Comments (5)

By Michel, July 22, 2009 7:54 pm

Going to Astoria we had the second toughest climb. We may have taken the non-recommended route… not sure, but we had to climb for several miles, with almost no shoulder and big logging trucks passing us as less than a foot distance. It was a bit stressful, as they were driving fast and the air they moved was enough to make us feel we’d be pulled onto the highway. When we arrived at Astoria, we were greeted by a Safeway that had all sorts of good fruits and also lots o Mexican food (we bought agua de horchata and some other things he hadn’t found elsewhere yet). The view is phenomenal. Apparently in the past it was a city with a lot of commerce and mostly populated by scandinavians. We decided to take a break and have some food before we went into the city.

Planning tomorrow's ride after having Tropicana orange juice (in the town of Astoria)

Cute little trolley in Astoria

Old broken-down dock

Old broken-down dock

Once in the city we decided to stop at the bike shop before they closed to fix Michel’s front bike racks (Gilbert went for Espresso). Before staying at a Motel, we decided to stop at the internet cafe to check our email (we were lucky there was one).

Repairing the bike racks... again!

Nice costal houses of Astoria

Astoria

Astoria is a nice and vibrant town, with history, coffee shops, and a bit european in style. We treated ourselves to a very nice dinner and at the restaurant we saw that indeed, the other people sitting there spoke Finnish, and the waitress spoke Swedish. We had beer from the Astoria brewery (very good!). We both liked the city a lot.

We were supposed to also do laundry, but decided to do it the next day, since the only open laundromat was more than 30 mins bike ride away.

Total distance so far: 780km

Comments (4)

By Michel, July 22, 2009 7:30 pm

We woke up that morning determined to make alot of distance that day. Since we were a bit behind schedule, we left as early as we could (around 11:00 am). Our destination was the city of Longview next to the Washington-Oregon border. We followed the route that the couple and Phoebee had advised us the night before, since it was the quickest and easiest.

Tip: From experience, a very good way of finding the best routes and of avoiding the worst ones is to ask advice from the locals.

This day, we saw a bear in the woods and an elk that had been run over by a car, and later a bear (not sure what type or whether it was a baby or not). We both had our first flat tire. We finally arrived at Longview at about 7:00 pm, after buying some raspberries at the entrance of the city. Since all that intense riding made us pretty hungry, Gilbert ordered a burger at Stuffy’s that may have been a little too big for him…

Gilbert happy of having his mega burger

Might be a little too big for his mouth (but not for his biker appetite!)

After waking up late the next day, we had breakfast and headed to the bike shop to repair our pannier racks. After finishing the repairs at 4:30 pm, we realized that it would be probably more reasonnable to continue our journey the next day…

Distance covered:  134.5km

Total distance so far: 681km

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By Michel, July 22, 2009 7:03 pm

We woke up that morning pretty well rested, although the night had been particularly cold. Gilbert woke me up and he had freezing hands): he has a summer sleeping bag.

After a quick breakfast, we took a free shuttle from Cougar Rock to Paradise, at the base camp of Mt. Rainier. It comes every half an hour or so. This saved us a climb of about 3000 ft, the equivalent of about two hours of uphill biking. Since the shuttle takes us back to the camp, we felt it didn’t count as “cheating”.

At the peak, we climbed part of the snowy mountain in sandals. We were hot because of the sun, but our feet were frozen! It was absolutely beautiful!

Michel posing where the bus left us.

Gilbert trying to disguise as a tree (while climbing Mt. Rainier).

That's right...

We had time to check out one of the water falls as well.

Waterfalls... lots of them around.

Once back at the camp site, we left towards Mt. St-Helens, in the direction of Ashford. The first 30 minutes were a complete downhill. It was a real pleasure! We headed south on NFD 52 road, in direction of Packwood. It was probably the nicest road yet! The narrow road covered by tall evergreen trees on each side followed at some point a small, crystal-clear river. After going uphill for about an hour, it went downhill for another hour until one reaches Packwood.

River next to the road leading to Packwood

Funny thing: A huge elk was grazing right in the middle of town (Packwood). While taking pictures, we realized the locals weren’t paying attention to it’s presence, as if it wasn’t there. I guess they are used to them being around town…

Elks and the city! (in Packwood)

After a couple of burritos, we left Packwood to get to Randle. This road is located in a wide valley where cattle is raised. We saw cows, horses, peacocks and llamas.

Randle is a really small and friendly town. The owners of the motel we stayed at also had a bar with karaoke. The barmaid was so convincing that eventually we accepted to sing. I went first and sang Hey Jude (The Beatles) in front of a crowd of about six people. Gilbert did the second round with When I’m 64 (The Beatles), while I danced with one of the locals, Phoebee.

Phoebee and also a couple helped us plan the quickest route to our next stop, since we were realizing that we were starting to be late with our initial travel plans.

Just before leaving, we had the honor of being hugged by Phebee, the barmaid and by a lady who earlier bought us a beer each. A guy who sang a rap song and that had arrived with a younger crowd a couple of hours later also came to say bye to us.

After such a perfect day, we went to sleep more than content!