I didn’t get much sleep last night. Between all the in-town catch up and struggling with a Verizon data plan issue, I only got about 5 hours. Can’t be doing that! Sleep is what your body needs to recover for the next day and I paid for it today.

Lewiston ID is right next to Clarkston WA and there are Lewis and Clark themed plaques everywhere for the next couple hundred miles. My road follows their path here where I abandon the Snake River and start following the beautiful Clearwater.

It will be about 220 miles to get to Lolo MT and I’ll be heading right into the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Today, though, it was a nice gentle climb following the banks of the Clearwater. If only there weren’t the headwinds and the heat. Lots of lessons for tomorrow.

Tonight, I’m camping at the Kooskia City Park. There’s some flat spots next to the grandstand that the sprinklers don’t touch and where the little ones are currently playing t-ball. It’s absolutely hilarious watching the semi chaos! Kids running around in every direction. I hope they don’t play too late though. I need to set up my tent and clean up.

50 miles of climbing with a headwind, Yikes! Today was hard. The 12 mile descent down the backside of the Alpowa summit was fast and sometimes harrowing with the traffic wizzing by my left. I expected at any time that sticky noodle plugging the hole in my front wheel to pop out and cause me to flip over the guardrails. The bike held together though, nothing flew off, and overall had a fun day.

Hey, I made it to Idaho! I celebrated by getting an inexpensive Airbnb with Theresa as a super nice host, a warm shower, and a quiet comfortable bed.

75 miles

Every day, the landscape changes dramatically. Fields of wheat and alfalfa stretching out as far as you could see. There are also hundreds of acres of onions and soybeans. I’d never seen so much food growing in one place.

77 miles

OK, maybe stealth camping near a train crossing was probably not the best idea. At least once an hour throughout the night, a huge freight train would slow down, let loose their screeching horn just to make sure I was awake. On the positive side, I woke up tired, but my legs weren’t sore anymore. Today looked to be flat mostly, with a bit of a tailwind. It should be a good day in the saddle.

I called the campground that I was hoping to stay at from Umatilla. I got the previous owner who said the campground had been shut down. Gosh, darn it. It looked like another stealth camping adventure. This time I pulled over to the side of the highway US730 about 10 miles out and tried to hide my tent behind some low sagebrush bushes.  No warm showers, but it was good enough. Sometimes good enough is the best you can do. Overall, a good day at 115 miles.

I woke up with sore legs again, just like the previous day. Supposedly, your body takes a few days to adjust to the stress and that’s what I would keep telling myself.

Today’s ride followed the Columbia River. So many waterfalls with lots of short hikes and beautiful vistas. It felt like I was stopping every few minutes to take in the view. Crossing the Bridge of the Gods, was a bit of a homecoming for me as this is where the PCT transitions from Oregon to Washington. Hey, I made it to Washington!

Towards evening, I hit something on the bike. Suddenly, white tire sealant came spraying out of my front wheel in a big geyser. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, like a heartbeat. It reminded me of the Black Knight from The Holy Grail. You youngsters will have to look that one up on YouTube. By the time I was able to stop the bicycle, the front wheel was completely flat. There is a huge hole in my front tire that the sealent couldn’t fix. Fortunately, I was able to jam a sticky noodle into the hole, reinflate it, and I was somehow back in business.

The forecast said showers all day and I woke to the rain pitter pattering on my tent. Not again. If I was going to ride in the rain once again, I needed to be heading toward a nice warm room and a hot shower so I made a reservation at Motel 6 on the other side of Portland in Troutdale, then hopped on my bike. After a first hour of climbing, headwinds, and sketchy shoulders, the rain diminished to an occasional trickle and I was back in the world of wide shoulders and the occasional bike path. I celebrated the cessation of rain with a Dairy Queen Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Party Blizzard.

The Motel 6 in Troutdale had that typical Motel 6 smell. It’s a mixture of stale smoke and Febreeze that hits you like a wall when you walk into the room for the first time. I hope it doesn’t get into my clothes. Now for a shower….

It’s 3AM and I’m wide awake. Am I really going through with this? It’s out too late to change my mind? Am I really up to bicycling 4,200 miles across America by myself?

The day starts with a little oatmeal followed by a 9 mile ride from Astoria Oregon to Fort Stevens State Park. My bag is bulging with a bunch of last minute “what if this happens” items so things aren’t quite fitting on my bike now and it’s riding differently. As they say, you pack your fears. On the ride to the beach, part of the route followed a bouncy gravel road. Likely that’s where my power bank went flying off into the weeds. Well, I’ll never find that again. Also, I’m on the way, my rear fender started rubbing against my rear tire. Another stop, another fix. There will be lots of this today, and I expected it.

My bicycle and feet were dipped into the Pacific Ocean near the wreck of the Peter Iredale after which I pushed and dragged my bicycle across the beach back to the parking lot. I spent the next 20 minutes cleaning the sand out its mechanicals. It was still worth it.

The ride back to Astoria was beautiful. Mostly quiet roads, cranes, and eagles pulling bits of critters out of the low tide muck.

…then out starting raining. The ride out of Astoria followed route 30 and it carried a lot of traffic: cars, logging trucks, RVs, you name it. All these wizzing by at highway speeds. Combine that with rain, lots of hills, and, in many places, no shoulder and it was pretty harrowing. I turned my third set of blinky lights on. In some places though, I could divert to some side roads which were just lovely and quiet and held hope that once I got past Portland, things would settle down. At about 5p, and after a couple cups of tea to try to warm up, the rain stopped and I was able to dry out.

I found a beautiful campsite at the Hudson Parcher campground for only $10/night. Warm showers and quiet. Overall, on balance, this ended up being a nice day. 67 miles down and only 4,133 to go.

What the heck am I thinking? Do I actually do really want to do this? It’s so nice in New England in the summer. Am I truly up to bicycling 4,200 miles from the Pacific Ocean in Astoria Oregon to the Atlantic Ocean and home on the Northshore of Massachusetts?

It’s seems that alot of adventures start at 4AM with a bus ride to the airport. Today, this was followed by flight to Seattle, a connection to Portland, Oregon, a 10 mile bike ride to Union Station, a bus ride to Astoria, Oregon, and yet another bike ride to The Atomic Motel. It’s not too late to change my mind!

On 8 April 2024, Vanessa, Aline, Karen, and I drove up to Newport VT to try to catch the Total Eclipse. The original plan was to fly to Texas for the typically clear weather. Instead, the forecast for Dallas was for clouds so last minute change of plans. That’s how we ended up at the Walmart parking lot in Newport VT with at least a thousand other people experiencing the same miracle. What an amazing time. The following pictures are composites constructed from pictures that I took that day.