Molly and I left my sister Kari's back
yard in Portland on the morning of April 11th. We only
biked as far as the Rose District on the east side of the river
before catching the train to Hillsboro, where we started the actual
trip. Two days later we met two guys on bikes headed to San Francisco
who also started in Portland, but decided to bike out through the
suburbs and regretted every turn of it. Molly and I were glad for our
decision to cheat the first few miles.
The first day on the road was fairly
uneventful. It took a good day or two to figure out a better way to
balance my load. We climbed the hills towards Tillamook and camped
around the 1586-foot marker at the summit. The climb was not the
funnest thing I've ever done, but we found a quite place to camp that
night and were able to get a good nights' sleep and dry out our
clothes from the constant drizzle.
The next morning was an hour of curving
downhill straight into Tillamook. Molly and I stopped at the
Tillamook cheese factory and watched the cheese assembly line from
the viewing deck. It's pretty mesmerizing to watch hundreds of blocks
of cheese being cut, packaged, and checked before being set out for
their 60-day to two-year fermentations. Molly bought squeaky cheese
and I bought a couple of ice cream cones and we were back on the road
after our snack. We made it to Neskowin that night. Molly's family
has a cabin that is shared and used by who ever is heading that
direction. We were especially glad to have a place to stay that
night. About ten miles short of the cabin it began to get dark and
the rain poured harder than anything I had ever seen before. It stung
out eyes and the only way to stay on the road was to double-check its
location as the head lights of each car went by. At some point we'd
completely given up trying to stay remotely dry. We got to the cabin
around 9:30pm and as Murphy would have it, the key didn't work. After
about 15 or 20 minutes of fumbling with the lock, I was voted the one
to pull off the bulkier of my soaking layers and climb through a
10”x16” window. The hot shower, hot noodles, wine and Tillamook
squeaky cheese made it very much worth the few moments of cold rain
on bare skin. Instead of sleeping in beds, Molly and I slept in the
giant overstuffed easy chairs in front of the heater. It was hard to
get up and going the next morning.
Day three brought us through Otis,
where we ate at the famous Otis Cafe' and Newport where we ate “Mo's
famous clam chowder.” We set up camp just outside Newport and were
pleasantly surprised to see that the national park camp sites are
equipped with showers and tent platforms.
The fourth day was gorgeous. Hot,
sunny, scenic, and we even met another coastal biker. We passed
through the first tunnel of the trip and that was probably one of the
scariest 90 seconds in recent memory. Echos off the rocks made even a
hybrid sound like a multi-ton semi truck. The actual semi's were
practically deafening. Dark, narrow, and loud made it hard to ride
straight into the rock wall. We survived and will be a bit readier
for the next tunnel encounter. We made it to Florence and found
another well-equipped camp ground to set up camp.
Day five began sunny and ended very
wet. The last several miles into North Bend and Coos Bay poured rain
and seemed to be the only area so far that did not have a convenient
camping site. After asking around for a hostel or campsite, knocking
on a church door, and just about asking a cop to take us to jail for
three hots and cot, we found an inexpensive motel. We were soaking
wet, fairly cold, a little depressed from the rain, and much in need
of hugs. We felt a little better after pulling our bikes in out of
the rain and getting something to eat.
We are only a few days from the
California border and are getting very close to the red wood forest,
which we've been excited to see for quite a while.
Hoping for better weather tomorrow.
