Day 1: Astoria, OR --> Tillamook Dyke, OR (78 miles)

So...day one...a thing of the past.

Joel and I camped out at Fort Stevens park which is butted up right against the Pacific Ocean and nestled deep enough in the woods that you can see RVs parked everywhere you might want to rotate your head. Anyways, it was good to just have a place to camp so we could assure ourselves an early start the followin morn. It was about 10pm and a light drizzle....and, icing on the cake, mosquitos were out past there curfew as to torment us as we staked off ground for our tents.

The drizzling rain lingered over our heads all throughout the morning as we meandered down the coast, up and down gigantor mountains and so on and so on. We stopped in Cannon Beach to get the traditional picture of "dipping tire" in ocean as to repeat the same ordeal on the flip side of the continent. Well, rather than take my whole velo down to the beckoning ocean I opted to just take the front wheel....it was lighter and probably saved us about an hour or two worth of struggling in draggin the bike through the sand, etc.

Ah....that reminds me. It took forever to get used to the entire weight of the bike. I could barely get on the thing when Joel and I first left in morning and feared that the whole trip would be just that..luckily, due to all the riding....the velo has become a part of my rump, which in a sense, has become a part of my body...therefore...as we all know....our body's decide to go through a form of bikerhomeostasis...anways.

I was cold entire day....and the drizzle on and off didn't work to me cold fingers and feet's advantage....but life goes on i suppose and there were many miles yet to roll up and down, over and through.

We took breaks where we needed them...in particular at overlooks of the Pacific Ocean and before we entered a tunnel..YIKES! Def scariest part of Day 1 ride...we pressed a button that flashed pretty lookin lights to warn drivers of the presence of velo-ers. Not only was it hard for the pupils to adjust to the lighing, but the noise of the cars' engines were amplified a million-fold due to the "echo effect." There was one car in particular that had squeeky breaks...which when i first heard the break's breaking i thought Joel was plastered up against the side of the tunnel or something. So yeh...tunnels suck and Joel and I were both fine and dandy. Our jitters were sweated out through our skin by the steep and long mountain climb that followed (for those who think bikin along the Pacific coast would be easy are living in a reality that flirts with the mentality of "not really knowing what it's like to bike on the Pacific coast).

At the end of the day Joel and I stopped by the infamous Tillamook Cheese Factory, ate more than our fare share from the sample plates, bought more than our fair share of ice cream and were on our way in search of a campsite.

We found one....though it just so happened to be situated on the other side of a "NO TRESPASSING" sign. Seein the sun was about to take a slumper for a bit we decided it'd be better to trespass than be a good, tamed U.S. citizen. We slept until......it started to pour down rain at 3:30am.....