Oregon - Another day of climbing at the coast

Yachats, eh?

We asked the ranger we met in the forestry office in Waldport, how to pronounce the name of the village 15 miles to the south. He laughed. He'd had this question many times before. He said people in Waldport jokingly call it "Yatch-hats", but the proper pronunciation is actually "Ya Hots" (baby!).

We had descended into "Ya Hots" a couple of days before and found a quaint coastal tourist village, complete with bakeries, cafés, restaurants and motels. We had originally aimed for Waldport, in part because the Epic Route started from there, but also when looking on-line for lodging, I only found results in Waldport. Despite my claim that we try to tour without plans and reservations, I was a bit nervous when I only found a few potential places to stay, so I booked a cottage I had found online in Waldport.

Sadly, Waldport was just not as charming as Yachats appeared. And it was surprisingly lacking in good eateries. Pizza and burritos were good to fill the void, but where was the seafood?

So now armed with the knowledge that there indeed was plenty of lodging in Yachats, we packed up and headed south to "Ya Hots". We found a beachside motel and left our gear at the office, since we were still rather early to check-in.

We next stopped at the Green Salmon, where we found a vast selection of coffee drinks and breakfast delights. I recall having something like a Clockwork Orange Coffee and a spicy breakfast sandwich. After the substantial breakfast, we headed over to the grocery to buy lunch supplies. This also allowed for some additional digestion time, which would prove prudent very soon.

After closely examining the forestry maps, I had plotted a short jaunt up into the hills just south of town, with plans to take in Ten Mile Creek Road up to Cummins Peak. I was a little worried that the lads would be disappointed by lack of gravel, as the forestry maps showed this route as almost all paved.

We enjoyed a favorable wind as we rolled south along the coast road, passing a group of loaded cyclists as we climbed up to the Cape Perpetua lay-by on a cliff about 800 feet above the sea. Here we snapped a few photos of the waves dramatically crashing into the Devil's Churn and the Spouting Horn. 

Soon after this photo stop, we left the buzz and traffic of the coast road as we pedaled inland and up into the hills. I was a bit surprised, but definitely not disappointed, when fairly early on the road turned to gravel, despite the forestry map definitely showing it as paved. 

The gradient climbed at a faster rate than we did, quickly rising into the teens. By the time we stopped for lunch, at what seemed to be the top, we felt we had earned our lunch. 

Looking at the hill we still had to climb.

Thanks to the predictive profile on the GPS, we weren't fooled though. We were well aware that we had half again as much climbing still to do.  

We found some arrows still visible as we overlapped part of the Epic route briefly.

The ridge on Cummins Peak Road provided some lovely views of the ocean out in the distance, and John took advantage of Dave's accommodating nature to get a few photos of us.

The descent back to the coast was sublime, mostly paved, but with a few short sections of gravel thrown in to keep us on our toes. 

After getting a few questions about the various bags we used on this trip, we found some better photos...

The small frame bag on the front is a stock frame bag from Oveja Negra. The Revelate Gas Tank is the small bag under the stoker handlebars. It was good for snacks, and things I might want quick access to like my camera. John kept his camera and wallet and snacks in the Dill Pickle handlebar bag on the front. 

The frame bags all attached with velcro. We used our S&S padding on the top tubes and boom tube to protect the paint - remember the bike was only a few days old at this point.

The large orange frame bag was made to our specifications by Oveja Negra. As mentioned in the previous post, we are planning to order a Rev 2 bag. We will eliminate the gaps left for water bottles and simply put a camelbak type bladder into the bag. This will give us more volume in the bag, plus more attachment points.

We will absolutely keep that top tube hand hold. John made use of it many times.

We will keep the two compartments, but make the top one taller, and the bottom one narrower.

When we stuffed the lower compartment, the belt would rub the bag. By making the lower compartment narrower in Rev 2, we'll eliminate this issue. We'll adjust the heights, so the lower compartment comes to just above the belt.

David was using the very visible bright orange Oveja Negra seatbag. It mounts simply, but is rock solid in use. The mesh bag on top is designed for something like a spot tracker, but is also handy for keeping tools that we wanted to have quick access to.

We used a large Revelate Viscacha seat bag. I managed to get most of my gear into this one bag! It also mounts simply and is quite stable. It has a removable mesh bag, that we used for tools.