After our little break at The Screamin Eagle campsite we drove one. But before we went back on the 101, we drove the first 7km from the campsite to the next town on the beach. That was super fun, and very scary with so much luggage haha. But we did well, and didn’t fall over anymore. Our bikes are made for this and we did a one-day off-road course before we went on this trip. Then back on the highway 101 and via the longest bridge in North America we exchanged the state of Washington for the state of Oregon.
After a night at an almost empty campsite by the sea, we drove further south at the height of Portland. The landscape changed more and more from dense forests in Washington with an occasional glimpse of the sea, to rugged cliffs with views of the sea and huge sandy beaches. Everywhere cute coastal towns with surf shops and trendy bars. Sometimes you do not realize how high up you are and then the road takes a bend and suddenly you have a beautiful view from dizzying height, wow! We hadn’t planned so well, so we arrived at the height of Portland in the weekend. Everything was full. The only camping with free places was Kelly’s Crab Marine park, a camping / harbor / tourist attraction where they rented out boats so you could catch your own giant crab and eat it yourself. Everything was crab there, even the receptionist had a crab hat on his head. As vegetarians, not our favorite kind of place haha. Next to us stood a +/- 20-headed Mexican family with a goat on a collar. Anyway, despite the fact that there was a strong smell of fish all day, it actually was a nice and cozy place. And because everything in the area was full, we just stayed there until the weekend was over.
We do have a slight frustration. We see all these beautiful beaches with lots of fantastic swell all day long. But almost no surfers! We really don’t get it! The only place we’ve seen surfers was up on a cliff near Manzanita, where they first have to walk 2 miles down with board, and therefore also up again, pfff. Now there will probably be a very good pointbreak, but still .. In Scheveningen it would have been completely filled with surfers, in the waves that we see here everywhere. You do see a lot of surf shops so there has to be some surf activity around .. The next frustration is of course that we see these beautiful waves all day long and we don’t have a surfboard ourselves. But who knows, we might find a rack for Eriks motorbike somewhere .. we have already looked around a bit.
After Kelly’s Crab Paradise we were eager to ride a nice long stretch because we didn’t make a lot of miles the last week. So further on the 101 along all beautiful beaches, cliffs and villages. Had lunch on a beach where Erik tried to photograph surfing seals while I took a nap on a washed up tree trunk. Then drove on and stopped in a parking lot where a bunch people were looking at something. Yes, right below us were two gray whales in the water. So cool again! Now we have seen a total of 3 different species of whales. What a luck! Searching for a campsite was again a small drama, but just when I suggested to look for a motel instead, we found the most beautiful campsite to date. Just off the road in a very dark forest, next to a small stream in the Siuslaw National Forest. There we met the very friendly Shaun, who was also on the campsite with his family. He lives in a town an hour inwards and knew everything about the area. By the way, he himself had seen quite a bit of the world, say everything, except China. And he gave us tips for along the way to San Fransico so we have something to do haha.
The next morning I got a self-picked bunch of wildflowers from Erik. How sweet! My favorite kind of flowers. Then we hiked the Hobbits trail near the campsite to a beautiful beach. Beautiful walk but next time no longer in full motorbike suit and boots please. Going down is fun and it’s only 1 mile or so, so we didn’t feel like taking that suit and boots off again. But in the full sun going up again was a bit exhausting .. By the way I have now completely adapted to Erik’s new photography hobby. In addition to my wildlife guide, I now also have a plant / tree and flower guide. So if I have to wait another century somewhere because he wants to take the perfect picture of that one bird, I just take my guide and see if I can find out what is growing around us. And secretly I like it a lot hihi.
Our good intentions to make some more milesa in a day immediately went overboard again. There is just too much to see. After the Hobbits trail we came across another beach with pelicans and also a rock full of sea lions. The road then went through an area with enormous sand dunes. There were signs that you could play in it with your motorcycle. So we immediately sought a campsite (only 30km from the previous haha) But unfortunately. It seemed more beautiful than it was. You had to buy an expensive permit and you were allowed 2 years. But since we weren’t sure if it was even possible with our bikes, because usually you need lighter bikes (250) for sand that is that loose, we decided to pass. That was until we saw a sandboard rental. So rented a board and played the rest of the afternoon in the dunes. And that was pretty nice. No it was not like having a thick layer of powder snow to snowboard through, as the boy at the rental shop made us believe, rather comparable to thick, wet, dirty snow that you have to plow through. And you have to drag your board back upon the dune after every descent. But it was definitely fun and you can practice your snowboard tricks as it goes less fast, haha. This morning we tried to sandboard again but the rain did not make it successful. The shop owner sent us outside again to brush the mud off the board, oops. The campsite was beautiful and there was a shower again, jeej. In the evening we made music in front of our campfire to the great pleasure of the neighbors and also looked at countless stars (and photographed them so that you too can enjoy it a bit) We saw a new kind of squirrel, in addition to the douglas squirrel, chipmunks and gray squirrels also the California ground squirrel.
Today we are in a motel after all. We had already heard from Shaun that it would rain and storm. So this time we did plan in advance and booked a motel. Until now he was right, it has rained all day today. Because we still wanted to drive a bit and are not entirely made out of sugar (is that an English expression too?), we had booked the hotel 70 km away. That turned out to be more than enough. We arrived completely drowned. Fortunately, we have good motorbike clothing, although it appears that it is not completely watertight in some places. The tent, which we had to pack wet this morning, hangs to dry over the bathroom door and everywhere our motorbike clothes are hanging and to dry. Tomorrow it’s going to storm, so there won’t be much driving probably. Oh well .. that’s how it goes sometimes! There we are with our good intentions of making more miles. We are only 2,5 hour drive from the Redwood forest on the border with the state of California. The giant sequoia trees are there, they must be fantastic, so we are really looking forward to that!
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