Fall Down the Oregon Coast-Day 4- We Finally Make it to Oregon

We thoroughly enjoyed our night at the Best Western! We had gone to dinner at what seemed like the only open place in Long Beach, The Castaway and had delicious fish and chips. Back at the hotel, Sue and Matt had pulled out their tents to dry. Sue put hers in the shower, and Matt draped his over his bike in the boiler room where we parked the bikes. Both tents were dry by morning (Sue’s tent left about a million fir needles in the tub). In fact, pretty much everything was dry. 

Once again, we wanted to get an early start. We had about 57 miles to go to Nehalem Bay, and we wanted get over the Astoria-Megler bridge as early as possible. Sue and Iwere ready to roll, and since Matt is quite speedy, we rolled out a bit ahead of him. I told him we would not cross the bridge without him (somewhat jokingly because we had about 12 or 13 miles to get to the bridge. He would catch us for sure. 

Mouth of the Chinook River as it empties into the Columbia.

It was shortest for us to go back to the cut-off road at the place we had stopped yesterday for coffee (me, hot chocolate), then over to 101. Sue and I rolled through Chinook, and no Matt yet. We continued on toFort Columbia State Park. Oh, did I mention the wind and, of course, the rain? Yeah, same ol’ same ol’, except the wind was quite fierce, and it was a head wind. Because there was more shelter from the wind and rain at Fort Columbia, we decided to wait for Matt there. For a brief moment, the sun came out!

Happy Sun dance!

Bikes were slightly protected under the trees. 

As we were waiting for Matt, we got a text from him, saying he had a flat on the front, and he was at the Chinook County Park fixing it. That wasn’t too far away, so we figured we would see him soon. Time went by, the rain came back, and we were getting cold. I texted Matt to let him know we were going to slow roll toward the bridge. Shortly after we started, he texted he was testing it, and would be on his way soon. It wasn’t too much further to the bridge. The sun managed to make another appearance. 

The bridge in the distance. 

Just as I was about to text Matt that we were going to start across the bridge, I saw him coming. When he caught up, I said, “We’ll talk later, let’s get over the bridge while the sun is shining, and it’s not raining.”

Not too long after we got onto the bridge, it started raining again, and the wind was a ferocious headwind. It was blowing water up through the drain holes on the side of the bridge deck, and making a whistling sound. As I’ve encountered before when crossing this bridge, the traffic came in spurts. Some of the time I could ride in the lane when there were no cars coming from behind, or there were no cars coming from ahead, and the cars behind could go around me. Only got honked at by one asshole. 

Partway up the climb at the other end of the bridge, I passed Sue. She was walking up the steep climb. It’s a long steep climb, and with the added wind and rain (and traffic), it’s a wonder any of us could ride. They are still doing work on the bridge (they were working on it last summer when Doug and I rode over for the Trans Am). When I got to the flagger, he had me wait, and go at the end so I wouldn’t have any cars behind me. He said, “Your buddy is waiting down in the parking lot.” I could see Matt down below. 

Sue showed up not too long after. 

Sue having survived the treacherous bridge crossing!

While Matt and I were waiting for Sue, we talked about what we should do. Matt really needed new tires, well…better tires for the job at hand. He called the bike shop in Astoria. They were moving…today. They thought the shop in Seaside would possibly have them, but we couldn’t call to find out because they are closed Monday and Tuesday. With the delay from Matt’s flat, and the lengthy distance left to go, we decided it would be best to just go to Fort Stevens. In addition to the tire situation, Sue needed to get a sleeping pad because she inadvertently left her’s at home. Yes, the two nights we have camped in our tents, she has slept on the cold hard ground (she’s a tough cookie for sure)! And, we needed to resupply some food. We told all this to Sue when she arrived, and she agreed it was a good idea. 

We rolled on to the official start of the Oregon Coast Bike Route. 

The sign says welcome to the Oregon Coast Bike Route

Heading off to the Young’s Bay bridge to Warrenton, and Fred Meyer. 

At Fred Meyer, Matt called Darlynn to ask if she would consider bringing him the brand new set of Schwalbe Marathon tires he had at home, along with a couple of new tubes. She was happy to do that. It was a better plan than hoping the bike shop in Seaside would have the tires. 

We got our resupply at Fred Meyer, then went over to Big 5 Sporting Goods to see if they had a sleeping pad. They had a reasonably sized closed cell foam pad that was far better than nothing. 

Matt is an official bike tourer now, complete with bag of chips riding on the top of the rear rack!

Shopping chores finished, we headed on to Fort Stevens. At the turn in Hammond, I saw Matt waiting. When I pulled up to him, he pointed out the elk.

See the big guy back there?

First I thought it was a statue. It was not. A woman warned us to stay away from him as he has been charging people. She even offered to keep her car between us and the bull. We told her it was okay, we were going the other way. 

The girls and kids munching on the bushes. 

We ended up seeing two more cows at the entrance to the State Park. In all the times I’ve been here (even camping here when the boys were young), I’ve never seen the elk! 

At Fort Stevens, we inquired about the possibility of a yurt. Alas, there were no yurts available. We called over to the KOA across the street to ask about a cabin. They were ridiculously expensive, and, at the moment, the weather was actually nice! We opted for the Hiker Biker site at $8 per person. 

We got our tents up, and I even managed a shower! When I got back, Darlynn was here with Matt’s new tires. We also realized we could send anything we didn’t want to carry, home with her. I was going to send both my extra shoes and my chair, but in the end, I couldn’t part with my chair. It’s a good thing I didn’t, because, of course it started raining again, so I cooked my dinner in the bathroom, and sat in my chair!

Matt got the tires on, and all should be good now. Even though we are now a day behind, it’s okay, and everything will work out. Now that the dreadful bridge is behind us, and we’ve seen there is still a sun in the sky, we can enjoy a bit more leisurely riding day tomorrow. Oh, I’m sure it will be raining, but we are getting pretty used to it. It would be nice to get a bit more sun (or even just no rain) because then I would be inclined to take more photos.