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Thursday stats

The Daily Whale-y: 0. This stat may have to retire after today. Total so far: Still 2.

New animal sighting: Roosevelt elk. Not sure, but we think this might be a subspecies of elk different from what we'd seen in Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks.

Start: Sea Ranch RV Park, Cannon Beach

End: Fort Stevens State Park. Elevation: 6.

The Daily Progress: 25.9 miles

Uphill / downhill: 764 / 728

No ice cream, beer or wine. BUT we did do a taste test between peanut M&M's and dark chocolate peanut M&M's because we happened to be in possession of both tonight. When tasting a single piece, Dani was much better than I was at identifying which was milk chocolate and which was dark chocolate. But we could definitely tell the difference (I could tell more easily when eating two or three at a time), and dark chocolate was definitely our preference. Just a bit more "semisweet."

Lodging expenses: $52. Oof, that was not a smart move. I just checked my email receipt and realized that by reserving a regular site in advance, I paid three times what it would've cost us to use the hiker/biker site. I must've had to reserve an RV site because the regular (non-hiker/biker) tent sites must have been sold out. NOTE TO SELF (AND ANYONE ELSE WHO GOES BIKE TOURING and doesn't do this already): Never book a campsite in advance without calling first to ask if the campground has a hiker/biker area. Hiker/biker sites are not only cheaper, but they also allow way more flexibility; there's always a spot for you, and you don't have to worry about being there on a specific night — it's there whenever you need it.

Food expenses: $50 for an amazing breakfast at Lazy Susan in Cannon Beach (best breakfast since the one at the lodge at Grand Teton National Park … and Dani says even better. Wow.); $48 for lunch, dinner and breakfast snacks from Safeway, including a sandwich the size of our niece, which we shared for lunch.

Thursday thoughts

I have to say this somewhere, before I forget: Weird things happen when you're on a bike tour this long. Did you know that rubber bands could melt? One rubber band in my bag of electronics must've melted when we were in Idaho, because the other day I discovered a sticky blue mess clinging to the extra rear light that I was carrying, which previously had a rubber band wrapped around it. Ziploc bags are apparently not meant to be zipped and unzipped as many times as my toiletries bag has been; it has been falling apart for the past few weeks. Even my padded bike gloves, which I bought in St. Louis after the first quarter of this tour, are on their last legs; there is no padding left underneath the heel of each hand. My cycling glasses, which used to transition from light to dark depending on how bright the sun is, are now permanently tinted dark. I'll probably need a new chain when I get home. I think I will replace our tent, too — although taking it on the second half of this tour was just the straw that broke the camel's back; we've had this tent since 2006 or 2007, and it has been heavily used. One of my pairs of bike shorts is going to have to retire after this tour. I'm sure there are other things. My point is: A cross-country bike tour means heavy wear and tear on your gear. I shouldn't be surprised that some of it will need to be replaced afterward. Luckily, I don't feel like my body has gone through wear and tear. Instead, I feel like a stronger cyclist! Nice! On the downside, I'm probably weaker in all other aspects and will need to make an extra point to walk, run and do other physical activity when this is all over.

Speaking of which, we have only three days of cycling left, and that's being pretty generous; tomorrow barely counts because it's less than 10 miles. We reach Astoria tomorrow, and then two days of cycling to Portland, arriving Sunday. I have one day (Monday) to explore Portland, and then I catch a train eastward on Tuesday. It's coming fast, but I think I'm ready.

I'm grateful for yesterday because I enjoyed it so much. Today featured a delicious breakfast and a beautifully foggy late morning exploring the tide pools on Cannon Beach, but much of the day was absorbed by the ride up to Fort Stevens on Highway 101, which was not a good road to ride. Fort Stevens itself seems pretty cool (see shipwreck photo at the top of this blog entry), and we'll see more of it tomorrow morning as we head east toward Astoria.

We did get a decent, albeit foggy, view of the very northwest corner of Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River. It was pretty cool to reach this point, having heard some of the history from Dani as she read the book Astoria. Maybe we'll visit the maritime museum in Astoria tomorrow and learn a bit more. 

This point on the corner of Oregon is as far from home as this tour will get. Now, we head east.

Dani's daily digest

I wanted one more round of tidepooling on the Oregon coast. This meant our day's schedule was determined by the moon, which would be pulling the ocean water away from Cannon Beach at 11:30 local time. This left time for two morning adventures: an early morning bike ride to Ecola Point and breakfast at Lazy Susan's Cafe.

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I had set my alarm for 6 just to give myself the chance to decide if I wanted to bike to Ecola Point or not. To my surprise, I did! (Chris opted to sleep in.) My major motivation was the hope of seeing a seal or sea lion (a roadway interpretive sign said Ecola Point was one of their favorite haul-out sites). I did not see any pinnipeds, but I think I may have heard sea lions. I did get a beautiful view of the battle between sunshine and fog. 

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Breakfast at Lazy Susan's was the highlight of the day. We ordered an oatmeal waffle (served with plain yogurt and fresh fruit) and John's Special (two poached eggs with cheesy breakfast potatoes, an English muffin, and fresh fruit). Both were beautiful and delicious. We worked the crossword puzzle from the paper Chris bought yesterday while waiting for our food.

Over breakfast, we discussed two options for our tidepooling expedition. The original plan was to return to Haystack Rock and explore the tide pools there, but our neighbor at last night's campsite raved about low tide at Crescent Beach. Haystack was close and intriguingly designated a "marine garden" but likely to be crowded. Getting to Crescent Beach would require biking three miles up to Ecola Point and then hiking two miles down to the beach, but it would be less crowded and who knows what the tidepooling there would reveal? We were leaning toward Crescent Beach when I remembered our experience on the Cape Lookout Trail and how disappointed I was when I tried to pack too much into too little time and spent my time rushing to get it all in rather than enjoying myself. Attempting to get to Crescent Beach would be that all over again. We opted to go to Haystack Rock. The tidepooling was only ok -- literally every other beach we went to was better -- but it was the right call for today. 

After tidepooling, we biked north on US 101. In the town of Seaside, we made a short detour to see the Lewis and Clark salt works. Here, three people from Clark's party worked for seven weeks to boil enough sea water to produce 28 gallons of salt. We know where they built their salt works because a Clatsop Indian woman named Jenny Michel and born in 1816 was told where the spot was by her father, who saw it in action. Thinking about the effort that went into procuring something as simple as salt made me think, once again, about how easy it is to cross the continent now compared with 200 years ago.

As if to emphasize this point, we next stopped in Safeway, where we could buy basically any food we wanted for a sum of money equivalent to mere minutes of our labor. We used this awesome power to buy a sandwich as big as our infant neice, almost two pounds of pasta salad, and various and assorted snacks. We even got a few packets of salt -- FOR FREE -- from the deli counter.

While we ate our massive sandwich, Chris told me he had a story to tell me but that he was going to wait until after he finished eating to share it. Given this, I was expecting a disgusting story. Instead the story was basically this: "one time my coworker bought a big sandwich." 

Confused, I asked, "Why did you wait until you were done eating to tell me that story?"

Chris's answer, in essence: "I didn't want to stop eating my sandwich."

We finished the ride to Fort Stevens State Park and pitched camp. We spent the late afternoon scoping out the park's attractions, which include a 1906 shipwreck, an observation platform above the south jetty of the mouth of the Columbia River, a wildlife viewing bunker (we saw mostly gulls), and an all-male herd of Roosevelt elk (there are female elk in the park and we saw some of them, too, but the stag party was notable). These excursions probably added about 12 miles of biking to our daily total.

In the evening, we stuffed ourselves with pasta salad, had a taste-test to determine if we can differentiate normal peanut M&Ms from dark chocolate peanut M&Ms (I can; Chris can if he puts three or more in his mouth at once), and took showers before tucking ourselves into our tent, which feels extra cozy thanks to the low blast of a foghorn and the patter of rain reminding us of the warmth and shelter the tent provides.