Oregon Coast biking & Beach Walking

We decided to spend our last day in Oregon on the Pacific Ocean biking and walking, so after oversleeping again, we loaded the tandem on the car and drove west. We began our bike ride at an ocean boat launch in Netarts, OR, just west of Tillamook. We road the Scenic Coastal bike route south down to Pacific City for lunch. Between the two towns was some hilly countryside, including a steep three mile climb up to Cape Lookout State Park. 

[Non-bikers can skip this paragraph] Unfortunately, the bike mechanic (me) let us down and we could not use granny gear to climb (severe chain suck). So we did the entire three miles in the middle ring, at one point reaching a low cadence of 33 RPM. Most of the time our cadence was around 50 (we usually spin at 80-100 RPM) and I was afraid it would kill our knees, but it actually went well thank goodness, as we would have to climb back up the other side on our return.

We arrived at Pacific City, famous for the Dories (boats) used for fishing there. After lunch we retraced our steps north back to the car. The climb back up to Cape Lookout was not quite as steep and we were able to keep our cadence above 50 all the way. The downhill was awesome and we didn't pedal for four miles. Beautiful ride, lots of views of the ocean, and the shallow capes where they dig for clams when the tide is out.

We drove north to Oceanside, OR, a stunningly beautiful little community with really tall houses packed in all the way to the high ridge. The beach was very nice, with some large rock formations in the ocean. While we were walking two guys ran off the top of the ridge way above us and para-sailed all the way down to the beach. We were so intent on watching them glide along on the thermals we forgot to take any pictures. We also saw a wedding party on the beach. At the end of the beach there was a tunnel (in one of the pictures) that went through a rock outcropping to the next beach, where you could walk among the rock formations. Just a lovely stroll walking the beach hand-in-hand with Pat.

After the beach stroll we drove up to see the Cape Meares lighthouse before heading back towards Portland. We returned back to our driveway campsite at Mary and Dave's house, and spent a little time with them talking and sipping a little wine before our departure the next morning. Was so nice to spend time with them and their lovely daughters.