After our eventful evening last night we awoke this morning to ... rain! The one consolation was that when I checked out of the motel, the owner gave me a fifty dollar rebate. That took the sting out of the resident upstairs, raccoons, non-existent Wi-Fi, and the snorer from hell.
Even at the best of times I hate riding in the rain. Aside from the obvious reasons such as being wet and cold, not being able to see very well with water covered glasses and windshield, and the road grime that hits you every time you follow or meet a truck, the major factor for me is that I never know how good the traction is. Slipping and sliding down a rain-soaked highway can really put a serious crimp in a day that is probably already pretty crappy. In short, rain sucks!
My wet bike
Kerry, Jim & Garry in the wet parking lot at McDonald's
To start the day off we stopped at McDonalds for coffee and a breakfast sandwich. The rain eased off a bit and we headed south to Hoquiam where we again caught Highway 101 south. As we left the city we saw one of the more unusual signs that we've seen on this trip, and there have been a few. At a crosswalk the sign read, 'Blind Person Crossing. I wondered if the other crossings were only for sighted people.
At this point we were actually seeing some sun through the clouds which raised our hopes somewhat. However, our hopes were dashed when we were north of Raymond, WA and the skies opened up, not for the first time this day. We stopped for a break and a coffee but the rain continued. Occasionally, it would stop, but around the next bend there would be more rain. This continued all the way to the north side of the Columbia River just opposite Astoria, OR, where the clouds broke and the sun actually made a serious attempt to overcome the cloud cover.
The bridge over the Columbia River near Astoria, OR
The sun breaking through the clouds near Astoria, OR.
We pulled into Dismal Nitch State Park just before we were to ride onto the bridge. An unusual name and I'm sure there's a reason for it but we didn't find out. Leaving the park, we rode onto the bridge which is about five miles long, then into Astoria and across another bridge. The highway took us to the coast where we rode south the Seaside.
Dismal Nitch State Park
Jim photographing the Columbia River Bridge.
Video of the ride crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge at Astoria, OR.
Video of the south end of the Astoria-Megler Bridge
Seaside is a tourist town and this day it was incredibly crowded. The sidewalks were crowded with tourists and there were no parking spots to be had. We rode up to the Promenade then back down the main street. Incredibly, a parking spot opened up so we were able to park and walk back to the promenade to see the beach. the place is beautiful, as are most towns along the Oregon Coast. This has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world.
Lewis and Clark statue 'The Trail's End' on the Promenade at Seaside, OR.
The beach at Seaside, OR
Beach and cliff at Seaside, OR
When I parked my bike, I talked to a woman who was on the street waiting for her husband. I took my ear plugs out and put them in my tourpak. When it was time to go I could only find one of them. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, but they were custom made and that missing piece of silicone was worth more than ninety dollars. We looked everywhere we thought it might be but it was nowhere to be found. I hoped that it had fallen under something in the tourpak but later I couldn't find it, so I'm out the cost of replacing it. After you get used to wearing them when you're riding, not having them is a real inconvenience.
After leaving Seaside we rode south toward Tillamook. Part of our ride took us along the cliffs which were right over the beaches and the Haystack rocks. The rocks jut out of the water as if some giant kid had been laying with them and had dropped them randomly at the water's edge. They are incredibly striking, especially when there is a wind and the waves are crashing against them causing spray to fly into the air and fall across the rocks, then to cascade in rivulets across the rock faces back into the sea.
Haystack rock south of Cannon Beach, OR
South of Cannon Beach, OR
The crew with a haystack rock in the background
Beach scene for the cliffs south of Cannon Beach, OR
Our next destination was Tillamook, OR, home to the famous Tillamook Cheese factory. However on the way there I passed a strange train and stopped to take photos of it. The locomotive had the strangest paint scheme of any locomotive I have ever seen. It is painted in the same colours as a Holstein cow. The Port of Tillamook Railroad owns this train which takes tourists on train rides from the small village of Gribaldi, north of Tillamook, several miles north on the abandoned rail line which runs along the ocean front and highway.
The Port of Tillamook Railroad Alco locomotive painted in Holstein cow colours.
Riding south, I stopped at the village of Garibaldi to look at the railway museum that they have there. Their rolling stock includes several tank cars, three dome cars, various other miscellaneous cars, a decrepit Consolidation locomotive from around 1910 and F7 shark-nosed Great Northern diesel locomotive, and a more recent Burlington Northern locomotive. Quite an impressive collection for a little village in the middle of nowhere.
Great Northern F7 diesel locomotive
Sometimes, as a motorcyclist, I think that the rain gods can be capricious bastards. After enjoying decent, if not good weather from the time we entered Oregon, I decided that while waiting for the Cow Train to arrive where I was set up to shoot some video of it, I would remove my rain gear and stow it away. After all, the weather was getting better and I wouldn't need the rain pants, again, right? Wrong. After leaving Garibaldi for the fifteen kilometer run into Tillamook, the skies opened up about halfway into my run. I swear, the rain gods must have been watching to see when I would lose the rain gear and when I did they would get me.
Kerry and Garry had gone ahead while I was taking pictures and arrived at the cheese factory. Jim who was travelling with me also rode ahead but when I arrived at the cheese factory he was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, noticing that I was missing, he turned around to see if I was OK and when I pulled off the highway to take photos of the Cow Train and the other rolling stock he rode by not seeing me. I, of course didn't see him because I was busy with my camera. Eventually, however, he turned around and came back to Tillamook where we were all happily reunited.
Tillamook Cheese offers samples of their various cheeses so after taking advantage of their hospitality, Jim and I each bought cheese curd for the trip before heading south once more.
Kerry at Tillamook. Cheech & Chong fans will understand the allusion.
One of the ice cream servers at Tillamook Cheese.
Leaving Tillamook with the sailing ship in the background
I've been remarking on strange signs I've seen on the trip and this afternoon I saw another. Just south of Lincoln City on of the roads had two signs on it. The top sign read, 'Cemetery'. Nothing unusual there. But the sign directly below it it read, 'Recycle Center'. I couldn't help wonder if there was a connection there somewhere. If I had thought quickly enough I would have taken a close up photo of the signs and captioned it, 'Hmmm?'
About twenty miles north of Newport the weather again had improved greatly. The guys had stopped in a pullout to wait for me to catch up. Kerry and Jim decided to pack their raingear away despite my warnings not to do it. I told them that they were giving the rain gods the middle finger and we'd pay for it. Within five miles the rain gods, those capricious bastards, hit us again with a downpour that lasted almost all the way into Newport.
At this point we called it a day after 386 kilometres and got rooms at the Days Inn. after having dinner in the restaurant next door, we met two Gold Wing riders, Kerry soul brothers, who had ridden up from somewhere in California today. They didn't have much good to say about Highway 1 because they had spent several hours riding about 30 mph doing sharp turns. they were pretty tired when we saw them. One of the guys had a 2001 GW and it was essentially stock. the other had a later model bright yellow one with just about every piece of bling there was, stuck on it somewhere. After looking at it we went back inside and chatted with the guys who were both wearing yellow raingear. When I asked which of them was colour coordinated the other guy had a good laugh while the owner sort of laughed as well. The were heading north the next day and were looking forward to riding the relatively faster Routw 101.
Wrapping up the day, we returned to our room where the four of us spent an hour or two just chatting and reminiscing about things. Just before we were going to call it quits I heard a loud sound like a high wind. Opening the door I saw that the heaviest rain, in a day that had shown us heavy rain, was pounding the parking lot and our bikes. It was a fitting end to a day of good riding and crappy weather.
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