Tillamook and Pacific City

September 22,

Nehalem to Tillamook was a rainy adventure.  Tillamook is a centre of bovine based agribusiness.  That is to say, we bought jerky and went on cheese and wine tours at the Tillamook cheese factory and the Blue Heron winery.  Yum!!  We weren’t very excited about cycling very far given the rain.  About 30 miles and then we visited the tourist centre for directions to an old airport museum (largest wooden structure standing in the world:  housed the blimps that patrolled the north west) and a small active airport and most importantly, RV and camping park.  The park warden was out so we pitched a couple tents, made use of the amenities and then made our way again early in the morning.

On Saturday we made it to Pacific city and were pleasantly surprised to have a reprieve from the rain.  All indications were for more rain, hail, and other catastrophes.  Someone must’ve expected the clear weather because a scheduled surf competition in Pacific City was condensed down to one day of action.  We chose to splurge ($8 per person) and stay at the Kiwanda RV resort for the night.  The busting weather though has turned our one night into two.  On the plus side, hot tubs, pool, free showers, and a primo forest for setting up camp has been quite enjoyable.  The other cycle tourists that have happened into the space we’re in are taking lessons on how to set up tarps and  have a dry space to cook and chill.  Well, I think we can share a dry picnic table for one day anyhow.

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Nehalem State Park

September 19,

Yesterday we took to some giant hills on our way to meet up with Bryan, Maggie and Kirsten for Kirsten’s last couple nights with us.  We were supossed to camp at Oswald West State Park but they have shut down the campground in the last couple years so we decided to keep on south to Nehalem. The campground is huge here with around 300 sites complemented by a long ultra fine sandy beach. Its quite strange to stand on the edge of the land looking out to only see the horizon.  

We went through the tunnel wonderfully located on the side of a really really long hill and luckily when we were in it there were no big trucks to squeeze in beside.  I rode close to the side but Bryan told me once we met up with him, that he rode in the center of the lane and made all the vehicles drive behind or pass him. Maybe I’ll become more dominent on the road in tight spots too.  

We are spending another night here then riding to Tillamook tomorrow which is home to a cheese factory! I’m pretty excited about this part of the trip.  We’ve been enjoying Tillamook cheese all throughout the trip. And while in Seaside I found some free wine tasting coupons in a brochure which we will be sure to make use of.. 🙂 

 

Oregon!

September 17, 

“If you want to be seen, you go to Cannon Beach.  If you don’t want to be seen, you go to Gearhart.  If you want to be obscene, you go to Seaside.”
This is what our couch surfing host told me last night.  Seaside is the tourism town in the strip that is 20 miles long in Northern Oregon just south of Astoria.  Gearhart is a wealthy “second home and summer cabin” community with very few consumer services and barely a restaurant and Cannon Beach is an art and culture center with a disproportionate number of art galleries.  

Seaside is normally known for its surfing but right now the normally huge southern swells are fighting a wind going northerly rather than the usual southerly winds (also means cycling is about 35% slower going south with the current weather pattern.  Fortunately, ever since a jetty was built here, the beach has gone from a rocky shore to a incredibly nice fine grit clean sand.  The beach here is superb. The chocolate/candy shop in Seaside is also superb. 

We are staying with a pair of teachers in Gearhart.  They impressed us with their very fine dinner prepared last minute (reminds me of last Easter/Christmas at Grandma Wells’).  We received lots of encouragement in our travels as well.  They have a small field of flowers as a side business with a flower stand on the highway for self-serve sales.  Apparently a fairly lucrative project.  The area is also rural enough that they are able to keep a few chickens in a chicken coup with their greenhouse.  What a beautiful way to live! Sleeping in a real bed is also proving to be quite the treat. 

erin here:

Backing up a bit…the ride down from Cape Disappointment to the 101 made me feel like I was on a rollercoaster! The road was so hilly you go from 35km/hr down to 8km/hr on the uphill in seconds, and the bends in the road on the downhill are so sharp the road is angled. Boy did that give me butterflies! And the best part about it was the quality of the road, unforunately narrow shoulders but not a crack in it the whole way.

On the way to the state border we went through our first tunnel, pushing the ‘bicycle in the tunnel’ button on the way in.  Supposed to be going through another further south which sounds much longer and harder to ride..uphill and curving to the left. Yikes. 

In light of Pete’s nagging about riding more visibly we stopped at a bike shop today and picked up some more lights for our helmets and wheels. The ones for the wheels are motion activated so they create quite the glow when the wheel is spinning fast.  Can’t wait to try ’em!

  Attached is a hoakey picture of us in Seaside Safeway.  We’re still hoping for an update to the app that uploads photos to the blog site.  Until then, watch for good photos in your email, or comment if you’re not on the email list and would like to be.  Cheers!

Twin Harbors to Cape Disappointment

September 15,

Hello Cape Disappointment! This is our final state park in Washington before heading over the Columbia River and into Oregon. Nothing too disappointing here except the giant hill to get up here.  Rigel and I left Twin Harbors Saturday morning around 8 and rode two days worth in our book to the state park; about 130km! It was a pretty flat ride the whole way with a few big hills throughout.  We’ve met up with Maggie, Bryan and Kirsten again and now Kirsten’s parents and partner, Kris, have joined us for the night.  

We had great weather for our ride but now since were back on the coast its raining and misting again, very different from the thunderstorms of Manitoba.  Apparently there is a nice beach here but I think we will mostly stay in our campsite tonight since its so cold and wet out. We did ride into Ilwaco today for some clam chowder and fish and chips, delicious! Later we are going to cook up a tuna steak and drink more local ciders.  

Next stop we head into Oregon, either Astoria or perhaps Seaside.  Rolling the couch surfing dice again!  In Twin Harbors I ended up painting 2 more small watercolours, and Rigel tried out surfing for a couple days. The crazy things is that, even though the sun is hidden by misty cloudy fog all the time, Rigel still got a bad sunburn around his eyes from removing his glasses to Surf.   

Twin Harbors

September 11, 

We did not end up riding in the dark back to camp at Potlatch as the fellow Bryan, Maggie and Kirsten were staying with gave us a ride in a truck back to our tent.  Alex seems to entertain himself now fishing, but is a retired security agent “for the federal government.” Not sure which one, the US presumably.  Monday we woke up, left a note for the rest of our group, and rode south west.  45 miles to lake sylvia (making it the longest ride we’d done yet) and got there at 4pm, but decided to keep going to Twin Harbors.  This is a ride from the book!  We did a full 1 day, 75 mile ride as described in the book.  We were on the road at 8:30, and were setting up camp at 8:30 in Twin harbors in the dark.  That’s a long day.  Still, we get a couple rest days out of the deal that we are enjoying for sure.  

Twin Harbors is a fishing community and yesterday we enjoyed a video about oyster farming done in town before buying a pound of “small oysters.” Each one was more than a mouthful, and we probably had 20 in the tub.  We cooked them up with a lemon, white wine, dehydrated onions & garlic and butter.  Delicious!  Erin wasn’t hungry enough for it though and now questions how much she likes oysters.  Dam! Still, just meant I got a huge meal out of the deal.

We’ve been eating 4-10 meals a day depending on our level of exercise.  I’m finding that erins fatigue level is directly related to how well fed she is.  eat more often, less complaints about soreness and how long the ride is.  Hoping to surf tomorrow.  Soon we’ll be into Oregon.  The beach here is incredible.  Here’s a photo of our Twin harbor camp. 

 

 

Townsend to Potlatch

September 9, 

(Rigel Writing) In Townsend we stayed at the camp ground in town at an old Fort.  The boat festival in town was a good excuse to rest without covering much distance.  There was dancing, big wood boats being shown, and a whole fair. We camped in a tiny site that really couldn’t accommodate our group size, the only saving grace was an invitation to “use the paths.”  Still, the rain stopped and we started to dry out.

After Townsend we went past (South of) Quilcene and camped halfway up Mt Walker.  It was an exhausting ride with a big altitude climb at the end.  The weather further cleared and we benefitted from more drying.  Still, I had hand washed some clothes in Townsend and they could not dry much past hand-wrung all day.  The campsite, called “falls view” is a hole with no water, rotting picnic tables, and a gorge for water access.  Still, given that the whole region is a temperate rainforest, the trees were still incredible as with all the previous places.  Huge tall things swaying by meters at the top like grass in a field.

Today we arrived in Hoodsport and discovered the active marine industries here from a hydro electric dam to a hatchery to different farmed foods in the ocean.  A local fisherman shared his salmon while Bryan, Maggie, and Kirsten who had ridden ahead and set up on his lawn stayed in town, we went further ahead to the Potlatch campsite and stayed there about 5 miles further down the road.

Now for a ride in the dark down a nearly shoulderless highway.  Turn on the lights and head for the tent!

 

Last night was Rhododendron park, now port Townsend

September 6,

Rigel Here:

“It rained, and it rained, and it rained.  Never in all his life, and he was 4 was it? or 5?  Never, had piglet seen so much rain.”

Two nights ago there was a lightning storm and it lasted an hour and was spent. The sky cleared up and was beautiful.  That was Friday Harbor.

Last night, the lightning lasted over 5 hours.  It was raining before we went to bed.  It was raining when we got up.  It was raining when we got on the ferry.  Then we sailed somewhere drier.  Huzzah!  Now we are in Port Townsend and dreading another drenching as we are all quite thoroughly damp.  We’ve started trying the “rely on the kindness of strangers” technique by tapping the couch surfing website.

There is a wood boats festival this weekend at Port Townsend so we’ll either stay here on a dry couch, floor, bed, etc or we’ll cycle onwards to Quilcene and couch surf there (hopefully again).  The requests are out.  On the plus side there is a camp ground right in townand the forecast is for sunshine next week.  That will be welcome.

The view off the ferry was so grey that the horizon, sky, and even water were all equally obscured by a grey mist that only let up when the land or waves were close enough.