Oregon Part 1 (Nov 10 to 14)

November 10
Km’s Pedalled – 28 km’s

Destination – Just outside Fort Steven

Some Notes – It rained through out the night. The tent was a bit on a slope, so not the most comfortable sleep. And it rained during breakfast but other then that it was actually a pretty nice day.

The Astoria Megler Bridge

I spent a good part of the day at the local bike shop getting my brakes fixed. A bolt snapped inside one of the front fork braze-ons due to corrosion. The front rack had to be completely reassembled on the bike to accommodate the broken braze-on.

A last view of Washington

The Astoria Megler Bridge

In the bike shop I ran into my first US cycle tourist. Scott is biking from Canadian border to the Mexican border.

My camping site is about as cramped between trees as I have ever been.

November 11
Km’s Pedalled – 49 km’s

Destination – Gearhart

Some Notes – It took me forever to fall asleep last night which kind of sucked because sleeping conditions were perfect – the temperatures were good and not too noisy.

I spent most of the day biking around Fort Stevens State Park. The beaches were awesome the fort was ok.

The military fort

It was a beautiful sunny day with no rain. But they are calling for 9 days of rain including a rain storm with strong winds. I got stuck biking in the dark and with this weather coming in I attempted to camp at another RV camp until I was quoted $37 a night. About 10 minutes down the road I came to a baseball diamond and camped behind one of the dug-outs. A low of 2 tonight.

Fort Steven State Park

November 12
Km’s Pedalled – 48.5 km’s

Destination – Manzanita (Nehalem Bay State Park)

Some Notes – Today is one year on the road. The police stopped by my camping spot this morning. But I was 85% packed up to get on the road. As usual he was nice, he didn’t even ask for id. But these run-ins with the police add to the mental fatigue along with rain and wet conditions.

Today saw some beautiful coast line. It was overcast and cloudy. Luckily, I never got rained on today and I even got a few good photos.

Seaside & Cannon Beach

I biked through Seaside and Cannon Beach. All nice pacific sea side tourist towns. They would have been far more enjoyable to visit if it was nice and sunny and warm. Some climbing today. I didn’t stop at Ecola State Park which was on my radar to visit.

Roosevelt Elk

My batteries are really low and they are calling for lots of rain.

Oregon Coastline

Some Reflections This Evening – I am in fine enough in spirits and have little to complain about. All things considered I have been very lucky with rain. Everyone I speak with is very friendly. This evening I am dry in my tent.

That being said those I don’t speak with seem fearful and everything (restaurants) are closed except drive thru here. Temperatures are generally cool during the day and cooler in the night. The nights are long in the tent when it’s dark by 4:30pm. Batteries drain quickly and are very hard to charge them. Stealth camping can be challenging as I have been visited twice by cops which adds to mental fatigue. As I type this they are calling for over a week of rain. In overcast, cool, rainy weather drying out is impossible.

In many ways this is the most challenging time (on the bike) so far. But as I mentioned spirits are fine as I am aware a night in a hotel would solve most of my challenges if even temporary. And compared to much of the world I have few worries.

November 13
Km’s Pedalled – 5 km

Destination – Nehalem

Some Notes – It rained all night and the wind never stopped blowing at 48 km’s + an hour but the tent never really shook. I kept waiting for a tree to fall on my tent. I got in my tent at the perfect time last night for sure.

Waking up this morning there were trees down in the park and I was later told that the storm was worse then predicted. There was a lot of debris (small branches and leaves all over the road).

I attempted to take a shower this morning but all there was cold water. I was pissed. I would later find out that it was likely due to the power outage.

This escalated to sort of a rough morning with everything combined (weather, temperatures & rain), a week of predicted rain, everything being damp, draining batteries, documenting work piling up and the need for a shower.

With no hot shower I was definitely not sticking around. In my moment of frustration, a future host and old Voortman Cookie distributor out of McMinnville Oregon called me for an update. Upon learning of my frustrations he quickly made a phone call to an aunt that happened to live in the same town I was in. Jake very quickly made arrangements to use his aunt Julie’s deceased husbands shop on her property to get out of the weather and dry a few things and charge my batteries and get a little work down. For me this was better than Christmas morning.

November 14
Km’s Pedalled – 63 km’s

Destination – Hemlock

Some Notes – I left Nehalem in the rain and never saw past the brim of my hat for all the rain the whole day. I had blowing rain with periodic headwinds all day. There is no place to go in to get dry. Everything is drive thru only.

I camped at Camper Cove RV Park and campground. I figured that they would have laundry and that is the only way I can get dry.

My tent was soaked inside and out by the time I had it set up. It’s like impossible to get dry in Oregon. Biking in a Canadian snow storm was 100 times easier than this.