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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Cycle Touring: Oregon Coast Itinerary

I'm back from Oregon! And as expected, I had a fabulous time. The views were amazing, the road was great, the people were friendly, and our legs didn't get too sore. And if you can believe it we went the whole tour with not even as much as a flat tire! The biking gods were with us.

Many biking related posts are forthcoming, but I thought it was only logical to start off with my full itinerary. The route we followed can be found on the Adventure Cycling bike map (which is fabulous, by the way).

Day 1: Drive from northern Washington to Portland. Spend a fabulous night enjoying Portland;
Day 2: Participate in the Providence Bridge Pedal with 20,000 other cyclists (25 miles). More on that here. Drive to Cannon Beach. Park the car and start biking. Camp for the night in Nehalem State Park in Manzanita (15 miles). Memorable mention: the banana bread at Manzanita's market.

Day 3: Bike from Nehalem to Cape Lookout State Park. (49 miles) Memorable mention: Strolling the stormy beach and exploring the sea caves at Cape Lookout with hot tea in hand.

Day 4: Bike from Cape Lookout State Park to Depot Bay (53 miles). We stayed in a motel due to rain. Memorable mention: the cafe beside the Cape Kiwanda Inn has a cozy couch, communal computer, and AMAZING panini.

Day 5: Bike from Depot Bay to Yachats. (39 miles) Another motel due to LOTS of rain. Don't worry, I've wiped the rain from my mind. Memorable mention: the friendly bike fiends at Bike Newport invite weary bike tourers to use their lounge and dryer.

Day 6: Bike from Yachats to Honeyman State Park. (33 miles) Memorable mention: Walking the beach and hiking the lighthouse trail at Carl G. Washburne State park.

Day 7: Bike from Honeyman State Park to Coos Bay where we stayed with a friend. (48 miles inc a detour) Memorable mention: heading out on a dune buggy ride with Sandland Adventures just south of Florence.

Day 8: Catch a ride from Coos Bay all the way back to Cannon Beach. Pick up car and drive to Seaside and Astoria. Park outside Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria and ride bikes in to camp for the night. Memorable mention: counting the bike tourers that seemed too few and far between while we covered six days worth of biking in four hours.

Day 9: Drive back to northern Washington.


262 miles in total over the course of 6 biking days for a pleasant average of 44 miles per day. And besides a little rain, it really couldn't have gone better.

I have posts planned to tell you about everything from the awesomeness of Portland's Bridge Ride to planning tips to the gear we packed. Stay tuned!

2 comments:

  1. It sounds awesome.

    We are going to be driving the Oregon Coast in the next few months (actually Los Angeles to Portland). Maybe some of your "must sees" will be relevant for us as well.

    And maybe someday we'll do it on a bike!

    Yay for you!

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  2. When we lived in Portland, we used to visit cannon beach quite often. Portland is perfect for many reasons, but having Mt. Hood on one side and the Oregon Coast on the other is most definitely a huge upside. Cannon Beach is beautiful, interesting and unique. The tide pools allow you to see many see creatures such as star fish, sea anemone etc. My baby girl couldn't stop running around and looking at all of them. It was fabulous. Man, I miss Portland. :]

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