Day 6 | Father's Day!
Distance
49.6 miles
Elevation Climbed
2,064 ft
Landscape
Forested highways; wetlands
Weather
Overcast to rain to sun, 50-60 F
Lars’ Notes:
Father’s Day! We drove north to Elma, our starting point for the day. We had the advantage of seeing the route, since we had to drive back to our start point. One item of concern was the presence of Rumble strips; notches in the pavement to alert vehicles if they stray from their lane. These are much bigger from the perspective of a bicycle than they are from a car. Most of the roads had them in the middle of the lanes, but there were also some separating the road from the shoulder. It looked like this would be a nightmare to navigate, stay on the shoulder, but don’t get stuck hitting the rumble strips…they would rattle your fillings out! As it turns out, they were a strange comfort. The one dividing the two lanes offered an audible cue that cars were giving us space and the ones on the shoulder offered a bit of a buffer for the cars approaching from behind. There was more shoulder on the inside than appeared doing 50 mph in the car during our reconnaissance and it was strangely comforting that any random text and drive commuter would be alerted that they were veering off the road. It may have made no difference to keeping them from hitting us, but it was comforting nonetheless. At about 15 miles in, we were forced to stop as a young black bear crossed the road in front of us. Once it passed, another biker (can’t remember his name) who had joined us for the first 15 miles said “I think we can go now, I don’t see a mama bear”, followed by “why don’t you go first”. So much for teamwork! I did, but not without the mandatory “hey bear” shouts continuously for a few hundred yards. No mama was spotted. We parted ways with our brave friend and continued down a quite busy state highway (Rt 101). We got some rain, but our experience had us prepared with rain gear…no prob! We spent an hour and a half or so on Rt 101, it was fairly busy, but safe. Four climbs challenged us on this leg. We exited the hilly Rt 101, wet, tired and starving. We found a nice picnic spot in South Bend, looking out over some of the estuaries that are known for oysters, sturgeon and salmon. The remaining 20 miles hugged the Willapa Bay, a rolling terrain that made Kirsten swear at every uphill climb. We entered Wilson Street, the site of our AB&B and were welcomed to about 6 huge Elk in the front yard including a big antlered male. We tried to sneak up on them for a picture, but bicycles on a gravel road or humans in stiff bike shoes are not exactly stealthy! I got a picture of their butts!
Kirsten’s Notes:
Today was Father’s Day – the wildlife and sunshine came out to celebrate my strong, loving and empathetic dad, but my legs’ invitation got lost in the mail.
We saw a black bear cub crossing the road at mile 10 with our cyclist friend Sam who joined us for the first part of our ride and was planning on continuing for 125 miles. A lot of the day was overcast and rainy on the busy 101-S, but the sun peeked out in our final stretch to our airbnb. A town we passed through had dozens of metal sculptures of wildlife and people – Dad and I biked around to admire them as we digested our lunch – and the ‘Oyster Capital of the World’ lived up to its name with thousands of oysters lining the coast. As we approach the house we spot a gang of elk in the yard, some smaller ones and at least one bull with massive antlers – we got pretty close but they scurried away when they heard the gravel rattle underneath our tires…so cool. Later in the evening the gang reconvened in our yard with a handful of other buddies to have a grazing feast. 12 was the final count.
I definitely felt the 4 days of riding in a row in my legs. Although they felt strong for the first half, 6 climbs later and they were slogging to get up rolling hills that I would argue on other days aren’t very difficult. It didn’t help that I wasn’t playing music today to keep my mind occupied and distracted from the monotony of pedaling and discomfort in my neck and bum.