Day 49

Mileage: 85
Total mileage: 4335... finished!!!

 

Today I finished the TransAmerican trail. Wow. I didn't really think I was going to get to write that sentence.

 

In reality, it was quite an easy day. I surprised myself by not trying to smash out the last 80 miles in record time and instead enjoyed this last leg of my journey.

 

With such an easy day ahead of me, it was a perfect day to sleep in. I was on a nice comfortable pier, and if you think that's sarcasm, you should feel the way a floating pier sways gently in the water when you move around at night. It's quite comfortable. Unfortunately, the seagulls had other plans. I am a master at sleeping through alarms, but they managed to have me awake beyond all hope of snoozing by 6:15 am. Oh well. At least I got to ride the shoreline by myself for a while before things started to get busy.

 

 

As a bit of free advice: if you've eaten anywhere close to a gallon of wild berries during the day, camp somewhere where you'll wake up close to the bathroom. I'm not saying that the 3 mile ride to the town of Oceanside wasn't enjoyable, I'm just saying that it might have been more pleasant if I wasn't in such a hurry.

 

From Oceanside I decided to go to Tillamook to get breakfast. Y'know, the town that Tillamook ice cream is named after. A sign outside of Oceanside warned that the scenic route around the cape (which my maps naturally had me on) was closed due to landslides and broken roads. I could either go back a few miles to Netarts and ride the highway into town, or I could try my luck on the closed road. I chose the scenic route and was not disappointed.

 

A few miles after the sign, sure enough, there were concrete barriers laid across the road and a big sign saying how no one was allowed to go past, etc. etc. After I had hopped the barriers and lifted my bike over, I was in a whole different world. No one had driven on this road in a long time, which meant that whole segments were covered in twigs and wet leaves, so thickly in places that you couldn't even see the concrete underneath. Once again, I was back in that verdant tunnel of greenery that I described yesterday, except this time I had the whole thing to myself and there was an air of ruin about it that lent it a mystical quality. As I was riding through, in complete silence except for the sounds of birds chirping, I half expected to see an old stone temple covered in vines hanging out in the distance. It didn't seem possible that a rainforest like this existed in the continental US, much less this far north, but there it was! That 10 mile segment was definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip.

 

 

In Tillamook it felt like I should probably eat ice cream, since the town is famous for its dairy, but I didn't feel like paying the exorbitant prices at the local cheese and ice cream factory. So I compromised and bought myself a tub of caramel ice cream from the Safeway in town, which I ate in the parking lot with a tire lever. If you don't mind a little rust and dust in your ice cream, its actually quite a good tool!

 

My next stop down the road was the small town of Garibaldi. As I was riding through, there were orange cones everywhere and people lining the streets. I was slightly skeptical that so many people would turn out just to cheer me on during my last leg, so I asked someone by the side of the road what was going on. "It's Garibaldi days!" she replied, as if I knew what that was. A more helpful citizen sitting next to her informed me that there was going to be a parade. I thought that sounded pretty cool, so I sat down on the curb to watch. Garibaldi puts on quite the parade for a town of 700. There were horses, fire trucks, clowns, tons of candy, and my favorite: bagpipes. I got the running narrative from the lady sitting next to me. The gaps were filled with a glowing commentary on her granddaughter, who works in the forest service. I got the feeling she was trying to hook us up, which was rather impractical since her granddaughter was on the other side of the state and I was just riding through. Either way, when the parade was over she told me to come back in the spring when they do crab races. Apparently everyone's a winner, because even if your crab loses you still get to cook him up and eat him afterwards.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent alternating between riding on the shore of the Pacific and deviating off onto short climbs a few miles long and a few hundred feet high. I didn't mind the climbs because they put me back in the rainforest for a little bit, which was beautiful even from the highway. At one point I even got to mix a high point with a scenic overlook. It's hard to tell in this picture, but I could see almost all the way back to Pacific City from yesterday.

 

 

My final destination is Astoria, because that's where the TransAm trail ends, but that's situated on the Columbia River, not the Pacific Ocean. I took a few minutes at Hug Point to detour down to the beach and have a guy take my picture with the front wheel in the water.

 

 

So this is how it's traditionally done. Back wheel in the Atlantic, front wheel in the Pacific. I think it's supposed to be metaphorical or something with you in the middle of the bike, spread out across the whole country which you just got to see. However, I know some folks are going to be pedantic and point out that you should really measure displacement from the same spot on the bicycle in both locations. By that logic, I haven't really ridden the FULL distance from coast to coast. But you see, I thought ahead. 50 days and 4335 miles ago I took this picture below.

 

 

Yeah, that's right pedants, I'm pointing and laughing at you! That's my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean almost 2 months ago. Hopefully you're satisfied.

 

In the early evening I reached Astoria. The route takes you on a big loop around the outside of the city and makes its final stop outside the Astoria Maritime Museum. I had pictured this moment several times in my head at various difficult parts of the trip and the way I envisioned it, I was going to come blasting through the last 5 or 10 miles and cruise up to the museum at 20+ mph with Iron Maiden's song To Tame this Land blasting through my skull. I'd let out a huge whoop and skid to a stop. As it is, I spent the last 20 miles riding ponderously along the Oregon coast, reflecting on my favorite parts of the trip and marveling at what an incredible experience it's been. I rolled sedately up to the museum with no music playing at all and sat down on a nearby bench for a long time. There may have been a tear or two in my eye. Eventually I got up and had my picture taken with the big anchor that seems to serve as the start/finish landmark before slowly going back the way I came to find some place for dinner.

 

 

By the time I got to dinner I had cheered up a little bit and was feeling some of the excitement of finishing. I ate at a nice little brewery called Buoy on the waterfront and shared a big table with a bunch of other people. When they brought out my food the server was confused because he had two separate meals, set the first one down in front of me and then looked around quickly, trying desperately to figure out who I was with. Eventually he tried to give it to some older lady before I let him know both meals were mine.

 

I passed a motel on the way in and rode back to it, trying to decide if I would stay there for the night now that my trip was over. My decision was made for me since there were no vacancies and eventually I found a nice spot up in the town to sleep. There was a huge douglas fir log on display and a nice little bit of concealed concrete here behind it to sleep on. An ignominious end to the journey, but then again the end was never really the goal.

 

 I'm planning on writing two more posts before I finish this blog. One will be a technical appraisal of the gear and methods used on the trip. I expect it may come in handy to anyone else who reads this and wants to do their first bike tour and I finally feel qualified to comment on the practice of touring. The other will be a brief reflection piece on the trip as a whole, my favorite parts and what I learned. I expect that one will take me a little while to write, so look for it in a few days. For now, this is the end of my trail updates, so I'll say it one last time. G'night!