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.