Cycling for the Arthritis Foundation: Day 4: Yachats to Lakeside

Somehow I slept through my alarm and woke up a half hour late, but I hustled and was able to leave on time; not even the last one out! In fact, I was able to join the group yoga session. It was a little wet on the grass, but good to stretch. Unfortunately, this was the only day we had yoga.

We had a day of rolling hills along the coast. The sun shone and weather was beautiful.

At the first rest stop, I met a single touring cyclist who had started in Alaska and was on his way to San Diego. His bike with all his gear weighed 90 pounds! For someone hauling around so much weight and rolling on 29'er mountain bike tires, he really kept up a good pace. We had a good chat. He's working on a movie project related to the ride. Best wishes and safe traveling Donnie. His website is borderblender.tumbler.com

I spent most of my day riding with Andrew, a pediatrician living in Washington. We had some good chats.

At the second rest stop, the mechanic Darren recommended the restaurant Unger's for lunch in the next town. Unfortunately, they were very slow and we waited for over an hour from the time we sat down to the time the food came!

At that point, we only had about 7 miles to go to camp, however, there was some climbing before we could get there! When we turned off 101 to come into Lakeside (a town on a lake), the local chamber of commerce members were outside of the various businesses waving and cheering. They had also placed a number of encouraging signs, including one that said "no more hills!". In addition, they had placed locally made scarecrows in various activities around town. When we arrived at the camp site/hotel, we were greeted by dozens and dozens of home made cookies. This is a really friendly town.

After setting up the tent, I joined some other riders on a boat ride on the lake. Someone from the Arthritis Foundation had rented a pontoon boat and some of the workers from the tour were driving groups of us around the lake to see what it was like. Relaxing and fun.

I got a little bit of laundry done to get me to the end of the tour, but now it is time to jump in the sleeping bag so we can leave early tomorrow. Why? All will be revealed in the next post.