups of cyclists (1 to 4 cyclists per group) pass you by. If you go solo, you will likely end up meeting riders along the way and begin to travel with them. Our group of four picked up a solo rider near the end of the trip. We met up several evenings with others that we saw at previous campgrounds.

I used literature from the following site to plan about 90% of our route. The other 10% was the result of conversations with fellow cyclists along the way and one missed turn that cost us about 10 miles of riding off the established route.

http://cms.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/BIKEPED/docs/oregon_coast_bike_route_map.pdf?ga=t

This website discusses weather trends and auto traffic trends. It also marks locations of camping opportunities and whether or not the facilities include a hot shower. It cites other possible literature if you are interested.

Good luck. Let me know if you get serious about doing the route. I'll help you in any way I can.

So cool. I ride a lot up in Dallas, but I've never done any touring even though I've wanted to. This might or something like it might be my big trip next year.

I've been to Seattle a couple times and Eugene, OR once, neither for very long. It'd be great to spend some real time up there. Maybe a brewery tour...

I guess I'm doing it right then! I started out around 10 miles a day and worked up to almost 17 on flat ground. Last week I rode 25 miles for the first time. There's a wonderfully grueling hill on the edge of town that is excellent for getting used to long slow climbs. I'm starting to get sore knees after these longer rides, especially after riding that long hill. I didn't expect that. It also took a long time to get over being saddle sore, and long rides still get uncomfortable. I need to toughen up.


Just a few miles from my house I have the national forest with unlimited miles of logging roads to ride. I'm really enjoying the exercise. Once the snow flies, I'll begin cross country skiing!

Riding the Oregon coast looks like a great ride, but I just can't get over how narrow that highway gets when you get log trucks and motor homes and cyclists all trying to share the same road.

Bend is a great place to ride. I spent a month there this summer and did a lot of riding outside of town.

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I'm starting to get sore knees after these longer rides, especially after riding that long hill. I didn't expect that. It also took a long time to get over being saddle sore, and long rides still get uncomfortable. I need to toughen up.

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It might be just getting used to it, but it could also be a fit issue with the bike. You could try going to a local bike shop and describing the issue, and they can get you on a trainer stand with the bike and make some adjustments. Might cost a few bucks, but it's always been worth it to me.

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I'm starting to get sore knees after these longer rides

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The pain that several riders on the trail expressed to me was one at the very top of the kneecap, not one deep inside the joint.

I'll partially agree with Scriffer on this one. There is a good chance that slight adjustments in the seat elevation might offer some relief to the knees on the longer rides.

Another possibility is that your leg muscles just are not yet strong enough to last the extra miles. As they grow tired near the end of the ride, the support they offer to your knees is reduced, and the joint begins to feel stresses and strains in ways that it did not at the start of the ride. With conditioning, this pain should go away.

I try to minimize knee aches by tending to ride in a lower gear throughout the ride, not just when I am climbing or going against the wind. The result is,of course, slower speed and, seemingly contradictory, more revolutions of the crank per mile traveled. But the counterbalance is that each revolution requires less pressure on the knees. Keeping your power output lower may tend to improve your stamina, albeit at a lower road speed.

While I was on the trip, I further reduced the probability of swollen joints and aching muscles by ingesting a daily dosage of ibuprofen (I actually make the stuff for a living). The IBU offered relief for the muscles the first couple of nights, and after that my body built up strength on its own (the human body really amazes me!). After about 4 days on the road, the need for IBU had disappeared for me. I also began to adopt a different strategy for attacking long hills, a strategy that included the resignation that I just wasn't twenty-something years old any more! Also, with age comes the realization that I am not really in any hurry to get to the top of the hill. I've got all day to get where I am going.

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It also took a long time to get over being saddle sore

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There are only two ways to get over this. Buying a new seat MAY help, but in my experience, putting butt-time in the saddle will eventually build the support muscles to make the hurt go away.

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I just can't get over how narrow that highway gets when you get log trucks and motor homes and cyclists all trying to share the same road

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This is what I remember you warning me about last year. I went into the trip being a little worried about this. I had a friend of a friend -- the owner of a big RV -- warn me about this as well.

While we were on the marked route in Oregon, I never experienced any issue with this. The official Oregon Coast Bicycle Route diverts cyclist from Highway 101 where the traffic gets more congested on certain narrow sections of road and where these incidents have higher potential for occurring.

We passed by a few lumber mills along the way and we were passed by a few logging trucks. The stretches of road we traveled never put us in what I would have called 'a bad spot'. I was a little more worried when we rode across bridges because there was less 'wiggle room' for the motorists if they wanted to pass us. But traffic was usually light enough, even in the highest traffic period of the summer, that most motorists just waited for the right time to pass.

I have kept in touch with a rider we met in Oregon as he continued his tour all the way to San Francisco. He said that once he got into California, all the rules seemed to change. The roads were narrower, the logging trucks were more plentiful, and the drivers were less bike-friendly.

While we were on the road, a cyclist was hit by a car just a few miles in front of us. As we passed the scene, we saw law enforcement vehicles, a banged up auto, and a fairly mangled up bike. The rider was a gentleman that some of the other groups had met, and it hit the 'community' quite hard to hear of his incident. His injuries were not life-threatening but were certainly severe. However, the accident had nothing to do with there not being enough room on the road for two vehicles and a bike. It was simply a case of an elderly driver losing concentration, drifting off the road, and colliding with the cyclist.

There is no doubt that there is an element of danger involved in undertaking the trip, but I did not consider it significant enough to stop me from going. Heck, guys fall out of tree stands every hunting season and meet with tragedy upon impact with the ground. But I don't let this stop me from hunting each year.

Of course, that is my perspective. And I respect that yours may be different.

FANTASTIC!

some of those places looked very familiar. I rode up the west coast in '04 as part of a longer trip! didn't have problems with motorist in CA at all. We had more issues in Texas, NM, and AZ.

[This message has been edited by AggieOO (edited 8/5/2012 5:51p).]

and i think you should cross-post on h&f.

At the top of knee cap is where I'm feeling it. It never showed up until I started that monster hill a few times, and then on this last 25 mile ride. I was wondering if it wasn't a seat height adjustment question. A new seat and bike shorts really helped. I think just more time riding is all it's going to take.

I've gotten over more of my fear of getting on the road in heavier traffic. Riding in Bend this summer where folks are more aware of cyclists helped. Plus a fluorescent yellow shirt helps. I live in an isolated rural farm/ranch town where people aren't used to cyclists, so I'm extra careful. Most of the bike wrecks I hear about on the news are out of Portland.

What's the advantage of the shoes that lock into the pedals? It looks like it takes a bit of time getting used to.

That pain is probably just you getting used to it. I deal with a little tendinitis in that area from using bigger gears, but it's not bad.

Clip in pedals are way better than platforms or toe cages because they make you much more efficient pedaling. You can both push down / pull up on the pedal, and being more "connected" to the bike actually makes you more secure because you have better control.

You can buy some Shimano pedals that are technically mountain bike pedals, but you can get shoes that are easier to walk around in than "roadie" shoes. I think that'd be pretty useful for touring. I think the model line is M520 or something along those lines. A bike shop or REI can help you there.

And the clip in pedals do take some getting used to, but it's an easy learning curve. Just know that at some point you WILL forget to unclip at a stop, and when you fall people WILL stop and laugh. It's happened to everyone.

Cool trip with great photos. I did a similar trip about twenty years ago.

I purchased some Shimano PD-M324 pedals. Like Scriffer suggested, these are technically mountain bike pedals. They offer the ability to use one side of them for 'clip shoes' and the other side of them if you are just wearing tennis shoes or whatever. This is what they look like...



The shoes that can be used with these pedals are easy to walk around in, and for the most part look like tennis shoes. On our shakedown cruise of 5 days in Texas, these were the only shoes I took, and I did just fine. Here is what mine look like.



And, yes, you will fall over at least one time. It will probably take you two or three days to get used to clipping in and out. Humiliation will serve to speed your learning curve. Just be sure to start unclipping about a hundred feet before you think you need to.

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[This message has been edited by HuntingGMan (edited 8/5/2012 6:56p).]

When I was struggling up the 5 mile hill outside of town, I began to wonder if clip on pedal shoes wouldn't help the peddling by being able to pull up w/ my feet. They're now on the get list.
I've been thinking of making a short ride to Bend just to see what a two or three day trip would be like.

Now that y'all have done the coast highway, y'all are ready to tackle the Cascades from Bend to Albany or Corvallis.

There is no doubt that I was not ready for this trip 12 months ago. I was already in fair shape, but nothing like when I was 20 years old when I took a south/north trip through the Rockies, Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier. Thirty years changes a lot of things.

Now, having time is the true barrier. Having whipped myself back into better condition, I'd like to maintain it for the 4 years between now and when I qualify for a full pension retirement. When that day comes, I hope that the time barrier will be removed. Perhaps then, I can relocate to the great northwest.