Day 1: It’s a beautiful day?

Hint, it very much was not a beautiful day, but the Oregon Coast is absolutely beautiful! And made the fact that I wore rain gear all day well well worth it. It was a packed day, filled with food, stunning views, rain (ugh), talks with lovely folks around here, and of course biking.

The day started as any day does, at 5am. That’s a bit of a lie, that’s when my dad woke up to drive back up to San Francisco. Hopefully he’s close to back by now and enjoying dinner somewhere in the Bay Area. Thank you again Dad!!

After getting three more hours of sleep, I embarrassed myself with an overloaded plate of food to carbo load for the day. I left with a full stomach, and a full bike!

The final rendition of my bike. I think I remembered everything!

Right out of the parking lot of the hotel was the first cool view, the bridge between Washington and Oregon. I’m very glad I didn’t have to bike over it.

Admittedly, I did have to cross a bridge immediately, but it wasn’t that one :). And, I saw a seal on the way across which was cool.

The road is great! Minus being passed at 55mph by semis, and a few F-150s that don’t move over even though there’s definitely room (jerks). One person blew their own own in what I think was support (I was cranking up a hill, and they were going the other way) but it was so loud that I still feel some ringing in that ear.

My first stop of the day was in Seaside at Dundee’s for some donut and hot cider. (It was not warm outside). It was a cute family owned bakery, and a great place to stop. After the donut, I went to view the beach. I think I could look at this shoreline forever (good thing too, because I’m going to be seeing a lot of it for the next three weeks.) It’s gorgeous! Large sandy beaches with huge rocks in the water. Apparently, those rocks are from an old shoreline that existed a long time ago. Bonus points if you can tell me what happened to that shoreline.

Additionally, I learned this is the route that Lewis and Clark took. The only difference is Lewis and Clark did it in December, so I think I need to stop complaining about the weather.

The Steed at the beach at Seaside. I love this bike.

Beach at Cannon Beach, just up the road from Seaside.

I won’t bore you with details of all the beaches I stopped at. Needless to say, it was a lot. At one point I stopped 5 times in a mile.

Cool rock cove at a beach. All the rocks on the beach are great too! They sound like a gigantic rain maker when the waves run over them, then pull back into the ocean!

My favorite beach! It was a 0.5 mile hike out, but there were people surfing out here!! Fun to watch, though I walked on the wrong side of the river. They’re hard to see in the photo below, but they’re out by the point in the picture.

There are so many state parks, county parks, and recreation areas it’s exhausting. But each one was slightly different, and really cool to stop at.

After what I’ll dub “the beach” portion of today was the cliffs portion. And that was beautiful as well!! It was a five mile or so section where the road meandered along the side of a cliff above the ocean. It was cool. At one point during this section, while stopped overlooking the ocean, a guy did a u-turn in his car to talk to me. Turns out, he grew up in Michigan, then moved to Tiburon, then finally moved to the Oregon Coast. He was a super nice guy. He recommended some cider mill in Michigan, not the Dexter Cider Mill, but somewhere else in southeast Michigan, but I don’t remember what.

A view from the “cliff” section of today. I have a few more, but none of them really do it justice. It’s breath taking. A jagged rugged coastline, with beautiful sandy beaches, and a beautiful fog/cloud mixture. A probably could’ve stayed up there and just watched for hours.

The second food stop of the trip was in Manzanita. It was probably the best food of the day. The turkey sandwich was excellent, I liked the beer, and everyone was super friendly. Right next door was a bookstore, so I stopped in and picked up a book called “Just Mercy.” The bookstore had a cool system where all the employees added sticky notes to books they’d recommend. This was one of them, so I picked it up. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Also, next door was the Manzanita library. I didn’t stop in, but it just looked beautiful so I took a picture.

The final section of today’s trip was the in between inland sections. I always forget just how full of water the Pacific Northwest is (although it did a great job of reminding me today.) The forests are flush with greenery, and there are beautiful waterfalls everywhere. The flatlands have some beautiful inland lakes, and nice to just cruise by.

Probably the lowest point of the day was biking through the tunnel. While the tunnel was cool, I was biking uphill through it, with no shoulder. The road is 55mph, and I was probably doing 5. Luckily, there’s a button to hit to warn motorists that there’s a bicycle in the tunnel, but I pushed through as hard as I could to get through the tunnel fast. Nothing gets the heart rate up like the deafening sound of a car coming through a tunnel when you’re on a bike.

Tonight I’m camping on a jetty! Which is pretty cool, basically my camp overlooks the ocean (yikes! Hopefully no tsunamis.) I’m writing most of this at “the Sand Dollar” Where I had an alright dinner with a bomb view of the waves and the ocean

Campsite jetty:

Right nextdoor is a Catholic Church that has an absolutely beautiful location right on the beach.

(Church and beach respectively)

All in all, a very happy Mark for the day.

I’m now snug in my evening attire, snuggled up in my sleeping bag listening to the rain patter (more like assault) my tent. The roar of the ocean should put me to sleep, being so close. What a cool campsite. Tomorrow, another 50ish miles, the Tillamook factory (I’m excited!!), deviating from the 101 to stay close to the coast!