A couple more campers arrived after I did last night but they were silent, and I went to sleep early. I awoke at dawn and cooked oatmeal for breakfast, and drank my can of Coca Cola with coffee that I had been carrying around as emergency fluids since Ely, NV. I figured I will have plentiful water from now on. I got going finally around 7 but had to filter some water at the nearby creek before leaving. The first few miles were on pavement and gradually downhill beside the creek. I disturbed an osprey looking for breakfast. I had done some research in Roseburg and so I diverted from the TAT slightly to go visit a tree and some falls. There are so many connecting roads it worked out that I could do a loop instead of doing the same road twice. It was also insurance in case the tree wasn't where I thought it was, I would go by two possible entry points for the trail. Information I found online wasn't super clear. The road to get there was beautiful, and took me through some heavily shaded big tree areas, possibly old growth. It was mostly pavement but occasional gravel and the road was in poor shape with lots of cracks and sunken sections. There were lots of side roads off of it so I was surprised when my Garmin let me know I was at the trail, because there wasn't a sign on the road. But when I pulled in there was a little trail kiosk and sign. I took a water bottle and my backpack and started hiking. I ended up just walking all the way through to Elk Creek Falls because it was all through old growth and I was mesmerized. It was extremely steep, and coming back from the falls was hard. What was funny is that I knew I was coming right back by that spot again later on the bike. I did find what I came for, the biggest Port Orford Cedar tree on earth. You couldn't walk down to it but could see it from a little observation platform. It dwarfed the trees around it at 12 feet in diameter, twice as big as the other huge ones, and 219 feet tall. There were a couple enormous Douglas Fir trees that I could walk right next to that were over 6 feet in diameter. And a couple more huge Port Orford Cedars , growing right beside one another. This little hike in the middle of a ride was one of the best experiences of my life. The whole time I was there, I was alone other than the wildlife, and the trees of course. It was amazing, and I didn't want to leave. But of course I had to get going. I had a lot more in store for the day, I had only done 20 miles and it was already 11. I set off and quickly descended back to where I had hiked down to. I had to stop to filter more water here, and I am glad I did, because it was a long while before I ran across easily accessible water. The climb up from Elk Creek dragged on forever. I've done much longer climbs on this trip, but I just was so tired of climbing after this one I really dreaded all the little ones afterwards. It didn't help that the last grunt up was on loose gravel. And today the smoke was worse too. After an eternity and lots of breaks (including another creek filtering session) I finally crested the final climb and started my descent off the mountains to the ocean. Or to the river valley anyway. It was another 10 miles of mostly flat but consistently descending, on pavement, and as I got closer to the highway it got much windier. My Garmin warned me of a Gale warning. It wasn't kidding. When I got to the highway and turned south, I felt the shove of the powerful wind at my back, and it was all downhill to town. I had very little water and was hungry for a snack so I stopped at the store, and still hadn't glimpsed the ocean yet. I rode towards it and began to doubt its existence, but after climbing a steep hill, there it was. I just stared at it, amazed. In all my worry about getting as far north up the road as possible today and being disappointed at my pace, I had kind of neglected what a huge milestone it was. So I eventually found the vehicle entrance to the beach(this is Oregon) and rode my bike down and touched my tires in the water. Also got my shoes wet a bit but I was so happy it didn't bother me. I sat on the beach and called Jen, and my parents, and looked out over the horizon and empty beach and took it in for a few minutes. It was getting late. So I got moving so I could hopefully find a campsite before dark. I thought I might check the state park, but it actually had a sign on the highway that said the campground was full. On one of my maps it showed what I thought was BLM land by the highway but that was wrong. It was more houses. So I rode to the next two parks hoping to stealth camp there. But it was so tiny I just got a site. Not too bad, kinda cramped, but it works and I can hear the crashing waves to my right and have a good view of the lake we are on, right by the ocean. People here are fairly quiet but they are smoke huffing enthusiasts. Apparently campfires in campgrounds with fire rings are still allowed. I have no idea why you'd want to breathe even more smoke than we all are already subjected to... Hopefully I can stealth camp in the national forest or something tomorrow.