Seven Devils Rd: "Devil #2 … Don't ya love it?"
4 October 2011
I ate breakfast at Mom's Kitchen again. Delicious.
It was sunny when I left North Bend. I followed Cape Arago Highway, which runs along the interior of the bay; past Charleston, I took Seven Devils Rd to the top of the coastal ridge. The "Seven Devils" are hills along this road (a couple of them fairly steep), and they are all labeled on the road with paint.
At the top of the ridge, I caught a view of the ocean again.
I descended back to 101 and rode to Bandon. There are some short trails that go out to vista points at Coquille Point, so I stopped to admire the sea stacks (the wind had picked up and, all the while, it was blowing sand into my face from the beach below).
As I returned to 101 again, the rain started. I ate lunch at a Mexican place along 101. Here the rain and wind were still tolerable, meaning, my clothes were going to be waterlogged for some hours, but I could still see in front of me.
At Langlois I stopped at Langlois Market for a snack. They served hot dogs with sweet mustard and pickles— I had one and it was amazing. I'm not sure I can eat a hot dog prepared any other way ever again.
Close to Port Orford the wind got much worse. The beach at Port Orford faces south, so, while I had been riding south all afternoon, during the last stretch into the city I faced the unmitigated south wind blowing rain into my face as I rode up to the waterfront.
I stopped at the Battle Rock Motel, near the south end of town, to get a room. "It's raining outside," the manager remarked when I walked in, without any hint of irony. "Yes… yes, it is." The rooms are quite clean, though, and the hotel directly faces the beach.
The rain and the wind would not let up for some time. I ate dinner at Redfish Restaurant, which was across the street, but it felt positively dangerous being outside even just for the duration of the walk across the street. Dinner was decent, though a bit expensive and with slow service.