| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 13.7 | 17.1 mph | 35.0 mph | 4:59:25 | 3200 feet |
Today is an optional ride day, and Jada's birthday. I sent Jada a text when I got up letting her know where to find her birthday gift. I woke up around 5:30am. It was foggy and a bit chilly. I gave Ellen the option of staying in bed, but she got up too. Breakfast was eggs, sausage, pancakes, and cream of wheat. Ellen had never had cream of wheat before, and she didn't prefer it. We got on the road by 7am since we didn't have to pack up. We started out in the wrong direction with a group of other cyclists. We made it a few blocks before turning around and finding that we were supposed to head out the other side of the park. The coast looked ghostly through the fog and mist as we rolled along Beach Loop road passed the views of the sea stacks that looked like something out of Tatooine's landscape. We didn't get any pictures since Ellen's hands were too cold to take out of her gloves to work the camera. On the bright side, we had a great tail wind breeze giving us a little boost. After a couple miles, the Beach Loop road put us on highway 101 where we stayed most of the rest of the day. The shoulder was pretty narrow and rough over the first few miles of 101, but it smoothed out and widened after a time.
The first rest stop in Langois was reached in good time. It was in the parking lot of the library which Ellen loved. The people there had a good time talking to Ellen. She got to meet Cowboy who does the daily site coordinations for rest stops and dinner. I helped Ellen put her booties on since her feet had started getting cold before we left again. I also put a shower cap over her helmet to help keep the heat from escaping her head. It seemed to help her. Since this was an option day ride, there were no lines at the rest stop. That meant we didn't spend as much time off the bike letting our legs get cold which is always good.
The next stop was a 12 miles detour off highway 101 to visit Cape Blanco which is the farthest point west in Oregon, and it has a lighthouse that we could have visited had we been there an hour later. There was a nasty climb up to the bluff where the lighthouse sits, but there was a great view as the fog had mostly blown off. However, along with the wind was the cold. It seemed like it may have been in the 40's with the wind chill. We elected not to wait the 45 minutes until the light house opened. On the way back up to Highway 101, we passed Ellen's new friend just heading the opposite direction. When we saw them later in the day, they said that they waited for the lighthouse tour. Thanks to the tailwind, we were in Port Orford before we knew it. We were sustaining 25 mph on the way into town. The route to lunch took us up a short climb which opened onto a terrific view of the ocean. The sun had also come out, so though it was cool, it was at least clear as we enjoyed our lunch of roast beef wraps. Ellen's lunch was spoiled a bit by the fact that a bee had decided to come follow her around. She got very flustered and teary before moved to a different part of the wall to escape the increasingly forward bee. Luckily, it didn't follow us down to the other end so Ellen could calm herself down.
We were back on the road by 11am, and the fabulous tail wind we had had all morning was now, of course, a headwind to fight all the way back to Bandon on highway 101. Luckily, though it was strong, it wasn't as bad as it could have been once we got away from the coast a bit and into the trees. The wind was cool, but the sun was warm creating a conundrum about how best to layer for the return trip. At the ODS rest stop on the return, I finally decided to go ahead and take off my jacket. However, as we approached Bandon through the Cranberry bogs, the fog and mist had settled back in around camp, and it was quite chilly again. On the way through town, we past a post office that was open, and I was finally able to get our postcard stamps.
While I'm thinking about it, I forgot that yesterday, we stopped by the OSU extension services table on the way to dinner to learn about the cranberry bogs. What we learned was that they dig out these sections of land and tier them. Then they plant the cranberry bushes under a layer of peat, sand, and more peat. The cranberry bush is more of a small shrub that was just sticking up through the peat when we were cycling through them this week. In October is when they do the harvest. This is when they flood the upper tiers, and taking advantage of the fact that the cranberry floats, they agitate the bushes with a device that knocks the berries off the branches to float to the surface. This is what is seen in the Ocean Spray adds. Once they siphon off the cranberries from the upper bog, they pump the water from that one to the next conserving water eventually in a lower holding pond to re-use for other things. I found the whole explanation quite interesting. Ellen, not so much. However, she did like the free samples of cranberry juice and craisens they were giving out.
Anyway, we got back into camp around 1pm. There was no line at the shower this time. The sun was starting to come back out so I hung up everything on the tent. Then we walked up the road to the beach. Ellen was running around past all these people from the ride. When we past one older couple as Ellen ran skipping past, I said, "you'd never guess she rode 70 miles today." These people obviously didn't even ride at all on the option day, and they were surprised. We were out on Coquille Point where we could see Face Rock (it looks like a face just sticking out of the water), Cat with Kittens, and Elephant Rock to name a few of the bigger features. Then we walked back up the stairs to the bluff overlooking the beach to read the information plaques.
When we got back to camp, Ellen found her friend again to play, and I met her dad. They played on the playground all afternoon until dinner avoiding all the clothes that people had hanging up. I charged up my phone with my solar charger. We had left Jada a message at Port Orford wishing her Happy Birthday. I managed to squeeze as much batter life out of my phone as I could by leaving it in airplane mode most of the time. We went on over to dinner where we had a big ol' slab of ham, potatoes, vegetable salad, and lemon mousse cake. We stayed up late to hear announcements and so Ellen could see Bike Rodeo. That's where all the bike mechanics get to cut loose and mess around. Events include Foot Down, bike limbo, track stand, figure 8, and finally bike joust where the finale involved flaming lances. Most events had the main purpose of forcing the opposing riders off their bikes. Ellen thought Bike Rodeo was the best thing ever. We were in bed by 8:45pm, so not too terrible. The band was also much better. Ellen made a good distinction between the bands, and I hope I'm remembering it correctly to say the rock and roll band forced you to listen to it whereas the blues band this night invited you to listen if you wanted to.
Continue to day 5.