Astoria to Arlington
May 1 -Arriving in Astoria
We caught an early flight and made it to Portland by 11. Our WSL host met us outside of baggage and we were on our way to Astoria. We checked into our hotel, the Cannery Pier and headed to lunch at the Cannery Cafe, which was back toward town.
What a surprise when as we were leaving a guy walking next to me asked how long it would be before I recognized him. It was my brother, Doug, who drove up from Otis, home of the renowned Otis Cafe. We hadn’t really set a time to meet and he inadvertently stopped at the Cannery Cafe thinking it was the hotel. We said our goodbyes to Cindi and Liz and jumped into Doug’s car.
We did the tourist thing and visited Fort Clatsop, Fort Stevens and climbed the Astoria Column. We found a pizza place for dinner and by the time we got back to the hotel it was after 8. We hadn’t unpacked at all and the bikes needed to be assembled. Considering that we got up at 4 and it was pushing midnight EST, we were exhausted.
Our room at the Cannery Pier Hotel overlooked the Columbia River and the imposing Megler bridge that crosses between Washington and Oregon. Cindi looked at it and decided that she would like to bike across is. I looked at it and decided that there was no way that I would ever ride a bike across it. I offered earlier to put a bike together and let her do it while she was there. She will consider riding the bridge later this summer when she does her bike tour from Anacortes to Astoria.
May 2 – Astoria to Puget Island
The night was too short for my taste as we had to wake up at 5 to finish packing the panniers. It was unfortunate that we didn’t have time to really relax, sit by the window and watch the ships pass by.
We had breakfast and then rode down to the transit center to catch a bus to Fort Stevens. Since we had some time concerns, we decided to put the bikes on the bus so that we could get close to the Pacific and do the traditional dipping of the bikes.
We walked the bikes to the ocean on the beach near the wreck of the Peter Iredale. It was rainy and windy so we took some photos and didn’t linger.
We rode a bike path for awhile to exit the park. They say that when you learn to ride clipless that you need to plan on falling. I never fell the one and only day that I tried clipless. Well, my day to fall was today. It was fortunate that I was away from traffic and that there was nothing to impale me. I landed on my knee and thumb, both of which look a little worse for the wear.
We made it back to the hotel and loaded the bicycles and headed to lunch at Clemente’s. This little restaurant is run by Lisa whose family are fourth generation fishermen from Croatia. Both the Croatians and the Scandinavians settled Astoria specifically to take advantage of the fishing opportunities. The sturgeon fish-and-chips were excellent, and this is from somebody who is not the biggest fan of fish.
After lunch, we spent a few minutes at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to spend here, but it was a museum that could easily take the entire day to explore. The tickets are good for an entire day, so we thought that the next time, we will go to the museum in the morning, head to Clemente’s and then return to the museum for the rest of the day. But today, we had to get moving as it was already after 1 and we had a challenging ride ahead of us.
After the museum, we got on the bike path and I heard the familiar sounds of sea lions. We biked down a dock and stopped and watched them for awhile. Lisa had just told us how the sea lions devastate the fish supply because they simply take a bite out of sturgeon and leave the rest of the fish.
Route 30 was not a pleasant road at all and due to my lack of training, the ride was a challenge. The driving rain, cold, headwind and hills combined to make the day rather unpleasant. We finally reached Clatsop Hill at almost 700 feet elevation. Considering we were at sea level in Astoria, it was a good effort. Going down the hill was dicey as a truck came too close to me and I nearly lost control of the bike. I was certain that a crash was imminent.
We saw two guys with B.O.B.’s climbing from the other side. We didn’t envy them. We had 20+ miles to climb, but they had only a mile or two to reach Clatsop. We made good time into Westport and took the ferry to Puget Island, where our WSL hosts, Kim and Steve live. I was ready to kiss the island as soon as I got off the ferry. It’s totally flat.
We spent a pleasant evening and enjoyed a nice meal with Kim and Steve. We are turning into old people because we went to bed at 9.
May 3 -Puget Island to Longview Washington
Departing Puget Island and our delightful hosts proved difficult, but Steve predicted that we would miss the rain today. Immediately after we crossed the bridge from the island and went through the tiny, but charming, town of Cathlamet, we turned onto Route 4 and started climbing. At least the shoulders and the road in general were much more pleasant than the part of Route 30 that we rode yesterday from Astoria.
We always say that the second day is the hardest of trip whether or not there is difficult terrain, bad weather or other undesirable conditions. I dutifully and slowly struggled up the hills, which weren’t half as bad as the climb to Clatsop. My muscles protested and my mind joined in. I wondered what I was doing and questioned my lack of training. Had I never toured like this before, I may have simply given up and gone home. I reminded myself of the second day theory and continued on.
Robert said that this reminded him of Mexico and was creepy. I had the same thoughts when I saw the many roadside memorials to those who had been killed on this stretch of road. I don’t recall seeing so many memorials outside of Mexico. The shoulder had narrowed and the lumber trucks passed by too closely much of the time just as they had done yesterday. Today, I remained alert to their sounds and slowed down if I were heading downhill. I used to let it rip going down hills, but guess that my advanced age and distrust of the road conditions forced me to apply my brakes on the downhills.
In Longview the bike route is a sidewalk and it just happened to be garbage day. We slalomed all the way to our turnoff to our WSL house, where we met Harv, who let us in. Of course, the rain started right as we reached our destination.
Our plan for the day was to rent a car and head up to Mount St. Helens. Enterprise has a dropoff service, which is perfect for those of us without transportation. We got our car, ate lunch and headed up toward Johnson Ridge. Unfortunately, that visitor center doesn’t open until later in May, so we settled on Coldwater Ridge, which was as far as we could get.
Mount St. Helens was obstructed by clouds, which we had expected. This is another of those scenic wonders like Denali, Mitre Peak and Mt. Taranaki that one can’t expect to see on one particular day.
We watched an annoying film on the 1980 eruption and then headed back to the viewing window and just watched the clouds pass by, the sun peek through, and the peaks on both sides of Mount St. Helens come into full view. At closing time, it seemed that the mountain might show its face, but we had to leave before the gates closed. We headed back out of the park and pulled into a viewpoint and waited for the clouds to move past the mountain. Finally, we got a view of the cauldron. The clouds behind the mountain weren’t the perfect contrast to the snow on the mountain, but at least we got to see it.
We enjoyed a tasty pot roast dinner that our WSL host provided. Once again, we went to bed very early because of the longer day ahead tomorrow.
May 4 – Longview to Portland
I forgot to mention that we got caught in snow yesterday, but at least it was when we were in the car.
The weather looked hopeful today for once. We got a ride over the Longview bridge, which I had carefully checked out on the drive up to Astoria. The shoulder is full of debris and the bridge is narrow and steep. I had read other accounts of riding across this bridge and had absolutely zero interest in doing it. We got a ride with Harv who took us across and let us off at the site of the former Trojan nuclear plant.
Route 30 here was much improved with a decent shoulder and better road surface. We made great time into St. Helens where we took a tour of town, visited the Nob Hill Bed and Breakfast, ate lunch and went kayaking. We wrote Bed, Breakfast and Bike Midwestseveral years ago and enjoying checking out B&B’s. We especially liked Nob Hill because of the Arts and Crafts style and because it was recently renovated. We empathized with the innkeeper who spent months stripping woodwork and bringing new life to this house. We recently renovated an 1850 Greek Revival. Tana the innkeeper offered to let me use the bathroom with the clawfoot tub since her guests had all checked out. Tempting as it was, we had a schedule to keep, so I had to take a raincheck on that. The two rooms that she has are suites and the upstairs room offers great views of the town and the Columbia River.
We left and went to lunch at Geppetto’s Ice Cream and Deli. Now, this is the type of place that I wish we had in Albany. My roast beef sandwich cost only $3.95. Can’t beat that deal. The sandwich was so huge that I could only eat half of it. I didn’t have room to try any of the ice cream treats. Guess that I will have to save that and a stay at the Nob Hill for the next time. Maybe I will even check out the haunted places in town.
After lunch we went kayaking to the tip of Sauvie Island with Steve from Scappoose Bay Kayaking.
Kayaking in St. Helens
Since our time is always limited, we could only spare an hour , but kayaking was a nice change from pedaling. Steve has been kayaking in the area for many years and knows the history as well as the natural history of the region and knows a bit about kayaking as well. We watched a large freighter pass by, an eagle soar above and learned about the Chinook tribe. Our paddling time passed quickly by and we got back on the bikes and headed toward Portland, our destination for the day.
Don’t be shocked, but it started raining and hailing once again. Earlier we found an expresso shack, and took shelter under a small overhang and warmed up with cups of expresso. This time when the hail hit, there was no shelter available. We just listened to our helmet pings and felt our faces sting and trudged on. The rain lasted the entire 35 miles to Portland. Route 30 became increasingly busy and the constant traffic noise was so disturbing that a five second length of quiet made us both comment on how odd the silence seemed.
We made good time into Portland and found or lodging for the night, the Ace Hotel. Think of a hotel in an old movie and you have a good idea about the ambience of this place. Most of the other guests here appear to be youngish, like we think we are, and the artsy type. Our room is totally white with a painting of boxing turns on the longest wall.
The bathroom is spread out. The sink is in the room, the toilet is in a separate compartment and the shower with a glass stall is right behind the bed. Now depending on your traveling companion, this could be a real drawback. I have several traveling companions who I am not interested in watching take a shower. Robert says that you just go down to the lobby when your roommate takes a shower, so that I did. There is a nice coffee shop connected to the lobby. The one drawback of the shower is that there is nowhere to put your toiletries or washcloth except for on the floor.
Check out the glass shower
The bed is covered with old army style blankets with the hotel name printed on it. There is a desk made of an edge-jointed 2×16 and has an internet port. Internet is free.
We ate dinner near the Morrison Bridge at the Bistro MontageThis restaurant offers communal dining tables, a lively and loud atmosphere and Cajun foods as well a large variety of mac and cheese. The to-go containers are not your typical styrofoam box, but foil artwork created by the staff. I thought that perhaps the staff were former cruise line cabin attendants when I saw the foil creations that they had created.
I figured since I had already bicycled over a hundred miles that it would be ok to indulge in dessert. The gooey butter cake was the favorite at our table.
Tomorrow we are touring around Portland.
May 5 – Portland Touring
We spent a day off the bikes and took a whirlwind tour of Portland, which we hadn’t been to for over 20 years. Our first stop was the farmers’ market, which had enough samples of products like bread, cheese and nuts to count as breakfast for us. When we get home, I will have to visit our local farmers’ market to see how it compares.
From the market, we took a quick walking tour of the area. David, our guide from Portland Walking Tours asked if we watched The Simpsons, which we hadn’t done for years. When we biked into town we never made the connection with as we passed by Flanders and Lovejoy streets. The creator of The Simpsons has parents named Homer and Marge and used Portland street names for characters like Reverend Lovejoy and Ned Flanders. We learned about urban planning , clear vistas and the history of Portland amongst other interesting bits of information from David, who is with Portland Walking Tours.
David left us to go visit the hospital. Now, where else but Portland would a hospital visit become a tourist activity? We boarded the new aerial tram, which goes up to the hospitals. There is obviously a great view from the top along with artwork displayed in the corridors of the hospital. Don’t worry, you don’t need to get your blood drawn.
We could eat pizza everyday so we indulged ourselves at HotLips Pizza, which uses all natural ingredients. I tried the HotLips blueberry soda to accompany my blue cheese, asparagus pizza, which was quite tasty and something that I will try to make at home. It’s definitely not the first pizza topping that comes to mind.
We drove through several different neighborhoods and then headed over to the Velveteria, not to be confused with Velveeta, but very similar in some respects. Caren and Carl have amassed a collection of over 1500 velvet paintings from all over the world. The velvet paintings jolted me back to a Brownie or Girl Scout trip to Palmer Pan in Toledo that was a major producer of paint-by-number kits.
Carl said that acquiring these paintings wasn’t always easy. It’s obviously a regional thing so I mentioned that there were plenty of vacant gas station lots that sold these paintings from a van every weekend in Toledo. That came as no shock to him and he pointed out that the manufacturers of velvet paintings in Juarez(Mexico) hold Cleveland in high esteem because the residents have a real appreciation for these nappy works.
Fortunately, the friendly folks at the Ace Hotel had stored our bicycles for us.
We put them on a bike rack and headed out to Troutdale and one of the McMenamins properties – Edgefield. A former poorhouse, the hotel features artwork ( no velvet though) by locals, literally on the hallway walls, on each door, in the stairwells and even in the elevator. The artwork is so popular that it attracts school groups from around the state. We took a tour of the building and then ate dinner at the Black Rabbit which is on site along with a few other restaurants. The place was bustling with several different events happening.
Our room shared a bath with several others, which isn’t a problem because there are so many baths. Think of the bathroom in your house, rather than a hostel style bathroom. Oh, there are hostel rooms in this hotel as well.
We had a very long day and had dinner with our friend, Jill, from college whom we hadn’t seen for many years.
May 6 – Into the Gorge
An excellent map showing the elevations of three different routes through the gorge provide us with a bit of reality therapy. Troutdale was a convenient spot to start our trek through the gorge as it is the closest town to the starting point of the historic highway, which was our choice for the day. The other options are I-84 and Route 14 through Washington. We got a very early start because the map indicated that we had a 900 foot climb to Portland Women’s Forum in the first nine miles of the highway.
We survived that climb and I thought it was not as bad as I had anticipated. I thought it would be much steeper than it was. We stopped at all the waterfalls along the way if we didn’t have to hike into them as we didn’t want to have to worry about our bicycles. There was little traffic on the road, which made for a very pleasant ride, up until the point where the Historic Highway and I-84 are one and the same. I can’t say that I have ever ridden on an interstate before, but it was better than route 30, which somebody pointed out to has after we had ridden that stretch, that it is one of the most dangerous highways in he state. We only rode a few miles on the Interstate and then got back on to a road with a 12% grade. I walked some of that one. There was no indication on the map that we would encounter such a steep grade. Shortly after that the road turns into a bike path, which was pleasant enough, except for the heaves in it, which where fortunately marked by pylons. At one point in the path, near Eagle Creek, we came to a staircase where we had to carry our bikes down many steps. Although there was a wheel gutter on the side, it didn’t seem to be a particularly good way to move the bikes. Robert carried them down and we continued on our way.
After reaching Cascade Locks, we had just a few more miles of quiet roads before we would get dumped back on I-84. There were a few dicey spots where the shoulder disappeared when the road crossed over a bridge. Riding into the lane with cars going 65 mph or more isn’t that exciting. We made really good time because a nice tailwind came up. Robert says that he was going 25mph although he was behind me and my computer said that I was going between 18 and 20. We obviously are having some issues with our computers. I have one with an altimeter that says that much of my altitude yesterday was -350. The instructions are not easy to understand and although we set the altimeter at the beginning of the trip, it is suddenly misbehaving. We wonder if it might be because the bikes were stored in a basement.
Our destination for the day was Hood River and a few miles out, the highway began a nice, long climb up to our exit. Finally, we reached our exit and headed to the Historic Columbia Gorge Hotel, a lovely property with a fantastic view of the Columbia. As we have mentioned before, we enjoy old buildings that have been preserved. This is one of them. It brings to mind that when we wrote Bed, Breakfast & Bike, many people assumed that people who tour by bicycle only camp or carry a garbage bag fool of their worldly possessions on their bikes. I often pointed out the demographics of the bicycle touring population and explained that those touring on bicycles were not down-and-out vagrants.
Camping is a choice, not a necessity, although for us it will be a real necessity in some of the more desolate areas where we will be traveling. Likewise, a pleasant hotel quickly makes the travails of the day disappear. Hills? What hills?
We visited The Gorge White House tasting room and sampled some of the local wines. The concept here is an interesting one as they sell wines from most of the local wineries. Each day, they have a different flight of wines for tasting. In addition, they also sample two beers as well. Out back is the produce room, where pears and pear products as well as other picnic makings are sold.
After our quick tasting, we went back to the hotel and snoozed for a few minutes while awaiting the arrival of my sister and her family. The phone rang and I jumped up and saw an unfamiliar wall in front of me. I had no idea where I was or where I was supposed to be. After a few minutes, I got my bearings back. My sister from Bend was here and we headed out to The Crazy Pepper, a local Mexican restaurant. I had my usual cheese enchilada and margaritas of course. I hadn’t seen my youngest nephews who are now in 10th grade since they were little kids, so it was good to see them. We had a short and sweet visit since Bend is a three-hour drive from here and it was a school and work night and they had to get home.
During this first week, we have met family, friends and new WSL friends along the way. From here on, it will be a long time before we meet up with anybody. Off hand, it seems that we won’t do this until we reach the Twin Cities, which is several weeks away.
We are starting to think about laundry now as we are running out of clean clothes. Handwashing is always an option and we have already done some of that, but it would be nice to get the grime off some of our outerwear, which has been really abused the last few days. Shockingly, it didn’t rain or hail yesterday. They said that the weather would get better once we got into the gorge.
May 7 – The Dalles
Today started out a winner because the sky was blue and there appeared to be no threat of hail. Imagine that. We chose today to tour again with our delightful host, Veronique(might figure out how to add the accent later) from POVAand take a tour to the historic resort of Timberline. A WPA project, this resort exudes a character that continues today much of it due to the hardworking staff at Timberline. We watched a short movie on the construction of the project, toured the wine cellar with Nick Andrews (watch for a future podcast) and then had a delicious lunch that we wisely split. We know the restaurants at home where the portions are so huge that we need to split them and we had already indulged in the farmer’s breakfast, which I guess that I misread as it should have been the farmers’ breakfast because it was big enough to feed all the farmers in the county and maybe a cyclist or two.
I figured that after eating the huge breakfast(we actually requested that they not bring the 100th course) and then this hearty lunch, I figured that I wouldn’t have to eat for the rest of the day. Somehow it didn’t work out that way. We had decided that since we had a late start that taking the I-84 would be faster. We had also looked at the pointy lines showing the elevation gain on the Historic Highway and decided that we much prefer curves to sharp angles. We wanted to reach the Dalles before it was too late as we never seem to have any time to get anything done.
Going down I-84, my bike started shimmying a little too much for my taste. It seems that the rear torques in every direction, which is something that I have never experienced before. I have a different type of rear rack on the bike and I must say that I am not the least bit happy with it. It did come with the bike, but we really should have swapped it out for one that mounts differently to the frame. This one has extensions that are bent the wrong way and just don’t seem rigid enough. I just slowed down on all the hills.
We made really good time into The Dalles. I figured that it would take about three hours, but it took less than two hours and we averaged almost 14 mph. That is good for me especially considering that I was going more like 1.4 mph on some of the climbs.
It got really hot today in The Dalles and elsewhere. The temperature was 86 when we arrived at around 6pm. I had finished a bottle of water, but was extremely thirsty and pulled into a Burger King to get a cold refreshment. Now, I have officially given up pop – BTW, they do call it “pop” here and nobody flinches when they hear the word like they do where we live- but I was craving something ice cold and that would do the trick. The bad thing about giving up pop is that when you drink it again,the sugary taste is overwhelming during the first few sips. It was totally worth it to succumb to old bad habits because there was a Spiderman contest ticket attached to the cup.
I had to choose which spiderweb to scratch and picked the one that won me a Whopper. Now, what could be better than winning a Whopper? We aren’t sure when we will be passing by a BK any time soon, but maybe we will find one in the middle of Eastern Montana. I can’t even remember the last time that I ate a Whopper.
We are staying at the Columbia Windrider InnThis is not a frou-frou B&B, but an homey spot where cyclists and windsurfers will find a comfortable place to sleep. A real bonus is that there are laundry facilities for guests.
Bikes and other equipment can be stored in the garage. If we had gotten here earlier, we could have taken a dip in the pool, but we wanted to get our laundry done. It’s so nice to have some fresh clothes.
While the clothes were washing, we walked over to Baldwin’s Saloon, so historic that it had a plaque on the outside. The place was bustling for a Monday evening. There were many choices on the menu ranges from sandwiches to full dinners, but since we had eaten enough for a peloton, we decided that it would be best to split something. I tried the Black Butte Porter from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend. Well, since I have tried it a few times before, I can’t really say that I tried it. It had no sticker on the glass that would give me the chance to win a case of it.
We plan on getting an early start tomorrow for our riding on the Interstate and hope to reach Arlington, known for its pet cemetery.
May 8 – Arlington
We started out this morning with a continental breakfast provided by Chuck at Wind Riders. The house is set up in some ways similar to a hostel. Long term guests get their own cupboard and refrigerator for their supplies and are welcome to cook and use the laundry as many do. What is different from a hostel is that each room has a private bath, although that bath might be in the hall. Before we headed out, we had our photo taken for posterity. Chuck keeps a book of all his guests.
It was sunny again and slightly brisk, but the forecast was for temps in the 80’s. We fought a headwind the entire ride today. Supposedly, the prevailing wind is from the west at this time of year, but that wasn’t the case today. There’s nothing like grunting up a hill and then having to pedal down it because of the wind.
We stopped at Biggs Junction for refreshments. This is quite the hopping spot and really the only services beyond Biggs and Rufus. We continued on to LePage Park, where we had originally planned to camp before changing our itinerary so that we could visit Timberline. This pleasant spot has day facilities in addition to camping spots and sits right on the John Day Reservoir near the dam of the same name.
Riding on the interstate wasn’t so bad. I would almost say that it is bicyclist friendly although that seems rather incongruous. It isn’t at all like riding on I-75. The traffic is moderate with some occasional spots of silence. From the road we can see Route 14 in Washington, the recommended AC route. I was rather happy to be on this side as we had great views and the other side appeared to have many hills to climb. That isn’t to say that our route was flat, but I imagine that the grades were gentler.
I reminded myself several times that the great view was in Washington and not New Zealand. I could find a photo from our NZ bicycling trip that would be a near replica of the view across the Columbia.
We had considered riding to Boardman, 24 more miles from here, but the increasing heat and the annoying headwind changed that plan. Because we have reservations on the 10th in Kennewick, we don’t need to cover such a huge distance (80 miles) in a day. The ride tomorrow to Umatilla will only be 45 miles anyway. The weather prediction is for winds out of the west.
The wifi in the motel is out of order, the library is only open on MWF so we obviously can’t check email or upload anything. I am working on resizing some photos and hope that with an early afternoon arrival tomorrow, I will be able to add some photos of our trip so far to the pages.
We were thrilled to hear that Véronique, our host in the Portland area, has become a Warm Showers List (WSL) member. How lucky for the folks who stay with her and Travis.
For the first time since we have been here, we took a long nap. I could have slept the entire night through, but we had to get some work done and go over to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner. We aren’t really pre-packaged food types, but since we have a microwave, we thought that we would try some microwave food. The store here has one small case of frozen microwave foods, foreign territory to us. We selected Chinese, probably the biggest risk that we have taken on the trip – not the Chinese, but the microwave dinner. It will be interesting to see how it tastes. We also bought a few things for breakfast and plan on making it to our destination by lunch time. We are carrying some Paley bars (www.paleybar.com) from the bicycling chef in Portland. They are actually a nice change from other bars, which I don’t always care for. They always seem to be too sweet. The flavors that we have include Liquid Sunshine, which reminds us of those first wet days of riding. It has coffee, walnuts, chocolate and ginger in it and contains 10g of fat for a total of 230 calories. The Jam’n Peanuts(220 calories) has strawberries and organic peanuts and the Fruity Nut Evolution is wheat free dairy free and sodium-free (210 calories). All of the ingredients in these bars are organic.
