Chinook Loves The Ocean

The daily distances we ride average around fifty miles with some days closer to sixty and others only thirty or thirty five. The weather these last couple of days has been spectacular (in other words sunny!) and when the weather's like that it's easier to put in some heavy duty miles. You also want to take advantage of the clear skies to see as much as you can because when the weather socks in you really can't see much at all. You'll be pedaling through the fog and hear the sound of the waves crashing on the beach or against the rocks, but you can't see them.

Today's route took us from Humbug State Park all the way down to Harris Beach State Park just north of the town of Brookings. The part of the coast is very scenic and the camera kept me busy every time we came around the next corner. Tomorrow we'll wrap up this ride in Crescent City, CA where we are renting a U-Haul truck to take us and our gear back to Astoria. For Sophie and I our legs are dictating that it's a good time to stop. Chinook, on the other hand, hasn't done anything more strenuous than decide which way to lay in his trailer as he watches the miles fly effortlessly by. We were not quite sure what he would make of the ocean, so I guess it's good to report that he seems to love it. He loves running up to the edge of the ocean as the waves recede and then racing ahead of the next incoming set of breakers as they rumble in. He's always been skittish around the water which we thought was part of his Siberian Husky-ness. For dogs bred to pull sleds over frozen tundra open water is a dangerous and potentially lethal trap to be avoided, but apparently the open ocean is different, at least for our pup. I think he'll actually miss it when we leave and it almost breaks my heart to realize that the chances of him again prancing and dancing in the shore break is relatively slim as our forays to the coast are so few and far between.