Day 12: See You Later (Twin Harbors SP to Bay Center)

Day 12: See You Later (Twin Harbors SP to Bay Center)

Low tides

On the next day of our trip, we all said farewell as Sang Hyun and I headed south towards Bay Center, Washington while Victoria and Evadne headed north to grab breakfast as Westport.  Knowing that it was our day off tomorrow encouraged us to keep trekking down the coast towards a plethora of oyster shacks.  When we got to the KOA campsite, we were once again surprised.  First, let’s run down the events starting with the previous evening.

Dinner Mishap

After our reintroductions the night before, Victoria and Evadne continued their camp setup rituals of setting up camp and cooking their dinner.  Sang Hyun and I politely left them to their chores as we, ourselves, wound down and fended off an extremely large amount of mosquitoes.  We later found out that we were in between 2 ponds, which attributed to the blood-sucking pests’ thriving population.

We then heard a yelp coming from the girl’s camp followed by, “Are you okay?” from Victoria.  Evadnke was making dinner, ground beef in hot oil, when her frying pan’s handle gave way and flopped the pan’s content of beef and scalding oil onto her left lap and right knee.  They quickly started to squirt water on her skin.  We all went into our first-aid kit to see if we had anything for burns.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything.  My book suggested applying aloe vera which none of us had, so Sang Hyun and I rode our bikes a block away to the gas station to fetch some Neosporin and alcoholic beverages.

The Neosporin helped as it numbed some of the pain when she applied her bandages on.  We spent an hour chatting and indulging our beverages, while Evadne nursed her wounds and the girls ate their dinner.  We continued our conversation the next morning.

On Our Way to KOA

Sang Hyun riding the 105

Sang Hyun riding the 105

Sang Hyun and I were anxious about getting to Bay Center on this day so we can finally wash our clothes and take our rest day the following day.  We said good-bye as we rolled out first.  We crossed the street and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time during our trip.  As we turned back on the 105 highway, we saw the girls ride by us on their way to Westport for breakfast / lunch.  Our journey that day took us through Grayland which seemed appropriately named as most houses and the overall mood of the town was “gray” and depressing.  We had our lunch stop over at Tokeland, across from the Indian casino. From there, our route veered east towards Raymond.  From Tokeland, we could actually see across the bay and spotted our home for the night at Bay Center.

For much of the ride, the winds were in our favor as we sailed across the coast consuming mileage on a fairly flat terrain.  To our right was the low-tide of the ocean receding back to allow folks to walk on the muddy shoulders and dig for clams.  We saw various folks park their cars on the shoulder as they made their way out by foot to the shallow shore.  When we reached Raymond, we were treated to a nice bike path all the way through to South Bend.

Johnny in fields of gold

Johnny in fields of gold

The route from South Bend all the way to Bay Center was rather dull at first as we were riding the miles with a head wind blowing against us.  We even passed by a few guys who were skeet shooting in an open field.  Things got a little more interesting when we reached the Bruceport County Park because that’s when we were challenged by rolling hills.  It was pretty much up and down until we had to make our right into Bay Center.  The surrounding area was stark and deserted as we rode through the sea docks and oyster companies.  There were piles of white oyster shells left on the side of the road, ready to be reused to farm more oysters in the area.  We were later told that the oysters that are farmed are much cleaner and bigger than the ones in the wild.

Familiar Faces

Sang Hyun on the 105

We made our last ascent up the street into the KOA and checked in.  We paid for our 2 days there and acquired a really nice camp site which included laundry facilities, a large selection of food and snacks from their shop, and free WiFi and opportunities to charge our devices.  As planned, we immediately set up camp and took our clothes to do laundry.  We were wrapping up with laundry when I heard familiar voices checking in.  It was the girls!  They decided that Bay Center was going to be their stop for the night and asked if we could split camp cost at our spot.  We obliged and enjoyed their company for 1 more night.

They cooked up a really fancy dinner which included oysters and pasta while Sang Hyun and I decided to finish our remainder of penne pasta, tomato sauce, and tuna.  Evadne really enjoys cooking on the road so she splurges a bit in that area.  She had picked out basil from the KOA’s garden, used olive oil and lemon juice to perfectly cook their scrumptious dinner.  They offered us some food but considering how hungry they were, we didn’t want to cut in on their calorie consumptions.  We enjoyed another night of catching up around the campfire.  It was certainly nice to have familiar company on this adventure.

No Comments

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.