Day 26 - August 25: Pacific City OR - Manzanita OR

61 miles.  3548 feet up, 3535 feet down. 

Another relatively leisurely start to the day.  Our accommodation last night was lovely - the Surf and Sand Inn, a small hotel in a quiet beach community that prides itself on "retro", right down to having turntables in every room and quite a library of LPs in the office to borrow.

I don't often see the snack table in pristine condition, since I'm usually a bit late to the party.  But - since it was set up at the same time Emily was preparing breakfast, here's what it looks like before "knives down".  

Today's ride was to be a bit along the coast and a bit inland.  Probably a similar route to what our group took in 2013 when we did the whole coast from north to south.  Here are our first views of the ocean this morning; beautiful!

At about 15 km we turned onto the Cape Lookout Road, following the Oregon Bike & 3 Capes Scenic Route.  Oh - and toward the first significant climb of the day.  We did stop early in the climb to view a pretty large sand dune area.  Hmmm - seems the dirt bikers couldn't read the signs, but judging by the amount of tracks in there they weren't the first ones..........

No summit sign, but we reached the Cape Lookout Summit at 12.4 miles.  And then.... whee..... an amazing downhill.

Anderson Viewpoint at 14 miles.

Carrying on down the road..........

SAG stop at about 19 miles.  Looking out onto Netarts Bay, with the ocean to our right.  Beautiful!

This is where we were to continue on the 3 Capes Scenic Route.  Cy had some info that the road was closed to cars but that bikes could get through.  Some folks were a bit distressed at the 12% grade sign, but everyone carried on..........

I was one of the last to leave, which worked to my benefit (temporarily).  A lot of the others got all the way to the top of the third hill before being told there was a road closure and they would have to return to the SAG location (almost 10 km and two smaller hill climbs) and take the highway to Tillamook.  Photo below courtesy of Carol.

A photo opp when I was blissfully unaware that I would be coming back this way.

I was "only" about two thirds of the way up the third hill when I encountered this group coming down.  While they all did as they were told and returned to the SAG location, I thought I saw the opportunity for a "shortcut" on the map.  Since I didn't talk to the roads person myself, I will profess to have been working with incomplete information.  Turns out I should have listened to our bonafide rocket scientist (apparently we have 5 PhDs on the trip)  who considered that the road closure might be on the far side of where my shortcut rejoined the RWGPS route.  Oh well - it's a nice day to gamble on a shortcut vs some bonus miles.  Remember that 12% grade sign we saw earlier?  Well, this is where it was.  I'm guessing it was about 1.5 km up and 1.5 km down at a sustained 12-14% grade; ugh!  But - I got up to a beautiful lookout over the water.

      

Looking back at the climb up.........

Headed down the other side.  At this point I wasn't considering the possibility that I would have to re-climb this hill, so really enjoyed the cruisy downhill on fresh pavement and very little traffic.

Got to the bottom, turned right to rejoin our route, only to encounter the "Road Closed" sign.  I rode on a bit further past the sign, but soon turned around.  I figured if the folks were told earlier that they absolutely couldn't get through even on bikes then I should face the music and start back up that 12% grade.  Somehow the uphills always seem longer than the downhills.....  I'm guessing each side was close to 1000 feet of climbing.  Oh well......  I texted Cy and let her know I would be in before dark.

Down the hill and back towards the first SAG location............

And on towards Tillamook on OR-131.  Not a great shoulder, but it wasn't too long a stretch.

I rejoined the RWGPS route just before entering Tillamook.  On the far side of the city was the Tillamook Creamery Visitor Centre.  Shockingly, the SAG van was still there.  They were all packed up, though, and ready to leave - with a full van of riders with lots of bikes on top.  What?  Seems someone thought the road wasn't pleasant/safe and a bunch of folks went with that thought.  I gotta say - they missed a beautiful ride.  In the meantime, I went over to the visitor centre for ice cream, which Katie treated me to.  For the record - the flavour was called Tillamook Mudslide.  Probably a good thing for my arteries that we don't have this stuff in Canada; yum!

We were only on US101 for about 7 miles, and even that was just fine.

We then turned onto Miami River Road and headed inland for quite a while.  Although there was no shoulder, it was a beautiful and quiet road.  We were on it for about 13 miles.  Oh - and I may have stopped along this stretch for my daily dose of blackberries.........

Clear cutting.  Reminded me of Scotland....

Nehalem River

About a mile on State Route 53, then back on US 101 to get us in to Manzanita.

Nehalem River, again

We're staying at the Sunset Surf Motel, right on the beach.  Beautiful!  Here's the view from my room.

And a few sunset photos.......

Great day!  Rest day by the beach tomorrow..................

The Ride:

Garmin:  113.5 km.  5639 feet up.  5631 feet down.

RWGPS:  113.8 km.  1552 m up, 1548 m down.

Temperature range:  15C - 29C.  Mostly in the low 20s, though.  Perfect temperature for riding!

The Route:

Manzanita OR.  Population 603.

Manzanita is in Tillamook County and is equidistant from Seaside to the north and Tillamook to the south.  The indigenous Tillamook people lived along the Oregon coast, including the Manzanita area, for about 12,000 years.  They suffered from smallpox and other illnesses brought by white settlers, and the few remaining Tillamook people were relocated to reservations in the 1850s.  The town was named for the manzanita plants that grow in the area; manzanita means "little apple" in Spanish.  In 2000 about 7% of the population lived below the poverty line.