M/C Raven Trip Report 19 – Disaster on the Columbia

Disaster on the Columbia: Armageddon, Ragnarok, The Zombie Apocalypse, The End of All Life as We Know It on the Columbia! Is this too strident? I don’t think so.

I left Stonehenge and rode across the bridge to the Oregon side of the river. There’s a McDonald's there where I stopped for a breakfast burrito, checked email and had a coffee. As often happens, someone came up to chat about the bike and my trip. And talk, and talk, and TALK! Finally, in a panic to escape from this guy I hurried out to the bike to leave. He even followed me out to continue his chat. That’s when it happened (duh, Duh, DUH!): I rode off and left the power cable for my Acer tablet in the McDonald's! Little did I know at the time how much I’d come to rue that day. 

I rode along the river then, passed through Portland with only a few ruffled feathers due to traffic (it was early in the afternoon when I was there). The GPS found Hwy 30 towards Astoria (remember "Goonies?" Remember "Kindergarten Cop?" Remember "Short Circuit?" - of course no one remembers that one.) and the coast.

I stopped in Clatskanie, OR where I met Jordan who’d just completed his own trip down the Pan-American Highway with http://www.wearewestamerica.com/. He’s starting a new adventure with a newborn baby and a lovely wife: all that means is that I’m jealous of him for 3-reasons: young and healthy, beautiful wife and baby, already did the trip that I’m struggling with right now.

I filled up in Astoria and headed for the nearest campground – an hour later, I found it – Full. Trusty GPS steered me back to Hwy 101 and I continued down the coast. By Manzanita, it was early evening and the fog had started coming in so I opted for a motel room. That’s when I discovered that I had no power cable! No big deal I thought. I’ll just drop into the next Walmart and buy a universal power cable and replace it – it’s hundreds of miles back to the McDonald's and I don’t even know if anyone even turned it in to Lost and Found... I should have turned around the next day and head right back there.

But, I didn’t. I headed down the 101 and, along the way pulled into a scenic lookout to stretch. There was another touring bike with rider there and we got to chatting. Steve is a Brit who’s emigrated to New Zealand and, before settling down to domestic life wanted to take one last ride.  We rode together down the coast until we got separated by traffic/traffic lights. I fueled up and went to a Staples looking for a Universal Power Cable – $69 later, no luck (computer shows ‘plugged in – not charging”). You can see Steve's website at: http://www.steveridestheworld.com/ even though he didn’t mention me on his blog.

I worked my way down the Oregon coast. Rain, overcast and fog. In every town I tried Walmart, Staples, Kmart, Office Depot, you get the idea. No luck. Now I’m getting worried. All my voyage pics, all my blog entries, all my contacts are on that computer and the batteries are below 40%!

I went by Tillamook (where the cheese comes from) and continued my ride down the coast.

 This is the BIRTH PLACE OF CHEESE

Spent 2-nights at a federal campground (I think near Cape Perpetua) on account of the weather forecast calling for rain and more rain then continued down the 101. 

 Can't see the wind in this picture but, it's there just the same!

 This is the view from in front of Raven. Pretty isn't it?

Wind, wind and rain, and more wind! I could barely keep the tires pointed downwards! Damn, there was a lot of wind. And, it went on for miles and miles!

 Would you be afraid of these dinosaurs? Me neither!

Finally at Brookings, I stopped for the night at a free National Forest Service campground just north of the Oregon/California state line. It was a long drive back from the highway but, free is free. A strange thing happened there.

As I was heading to that campground I passed several signs pointing to a wedding going on just up the road from where I ended up camping. About an hour after I’d set up my camp, a young woman walked down the dirt road I’d just come up 14-miles from town. She was crying and seemed distraught. Several cars came along soon after so, I’m sure she got a ride home. Who was that girl? Why was she crying and holding her arms across her chest like that? Could that have been her wedding? Was she the bride whose groom didn’t show up? I’ll never know.