Memorial Weekend at Cape Lookout
The Lady and I were joined by 4 of our good friends for a pleasant Three-day weekend at Cape Lookout.
We departed as a group from the Hillsboro Max station Friday evening after work, pedaled through sun, rain and fog to Elk Creek Campground to get through the hardest part of the ride. 1,600 feet of climbing took its toll on our riders as we pulled into Elk Creek after 11:30pm.
Nothing like getting rained on in the night and waking nearly in the middle of a puddle.
We woke the next morning and mostly skipped breakfast so that we could get back on the road for the final 35 miles to Cape Lookout State Park.
Within a few miles, there were several of the six that were grumpy they haven’t had their morning coffee, but their grumpiness would soon be lifted by the awesome breakfast at Alice’s Country Kitchen. They had pancakes the size of your head!
After stuffing our bellies with home-made goodness, we pushed on to Tillamook, mixed rain and sun and a stop at the only bike shop in Tillamook. Can’t say I was at all impressed. it’s nice that it’s there, but they really need more stock and accessories that cyclists actually need like tubes, patch kits, frame pumps.
We finally pulled into our destination around 3pm with rumbling bellies and more sprinkles in the air.
After a beautiful sunset, fire, drinks and snacks, all six of us hit the sack pretty hard.
The only bummer of the trip was the fort of leaves created by some children from the Group Campsite.
They bushwacked so many leaves from the Yellow Skunk Cabbage that the trail looked TRASHED.
As a supporter of Leave No Trace and enthusiast of the outdoors, I could not abide by this damage to nature. We had a brief talk with the park rangers who then in turn had a talk with the parents of the defilers of plant life.
Audrey and I stayed 2 nights to ride back on Monday while our 4 companions went their own ways for adventures untold. Two ended up taking “The Wave” back to Portland. The other two took the long way of Little Nestucca River Road.
It was a great weekend of not-freezing-our-butts, hanging with good friends, yet having time to be romantic by the ocean.
Monday morning, we found it difficult to get out of our warm sleeping bags knowing that we had to leave the soothing hush of the ocean. My friend Kate had joined us late the night before and stopped by once more to see us off. It was sad knowing that we had to go.
Another stop for brunch at Alice’s, a mix of rainshine and hail, we had a relatively pleasant ride back to Hillsboro, pondering a time when we could again return to the AWESOME that is Cape Lookout.
