Day 23

---

Tonight sees me at the aptly named cape disappointment.
Todays ride has been in two main parts. As soon as I was on the road I was going uphill this morning and had reached 500 twice before 10am! That’s a good start to the day in my books. I also went through my third tunnel and they don get any less scary. They have no shoulder and are dark, even doing 55km/h you can wait to get through to the other side. I had one last big climb of the day then I hit the flat. That means cruising at around 30km/h which was great. I spotted a starbucks and tried to upload my blog but the connection was so bad it would of taken me hours so Ill hopefully get to another one in the next few days.
It was then onto a series of bridges that would bring me to Astoria and then across the Columbia river, which I learnt today is the largest river that flows into the pacific from the Americas, then into Washington.
The second and scariest bridge was massive, it must be about 4 miles long and has no shoulder to ride on, winds that blow up and down the river and a constant stream of cars that don think you belong on the road. Added to this was a spider that had decided to make my helmet home and was frantically trying to string its web across my face. That crossing was a one off, at least for now anyway.
Glad to be on the northern shore it was time to tackle the spider situation before riding to a small town called Ilwaco where I ever so nearly scored a hot meal and a bed for the night. I met a guy called Michael who invited me to stay at his house but his wife reminded him that they had plans, so it was to be my tent and pasta
sauce after all.
By this time it was about 5pm and I rolled into cape disappointment where I was told that it would cost a whopping $14 to pitch my 7 x 2 tent for the night. Unable to find an alternative I decided that I would pay this time but Im free camping for the rest of my time in Washington unless the weather gets really fowl.
Today was a good day all in all but tonight is forecast to get cold, someone said into the 40s in an ominous tone but I have no idea what that means. In my world 40 degrease means find a shady tree, or air conditioning and don even think about moving cos youll melt.

Ok so todays stats:

Ride time - 4:10:56
Average speed - 23.5km/h
Max - 61.0km/h
Distance - 98.06km
Trip distance - 2111.37km

Aly x

---

Comments

[Angie Gould]

Getting on
Hi Ally, You do seem to be getting on well,and you certainaly have met some lovely people Angie

[Brian Higgins]

go on upstream
Hi, Your travels are interesting. I recommend you cycle into B.C. and see the source of the mighty Columbia as a mere trickle! best, B.