Day 48

Mileage: 108
Total mileage: 4250

 

Today I hit the Pacific Ocean! They say this thing is bigger even than the great plains, and sometimes flatter too!

 

Last night in Corvallis I ended up finding a little park in the middle of a quiet little neighborhood and dropping my bedroll under an enormous tree. This thing was at least 100 feet tall and I figured if there was rain I would be able to set up my tarp before it got really wet under the branches. There was only a 15% chance of rain last night... apparently in Oregon the sky just always looks forbidding and cloudy. There was some underbrush near the bottom of the tree, so I tucked myself and my bike neatly out of sight and slept dry through the night, getting up and out early this morning.

 

The first 50 or so miles of the day were straight north through the center of Oregon. I've been hearing continuously about how it was going to get really green on this side of the Cascades, but so far everything had looked like the east coast: lots of farmland, tons of clear-cut fields, and enough greenery tucked in between that I thought maybe this is what people were talking about. I was about to be proven wrong later today.

 

Fortunately, the one thing separating this coast from the other is the incessant prevalence of blackberries. I laugh now, thinking how I marveled at the "miles of blackberries" on my way into Eugene two days ago. Today I was marveling whenever the berries stopped for more than a couple hundred yards. Also, there are way more than any flock of gatherers could possibly pick, leaving bushes like this one literally right next to the highway. I didn't even have to get off my bike to pick these berries and take this picture.

 

 

 

For most of the morning and a fair bit of the afternoon, I continued to ride through this clear-cut farmland, until I got near the coast. After about two dozen miles on highway 18/22 (where my left ear was practically numb from the sound of cars whooshing past) I got to turn off onto a street named "Old Scenic Hwy 101." That sounded promising.

 

And all of a sudden, I found the green!! The road wound up a little mountain (under 1000 feet) and took me down the back side toward the coast. The whole time I was riding through a veritable tunnel of greenery with the light barely filtering through from above. Pictures have a really hard time capturing the level of sheer immersion that comes from experiencing this gut-jarring expanse of verdant vegetation.

 

 

First off, there were the trees. Most of them were broad-leafed deciduous folks with leafy canopies extending up over the road from either side. A narrow strip of light was shining down directly above, where the ribbon of highway had been cut through the rainforest. Because tree bark is brown, and apparently that's not allowed, the trunks and branches were draped with gorgeous hanging moss. Beneath the trees was a continuous cover of wide-leaf bushes, creating a secondary canopy. Not to be outdone, this second canopy was sheltering a host of ferns and tall green grasses, while the ground underneath was carpeted in moss. Every tiny gap seemed to be filled with some little opportunistic plant that was pushing through to sneak a little bit of the available light. The thought of walking off the highway through the bush was absolutely laughable, it was so dense. And by the most important metric of all, blackberry prevalence, it was an absolute goldmine. Whichever side of the road was against the hillside was consistently covered in blackberry brambles at least 40 feet high for miles on end. So THIS is where all the water is getting dumped.

 

 

My lush detour took me up a few hundred feet and then back down again before dumping me out on the real Hwy 101 near the coast. I rode along until I got to see ocean for the first time at Pacific City. I made it! This was the last of my three major landmarks that I wanted to see: the Mississippi River, Hoosier Pass and the Pacific Ocean. I technically have another day of riding still, but that's just a formality to officially complete the Transamerica Trail. My dream of riding coast to coast, albeit by one of the most indirect routes, is complete!

 

 

The rest of the evening was spent riding that sweet tide of accomplishment for another couple dozen miles north along the coast. I finally stopped for the night at a little town called Netarts and ate dinner at a nice restaurant by the beach. After the restaurant closed down, I spent a few more hours hanging out at the bar after hours with a few of the wait staff. They helped me celebrate with a few beers and several shots.

 

 

Pleasantly buzzed, I've gone to find a good place to sleep for the night. There's a little pier here by the restaurant that doesn't seem to get a lot of use, so I'm going to crash for the night. Despite the few drinks I've had, I concentrated very hard and managed to get set up without dropping anything important in the water. I think I can finally sleep in a little, there are only 85 miles left between me and Astoria. Tomorrow should be my last day! G'night!

 

 

*Gasp* How do I have a picture of my pier the next morning if I wrote this at night? Even when I have to write my entries the following day, I write from the perspective of where I slept last night. That's right kids, everything is staged and nothing is real. Just thought I'd give a heads up.