Can I finish? 1958 Miles Bike Ride, A Long Run Home – Ep 39 Pacific Coast Bicycle Tour
Hey, welcome! Thanks for watching. In this episode, I continue the story of my bicycle tour of Southern California, Oregon and the Pacific Coast Route. On the previous episode, High cliff views, Haystack Rock, Canyon Beach, Seaside, Traffic mayhem, and Fort Stevens. It's day 39, the last day. It's another morning in the safety of my tent, packing everything possible before getting out. On exiting the mosquitoes are after me in an instant. Like a lunatic
I keep moving the whole time while hastily loading my bike. They still bite me at least five times. Out from Fort Stevens, an early start provides the most daylight to finish the ride. In Astoria, I enjoy the waterfront sights before turning to focus on covering distance.
The first half knocks out the big climbs. Just after the halfway point, There's a steep drop down to Rainier. A roadside bike repair hinders my progress.
This and heavy city traffic puts the successful ending of the tour in question. It's long, 100 miles if successful. It will be the longest I've gone with a fully loaded tour bike. The expected tailwind should improve the probability of success.
I know it's not a done deal, but at least it's the plan. All right, I'm off. Mosquitoes ripping into me, just trying to get out of there. A couple of elk graze in the school field just like it's a normal day. A direct shortcut is a bit of a rough road. But it's less distance and at some adventure.
I hope I get favorable wind the whole way. I think it’ll be very doable, if that's the case. and, if I keep my fluid and calorie intake aligned, don't overdo it at the beginning, it could be good. 106 is a long ways.
I guess I got to settle down, because I don't have to be in such a hurry. The winds should be favorable all day. I just really have to get there before dark. I have plenty of time. More than 12 hours from now.
Lots of traffic already through. I don’t like that. So far shoulder’s big, but I can see it narrowing up here by the bridge. Not overly concerned. All right, narrowing down. Not too bad. Already really busy.
Probably got the morning commute traffic. I don't think it's so much tourists, this time. I'm a little worried that this bridge crossing might be tough with traffic and tight lanes. It turns out better than I expected. I was thinking this might be more narrow But it’s not bad. Deciding to take a riverfront trail instead of roads through downtown Astoria pays off.
It's way more relaxing and you get unique perspectives compared to staying on the road. The two lane narrow Astoria bridge spans across the four mile wide Columbia River and into Washington. Maybe someday I'll cross it on my bike, but not today. I'm heading up the Oregon side. The wooden planks and rail tracks on the path require some caution. The bike tires like to slide into the gaps and may make it unstable.
Even with this, it's still pleasant and a scenic passage. This historic ferry worked these waters until 1966. I see in the window that it's up for sale. Don't call if interested. As an odd twist,
about a month after passing through, it took on water and sank on July 28. It was originally built in 1924. My through way is.... Not through. It looks like a fence and detour blocks my path. But I'm able to pass through with little disturbance.
Me: Thank you. Lady: Morning Me: Morning At the Columbia Maritime Museum Pier, There are some tourists from the riverboat cruise visiting and some vessels moored. It looks like an interesting museum to check out sometime. I think this was a good choice. On the pathway, lots of photo ops.
I haven’t been on this whole thing. It's kind of nice. I think I’ll still be able to catch the store up here. I may be able to I'll make it home today. But I definitely can't go this slow the whole way which I’m not planning to. After Astoria there’s not nearly as much, picture ops. There’s a few spots.
[bike bell] [bike bell] [bike bell] Me: Excuse me. Me: Excuse me. [Bike Bell] Lady: Oh, sorry. Me: It’s alright. Lady: Oh, sorry. I did not see you. Me: Thank you. Well. end of the trail, looks like. It's on the highway 30 now for most of the day. Time to get down to business and focus on riding.
There's still plenty of daylight, but a long way to go. 94 miles to Portland I haven’t gotten the full effect of the tailwind yet. I got cookies, chips, banana, chocolate wafer bars, fruit pies....
Should have enough calories. Man, this really does seem like a “Road to the sky”. It’s going up into the clouds. Guardrail, two lanes, again.
It looks like they installed this for almost no reason. I guess there's a little drop off over there. So irritating. So irritating. Eye-yi-yi
Big down and a big backup. Maybe I'll get a little bit of run up. It doesn't really go flat for very far, I don’t think. So far rides going as planned. Feeling good, feeling good.
One quarter complete. of ride. 26 points 75. {miles} This Highway 30 is actually been better than I expected. As far as traffic, and ah well traffic... probably about the same it was this morning. As far as shoulder, shoulders been pretty decent.
It’s not to bad here. It still a decent sized shoulder between the guardrail and the white line. So I after 2 hours of riding from Astoria, Bradley Park is a welcome spot to take a 15 minute break. Lady: It’s sure a beautiful day. Me: Oh. it is. Man: Nice day for a ride. Me: It's great. Fantastic. Not a good spot to have your truck break down.
One of the few remaining ferry crossings on the Columbia River is here at Westport. Another annoyance of mine. That one they should have left an opening there. Here, make me go in road.
After a lunch break at Clatskanie, it's the day's second climb and the last major climb of the tour. Of course, complete with narrow shoulder high speed passing zones. On the final huge climb. Well it’s not huge. The final biggest climb of the day. There's a lot of little hills after this.
The worlds skinniest shoulder. Hope no cars come. There’s zero shoulder. All right, call it... Well, it's kind of like three inches 500, that’s all. Feels like it should be more.
Closing in on the halfway point. Another way weigh station to measure my load. Ok, See if we can pick up our weight see if we're still 250. 250, I saw it. The apparent 50 pound increments, isn’t quite the resolution needed for weighing a touring bike. Okay, we're at the halfway point.
Halfway to home. I think climbing wise, definitely way over halfway. I was expecting that the steep downhill would be fast, but I wasn't aware just how fast.
It's a little sketchy, but I survive. Not only will I get my longest touring distance today, I also got my highest top in speed. Seemed like this a far off goal because it was, and today, I should accomplish it.
At this point, I feel very confident. Anything can happen though. Now on section that I have ridden several times. I rode this way on the Seattle to Portland, this direction.
These branches and stuff to sticking out. Got to watch out for those. It seems only fitting, a flat rear tire. I take it in stride and why not? Last day, a long ride, making good time.... It can’t all go smoothly.
Two flats total in almost 2000 miles. Not bad at all. Alright, back off again and again and again. After my tire repair, I forget to zip my saddle bag and my multi-tool spills into the road. The cars and trucks somehow miss hitting it by only inches. I successfully recover it when the traffic brakes.
I’ve exceeded my long distance on this tour, for one day. But I still have 36 miles to go. oops, missed that sign.
Weight myself again. Weigh station in a quarter mile. All right. see if I get 250 again. See if one of these scales is rounded to the 25 pound range. oop, went to 300, went to 300, My last food and drink stop, back onto the road for the final stretch into Portland.
I came to realize in this trip the cost more to fuel myself than to fuel a car over the same distance. Of course, riding is a lot more fun. That tailwind is really push ing me along. Although that the flag up there doesn’t look like it blowing that hard. Navigating construction signage is always exciting.
There's usually a decent way through without riding out in the road. But it's often not the most direct route. The afternoon commute traffic increases as I approach Portland. It looks a bit crowded. The familiar sight of Portland initiates the sense of accomplishment and the realization of completing the tour. Come on. I mean really. Let’s do some trail maintenance.
There’s stickers too. There’s just barely enough room to get by. I’m over the century mark. I missing the century mark. I was too busy taking pictures I think.
I think it's still going to come in around 106. I scared him a little bit. But he wasn’t too scared. Over the final few miles, I try to celebrate.
But in reality my tired state prevents a full hearted recognition. I’m going to make it. Yes! I'm trying to celebrate, but I'm tired.
Well I'm not that tired. That was the easiest 108 I’ve done. Like any long adventure, this tour was full of ups and downs. Fortunately, in my case, way more positive than any negatives. Today was the longest distance by far, but I rank it at fourth hardest of the tour. The hardest ride was day two, the climb to Big Bear, followed by the ride out of Big Sur on day 18 and then the 20 mile hill to Idyllwild on day four. The tour total of 1958 miles over 39 days is an average of 50 miles per day.
The 189 hours of time moving in theory means continuous riding to go this distance would take an equivalent of eight days without stopping. Although not physically possible, at least for me, Climbing of about 109,000 feet, is an average of 2800 feet per day. This is hard to relate to unless you ride a lot and track this. Maybe think of an airplane flying at cruising altitude, then three times this height to reach 109,000 feet. The traffic stats is a new one for me and one that ends up being fairly accurate.
I sample 15 to 30% of the ride time of passing vehicles. I found anything in the three or less vehicles per minute is quite calm. Whereas anything ten plus can be quite annoying. But it depends on the road and bike lane conditions. Today was one of the highest averages for the tour.
Pedal revolutions is a fun, but not that useful stat. I don't know about you, but three quarters of a million revolutions seems like a lot. Extra calories burned are the estimated calories just while cycling.
This does not include the base calories from living, typically around 2000. My ride today was almost 5800 extra. The tour total is 116,000 or right around 3000 extra calories per day. If I only ate fruit pies on the tour for extra energy, I would have had to eat about 291 fruit pies in addition to my normal meals. I eat a lot of them, but not that many.
I found the hotel to camping ratio of about one hotel stay per week is about perfect. Reflecting on the overall tour, there were so many highlights. Each week seemed to bring a distinct segment. The first week; brutal and hot inland high mountains of Big Bear, San Jacinto and Cuyamaca.
Wild camping, downhill to the Mexico borde and the Pacific Ocean. The second week; start of big cities, San Diego, Los Angeles beaches, pathways, skaters, traffic and freeway riding. A handful of broken spokes and bike shop visits. Demoralizing headwinds while riding and winds at night. The third week; stable touring, spectacular highway one, climbing hills, winds Big Sur, View after view Bridges, Monterrey, Rain and San Francisco.
The fourth week; hitting my stride in Northern California, coast with more views, Forts, inland giant redwoods, forest riding, more rain and back to the coast. The final week and half; finished California, entering Oregon, historic bridges, dunes, meet up with a friend. lighthouses, deluxe camping, fort and long ride home. Meeting people was a surprisingly regular occurrence. Whether it it's fellow bike tours, day cyclists, hikers, tourists or locals.
So many friendly people wanted to chat. Animal sightings made the journey even more interesting. Of course, there was plenty of more common animals like; squirrels, lizards, caterpillars, dogs, horses, cows and goats. As expected each day, Birds were commonplace, along with some special observations of turkeys and birds of prey. More elusive animals add to the thrill.
Coyotes, many deer. Both doe and buck. On the northern section, elk began to appear. Both seals and sea lions were easy to find. But one day in Oregon, my first ever will sightings I could do without the snakes and relentless mosquitoes. Hard as I tried, unfortunately, no real bear sightings on this tour. Overall, the tour was great and I would like to do more in the future.
I may do the rest of Washington or go across America. I haven't decided yet. I enjoyed producing these videos, but they ended up much harder and time consuming than the planning and riding of the entire tour. So I have to optimize if I continue to make videos or else I don't have enough time to plan and go on more adventures. That completes this Pacific Coast Bicycle Tour video series.
But my adventures continue. So until the next episode, I'll see you then and thanks for watching.
2023-08-21 00:49
