After arriving in Astoria, I carried on to the nearby town of Warrenton, Oregon. Upon arriving at the state park campsite, I encountered one of the most beautiful things I had seen on the whole trip – a majestic tower of lockers, each complete with their own electrical outlet for weary bikers to charge all their devices to their heart’s content. There was also a stand of bike tools and a tire pump. Apparently, these were all installed by REI, which is essentially American MEC… so MEC really needs to step it up, because I haven’t seen anything like this in a Canadian campground.
(Actually, Canadian campgrounds in general need to step it up, because I haven’t seen any hiker/biker sites in the Canadian campgrounds either. Seems like a good way to encourage car-free travel if you ask me!)
Soon after arriving, I met a man from Ohio named Glen. Glen was a lovely man, but boy could he talk. Glen talked on and on into the night, but somewhere in there he did assure me that the next day would be a nice flat ride to Manzanita.
The next morning, I set out on my nice flat ride. I made it to Seaside in great time. I tried to buy a bagel with cream cheese but was told it would be an hour’s wait, presumably because the people of Seaside are unfamiliar with how to put cream cheese on a bagel in an efficient manner.
Shortly after leaving Seaside, I learned that Glen had meant the ride to Seaside was flat. The ride to Manzanita was certainly not. It included not one, not two, but three enormous hills, as well as a very steep tunnel. I put on my game face and charged up the first hill. I plastered on a smile and spun up the second. And somewhere near the top of the third, I got off and started to push, because a person can only take so much.
It was a refreshing descent into Manzanita, and I decided it was time for a rest day. I spent that rest day eating ice cream, lying on a very windy beach, and petting unfamiliar dogs. Eventually, I went to take a nap in my tent – and when I woke up, Suzanne was at the campground!
In case you don’t recall, Suzanne is my new Dutch friend. I lost track of her shortly after meeting due to a full campground situation. I was very happy to see her, because I wasn’t sure I’d ever see her again. As it turned out, Suzanne ended up staying at the ‘full’ campground a few days back because she was clever enough to make a bit of a scene, whereas I chose to cry in the bathroom briefly and then mumble mean things about the camp host under my breath for the next 20 kilometres (this was sort of cathartic, but didn’t actually accomplish anything).
After our reunion, Suzanne and I started to pace each other – biking separately during the day, but meeting up at campgrounds each night. Having someone to share stories about the day with is excellent – it’s cool to hear about the different experiences people have biking the same route!
From Manzanita, we continued on to Cape Lookout, Lincoln City, Newport, Umpqua Lighthouse, and Bandon. Each place brought with it something new and unique, although not always good. In Newport, someone at the biker site played heavy metal music late into the night until the ranger finally came by and made him turn it off. In Lincoln City, our campmate proudly unfurled a printed-off anti-vaccine meme as if he had the greatest conversation starter of all time (he did not).
But as is often the case, the good far outweighed the bad. In Newport, the owner of an Asian grocery store gave me all my groceries for free because she liked that I was doing something not many people do. At Cape Lookout, I bonded with a middle school teacher from Portland over the experience of teaching twelve-year-olds – something hard for anyone else to truly understand. I saw a lot of pretty horses. I ate good ice cream and learned about the cheese-making process. A six-year-old invited me to join his family for a campfire. I made more new friends, including a squad of Brits who are biking to Argentina.
The bike life is a good life. Even when the hills are big, the headwind is strong, and the campground heavy metal music is loud and never-ending.
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