Yachats to Carl B Washburn State Park

Captions from the top: Greg Writing the blog in the yurt, Yurt ceiling, yurt wall, yurt bed, Crazy mushrooms!, salamander.
Yachats to Carl G. Washburn Memorial State Park 10/26/09
Day 10- 10 miles


In the middle of the night, the rain really started coming down at the Cape Perpetua Campground. At a little after 7:00 am we were both starting to stir when our alarms went off. Minutes later I thought heard a vehicle coming down the road, the closed road. Oh God, I thought, this is going to be bad. The vehicle approached and didn't sound like it was slowing down, it had just gone past our camp and I thought we might be in the clear when I heard the brakes come on hard. The vehicle went into reverse and then pulled straight so that the headlights were bearing down upon us. Then, the horn started to honk, on-off, on-off, on-off. "Dani," I said, "You stay in here I will go talk to him." Before I could get out of my sleeping bag and look out of the tent lights started flashing and I heard a car door open and close. "Are you awake?" a male voice yelled angrily. "Yes," I called back. At this point the man was standing outside but the tent fly was closed so I couldn't see him. "What do you think you are doing here? This is a closed campground," the man huffed angrily. "Well," I said, "The sign said road closed but we didn't see a sign that said the campground was closed." "Oh give me a break,." He barked back. "Do you know you are messing with the Federal Government? Pack up and get out of here!" With that he got back in his truck and drove away. We quickly got dressed and picked up camp in the rain. I am happy to report that this little run in led to our fastest camp take-down time ever; 40 minutes! At least I am being positive.

As soon as we hit the road on our bikes, the heavens opened and rain really started to come down. I think we would have been drier if we jumped into the ocean. The wind was coming straight from the South into our faces sometimes gusting easily up to 30 mph and maybe more. Needless to say, our progress was somewhat hampered by environmental conditions. We made hay to the little town of Searose Beach hoping for breakfast and a warm dry place to sit, but there were none. We continued to ride and the rain continued to hammer down. Now I see how this place receives 90 inches of precipitation per year. We finally arrived at the Carl Washburn State Park and by luck they had a yurt, or little circle shaped cabin, up for rent. We snatched it up and decided to take the rest of the day off and it has been a good choice. It has rained all day long. Sometimes the rain slows a bit, but it is always raining. Oddly, there has even been some lightning and thunder. We, however, have been staying nice and warm and dry in our yurt. These cool little huts have heaters and nice wood floors. A great place to spend a rainy day reading and going through our gear. Hopefully we can make some big miles in the next few days to come and get out of this beautiful, but rainy place.

Greg