Today’s route: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1479684

Clint and I rode together again today. Nye Beach was a better “start” photo than the hotel.

The signed bike route avoids US101 and goes through a more scenic part of Newport.

And then you go over this bridge to head southbound out of Newport. Video to follow after I return home, assuming there’s no glitches.

After cresting the top of a hill, we found the German tourist (who we would later find out is named Marcus) “couch surfing”. He had stayed at the Beverly Beach Campground and met Jay, David, and Jeff (who we met yesterday) there.

After leaving the town of Yachats, the road started going uphill for some scenic views.

Looking back towards Yachats.

We saw Marcus catching up to us over one of the bridges.

We pulled into a scenic turnout, and someone came up to me and couldn’t stop talking about his bike. He got it as a steal for $20, but he needed to replace the seatpost and one of the rims. He was even going to find a way to put on a derailleur. I asked him how he gets up hills, and he said he just walks.

Then, out of the blue, as if I’m the one keeping him occupied, he says, “I’m going to smoke some pot and take a nap.” And so he did.

In the meantime, Clint was helping out an older lady clear some rocks on the trail from the parking lot to the beach.

A nice view of the supposedly most photographed lighthouse.

The lighthouse in the background, with some beach too.

We had another tunnel to go through today, though it was a bit shorter than the previous one. Hopefully my video turned out, and if so, I will post here.

Finally, as we got closer to Florence, we could see that it was (mostly) downhill the rest of the way there.

I was having problems with spokes loosening on my rear wheel today. I did my best to tighten them, but could not get the wheel true without a truing stand. So it was off to the bike (and guitar and skateboard too!) shop to see if they could help out. Despite some of the negative reviews I saw online, I got excellent service, and he fixed the wheel right away at a reasonable price. Though I will say that the owner was a bit quirky, and I could see why he and a customer might get off on the wrong foot – and I’ll just leave it at that…..

After cleaning up, we then went into the “old” downtown Florence.

We found dinner at one of the restaurants in the old part of town.

If they’re following the “Bicycling the Pacific Coast” book, I’m guessing the four others may be at Honeyman State Park a few miles south of here. Maybe we’ll catch up to them again tomorrow?