The coast

Wow today was quite the ride but I will get to that later. After Raymond I kept heading south. I few miles down the road I got to south Bend and acording to the waitress at the diner I had lunch at there was a nice campground just a few miles past the town. South bend has a 'big' Labor day celebration which they were preparing for and acording to all the signs in town South bend is the oyster capital of the world. Anywho, walk my bike up a nice big hill and halfway up there is a sign saying that in 1/4 mile there's a county campground. I keep on pushing and finally get there. Once there I stop and ask a friendly looking couple who I should. They tell me to put the money in the box but if I want I can share a site with them. I take them up on it and set up my tent. It is a nice site and they feed me in the morning, on a full tummy I head towards Oregon dreding the Astoria bridge which I will figure out later. Its raining a little bit when I leave but figure it will clear up, it doesn't. I am much closer to the coast and the wind is powerfull and the rain is blinding so i stick out my thumb. after about four miles a pickup pulls over ahead of me and seeming friendly I load my bike in the back. Best decision of my life, friendly guy they were and all but it wasn't till the bridge when I was really glad I took the ride. It's bout 4 miles long with no real shoulder, lots of debris, painful winds, and a 200 foot climb at the end. They drop me off in Astoria and wish me luck, the downtown is cute and it is definitly a nice change from the Washington towns I was getting used to. I met a German biker and a couple riding tandem from New England they are all heading to some state park to the north so I follow. the park was nice and 4 dollars for bikers, two more bikers got in a little after us and the 6 of us talked till dark when we decided to hit the tents. Rained last night but had stopped and the sun was shining by the time I wanted to get up, I packed up and started biking south on 101. The Oregon coast bike map has a cool hill marker along the side so I knew I had three big hills today and wow, clifs and water on one side forests or rocks on the other, I walked up most of all three concidering hitching aging but deciding against it. The rides down were fun but a little petrafying, I am now at the bottom of the third which was 600 feet 9 percent grade down and I saw a pub advertizing free WiFi, taking them up on it I am sitting outside on my Nokia. I have bout 4 mile to go to get to the state park I am staying at tonight and I expect to see at least a few of the faces I met yesterday there.

Till later,
Arthur