Miles Today: 13.5    Total Miles: 41.5

The next day we didn’t travel much, biking on the sand really wore me out. You gotta remember we didn’t train for this trip at all! What were we thinking???? Everything hurt at this point, legs, back, arms, hands and all.

As soon as we left the Circle Creek campground in Seaside we faced our first real hill. I know for a fact that if it wasn’t for Ryan, I would’ve given up long ago. He really encouraged me and helped me get through the pain. It was really hard, miserably hard. My knees felt like they were on fire, I couldn’t go too fast, I felt like I could barely move. I felt defeated at times, I had no more energy to keep going up. Ry’s patience and motivation really got me through it. Bless that child.

Don’t know how long that hill was but it got us into Cannon  Beach, a touristy beach town, with cute beach houses, seafood restaurants, view points and such. The smell of fresh seafood crawled through my nostrils and all I kept thinking was a nice warm meal in a nice warm place. I forgot to say that the ride from Seaside to Cannon Beach was a little chilly and cloudy (as it mostly is in Oregon), so going down a looong hill after a loooong climb was nice but cold. We stopped at a view point and it started to sprinkle so we decided to eat lunch outside of a market, rest and wait for the rain to stop. But it so didn’t. It was stop, go, stop, go, stop, go…if we had waited any longer, we probably would’ve been there all day.

Cannon Beach

We got some food for lunch and dinner, send some stuff home, and watched people be literally amazed at this lonely flower off the sidewalk. We weren’t sure what they were looking at, until we went to see. Geez, you’d think it was enormous, or the most beautiful thing ever seen. Funny people. People are funny.

A guy approached us, prolly a 50 something older man who has been biking for years and has done the same route we’re doing at least 10 times, descouraged me. He told us, “it’s ALL hills”. Ummm…we would’ve known that if we would’ve studied the map a little better. “But” he said “you know that after one uphill, there’s a downhill”. That didn’t make me feel better. It’s Oregon, what were we thinking! Anyway, I just felt I might as well give up cause after that day, it seemed like I wasn’t going to be  able to get very far without my knees falling apart. I prayed and hoped for the best as Ryan again told me not to worry…riiiight.

After a long brake, we pedaled our way toward Nehalem State Park, but Cannon Beach was a surprise to our legs. Hill after hills, steep and worse of all it started raining. We got our rain gear on and kept pedaling. My knees were on fire again, I wanted to stop. Cannon Beach is beautiful though, the view is amazing, the houses are adorable. You can get to the beach in seconds. There are these giant rocks everywhere in the water, the fog was great (although didn’t help to our wetness), the birds, ugh! just wonderful. After another big climb we got to Arch Cape. We tried looking for a place to stay but there was this breathtaking place off the side of the road, looked like a castle. Asked how much and it was hundreds. Can’t afford.

Crossed the street to the Arch Cape Inn and stayed there the night to dry off and get warm. A cute little inn, Inn at the Arch Cape, has no front desk, receptionist or anything like that. You go into this room, pick up the phone, dial the number and make a reservation. They’re nice little cabins. We really enjoyed it.

One bedroom, fireplace ready to go with wood and all, full kitchen, extra bed, dinning table, tv, bathroom and was a minute (literally) to the beach that seemed to be part of the backyard. We loved it.  We walked to see the sunset too! I made us soup for dinner, watched tv, relaxed, rubbed some icy hot on my knees, warmed up and slept deliciously that night.

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