We kept going north along the coast but our goal was more or less only to be in Seattle soon. We were a bit tired of cycling and needed a break.But till then, we still had to cycle a few hundert kilometers. But before we come to that, first something from before.

The Avenue of the Giants (ally of the Redwoods) had ended and we cycled again through a pretty open landscape along the Eel river. We were enjoying the nice weather and view when two Police cars on the right side of the street and a towing car on the left side caught our attention. That by itself wasn’t something special because accidents happen every day. The specialty in this case was, that left of the towed car the freeway entrance was and that the freeway entrance sign was caught under this car. Somehow it didn’t work out to drive on the freeway I guess… And they even were so unlucky to get caught by the sign. We were so surprised by the whole scene that we did not even take a picture ;-).

Back to the latest stuff:

Brookings – Newport – Astoria

We continued our journey also in Oregon along the coast. The difference to north California was mainly, that the coast here is made out of sandy beaches and dunes. But also here the weather was pretty wet. Luckily most of the time it rained during the night.. The only issue was to get the tent dry in the morning. At one of those days, we reached the Wasburn Memorial State Park and campground after  a long (89km) and pretty hilly ride. And like at a lot of other places, we were also told here, that there are blackbears and raccoons in the area. Therefor, we cooked in some distance of our tent, put our food and the toiletries up into the trees and went finally to bed. However, during the night I woke up because something hit my tent. First I thought it was Ines on the way to the bathroom. But when the rumbling continued, I recognized that some of my bags under the tent fly were gone. I put my pants on (didn’t want to meet a bear in my underwear 😉 ) and went outside. Luckily there was no blackbear outside. Instead I saw the eyes of a raccoon. And I found my bags again distributed in the forest. Together with some bags of Ines as well. There was no food in those bags anymore but it seems that they still smelled enough to be interesting for them. However, the raccoon didn’t want to give up that easily. I had to chase him away… After this, I recognized a small hole in my tent. I guess the raccoon was holding himself there when he got the bags… Luckily this hole was in my cheaper REI tent and not in the Hilleberg which is already back in Switzerland :-). The rest of the night was calm.

We kept driving along the coast. In Gearhart, we spend the last night on Oregon ground and recognized how long California is compared with the other states.

Astoria – Bremerton – Seattle

After we got all the needed carbs at the local Subway and Starbucks, we climbed the impressive 6.5km long Astoria Bridge and crossed the Columbia River. On the other side we got welcomed by the “The Evergreen State”, Washington. And the rain didn’t wait that long but at least we reached the campground in Bay Center just before. And it kept raining the whole night. On this campground, we also met Colin and Gillian (both from the USA and on the way from Vancouver to San Diego) and had a good time with them. Happy cycling!

We continued through Montesano and Shelton and finally reached Bremerton from where we took the ferry to Seattle. That’s it for now! And this after almost 3’000km which brings my total up to 4’900km. Our bikes are getting a make over now and we a car for driving to Yellowstone and a few other places. Afterwards, we will continue towards Alaska with new energy.

All the best,

Stefan

Have a look in the Gallery as well!