Day 2, Monday, September 10, 2007
Seaside , OR to Tillamook , OR
47 miles
Up at 6:00, 7:00 continental breakfast, 7:45 load luggage and 7:15 on the road.
Seaside is the first town that we stop at on the Pacific Ocean so this is where we took our group picture. It was more scenic here than in Portland and there was no ceremonial wheel dip. There are 24 cyclists and 4 ABB support staff. Cyclists come from Hawaii, Germany, England and the states of California, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Washington, and Oregon.
I did not ride today as I needed to give my knees a chance to heal. I felt pretty good after a good night's sleep. ABB staff agrees that this was a good idea and I rode with Barbara in the SAG/luggage van. On the way to the SAG location at 26 miles in Nehalem, she stopped several times so I could take some great pictures. I've been told that they get even better as we travel down the coast. The 'haystack' rock is enormous and looks like someone (maybe aliens) just dropped it from the sky.
The SAG stop was at a boat launch on the Nehalem River which is very popular locally for salmon fishing. I chatted with several guys who have caught salmon up to 37 lbs. here. This boat launch is located 6 miles from the mouth of the river, has no fish ladders or dams, a salmon spawning area and hatchery further up river. Fisherman need to have a license and tags. They can keep per day: 2 chinook, or 2 coho, or 1 of each. The major salmon run is from mid September to mid October.
Here's the news that you are probably waiting to hear - I called the La Quinta hotel back in Portland twice this AM to make sure that when my bike arrives that they put it aside and don't let it get put back on the UPS truck because we aren't there anymore. I called again at 12:45 and it did arrive! Hooray! Hooray! When all cyclists had passed through the SAG, Barbara and I went on to the Shilo Inn Suites in Tillamook. At about 3PM Karen and I drove back to get my bike. We got back to Tillamook at 5:45 in time for dinner. After dinner Gerard reassembled my bike and I spent some time reorganizing and getting the bike ready for tomorrow.
My knees feel very good right now (12:30 AM) and I'm planning to ride tomorrow! I also need to ship my bike box empty (tomorrow AM) to Cosa Mesa, CA so it will be there at the end of my ride.
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