Saturday, May 18, 2013
Ride Day 86
Today's ride was from St Helens to Portland Oregon 30 miles and 700' of climbing in light rain. I packed up my campsite early this morning and hit the road but it started to rain in less than a mile so I pulled into a McD to use the wifi and check the weather reports. The storm was predicted to be past by 10 AM so I waited it out chatting with the local seniors hanging out at McDs. I enjoyed the people. I also met a friendly woman at the laundromat last night so my impression of St Helens is quite good as a quiet friendly helpful town. I enjoyed my short stay there. At 10 sharp it cleared up and I crossed my fingers and got back in the saddle. The ride was easy with a cool temp and very light sprinkles to keep me from heating up. There was not much to see or talk about but I took a couple pics of the road and some bridges. I stopped in Portland and will look for a hotel when I am done with this short update. There are more showers starting right now but they are predicted to stop by morning so maybe tomorrow I will get a good ride in. I am sorry that the clouds blocked some of the views I could have had of the mountains around here. I passed a few viewpoints where they can be seen on a clear day but today was anything but a clear day. Maybe next time.
Ride Day 85
Today I rode from Gnat Creek Hatchery near Westport to St Helens Oregon about 56 miles and 2500' of climbing. It was raining most of the day but just a light rain except for some heavier rain cells that blew over once in a while. I took refuge under big trees when the heavy stuff hit me to try to stay drier. All my camping stuff is wet from last night, my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad etc and my clothes are all dirty so when I got to St Helens I went straight to a laundromat to wash and dry all my stuff. Glad I did that cause I got a good night of sleep in the city campground last night. At the laundromat I was talking to several very friendly people that were curious about this strange fellow in the bright colored clothes doing his laundry. I talked to one woman for quite a while as she folded her clothes. She told me about how her father had helped a young bike rider many years earlier that was from Holland. The same man came back to see them many years later to tell them thanks for helping him out. There are a lot of nice people in the world if you just get out into the world. When I told her the city campground was full of tweekers she immediately told me I could come over and camp in her yard. I thanked her for the offer but my camp was all set up so I politely declined her offer, silly me. The campground emptied out at dark and I ended up as the only one camping there and I got a quiet night of sleep and stayed nice and dry. The ride was not too hard and at my first breakfast stop I checked in with my pregnant daughter to find that she had given birth two hours earlier on the bathroom floor at home after only 13 minutes of labor. Her sister called 911 and the baby girl was nursing by the time the ambulance arrived. Her sister and twin sister and her husband were all there to help so the birth went fine for one that went that fast. I am happy to have a healthy new grand daughter now. I will post a pic of her later. I had to stop at one point today to allow a wet cell to blow over and I just happened to be in front of a tavern so I went in for a quick one. Unfortunately after the one I went out to check the weather and it had already blown over so I hit the road again instead of having more pints. Here are a few pics but I did not take many because of the rain and drizzle. I did miss some great views of the mountains around here because of the fog and rain but such is life. 
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.
Ride Day 85 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details
Ride Day 85 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details
this is the second part of yesterday's ride, the first part is combined with day 84
this is the second part of yesterday's ride, the first part is combined with day 84
Friday, May 17, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Ride Day 83
Today I rode from Neskowin to Garibaldi 56 miles and 2500' of climbing in beautiful cool dry partly sunny conditions. Quite the change from yesterday's misery of cold and wet fog. There was an 800' and a 500' climb. My legs did not do so well today for some reason, maybe my poor breakfast choice which was a candy bar and a cookie with coffee. I need to make myself eat some good carbs and protein in the mornings but it is not always easy out in the boonies to get the right food and I can't carry everything on my bike. I survived with just some burning in the legs on the grades and a bit short winded. I had to stop once on the 800' climb to "pee" but really it was just to take a break and catch my breath while my heart caught up.
I really love seeing the ospreys, eagles, herons, sea lions, snakes, seals, birds of every sort and all the beautiful scenery along the way. There were quite a few bald eagles today. I have not been able to get a pic of any eagles yet cause they are just too high and far away for my little pocket camera.
I did meet a girl today that was fun to talk to. She was doing about a 60 mile day ride with no gear and came up behind me to talk about her ride down the coast from Seattle to Sf a couple years ago. We talked about riding for a while and why we both love it. She was very enthusiastic and I enjoyed talking to her. Maybe we will meet up on the road again somewhere someday. I also talked to my friend Terry and was going to meet with him this afternoon but he is delayed with problems with his boat so he won't be here until tomorrow now. I will take the day off and eat eat eat then meet up with him when he gets here. We knew each other down in Costa Rica for a long time.
My campground tonight is a county campground and is almost empty. Maybe the weather forecast has something to do with that. There is a lot of rain in the forecast so I hope they are wrong as usual. Rain, especially the cold driving rain like yesterday costs me too much money in hotels and laundry as well as increases my already huge appetite. Tonight for dinner I had, pint of ice cream, lots of broccoli, 3 bratwurst with buns, soup, bread, an apple, orange and banana, and then had a candy bar and cookie after. I will eat again before I go to bed cause I ate all that at 4pm. I am burning 4000-7000 calories a day and it is almost impossible to eat that many so my weight is going down too fast on me. I might have to ride less days a week or less miles a day or find a way to just eat more. Whatever I end up doing I hope I don't get too skinny.
more later
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