"Cycling the Oregon north coast ... MAAAHVELOUS"

Wow! What a day! Sometimes I just felt like yelling at the top of my lungs, “This is SOOO MAAAAAAHVELOUS!!”  I did not know if the day had the potential to be marvelous.  We are doing our best to find comfortable, but low budget accommodations each night. Last night our lodging was a waterfront motel in Astoria, Oregon.  The room was comfortable, not luxurious, but comfortable. Then about midnight the sound of road construction commenced. And from midnight until about 5 AM new pavement was put down in front of our motel.  I attempted to sleep with a pillow over the top of my head, fitfully. 

But next morning, I said, “See you later”, to my lovely wife and Jim, Bill and I headed out of Astoria.  The route surprised us.  We thought we would immediately take US 101 to and down the coast, but instead, we headed east and then south on US Business 101.  Once again, Adventure Cycling had chosen an outstanding route.  When Dennie and her mom left the motel to catch up with us, they actually took longer in the SAG car then we did biking because of their sightseeing.  The route apparently followed the Lewis and Clark Trail and through state parks, inland valleys and then finally down the coast at Seaside, Oregon.  At Seaside we were routed to a beach walk and pedaled a comfortable pace in between the morning beach walkers and beach cruisers.  It was definitely a place to take a break, sit down, chill and eat our sandwiches.

After Seaside, we were told the real climbing would start.  We were told this by a guy in a bike shop in Seaside, Adventure Cycling said the same, and my friend Joe, who had a place in Manzanita said to expect some good climbs.  So I know that Bill and I were a bit apprehensive about the climbing, and of course Jim said little.  Jim rarely conveys any concern about what we would consider a cycling challenge.

It turns out the only extraordinary thing about the climbs were the views.  The climbs were solid, a good push, but not as hard as we had expected.  However the views, the views were absolutely awesome, fantastic, and mahvelous.  Everyone knows the Oregon coast is famous for its beauty, but here we were, cycling and actually experiencing it.  We would climb with forest on both sides and then there would usually be an overlook and of course I would bring our ride to a halt, “Stopping! Photo stop!”  And then another descent through the forests and another climb, repeat and repeat.  Like I said earlier, it made want to just yell, “MAAAAAAHVELOUS, JUST MAAAAAAAAAAAHVELOUS!”

At the end of our last descent, we turned into the little coastal town of Manzanita where my friend Joe was going to put us up for a couple of days.  Friends are precious and catching up with Joe was ample evidence of this adage.  It was fun catching up and Joe was able to share some early Intel stories about me during my more savage days of corporate middle management.  I tried to deny the dirt he was heaping on me but I do not think I was too convincing, or he was more convincing than I was.  We all shared a wonderful home cooked meal and everyone retired, except me, because I had to complete my blog for our fans. And now this post is complete except for the following pictures.




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ride like hell!