On August 10, me and Deanna took the train to Portland. While waiting for the connection to the coast, we rode around. We enjoyed a sampling of Micro Brews at one of many micro-breweries around the bike friendly city.
We then took the 2 1/2 hour bus to Astoria, where we were dropped off right by our hotel. It was a basic hotel, but it suited our needs and we both got a good nights rest before the adventure.
Next morning, we checked out the Goonies house. Then we prepared to leave Astoria. After ridinjg for a bit, I had to return to the hotel as I left some clothing behind.
We stopped for some fuel at an outdoors shop and headed to Seaside. The bridge that we had crossed out from Astoria wasn't the one listed in the Biking the Pacific Coast book, although if you were camping at the local state park, going over the crazy bridge (highway 101) was the best way to get there I think.
We stopped at Seaside to check out the Beach Volleyball tournament. Then we ate some pizza at Pizza Hut which was quiet as it was away from the tournament.
We then quickly left the madness of Seaside and headed towards Nehalam Bay State Park. There were many nice vistas along the way
At Nehalam, we paid our $5 to bike camp. I love these parks, so cheap to camp with a bike and no reservations needed. We met a couple from Italy biking North, a couple from Britain, a Father who pulled his 2 kids on his bike, and a few guys from the USA. It turns out that the park host that came by was from Parksville! We were invited from some coffe and cookies.
Next morning we headed out. Deanna was starting to feel like she was coming down with a cold at this point.
We rode with few other people this day.
We decided not to go up the big hill to Cape Lookout to camp, but stay at a County campsite down the road. We don't want to do any more hills then needed!
Next morning, we left towards Cloverdale where we would eat breakfast. Only problem, it was farther then the lady at the County campsite said it was! Deanna bonked on the way there. And all the restaurants were full. Eventually, we found a small local diner and ordered breakfast. We had to wait over a 1/2 hour for food!
Deanna wanted to ride up Slab Creek road as there was no steep hill to climb up, but it was still washed out and closed. So up a big hill we rode! Deanna got dizzy, so she had to walk. We bumped into another rider we knew.
She stocked up on some supplies in Newport. We finally made it to Beverly Beach State Park. We were the first to arrive, but soon others did, including the British Couple that we camped with the day before. We just ate our freeze dried backup food as we didn't get much in Newport. It's good to have a few of those on hand!
More to come....(probably will do another recap of the Oregon part of the trip when I reach San Francisco) I will try to post now about the California part of the trip as we travel down..
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