Bandon to Gold Beach, Oregon: Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht

December 24, 2012

This sticker on my handlebar bag came from the Stille Nacht kapelle in Oberndorf, Austria

In Oberndorf Austria, not far from Salzburg there is a very humble chapel on the site of the church where Silent Night was first performed. We were there on our bikes this summer, and tonight we think of it.

We are snug in a resort in Gold Beach, having ridden through the night (or at least some of it) to get here. We have our wonderful cranberry treats from the sweet shop in Bandon, and are still holding on to a fruit cake given to us by our friend Lisa in Cobble Hill, and carried along, waiting for Christmas Day. As much as possible, though our family is not with us, we are celebrating Christmas Eve. Our warmest greetings go out to family and friends and all others who are reading this. Merry Christmas!

Today there was no rain. None!

We set out with our camera at the ready, rather than having it hidden from the wet. This was good, because this section of the coast is one of the most scenic and interesting.

We had set our target as Port Orford, which is only about 45 km from Bandon. The trouble was that Gold Beach, the next place where we could stop, would be a further 45 km. With the hills and short days, 90 km is pretty much out of range. So we hung around the motel in Bandon, waiting for the free breakfast, such as it was, and then toddled off South. We knew we had lots of time for the relatively short hop. Here is some of what we saw along the way:

Christmas decorations have been strangely a lot less in Oregon than in Washington. So we were glad to see these "Christmas trees"

The guidebook says that at the prehistoric park dinosaurs roam the rainforest while tourists prowl the gift shop. We just snapped these as we rolled by. They actually are a bit impressive, being presumably life sized.

Reminded us of the time last summer when we hopped a barrier and found ourselveds cycling through the Longleat game park in England.

As we approached Port Orford, we (actually, Dodie) were looking at the sunny day and thinking about the storm forecast for tomorrow. How pleasant it would be to go to Gold Beach not in the rain, and then hang out there all of Christmas Day! Only thing, we had left late and not hurried along the way. So what did we do? Of course, we went for it!

Port Orford is quite plain, but it did have this fancy house.

Ha ha, the lights are not flashing - yet!

Beyond Port Orford, the sea views are phenomenal. There are many sea stacks, and the road runs right by the beach. That is, however, until it smacks into Humbug Mountain. The mountain juts out into the sea, and there is no way to sneak by it on the ocean side. So the road swings east, behind the mountain.

Immediately on taking this swing, I spied some lovely green space, with decorative trees, down to the left. At first I thought this must be some secret estate, but in fact it was Humbug State Park. A little deeper in behind the mountain and we had entered a fantasical lush area or waterfalls. It was all like a different world, and included a rushing stream (Bear Trap stream, I think) beside the road.

Eventually we came around the mountain and back to the coast. There were a few long uphill pulls to this, which slowed us down. Still, we were looking ok for arriving at Gold Beach just at dusk. That is, until Dodie got a flat!

Fortunately the flat was in the front, which of course is less hassle to get at. As usual, we looked for the culprit in the tire before putting in a new tube. I didn't really see anything, but Dodie saw a sort of blemish on the inside, and we ran our fingers over it carefully. Yes, there was kind of a little bump. So we pulled the tire off the rim entirely and turned it inside out, while pushing and probing. Aha! A bit of glass.

Now Dodie's nursing training came into play. She pulled the first aid kit and got out tweezers, and no doubt other surgical equipment. In the end a quite big hunk of green glass was extracted from the green layer of our Greenguard tire. This was great, because what a drag it would have been to put in a new tube, reassemble everything, and have the thing go flat again.

This is now our fourth flat, and we are thinking those Greenguards really are weaker than the Marathon Plus.

The flat repair and surgery took a while, and it was soon twilight. On went the flashers, and shortly after, the 300 lumen headlights.

However from this point the road was level or gently down, and everyone must have already been home with their families. So we had the pitch black road mostly to ourselves. But, no rain, no wind, flat road - it was a supremely peaceful 20 km glide. Our own crazy (or Crazyguy) Stille Nacht.

Beautiful ocean vistas south of Port Orford

This bird was constructed of washed ashore bits of plastic!

The town of Sixes consists of this post office and a general store. It's a bit surprising to see a US Postal Service office quite this shabby.

The area behind Humbug Mountain was magical

Flats are never fun, but at least this one was in the light, no rain, no traffic, and in a front tire. Still, it cost valuable time.

Rolling in to Gold Beach. We went to the Gold Beach Resort, recommended by Bryant and Gail, and are now snug as can be.

Today's ride: 93 km (58 miles)
Total: 971 km (603 miles)

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