Two Easier Days (June 2, 2011)

After the two previous hard days, I was rewarded by two easier days ... sorta.

The 44 mile ride from South Bend to Long Beach, WA was a joy. Other than about fifteen minutes of rain (enough rain to require donning rain gear), the day turned into a glorious weather day. Although there were a few short climbs, for the most part the ride was fairly level. Riding along Willapa Bay on Highway 101 was very enjoyable, and included some of the most beautiful landscapes a person could view.

Met a fellow cycling tourist by the name of Simon. Simon, who is from London, was heading north toward Banff, then heading east to Montreal. He has been touring the western United States for the past seven weeks. Very interesting fellow ... you can follow his travels at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=8391&v=qg

Long Beach proved to be a typical beach town, but not as expensive as some of the beach communities in Oregon, California or Cape Cod.

The 46 mile ride from Long Beach to Seaside, OR was a mixture of climbing and very wet and cold weather. I decided to go off route a little bit to go and visit the Lewis and Clark Museum, up on top of Cape Disappointment. I say "up on top" because it was about 4 miles of serious climbing. I now know why it is called Cape Disappointment ... the museum was closed. Ouch.

Shortly after enjoying the down hill from the museum, I headed toward Astoria, OR. It began to rain almost immediately. Then the wind picked-up. Into the rain gear once again. When I purchased the rain jacket and pants, I opted for the mid-dollar range of product, hence I sweat profusely when being protected from the rain. Makes for very uncomfortable and clammy clothing under the jacket.

The ride to Astoria, from Washington, includes crossing the Columbia River on a four mile bridge. My assumption is that when the bridge was designed, the idea of providing a bike lane was the farthest thing from the designer's mind. On a beautiful day the crossing would be stressful. On this day, there were very high cross winds, accompanied by very cold rain.

Earlier in the day I had met a couple who were also riding south. They were on single bikes, and he was pulling a Burley-type trailer with their two year-old son in the trailer. I followed them across the bridge and marveled at what kind of stress they must have been feeling ... lots of traffic and not much room for the trailer. Thankfully we all made it across without any incidents.

The sixteen mile ride on into Seaside (a real upscale and gaudy beach town) was an easy pull. Stopped at a bike shop and bought some new brake pads, as the previous riding in the rain and multiple down hills had provided great amounts of brake pad eating grit.

Weather predictions call for several warm and dry days over the next three or four days ... ahhhhhh.