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Almost a year ago, Julie and I decided we would ride our tandem from
home in Seattle, Washington to the Northwest Tandem Rally in Eugene
Oregon. Since so many folks rave about the Oregon coast, we decided to
head south along the coast. Given the wonderful state parks along the
Washington and Oregon coasts, we decided to make it our first self-
supported camping tour. Also, by making the rally our destination,
we could get a ride home.
The trip along the Oregon coast is wonderful and should be on every cycling tourists to-ride list. US 101 is not for the timid, however, at least in the summer when the weather is nice. The shoulders are generally excellent and I feel it can be ridden safely, but the high volume of traffic, especially unskillfully driven RVs, and the frequent stretches of heavy commercial development make riding on US 101 too often unpleasant. If done correctly, however, you will not spend a significant portion of your time on US 101. There are many side trips and parallel rural roads that avoid some of the worst bits of 101. The objective needs to be touring, not covering distance.
Although the miles added up steadily, we meandered down the coast enjoying the beaches, bakeries, surf, smoked salmon, rocky cliffs, dunes, and camaraderie.
The trip planning broke down into three parts. 1) Seattle to the Pacific coast 2) South along the coast following route 101 3) the coast to Eugene. Part 2) was easy since we used the well tested book, "Bicycling the Pacific Coast" by Tom Kirkendall and Vicky Spring. This book is a complete guide for the touring cyclist, outlining the routes, sights, and hiker/biker camping areas. One problem with this book is that the distances quoted for each leg do not include the side trips, so if you want to see anything besides to highway, count on 10-20% more miles!
There are some standard routes from Seattle to US 101, but these rely overly on highways. Living in the area, we knew there were plenty of more scenic back roads. We planned to ride quickly to the coast on Friday and Saturday, and cross the Columbia on the Astoria Bridge early Sunday before any traffic.
Getting from route 101 to Eugene was the tricky part. We got maps from the Oregon Dept of Transportation which showed a remote and low traffic route from Gardiner along the Smith River into Eugene. After some queries on the tandem and touring email lists and from looking at county maps from Metsker, a local map company, we laid out a route following paved logging roads over the Coastal range. It would be at least 100 mi, but I figured the coastal range is a pretty wimpy bunch of hills (nope!).
We rode a Bilenky tandem that was selected and equipped with this trip in mind. We never had to think about the bike in the entire trip, which I think is a great compliment to Stephen Bilenky and his crew. We had no mechanical problems, not even a flat tire, in the entire 558 miles. I don't think we would ever have conceived of doing a trip like this together without a tandem.
We read the article by John Schubert in the Adventure Cycling's `Cyclist's Yellow Pages' and followed his packing instructions almost exactly. We used small front pannier for the heavy equipment (pots, stove, food, tools, lock), big rear panniers for clothing, and stacked the sleeping bags, pads, and tent on the rear rack. The panniers are waterproof and I covered the bags and tent with a large bright yellow goretex sheet. I didn't weigh it, but the whole rig probably came out around 100 lbs.
We planned to cook most dinners in camp and get our breakfast and lunch on the road. To be safe, we carried a bag of lentils sufficient for two meals and planned to buy others as we went along. We cooked only 4 dinners, eating out two nights, and used only 1/2 a bottle of white gas for our stove.
On the road, our favorite food is Wheat Thins, which have the right combination of starch, salt, and sugar to support long miles. We also ate a lot of fig bars and Okanagan fruit bars. And occasionally real food, which gets called lunch, like smoked salmon and fried calamari.
We biked right from our front door, rolled down Capitol Hill to the ferry, and floated across the sound to Bremerton. We had scattered showers as we rode along the scenic Hood Canal on SR 107. This was the only day with any significant rain, and we dried between showers. Often we sat out the showers; once at a fruit stand munching on local cherries.
Those who take the highway route from Shelton to Montesano miss the little towns along the way that are somewhat bleak, but have some great bakeries. Lumber towns don't have any trees.
Lake Sylvia SP is a woodsy park around a lake with a steep climb to get in. The hiker/biker area has only two sites, but late comers were found other spots to pitch camp. We met a couple from Tacoma who sprinted into camp just ahead of a large group and took the last site.
Our route took us south along SR 107 and US 101 through the lumber town of Raymond, which featured a mural of its quaint history, evidently a clear-cut mud field. But we soon got our first views of the Pacific after a side trip to the Bush Pacific County Park, and then the first surf at Seaview, best know for the longest beach that cars can drive on.
We camped that night at Fort Canby, which once guarded the northern bank of the Columbia River.
Sturgeon are huge spiny prehistoric fish that dwell on the bottom of the Columbia. Both sides of the river are crowded with people fishing for these 4-foot monsters. This made for an exciting ride up to the Astoria bridge as there was little shoulder separating us from the riprap crowded with excited fishers hauling up fish large enough to stoke a tandem!
Our plan to reach the bridge early in the morning only partly worked as we arrived just before 10 am, but the traffic was still quite light. We had a great brunch on the warfs in Astoria and watched more sturgeon fishing. We decided to skip the famous column documenting Lewis and Clark's journey since it is thoughtlessly placed at the top of a hill.
We spent most of the morning poking around Ft. Stevens, which guarded the southern bank of the Columbia. This is a very bike friendly park with extensive bike paths linking the camping and recreation sites.
Unfortunately, we ended up returning to US 101 in the densely commercial Seaside in time for the Sunday afternoon traffic and sun. We also didn't eat enough, going too long on our Astoria brunch. Fortunately, we rolled into the more quaint town of Cannon Beach where one cool head (out of two), a quiet restaurant, and some good food saved the day.
We spent the night at Nehalem Bay state park. This was our first stay in an Oregon SP. The Washington parks place the hiker/biker camp close to the rest of the campers, but Oregon places the camp farther away, which makes for a quieter and remoter feel, but also means a longer hike to the showers. Oregon parks have the best free showers.
The hiker/biker camps are big social centers, and we gathered with the other cyclists to swap stories of our day's ride. At Nehalem Bay we met Erica, riding solo from Vancouver to San Diego, who we would meet up with each of the next three days. We heard stories about other cyclists ahead of us who we would then catch.
The shortest distance and yet the best day. The day started with some exquisite cycling on rolling rural roads past dairy farms and through woods of Tillamook. Away from the surf, you'd think you were in Vermont.
Then we got to play with bikes and make friends. Soon after we returned to US 101, we met up with another tandem ridden, by Brett and Carol, also headed to the tandem rally. We rode along and chatted, and just as we arrived at the Tillamook cheese factory, their rear rim split along the bead blowing out the tire. Well, we had already become too friendly to wave good-bye and shout `see you in Eugene....' Fortunately I like playing with bikes and eating cheese sandwiches. Unfortunately the closest thing to a bike shop within 50 miles was an auto parts store that carried kid's bikes. Well after enough cheese sandwiches and only one bruised knuckle, it looked like they would be roadworthy. (Turns out the wheel only lasted 100 miles, giving up after we split up and before Brett and Carol reached Salem and bike shops. They got an RV ride to Eugene.) Brett and Carol convinced us to come with them to Oceanside and stay at the wonderful hotel they had discovered there. Well we were behind schedule. it was raining, and we were feeling sociable, so we accepted.
But first we got to leave 101 again to ride around the Three Capes scenic loop. As we were riding along the tide flats in the gentle northwest drizzle, I said `Gee, I'll bet there are Bald Eagles around here!' and around the corner there were foraging among the sand bars. Living in the northwest, you see Bald Eagles often enough, but each time it is a thrill.
Oceanside is a little town nestled in the cliffs between the capes. It offers the incomparable but affordable House on the Hill hotel perched high on the cliff over the town and a great seafood restaurant. Between these and our new friends, it was an excellent evening to spend indoors.
This section of the Oregon coast is somewhat densely developed, but the cycling route avoids US 101 and commercial areas for most of the day. We continued along the Three Capes loop until our beach lunch of excellent smoked salmon.
Some of the detours off US 101 take you along the coast, and others inland to rolling hills and farmland, which refreshed our eyes from all the dramatic cliffs and surf. We added a loop around Devil's Lake, not mentioned by Kirkendall and Spring, which missed most of the densely commercial Lincoln City.
Erica beat us to camp that night and we finally met the famous Tarp Man. The Tarp Man, enroute from Seattle to San Diego, illustrated minimal cycle touring at its extreme. While we were busy arranging and rearranging the inanimates in our camp, he arrived, gathered up grass clippings for a bed, and arranged a plastic tarp using his bike and some logs to make a waterproof enclosure for his sleeping bag. Being from San Diego, he thought he wouldn't need a tent, so the tarp was an addition that he hoped to discard soon. He had no cooking gear, fueling himself on bananas, Gatorade, Doritos, and coffee!
After our usual morning stop for coffee and a laundry (wet shorts and jerseys don't dry in the northwest night), we headed to Yaquina Head Light House, whose main attraction is the murres, comorants, gulls, and other birds that nest in colonies of hundreds on the rocks. Then a detour off US 101 took us along the beaches in Newport where we found lunch of fried calamari. Just south of Newport, Oregon State Univ has a Marine Center with aquariums and oceanography exhibits. We met up with Erica at both Yaquina Head and OSU, reinforcing each of our inclinations to dawdle.
Enough dilly-dalling! With the sun well over the pacific and only 15 miles covered, it was time to ride the first strong tailwinds. We cranked the big chainring along 101 the rest of the day. This section of the highway has little development, light traffic, and the best shoulders. Just before Florence, the cliffs end with a spectacular descent into sand dunes.
And, on the seventh day, we centuried. Knowing we had over 100 miles and a mountain range between us and a 7:00 pm dinner agreement, we spent the morning dawdling along the sand dunes.
Gardiner was to be our last civilization for about 80 miles as we headed inland along the Smith River Road into the Coastal Range. A sorry little grocery was its only contribution to civilization, but enough to stock up for the journey. We carried 4.5 liters of water for the two of us and PotableAqua (iodine tablets) in case we needed more before the town of Crow on the other side of the mountains. We were able to find running water just before the road entered the National Forest, but also needed to take water from the Suislaw River, for a total of 9 liters between the two of us. It was a hot dry day for climbing.
The ride from Gardiner to Eugene was truly the most exquisite cycling I have ever done. I'd rather the Bureau of Land Management wasn't paving our national lands, but these paved logging roads are a secret cycling treasure I had not expected. We had good cues (no mileages) and a detailed map (no contours), but the remote maze was rather intimidating as we took a left and then a right down unmarked roads that threatened to degenerate from chip seal to gravel and revert to the forest. It looked like no one had traveled this way since last fall. We had our tent and plenty of food, so we'd make it eventually, but I didn't want to miss dinner!
We began by slowly ascending through cattle ranches with Golden Eagles overhead, but these dwindled and we passed several fishing camps. Finally we began to do some major climbs and entered the remote but heavily logged forest at the center of the Coastal Range. We had several long hot slow twisting climbs rewarded by cool fast descents. After the third major climb, we had a final fast descent toward Crow and out of the forest. We were already late for dinner, but decided to continue along our rural route and avoid the quick easy route into Eugene along SR 126. We were tired, but the ride over rolling hills and past horse farms was rewarding and a far better finale to our trip than returning to the highway.
We arrived at our friend's house in Eugene at 8:30pm, an hour and a half late for dinner. She didn't believe our estimate, but was getting her maps out to figure out where we might be.
The next two days were the Northwest Tandem Rally. Unfortunately, we
were just about ridden out. Fortunately, the rally was more a social
event than riding event and no one seemed to notice we passed on the
longer ride routes.