So I’m trying to decide how to get to the Oregon coast from Portland. Here are some possibilities.
78 m
1589 feet
hwy 6
85 m
791 feet
hwy 99 & 18
94 m
762 feet
hwy 30
Monthly Archive for July, 2006
Winlock to Portland
DST: 84.218 m
TM: 6:05:46
ODO: 252.24 m
I’ll call this trip “Stoog.”
Pretty good day. The Lewis & Clark bridge was really high, & hwy 30 to Portland was straight & hot. I passed a cooling tower. Stopped to eat in St. Helens. Ate Mexican food and ice cream. I should have had a sandwich from the ice cream stand. Also bought blueberries and blackberries from some kids outside the laundromat. The ride into Portland seemed fast. I got there sometime between 6 & 7 and had dinner with Matt and Stephanie.
Steilacoom to Winlock
DST:
HRS:
If you take Hwy 99(?) through Dupont you can get onto the Old Pacific Highway via a single exit of I-5. I took that route into Olympia, stopped for some chain oil and ended up buying Phil Wood oil instead of Triflow because that’s what the Oly Cycles(link?) had. The bike shop guy told me about a rail trail from Olympia to Tenino, which was the next town on the route to Portland. On the way I met a guy and his son touring on a tandem. They told me about a public pool in Tenino made from an old quarry. I think it was sandstone. I swam briefly, but it was very cold. There was a mossy waterfall into the pool and I saw a salamander. I stopped to camp in a field when it got dark out.
Seattle to Steilacoom
DST: 66
HRS: 5:18
ODO: 66
A drizzly day. I’m camped in a vacant lot next to the train tracks and the sound. The wind went north against me today, but I found an easier way out of the Green River valley. Unfortunately I lost a lot of time searching for one. I started at 11 and I pulled into Steilacoom around 7 or 8 and searched for campsites until the sun was near the horizon. I could have made it to Olympia, but not having anyone to stay with made it seem like it might be easier to stay here. I spent 60 miles getting here. I should write down the mileage tomorrow. I should make it to Cowlitz county tomorrow
Evelyn and I went on a bike camping trip. It turned into a trip to challenge our gravel-riding skills and her navigationalities. We biked from Issaquah to Preston on a gravel frontage road. We took a nap by a stream on 68th St. in Preston. We camped in an undeveloped lot with a wire fence and lots of grass(at least 3 or 4 species were blooming) and trees. We got water from the hose at a house nearby which had recently been built, but was not yet inhabited. For dinner we had polenta with sardines, beer, bread, hummus and cheese and probably some cranberries. Then we ate at least five kinds of berries while walking along the road we were camped near.
We pitched the tent without the rain fly in a bid to see the stars, but didn’t stay up long. We woke up in the hot sun and regained consciousness with some difficulty and rode a shorter route back home. We had berries, leftover polenta, hummus, bread and an orange for breakfast and stopped in Preston for coffee and bathroom use. On the way back we did manage to find the trail through the Tiger Mountain State Forest that we had kinda been looking for the day before. There was a big weird power substation on that trail that contained PCBs. In order to exit Tiger Mountain State Forest, we took a switchback-infested hiking trail where we had to walk the bikes down the stairs on a cliff.
Caption: My beard protects me from bitch-slaps.
Illustration: Use your imagination. Something involving a bitch slap and a beard.