July 19, 2005
Portland, OR - Clatskanie, OR: Onward to the Pacific!
There were so many bodies and bicycles in our room in the morning that it took co-ordinated effort to get my bicycle out. We were on the second floor, which required two trips. I waited around until Smoker John was ready to leave. He didn't seem especially happy to have company, but I was chicken about bicycling in the big city traffic. In the end it was no problem, we were on the far edge of town and were quickly onto highway 30. John and I didn't follow the ACA route out of town, but just took the straight 'car' route the motel clerk suggested. Riding over St. John's Bridge was not a problem, thank goodness. It was pretty old and narrow.
Once we got out of town a ways John gradually pulled away from me on a climb. I tried to keep up, but couldn't quite maintain his pace. I gave up, not too concerned now that we were out of town.
After much discussion, as a group we decided to search for an alternate route back from the ocean rather than riding Hwy 30 twice. I stopped in at the visitor's center in St. Helens. The ladies there were extra helpful, even making a long distance phone call trying to find us a camping site on Hwy 26. They came up with the town park in Banks. I was so happy to have been able to help Ryan. I felt he spent far more time than should be expected on routing and overnight spots. This was the first summer the Lewis and Clark Trail route had been run and it seemed to me that Ryan was doing most of the leg work.
I continued on my way, happy. The road was a bit busy, but had a good shoulder. It was warm, but not like the temps we had going in to Roosevelt.
I had a nice ride into Clatskanie. There was one big climb, but it ended with a nice downhill into town. I stopped at a little cafe for a sandwich and to read the paper. I could see our tents across the road, so I wasn't in a hurry.
We had a very good camping site in the local park next to the swimming pool. There were showers at the swimming pool that had exterior doors, so we didn't have to actually enter the pool to get to the restrooms. We didn't even have to pay a quarter! We had a nice grassy spot to camp and a covered area to cook with picnic tables.
Robert had purchased a bag of cherries at a roadside stand. They were delicious. I was too lazy to go buy my own bag, but I promised myself that the first stand I saw I would buy my own bag.
We cooked dinner for the first night in awhile. The end of the trip was nearing and all of our routines seemed nostalgic to me.
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Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 1,108 miles (1,783 km)
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