Day 4: Stub State Park to Cannon Beach

Today was a rest day.  We rode only about 25 miles and were shuttled the remaining distance to Cannon Beach.  The one direct route by bicycle to Canon Beach from Stub State Park, which I believe is highway 22, is considered somewhat unsafe and definitely unpleasant, such that almost no cyclists that know the area will use it.  There is a roundabout route, but that is 90 miles.

It was sunny and cool when we left camp in the morning.  I dressed in quite a few layers in anticipation of the heavy shade on the trail and that we would be descending.  We returned to the same trail we used yesterday to get to Stub and continued where we left off to Vernonia.

Mary and Nancy getting ready to ride. 

 During the beautiful ride, Mary and I had a nice chat about how she met her husband.  The trail continued on the same fashion, forested and lovely.  It was quite cold.  Steve says the temperature reading on his bike computer was 54 degrees.

In Vernonia, we took a break at the coffee shop and sat in the sun with some warm beverages.  It felt very good to thaw a bit.

Dave, Steve, and Jeff thawing in the morning sun.

We returned through the few blocks that made up downtown Veronia, a small logging town, to the trail and backtracked to Timber Road, which we took to meet the highway.  On the way, there was little traffic, although some were big logging trucks.  The road had rolling hills and quiet farms.  Steve and I had a brief "race" up one of the hills, which I am happy to say that I won!

At the highway we got into a great big van and headed to Cannon Beach.  The drive took about 40 minutes.  While we were traveling, crew member Kim pulled out some chocolate chip cookies she had made that morning.  I'm a pretty snobby cookie judge and hers were great!

We set up camp in the Sea Ranch campground, which has quite a few wild and used-to-be-domesticated bunnies.  Very cute.

Campground bunny.  There were many.

We arrived early enough that Mary had time for a load of laundry and me for a shower and snack before walking into downtown Cannon Beach with Kim, a former resident here.  There are a lot of shops for tourists, including no less than 3 candy shops within about 4 blocks.

Horse back riders heading to Cannon Beach.

Inlet at Cannon Beach.

Haystack rock in Cannon Beach.

We got back too late for the afternoon yoga class taught by our honoree Christina.  I heard it was great.  Jerry said it was the best yoga class he had ever been to, but it is also the only one.

Christina is now in her mid-30s but has had rheumatoid arthritis since she was 8 years old.  She's been through a lot of treatments, medications and bad periods.  As a child with juvenile arthritis, she believed that on her 18th birthday she would be cured because then she would be an adult and have outgrown the arthritis.

She is doing fairly well now in a remissive period of the disease.  She credits much of her current wellness with becoming involved with yoga.  She is now a yoga instructor in the area.