53.3 mi / 3:57:59 time / 13.4 mph avg. / 2526 ft. climbing
Staying at Barview Jetty County Park

I flew out of Midway on Saturday morning, after Swati was nice enough to haul herself out of bed at the crack of dawn to take me there. Checking bags reminded me why I almost never check my bags, but at least they flew free with Southwest. Joel and Ren picked me up at the airport, and shortly after we got to the house, my parents arrived! They came the hard way, driving in their camper-truck over five days, but at least they didn’t have to check bags!

After lunch Joel and Chika came along to the Amtrak station to pick up my bike, which I had shipped ahead earlier in the week via Amtrak Express. I was scolded for sneaking a couple bags inside the box (not by the crusty old lifer, but by the cute young Amtrak employee, a creature I didn’t even know existed!), though the box was actually in better shape than other times I’d shipped it. $64 including the box, still a great deal.

Though we had considered getting a ride out to the coast that afternoon, we decided to wait until Sunday morning, which I think was a good decision. That gave us more time to hang out with Noah and Ren, put down an rib-sticking meatloaf dinner courtesy of Chika, do some final prep, and catch up on much-needed sleep.

So Sunday morning, we packed the bikes on the Subaru and drove out to the coast at Astoria with my parents in the back seat. After a final setup and goodbye, we were off and riding, with my parents driving the Subaru back to Portland. But hopefully we will hook back up in a few days.

The riding started cool and easy. For the entire 168 hours through Oregon, the temperature is never expected to rise above 63 nor drop below 53. I let Joel set the pace, and a nice tailwind kept us zipping along. Labor Day holiday traffic was pretty insane, but manageable. We got our first view of the Pacific Ocean in Cannon Beach, and the bustling shops and streets of the cute tourist town helped slowly bring me along to feeling like I’m on vacation. It was warm in the bright sun, but a Floridian would have thought all the people insane for going to the beach on a day with such dreadful conditions. Relativity is a funny thing.

After a yummy lunch of meatloaf sandwiches that Chika had packed for us, we had a couple more good hills to climb, some bridges to cross, and a tunnel with flashing “bicyclist inside” lights to traverse. We made a big loop around Nehalem Bay with lots of smaller ups and downs, and then hit the only flat and straight section of the day through Rockaway Beach. It’s such a contrast to the alluvial plain of the Atlantic Coast I rode with Dennis a couple years ago: here the fingers of the mountains run right to the sea, and even past it.

Nearing our destination, I put too much trust into a back entrance shown by my computer maps and led us into a Methodist campground, down a gravel road, then a dirt road, and then right to a locked gate topped with barbed wire, with our campground right on the other side. Ugh. Joel was kind enough to take it all in stride.

The $5 Hiker/Biker sites at Barview Jetty are regular, individual sites, which is unusual, though “induvidual” is a stretch for any of the sites. I have never seen such a densely packed campground. We saw a couple sites where people strung up tarps between trees to provide a bit of privacy! Though even on Labor Day weekend some 10% of the 300 sites were untaken. We walked back out to the campground entrance for a Mexican food truck dinner, and then talked in camp over beers and snacks before heading to the chilly beach to catch the sunset.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2012 at 5:11 pm and is filed under 2012 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.