SO LONG 101

DAY 52

WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2016

LINCOLN CITY - MCMINNVILLE

1050 - 1630

81.74 km (50.79 miles)
Av. Speed: 19.7 km/h (12.2 mph) - highest of the tour so far!!!
Max. Speed: 51.8 km/h (32.2 mph)
Time On Bike: 4h 08m 09s

I left Highway 101 today.

Temporarily at least.

Portland is my next destination with a scheduled overnighter in McMinnville, en route.

I was tipped off in the hiker-biker campsite at JM Honeyman last week by a southbound cyclist called Carl.

He suggested taking Highway 18 into Portland and provided me with a great map to support his case.

Said map displayed every imaginable cycling route in and out of Portland, complete with gradient graphs and by far, Highway 18 looked to be the most direct and least hilly of the options on offer.

Even better was the fact that I could bank off just north of Lincoln City and start heading inland.

So today was the day.

Of course, 101 sent me off in fine style with a narrow, windy, shoulderless section of rubbish which could have easily had me pancaked by a freight truck before I even got to the 18 exit.

Dodging roadworks in addition gave me one last episode of grief before escaping to the relative peace and quiet of 18 East.

With prevailing westerlies off the coast, I was also looking forward to some wind assistance for the 50 miles through to McMinnville.

The morning proved to be a bit of a slow grind as the route was on a gentle incline for most of it.

Add into the mix some rain showers and continuing issues with my trolley and I had to factor in a couple of roadside repair stops into my schedule.

The trailer issue seemingly was not going to go away and in fact was worsening.

Still, my ad-hoc repairs were apparently effective enough to keep the wheels rolling in the right direction although my nervousness was increasing.

From the top of 760 ft Murphy's Hill, I came to understand why the morning had felt a little cumbersome.

Once rolling down the happy side of the pass, things improved dramatically and provided my trolley held together, an early arrival in McMinnville was on the cards.

By 2.30, the sun was out and the highway had opened out into dual carriageway with a massive shoulder and booming tailwind at my back.

The afterburners burst to life and I was away, pumping along in excess of 40 km/h at some stages with an entire lane to myself and enjoying every last second of it!!

In fact, from a short rest break at 2 pm which had me at 37 km, I completed the remaining 44 kilometers into McMinnville in just 2 hours 20 minutes for a 4.30 arrival.