Days 3 & 4, plus Portland
Day 3 wasn’t too exciting. On the way out of Olympia, I stopped by the lake with a view of the Capitol building for a drink and a bathroom break. A cute queer couple sat by the waterfront having a breakfast picnic.
Lunch was at a Starbucks, where I got to charge my phone. An old man talked to me for a while, and mentioned it was scheduled to be a new record for heat today. At 85F, he sure wasn’t wrong.
Mid-afternoon sometime, after a long climb, I found myself on a high ridge rewarded with an incredible view of Mt St Helens. It’s quite an incredible sight.
As the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter. It was not pleasant riding, and then, exhausted, I discovered Lewis & Clark state park was shut until May 1. Oops.
I had a good cry, and spent some time wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. A couple on bicycles passed me, and stopped to say hi. They were able to point me to a campground outside Toledo, and ten miles down the road from where I thought I’d stop, I finally got to rest. I pitched my tent by the side of the Cowlitz river, ate some dinner and went to sleep.
Day 4, I woke up with a very wet tent and a somewhat wet sleeping bag. I wound along the back roads as the river, highway and railway line made their way south, criss-crossing over each other occasionally as they went. Twenty-five miles south of the campsite I reached Kelso, where I took a train to Portland. They took my awkward recumbent no problem, and an hour later I disembarked at Union Station, where it was a good ten or fifteen degrees warmer than it had been 50 miles to the north.
Portland is, as ever, Portland. I went along to Ground Kontrol, caught up with friends over drinks, and spent a lot of time in coffee shops. The boy came down for the Saturday and we spent the day together. He showed me a spot called “Fried Egg I’m In Love”, which I’ll definitely return to. The pun was not half as egregious as “Brewed Awakening”, which I saw earlier in my tour.
My friend took me to my first roller derby bout, and I didn’t expect to get so into it but it was an amazingly good time. I found myself wishing I could be out there, zooming around the track. Is this what sports fans feel like? I hope so.
My bike got a lot of attention. I wandered into a bike shop up on NE Burnside around 20th and picked up an Ortleib backpack harness, which is bulky as heck but lightweight, and chatted to a lady there who owns two recumbents herself. Later I stopped by the recumbent store where they insisted on taking a photo of my bike for their Facebook page. I’ve seen one or two trikes around town, and someone else in the street stopped me to ask what I thought too. I guess it’s a recumbent town up here.
If I’ve learned anything on this tour so far, it’s this: get your bike painted a good color. People love it. Also, bring a tarp.
Tonight is probably my last night in Portland. Tomorrow, the plan is to get back to Kelso. If there’s a train, I’ll take the train and then shoot for Astoria. If not, I’ll cover that 50 miles by bicycle. This was my last easy bail-out spot, so I guess from here I’m committed.
