McMinnville to Newport (Sunset Beach) - 65 miles

Left McMinnville and headed to the coast. On the way I detoured slightly off 18 to go through Sheridan and Willamina. There was a nice bakery in Willamina that had decent coffee so I got my caffeine fix there.

Sheridan was a depressed looking area though the mill was going.

My first planned destination was Devils Lake which is supposed to have a hiker/biker camping site but though I looked at two different places it was not apparent to me. It was too early in the day to stop anyways but thought it would be worth checking out in case it was so awesome I would be compelled to stop. So, on down the coast I rolled.

Devils Lake

First picture of the Oregon Coast

One of many alternate bike routes off the main 101

Sometimes you saw these signs for alternate routes and sometimes not

There is a bike shop listed on warmshowers.org that will let cycle tourists shower there and is supposed to have lots of stuff for the cycle tourist. They were very friendly and gave me great advice about a state park campground down the road and also told me about the Rogue River Brewery Restaurant.  

 So I pedaled down to South Beach 2 miles south of Newport. There I met Irving and his Bike Friday who were over from Germany. I cleverly deleted the picture of him and his bike but he had a great setup where his folding bike fit in a suitcase that is considered standard luggage. Then the bike suitcase converts to trailer. A pretty neat setup.

Oregon is trying to preserve historical bridges. 

Irving and I went over to the Rogue River Brewery and had dinner. After a few brews and some good food I was ready to sleep. When we got back to camp there were 5 more cycle tourists. A couple from New Zealand and another couple from Germany and a guy out from Eugene.