Day 28 - August 27: Manzanita OR - Astoria OR

45 miles.  3111 feet up, 3137 feet down.

Another beautiful day where it's hard to remember what this morning was like.  First up - Emily had prepared smoothies and amazing breakfast burritos for us all.  I could only eat half my burrito, so took the rest of it for lunch; yum!  It was tough to say farewell to our lovely seaside setting............

We could see where we were headed, though.  The notch between the rocks and the trees on the far left-hand side of the picture below.  And that's on the downhill, so we'll be climbing for a bit to get up above that.  Our biggest climb of the day right out of the gate.

The climb begins gently enough.

Great views out over the water in a number of places.

And here's some of that rock up close.

Looks like kids' surf lesson time at the Short Sands Trailhead turnoff (mile 4.6) 

More cruisin' on the downhill.

This is a look back at the Arch Cape Tunnel.  I couldn't find the button to activate the "cyclists in tunnel" lights, so I walked through on the narrow sidewalk.  

More ocean views approaching Cannon Beach.

Cool bus shelters in Cannon Beach.

Next stop.......  Seaside............. at about 22 miles.

Nice long bike path/promenade in Seaside, and a huge beach.

 

After a nice long SAG stop (and a quick stop to look around an Eddie Bauer outlet store), we headed off inland onto the Lewis and Clark Road.  

It was a pretty quiet road, although this logging truck did eventually pass me.

At about 37 miles we got to Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark over-wintered in 1805-06.  I didn't have my park pass with me, and was too cheap to fork over $10, so I'll have to live with the memories of last time I was there.

Moving right along - we crossed the Lewis and Clark River at about 39 miles.

Although we could see the New Youngs Bay Bridge (and Highway 101), we were on the old bridge to cross the Youngs River into Astoria.  

Can I just say that Astoria is not flat!  We made our way up and over and found our way to the Astoria Riverwalk.  Too bad we didn't have more time here.  The downtown area looked pretty interesting.

This museum looks like it would have been interesting to go in.  Not enough time, though.......

Bridge to Washington - Astoria Megler Bridge.  It's a biggie; 4 miles in length.

Our BW hotel is in a lovely location; right on the water (Columbia River).  I'm quite happy to be on the highway side, though.  The sea lions are pretty vocal!  Cy and Katie even held our map meeting speaking sea lion.  Not sure I understood every word, though.  Birthday games before our fish taco dinner.  Great job yet again, Emily!

How things change in less than a month.  Nightfall is noticeably earlier, and rather than sheltering in the shade for dinner we set the circle up in the fading sunlight and wear all our layers for warmth.  Especially tonight, when we had wind as an added bonus - it was all the guides could do to keep the group out there long enough to have a map meeting after dinner (and birthday dessert; two birthdays today). 

The Ride:

Garmin:  72.49 km.  3374 feet up, 3411 feet down.

RWGPS:  74.5 km.  1044 m up, na down.

Temperature range:  12C - 22C

The Route:

Astoria OR.  Population 10,181

Astoria is the oldest city in the state of Oregon and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.  Astoria was also the site of the first US post office west of the Rockies (1847).  It is located on the south shore of the Columbia River, where the river flows into the Pacific Ocean.  The city is served by the deepwater Port of Astoria.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805-1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure southwest of modern-day Astoria.  In 1883, and again in 1922, downtown Astoria was devastated by fires.  In the early 20th century Astoria's economy centered on fishing, fish processing, and lumber.  In 1945, about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia River.  The fishing and lumber industries declined in the late 20th century.  In 1966, the Astoria-Megler Bridge was opened, and linked Astoria with the state of Washington.  Today, tourism and light manufacturing are the main economic activities.  Astoria is the western terminus of the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, a 6840 km coast-to-coast bicycle touring route created by the Adventure Cycling Association.  In 2000, 16% of the population lived below the poverty line.