Tour De La Dead V2

65 miles

My friend and I woke up this morning to the sound of tsunami warnings. It scared the crap out of me, and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I got up and went to the beach to admire Haystack Rock again before we left. We continued further south along the Pacific coast. It was the first sunny day in about four days, so we were pretty excited. I thought being on the coast meant it would be flat, but I was wrong.

We eventually made it to Tillamook, OR. Apparently, it’s home to some good ice cream, but I didn’t know this until after we had passed. We had lunch at a '50s diner where we met our first bike tourists of the trip, a German father and daughter traveling from Seattle to San Diego.

After lunch, we headed off to Pacific City, which was 25 miles away. We left Tillamook and took a backroad called Elkloff Road. It was the worst road I’ve ever seen—ripped to shreds with huge hills and cut-down trees everywhere. The hills were so bad we had to walk up for about 15 minutes. As soon as we came out of the road, we saw the Germans from before. They had taken a detour that avoided the road we went on. I wouldn’t trade it, though; it was a memorable experience.

We were about 15 miles out from Pacific City, near a state park, when things started to get hilly. We had to climb for 3 miles up a steep gradient. After that, it was all downhill, and we saw some sweet sand dunes in the middle of the forest. On our descent, we saw an older man trying to fix a flat tire on his bike. He didn’t know what he was doing, so we helped him out.

During this time, I noticed my friend seemed different. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he had a lot of emotions regarding the trip. I told him we could talk more about it once we got settled at our campsite for the night. We eventually got to the county park where we were spending the night. The host recommended we stay at state parks going forward since Oregon and California state parks have campsites for hikers and bikers that range from $5-10.

Once we got settled, my friend told me he couldn’t do it anymore and wanted to go home. His knee was starting to bother him more, and he was getting homesick too. I told him to stick it out a little longer before making a decision. Maybe after a bit, he would get adjusted to the lifestyle and want to continue. I called my mom and told her about the situation, and she said if he leaves, she wants me to come home too. She doesn’t want me to do the Nevada section of my dad’s trip by myself, which I agreed with.

I walked along the nearby beach, weighing my options if my friend quits. I went back to camp and went to bed, questioning if I will continue this journey.