We left my house at about 8 am on June 16th, 2009. We had our gear loaded, new clipless pedals and a determination to get to Portland in one piece. Somewhere around Husky Stadium, I came to a stop and realized that I couldn't get my foot out of my pedal and fell on my left side. I think we had traveled about 5 miles at this point. I was told by someone that everyone who buys clipless pedals at some point will fall. I guess I was breaking them in.We stopped at Seward Park to get our "REI pose", and the rest of the day was hard pedaling to Centralia with a huge hill outside of Tacoma and some flat and some smaller hillls. We arrived in town around 7 p.m. There was Mexican restaurant nearby so we ate there and also had some cheese and salami that I had packed. Ty also had ice cream from the Dairy Queen across the street. We stayed at Econo Lodge for the night.
Total Distance-106 miles, 8hrs 2min bike time, Av.-13.1 mph, max-32 mph
The next morning we awoke early due to the fact that Econo Lodge stuffs their pillows with socks instead of feathers, and our tukusses were extremely tender. We were on the roa
d by 7:40 a.m. regardless of the soreness. There were some good opportunities for photoes around the Vader area, including some bike action shots. We were definitely in BFE, Washington. The worlds largest egg?! cluck, cluck...We made it to Kelso and had to face the bridge that crosses into Oregon over the Columbia. Due to the fact that this bridge was literally right next to a logging operation, there were chunks of debris all over the road. After a hair-raising crossing we were in Rainier, the halfway point of the day at just over 50 miles. This is when we saw the sign that said, "St. Helens- 15 miles". I told Ty that I wanted to stop there for lunch. This would have been a good plan, but the next sign that we passed said 10 miles, and the next sign after that one said 12 miles. How can that be possible? We hit a wall, but pushed through with heavy
hearts and made it to the St. Helens Safeway for a bucket of chicken, a pound of potato salad and a banana.We nearly decided to take a bus into Portland, but luckily our hour lunch break was enough for us to get back on the bikes. We averaged about 15 or 16 mph for the last 30 miles, we felt lucky to get a slight downhill for the rest of the way there. If there was one thing that I would say about riding from Seattle to Portland is that the hills are not "rolling"; a hill is a hill any way you look at it, and with 40+ pounds of gear on your bike, it is not easy. Still, we made it in one piece with no flat tires and only a couple of chain derailings.
Total Distance-103.1 miles, 7 hrs 54 min bike time, Av.-13 mph, max-31.1 mph
Now I am excited to do my cross country trip: Anacortes to Martha's Vineyard, here I come! I will post as often as I can.
