June 7th, 2011 - Nehalem Bay to Ilwaco - 45 miles
Today started out from Nehalem bay into 20 miles of 4 hill climbs. The first bit was pretty but then the frustration of hills started to set in. Luckily the next 20 miles were quite flat. As I went through Warrenington and headed to the first long bridge of the day I caught a glimpse of the behemoth that I would be needing to go over. I started to laugh a nervous giggle as I had a good 2 miles or staring at this giant beast!
The Astoria bridge is a much talked about item on the Pacific Coast Highway tour among tourist. It is a four mile long bridge with no shoulder. There is extra fun for southbound riders as they stare at the steep incline at the end of the bridge for the whole ride. For northbound riders we begin with a steep incline. Since the last bridge was no fun and was less then half the length I decided to stop and have a coffee prior to proceeding. As I was looking for a coffee shop I made a last hail mary and stopped at the visitor center. It turned out there was a bus that would take me over the bridge and a couple of miles from my campsite for the night! Of course I had just missed the next bus by ten minutes so I had a couple of hours to wait for the next. I figured the $0.50 was worth the wait.
On entering the bus I was greeted by what obviously was the regular crowd of 10 or so people who all soon knew my story and did not hesitate to give advice. It is amazing how many people will offer advice to help ensure that I took the safest route and knew of hard places on the journey. This fact always delights me.
As it started to rain while setting up camp a lady running past by and stopped to chat. It turns out that she had cycle toured and offered me a place to stay for the night.
She had to go to work at 4:30 am as she worked as a fishery agent and had to inspect the offloading of the fishing boat. As it was I forgot my tent in her car and had to wait for her to return prior to heading off for the night. While we waited her boyfriend and I were chatting and I found out that they were driving through Seattle later in the day. Well I wasn't excited about the three days of raining that was expected so I asked if I could catch a ride.
We made it to Seattle where I was dropped off with Nate who had pizza and beer waiting. We spent most of the night catching up. It was great to be with family again.
She had to go to work at 4:30 am as she worked as a fishery agent and had to inspect the offloading of the fishing boat. As it was I forgot my tent in her car and had to wait for her to return prior to heading off for the night. While we waited her boyfriend and I were chatting and I found out that they were driving through Seattle later in the day. Well I wasn't excited about the three days of raining that was expected so I asked if I could catch a ride.
We made it to Seattle where I was dropped off with Nate who had pizza and beer waiting. We spent most of the night catching up. It was great to be with family again.
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