Slept later than usual (no dogs this morning to wake me up). A little sore from yesterday, moving slow this morning. No place for breakfast this morning, had some beef jerky instead. The ride this morning starts out with the biggest hill climb on the route.
Rained most of the night, but was light enough to get everything packed up fairly dry. Had a light mist as I began the ride. 1000+ feet of climbing over 2 1/2 miles. The road was always climbing, sometimes 1 or 2 % other felt like 10 or 11%. I will have to wait to see when I download my GPS. Took my jacket off part way up, it was cool but I was generating too much heat. I was about a mile into the climb and noticed that something was rubbing on the back tire. Appeared to be the rear fender, finally got it adjusted so that it was no rubbing. Reached the top, put my jacket back on for the downhill ride.
The downhill was nice, "the payoff after the climb". Towards the end of the downhill there are some nice views of the dunes, this is the Sand Lake recreation area. Heard some off road vehicles but never saw them. Right turn onto Sand Lake road and the ride into Pacific City.
Stopped to the Pelican Brew Pub for lunch, this was my planned breakfast stop. Another rider, Steve, that I had seen at the hiker-biker camp at Cape Lookout was already there. Ordered a bowl of chili and a side Caesar. Talked to Steve for a bit, found out he was doing the same ride but had started from Astoria on Saturday. Steve said he was riding to Newport that day, so I would not likely see him again that day. But as we are traveling the same route with the same planned end date, I would likely see him again in the coming days.
After lunch it was a few miles on Hwy 101 then onto old Hwy 101 to Otis. This is a longer route but a gentler grade, less traffic and through an old growth forest. Just as I started this portion the rain came back as a heavy drizzle. I was wearing my wind breaker and thought it would suffice. I was soaked after about ten minutes, no reason to change clothes now. Despite the rain thus was a beautiful section of road to ride.
At Otis turned onto Hwy 18 which soon became Hwy 101, moderately heavy traffic. A few miles later a left turn on to East Devils Lake road. This road is a nice alternate around Lincoln city and the high traffic on Hwy 101. East Devils Lake road is all rollers with some steep hill climbs, misjudged one of these and actually had to stop because I was in the wrong gear
Made it to the camp ground around 5:30. I was debating getting a hotel but ended up sticking to my plan and camping. Got everything setup and headed out for dinner. Went to the Mcmenamins Lighthouse pub. They had sturgeon fish and chips. It was the first time I had sturgeon, it was very good, no fishy taste at all.
Tomorrow may be a challenge as my left knee has been bothering me since the start and the tennis elbow that I developed last week is not helping things. Plan to stick with the ride until my body says quit.
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