Days 3 and Three Quarters OSBT

Sunset from my campsite at Brusceport Co. Park. 

Day three dawned with more sun, but a wee bit chilly. Matthew emerged from his tent as I was doing yoga on my picnic table. I do wish I had my full length yoga mat, but the Z-rest pad works okay. 

As I was preparing to hop on Tilmann, Matt asked if I had eaten breakfast. I told him I do Intermittent Fasting, and therefore, don’t eat breakfast. He was a little surprised that I could ride for a couple of hours not having eaten since 6:00 the night before. I said I was used to it. So, how’s that going, you might ask? So far, it’s...okay. I’m that totally fine without breakfast, and am enjoying being able to get up and get going pretty quickly, even with doing my morning yoga. What I find to be tougher, is not eating later in the evening. I will say, when I go to bed, I am sometimes hungry. Also, trying to finish eating by 6:00 is not always easy. But, it is basically okay. I’ll keep doing it...for now. 

My goal was to get to the Astoria Megler Bridge by noon. Instead of going via Cape Disappointment, I took Hwy 4 to Naselle, then 401 to the Columbia River, and the bridge. 

Thar she blows! Astoria Megler Bridge! I arrived right at noon. It’s been 9 years since I’ve ridden over the bridge. I remembered it being not too bad. I remembered a wider shoulder. I remembered wrong. While it wasn’t too bad, the shoulder was narrower than I remembered. There was quite a bit of traffic, but the wind was more of a tailwind, so that made for a fairly speedy crossing...except the hill at the end. I remembered that correctly. I rode into Astoria, and then across my nemesis bridge, the Youngs Bay Bridge. 

Strangely, it was not bad at all! There was the usual cross wind, but I swear the shoulder was wider than I remembered. And, it’s only been 5 years since I rode across that bridge. Turns out, they have widened the shoulder (basically, just moved the white line about 4 inches). 

After the bridge, I got onto the Hammond Bike Path. It was a little bit longer than just staying on the road, but I didn’t really care. Got this additional view of the Astoria Megler Bridge. 

Just a few ships there!

Also saw this...egret?...heron?

I arrived at Fort Stevens pretty early (even though I’d ridden 50 miles). There were no other cyclists in the H/B area. Eventually, Steve and Clemens (the third guy from Bruceport) rolled in. Cool new thing in the H/B area since I was last here. REI put in a charging and bike fixing station. 

Outlets are in the lockers. 

After dinner I walked out to the beach (with a stop at Coffenbury Lake for old times sake) to see how much of the wreck of the Peter Iredale was left. 

The lake

I remember more beach when we used to come here with the kids. 

Well, there’s still some left!

Kite surfing is popular here now. 

First part of Day 4

I slept pretty good last night. Since I only have 37 miles to go, I took my time getting packed up. Still on the road by 8:15. Today is the warmest so far. Sleeves were off my vest before I’d even gone two miles. 

I rolled into Seaside, and remembered there was the promenade that I could ride on along the beach. 

As I looked ahead I saw two things. One was that there were a lot of people walking. The other was a sign for a bakery. I decided I’d done enough of the promenade, and followed the bakery sign. Except, I didn’t find the bakery (might have been inside the hotel). Instead, back out on the Main Street through town, I found another bakery. Of course, I stopped. 

While in Seaside, I messaged my friend, Julie, that I was 10 miles from Cannon Beach. She owns the quilt shop in CB. I always stop in and say hi when I’m riding through. First I had to go over a nice climb. The ride down was awesome, and put me into CB shortly after 11:00. I stopped and had a nice time catching up with Julie, then continued on to the obligatory stop to take a photo of Haystack Rock. 

Hmmm...I was trying to block those people with my head...not successful. 

Now I am sitting at Tolavana Wayside. I’ve eaten some lunch. Now I’ll post this, and be on my way to Nehalem Bay, another 13 miles or so. The wind is coming out of the northwest, so should be a good ride the rest of the way.