The Best Boyfriend and the Grey Whales

We got some nice detours off Highway 101 today, which was a nice break from the shrieking traffic and dubious shoulders. For the most part 101 has a wide, four foot shoulder, but any time SUVs lugging RV trailers pass you at 60 mph it is slightly alarming. 

First off was a big climb right after leaving Cape Lookout. Nothing like an hour of agonizing uphill pedaling to get your heart racing in the morning. My sweat glands still work pretty well too. 

The second climb took us on a detour off 101 through a state forest, and I swear I would enjoyed the absence of cars and big old trees if I weren't trying my hardest to keep a good pace uphill. It took at least hour to reach the crest.

Climb number three was very pretty-- by the end of it we were 500 feet up a cliff looking out over the Pacific, and get this: we saw a whole mess of basking harbor seals AND A GREY WHALE! Travis wants to make sure that I realize that there are very few boyfriends who can ride a bike AND spot a whale at the same time, and that is exactly what happened. He saw a big rock out off of this overlook, and when he looked back, the rock wasn't there anymore. So we got to watch a big old whale come up for air then turn flukes up for a while while he munch on some plankton. I got real excited about the fifty or so harbor seals laying out on a big rock looking cute and blubbery, but we couldn't stop and look at them because we were on a dangerous bend.

The evening has landed us at another beach campsite, but this hiker/biker campsite was clearly an afterthought addition to the park. We're set up in an old grassy picnic site that is truly unremarkable. But I will say the Oregon State Park system is THE place to be for family summer vacation. Because the summer outdoor weather is actually tolerable in this state, people go all out with "camping", which sometimes turns out to be an actual encampment. We're talking RVs set up next to a screened picnic shelter, connected to a covered dishwashing area, crisscrossed with laundry lines strung with that day's drying beachwear. Patio lights, multifamily tent camps, dozen-person campfire councils, and enormous gas grills are not surprising to see. 

But not for us. We drank big girl beers and ate perfectly executed burritos for dinner, and now it's time to go to bed. 

Oregon Coast

Leaving Astoria, our first stop was Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock of Goonies fame. Pretty amazing sight to see, especially for a Goonies fan. Cannon Beach was pretty, and it's more understandable to see so many people there. Unlike Washington beaches, it was sunny (not foggy), and there was sand (not rocks). But it was still cold. And very windy. So much so that it was uncomfortable to be down at the water.

Turns out this is the story for most of the coast that we saw. We rode and rode our little hearts out on the RV-clogged Highway, the made it to a beautiful beach around sunset that was too cold for me to enjoy. There were some beautiful pictures though.

So I will take this time to talk about how I am ruling it in camp kitchen. On last year's Arches to Dunes Tour, I'm pretty sure we subsisted on all processed food. And burgers. We ate a lot of noodle packs, Indian packs, tuna packs, and jerky but we hardly ate anything fresh. WELL ALL THAT'S CHANGING.

We ride between three and a half and six and a half hours a day. With moderate riding I burn about 510 calories an hour, so I have to load up. I did some rough calculations and I'm eating an average of 3000 calories a day. May as well make that energy intake pleasurable.

This has been the stone fruit tour, and why shouldn't it be? We're in a major fruit production region, so we load up on Washington peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, pluots and nectarines whenever there's a chance. And there is fruit growing wild EVERYWHERE. The blackberries grow like weeds, and it just takes a second to stop on the side of the road and pick a few mouthfuls. We've seen wild apples, pears, cherries, and we even helped ourselves to a roadside plum tree loaded with small, sweet, deep red fruits. As a food preserver, it is very difficult to find this abundance of free fruit and not be able to make jam and jelly out of everything.

I've also been good about having kale, carrots, tomato, lime and avocado around because they really dress up a potentially boring meal. FOR EXAMPLE: how about peanut noodles with wilted kale, carrots, and fresh snap peas? Or black bean burritos with fresh tomatoes and avocados? Or chili and quesadillas? That's right, totally ruling it.

So there's proof: I can be a Kitchen Witch even without a kitchen.

Goodbye Washington, Hello Oregon

After traveling on from Aberdeen, we finally pulled up in the Raymond RV park around sundown. The only other tent camper was Brian, a fellow bike tourist who approached us and hung out with us during dinner. Brian had been working as a manager of a surf shop in Virginia for the past seven years, but this spring he quit his job and biked across the country with his best friend since childhood, and now his journey was on its last leg. His friend ended his trip in Olympia, but Brian is traveling on alone for 500 more miles to see his sister in Arcadia, CA. From Kentucky meth towns to midnight hitchhikes with a trucker with a loaded gun, it sounded like he had quite the adventure. When he gets back to Virginia he wants to finally got to college, something he's been thinking about doing for a long time.

The end of Washington was fast approaching. At least we got a break from tree farms and got to ride through some coastal bay areas, where the industry is oysters, not timber. The landscape transformed to flatter, marshy surroundings, but we were still counting down the mile markers to Oregon, which were fast dwindling. Thirty four miles. Eighteen miles. In case you were wondering, my knee and bruised Achilles' tendon felt every single pedal stroke.

Finally, we saw the bridge over the Columbia River that would take us into Astoria. We were taking a rest day in Astoria, the first day in a week that we wouldn't be breaking down tent and biking on. I have a confession to make: even though it was the VERY FIRST thing I packed, I left my toiletry bag at Travis' house. So I hadn't had my own deodorant or toothbrush for like a week and a half, and my hair was threatening to dreadlock itself in the absence of my brush. My toiletry bag was mailed to a bike shop in Astoria. I was very much looking forward to that bag, a shower, laundry, and lunch in Astoria. 

But first, we had to cross the bridge to Astoria. 

A sign warned the cars that there were bikes in the roadway, but there was no sign to warn US that this bridge was over four effing miles long and in places towered almost 200 feet over the water. There was a decent amount of room on the shoulder, but halfway over the shoulder turned into a seabird graveyard, so we had to navigate rotten pillows of feathers and still not deviate into the lane of traffic. To add insult to injury, the tallest part of the bridge is at the very end, and it is a very steep incline to reach the top. 

Somehow, we made it over. And then we saw the sign.

The campground was NOT a mere three miles outside of Astoria as we had thought, it was an additional eight and a half miles more. 

For those of you who wonder how Travis and I manage to spend so much time together on tour without fighting... this was not the day to use as an example. I got disappointed and whiney at my dreams of cleanliness being dashed, AND I was hungry and pretty tired of riding my goddamn bike. Travis got annoyed at me for complaining. 

Our tiff lasted well into the next day, even after I showered (thank you Baby Jesus), washed our clothes at the KOA, and rode the eight and a half miles back into Astoria for some R&R at the local brewpub. But then I updated the blog and Travis checked his work email, and after two hours of being in our own little worlds, we were over it. We MIGHT have to schedule a little separate R&R time during the next few weeks as a preventative measure...

Thoughts on Washington

Here are my initial conclusions about our time in Washington.

1. The Olympic Peninsula might be better enjoyed as a backpacker, not a road bike tourist. None of the paved highways actually go THROUGH Olympic National Park, so any visit to the park is a 20-40 mile detour. Taking the highway means days of depressing tree farms.

2. Even though none of the terrain has ever reached even close to the altitude we encountered in the Colorado Rockies last year, I find biking in Washington to be more difficult. Even the most formidable Colorado mountains still maintained a low grade up the climb. In Washington it's like they just plugged in a road wherever it was the straightest shot, with total disregard to massively steep hills. 

3. There are mosquitoes on the West Coast, which I find to be very rude since I am clearly here on vacation from Florida and do not want any interaction with mosquitos. Luckily, these bugs are more attracted to Travis than they are me, they don't really bite that much and are slow and easy to kill. 

4. I was not impressed with Washington's local breweries. Most of the homegrown brews I tried tasted like homebrews. The exception was Elysian Brewery out of Seattle.