Day 1: Portland, OR to Cape Lookout State Park, OR

5 Miles in Portland

73 Miles by bus

11 Miles to coast

Today just happens to be International Bike Day, so it’s a fitting day to begin our journey. In true Buckwalter fashion, we began the day with bad luck. When we woke up, our hosts informed us that Chelsea’s bike had a flat front tire. No biggie, easy fix. We loaded up our bikes, said goodbye to our hosts Idilko and Dylan (who were awesome and we are envious of their super outdoorsy lifestyle) and hit the road. Two blocks later, something fell off the back of Chads bike and we realized that it was the screw holding in the fender. No 11 o’clock bus for us, instead we went back to the air bnb, unloaded the bikes, and Chad rode off to the bike shop to get that fixed.

Round 2. With tires full of air and all screws in place, we set out...again. This time, we had a spectacular ride along Portland’s Eastbank Esplanade, which runs along the Willamette River. The views of the city and bridges were beautiful and we even saw some teams rowing Dragon boats prepping for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. It was a lovely ride and ended at the Greyhound station, where we ate our left over Pieology pizza and waited for the bus to the coast.

We caught the 3:30 Wave bus to Tillamook and arrived just before 6. It was a pretty bumpy ride and we were glad we took the driver's advice and put the bikes in the back of the bus (apparently they have lost bikes off of the front bike racks). As soon as we got off the bus, we were surprised at how cold it was in Tillamook and put on all of our cold gear. But despite the chilly weather, the 11+ mike ride was exactly what you would picture of a ride in Oregon - tall pine trees, hazy clouds hanging over the mountains, and a breathtaking coastline.

We arrived at our campground (Cape Lookout State Park - $8/person) around 8, which is much later than we ever what to arrive at our lodging site for this trip. We set up camp quickly so we could enjoy the last bit of sunset over the pacific - it made us forget about the stresses of the day. We are really thankful we brought our down jackets and cold gear because of the coastal temperatures and our late night hike to the shower in total darkness.

We got to bed around 11 and fell asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing along the shore.