Devil’s Lake State Park To Honeyman State Park
Ride Time: 5h20min
Max Speed: 37.0 mi/hr (59 Km/hr)
Although I hadn’t considered staying in hotels on this ride, it turned out to be a good idea, to getting laundry done and dry out my gear. I checked out around 5:30am, since I’m on kitchen duty at campsite today -we organize in daily groups to support Linda, the Ride Chef, at breakfast and dinner. Anyway, the ride started at 8am again, with 78 miles (126km) to complete, including nearly 5,000ft (1.500m) of total ascent, with an altitude range of 660ft (202m).
The route today, according to the map, looks pretty straight forward. Coastal roads near the shore the whole day, at different elevation levels, so great views of the ocean are to be expected.
Pérez, Bloxom, Bursley
Bloxom, Bursley and I took off with the clear goal of finding a good cup of coffee along the way. We hit the road and about 6 miles past the first check point -20mi (32km)- we found the ‘Sexie Sandwich’, this eclectic venue where they roast their own organic coffee beans, with a great atmosphere, couches and a surprising and interesting stage-like setup of two guitars, a mic and a piano -not to mention the friendly and 'sexie' barista girls.
After a couple minutes in there, Bloxom and I grabbed the guitars and improvised a some blues, while Bursley would capture this ‘unscheduled rest-stop’ on his phone camera. "Free hot coffee when you sing and play a song" is what the sign on top of the piano said, so I sat behind the keyboard and jammed some Coldplay tunes on it… but beyond the free coffee, we were just pumped by the atmosphere in this hidden spot and decided to take it easy and chill, for about an hour and a half! We’re on our way to consolidating our reputation as Team Slack… but we’re certainly kicking ass scouting awesome spots along the road... come play your favorite song at the Sexie Sandwich next time (check out the menu above).
The Oregon Coast is stunning. It is an evident factor of local pride. Proof of that is this ad, that took my attention today (spotted in several places): on September 20th the Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup will take place here, organized by SOLV (www.solv.org). This event will cover over 40 beach sites, so volunteers will basically cover the whole Oregon Coast -sweet initiative.
Knees are bugging some today (most likely it's my IT band, very common in high-mileage runners and cyclists) but it’s nothing that mental focus, a knee band and a buttload of Motrin will not solve for now. At this point you are on full-time pedaling mode (muscle memory rocks!) so it’s no big deal. I will work on bike fit adjustments tonight and get rid of some unnecessary ballast; we’ll see if that helps.
After arriving in Florence -80 miles later- at Honeyman State Park, I am back on kitchen duty helping Linda with dinner. Can’t really complain, she does most of the work during the day anyway. Linda rocks by the way: she works on this type of events sporadically, among other things, but her main thing is working with Native communities in Canada on sustainable housing developments at a few Indian Reservations (her client) as project manager. She has an interesting aura and is quite a wise lady. We’ve had really good conversations so far…
Anyway, we had an awesome meal that night (soup, barbecue chicken, sweet potatoes, fruit, etc) with a few (and then more) IPA’s. Florence is part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area so after washing dishes (no shit), setting my tent up and putting my gear away, a group of around 10 of us (the Village) went out to explore the dunes in the dark. We raced down the slopes a couple times (running and rolling) and chatted for a while under the stars (Milky Way included) passing around MJ’s flask (Bourbon) and even toasting to Chile’s Independence Day (September 18th, 1810) closing the night with a pretty good ‘Viva Chile’ from the crowd. It was also pretty funny to learn about the nicknames that the NYC girls have coined for each rider so far (some of them are hilarious by the way) so, FYI, I will be ‘Chile’ from now on…
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