LOADING
A Ride along the Coast
Shirt before I left Portland an Invitation from California. Thanksgiving with friends, cool! So I changed my plans, canceled my trip north to see the 30 years ago exploded Mt. St Helens and started cycling south.
The day I left Portland was the Day of the Elections. It was quite in the streets, the way out of Portland was easy, always following bike paths. South in Oregon City I could use an elevator. In the middle of the City it connects the higher parts with the riverside. They call it a Street and is the only vertical in the world. Every spot on this planet has it´s specialities.
The Day after ididm´t know anything about the election cause I slept in the wild. When I cycled through the countryside I tried to read from the faces of the people. The most of them were smiling so I calculated with a win of Hillary. As i entered a Shop around noon a smiling guy looked at me from the Newspaper with a sentence around his face „Trump elected 45. President“. That was too much for the moment. The rest of the day the people were in good mood, buisness as usual. The next days people I met excused for the Election, no one I´ve talked to was happy about the thing. But if thats right, who elected him? strange…
Next destination was Eugene, there I wanted to meet Tony again. I met him in Portland where stayed with my Host too. The second day I arrived and from there I went on to the coast. Back to the Pacific that I waved a farewell in Homer 4 Months ago.
The Coast is wild, Spray is in the Air, the Ocean is beating on the Cliffs and a constant roaring is in the air. Mighty Nature out here. Around Reitsport where I reached the coast Oregons Dunes are situated. Kilometers of Dunes along the coast, dozens of meters high. Impressing!
From there I followed the coast or cycled through the backcountry. Weather was stabile but the wind blowed constantly from the south and made cycling a little bit exhausting.
The only Highlight except the gorgeous Nature were the idyllic Harbor villages. With a lots of Effort they renovated the Buildings and that gives these places a cozy charm.
A rainy day brought an Invitation to a christian Mission. There a lot of them around. They try to bring Homeless People back into society. Lessons and Praying with food and accommodation is their Plan for a better future. The People running this place are enthusiastic and it´s great to see their Power at work.In the Crescent City Gospel Mission a dozen Men are living. After a few hours of pouring rain I went on to the Border of Oregon.
Short after i crossed into California the Forest was welcoming me. Not just a forest, it were the Redwood Coastal Rainforests.The biggest Trees on this Planet are growing here in the Rainforests near the Coast. You can feel the mystic Mood and mighty Power around here. Little Roads winding through the trees and so yuóu are cycling through a forest of incredible high pilars, until 100m high in the sky and up to 1800 years old.
There is a lot of touristic stuff around there, like the drive thru tree and the undestructible one… A lots of ways to get the Money out of the visitors pocket. They also made it with me, I paid a dollar to cycle through the tree ;-)
After that I came back to the coast and followed the californian Highway 1 on narrow and winding roads southwards. I left the Coast and cycled up the Russian River to Sebastopol to park the bike for a while and celebrate Thanksgiving with Jessie, Doug and their Family. I met this two guys up in Alaska, we stayed in contact the last months and at the end they invited me. Thanksgiving in America is all about Food and Thankfulness. Beautiful tradition.
Here i rested for some days before I started a new adventure, this time without m bike that got a well-earned break for it in the Greenhouse of the Farm. What happened to em the upcoming days I will tell you the next time…