Jono's Travel Blog

19/09/2010 Day 19 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Somewhere on Seven Devils Rd to Humbug Mountain Campground 80km

Money Spent: $2 as a tip at breakfast and $2 for a muffin and some Oreo cookies

Time cycling: 4 hours 15 Minutes

Total Distance Traveled: 1140 km

I was getting comfortable in my tent but pretty much everything I owned was damp at best. If the weather was going to go on as it was yesterday I would have stayed another night but there was a break in the rain and I packed up my things and cycled off into the fog. It really sucked having wet shoes, it really make’s things miserable from the moment you put them on, but it had to be done as there wasn’t a choice in the matter.

Seven Devils road was great as I had cycled the worst of the uphill part and had mostly downhill gradients to tackle.

Just before passing the small town of Bandon I met a weirdly cool old American guy named Stan, he invited me for coffee and we managed to get undercover just before it started raining; we stumbled across a stereotypical diner offering cheap food and drinks. Stan was kind enough to pay for my breakfast even after giving me a cream cheese bagel shortly beforehand.

We cycled on together for most of the day until we hit the road leading to Cape Bianco, I was debating whether or not to stay at the most western part of America (excluding Alaska). It was windy, cold and miserable and whilst saying goodbye to Stan another cyclist comes by (Jim), this American was cycling around the country from somewhere near Portland to Pennsylvania on the east coast. I decided not to go to Cape Bianco and cruised on with Jim to Port Orford where I picked up some munchies at a seven 11 and continued without him till Humbug Mountain Camping grounds.

For some reason, today I saw more road kill than on any other day cycling put together, there was everything from birds, deer, skunks and raccoons and also an unusual number of snakes and frogs. Most of these animals were hit recently and I suppose I could have carried them off the road but they have people who are paid to do it.

One of the raccoons I saw seemed like it was smashed in the back of the head as its eyes were hanging out of their sockets, but thats enough of the details.

The cycle from Port Orford to Humbug Mountain was crazy windy to a point where I should have been rolling downhill but instead was getting blown backward, that’s more of an exaggeration but trust me when I say it was bad.

When I finally made it to Humbug Mountain Camping grounds there was a sign saying closed for construction and renovation, I was kind of agitating as the next campsite was another 13 Miles away and I didn’t want to cycle any further so I went around the gate and made my way into the campground. Some other cyclist also had the idea to camp there too, his name was Ric; another older American who was a little shy as after talking to him for 5 minutes he shot off to bed before it was even 6pm.

I struggled to get my tent and tarp up before it started pissing it down again but it didn’t really matter because all my gear was wet anyway.

I scoffed down some bread rolls and honey for dinner and called it a night.

Just outside Bandon town... dunno what im doing?

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