2009 Pacific Coast - Phase 2 - Getting started

2009

Practicing packing since I got bigger panniers last Christmas. I needed to make sure it would all fit in my duffle for the Amtrak segments of our journey.

I also made a new bumper sticker just so no one would be confused about my fuel source.

September 5 - Saturday - We woke to the sound of rain on the roof this morning. It was still going after breakfast, after loading the bikes, putting plastic sandwich bags over our socks, and taking pictures.

We couldn't delay any longer so off we went into the wet of western Oregon on Labor Day weekend.

We made a brief stop in Lebanon to drop off a package at the UPS store and a brief respite from the drizzle.

Three hours after leaving home we were at the Amtrak station in Albany with really wet shoes and rain gear but otherwise in good shape and good spirits.

Station agent Lisa figured out how to get us to Astoria without having to box the bikes. Instead we went to lunch at The Depot, one of our favorite spots for fish and chips....just getting in the coastal groove.

It was an uneventful bus ride to the Portland train station. Since our bus was continuing to Astoria, we were able to just leave our bikes and gear in the luggage compartment and the driver locked them up while we all went to dinner. Albany Amtrak agent Lisa had also made a dinner recommendation, Via Delizia, which we took....we really owe her a big THANK YOU!

The day had turned sunny and warm for the evening which we really appreciated after our wet beginning.

We arrived in Astoria at about 8:45 and quickly loaded our bikes, changed shoes, and rode the 5 or 6  blocks to the Rose River Inn (a B&B) in the dark......but it was dry! Hosts Dave and Pam stowed our bikes in the basement. It had been a really long day but we were glad to be back in Astoria to continue last summer's journey along the beautiful Pacific Coast. Total miles for the day = 32.5

September 6 - Sunday - Today we woke up to the sound of thunder AND wind AND rain. A morning thunderstorm on the coast........not a good sign. A quick check on the NOAA website showed it lasting most of the morning along with 17-20 mph wind from the south (read headwind) with higher gusts for the rest of the day.

Hosts Dave and Pam fed us a wonderful breakfast............unfortunately they were booked solid for Sunday night and so we needed to leave the warmth of their hospitality one way or the other. Given the forecast, we booked a room at the Best Western on the west edge of town and said our goodbyes at about 10:30 and rode off into the wet and wind.

The riverfront road that we explored last summer was a good route to the motel a whole 2 miles away......not quite the 40 miles that we had planned for our first day!

We were really glad that these were not the conditions when we crossed Megler Bridge last year. It actually seemed not that windy as we headed west so we decided to go as far as we could. However, the approach to Young's Bridge brought us out in the open and into the full force of the "breeze" which promptly blew Donna right off her bike.....twice.....so we retreated to the motel.

And were we glad we did! This is what it looked like about a half hour after we retreated. Several motorcyclists were glad they had also "wimped out". The rain was literally going sideways! They let us bring our bikes inside to dry off while we waited for our room.

An hour later and it is sunshine....but still very windy. We abandoned our loads and headed back into town for lunch (Uniontown Fish House) and sightseeing.

Astoria has many fine Victorian houses but this one is a public treasure. It was completed in 1886 by Captain George Flavel, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the city's history. It contains 11,600 square feet of living space.

The music room

Fireplace detail.

The kitchen

Yes....it is a bathtub......

....with matching toilet.

The house had very little of the ornate wallpaper that many Victorian homes had at the time but many rooms have elaborate wainscoting like this.

We went out to listen to the barking of the sealions for awhile and observed this guy. We weren't sure if the fish he was waving at them was to get them to come closer or bait to throw out so they would leave. It ended in a stalemate.

We had a lovely dinner at the Bridgewater Bistro with a window table overlooking the Columbia River. We moseyed back to the motel close to sunset. All in all it was a very good day, just not quite like we had planned, using one of our rest days on Day 1. Total miles for the day = 10.9 but we are only 2 miles away from the day's starting point.

On the road again!

Sept. 7 - Monday - Looking back at Astoria and the bridges. The sun is promising to shine and the wind has abated so we are truly on our way. The Young's Bay Bridge was a breeze without the gale force winds from yesterday.

Headed west and so very glad that we had waited a day to start. In fact, we will say that about 20 times today.

This is Rich and Karlene. They are from New Hampshire and are doing a big Oregon loop beginning and ending in Portland. They got caught out in that deluge yesterday just east of Astoria.

Seaside - We were doing dueling cameras. The Amtrak bus driver had recommended an ice cream store named Zingers but it was before lunch and we didn't find it anyway. Ice cream will have to wait until later.

A very popular statue of Lewis and Clark.

Plenty of breeze for kite-flying.

We became quite familiar with this sign. It means we are going uphill!

Cannon Beach and lunch time - Furiously good food to improve your mood......except ours was already pretty darn good.......and they had nice outdoor seating to boot.

The iconic Haystack Rock

Life is good!

Oregon has done a very fine job of providing plenty of interpretive information at the many turnouts along the coast.

This Arch Cape Tunnel, one of 2 on the Oregon Coast route. It is also the scariest thing we have ever done on a bicycle. We've been through several tunnels but they were a bit shorter and flatter than this one. It is an uphill grade going south but what we really didn't count on was the noise. Even the smallest car's sound built until it sounded like a semi (or bigger) and it got so loud that we couldn't tell if the cars were behind us or in front of us.......it was very disorienting and made us realize how much information we normally gather with our ears.

We're still alive!! We had to stop just to let our arms stop shaking.

We played leaf frog with these 3 young women from Seattle several times going up Neahkahnie Mt., the last big hill of the day. They are also headed to San Francisco but will get there several days before we do at the rate they are going.

Looking down towards Nehalem Bay and the State Park where we plan to spend the night. We checked into the park then rode into Manzanita for pizza and to buy breakfast stuff. Back at the park we took a luxurious shower (free) and then headed to the beach.

It looks like we had the beach to ourselves but there were quite a few people out enjoying the mild, barely-windy-at-all evening on the beach.

Tom and Miriam, a couple from Portland that we met earlier in the hiker/biker campsite, took a picture for us.

Horseback riders from Vancouver, BC. They enjoyed having us take pictures of them and their steeds.

We watched the sunset as well as a father and his 3 sons playing hide and seek in these grassy hillocks just above the beach. They were having a grand time getting extremely sand-covered in the process.

All those brights spots in the background are other bikes. There were about 10 other cyclists camped here. One good thing about that is everyone is pretty tired so it's a fairly quiet, early-to-bed crowd.

We discovered that the computer is a lot easier to read in the dark than a book is!

46.1 miles today........89.5 total for the trip