August 6, 2021
Day 85 - Paradise Point state park, WA to Chehalis, WA
6 feet under is too late
There were campers up untill 2 am last night. And I even saw someone with a fire even though there was a fire ban. You can tell the party campers by the exorbitant amount of stuff: their large tents, awnings, grills, griddles, full size mattresses, pets, and coolers for beer. These people graduate straight to RV as soon as their finances permit it. I wanted to make a bunch of noise now that they were the ones trying to sleep, but I just didn't have enough stuff to bang around or dogs to bark. We ate and packed in a light mist. The forecast was rain until 3 so we put away the tent before the rain got too bad. We left the park and and the rain was alot worse out of the trees. The cars on the interstate were kicking up huge mists. It wasn't as much raining as it was misting, but it made it hard to see going down hills. The mist would get all in your eyes. A few times I tried to wear my room jacket, but it was too hot. We planned our route using komoot, and it said there was a 2 mile, 800' hill with a 16% grade. I figured it was wrong, but sure enough, we found it. It was very steep, reminiscent of time zone hill, or stites hill, or anywhere in eastern Kentucky. I had to stop half way up to let my heart rate subside and a few times I was afraid I would run out of energy and fall over if I couldn't unclip.
We descended the other side in the rain, which luckily wasn't as steep, and arrived in a small town where we bought some roadside cherries. In a town called castle rock, there was a sign at the town limit displaying all 12 churches in town. There were only 2200 citizens. We took a bike path around town and everyone we passed was extremely friendly. They also had a mountain bike park and a skate park. I wonder why all the major religions lay claim to this small town in Washington. Maybe there is a shared historical significance, but so far no bombings or war, they seem to be ok with each other. Take some notes middle east, well I guess castle rock doesn't have oil so that's probably it. We rode out of town and up another hill which had a great view. On a clear day you can probably see big mountains.
We did pass a house with some aggressive signs though: carry or be carried (with a pic of a gun and someone carrying a body), politically correct is bull shit (with a bull shitting), and my favorite, 6 feet under is too late, get a gun today (grave stone and flowers).
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3 years ago
The miles were dragging on at this point. We had to make a total of 73 miles to get to our warm showers host in chehalis. Luckily it stopped raining and we dried out a little. We got into town around 4 and stopped at the Safeway for a snack. Brian, our host said they were making tofu stir fry for dinner. He was driving back from Tacoma and his son, Tristan, was at an appointment so they told us to just go in the front door and make ourselves at home. We showered and were just about to go lube our chains when Brian and Tristan got home. We talked for a while and picked some more blackberries. Brian is an accomplished world tourer and currently rides the same bike as me. He told me to watch out for the rear rack mounts because his broke off. This is only the second time I have seen this bike in the wild, but I figure if Brian rides it, it must be pretty good. We ate dinner and talked about his travel to India and other countries. We heard about the rats, food poisoning, fires, bed bugs and language barrier. And he did this in '88. He highly recommended travelling to these countries, but the stories have me hesitant. We did a little route planning with Brian and went to bed shortly after.
Mileage:73
Altitude gain:3700
Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 4,476 miles (7,203 km)
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