Cannon Beach Bonzai!
My plans to go camping and climbing with Andreas et al. this weekend were somewhat cramped by the University mail conversion this weekend. I couldn't leave until Saturday afternoon. I talked to my friend Gwynne in Portland, and she was planning to go surfing on the coast and could not find anyone to go with her either, so I decided to give that a shot.
It was hot in the valley, and once we got to the coast it was at least 20 degrees cooler. Very nice. Unfortunately, Cannon Beach was socked in with fog. Well, I say unfortunately, but we had brought mountain bikes as a backup, and decided to ride those instead. We found a trail that was clearly marked "no bikes" and rode that. Gwynne was initially paranoid about getting a fine until I reassured her that since it was my bone-headed idea, I would pay any fine. She relaxed and enjoyed herself.
Well, initially I'm not sure how much either of us enjoyed ourselves. The trail went straight up at an unrelenting pace, and we gained at least 1000ft of elevation in a little over a mile. There was a hike-in camp at the top, which we have to remember for some future visit: it had little shelters and such, and since it was a hike to get to it, it wasn't full, even on Labor Day weekend! Score.
So now came the really fun part of the ride: going down. The trail was a loop. The part we went up was on the back side of the cliffs that are exposed to the ocean, and as we climbed out of the fog it got seriously warm...of course the pedalling was adding to our heat generation. We had already peeled our outer two layers and were sweating.
We went down the trial on the cliff side, and it was a blast. I am sure I just about wore out my brakes. Once we descended into the fog it was even better. We cooled down very quickly, and the views were spectacular (we could not see the ocean for the fog, but the old growth forest looked really neat, and there were some really big trees).
We finished our evening with a picnic at the beach, and then headed for our camp. Gwynne, knows some people on the coast whose private driveway ends past their house at the top of 100 foot cliffs over the ocean. So, we drove there and set up camp. We still had a lot of fog, but we could see the sky, and it was nice to have solitude on a holiday weekend. The drive ended a good 100 yards past the house and around a corner, so it was like having our own private campground. The only downside was the dog poo: the owners have two big dogs. Gwynne managed to "stumble" onto some while setting up the tent.
Once we were set, we cooked tapioca pudding and read stories from "Surely You Must be Joking, Mr. Feynman". We're both such Physics geeks.
I didn't sleep so well: my bag was too warm for the air temperature, but it was too cool not to have it. Also, the grass or something made it difficult for me to breathe. I was half dead when we got up Sunday morning, and was not necessarily looking forward to being in cold water.
We got up, ate, and headed for the beach. It was nice and sunny, and we had two body boards, a surf board, and wet suits. The wet suit was very warm, and I didn't end up feeling cold at all. In fact, Gwynne took the thinner one, and she got cold well before I could even tell the water was cool. We later realized that we had gone body boarding last labor day weekend on my birthday, and we were about to start a tradition, since it was again my birthday...funny, it being annual and all.
I had never been surfing, but as I watched Gwynne, it didn't seem all that hard. After a little while I figured I better give it a try. I caught five waves, and managed to stand up on the board three out of the five times! I got some mad balancing skills...
By about 1pm we were exhausted, and Gwynne needed to be back in Portland by five, so we packed up and headed east. We found another nice mountain biking trail on the way, and stopped to check it out. It was a bit rougher that the one from Saturday, and not as pretty, but still a hell of a lot of fun. It was another steep uphill battle, followed by a downhill blitz. Definitely time to get new brake pads now. I noticed this morning that my handlebars are also misaligned...like I said, it was rough. I slept about 12 hours last night.
Today: rest day.
It was hot in the valley, and once we got to the coast it was at least 20 degrees cooler. Very nice. Unfortunately, Cannon Beach was socked in with fog. Well, I say unfortunately, but we had brought mountain bikes as a backup, and decided to ride those instead. We found a trail that was clearly marked "no bikes" and rode that. Gwynne was initially paranoid about getting a fine until I reassured her that since it was my bone-headed idea, I would pay any fine. She relaxed and enjoyed herself.
Well, initially I'm not sure how much either of us enjoyed ourselves. The trail went straight up at an unrelenting pace, and we gained at least 1000ft of elevation in a little over a mile. There was a hike-in camp at the top, which we have to remember for some future visit: it had little shelters and such, and since it was a hike to get to it, it wasn't full, even on Labor Day weekend! Score.
So now came the really fun part of the ride: going down. The trail was a loop. The part we went up was on the back side of the cliffs that are exposed to the ocean, and as we climbed out of the fog it got seriously warm...of course the pedalling was adding to our heat generation. We had already peeled our outer two layers and were sweating.
We went down the trial on the cliff side, and it was a blast. I am sure I just about wore out my brakes. Once we descended into the fog it was even better. We cooled down very quickly, and the views were spectacular (we could not see the ocean for the fog, but the old growth forest looked really neat, and there were some really big trees).
We finished our evening with a picnic at the beach, and then headed for our camp. Gwynne, knows some people on the coast whose private driveway ends past their house at the top of 100 foot cliffs over the ocean. So, we drove there and set up camp. We still had a lot of fog, but we could see the sky, and it was nice to have solitude on a holiday weekend. The drive ended a good 100 yards past the house and around a corner, so it was like having our own private campground. The only downside was the dog poo: the owners have two big dogs. Gwynne managed to "stumble" onto some while setting up the tent.
Once we were set, we cooked tapioca pudding and read stories from "Surely You Must be Joking, Mr. Feynman". We're both such Physics geeks.
I didn't sleep so well: my bag was too warm for the air temperature, but it was too cool not to have it. Also, the grass or something made it difficult for me to breathe. I was half dead when we got up Sunday morning, and was not necessarily looking forward to being in cold water.
We got up, ate, and headed for the beach. It was nice and sunny, and we had two body boards, a surf board, and wet suits. The wet suit was very warm, and I didn't end up feeling cold at all. In fact, Gwynne took the thinner one, and she got cold well before I could even tell the water was cool. We later realized that we had gone body boarding last labor day weekend on my birthday, and we were about to start a tradition, since it was again my birthday...funny, it being annual and all.
I had never been surfing, but as I watched Gwynne, it didn't seem all that hard. After a little while I figured I better give it a try. I caught five waves, and managed to stand up on the board three out of the five times! I got some mad balancing skills...
By about 1pm we were exhausted, and Gwynne needed to be back in Portland by five, so we packed up and headed east. We found another nice mountain biking trail on the way, and stopped to check it out. It was a bit rougher that the one from Saturday, and not as pretty, but still a hell of a lot of fun. It was another steep uphill battle, followed by a downhill blitz. Definitely time to get new brake pads now. I noticed this morning that my handlebars are also misaligned...like I said, it was rough. I slept about 12 hours last night.
Today: rest day.
posted by tk | Monday, September 04, 2006
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