Season 3 Episode 6 (9/28-9/29): A Flushing Experience

Season 3 Episode 6 (9/28-9/29): A Flushing Experience – 

9/28 Castle Rock to Cathlamet, WA. 39 miles 1647’ climb.

I woke today and definitely didn’t feel like riding. The “honeymoon” was officially over. An adventure like this starts with excitement and natural adrenaline. Plus we had sunshine in the early days of this journey. But the cold, wet weather has snapped us back to the reality of the task at hand. It’s the first morning that I’ve woken up with accumulated fatigue and soreness. The challenge isn’t so much any given day. It’s the succession of days. It’s getting up to ride on a day like today when my body and mind is weary and doesn’t want to. Now the hard work begins of riding with the accumulation of miles on us and the hardest I know lies ahead of us where Oregon turns into Northern California.

So I was very grateful that instead of doing another long day of 65-70 miles as our first itinerary draft planned, we revised it to a short day. This was really needed after cold wet days. It allowed us a very late start of 10:30AM, yet still to finish early finish by 3 PM. (More typically we depart 7-8 and end around 4 on this trip.)

It’s not all glamor. Breakfast in our hotel room of banana and fajitas leftovers from dinner.

Once riding, we saw steam rising off the wet backs of cows sitting in fields, as if seeing your breath on a cold morning. It was one of many moments we see and want a picture, but we simply cannot stop as often as we want as each photo stop adds 1-2 minutes and before we know it, we can easily add an hour of travel to our days. This is one of many images that instead just endures in our minds. 

We had a bit of light drizzle in the morn, but was fortunately dry most of the ride.

Happily, most of our ride was along the Columbia River and on the scenic and well-named Ocean Beach Highway. The river is the largest in the Pacific Northwest, originating in British Columbia, Canada.

We rode along the stretch running west-east that separates Washington and Oregon, originating in Longview, WA which is north and west of Portland.

We reached Cathlamet, WA a tiny town of about 500 people and the charming 99-year old Hotel Cathlamet on Main Street where there is a wooden staircase from the street level to the second floor where you check in. Given our heavy bikes and panniers, we were grateful that in more recent times an elevator was added - we used it.

And with classic cars in older pic.

I read the town is the oldest immigrant settlement west of the Rockies.

I knew we were at a low when I immediately snacked on comfort food they had welcoming guests - popcorn for me and pop tarts for Heather (pop tarts another classic Heather snack)

One of many indications that time stands still in some of these small towns. Do our kids even remember going to the video store to choose movies?

Main Street of about a block. We walked it all rather quickly.

Loved this sign. And it’s something of a trend that we’ve enjoyed the cleverness of advertising in small towns off the beaten path.

This bathroom sign has been one of our faves. Whoever coined “flushing experience” has a career ahead on Madison Avenue. We continue to joke about it days later.

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9/29 Cathlamet, WA to Seaside, OR 52 miles 2841’ climb.

We were excited to enter Oregon even though we started riding in a crisp 49 degrees. Time for two pairs of socks, face buff, full finger gloves and head warmer (the other white head cover I wear most days is to absorb sweat and protect against sun through helmet holes, if there was sun). But at least it’s a dry forecast today.

We soon met Matheus, a fellow bike tourer from Poland, in his mid 20’s, who had front and rear panniers as he was mostly camping, and to my shock was bare legged. Was I that hearty at his age? I doubt it.

We learned he started riding from Montreal (!) and cycled across Canada and now down the coast he had done about 6300 miles thus far. He was pedaling to Patagonia (!) or until his money lasts. At times we feel accomplished and when we meet the likes of Matheus we feel like amateurs. I told him, we also started in Montreal - meaning OUR LIVES. Either due to language or age- I thought that funnier than he did. I then told him we began riding in Vancouver.

After lunch in Astoria, we had two classic examples of Heather and me having very different experiences from the same actual facts.

Heading south from the city, along the New Youngs Bay Bridge, I was terrified and used controlled breathing so I wouldn’t hyperventilate. It was the first bridge like that this year as all the others had either a dedicated bike lane with a physical barrier separating it from traffic and/or a high guardrail that I could not topple over. This had no separate lane and the guardrail was only thigh high. I was genuinely glancing at the bridge pylons imagining if I fell over in the water and calculating could I swim to one of the bridge pylons and get out of the water before hypothermia set in? And of course wondering If I would be conscious when I hit the water? Heather, on the other hand, said afterwards she felt relaxed as can be, enjoyed it, and would do it again - and offered to do so!

We soon were on a gravel and muddy unpaved path that was more suited for mountain biking. I enjoyed this and Heather hated it. She picked up some scrapes from loose branches. She’s gritty I tell you!

We saw our first Lewis and Clark Trail signs which lit me up as I love the history of explorers and fantasize being one. When I stopped to really look at the map of the western route they navigated from the Midwest to the Pacific, I was astounded.

End of the Trail Lewis and Clark statue in Seaside, OR.

© Copyright Mark Segal 2023.