Oregon - Eugene

Know your Source!

One of the disadvantages of travelling without firm plans and reservations is that you may find that the place you'd really like to stay has no vacancy. For our time in Eugene, we had hoped to stay at Velo B&B for 3 nights while we explored the surrounding area. However, when I called for reservations, while they had a room free for the first and third nights, they were fully booked for the second night. Despite that, the lads couldn't resist the allure of staying on Bailey Hill Road, so we decided to bookend our stay in Eugene at Velo B&B and just find a motel in town for the middle night.

1 happy cow

And what a good decision that turned out to be. Almost as if a welcoming party was planned, we had a friendly encounter with one of the riders on the team that Rob sponsors as we spun our way up the aforementioned Bailey Hill Road. Next, Misha made us feel right at home when we finished our hillclimb and gave us the tour. The immaculate, thoughtfully laid out and well furnished rooms further cemented the feeling of a decision well made.

Oregon - Coast to Eugene

After taking advantage of the pleasantly cool coastal temperatures for a few days, it was now time to say farewell to the breezy seaside and head back over the coast range for a couple of nights in Eugene. Sadly, the temperature all along the Willamette Valley had been spiking into the 90s everyday, and the forecast did not show any relief on the horizon. (Although as I write this, it is almost 90 degrees colder than that here, so I'm having a little difficulty remembering why we weren't looking forward to riding in these conditions.)

Since we had winched ourselves up Ten Mile Creek the day before, we decided to avoid riding the same road in the same direction and instead chose to climb out of Yachats on Cummins Peak Road. It had nothing to do with which climb might be easier! Really! Well maybe, since we were back to hauling our gear, we decided to aim for the slightly easier option, where easier is a relative term. 

When I plotted the route on the computer, it looked like we'd get 80% of the climbing for the day in the first 15 miles, but that climbing was not insubstantial and we'd have a fair amount of gravel to boot. At least we'd get the big climb on the cooler coastal side, before descending into a furnace on the far side. 

We had a big day planned. I'd made a reservation at Velo B&B in Eugene, about 95 miles away.  I teased John that he could have, at most, 10 photo stops, since there would be no magic shortcut option.

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?

Oregon - Epic Gravel

Or More like Epic Photo Taking

As I mentioned in the previous post, our plan for Tuesday was to ride the Oregon Coast Gravel Epic route. The actual event was held a few weeks before our trip, but we found GPS tracks online, so we figured we could just go out on our own epic ride. 

We planned to stay in Waldport for a second night, thereby allowing us to do this very challenging route unencumbered. Since daylight hours were limited, we tried to get out early, but early is  relative when one is on vacation.

Oregon - To Waldport

Our plans for the second part of our Oregon holiday were somewhat fast and loose. Before the trip, we had talked about getting out to the coast as well as making our way to Eugene at some point, but otherwise didn't really have any firm plans.

This is typical for us when we tour on our own. Other folks might start out with two weeks worth of motel reservations and pre-planned routes, with detailed research about specific landmarks along the way. We just tend to make it up on the fly, rarely planning more than one or maybe two days at a time. With this flexibility, when we stumble upon something interesting, we can easily change things up to take in a new road, interesting village or cool looking hostel. This approach would drive some people crazy, and admittedly has occasionally resulted in some scurrying to find accommodation, but more often than not, we have discovered some amazing places that we might have otherwise missed.

Oregon - Salem and Corvallis

It's bittersweet when friends move away. Naturally, we miss seeing and riding with them on a regular basis, but it is also nice to have friends living in exotic travel destinations!

So I tried not to take it personally last year, when my entire 2011 Fleche team moved away. I really don't think it was to keep from having to take part in another Fleche, although admittedly, after 2011, Susan had actually vowed never to do another. Still, she could have just said no when I asked. She didn't actually have to relocate all the way across the country! And Dave and Dena didn't actually have to follow her lead and move away too!

Oregon - TREO

--The upcoming series of posts from our trip to Oregon in September is way, way overdue. Hopefully, over the next couple of weeks, as I finally sort through all these photos of cyclists wearing just shorts and sleeveless jerseys on days where the thermometer regularly topped 90F, the memories of hot weather will make me feel warm again during these mid-winter days when hardly any Fahrenheits are out and about. And if you are tired of reading about excessive rain in Ireland, read on...

Early in the summer, as my activity level seemed to be returning to normal, we started to talk about a cycling holiday. I had resumed regular riding and, while I was still battling pain, it was time for a proper cycling vacation.

For a while now, our friend Dan Morgan had been suggesting we take another trip to Oregon. We've done quite a bit of bike touring there over the years, and it's really not a hard sell. We love the area. Dan and his wife, Janet, live just west of Portland and have been gracious hosts to us on several occasions.