Cycle Oregon Weekend 2008

Day 1 | Day 2

Day 0 (August 1, 2008)

    We drove to Astoria, OR under cloudy skies with light sprinkles to get checked in for Cycle Oregon Weekend 2008 hosted at Fort Stevens State Park.  We packed the van instead of the Subaru.  There just wasn't enough room for everything.  It worked out well with the van though.  I backed the tandem in between the middle row of seats, the trailers down the right-side, and all the bags with sleeping bags, tents, chairs, and clothes down the left side.  We arrived right around the registration time, picked up our packets, and picked out our camp site with rest rooms adjacent...but not too close.  This year, since the girls were attending their first Cycle Oregon, we brought our own tent instead of partaking of the tent and porter service which would have cost too much for 2 tents for 2 nights.  Dinner was a bit more disorganized than I'm used to with no one manning the tables to serve the food, but we found our way around.  I got the last piece of chicken for Phoebe, and the rest of us had burgers...oh, and HUGE desserts.  I got an assortment to sample.  Jada's friend Sue whom we normally get to see on the rides every year, showed up around the same time as us, and she camped next to us.  The girls know her as well from BPAC, so they enjoyed having someone else to talk to other than us.

    After dinner, it was still quite light out, and the camp ground still too hectic for the girls to try to fall asleep.  We walked down to beach on the Columbia river.  I suppose I should try to describe the camp ground.  The Fort Stevens State Park was used as both a Civil War era and World Wars I and II west coast base guarding the mouth of the Columbia River from attack.  We stayed in the Civil War grounds around the outside of the Original Earthwork fort (dirt piled up around an area).  The main stage and eating area was inside the fort.  We didn't really stay in the camp ground area, we had a whole big lawn to our group all around the fort.  The girls really enjoyed going up and over the wall to get into the fort more than going around to one of the regular entries.  They also really liked using the porta-potties.  We were on the east side of the peninsula that the camp ground was on, so we were near the beach of the Columbia River.  We could see the large fishing boats moving around there, as well as some of the bigger ocean vessels making their way in or out of the mouth of the river.

    The girls got to learn how to do the usual Cycle Oregon stuff like brushing your teeth out near the water spigots.  Phoebe was dancing to the music of the bands that were playing over the hill on the main stage.  Then we tried to put them to bed, but they were still awake when I got back from the evening announcements where I found out what route signs to follow.  It was a tough night.  There was a baby sleeping (or not sleeping as the case may be) near us.  None of us slept terribly well, but it wasn't entirely the baby's fault. 

Day 1 (August 2, 2008)

Weather: cool, mostly cloudy, slight sprinkles for a little bit.

    The girls were awake before 6am as usual, but breakfast wasn't going to be served until 7am.  I slipped them both books to bide their time, but I should have given them some quick snacks.  The line was long by 6:45am for getting to the breakfast tent, but once the time was reached, it moved pretty quickly.  It's really too late to start breakfast for one of these rides.  We had a yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage links, breakfast burritos, granola, yogurt, and fruit.  After breakfast, pulled the bike out of the van and set off.  We drew a lot of interest even from the start from a band of Japanese riders on Bike Friday's that pulled up to take our picture while we were riding.  As Jada said, we never cease to amaze.  I don't know how many times people rode by saying something to the affect of, "that's quite a train".  But everyone was very impressed with us nonetheless, and the girls are always encouraged by the attention they get.  It was quite cool, and I wished I had thrown my leg warmers in because my knees weren't happy.  The rest of the team seemed to get along ok.

    The first test for us was the ride up to the Astoria Column.  It was an option along the 40 mile loop we chose, but people kept asking us if we were going to do it.  Of course we were going to try.  I'm not one to back down from a good 6-8% grade when people don't expect you to make it.  We held a pretty good pace, and Ellen was able to do some good pushing too.  She got lots of encouragement from people passing by.  We made it to the top where we were referred to as the super family.  There were many pictures taken of us by the official photographers.  We were told they should be posted on the CO web site.  We'll let everyone know when we see them.  Even with the clouds, the view was pretty good.  On the way down, Ellen showed her true Pearson colors by saying she prefers to climb more than descend because it makes her hot.

    The lunch stop was a little too long from the water stop just before the Column, and we felt it.  The road surface wasn't helping for some of it either.  At the lunch stop, we chatted with a lot of people about the bike.  We saw a Santana that we expect will be the same color that ours will be.  We were even invited to join a tandem club which some times starts at a church near our house.  We've seen them before heading out for a ride.  However, when I checked the name they gave me, I couldn't find it on the web.  I guess we'll just have to check to see if they start off when we do again some time. 

    Shortly after the lunch stop, we got a flat on Ellen's trailer bike.  It also started to rain a little, but not too much.  I think it was the fastest change I've ever done too, and we were back on the road towards lunch.  The road continued to be kind of bad chip seal for the most part, but we had a little bit of a tail wind.  Lunch was at the Fort Clatsop park near the fort itself.  This was the winter quarters for the Lewis and Clark expedition from December 1805 to March 1806.  We took the shuttle back to the lunch stop and headed out once again on our way.

    The tail wind we had enjoyed for much of the stretch to lunch had become a head wind, but the sun partially came out.  We pushed on back to camp through the wind trying to catch on to a rider just out in front.  We had one person drafting us that I could see, although we went over something that caused him to get a flat.  After rolling through the finish line, we pulled up to the information tent to see what we could do about the next day since we had received a mail saying trailers wouldn't be allowed on the Astoria bridge.  They said they would talk about it to see what options they could come up with.  After putting our bike away, we came back to the tent to see if I could find a fleece to wear that night since I hadn't been prepared at all for the conditions.  While we were browsing, Mark and Ingrid came over to let us know that we could drive across and park at the lunch stop at Chinook County Park since highway 101 south of that after the bridge is also very narrow and goes through a tunnel.  That's one of the things I've always liked about Cycle Oregon and keeps bringing me back.  They actually do try to do everything they can to help.

    The shower line was long, but it moved pretty quickly in the men's line.  Jada decided that she didn't need a shower so the girls rested in the tent.  The Civil War re-enactors were firing their cannons right next to the shower trucks.  We strolled around the grounds for a bit after browsing the Bike Gallery and buying Jada a shirt.  I looked at some leg warmers, but I couldn't talk myself into buying them just yet.  We investigated the Fort Stevens World War era bunkers and grounds.  It was interesting how they did the bunkers.  It was the first place to have electric lights powered by a steam plant on the west coast.  Then we walked along a path back to the camp ground along the bay.  It was then nearly time for dinner, but I decided to go buy the leg warmers first since the weather had started to get cooler again.  Dinner was good.  Pasta with sausage, salad, and fruit, but a tiny little dessert.  We did the bed time prep stuff, and put the girls to bed.  Jada and I shivered out in the cool air reading, and I worked on this fine work of prose you are reading now until it was time to head off to the evening announcements.  I found out that breakfast was going to be served at 6:30am instead of 7am the next day so people could get an early start to get over the bridge.  After getting back, Jada and the girls were already asleep, though Jada woke up as I was getting ready for bed.  The girls were plumb tuckered out.  Ellen's little hand was lying on our side of the partition, but Phoebe looked like she hadn't moved since she lay down.  I even fell asleep before the evening's band finished their set.  I woke up sometime after 11pm.  We all slept better that night.

Day 2 (August 3, 2008)

Weather: cool, cloudy

     I was awake around 5:30am as usual, but no one else was stirring.  Ellen had scooted herself close to me during the night.  I had already made my morning potty stop and packed my sleeping bag away, but I still couldn't rouse anyone.  Finally at 6:15am, I was mean and made everyone get up so we could go get in line for breakfast.  However, that morning, the line wasn't very long yet which was good for us.  We had eggs, a sausage patty, breakfast burrito, granola, yogurt, and fresh nectarines and grapes.  I finished my breakfast first, and headed back to start packing up the tent.  Just as we were finishing, Jada wondered aloud where the high schoolers were to help carry bags, and suddenly, there they were as if conjured by magic.  They helped us get everything to the van in one trip, and we were on our way.

    As we drove across the Astoria Megler bridge to Washington, Ellen stated that she was glad we weren't able to ride across because she was scared.  It is quite high over the main span.  We passed several cyclists that got out early on the route.  When we got to the lunch stop at the Chinook County Park, they were just getting things setup, but the porta-potties worked...that was the important thing.  We got the train hooked up (even I'm saying it now) and got on our way.  There wasn't much traffic, bike or car, out on the road, and after we turned off Highway 101, there was no traffic at all except for the occasional set of riders passing us as we drove into the wind on a really horrible road.  It was chipsealarific!  The road was much better after that for the rest of way which was good because we had some nice climbs into and after Ilwaco.  We were still getting compliments from cyclists who hadn't seen us the previous day, and even a few who had.  We made it to the ODS rest stop at Cape Disappointment to express our disappointment in not getting to do the whole route.  The rest stop made up for a bit with good water, fresh strawberries, plumbs, nuts, bars, and brownies.  We spent quite a while there walking out to the beach over looking the mouth of the Columbia.  The girls played around with the drift wood a bit, and then we started to get too cold.  We headed out on the bike again and warmed up with a climb, and we saw a bunch of people we had talked to the previous day.  We had a nice tail wind all the way back to lunch.  We enjoyed some nice back roads into Ilwaco along the beach and were excited to watch a Coast Guard helicopter circle around the bay.  We had a good wind aided ride back to the lunch stop where they had a band playing. We ate our lunch next to the mouth of the river on the rocks.  After getting everything packed up, we were on the road back to Beaverton where it had been about 90 degrees and sunny all weekend.

    I think the girls enjoyed their first Cycle Oregon.  They really have no problem being outside all the time.  They never really complained about anything other than not wanting to go to bed the first night, waiting in line for food, and the usual bickering.  I think we can call it a success, and I look forward to the next adventure.