Day #3 Lewis and Clark State Park to Westport, OR

At the end of day #2 I was pretty beat. This was my first day riding up some consistent hills, and my body wasn't really sure what to do about it. The one thing that I realized is that it is much better to just push through and keep pedaling than to stop for a rest break. Because it's not like there is any other option than to keep going up. This was a very cool thing to figure out, and it really helped me pace and get into the right mindset. I know that I will totally take this back tomorrow, but I actually kind of like going up the hills. Mostly because I know that once I get to the top I get to go down! And in that spirit I made up a great new song (title 1 on Erin's Bike Adventure greatest hits). It's to the tune of "Downtown" and it's called "Downhill." I'm still figuring out all of the words, and I always forget them and make up new ones but it goes something like "downhill, that's where I want to be, downhill, that is the place for me, downhill, just over the next hill..." There is room for improvement...

Also I have been singing "You can get it if you really want, but you must try" by Jimmy Cliff. It's kind of annoying, but it's in my head.

Here is a picture of my amazing camp site at the Lewis and Clark state park a little bit North of Toledo. I was the only biker there. Lots of older folks that were pretty quiet. This site is in an old growth forest, the first one I've ever seen. This area is so wet and there is really thick green moss covering all of the trees. It's so beautiful and peaceful here. I was happy to have a shower and then eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich for dinner. Mmmm...

Day #3

I woke up early the next morning and packed/was on the road by 8 am. It's pretty easy to do that and get a good night's sleep when you go to bed at 9 pm every night. PB and H was for breakfast and then it was time to ride. I made pretty good time and didn't get lost the whole way to Coal Creek (lunch spot). I did stop to ask directions from this friendly older gentleman in a pickup truck and we talked for a few minutes after he asked me the question that I assume many drivers think when they pass me: "Why?" Yeah, I know - I wish I could answer that. The best answer that I have for why I'm doing what I'm doing is "because."

The population of Coal Creek is something close to 30 people and there is one store in town. Working at that store was a lady from Durango! She was so sweet, and fixed me the burrito I bought for lunch.

After lunch I continued down the road (made a wrong turn and road a total of 12 miles out of the way - crappy), got back on track and headed over to Cathlamet where I planned to stay the night. Back on the hills again. Hills, hills. I still hadn't quite figured them out and was wiped out by the time I got to town. But it was around 4 pm and I decided to take the ferry over to Westport, OR (just three days to OR!) to get a good start in the morning.

Here is a picture of the ferry crossing the Columbia river from Puget Island to Westport, OR.

And here is a picture of me with my rig (home on wheels) on the ferry.

The problem was that Westport has no camping and the hotel (which is gross) had no vacancy. But as luck would have it, I met a nice guy on the ferry who offered to let me set up my tent in this front yard. It was the perfect spot - completely level and I was so tired that I could sleep anywhere anyway. And like clockwork, I was out at 9 pm.