Day 78: McMinnville to Portland, 45 miles
Day 79: Portland, 0 miles
Day 80: Portland to Centralia, 103 miles
Day 81: Tacoma, 0 miles
Day 82: Tacoma, 0 miles
Day 77: 5/28/14
I finally left Bike Newport at 3:00 p.m. after getting my laundry done, my devices charged and most importantly my new tires put on the bike and rode the few miles out of Newport to Beverly Beach State Park where I posted up for the night. Before leaving Newport I'd stopped at a grocery store and picked up a salad in a bag, some bananas, and a can of soup and had a regular old feast at the camp and got a nice little fire going.
At about 1:00 a.m. was when the dark clouds came in and it decided to dump buckets of rain down on me for the next 10 hours.... Suffice it to say it was a pretty sleepless and cold night huddled in the tent trying to stay dry.
By 8:00 a.m. the rain was still coming down with no signs of breaking so I started packing up in the rain and was on the road biking by 9:00 a.m. Let's just say the next few hours of riding were definitely not the most fun I've had on this trip.
Despite the weather I was able to make pretty decent time and got 50 miles to a little roadside diner called Fort Hill Diner in Willimina before deciding I had to get out of the rain and try to dry off a little and get warm. After a delicious burger, some apple pie, a few dozen cups of coffee and another few dozen trips to the bathroom to use the hand dryer to dry out some of my clothes I decided it was time to get back on the road and do the last 26 miles to my warmshowers hosts for the night in McMinnville.
After I got to my hosts house I was shown back to the back yard by the roosters pen where I'd be sleeping and decided to pop the tent under the tree fort rather than climb up inside and sleep at elevation. I got to meet Haley, her dad Steve and mom Melissa and got a delicious skewered steak and veggies meal as we shared travel stories. Haley and her father have already trekked across country once to New York and Haley is in the midst of planning another trip that will zig zag her around the country so she can touch all of the lower 48. What an adventure!
Day 78: 5/29/14
After a good nights sleep I got an incredibly loud rooster wake up call at about 4:30 a.m. but I kept hitting snooze until I finally got up around 7:30 a.m.
I got a quick cup of coffee and got a sneak peak at Haley's maps and the route that she has planned out so far and then I got on the bike to ride the relatively short distance into Portland.
I got to Portland by mid afternoon and grabbed another cup of joe (I seriously might be developing a bit of an addiction to this coffee thing) at a cool coffee shop called Bipartisan Cafe and then went to meet Hilary and Paul. Hilary, a friend of Lisa Lindberg's (my sister from another mister), is a fellow upstater who has been living out here for the last few years. Paul is drummer and musician and they are awesome and graciously took me in for a night and boy what a day/night we had.
After getting a much needed shower we headed out and went first to Base Camp Brewing Company for a beer and some shawarma fries. I don't even know all of the things that were piled onto these fries but they were amazing. From here we walked down to Cascade Brewing Barrell House and I was introduced to sour beer which is much more tasty than it might sound.
From there it was collectively decided that we should be outside enjoying the beautiful weather and sunshine so Paul and Hilary grabbed their hucking disks and we drove to Dabney Disk Golf Course and got in some disk throwing at this really cool course. This was another first for me and although I was no match for Hilary and Paul's skills I still had a lot of fun waking around the beautiful course and traversing down uncharted areas of the course to track down my damn disk...
We got through about 13 holes before the lighting started to become an issue and after all struggling on 14,15 and 16 we decided to call it a day and walked the last two holes and rode back into Portland, but this night wasn't over.
Once we got back we hit up Fire on the Mountain, another really cool bar/restaurant and got some amazing wings and eats here. We filled up on all the wings and food we could stuff into out faces and then finally went back to their house and crashed.
Day 79: 5/30/14
I decided to stick around another day in Portland and do some more exploring so after some cereal and a nice cup of coffee I left Hilary and Paul's and ventured out into Northeast Portland to see what else I could find.
Throughout the day I ended up riding close to 20 miles as I tooled around on the different streets. I got some much needed coffee earlier in the day on Alberta Street and then ventured over to North Mississippi Street and had some pretty incredible Mac and Cheese at a cool little restaurant called Mac! (Go figure...) and the rest of the day I spent riding around and getting a feel for the city.
After getting my fill of the city I rode the bike over to Old Town Brewing Company and got some dinner and a few drinks while watching game 6 of the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers series. It was the first game I've seen of the series and it was not a very fun one to watch. Miami basically had the game clinched before half time but, I still enjoyed getting to see it and enjoyed the food and beverages.
After the game I rode to my hosts house for the night and after talking with my hosts, Evan and Lucy, for a bit I crashed. It had been a long day and I was beat.
Day 80: 5/31/14
I felt good waking in the morning and after getting a nice cup of coffee and some oatmeal prepared by Evan, who by the way had the most epic of mullets that I've ever seen, I hit the road.
It was a perfect day for riding, temps in the low 60's, clear skies, little wind and great scenery abound. I ended up pumping out some big miles, and by noon I'd already crossed the Lewis and Clark Bridge and entered into Washington and 50 miles logged already.
I'd expected the ride from Portland to Joe's apartment, a good friend of mine from high school who lives near Seattle to take 3 days riding but after realizing the miles I was getting in I started to think I could do it in 2. So when I contacted Joe to let him know I'd be a day early he got really excited on the other side of the line and started asking how far I'd be able to get today and whether I'd be okay with him coming to pick me up from wherever I ended... It turned out that Joe was moving apartments the next day and an extra body was just what he needed. So we ended up deciding to meet in Centralia at a Wendy's where I gorged on some food before making the 50 mile trip up to his apartment. Minus that 50 miles of driving that put my total miles for the day up to 103. Also, my first century ride on the West Coast which I was happy I did. (And I know what you are thinking... Brian, that's cheating!! What about those 50 driving miles?!?!? Well, don't worry I'll be making up those 50 miles here in Tacoma before leaving the area so that I don't have any "cheating miles" so you can rest easy.)
Day 81-82: 6/01/14-6/02/14
June 1st was moving out and moving in day so after getting some coffee we drove Joe's truck to the U-Haul to pick up the trailer and started packing up at around 11:00 a.m. from his 3rd floor apartment. We finished packing everything up by about 3:30 p.m. and drove everything from his place in Kent to Tacoma and then unloaded everything there. The unloading was much nicer than the loading and we finished up by 5:30-6:00 p.m. All I can say is that the day before I'd ridden 103 miles on my bike and I think that I'd rather ride 103 miles than pack/unpack an apartment any day of the week.... I was using some muscles that I've been neglecting over these last few months ( i.e. Everything above my waist) and they did not like me very much for putting them through what I did. There was one point while we were carrying down Joe's couch that I actually thought my forearm was going to explode. But it didn't and we made it through with no injuries so I will still consider it a good day. Especially because we hit up a little Chinese Buffet while dropping off the trailer back to the U-Haul place so that made up for any pain or suffering from the day... It's amazing what an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet can fix!
June 2nd was my first real day off with no physical activity at all and it's been glorious so far.
Naturally, the day began with coffee and then shower and then some grocery shopping and now music and food and relaxing... So domestic!
So, as far as the itinerary for the trip goes I will be spending the next few days to a week here, or maybe as long as Joe can put up with me for because I'm really starting to feel comfortable over here in the Pacific Northwest, and then I'll push north for a few more days up towards Mount Vernon before turning back East across the Northern Tier.
Some updated stats and a few pics from the last couple days...
Total Days: 82 (including today), 54 days on Southern Tier, 28 days on Pacific Coast
On Bike Days: 63 total, 41 on ST, 22 on PC
Off Bike Days: 19 total, 13 on ST, 6 on PC
Total Miles: 4,683 miles, 3,107 on ST, 1,576 on PC
Avg. Miles Per Day: 74.3 overall, 75.8 on ST, 71.6 on PC
Most Miles in a Day: 125 (2x) on ST, 103 on Pacific Coast
Top Speed: 51 m.p.h on ST
Highest Pass: 8,228 ft. (Emory Pass, NM)
States Crossed: 10 (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington)
Sleeping quarters in McMinnville
Portland, Oregon
