Today was our rest day - our stay tonight was the same Air B-n-B in Netarts that we stayed in the previous night.
When we woke up, it was misty and wet outside, so we ate a leisurely breakfast. By the time we got on our bikes, it was mid-morning and the mist had stopped. We had dry weather the rest of the day.
Our destination was Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge. It was just 6 miles away, but there was 1600' of climbing to get up to the cape. Fortunately the roads were lightly traveled, not a lot of traffic.
We stopped first at the Big Sitka tree. Just a quarter-mile stroll through the forest to see the largest Sitka Spruce tree in Oregon. When we posed in front of the tree for a photograph, I must have step on a wasp nest, because suddenly I was getting stung. Four of the angry insects stung me before I could scramble away. I was surprised how much the stings hurt, they bothered me for the next 24 hours.
We rolled down a hill to see the Cape Meares lighthouse. A ranger was giving brief guided tours of the lighthouse, so we listened to the history of the building. It hosts a Frenzel lens, which is a special glass that magnifies the lightsource. Unfortunately, two drunk hooligans shot the lens a couple of years ago, we could still see the damage.
Then we walked over to see the famous Octopus tree. This is a spruce that doesn't have a main trunk, but has eight big side trunks. It is unknown if this big tree was formed by native American guidance, or if it just happened to occur naturally.
On the way home, we stopped at the small town of Oceanside to admire their beach and look for a coffee house. After the early morning clouds and mist, we had a sunny afternoon.
Ramone cooked up his famous chicken recipe on the grill, and we sat around watching Monday Night Football.
Today we rode out to Cape Meares and back again.
