May 31, 2011, 5:13 p.m.

Rest Day: Ft. Stevens and Astoria

In the summer of 2009 I rode my bike 2100 miles down the Pacific coast from Blaine, WA to San Ysidro, CA. I started riding on Aug. 12th and reached the border on Nov. 22nd. This is my ride diary. The prelude to this diary can be found here.

Day 7
212.3 odo

After a week of being on the road I decided to take a rest day. I slept in till 6:30! Wahoo! It was still cold and foggy when I woke so I stayed in my sleeping bag till the sun came out and warmed things up. I need to get used to the cold mornings. I can't be such a wuss :).

After breakfast I rode out to the Peter Iredale shipwreck and took some pictures. It was cool to see it again. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. The wreck is slowly being eaten away by the ocean. I finally got the story behind the wreck too. It was built during the transition between wooden and metal ships, which is why you can still see the frame.

After that I went to see Ft. Stevens. The architecture was the same as Ft. Casey. The only difference was the size and armament. The guns here had been modernized a bit and the fort was much larger. It is older as well, dating back to the civil war. After overloading on military history I went back to camp and did some lunching.

While I was there I was approached by a park ranger. He informed me that I needed to register by 1 pm, it was after 2 at that point. I was wondering if the park would notice I hadn't paid yet. If nobody said anything I probably wouldn't have. After taking care of the camp fees I rode into Astoria.

First I stopped at the Wet Dog Cafe and Brewery. I got an IPA with oyster shooters. In hindsight oyster shooters are much better when consumed with friends. The IPA was good, lots of lemony citrus flavor. It wasn't remarkable though.

Next I found the Ft. George Brewing Co. It was great. The beer selection was much better than the Wed Dog and it had a raw alternative atmosphere that some of the neighborhood breweries in Portland have (Lucky Lab and Amnesia). I got an oat pale ale and a chicken strip basket. The pale was good, more lemony hops with a bit of oat derived body. I think it was too bitter for the style though. The chicken strips were great. I could tell the chicken was really fresh.

After the tastings I tried to locate a Safeway. I thought I saw one on my way into town but I couldn't find it. I went to the local organic co-op instead. I liked the store but it was small and didn't have any tortillas. I got bread instead. Hopefully that won't get squished. I also should have gotten bananas but I didn't see any. I also tried to find another fuel canister for my stove but the local sporting good store didn't have any. Before leaving town I wrote and mailed a letter to Colleen.

As I was riding out of town I ran into a couple touring who I had run into a couple weeks ago while I was doing my practice run. I just gave them quick directions at the time. I got a chance to chat with them this time. I found out that they are from Texas and they are riding the same route I am. They had matching Novarra Safari bikes and matching panniers. Everything they had was neon yellow or covered in neon yellow reflective tape. I wished them luck and hope to run into them again. I doubt that I will though. They seemed to be slower riders than I am.

When I got back to camp I immediately called Colleen. I figured out that I can plug my phone into unused RV hookups so I did that while talking to her. I'm excited for her. She is on the verge of relaunching Passion Fly and I think she is going to do very well.

After saying goodbye to her I took a shower and wandered over to the beach to see the sunset. I totally missed it though. On the way back I ran into two drunk brothers. They were funny. They would break into wrestling at the drop of a hat and neither of them were wearing shirts. One brother was much more drunk and he would make threats to whomever he was looking at. They gave me a couple of pulls from the vanilla vodka they were drinking. I tried to start conversation with the more sober of the two but the drunker brother kept making threats at me so I took off. I felt that they were mostly harmless but I didn't want to find out if the vodka would make an exception.