Ride Day 84

Today I went from Garibaldi to near Westport Oregon 76 miles and around 2500' of climbing. I cheated a bit and took a ride at the beginning of the day to get out of cold heavy rains. The scenery was the usual beautiful coastal views and trees. I came to Astoria with the big 4 mile long bridge I would have gone over if I had continued going north but I decided to turn East here at Astoria and take the Columbia River east along the Lewis and Clark trail. Astoria looked like a nice little town to spend some time in but I just breezed right through it only taking a couple pics all day. There were a lot of good looking restaurants, cafes and shops in downtown Astoria and all the people I met were very friendly and helpful. I enjoyed my short visit and would like to come back here someday. The ride out to my campsite at Gnat Creek Hatchery was uneventful rolling hills to about 700' so it was not too hard of a ride. The shoulder was generally good except where it was most important, on the inside blind curves. Why the hell to road builders clip off the shoulder all the time on inside curves? They need some education about this point. I don't think it is intentional just lack of knowledge about the dangers to bikes on blind corners like this. The weather was light rain most of the day. I found out that my tent is not a good one to put up in the rain because rain soaks the inside before you can put on the fly. I wiped it as dry as I could after getting it up but it was still a very damp night for me. I still slept enough and hit the road early in the morning pretty much soaked.