Day 80: 86 Miles

Eugene, OR to Florence, OR

The goal for today was simple, pedal for as long as it took to get to the Pacific Ocean. I left the motel around 7:30 and got onto a bike path that took me from the center of Eugene to the outskirts of the city. It was a nicely paved bike path, but nothing great it terms of scenery until I got back onto a real road. I headed north for a few miles and saw some hills to the west. Getting over those hills was my last obstacle to reaching the coast.

I got onto route 36, where I would ride for most of the day. It was a nice road that followed Lake Creek into the Siuslaw River, which eventually flowed into the ocean in Florence. There was some climbing today as I went from Eugene at 430 feet elevation up to 1,100 feet elevation, before dropping all the way down to sea level. The morning started out cool and the hills weren’t too bad to start. I got to mile 27 a took my first break of the day at Low Pass. There was a nice cafe where I ordered the Loggers breakfast, which was the biggest breakfast plate on the menu. The French toast, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 sausages and large serving of potatoes filled me up and fueled me for the rest of the morning. I encountered the largest climb of the day shortly after leaving the cafe and then the riding was fairly easy from there.

From the top of the climb there were mostly rolling hills trending downhill the rest of the day. I kept riding at a decent pace until I reached a place for lunch around mile 50. I made a quick stop for a burger and fries and then got back on the road to finish out the day. At mile 62 I reached the end of route 36 and took another break for a Gatorade. It was 14 miles from this stopping point to the town of Florence. The road followed the river all the way into town and at mile 76 I had entered Florence.

Once in Florence the goal was to get to the water. This was a little more difficult then I had hoped. The Siuslaw river works as a barrier between the town and the ocean, so I had to travel several miles north to get to a point with beach access. Of course there was a 25 mph headwind to end the day, so it took a huge effort to keep moving north. By the time I reached the beach I was exhausted, but I still had to get my bike to the water. It was a long walk to get to the beach and pushing a loaded bike through the sand is not an easy task. I decided to ditch my bags and take the bike unloaded to the water. This made it easier, but there was still a strong wind blasting sand at me, along with a thick fog that made it hard to see more than 10 feet in front of me.

The pictures from the coast today weren’t great, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that 80 days ago I dragged my bike through the sand in Coney Island into the Atlantic Ocean and today I dragged that same bike through the sand into the Pacific Ocean. That completed my coast to coast trip. Tomorrow I’ve got 50 miles up the coast to get to Newport where I will ship my bike and bags back to the east coast. It is supposed to be a beautiful stretch of coast, so I’m hoping to get some better pictures tomorrow.