We left Astoria and followed the coast. There were many more beaches to check out during this stretch. But the beaches weren't what I've been used to visiting Florida, California, or Hawaii. There were no palm trees, tiki stands, skateboarders, boardshorts or bikinis. The mood was different. I loved it. Even though we were sitting on the beach and the sun was out, we were bundled and cuddling together. The waves would creep so far up the beach that it created this mirror-like flooring for what seamed like miles before the ocean even started. The fog would roll in sometimes, depending on where we were and the time of day. The fog was comforting. It's like it held you.
From Astoria to Kelly's Marina was a 46.5 mile ride. We made it a short day because we stopped off at Cannon Beach, OR. Have you been? You should so go! It's an incredible little town and beach. The sand felt like corduroy with every step we took. You could even hear it. We layed in the sun and soaked up the rays. Haystack Rock is an experience of it's own. Yes, there are many boulders off the northern coast to admire, but for some reason, this rock is... gorgeous. It's a photogenic piece of nature.
From there we took off and stopped at a marina for the night. Kelly's was an experience. I have not hung out around marina's so it was almost a fishy smelling Disneyland {is there a difference, truly?} to me. There were tubs of crabs and fish and oysters...right where you can grab them! There was a little store, an area to charge our phones, an awesome fire pit {we made oatmeal and drank hot tea by the fire as the sun was going down} We slept in our tent this night. I remember all the squashed slugs in the grass...they were unavoidable.
From the Marina we rode 41.5 miles into Pacific City. One of the {many} cool things about traveling the way we did, and having an open schedule, was the allowance to stop at these beaches and bakeries any time we wanted. Our schedule was made pretty much hour to hour. We hardly set up where we would even be staying for the night, but just hoped we'd end up somewhere. It worked out the majority of the time!
Anyways, riding to Pacific City we got DUMPED on by heavy, ocean rain! We tried stopping several times under trees or bushes, but it kept raining and we needed to get somewhere before the night came. With the rain and the fog it was hard to see ahead even 20 feet! The next bends were mysterious. The next town was unknown. Just when we were soaked through and through we rode into Pacific City and grabbed a room at a motel. We layed out our clothes and dried them with the room heater as best we could and went hunting for food. Everything was closed so we grabbed things at a grocery store and Blake made a motel room feast!
Ok...somewhere in there I have a night missing. At one point, I don't even remember where, we had stopped by a hostel for the night. They were packed full so we set up the tent in their backyard. Two things I remember about this is the little Asian lady who ran the hostel was so funny and cute and little and bossy. The other was that this was the point in time we were trying to plan going into Portland. It would have been a full day in, a full day there, and a full day back to the coast. On top of that all the hostels and motels were booked up for I think a bike race that weekend. We had to scratch the idea of going to see Portland. The owner of the hostel told us "once you've seen one large city, you've seen them all"... This helped us not worry too much about missing the chance to check it out. Welp...let's move on.
I have to mention Tillamook, OR. There is nothing, and I mean nothing in this town. Except for the dairy factory. So, from now on, we buy Tillamook butter. Nothing like supporting the places you've been. {I'm also pretty sure we stopped at a bakery.}
Thanks for reading about our adventure! Sorry it gets a little jumbled...imagine our brains DURING these days. Let me know what you guys think by commenting on this blog, or on my FB post of this feed.
No matter where you're at in life or in the world...Dream Big and Ride Far! {And document those amazing journey's}
