Beverly Beach State Park to Yachats

Caption from top: Pelicans and other sea birds on rock by lighthouse, View from lighthouse, Yaquina Head lighthouse
Beverly Beach State Park to Yachats 10/25/09
Day 9- 35 miles

Beverly Beach is a great campground along the Oregon Coast. It has the nicest showers amenities of any campground we have stayed at yet. The showers are each in their own individual room, and they get hot! For some reason we were out of camp almost an hour earlier than normal this morning, but we didn't even get up any earlier. Within a short distance, a lingering pain in my (Greg) knee started to flair up. I am dragging a bunch of weight up these hills and the strain on my quads is pulling upward very hard on the top of my knees. My right knee had a sharp pain on every hard down stroke of the pedal, so hills were quite painful. I was basically trying to pedal with one leg.

We stopped after about 5-6 miles at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. This is the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, about 140 feet. Surprisingly, we were allowed to go to the top and even check out the lantern. This was a very old lighthouse, 1860's I believe, and the lantern and reflecting unit is all original. The lens is a type one, the biggest type, and it is a Fresnel style lens. Fresnel was a guy who invented this type of lens, similar to car lenses, that concentrate a glow of light into a beam. The lighthouse lens was very intricate, there are over 100 separate pieces. The whole things was pretty cool to see.

We stopped in Newport because my knee hurt and my appetite was already voracious. We found a nice little lunch spot with some wireless internet so we could work on the blog. We loaded up on food and I loaded up on Ibuprofen and off we went. Between Newport and Seal Rock the weather deteriorated to very intermittent rain and mist, but it was still very manageable. At Seal Rock we stopped for a lunch of avocado and cheese sandwiches. A nice old man told us we like migrating birds on our way South for the winter. Just as we were leaving Dani spotted seals feeding in the surf. Seal Rock lived up to its name!

We stopped for groceries and gas in Waldport. In Oregon, it is illegal to fill your car or any vessel with fuel. An attendant must do it for you. So, it was quite funny to hand the attendant our 22 ounce stove fuel bottle and ask him to fill it. The total purchase was $0.37 at $2.79 per gallon. Funny. A peculiar thing about the Oregon coast; there are many towns all along the way, but few of them have actual grocery stores. Instead they have little markets, which are great, but they don't always have everything we need. In Waldport we went to two stores for four items. Oh well, better way to see the town.

We left Waldport and rode a bit further to Yachats, then a little beyond that. Dani had said she wanted to stop at the next campground for the night, and we found Cape Perpetua campground. This campground is run by the National Forest Service and it is also closed for the year. There was a road closed sign and gate, but we easily wheeled our bikes under the gate. We thought great, free campsite, and made camp.

Greg