September 8, 2011
Day 24: Scappania to Fort Stevens State Park
Today is a long day in the Coast range ending near the Pacific Ocean at Fort Stevens State Park.
I got on the road at 9:15. A few miles down the road I was surprised to see occasional farms. I thought it would just be timber lands, but valleys started to open up along the Nehalem river.
8.5 miles downstream was Big Eddy County Park which has showers and good drinking water.
The Nehalem river valley is more interesting than I thought it would be. I passed several old logging and farming communities that are now essentially ghost towns. Old schools, churches, houses, and barns in the middle of nowhere. The logging communities flourished in the early 20th century. But as roads and trucks improved it wasn't necessary to have a sawmill in every community. So the communities faded away.
Birkenfeld is one community that survived, barely. It has a population of maybe 50 people, with the only business in the region. It was the only store on my route between Scappoose and Astoria. I had a long lunch stop there.
From the store I could see and hear trees coming down on a nearby hillside.
There was very little traffic today until I got near Astoria. 1 or 2 cars per minute most of the time. But log trucks were the most common vehicle.
In the community of Jewell (a few houses, no store) I turned away from the Nehalem river and started climbing up Fishhawk creek to 1220 foot Tidewater summit.
On the way up I stopped at a county park and hiked a 1 mile round trip trail to Fishhawk falls. It was a nice walk in the forest. The waterfall wasn't very impressive. The Coast range is mostly composed of sedimentary deposits that are too soft and crumbly to form big cliffs.
The temperature dropped steadily during the descent from Tidewater summit. 85F at the summit, 60's and overcast farther down. 57F and dense fog at Fort Stevens State Park. Plus, a headwind started building as I approached the ocean.
I followed highway 202 to the edge of Astoria, then turned south and west on various roads to get around Youngs bay to the campground at Fort Stevens State Park. The park is farther west of Astoria than I thought. The park has a huge hiker/biker campground. The campsite is half a mile away from the beach, but still socked in with fog.
The last 10 miles just sucked the energy from me with the cold, dreary fog, and headwind. Definitely not the welcome I hoped for at the Pacific coast.
Distance: 75.1 mi. (120 km)
Climbing: 2189 ft. (663 m)
Average Speed: 11.5 mph (18.4 km/h)
Hiking: 1 mi. (1.6 km)
Today's ride: 75 miles (121 km)
Total: 1,173 miles (1,888 km)
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