Seven Devils

It was chilly, as usual, this morning, and I lingered far too long in my tent before forcing myself to get around. But it warmed up quickly over the course of the day, and it soon proved to be the warmest, clearest day of my trip so far. I'm really hoping this is a continued trend. I keep telling myself whenever it's wet and cold that I'm both headed south locatively and toward Summer temporally, so it should keep getting better. I feel like a migratory bird.

Some nice older people at the campground warned me to be careful on the bridge coming up as I was getting ready to leave. It was a fair warning. That bridge is easily the scariest I've done. It's decently steep, there's basically no shoulder, it's windy, 1.5 miles long, and there's lots of traffic. I had one semi-truck pass me with only a foot of clearance, and I felt like an impotent villager begging some giant, ambivalent beast not to crush him on a whim. Then as I was coming down, there was a log truck riding my ass, unable to pass because of the steady stream of traffic coming the other way, and I gunned it in highest gear, standing on the pedals, to get the hell off the bridge and out of the way as soon as possible. I took a long moment to recover after that.

I was rather grateful the Oregon Coast Bike Route (which I've generally been following at least) took me off 101 for awhile. I happened to stop to check my phone outside a clam shop and two gentlemen approached me asking if I needed water. They told me they were setting up a water station for cyclists since there's a long stretch without water access. I told them I thought that was a great idea, though I was well stocked on water myself. I ended up taking a picture of them in front of the historic boat they had on their property.

Then I squared off with the Seven Devils. It's a road along which there are seven (supposedly, seemed like more) grueling hills. Someone had spray painted markers for each of them on the road, indications only cyclists would see. I particularly loved the "Are you loving it?" written after "devil number 3", " No, really, this is #5" some ways after "#5" and "You devil :)" at the end. ...Particularly the one at the end. Devils indeed... Some sections were so steep I was barely grinding it out in really low gear. At one point I failed to lower gear in time, not realizing the climb coming, and was forced to walk up a ways. I kept hoping for the final downward drop to come. Then when it did, it came in the form of a winding, narrow, shoulderless, and often very rough road that made for one hell of a ride. I was very glad to put the devils behind me. It was easy going from there to Bandon.

I took a somewhat lengthy, occasionally steep, and at the end, gravel, path out to an out of the way area to come to my home for the night. I had to wait a little while for my hosts to show up (under a very nice covered deck area), but then I was immediately treated to everything I've been lacking my last three days of camping. I had an amazing warm shower. I laundered my clothes. I snacked on donuts and pumpkin seeds and juice. My host cooked me a delicious veggie omelette that I stuffed myself to the gills on. I had conversation on all variety of topics. I got access to WiFi. It's been fantastic. It won't be easy returning to camping tomorrow night after such luxury, but it was a much needed reprieve. Here's hoping the weather holds up tomorrow. Two more days to California.