Miles Today: 28.0    Total Miles: 28.0

To organize the trip better, I’ve decided to rewrite our trip and post the photos accordingly. Enjoy the read!

Today was our first biking day. Yesterday, Ryan’s parents (mom & dad) dropped us off at Kamper’s West in Warrenton, OR to start our bicycling adventure down the coast. We had a nice 4-day visit with their Oregon family (uncle Gene and auntie Jo). It was tons of fun hanging out at home and wondering around Portland. We also helped them with some of their yard, which was surprisingly fun for me, watched movies and had yummy meals.

We originally thought about starting the trip this past Saturday (23rd) but we stayed to hang out for a little longer to see uncle Gene. So off we went on Sunday, a one and something hour drive later, we got there, had dinner and a GREAT fish & chips place (best fish and chips ever! & clam chowder too), and they dropped us off at the campground. They kindly waited for us to strap our stuff on to our bikes and made sure everything fit fine and we were able to carry the ridiculous amount of stuff we brought. It was weird at first getting on the bike, it was ridiculously heavy, stirring felt like learning to ride all over again, it was hard to maneuver and get going. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this the next day. We said our goodbyes and our adventure began that night.

That night, we unpacked, got our site set up and hung out until we got tired. It got pretty cold, around 50°F. I layered up but it was just too cold. We forgot about getting wood so no fire. Lance and I were sitting around the picnic table talking and freezing when we see Ryan coming from the restrooms with a beer can in his hands. For a second I thought “vending machines” but…no. He said it was to celebrate our first ride. But actually, some stranger (weird loud guy) gave it to him. It went something like this.

Ryan walking…Guy walking…Ryan: “what’s happening?” Guy: “this is what’s happening” as he hands him the beer.

For no reason the dude gave him the beer and we celebrated sips at a time. He kept (the guy) walking around the RV packed campground so anyone was able to overhear his conversation about background information for jobs with a friend who apparently is worried about. Moving on…

Real quick about Warrenton: “Historically, Warrenton is the region at the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. Warrenton was later platted in 1889, and incorporated as a city in 1899.” (http://www.ci.warrenton.or.us)

Went to bed pretty early and woke up at 7am. Tried to get going quickly but getting stuff on our bikes was a nightmare, this would take longer than it needs to. We tried having breakfast but our stove wouldn’t work. After so many tries we gave up but our Canadian neighbor who was on vacation with his wife, showed us how to work it, apparently we had to wrong type of gas. He was kind enough to let us borrow his stove to make our oatmeal and coffee. Lance even got to chat with him about hockey. We got on the road later than we wanted to, 10:30am heading towards Seaside.

We took the Oregon Coast Bicycle Trail, instead of following Hwy 101 and it took us right into the beach, after climbing 2 small hills. We got to the entrance of the beach and although we wanted to, Ryan’s idea of cycling through the beach to get to Seaside didn’t seem like such a good idea cause we didn’t even know it would take us to Seaside. So we went up the 2 hills again to go a different way. We talked to this guy and he said you could get to Seaside through the beach…so Ryan convinced us to do it and we did and oh boy. That was insanely beautiful and insanely painful. We really enjoyed it and thought it was worth the pain. I’ve never seen a beach where you can drive your vehicle into. It’s awesome, you don’t have to worry about people taking your stuff, just lock it up and go. Water was freezing, we saw a guy para sailing, cord tied to the back of a truck.

Lost Lance. He missed the exit but Ryan finally got him and we rested (after 7 long and slow miles of sand cycling) in front of a golf course for a few minutes, stretched and hydrated. We picked up again and finally got to Circle Creek campground, paid and got some nasty dinner, went back and set up, that was pretty much our night. This time was better though, we had some wood and we were alone so no weird guys talking loud on their cell phones or RVers with their barking dogs. Nice and peaceful.

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