Day 1 – June 4 – Seaside to Clatskanie – 60 Miles

A Day Full of Challenges. The weather predictions were for rain showers for the start of the ride.  We were fortunate that it was just overcast and the temps were in the mid 50s. The hotel sign had advertised a “continental breakfast” when I inquired at the office, the manager indicated the breakfast was on weekends only.  Interesting.  Not wanted to spend a lot of time searching for breakfast, we opted for the big breakfast with hotcakes at the local McDonalds. We set off from Seaside around 8:35 am. We arranged to meet 3 other riders in Astoria about 20 miles north of Seaside. Our route follows the Lewis and Clark Trail from Seaside to Missoula, MT.  Just a mile out of Seaside we encountered our first climb.  The Lewis and Clark Rd winds uphill for 2 miles climbing over 400 feet.  Having nothing even close to this in central Illinois, it was a definite challenge.  The remaining 18 miles to Astoria was generally down hill as it is located at Sea level. We encountered our first bad luck of the day with a flat tire a couple miles after reaching the top of the first climb.  The culprit was an apparent defective tire that Phil had purchased just a couple weeks before the start. We fashioned a McGuiver fix and he was able to limp the bike to Astoria As we made some descents along the road between Seaside and Astoria, Joe had some trouble keeping his bike under control.  It seemed the heavy load in his panniers was causing the bike to develop a wobble in the rear.  We decided to look at the way the rear rack was mounted to the bike while in Astoria.  We opted to purchase a new more substantial rack and have it fitted.  We spent about an hour while mechanics at Bikes and Beyond swapped it with the old one.  Phil got a new tire and we were on our way to meet Molly, Natasha and their friend Chris who ride with us for 4 days. Our second brush with misfortune occurred just a few miles outside of Astoria, as we mad our way east on a hilly and busy US 30.  Joe was descending one of the many hills on a curve and the bike again developed a wobble in the rear.  This time he was not able to keep it under control and ended up sliding the bike off onto the gravel shoulder.  Joe was shaken and scraped but otherwise OK.  A Good Samaritan, passing by, agreed to take Joe and his bike to the next town east, giving him a chance to calm down and regain his composure.  The town, Knappa was 13 miles east and it took us a good hour to make the ride along with time to change another flat tire.  When we arrived in Knappa we found Joe at only restaurant in town.  He had been given lunch and was waiting for us when we arrived.  We took our time and administered more first aid to some of the scraped.  Joe felt good enough after a while to get on his bike and continue to our destination. During the last 25 miles the weatherman’s predictions were realized.  Just after leaving Knappa, it started to rain.  It continued all the way to Clatskanie.  At one point the rain was mixed with sleet and the temperature dropped forcing me to put on a fleece jacket under my rain gear.  Camping was out of the question for the evening and we settled on a room at the Northwoods Inn on the east side of town.  Two large pizza’s satisfied our demand for calories and the hot showers thawed our bodies. Our ending mileage was 59 miles.  Without a doubt some of the toughest miles I had ever ridden.  Tomorrow is another day, and more rain is predicted.