Welcome to the west coast everybody! As of June 16, 2017 we officially began our bike journey across the United States and already encountered many adventures. We flew in to Portland OR on the 14th and were pleasantly surprised to see a bike assembly area right at the airport! Due to the time, we decided to spend the night at the airport and make our way to the coast the following day. On the 15th, we took the bus to Tillamook and were planning on biking to the coast from there. Sadly the weather was brutal that day (but that didn't stop us from having some delicious tillamook cheese and ice cream). 😋 There was so much rain and the winds were so strong! We passed by a public library and decided to get situated there before continuing . It was a good thing we stopped there because a kind lady saw us and insisted on driving us to the coast so that we wouldn't have to ride in the storm. She drove us to Cape Lookout campsite where we spent our first night camping and touched the pacific. Our first biking day consisted of rain showers and chilly weather (brrr). By the time we entered the Tillamook Forest Center, we were soaked and chilled to the bone. Luckily the volunteers at the forest center were extremely hospitable and provided us blankets and hot water. (Mammi now I understand why you drink hot water all the time!). After we warmed up for a bit, we continued on our journey back to Portland, making our total distance for that day to be 65 miles. Surprisingly, we felt pretty good even after all those miles (#altitudeadvantage #thnxcoloRADo). That night, we found a host, Omar, through WarmShowers--a social platform where cyclists can host other cyclists for a night or so--who let us resituate ourselves after our first day of biking. If anyone is thinking about doing a long bike trek, I would highly recommend WarmShowers if you need a place to stay for the night! Omar was so welcoming and gracious; we are so thankful that he was able to host us! The following day we got a bit of a late start, so we only got in 35 miles; however, the route we took was super gorgeous! We rode on the Historic Columbia Highway once we got out of Portland, and it was amazing--we were right along the Columbia River for pretty much the whole trip. We ended up camping in Ainsworth State Park, and the next day we continued along the Historic Columbia Highway with some pretty fantastic views (along with lots of rolling hills!). Oregon is such a great state for bikers--there are bike trails everywhere and bike lanes on almost all the roads we've taken so far. We passed through Cascade Locks and headed towards The Dalles where we met Annette through CouchSurfing--another social platform that lets people host other people (not just cyclists) for the night. She was so kind and fed us both dinner and breakfast! And most of it wasn't from a can or a grocery store! Currently, we are making our way to Washington and will be crossing the border today! The past four days of biking have been a wonderful experience so far, and we can't wait to see what will happen next and who we'll meet! Â
