Friday May 20, 2011

First Full Day of Riding  

Day: 1
Location: Bay City, OR - Monmouth, OR
Miles: 115 
Total: 115
 

Last night was far from a good nights sleep. I'm was still a bit nervous about the whole free camping thing and slept with my bear spray and knife next to me. Fear, excitement, and anticipation kept me from any real shut eye but the real problem was the owl who, perched above my tent, began to blabber with his buddy across the gorge.

I got packed and hit the road around 8:40 (a time which retrospectively seems ridiculously late). An important thing to note here is that earlier in the western portion of my trip, my days would start much later as the climate was simply far too cold to facilitate an early start. The blistering heat of Kansas would of course soon change that.

My first official stop of the trip would turn out to be the Tillamook Cheese Factory. For the east coasters reading this, they're sort of like the Land o' Lakes of the west. I had originally had intentions of sending home post cards along the way but that plan, just like my goal of updating this blog from libraries along the way, fell apart. Anywho, I picked up some post cards and a big sample bag of cheese for snacking on along the way and it was good eats for a while coupled with a baguette from Fred Meyers but after 2 hours my tummy just couldn't take it anymore as the unrefrigerated cheese became steadily grosser.

So prior to embarking to Portland I had loaded up my Ipod with audiobooks to keep me company along the way. I began listening to Harry Potter (which I am sad to say I never fully read as a kid) this morning and it kept me entertained until up ahead I saw two touring bikes making their way up the winding road. I was stoked! These where the first people I had seen and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd have some riding partners for the rest of my ride. I sprinted up to meet them. As it would turn out, the two where from Alberta and doing a tour down the west coast. Although, I wouldn't be riding with them for very long, it was still neat to have someone to talk to for a while. I even got some great footage of them as we zoomed down a flowy downhill. I'd soon come to realize that the route down the Pacific Coast was packed with cyclists and I broke off of them and began riding with this dude Chris from Toronto until I began heading inland.

As the miles rolled by, I was shocked at how far I was getting. Two days prior I had been charlie horsing like a mad man after a 50 mile jaunt and was really worried as to what that would entail, but today I was flying and I felt great. Considering that I had anticipated to be doing around 80 miles a day, a 115 mile first day was insane! I felt like I could have kept on going until Jersey but restrained myself around 7:00 pm to find a place to camp. I ended up setting up in a field to the side of a pretty busy road after riding through one of the most bizarre things on my trip. All around me was a strange snow like substance falling from the sky, although it wasn't cold and resembled shredded cotton more than anything else. It was crazy! Tonight's campsite was freaking me out more than yesterday's because of its proximity to people and the fact that someone stored a boat trailer right next to where I had set up in the field.  Oh well.