Day 31 - Honeyman State park to Eel Creek Campground

Day 31 – (June 4)

Honeyman State park to Eel Creek Campground (Lakeside, OR)

Was aiming to make in to North Bend, but didn’t make it that far.

Bacause of the tire that I shredded before, I decided that I should order another tire and three more tubes, which I then had sent ahead of me to a bike shop in Crescent City – where Sharon and I will part company – she is headed off to the Camper factory to get a couple of problems (including the roof leak) dealt with, and then is headed to Illinois to attend her 50^th high school reunion.

Leaving Honeyman, the weather was changing a lot.  One minute it was dry, the next it was drizzling. Because of the rain, I wrapped up the camper in a tarp, so that Sharon’s bed would be dry.  However, when she passed me about ½ hour after I got on the road, the tarp was flapping badly, and I was afraid that it would come off while she was driving.  In fact, I half expected to see it in the road as I rode along.

By the time I got to Tahkenich campground (which the cute Ranger recommended the day before) I was cold enough that I pulled off to change into rain gear.  I used the pit toilet building so that I could stay drier while changing clothes.  Then I ate a handful of trail mix and a couple of slices of jerky and got back on road.

Nothing particularly eventful happened other than drizzle and rain.  Going along 101 around the Oregon Dunes area, there isn’t that much to see.  It’s forest and the occasional lake or dune, but nothing that seemed all that spectacular, especially in the rain, until I reached Gardiner.  I stopped for a minute to take pictures of a historic building:

Gardiner's historic building

and a historic marker:

Gardiner's historic marker

As I took pictures, the rain got harder. I then rolled off to head onward.  About 300 yards later, just as I got to a narrow portion of land with no protection, (approaching the bridge to Reedsport) my rear tire blew.  In the (now) driving rain and building wind (which I hadn’t much noticed because it was a tailwind) I removed the rear wheel and figured out a way to prop the bike so that the rear derailleur wouldn’t be on the ground, and removed the inner tube.  I then proceeded to attempt to patch the tube in the driving rain.  I managed to get the vulcanizing compound to dry and applied the patch, but the tube still wouldn’t hold air.  So I pulled out my last spare tube and put it on, all the while swearing up a blue streak.  I found that I was able to pump the tire up to pressure in record time, as the adrenaline and anger made me much stronger for the time being.  After I got back on the road, I found that I was moving forward mainly on the power of piss and vinegar.  I was really glad that no one else could hear me, as I was still swearing copiously.  I decided that this would be a good time to grab a bite to eat, warm up, and perhaps even dry off a bit.  But everything that I passed was closed.  After getting to a promising looking café only to find that it closed an hour before, I said to myself “OK, damn it – I hate to give them the business, but I’ll go to that McDonalds over there, only to find that even the McDonalds was closed.  They’d apparently had a fire and were making repairs.  Fine.  I rode over the next hill, and saw that there were a couple of places open, so I pulled into one (Don’s, I think, supposedly ”famous for our pie”)  I stopped in, and ordered a jalapeño cheeseburger and coffee.  Then I called Sharon, who was investigating a possible campsite in North Bend.  I told her that I wasn’t going to make it that far, due to the rain and the flat.  She told me that I wouldn’t want to try – the bridge into North Bend was too ugly and she wasn’t sure how I’d get across at all, let alone in the driving rain.  She said that she’d investigate closer campgrounds and suggested that Eel Creek might be a good one, as Lakeside was only about another ten miles up the road.  I told her that sounded like a plan, and got off the phone.

By that time, my burger had arrived.  I ate it, finished my third or fourth cup of coffee and watched the early dinner crowd trickle into Don’s (it was now about 5).  After I had warmed up some, and the rain seemed like it had calmed down some, I headed back out into the sludge to catch up to Sharon.  In the meantime, my android phone decided to reboot itself, and had gotten wet enough in the rain that I was concerned (the dumb phone was still working just fine, thankfully).

I spent the next hour and a half riding the ten miles to Eel creek campground, and found Sharon, who had already set up camp and started a big pot of lentils.  After I told her of my tale of woe, she told me that she, too, had great fun as the tarp attempted to escape while she headed over the drawbridge into Reedsport.  To prevent it’s escape, she made a completely illegal U-turn in the middle of the drawbridge (which was empty), and pulled off the road into the USFS information center parking lot just of the bridge in order to get the tarp straightened out.  Then, as she was reaching up over the camper to add another bungee cord, her jeans fell down, ending up at her knees.  Apparently I’m not the only one losing weight on this trip.

I joked that with all the rain, Oregon might want to be considered the “Rust Man quadruple century.”  After we laughed about our “adventures” and had big bowls of lentil soup, we both went to bed early, exhausted from the day.

Distance: about 35 miles - the rain rebooted the android phone 

Music:

Stones – Beggar’s Banquet

SRV – Texas Flood (seemed very appropriate)

Talking Heads – More Songs about Buildings and Food

Tom Petty – Full Moon Fever

Tom Petty – Into the Great Wide Open

Tom Waits – The Mule Variations (1^st half)