May 26th

Milepost ~500

It rained off and on until after midnight. All of my gear could be rated somewhere on the continuum of damp (slightly to extremely), when I awoke. It was sunny already at 7 and I set to airing out all of my things in hopes of getting fairly dry before I left. The hiker biker site had received a half dozen or so other folks into the evening and everyone got started on a similar mission. Most started the dry-out process later, and finished earlier, than me. Not sure how that works! But, I had a peaceful slow start including PB&J and a nice readjustment of most of my gear.

Series of cute small towns today, interspersed with some stunning views. You know, the usual.

Missed Lori while I ate a BBQ beef burrito for breakfast. It’s her favorite junk food, and it’s part of this whole genre of…food?…that exists only in the space of slightly dingy convenience stores of a certain caliber, but anyway she taught me to like that particular artifact, and it’s become something I like and grab when I get a chance. And today was a chance!

As afternoon began, I happened to pass the “factory outlet” of my new favorite jerky brand (Tillamook County Smoker). I just found this quasi-local brand and mowed through a couple packs during the trip, finishing the last one just last night. And so I pulled a U-turn to get to the store and bought a bunch more for cheap! Also, a 2 foot long meat stick. Length was its primary distinguishing characteristic, but it was pretty ok tasting too. Tasted long.

I had been planning to stop at the Tillamook creamery since their ice cream is pretty good and there’s a cafe there for a tasty shake and planned lunch. So I stopped. They’d completely rebuilt it since I was last there, and the crowds had grown to match. After 20 minutes waiting on a (very tasty) cherry milkshake, I bailed on lunch since I didn’t want to wait in the even longer line. I left my bike laying on some very clean lawn in the sun with my gloves out in the sun to keep drying and then forgot to put them back on when I headed south towards most of the town of Tillamook - Creamery is on the very north side of town. Discovered that I’d forgotten gloves at just after stocking up at Fred Meyer…so I just went back in the store and immediately restocked for 10$. Got campfire-cookables for the evening as well, committing myself to actually finding a fire and working at making sure dinner happens.

Familiar roads from the creamery onwards (biked more than once) led to me going off-mapped-route in favor of my surprisingly keen understanding of the local road system. I’ve camped at this campground over a dozen times, all by bike, and biked past it a couple times on my favorite (also: only) 300k ride, the Oregon Randonneurs Three Capes route. There’s only 3 roads to it so we know them all pretty well. Anyway my rerouting saved 5 miles vs the ACA route. Which was fine since I was a bit tired and ready to be in camp.

I had figured out in tillamook that I would miss friend Rob who’d biked out from Portland the day before to the campground I was heading towards, but was unprepared for a creepy totally empty campground for at least 45 minutes after I arrived around 3:30. Folks trickled in into the night until it was mostly full, but when I got there I had a choice of sites and no line for the showers and it was great. I found a note from Rob and a gift of firestarter which I did use later, so score!

I watched the waves for a bit since it was sunny when I arrived, and the beach was quite crowded. People swimming and building sandcastles and surfing, etc. Contemplated some pretty incredible trees where the ground had literally been eroded out from underneath their roots but they persist somehow and are super tall and clearly sufficientl stable since there is pretty constant high wind along the coast.

As I got showered & settled, the clouds and mist rolled in and the sun was absent for most of the rest of the day, and it even seemed to be misting substantially and this led to me pitching the rain fly despite no seeming plans for rain. After I got the fire started and got ready to cook, suddenly someone greeted me by name. Friend Michael Lick had just pulled in on his bike and so he set up camp next to me and we chatted a fair bit.

Some sausages and a sweet potato (my first “cooking” on this trip) were good. Michale shared some beer and it was great!

Watched the sunset between the clouds and horizon, first time to see it in 4 hours or so, and it was serene and delightful and then I read myself to sleep quickly.

photo album here

Written by Chris McCraw who resides in Portland, OR but maybe his heart is on the bike?