2014 tour route is published...now.

Happy Holidays!

Portland/Mecca

Aug 3
So, we've arrived in bicycling Mecca, not to be confused with bicycle touring Mecca (Missoula, MT).      I was prepared for there to be more cars than bikes and there are.  I was also prepared for there to be alot of people and there are.  I was not really prepared for the fair weather.

When I say that I carried, with my own legs, a full set of rain wear through searing heat and alarming drought because I just knew (and probably said aloud) that "I'll need these when we get to the Pacific Northwest", believe me.  When I swear to you that I used the pants and jacket a combined total of 5 times the whole trip, believe me.  Futher, when I tell you that upon arrival in the much anticipated Pacific Northwest to find it fair, mild and sunny, believe that I am as pleased as I am disappointed.

Aaaaa....storia, at last.

Aug 30

Sam approaching the Lewis & Clark river bridge and Astoria.

Tagged Astoria in August, just barely but it counts! I'm amazed at how similar the town is to Yorktown.  Both on a major river tributary just before the ocean, both have a hilly district, both kinda small, both have a phallic statue overlooking the waterfront....interesting.

We left Tillamook (home of dairy and jerky products) early and was happy to get away.  It's a nice little town but stinks (see above reference to cows).  It reminded me of towns gone by in Kansas...yes, I'm talking about you, Larned, but without the oppressive heat.

Anyway, we decided to make a day of it and get this thing done. So away we went and went.  I knew it would take a while because we had two good sized hills (for this area) and alot of scenery to try our best view at speed.

About 3pm we stopped in at Cannon Beach and ran into a little 'bumble foot'...this is what I call a trap that you can get yourself out of but will be time consuming.  Allow me to explain: Cannon Beach  is a little touristy town about 2 1/2 bicycle hours from Astoria that has one main strip and lots of upscale shops...therefore, lots of upscale shoppers on a long late summer weekend holiday.  But before that and all the rest that happened, we stopped in at a coffee/bakery shop that I really should have avoided just for the name "Waves of Grain"....but I was interested in a quick espresso to keep us moving on.  I went in and once it was established that their snack selection did not extend to gluten free items (surprise!) ordered a 20 ounce (we were sharing) soy mocha. The barista says (and I am not joking here):  "One of the ports is broken and I can only  make a 16 ounce.  Is that okay?"....Is that okay?  uuuuhhhh...no.  It doesn't seem that hard to draw another shot from the working port.....but I'm no barista.

SO...I say, "sure" then I pass over the travel credit card.  She takes it in the fingers of both hands, turns a little then turns back to me and says, "Our minimum order for cards is $5.00".

Let's stop here momentarily because I need to draw attention to two things:

1. The overpriced drink I was waiting for costs $4.50

2. The overpriced drink I actually wanted would have cost at least $5.00.

I must have subconsciously rolled my eyes, because she became very animated, apologized profusely.  Outside, Sam had caught the attention of two Scottish retirees.  They were talking about elastaplasters....can you believe it....bandaids! as ambulance sirens go by.  Uh oh..this could mean a traffic stoppage ahead. Down the way we discovered that the emergency was happening on a side road; that's good.  You know the old saying, "Your emergency is not my emergency".  We rolled on and just out of town (and up a hill) we met up with Weston riding a Surly Cross Check.  He passed, as the young guys always do, and had disappeared in the foreground when he suddenly reappeared around a bend.

What happened next is best explained in two voices…Sam adds his in italics below.

He was off bike and tinkering with the back end. In some amazing way, his rear derailluer had repositioned itself upside down, backwards and above the chainstay...totally where it should not be.  This happens when the rear derailleur moves too close to the spokes of the rear wheel. The bike falling onto the drive side or some other impact (always from the outside to the inside) to the rear derailleur is enough to bend it inward so that, in the lowest gear, it makes contact with the spokes… suddenly and without warning.  Sometimes the rider is lucky and there is just some noise and you figure out what is wrong. What loomed ahead on the roadside was, however, the worst case scenario.  Now think about this for a minute folks, a simple bump to a fragile piece of metal hanging very low on a vehicle can completely destroy the most expensive part of the drive train and possible the rear wheel. Shame on the bike industry for making such a hazardous oversight! 

But wait… the industry has a simple solution to this problem that they apply to every new bicycle.  It is called the pie pan, a small disc of plastic that rides between the cassette and the spokes to prevent the derailleur from making contact with the spokes.  Why then, does this still happen?  Fashion! It has become very unfashionable to have a “pie pan” on your bicycle.  True,  for the ultralight cyclist who can check the alignment of their derailleur at home every night and never leaves their bicycle propped outside a store while getting groceries, going pie pan free is a statement of how minimalist they can be. Adhering to fashion can get a tourist in deep trouble many miles from help. 

Justin was lucky to have this happen so close to a town, and so close to a town with a bike shop.  Had this happened in parts of Wyoming, thirst might have overtaken our friend before we did.  So point and laugh at my pie pan, if you can see it behind my pannier, I don’t give a damn. Now back to the story.  As we were assessing the situation roadside and discussing the options we were each supporting laden touring bicycles.  I mentioned to Justin that I had a chain tool and that we could set him up with a single speed to get him back to town.  He was up to his elbows in grease and wrestling his balking bicycle. 

I decided that we needed to lean our bicycles to really be able to help. I handed the chain tool to Justin but failed to fully explain how I planned to first unlink his masterlink, pick the best gear ratio for him, then cut the excess chain and relink the chain.  There was nothing nearby to lean a bicycle on (Surly refuses to put a kickstand plate on their touring bicycles unsuccessfully defended on their website and total lunacy guided again by fashion) so it took a few minutes to find two spots to lean two bicycles and by the time I got back the chain had been cut at a random point and the option for a single speed fix was gone.  It was late, we all wanted to make it to Astoria, we were all tired and my inability to vocalize what is in my head meant that Justin would now have to coast back to Cannon Beach.

Luckily, it was a mostly downhill trip back to Cannon Beach and Mike's Bikes so Sam helped him get the thing rideable while I called Mike and wrote down addresses and phone numbers for Weston.  It was funny to watch him free pedal like a clown as he headed downhill, coasting as far as possible with his chain in his pocket.  On toward Astoria we went...

Well, this tour has shown me one thing: that is that the later in the day it is, the slower we go.  We finally crossed the Lewis & Clark River bridge and entered Astoria about 7pm.  We lucked into a hostel room downtown one block west from a brewhouse/public house and one block north of the food co-op.  In house Italian sausages and Omissions gluten free beer for all then hot showers and to bed.

the Bucket List is one bullet shorter. Yay us!

Hwy 101

Aug 29

As promised, we headed north on Hwy 101 and met many, many cyclists headed south.  Going south, in fact, is by a very wide margin the more popular direction of travel.  Something about the advantage of some prevailing wind patterns.  I said, 'If I can survive the hairdryer-south-wind in Kansas, I can take a little cool breeze from the pacific."  As it turns out, the winds are a little more variable than the spooky-story-tellers predicted and we have had 3 days of pedaling in south or west wind. It's a good thing too, because we've been a little distracted by the scenery.

We have taken liberal advantage of the plentiful state parks/campgrounds (with showers!) that have hiker/biker sites.  These are walk/ride in only sites that are reserved, usually at a respectable distance, and typically grassy so they can be pretty posh.  There are picnic tables and showers also. <thumb up>

Last night we got to the campground kinda late (6:30p) and found that one of the yurts had become available so we palmed over $40 and spent our first night in a yurt.

It was about 16' round with lots of natural light which was great.  It was also very sound permeable, which was not.  I fail to see why anyone would find it desirable or necessary to bring a Pomeranian camping...even car camping.
ETA: Unless they (Pomeranians) are emergency food or a sacrfice in case a larger, meaner dog/bear/person goes on the attack.

The Pacific at last

Aug 25

We left Eugene early headed 80 miles to Florence. Our goal was to arrive and we'd figure out the details of seeing the Pacific later.  At about 5:30, I stopped to take a picture of the city welcome sign. there was a little old lady sitting at the bus stop next to the sign who said, "where you comin' from?". I told her we were just arriving at the Pacific from Yorktown, VA and her response was:  "Go north and see Sea Lion Cave".  Just what I needed: directions to do more.  That's okay though, because we're headed north anyway.

Aug 26

We slept in at a noisy motel situated at the intersection of hwy 126 and hwy 101...chosen for its easy location.  About lunch time, we took off for Harbor Vista Park where we would finally see the Pacific.  It's about a quarter mile of loose sand between the parking area and the water edge, so Betty had to wait but I got my feet wet.

We skipped around and high fived and took photos.

Before long the fog off the headland moved on land and settled into a misty but steady rain.  We pedaled the 4 miles back to town and took up residence in a motel with a jacuzzi...yum.  This would be the first rain we've pedaled in since  Illinois!

Tomorrow we head north in a rare case of south wind.  It's four days of riding to Astoria, then 90 miles more to Portland.  Along the way, there are multiple campgrounds with showers and small but service-rich seaside towns.

Calling all fellow travelers

On our stop in Eugene, I picked up a flyer asking for survey regarding bicycling in Oregon.  If you bicycled in oregon in 2011 or 2012...they want to hear from you.
Go to RideOregonRide.com/survey