A Misadventure

Part 1

On July 18, 2022 I woke to sunshine on the Oregon coast, Whalen Island, a Tillamook County park to be more specific, near Cape Lookout.  It was my 63rd birthday and I had my wife,Erika, with me, and our dog Ming. 

The plan for the day was a hike at Cape Lookout together and then a short bike ride for me, on a gravel route that Erika and I spent a lot of time looking at maps to route. We had planned the route together using an app called maps.me and my bike routing app, ridewithgps.com.  I was even able to download the bike route onto my bike computer when we had a spot of reception at the Cape Lookout hike. The hike was 5 miles round trip and we didn’t get back to the campground until almost 3:00. 

Was is too late for the 10.5 mile ride? I thought it could take up to two hours.  Or should we just hang around near the beach?  Because I am a glutton for punishment I felt I should do the ride. After all we spent so much time mapping the route, it would be a shame not to do it.  We were leaving the next day for a different part of the Oregon coast.  It was now or not at all.  Erika was in agreement that I should do what I want on my birthday. So I set off shortly after 3 p.m., with Erika telling me to be back by 5:00.  “I won’t worry until 5:30, and I’ll really start to worry by 6,” she said.  I rode out of the campground on my Salsa Warbird, whom I call Raven and onto Sand Lake road, and then less than a mile away onto the gravel road.

It was beautiful.  Open spruce forest with just a dotting here and there of sword ferns.  The gravel road was in pretty decent condition.  Then I saw what I thought was some cougar scat.  I chose not to be afraid of that and to quite ignore the fact.  After a couple of miles the route turned onto Forest development road #1134.  This dirt road hadn’t been used in awhile.  It was overgrown with grass and there was a faint track on either side where wheels would go.  The sides  of the road were a thick wall of brush and I could see tire tracks going from side to side that looked pretty recent, maybe from a motorcycle.  After another mile or so even this road started to dwindle into more of a single file, where the brush had been recently cut back.  

I kept on, following my planned route. I saw more cougar scat so I picked up a hefty stick to carry along.  I also had a small container of pepper spray which I unclipped and kept in the side pocket of my Revelate feed bag on my handlebars.I also saw some bear scat but I was more worried about encountering a cougar than a bear.  After a bit the single track seemed to end, no more chopped down brush, but my bike computer said I was still on the route.  From past experience on gravel roads I knew that sometimes getting through a thick bit of brush brings one out to the trail again.  I persevered on.  

After a few minutes my bike computer showed that I was slightly off route.  I backtracked to try and find the route but it was tricky, it seemed like the computer was getting confused.  Or was I just turning it around too much? I thought about reversing my route and getting out of there the way I came but I didn’t know how to do that on my Wahoo computer. At that point I felt a bit confused as to what the way back looked like, everything was so overgrown and it all looked the same.

Plus to totally confess, I’m stubborn and I hate to give up and I hate to turn back. I really thought about it and was sure I would get lost if I tried to backtrack.  I felt it best to just push on and stick to the route my computer was showing me.  

Before I knew it I was thrashing my way through a thicket of brambles and sword ferns and other undergrowth brush.  At this point I couldn’t have turned around if I wanted too, I didn’t know which way was forward or back.  I was off route but I could see on my computer that the route was somewhere to my right.  It was difficult going and I started to feel panicky for the first time.  “Keep it together” I told myself, knowing a clear head would be best. Time was ticking, it was a little  bit before 5:00, still more time before Erika would begin to worry.  The thought of her worrying really stressed me out.   I had been gone almost two hours and had only traveled about 4.5 miles.  I spent another half hour or so pushing my way through thick, impenetrable underbrush trying to find my way back to the route, which I could still see on my computer but that I wasn’t quite on.   I also kept consulting the maps.me app on my phone and it was also telling me I was on close to my route.

 At some point the going got too tough.  We are talking walls of underbrush, impossible to push through and ferns that were as tall as me! The thought crossed my mind that maybe I should leave the bike in the woods, abandon it really, and just go it alone. It was extremely difficult pushing the bike through all of this, it kept getting caught on sticks and stems. I tripped at one point and the bike landed on top of me.  My arm was bleeding and my legs were getting very scratched up by all the brambles. Trying to get back on route in all the thickness was very challenging.  I would veer back this way and that but never quite hit it right on.  I was very frustrated and trying to not fall  apart emotionally, but I wasn’t succeeding.  I was shoving back tears, snot running down my face and I was yelling out loud at all the brush that was catching us. I got even more stressed when I saw that it was close to  6 p.m. and I knew Erika would be really worried by this point.  

It was time to abandon the bike. I was scared and I felt the bike was slowing me down.  At this point I figured I just had to get myself out of there as quickly as possible.  I didn’t want to spent the night in the woods and the thought of Erika worrying was almost unbearable.  There was no cell phone reception where we were but I sent her a text anyways saying I was stuck in the woods but was on route.  This was not how I envisioned spending my birthday, stuck in dense woods and giving up a bike that I had had so many adventures on.  I sat and cried for a minute as I said goodbye to Raven.  I really didn’t want to leave her but felt I had not other choice.

I decided to take my seat bag with me which held my tools and rain jacket and my feed bag which had my phone and some food. I also took one water bottle off the bike and put it in my jersey pocket. I realized the pepper spray was gone, it had fallen out of the pocket probably when the bike fell on me.  Clutching the two bags and my ‘cougar’ stick in one hand I held my bike computer in my other hand so I could keep looking at the route.

 I was still crying as I left Raven there, in the thick forest knowing I would never see her again.  I continued to wrestle my way through the thicket and came to a small stream.  I thought maybe it would be easier to travel in the stream, which was heading in sort of the direction I needed to go but it too was very overgrown.  

I climbed over a huge fallen tree and realized I didn’t have my feed bag.  It had my cell phone in it.  Really panicking now I retraced my steps for about 50 feet.  “I need my phone “ I cried out many times to the forest, but it didn’t appear.  I couldn’t waste any more time looking for it so I said goodbye to it too and kept on with only my bike computer for navigation. It was so hard, not getting totally overwhelmed by the situation.  

There were some big spruce trees ahead and they looked comforting, along with being in the direction of the route so I fought my way over to them.  Once there the undergrowth eased up a bit and I was getting closer to being back on my route.  As I walked on, the dirt road, such as it was, still quite grassy, became clearer and my computer was saying I was on the route  again.  I felt a big rush of relief and prayed that it would stay like that, visible road, no thick undergrowth.

 After about half a mile I could hear the sound of cars on the paved road.  I came out to a grassy meadow with a gate by the paved road. Luckily I didn’t have to climb over the gate as there was no fencing wire between the posts.  It was now a bit after 6:30.

 My plan was to flag down a passing car and ask them to take me back to the campground. However the road was quiet, no traffic.  After a minute a truck approached from the other direction and I waved my arms.  After passing me he slowed down and I ran over to him babbling that I had been lost In the woods and which way was Whalen Island.  He didn’t know but said the main highway was just down the road and if I went to the right it headed to Cape Lookout.  That was the direction I needed .  He asked if everything was okay and I said yes.  That’s also how I am, never wanting to ask for help. I didn’t want to inconvenience him by having him turn around.

After he drove off I started running in the direction I needed to go and then another car appeared also going in the wrong direction.  I shielded my eyes from the sun and to my utter amazement and relief saw it was Erika!!  She was driving the course backwards to look for me. She pulled over and I broke down crying.  We sat by a rock for a few minutes with me crying and trying calm down enough to tell her what happened.   She thought the bike was just down the road but I said no, I left it deep in the woods.  We started back for the campground.  

When we got there the man in the next campsite asked me where my bike was.  Earlier in the day he had been  commenting on how nice my bike was  and he saw me head off on the ride. I had to confess my story, which I felt really embarrassed about.  I should have turned around much sooner but I really thought I would get lost if I tried that.  The thing is I never felt lost, just trapped.   I could always see my route, it was just in thick brush, not a nice clear road that the maps indicated it would be. If I turned around I wouldn’t have the route anymore.  He talked about trying to find my bike and I said it was impossible.

I slunk away and tried to clean up my scratched arms and legs.  After I got cleaned up Erika said maybe we could retrace my steps tomorrow and I got to thinking about how we might do that.  It wouldn’t be easy but maybe getting Raven back could be possible.