Day 1 – Astoria, OR to Manzanita, OR

Miles – 44

Speed Range – 4 to 22mph

Hours Start to Finish – 7

Weather – Mostly cloudy and 54

Our bikes were loaded with gear this morning as we headed out from the Columbia Inn Motel and we hit the Lewis and Clark Rd out of Astoria for the first 20 miles until we hit US 101 for most of the next 24 miles.  Hwy 101 is a well-traveled highway with about half a shoulder for a third of it, another third has a shoulder about the width of a bike lane and the other third was a little sketchy. 

Let’s just say that Team Motch knew within the first couple of miles today, that we had to rid ourselves of some gear.  A little this and a little that had added up over the last few days of packing.

The countryside leading up to Seaside, OR reminded us of the Minnesota River Valley down by Carver, MN.  The hills were rolling and everything was green.  The pine trees are enormous, both tall and round. Upon riding out of Seaside we had our first of two steady climbs to almost 500 feet.  We even had to giggle as we approached the tunnel through the mountain after Arch Cape, equipped with a push button to activate the flashers letting vehicle know there are riders in there, was uphill also. Let’s just say that we were not too proud to pull over for a rest every so often on those continuous uphill sections.  Those pullovers and pit stops became more frequent on the uphill’s as we approached our endpoint for day, Manzanita, OR, around 4pm. 

The towns along the beach fronts we went through seem to have just started to wake up from a winters nap, with the Holiday approaching, let alone the Covid restrictions.  Few small-town restaurants are open and if they are many of those are doing takeout only.  We walked over for some takeout at the Offshore Grill and sat outside on their patio for dinner.  Also, no sales tax in Oregon.

Our headlights and taillights are now recharged for the next ride.  A couple of them went out around five hours and they normally last 6-8 hours, but the last charge was a couple weeks ago, prior to shipping our bike in, so we’ll keep an eye on those.   

Being that we had planned on riding the 101 for the next day and a half and its Memorial Weekend we had setup reservations at planned stops.  We reviewed the weather report for tomorrow, rain all day approaching 80% and winds up to 35mph for most of the day, so we are rethinking our planned 58 miles tomorrow on Hwy 101 and may wait it out.  With little to no shoulder and high traffic it’s probably the right thing to do. The remaining weather through the weekend looks awesome.  The trouble with waiting it out is we will have a difficult time finding a place to stay through Sunday night. The upside is we would have time to go through all our gear again and see what is not “essential.”  Anyways, we’re still working on that.

Everyone we met today was friendly and awesome!