Day 3: Yachats to Heceta overlook, 30 miles

My favorite ride. With a warm front coming through, I pedal into moderate headwinds for 15 miles, over Cape Perpetua, Cumminsmm Ridge, Strawberry Hill, and several other unnamed headlands. Of the entire Pacific Coast bicycle route, this 15 miles ranks among the most beautiful and spectacular.

From a bicycle, vistas are availed and relished, completely lost at 50mph+ car speeds. And roadside glens of fern and moss, fresh green tippwd speuce on forested hills, even daisies sprouting from asphalt.

Perhaps this is the greatest gift I receive from cycling: to know a landscape with an intimacy I don’t find elsewhere, save hiking or backpacking. And then there’s the adrenaline from grueling climb and blazing descent. Hard banks around serpentine highway hugging cliff and mountain.

Bicycle. The only way to completely experience this most cherished landscape.