Day Six Back in the Saddle

Lake Sylvia, Montesano – Fort Stevens, Astoria

The support team got us on the road after adjusting saddles, shoes, derailers etc.  (At the first sign of Achilles trouble the seat should be lowered and the bike clips moved back on the ball of the foot.)  I had a lot to think about because it turns out that my cycling technique is wrong.  I ‘ankle’ which means that I push my toes down on the bottom of the push and point up at the top of the stroke.  With all the changes in positioning I had to be careful of knee pain as well.

We rode over beautiful rivers and down lovely valleys and through clear cut logging!  We are trying to understand the logging practices of the states because reforestation doesn’t appear to be a priority. The numerous bald patches are certainly a blight to an otherwise beautiful ride.  We are also getting very familiar with what a fully loaded logging truck sounds like as it barrels down the 101.  42 km later, just outside of Raymond on a narrow uphill climb my back tube blew. Pulling off to the side we (Merryl) tried to salvage the tube but it looked impossible.  I lay at the side of the road with leg elevated (doctor’s orders) in the brilliant sunshine. The support van (1991 VW camper) drove by us but failed to see us because we were well off to the side on the opposite shoulder. We had to call for support …………. It was determined that the tubes for my bike were all faulty (There was a problem with the bond between the valve stem and the tube itself.)  After consulting the guide book, we knew that the closest bike shops were in Astoria, Oregon.  We loaded up the van (gypsies again) and raced for Astoria to catch the shops before they closed. The view from the van was quite different from the bikes.  For one thing, the scenery flew by. Traveling over the mighty Columbia River in the van eliminated one of my fears concerning the trip.  The bridge is an engineering marvel but it is 6.5 km long over a very windy piece of water.  Part of the bridge looks to be a grade 7 climb (single lane) to allow large ships down the river to Portland.  All in all, quite a terrifying ride that I managed to somehow take in a van instead of on a bike.

Seth and the boys at Bikes & Beyond in Astoria kitted us out with some new tubes and we headed off to our final destination that night – Fort Stevens State park, just a few miles southwest of Astoria.