OREGON ROCKS!

Day 10 – Nehamlem State Park, OR – 68 km

First of all it has to be said that Oregon rocks! The coast is spectacular, the road shoulders are (generally) wide and the beachside campgrounds are fantastic. In WA the campgrounds were in heavily forested, murky areas, often alongside the highway, with dated facilities.

Here in Oregon the state campgrounds feature free showers, clean, updated facilities and campsites in open forest with lots of light and the calming sound of the surf pounding the beach, just a short walk away. It also helps that we’re in the midst of a spell of great weather.

Before leaving Astoria – the last major centre for a hundred miles, I bought a helmet-mounted rear view mirror – on the bike shop guy’s recommendation; it’s made locally by his friend in Portland, some chain lube and, at Big 5 Sporting Goods (read hunter supply store), a jacket. Not the crush-to-nothing lightweight down jacket I’ve been craving for the past week of cold nights, but something that will serve.

At Cannon Beach – a massively long strand – we ate lunch on the beach, which was surprisingly busy, with hundreds of people walking about far into the distance.

Re the rear view mirror. After a day of trying to get used to this thing, which juts from my head like an insect’s antenna and creates a massive blind spot in my forward vision, I’ve given up. (More importantly, the stupid thing looks supremely geeky.) I finally yanked it off and taped it to my handle bar, where it serves fairly well. I bought the thing because I like to keep an eye on Sophie behind me and when you turn your head while pedalling a loaded bike, it’s pretty hard to steer straight. This is not a good thing on busy roads with narrow shoulders.