Pacific Northwest Coast tandem tour ,12 days in July 2012.

The official sign for the Oregon coast Bike route we did this Pacific Northwest Coast tour with our tandem from June 30th to July 13th, 2012.

We started with our tandem from the ferry terminal in Twassen over to Schwartz Bay -Victoria. Total weigh of our bike was 500 pounds included our weight.We did not have a trailer but we made bags that fit in the inside frame of our bike and that just worked like a charm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rudi drove us all the way to Vancouver and that was a good start with fresh legs. First night we camped at San Juan Island and it was raining non stop for 15 hours from 6pm till 9am the next day , and we thought about leaving our rain gear behind when we planned our trip!!! Everything was soaking wet including our fire wood that just did not want to burn . Luckily our sleeping gear was dry and warm and we had a good night sleep in spite of the wall of water around our tent.

Took the ferry straight from Friday Harbour on San Juan Island to Anacortes and started our tour from there. Took a beautiful 10km loop through Washington state park.

This was the first of about 10 major bridges that we had to go over on our tour. The roads ,tunnels and bridges in the USA is just so impressive. All of the bridges have traffic lights that you as a cyclist is allowed to activate before you cross the bridge to warn motorist of your presence on the bridge or in a tunnel.Some bridges have just too much traffic on them and we opt to walk over the ones that do not have a big shoulder on the side.

Yeaaah we have a fire going. We decided to camp mostly at State parks , because they just have the most beautiful campsites and they have special hiker/biker sites that only cost $5 per  person/night.
Our first camp in Washington state was at Cranberry Lake State park. We heard the most incredible loud noise at about 11pm and did not know what it was till we realized that we are only 10km away from Oak Harbour a Military basis with lots of Fighter jets showing off their power. We both love planes and the noise did not bother us. Interesting enough it was one of the campsites that we heard the most different kind of birds in all of our tour.
Maybe the birds were trying to make up for all the noise of the planes.The next day was Independance day( July 4th) and it is always a good time to be in the USA and see the patriotism and display of power. We cycled  through Oak Harbour and was happy to see the display of fighter jets cutting through the sky , nothing that gives me more goosebumps than that. We end up stopping at the best coffee shop in Washington its called Widbury's coffee bar. Two guys on a tandem saw us cycling and decided to come and tell us about all the great things we can see in that area , we truly appreciated their enthusiasm for promoting their town.

Coupeville was the best looking town to us in Washington but we came across this sign on the roof of the pub at the waterfront that said keep off roof and just had to laugh about that because you must be really drunk or stupid to get on the roof in the first place.

Camp at a little town called Quilchene on July 4th and what a night. Everybody who has a gun was celebarating and we heard so many gun shots throughout the evening and decided to just stay at the campsite and lay low in case of stray bullets. We heard all kinds of gunshots from  handguns to fully automatic rifles that shoot many bullets per round and  I am just wondering where do all those bullets end? Every night when we camped we could not believe that all the stuff  that you see in the picture was on our bike.

We cycled the next day to Shelton and stopped in Hoodsport where we ate at a beautiful Mexican restaurant on the water. This part of our tour was not fun , the road did not have any shoulder and we had two close encounters with logging trucks that almost ran us off the road. This was a very warming , charming town and the color of the ocean was just so beautifull.



The town of Shelton one of only 3 nights in a hotel so that we can wash our clothes and catch up on emails .

 

 

 

 

Stay at a beautiful bikers/hikers camp spot at Two Harbour State Park in Westport and ate the best clamchowder at the Fish Shack. We did a total of 128.5km of cycling today.

 

 

 A beautiful old Movie Theater in Raymond

 Sleep at a very good KOA campground in Bay Center. Andre took some time off after fixing yet another spoke on one of our wheels.Andre made the canvass bags between the frame on our tandem and it worked like a charm. It was really unbelievable how much things we could fit in those compartments. Many cyclist were asking us where we bought the bags and were really disappointed when we told them that it was selfmade and no we do not take any orders.

 Cross the 7km bridge behind me over the Columbia river  on our way to Astoria. The last part of the bridge is very steep and we had to peddle very hard to make sure we don't delay the traffic too much because they were working on the bridge and had to alternate the lanes on the bridge.

Stayed at a Hotel in Seaside , our first town on the Oregon coast. Just to take a bath and sleep on a mattress after one week of camping, the ultimate luxury when you are on a cycling tour .

Seaside has a beautiful beach and it is also a very big tourist town so we got the feeling of a nice summer holiday at the beach like it was when we were children. Many fond memories of playing frisbee and body surf with cousins at the beach  came to mind.

The town in Oregon that recieved the number one spot on our list is Cannon beach. All the buildings have the same building code and it reminded us of Banff .

 The Oregon coast is very beautiful and throughout the coast are these misterious rock formations scattered along the coastline on the beaches. Look at the flag TAILWINDS DO EXCIST!!!!

 A very friendly runner wanted to take our picture with Cannon beach in the background.

We had to go through a few of these very scary tunnels , luckily all of them has a traffic light that cyclist can trigger before you enter the tunnel to indicate that you are going through to motorist.We were very lucky and had only one time that we were in the tunnel while cars were passing us.Some of them are very long and the noise inside when cars were passing was incredibly loud.

 So many beautiful beaches along the Oregon coast that are protected from any development and preserved as state parks.The Oregon coastline is one of a kind in the percentage of protected coastline  from development in the USA. 

   

 Andre busy repairing another broken spoke in front of Safeway , while I am filling up on food supplies.

 

 

 

 This picture of Cape Lookout beach was taken at 9pm 10 steps from our campsite . Just beautiful!!!

 This was one of the many beautiful Stateparks in Oregon  - Cape Lookout Statepark. Stayed at a biker/hiker campsite $5 pp with the beach 10 steps from our campsite.Stop about 2km before this camp at a Mexican restourant and ate the best Marionberry pie and ice cream with Carona beer. Weird combination but it was all worth it after 120km of cycling for the day.

 

 

Had to climb a steep mountain of 5km long the next morning but was rewarded with this view on our campground the previous night.

 

Sleep at the Beverly State park after a hard day of cycling 100km and 3 very steep mountain passes , climb in total 1800vt. The landscape was very surprising on our way .Sand Lake is a lake full of sand and not water . The landscape at Sand Lake changes from lush forest to desert sanddunes in almost 5km. Dramatic changes from forest to sanddunes and then back to forest and the beautiful Beverly State park where we camp. Andre took this picture of our tentsites right in the middle of a beautiful lush forest with little creeks and streams everywhere.



 

 

Cycled a total 105km today . The bridge in Newport is impressive and we decided to be safe and push the bike over the bridge. Stayed at one of the most beautiful parks the Jessie . M. Honeyman State park. We met a real survivor type of guy who also stayed at the hikers/bikers site with us. He told us he walked 37km that day with a backpack that is too heavy for me to pick up. We had a blast with this guy , he made a fire out of nothing within minutes and was telling us some interesting stories of his time in the military in Africa and Vietnam. Took a picture of this squirrel literally 1meter from us , calmly eating on something.

Cycled 106km today and stayed at Sunset Bay State park. Came across this beautiful Veteran Memorial with yet another impressive bridge over the ocean before we reached North Bend.  I forgot my bike gloves at Taco Bell in North Bend and a friendly American woman were going out of her way looking for us to give it to me , she found us 15km further  down the road at DQ .We ate the best breakfast today at the Harbour light caffe at Reedspoort. We saw the evidence of the downturn in the economy when we pass through a few towns that turned into ghost towns.

Look at Andre's nice bike helmet suntan!!!!!

 

 

Cycled 99km today and stayed at Humbug Mountain State Park. Luckily this day turn out to be a very fun day for us , if we take into account that it started with a broken chain 2.5km from our campsite and after Andre fixed  it had to tackle the seven devils rd. that is very steep. It was also on this road  that we had to peddle very fast to get away from two Rottweilers chasing us .We stopped at a very cute town called Langlois where Andre could sit on the bench and wave at people .We had a very strong tailwind , which is almost unheard of in cycling but it sure made the cycling so much fun today . This was our last night sleeping in a tent and we both feel sad that our tour is soon coming to  an end.

 

The beautiful rock formations on Oregon beaches.

We cycled 85km today and Brookings is where our tour of the Pacific Northwest coast for 2012 ended.We saw some beautiful scenery today and the 12 days of cycling went by way to fast for both of us. Stayed in a Hotel tonight so that we can pack our tandem in two boxes( made with bike boxes and good oll' duck tape) ready to be flown with us back to Canada.

On our way back home we were rewarded with this beautiful view of Okanagan lake and could clearly see our neighbourhood . After all the beautiful scenery that we saw during our tour we were just in awe of the beautiful place where we are fortunate to live.

Back home with all our luggage and bike in two boxes and two paniers.

A once in a lifetime experience cycling the Pacific Northwest Coast .!!!!!



Only 2 days left and it is hard to say goodbye !!!!

Mama Bryan who took us up the mountain said that she is not saying goodbye she is saying "see you later". We never though that it was possible to fall in love with people and now we know what it mean to love  like it hurts . It is easy because they don't ask for anything just that we would pray for them till we meet again. Andre and I do not have enough words to describe all our experiences and emotions and it all have to do with relationships that we formed . We are humbled by what we have learned from them through their pure , blind faith in Jesus , their acceptance of death and struggles as part of life and their hope and believe in a better tomorrow . There is so many Bible verses that have new meaning in our lives but if there is one that I have to say that stands out for me it has to be Philippians 3:20 " But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body."
I visited the orphanage yesterday with Laura ,permanent missionary here with her husband Bill - the Orthopaedic / Urology / General / Plastic Surgeon , and 2 of the medical students. It is a 45 minute walk to the orphanage and when I say walk I mean "very fast" walk because everybody who lives here walks very fast and it is as if they don't even see the hills anymore. Laura was in front and the 3 of us were huffing and puffing to stay with her. The orphanage is at a beautiful spot and the view from there is just breathtaking !!!. There are 12 children at the moment and they range fom 7 to  18 years old . These children are just unbelievable, they have a very big piece of land that has to be cultivated and harvested every season with corn crops. That they also have their own , sheep, chickens and vegetable garden to be able to sustain themselves. They also have a  watertank that is a huge plus in this area and meant that they don't have to look for water everyday. The local school is also on the same piece of property and therefore very close and convenient.Laura and Bill also started an education fund for these children and they have success stories of children who have become lawyers, aircraft mechanics, nurses and a doctor.  These children are very well fed but the one thing that they need the most is a permanent stable couple who could be mom and dad. They currently have Ruth , a beautiful Kenyan woman who takes care of them but if somebody gets sick  she has to walk with them to the hospital and  has to leave the other children all alone at home. They had multiple people taking care of them in the past and some were not as caring and consistent as what they would love to have.There is a very close bond between the younger  and the older children who takes the responsibility to be like a father or mother for them. While we were there they sang a beautiful song of Jesus' love for us , it was also Good Friday  and hopefully the internet will let me post it for you.

Laura with Christine and Jamesm(medical students) with the children.

Farming with chickens and sheep

Very important watertank