The ride begins: Days 1-3

We’ve had a wonderful tour through the Oregon coast, the Olympic National Park, and Seattle.  We ended up in Seaside, Oregon, on the Pacific Coast southwest of Astoria.  I had planned to start the bike ride at Cape Disappointment, on the Washington side of the Columbia River, but on the drive up to Olympic NP I saw that the bridge I’d have to cross wasn’t a great bicycle route, with little to no shoulder or bike lane, lots of traffic, and high winds.  So I decided to start the ride in Seaside, which gave me the opportunity to ride through the Lewis and Clark state park to Astoria on much less-travelled and safer roads.  The first day was about 90 miles, ending in St. Helens, OR.  Stephanie, Nora and Zac saw me off from the beach, picked me up in St. Helens, and we all drove to our camping spot for the next 3 nights in Ainsworth State Park, east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge.  Day 2 was about 70 miles with less climbing, but much more to see. I’ll post pictures soon.

Today was a rest day, which allows my muscles to recover a bit.  Stephanie and I joined Zac and Nora for a little exploration of the Old Columbia River Highway, with its massive waterfalls and spring green exploding from the forest floor, erasing much of the devastation left from 2017’s Eagle Creek fire.

I am finding that I have very little time to get things together for the blog, with the ride taking most of the day, then cleaning up, helping to set up our camp or hotel, walking Rosie, eating, preparing for the next day, and getting enough sleep.  I’m taking photos with the iphone and recording segments of the ride on a GoPro.  I have to come down a learning curve to get that media efficiently unloaded from the devices and into the library for this blog.  The GoPro in particular is a challenge because of the size of the files.  Recharging all of my lights and batteries each night is also taking more time than I’d like.  I clearly need to simplify.  I promise I will get this down so I can do better posts!

But for now, know that the first two days have gone well.  The weather has been beautiful, the route scenic, my body is holding up fine, and I’ve ridden about 160 miles so far to Ainsworth State Park.  It’s been great having Nora and Zac along for these first days.  They are now heading back to Seattle by way of Portland, as Stephanie and I continue on the adventure.  Next stop is Maryhill State Park near Biggs Junction, followed on Sunday by Umatilla, OR, and Monday we plan to arrive at Walla Walla, Washington for another rest day.

That’s just a quick status.  I hope to get the photos up soon!