Day 1
Astoria OR to St Helens OR
Miles Ridden 80.4
Climbing 4500 Feet
Average Speed 13.6 MPH
Total Miles Ridden 80.4
Miles to Go 3555
 |
| The riders |
 |
| That's me 8 years ago |
First day of the trip kicked off with a group photo in our America By Bicycle jersies under the Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River. As you can see, the day was foggy and gray. Evin Harwell and I posed for our before pictures. About 40 riders and 6 support crew started.
 |
| Me on the first day |
 |
| Evin Harwell |
We took off on back roads into heavily forested country south and east of Astoria.There was very little traffic with the exception of speeding logging trucks who seemed not at all interested in sharing the road with bicyclists.
 |
| Logging Truck |
I have two recurring bicycling nightmares. In the first, I'm riding down a winding country road and, out of my rear view mirror, I see a teenager looking at her phone and not the road. She looks up, sees me and swerves out of her lane. At the last second she sees a car approaching and swerves back into my lane to avoid a head-on collision and I wake up. In the second, I see a landscaping truck and trailer, bristling with long rakes and shovels, approaching me. The handle of one of the shovels has slipped out of the trailer and I see it coming right at me like Sir Galahad's lance and I wake up. The logging trucks of Oregon have added a third. I'm quietly riding around along a winding forested road when I hear the roar of a logging truck and then the squeal of it's tires as we approach the same corner from opposite directions. The truck starts rolling over in my direction and ten very large Douglas firs start to tumbling on top of me and I wake up.
 |
| The back roads of NW Oregon |
The scenery was beautiful. if not spectacular, but we hit two very long, steep and difficult hills (mountains) that immediately opened my eyes to the fact that I was no longer riding in Michigan and that I was not the same rider I was 8 years ago.
 |
| Hungry riders at the first Sag |
We stopped for our first of probably 120 SAGs (pictured above) which are rest and refueling stops set up by the Bike Across America crew. They are stocked with all manner of snacks, energy bars, cookies, fruit and much more as well as water and Gatorade to refill our water bottles.
 |
| Clear-cut area |
As we neared the end of the ride, the scenery changed to large areas of desolate, clear-cut forests. Those trees being hauled by the truckers had to be cut somewhere.
Evin and I got to St. Helen's by mid-afternoon tired and humbled by a very difficult opening day. I had a couple of first day problems. A bit of loose velcro on my saddle bag rubbed through my shorts and the skin of my thigh after hours of pedaling and I didn't realize it until the end. My bike was catching in the drivetrain and making a terrible noise. The expert mechanic on staff identified it and rebuilt my rear wheel on the spot.
Comments
Post a Comment