Day Two on the road

Nehalem Bay State Park to Oceanside: 44 miles.

This day I rode directly from the trailer camp at Nehalem Bay; it was sunny but a bit cool around Nehalem Bay and then Tillamook Bay. I counted Nehalem, Trask, Wilson, and perhaps two other rivers draining into these two bays - it's the rivers' destination after all, quite different from riding near river sources up in the Rockies. I guess I was surprised to see so many separate rivers flowing into the same bay right next to each other.

The mouth of Nehalem Bay

On this trip I’m traveling “day pack” light, in contrast to almost all the other riders we see on the coast route. They’re backpackers on wheels and carry all their food, shelter and clothing. Their pannier bags weigh down their bikes front and rear. Many ride modified mountain bikes with fenders (a couple from Britain cycling from Alaska to San Diego) and others ride a road bike like me with drop handle bars and panniers front and back (that was like this guy named Ocean – no kidding – who I met in a horrible downpour and who was heading to San Diego as well).

On the other hand, I carry just a fanny pack with rain gear, a few tools, patches and tubes and energy bars. Our Airstream is our base camp and a significant part of our week, it turns out, is planning for moving the trailer to a new campsite. That ended up having a greater impact on the week’s schedule than we’d expected. Our general approach was to locate the trailer, shuttle north and ride south to the trailer and camp. The next day I ride south from the trailer to a designated meeting point where we can ride together or just shuttle back to the trailer.

The Tillamook Bay RR connected
Nehalem to Tillamook Bay

On this day the plan was for me to ride solo to Tillamook, join Marsha to enjoy the start of the Three Capes Route from Tillamook to Oceanside, Netarts, and then she or both would bus back to Tillamook. On my way around these two bays I saw many small fishing boats clustered in parts of the bay a few yards from each other, every one with lines in the water. Later we learned that the salmon run had started and people were crowding the rivers all down the coast to catch salmon on their way upstream to spawn. And we thought that would happen in the spring? 

We discovered in Tillamook that the road had washed out between Netarts and Oceanside (the Brits told me a few days later they got through on bikes) so we improvised a ride out and back along the water, looking across Tillamook Bay where I’d just pedaled.

Marsha talked this fisherman into
posing with his catch at the Salmon River

In the end it was a very nice day that gave me an opportunity to push some solo miles first and then ride with Marsha. So far the ride is going about as planned, the first couple of days are building miles and conditioning for longer miles later in the week.