Day 40, September 10th 2007 (Knappa, OR to Arcadia Beach, OR)

The ocean was the first thing on the list for the day. After spending a good amount of time winding around the country I was headed towards the first ocean of the bike trip. It was going to be the northwest part of Oregon that I would start. In the little town of Astoria I was going to start off on an adventure down the coast. Being able to see all of Oregons's coast and then the famous coast of California. It was very long into the morning before I was staring at an open sea in front of me. It was everything that I had worked so hard to see and it was worth every stroke of the pedal to get here. It was a great sight and I couldn't believe that this was how I was going to be able to spend the next week of my trip. I love seafood so it was great to see all of the signs in the first town that I went through. Fresh crab, fresh lobster, fresh salmon, fresh halibut....these were great signs to see. I headed south on what was now said to be the best part of my trip. Down the coast of highway 101 which would give me great coastal views and take me along the ocean. I could see from the map that I had been given that I wouldn't be running into any problems of going without food or water. There were little towns about every 5 to 10 miles along the coast and the longest stretch I would run into was about 15 miles. This was such a different route to ride on compared to what I had been used to where the towns were few and far between. I didn't realize how many people rode the coast, but it was apparently quite the thing to do. I was riding after Labor Day so I was told that traffic wouldn't be as bad and it wasn't. I guess I had just missed the high volumes of tourist season and I felt a little more reassured knowing that there weren't as many people out to run me over at this time of the year. The road had a nice shoulder going from the north to the south and seemed like it had more of a shoulder compared to if you were going from the south to the north. The view was just spectacular and I couldn't have had a better day for my first day on the coast. It was bright and sunny and about 80 degrees along the coast. I had been told that it would be cold and probably overcast, but I saw none of that today. It was such a good feeling to have finally made it that as soon as I roade a little ways down the coast I pulled over at a beach. I didn't want to spend the entire day riding down the coast because I wanted to enjoy the ocean and the day. I spent the remainder of the evening on the beach and watching the sun go down. It was incredibly relaxing and there weren't very many people on the beach so it felt like more of a secluded area. As the night approached I figured that although there were signs that said "no camping" I would give it a shot. I was the only one on the beach and so I set up my tent and laid out under the stars. It was starting to get a little cooler outside since the sun had gone down, but I was laying on the beach it was great.
Daily mileage: 44.4 miles
Average Speed: 12.7 mph
Total mileage: 2,347.5 miles