I was a bit lazy about getting going this morning as it was a bit cool, I was tired, had Wifi and I idled away the morning munching on oatmeal and whatever else I had laying around. I slept fair, around 7 hours so I felt ok. I was afraid that the wind would really hold me back, but I was pretty sheltered a lot of the time with the hills, curves, and trees, and the wind didn't start out the day at a Gale like I had feared. Plus one positive to being constantly buzzed by traffic is that it really helps knock the headwind down. But to be sure, anytime I was near the ocean it blew a strong, cold north wind right at me. I stopped at Face Rock which was really busy with people at the overlook and at the beach. This despite a biting wind that was so strong I had to take off my hat and glasses for fear they would blow down to the beach 100 feet below. And while it was sunny the temperature was in the low sixties. So I left after only a few minutes. I didn't stop by the store in town, and I kinda regretted it because it was a while before I ran across another one. I turned onto Seven Devils road, which took me to a little state park at the beach. I used the restroom and snapped a photo, then got going again. Right up a really steep hill. The next one was even steeper and on gravel, one of the steepest pitches in a long while. Here I ran into a couple backpacking the Oregon Coast Trail, which is mostly on the beach. Sounded glorious to me after all the highway riding I had been doing lately. They were filtering water from a small stream. We swapped stories for a bit and then wished each other a safe trip. I was spit out abruptly onto pavement again, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the highway so it was fine. I was ready to get to a store. But I had to do a pretty steep hill, then enjoyed a quite nice descent into Charleston, where I did finally get a few snacks at the corner store. I continued on beside the bay on a different highway that had a bigger but bumpier shoulder, which was nice. I ran across a Dairy Queen right next to the bay surrounded by houses. It looked as though it had been there since 1960 and only had one or two facelifts in the meantime. I have a DQ gift card I found on the ground back home burning a hole in my wallet, but unfortunately I rolled up to the door only to read a note that said the inside was closed, due to staffing issues. It was just as well, I was still too cold for ice cream. I had to put my arm warmers back on since for some reason the temperature had dropped to 59. Soon I arrived in North Bend, where I avoided the highway completely on town streets, some of which were gravel. I found the Safeway and got a proper resupply, complete with good chocolate, since heat isn't a problem here. It may as well be fall to my Georgia bones. There have been years growing up where it took until well into mid November to get down to these sorts of temperatures. I found a wind sheltered park and took some time to get water, eat a few snacks, talk to my parents and decompress a bit. Riding with such heavy traffic is mentally taxing. It's a good thing I did, because little did I know my next challenge would be a really long, super narrow bridge over Coos Bay. I had already gone over one short one at Bandon where I was lucky, nobody was behind me at all. But this bridge was really high up, warned of high winds, and traffic was really, really bad by this point in the day. For those familiar with Peachtree City, imagine Rockaway road volumes times three, way faster and with more trucks. Thankfully the state has put in a bunch of warning signs about the speed limit if a cyclist is on the bridge. It also said that it flashes a light too but I can't confirm. I waited till traffic cleared as far as I could see and I gave it about a 99.8% effort, which with the hill plus 30mph headwind, resulted in barely 12mph or so. It felt like I was going backwards. While crossing I passed another cyclist going the other way, I didn't feel as bad for him at first because he had a tailwind, but he had a long line of cars and trucks behind. I did go quite a bit faster on the downhill and when I finally swung off into the shoulder after the bridge, completely spent, I expected about 50 cars to come rocketing past. But it was only like 5. Lucky, or fast. Or possibly both. Still doesn't compare to the fear of crossing the Mississippi river bridge. It will be hard to top that but there is plenty more opportunities and people I meet all say it's much worse up north towards Astoria. We shall see. I had to be on the highway quite a lot after North Bend. I expected antagonistic behavior towards cyclists, I knew it exists. But the level of vehement disregard for cyclists here on the coast highway is so intense it is approaching a kind of singularity of hatred. Is it really too much to ask for cars to at least get over a bit WITHIN their own lane? They don't even have to get into the oncoming lane. Just don't hug the white line when they clearly see me up ahead. Moving the steering wheel slightly for the sake of someone's safety is just too much to ask. I could also ask safer road design or lower speed limits but shaving off fractions of a millisecond off drivers' trips are a much higher priority than people's lives. The road has to be pretty deadly for car drivers too. What I find astounding is that so many people are still willing to tour this route, I saw a lot of cyclists today, always going the other way with the wind of course. The scenery is spectacular. But I am amazed that so many people are braving what amounts honestly to surviving attempted murder countless times a day for several days or weeks in a row. This is why we had to invent bikepacking. Even I barely have the stomach for this anymore. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying this part of the trip, the scenery is worth it, but the disconnect between the back roads and the highway is difficult to tolerate. Maybe I've just been riding in the wilderness so long that being back in the real world is especially jarring. Anyway after riding the back way through town and by the Umpqua river in Reedsport, I set about my goal for the day, which was finding a good stealth spot in the national forest (or recreation area, same thing). There were a couple big climbs and some narrow shoulders but the traffic really died off by this point thankfully. I passed by several official campgrounds, but all probably had ATV people, since that's the main "feature" of the Sand Dunes rec area, that you can drive a vehicle over all of it. Nope, don't have any desire to see, smell or hear all that jazz. Eventually I stumbled upon a gated road at the top of a big hill that had a desire path leading down to a beautiful secluded natural lake. Appropriately called Lost Lake on the map. The spot I found on the shore isn't perfectly flat but the highway is far enough away that it's barely a low roar so it's a great find I think.