Brendon’s Pacific Coast 2018 Adventure

Day 5 Astoria, OR to Tillamook, OR Daily Miles - 69.1 Cumulative Miles - 434.5 Average Speed - 10.4 MPH Max Speed - 29.6 MPH Ride Time - 6 Hours 37 Minutes Today was a relaxing day when compared to the prior three days.  Less than 70 miles.  I got a later start since I knew it would be a shorter ride.   Leaving Astoria, I took a little time to check out the small seaside town.  What a neat place.  This bridge connects Astoria with Washington.  I did not have to ride over it yesterday thank goodness.  It was high and long and sketchy. A few pictures as I was leaving Astoria. The local news weather person yesterday said that Oregon was going to break a record for May.  Today would have been 27 days without measurable rain.  Then I had to ride my bike through the state.  It rained!  There was one black cloud in the sky and it was right over me.  It made the ground a little wet and just got my jacket wet.  I w...

Day 4 Centralia, WA to Astoria, OR Daily Miles - 113.4 Cumulative Miles - 365.4 Average Speed - 9.9 MPH Max Speed - 33.5 MPH Ride Time - 11 Hours 24 Minutes Today was a really rough day.  I should have never planned three back to back 100+ mile days.  This one took its toll.  I made it though to my planned destination in Astoria, Oregon. The day started off cold.  It was in the low 40s.  Not a problem if you have cold weather gear with you, which I didn't.  Oh well. About mile 15, I was cruising down a residential street and out came a dog.  It chased me and actually got a hold of my side bag.  I put my bike into fast gear and thankfully was on a big downhill.  I was only able to get away from the dog due to the hill.  It chased me for about a quarter mile.  Fun stuff. Very cool river that I followed for much of the afternoon.  It was the Cowlitz River that eventually runs into the Columbia River I ...

Day 3 Bremerton, WA to Centralia, WA Daily Miles - 101.7 Cumulative Miles - 252.0 Average Speed - 11.7 MPH Max Speed - 46.3 MPH Ride Time - 8 Hours 40 Minutes Day 3 was uneventful and I did not take a lot of pictures.  Most of the day was spent looking at tree lined streets like this.   There are a lot of lakes in Washington and they are quite large.  I would reach a lake and would have to ride around it to get to the other side and continue on.  There were more hills than I wanted.  That is just part of the ride.  The good part about uphills is there is usually a downhill on the other side.  Check out the max speed for the day.  46.3 miles per hour.  That was crazy fast.  Especially with all the gear I am carrying.  I was also riding the brakes a bit to not go any faster. I found myself singing hymns and some strange songs that kept popping into my head.  I was singing the hymns to get the goofy songs o...

Day 2 Bellingham, Washington to Bremerton, WA Daily Miles - 116.1 Cumulative Miles - 150.3 Average Speed - 10.9 MPH Max Speed - 31.1 MPH Ride Time - 10 Hours 38 Minutes Oh my goodness!!! What a long day.  It was a beautiful weather day and there were so many things to see along the way.  But there were A LOT of hills that really slowed me down.  I planned on about 10 hours for the entire ride, but I was out for a total of 13 hours.  This was due to the hills, some breaks that I took and a ferry ride (the miles on the ferry ride did not count) Check out this bridge.  It spans Deception Pass down below.  It is pretty long and was only wide enough for me to walk my bicycle across.  It is called Deception Pass due to the waters that flow in different directions that deceive boaters.  Looking over the side was impressive.  I watched the waters for a little while and they were all over the place.  It was awesome. I also me...

I spent the last few days with Ma and Pa in Bellingham, Washington.  They were kind enough to host me and feed me some really good food in preparation for my journey.  Thanks go to both of you for showing me the local sites and driving me all over Northwestern Washington. A picture with my mother as they were dropping me off at the Canadian border.  We had a "fun" experience trying to find the park where the international border is located.  We ended up in the line to enter Canada!  Oops.  We tried to turn out before going too far and over came the Customs Police.  They were very helpful and got us back to where we needed to go. One of the places we visited was Whatcom Falls.  There are so many beautiful places in Washington.  Plenty of things to do for outdoor lovers. And so it began.  The structure on the left is the Peace Arch that stands right on the border.  It represents the peace between the United States and Ca...

Final packing day.  Bike is ready to go.  Heading to the Canadian border tomorrow to get started.

This will be hanging from the back of my bike so that my family will be with me all the way.

This is my daily schedule that I plan to follow

Here is what will be carrying me along the Pacific Coast.