It’s been a bit since I toured the Pacific Coast, three years ago to be exact. While biking US 101 isn’t the bestest of on-bike experiences, the scenery makes it epic. After last month’s tour down the Willamette Valley, I knew I wanted another longer ride this summer. I wasn’t that up for bikepacking, especially with the fire situation. Plus, Emee wanted to come along. Why not the coast again?
Today we’ll be taking the bus to Tillamook and point our bikes southward. We’ll make it all the way down to Florence on Sunday night, then take a bus to Eugene and Amtrak home. The one big change for this tour is short days. I’ve designed it that no day will be more than 35 miles in length.1 This means we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the sights. We’ll be camping for three of the nights and staying in motels for the other two.
It would be nice to go south of Florence and hit up territory I haven’t biked since my big Coast Tour in 2006. But south of Florence the transit back home is limited-to-non-existent at least until we get really far into Northern California. We don’t have the time this time, but hopefully at some point. And it’s not all bad that we can’t go further south, as we’ll be riding my favorite stretch of the Central Oregon Coast, Newport to Florence.
I don’t know if I’ll be blogging during the tour, but I will most likely have some updates on flickr and/or Instagram. I should be journaling this trip like I did the last one, so I hope to be able to share those entries as I go.
1I know that I also designed my Willamette Valley Tour around this concept, yet days ended up being longer. But with the coast and its one prescribed route, it’s a lot easier to figure out distances.
Urban Adventure League 
The OR Coast! Always a good time. Hope the crowds aren’t like they’ve been here. And the smoke isn’t bad.