Day 3

Total Miles= 55

                Today was our first day of actual riding. Successful? Depends on what your definition of success is. We cleaned up the hostel, loaded our bikes for the first time, and headed off towards Astoria.

It was all going really well, we had just dipped our tires in the Ocean and were on our way again, but then l I crashed… We were on a walking path, and I was staring up at this enormous highway. I was trying to figure out how cars got on the highway. I finally found the ramp, which was now behind me, so while looking back I didn’t see the big wooden post. I ran into it head on and flipped over my handle bars. My bike got stuck on the wooden post, but I skidded forward. After lying there for a few minutes, totally embarrassed, thinking about crying, I got up. Julia and David helped me fix my bike, which was a little bent, and the pedestrians made sure I was ok (even more embarrassing). The group kept going, so Julia and I rode to catch up. It was really hard to ride because we were on these old train tracks and my tires kept getting stuck in between the boards. I was terrified of falling again. Luckily, we made it the grocery store where the others were buying lunch. We bought a lot of food and carried it with us to a nearby park where we ate.

                The day seemed to take forever. We were moving really slow and had to stop every 10 minutes to make sure the whole group was there.  Luckily, it was a nice day. We were starting to get worried though because we had a lot of miles to still cover, but were running out of sunlight. Jacob was getting worried that we were going to have to sleep off the road somewhere. We were also worried about getting hungry. We stopped all the time to eat. We ate soup straight out of the can and Bryson chugged some mustard (that was gross). Julia and Jackie had to hitch hike, Jackie wasn’t feeling very well. So they went ahead and found a nice park in Clatskanie

Alex, Kiana, and I went ahead of the group. We were going really fast on this flat piece of land, after climbing mountains (hills) all day, which was really nice. Jacob got mad at us though because we never stopped, but we thankfully made it to Clatskanie and before dark for that matter!

We made it to the park where Julia and Jackie were. Jackie was already sleeping. We made dinner (the same soup that we were enjoying cold on the side of the road) and then got ready for bed. I was really dirty, so I cleaned off with my face wipes, which kind of helped. Julia, Kiana, and I all slept in the same tent, since Jackie had fallen asleep in Julia’s.