Flea The Race

Day	15	Date	23rd May 2015
Distance Total Distance	117.9km 714.6km	Weather	Overcast with sunny spells
Rolling Time Total Rolling	06:07:34 40:38:20	Terrain	Mostly Flat with 3 x 100m hills
Climbing Total Climbing	857m 5,776m	Spend	Coffee & Bagel $12 Noodle bar $8
Average Speed	19.2k/h	Sleeping	Camping
Max Speed	54.7k/h	Difficulty	Moderate

So today I gotta get back in the saddle or I’ll never make it to Mexico!  I’ve healed pretty good over the last two days and feel ready to chew through some more road.  I got me two black eyes that you can’t even see when I’ve the helmet and shades on, but they don’t hurt.  My hands and legs are a little sore and stiff but a day on the bike will fix that.  I left the hotel in Astoria around 11am and spent a wee while getting the bike ready outside where I got talking to another cyclist, Gill, I think, getting her bike ready for the road, for her it was day one, she flew in from Montreal the day before.  Her plan is to cycle from Astoria on the west coast of America all the way over to the east coast over 60 days, what a daunting task but I’m sure her trip will make for some great stories and she’s doing it all by herself!

The first stop of the day was at Cannon Beach a real busy spot with the tourists, the main strip is peppered with lots of restaurants and coffee shops with lots and lots of people.  It was sunny when I arrived so the beach was real nice, lots of people flying kites and some dude walking a Ferret in a harness with his kid!  I stopped at a Bagel bar along the strip for food and coffee, Cannon Beach has free visitor WiFi so I got messaging my sister and found out that Ireland  has just passed the same sex referendum with over 60% of the population voting YES, I’m really disappointed to miss the party back home in Dublin, I’m sure it was a fun weekend!

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After Cannon Beach there was some nice coastal riding along onto Tillamook where I had planned on camping for the night.  There is one tunnel through the mountains that cyclists have to press a button before entering so that lights flash telling drivers that there is a cyclist in the tunnel, how dramatic!  It was an uphill slog through the tunnel before getting on to Nehalem Bay where I bumped into 2 cyclists that I met earlier in the day by Cannon Beach, these 2 were a father and son duo riding from Seattle to Nehalem Bay as practice for a 200 mile ride they have coming up, they were staying the night in Nehalem for a few beers and it was damn tempting to join them for a few but restrained myself in order to stick with my milage target.

I got my first puncture of the trip today 700km or so into my trip, not so bad! It was the back tyre that went, I was riding down a hill and hit some bump pretty hard on the back which left the tyre completely flat just after hitting it.  When I took out there tube there were 2 slits side by side, it looks like it got pinched by the rim when I rode over the bump and there was no sharp objects embedded in the tyre.  My back wheel was a little on the soft side before to stop the weight on the back bouncing all over the shop.  I fixed the puncture in a few minutes and got going again.

I struggled before Tillamook to find anywhere suitable to camp so decided to pass through the town and see what was on offer on the other side, it was coming up on 8:30pm so I was running out of daylight to find a place.  I took a gamble with a side road towards the mountains which paid off, there was lots of inviting places to camp.  I didn’t  have to bother cooking food when I arrived as I stopped by another beach a few miles back and ate a heapload of Teriyaki Chicken Noodles by the sea.  Today I rode a decent 120km and only started at 11am, not so bad at all!

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Bed for the night, a mini jungle off a side road from the main 101 highway south.