Day 8: Beer is great
Left Long Beach along the “discovery trail” which is a pretty cool walk/cycle route. This led to other pretty rural roads until I rejoined highway 101 just in time to cross a big 4 mile long bridge to Astoria.
The owner of Elma RV park a few days previously had warned me about this bridge. He said you can cycle across it as a “right of passage” but there isn’t much of a cycle lane and it is very busy. The other options he gave were to hitch hike or get a bus.
The warning had me scared so when the bridge started to come into view, I decided to outsource this decision to the wise people of Instagram via a poll. The results?.. Cycle across. It definitely wasn’t fun but also wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Wouldn’t have liked to cycle across it in the wind or rain however.
I refuse to let this journal get political. No ifs and no buts. So without offering any political opinions, I have been aware of the election posters in the places I have been cycling through and noticed 2 things. Firstly is how much more local election posters there are than presidential election posters. This somewhat surprised me. The 2nd is how much more RNC candidate posters there have been than DNC candidate. That is until today which was closer to even.
I have learned that telling non bike touring people I am cycling to Argentina inhibits a normal conversation. So I have started to tell people where I am going that day, or tell them I am going south along the coast. If the Convo progresses further, then I share more.
After just 50 kms, I arrived at Fort Stevens state park. Meaning I have left Washington and entered Oregon. Officially crossed my first state! I think I am going to like Oregon. The hiker biker sites seem very well equipped with electricity and storage lockers and everything.
After setting up camp, I walked to a nearby shop to buy a tin of beans to go with my rice for dinner. I spotted a 6 pack of small tins of beer and remembered the random Canadian cyclist from a few nights ago that cycled up to me in camp, gave me a beer and joined me for a chat. I decided, fuck it, lets try that, so pick up the beer.
While cooking my beans and rice, Cris from New York (IIRC) comes over and I give him a beer, so he joins me for the usual bike tourer chat. Where are you coming from, where are you going tomorrow, where is your final destination, etc. This is the usual Convo you must have before the more interesting Convos. Cris is a real bike tourer and has done many tours before. Tyler from Canada joined us a few minutes later. He brought his own beer. He is a touring noob like me.
After dinner, I go over to the tent next to mine bearing a liquid gift and meet Matt from Seattle slowly touring the Pacific northwest. He took a whole year to tour just Washington.
Later that night another group across the way started a campfire. I had run out of beer to give at this point but went over anyway and got chatting. Aha the benefits of Alcohol. The’re 3 brothers from Portland who try to do a tour together once a year. They ride from Portland out to the coast and back over 4 days.
The campfire is great and Cris and Tyler from earlier come over to join us for campfire chats.
Cris recommends a book to me called “Project Hail Mary” so I add it to my reading list. My reading list is mostly in my head currently so I decided I am going to start a reading list of the books recommended to me in the introduction section to this journal. I am taking tomorrow as a rest day so this is a job for tomorrow.
Our adhoc group departs around 9pm and everyone goes to bed. Looking forward to having a lazy non cycling day tomorrow.
