Overdue and in Oregon

Wow, so, it’s only really been 2 days since my last update, but it feels like I haven’t updated this thing in ages. I guess since the last post was from my iphone…

I’m going to try to go in order. Monday was more rain than Washington’s seen all summer.. in my shoes. Tuesday was a day off. And Wednesday (which we’ve yet to really tell you about) we flew like bats out of hell.

Wednesday – We set the alarm for 5:30, knowing full well the night before that we needed to hit Aberdeen to really boost morale. Aberdeen’s a good 120 miles from Forks, so we were mentally preparing for the impending century. After snoozing the alarm until 6 and showering, we hit the road at about 7, stopping briefly at Forks Outfitters for Jas to find tubes. Just his luck, they didn’t carry 700c tubes, so we stocked up on food instead. I wanted to get a proper sleeping bag, but without the space to hold it, I decided on a second fleece blanket with a zippper under the impression that I could just double bag. So far, that impression has been spot on, and I’ve slept warmly since.

Eventually we stopped going west and turned south towards Kalaloch. During that time, we were passed by a team of 4 older cyclists who were doing a mini motel tour (nothing in the way of equipment, only about 50 miles a day, and hauling ass the whole time). Jas tried to keep up with them since they offered him a free tube if he could keep up. He didn’t, but at around that time, he started outpacing me by a lot. Also around that time we met a lone cyclist from Chile named Filipe (not sure about the spelling, pronounced fill-eep, not fill-eep-ay). Filipe rode with us for the rest of the day even though he had only planned for 100km that day. Filipe’s pace was closer to mine, which was pleasant after riding many miles with Jas so far ahead (and out of sight).

Just after meeting and joining up with Filipe, we hit Kalaloch, where we stopped for a lunch rest of sandwiches and Snickers bars. We then proceeded down 101 which had recently been chip sealed to accomodate all of the logger trucks. If I never have to ride on a chip sealed road or shoulder ever again for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. Chip seal is a huge pain in the ass to ride in. Not fun at all. Plus, it gave me three flat tubes — twice on the rear wheel of my bike, and once on the wheel of the Bob.

By the time Filipe and I hit Amanda Park (about 30 miles out of Aberdeen if I remember correctly), Jas had been waiting for a good half hour. I took the opportunity to mail some things that I wasn’t using back to Santa Cruz, Filipe took the opportunity to eat a cheeseburger, and Jas hung out and tried to figure out camping in Aberdeen.

Filipe’s camping experience throughout his trip had been guerilla — simply pulling off the road and going in far enough to be invisible and then pitching a tent. By the time we hit Humptulips, Jas and I had ridden something like 99.3 miles for the day, and all three of us were well beyond exhausted. Delirious and sore, we rode the remaining .7 miles to complete the century before turning around to pull off the road along the Humptulips river. The woman at the cash register at the Humptulips gas station (really the only public establishment in the town of Humptulips) told us that bikers camp on the side of the road all the time and it’s completely safe, so we weren’t worried. There were even some folks camping on the other side of the river.

I’m pretty sure I passed out before dark Wednesday night, after attempting to treat with IcyHot a pain that had developed in my right knee.

Thursday — It was difficult to wake up on Thursday, for obvious reasons. I was still exhausted, and though we made it back up to the road by about 10, we went back to the Humptulips convenience store to get food and didn’t make any progress until after 11.

The rest of Thursday was incredibly discouraging for me. My knee was hurting with every pedal, so it took me a while to get into Hoquiam (a major destination for us since it contained Washington’s only bike shop since we arrived at Port Angeles). Upon arriving, Filipe suggested that I take the bus from Hoquiam to Astoria to take a day or two off on my knee and wait him and Jas to arrive (Jas would camp in Filipe’s tent).

There weren’t any busses that went the whole way, so I did the next best thing and took a bus from Hoquiam to Grayland and set up camp early. Filipe and Jas rode in at around 6 after battling the wind all day to ride westbound along the bay.

I was still exhausted from the century the day before, so I passed out at around 8:30, well before dark. The bus ride left me a bit disappointed though, as I felt like I had cheated through part of the ride. It was definitely necessary for me to avoid blowing out my knee, and we couldn’t afford to take extra days off due to our time constraint to make Burning Man, but itstill left me feeling a bit empty and like a cheat.

After discussing things more with Jas, like what we’ll do if my knee goes boom and I have to stop riding, I felt marginally better — at least I’m still on the trip and I’m not holding him up, and I’ll be able to ride when my knee feels better.

Friday – Yesterday was Grayland to Astoria. My knee felt substantially better in the morning, but wasn’t up to 100%. I was able to maintain a decent pace of about 13mph through noon when we hit Raymond. After that, I think I went a bit slower, but Jas curbed his desire to ride fast and stayed with me at the moderate pace for the day. The ride was about 85 miles all said and done, from the campground to a house Jas had lined up through his mom.

Looking back on it, we didn’t do much of anything on Friday except for ride. We didn’t stop for lunch (just ate granola bars and clif bars during short breaks), we didn’t stop to take many pictures, and we didn’t go to any bike shops. By the time we hit the Colombia River, we were delirious and thrilled. Washington had given us nothing but rain and chip seal, while Oregon promised mostly clear skies and a place to stay for the first night. However, first we had to make it across the river, which meant riding on a 2 mile bridge with about 2 feet of shoulder (right next to 60mph traffic!), and a gigantic steep incline at the end of the bridge. My knee was feeling reasonably fine all day until that incline. It was deadly steep, and riding next to traffic meant no leway.

Once in Astoria, we took a minute to rest, ran into another guy on a bike going west for the night, and were offered free coffee by a little shack that was closing up for the day and about to throw it out. We were grateful for the warm beverage and then continued on to our accomodations.

Jas’s mom went to high school with a guy who lives in Astoria, so we were able to connect with them. They’ve encountered touring cyclists before and offered up their lawn for us to camp on and their showers for us to clean ourselves. It was nice to see people and shower in a home. They also offered us breakfast in the morning.

Friday night we went out to the Rogue Ale Public House on an Astoria Pier. We drank some beer, at some food, and had a jolly old time (riding 85 miles in a day really gives that first pint a huge kick). Jas thought he ate too much and shouldn’t have drank, and was probably right, but it was a fun time and quite enjoyable (our servers being cute brunettes talking about riding from Astoria to Portland didn’t hurt much either).

And all this brings me to today. We got a bit of a late start out of Astoria (booze’ll do that to you), but we hit up Safeway for an obscene amount of Chewy bars and goods. I got an ace bandage for my knee and some Tiger Milk bars as well. Then we went to the bike shop where Jas got tubes and gloves. I got a new tire for the Bob so that I don’t encounter as much road resistance (it’s slick and doesn’t have much traction) and a rack for the rear wheel that I can strap the tent and my sleeping mat onto.

With just the Bob, I have been putting the tent and sleeping mat (my two bulkiest items) at the bottom of the bag since they’re entirely useless during the day. This has meant that I’ve had to repack every morning, which has cost us a fair bit of time. With the rear rack, I can strap the tent and the mat to the bike (and strap a pouch for food), leaving more space in the Bob bag, and letting me pack up my stuff at night so that we can hit the road sooner in the morning.

After the bike shop we went to the Astoria Column, which is at the highest point in town and quite a spectacle of its own right. Coincidentally, it re-opened from renovation on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 10am. A mere hour or two before we arrived. Good timing.

Getting to the column, however, was quite taxing and really hit my knee hard. The ride down was great, but as we started heading out of town, I rewrapped the bandage, got on my bike and felt immense pain. Instead of riding the 66 miles down to Tillamook, I decided to cheat again and take the bus. Jas mentioned taking tomorrow off, which will give me two days off of the knee, so I should be good to ride on Monday.

The bus ride down the coast was a bit boring, and the scenery was great, making me even more disappointed that I wasn’t riding it. There was a huge hill though, between Cannon Beach and Manzanita, that would have destroyed my knee, so despite the obvious disappointments and drawbacks, I think it was the right decision.

I’m now sitting at Pacific Campground, about 200 yards from the Tillamook Cheese factory, where we’ll go tomorrow if we take the day off. After that, it’s down to Newport to see where they make Dead Guy Ale.

Hope that wasn’t too long to read.. a lot happened in the past few days..
-kevin