August 5, 2021
Day 84 - Portland, OR to Paradise Point state park, WA
Going north, again
Today we planned to go to paradise point, just across the border into Washington (about 30 miles), so we slept until 7, dressed and packed up. Rosemary washed our clothes for us while we were in town yesterday, so everything was ready and fresh. We packed up quickly and ate breakfast. Chris made us coffee again with a percolator and it was really good. They buy a local roast (Nossa familia again...). We went out to the bikes and I borrowed a floor pump. My front tire was at 40 and my rear at 50; wow I wonder if that is too low with a load. My rear tire - which used to be my front - has this crack near the edges where the sidewalk meets the tread. I'm not sure if these things are related. Oh well, if it blows it goes. And although there is plenty of tread, the tires are probably pretty old for bike tires now. I wonder how many miles are expected out of these (schwalbe marathon)? We rode down the big hill back into Portland and took the scenic route along the river. On the way we saw some amazing houses that must cost a ton of money.
Somehow though, I think Portland is a affordable city, as far as big cities go. Seattle and Boston are definitely more expensive. We made our way to voodoo doughnuts again ( we don't often get vegan doughnuts).
I will say that voodoo is slightly less good than veera in Missoula, those doughnuts were elegant and sophisticated, whereas voodoo is more irreverent with flavors like "oh captain my captain" (with captain crunch) and butterfingering (butterfingers). I took a regular one for the road and we crossed the border into Washington on the side of I5, which was separate from the cars, but loud and quite skinny.
We passed several more homeless encampments and stopped in the town of Vancouver Washington. Vancouver is seems pretty chill and since we had so much time today, we stopped at a coffee shop (relevant) for a coffee and wifi to plan the next few days. We considered doing an out and back to mt st Helens, but I think we decided to go straight up through Seattle and go to the islands in the harbor before riding down the west side of the canal to hopefully meet up with Russ and trish around the middle of the month.
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We will see what happens, but we rode to the outskirts of Vancouver and stopped at a Safeway to grab food for lunch and dinner. We ate lunch in front of the store. We packed up and left for our 13 mile ride to paradise point. The ride was easy and mostly followed along I5. We arrived around 330 and got a spot for $12. It's not as slick as Oregon so far, but a good campsite for sure. We parked the bikes and walked to the river. We collected a nalgene of blackberries for breakfast in the am and walked back to shower and cook food. We made potato soup with onion, habanero and ramen noodles. The park is right on I5, so there are alot of party campers here. Hopefully it won't be too loud all night...
Mileage:39
Altitude gain:1400
Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 4,403 miles (7,086 km)
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