HAD A LONG, smoky day yesterday, 465 miles on the backroads from Gig Harbor to Mount Rainier National Park, then back to the WA coast and finally south to Oregon for the night.
Smoke everywhere, no escaping it. I rode for the Pacific around midday, hoping for an on-shore wind. That wasn’t happening.
The upstream view of the Nisqually River valley in Rainier. Not enough rain out here to prevent and/or quench the many fires burning up everything in their path.
A look downstream…
You can barely see Rainier from inside the park. My lungs are in fine shape so far as I know but there’s definitely some smoke irritation going on in my throat and upper chest. People with lung problems to begin with have a really tough time with these year-round fire seasons becoming the new normal in the west.
Rainier’s there… you have to look for it.
By midday the smoke was thick enough to gray out treelines just a short distance away, less than a city block. That obscured one in the background is not far at all from where I was standing, maybe a quarter mile.
This is a must-see in every town, check the latest fire news. Know what you’re riding into.
On the right there are four mountain ridges lost in smoke… I was getting out of Dodge at this point, had enough. Rode to the coast and it was just as bad.
Smoky sunset in Oregon, around Cannon Beach, I think, maybe Manzanita. All the state park campgrounds around here are full up, and every commercial campground I saw was for the take-it-all-with-you crowd… RV campers only.
My plan was to stealth camp in one of the state parks, had a spot picked out near a boat ramp on a little salt-water inlet. The camps are so busy the rangers must be stretched thin, are they really going to drive around checking the boat ramps at night?
No, but it turns out the local law will. Around 8 last night a Manzanita officer drives in, I’m all by my lone-alone down there, making breakfast for dinner. Hadn’t set up camp yet.
He was friendly, a big-mile biker in his off-duty hours, so we gabbed about that. But he wouldn’t let my camping plan slide. So I ended up sleeping about 50 feet off US 101, on one of those scenic-view wide spots in the road, where you can pull off and snap a pic.
About 30 feet beyond the stone wall is a sheer cliff down to the Pacific. Those gravity-defying trees are kinda in the process of falling over the edge. I have no idea how high the cliff is but the lights of Manzanita looked pretty tiny down there last night.
Yeah, so it was another boots-on, jacket-on, no-sleeping-bag night.
Throw down the foam mat, the sleeping pad, the pillow… Zzzzzz…
I wore my rain gear because when you sleep under the stars the dew still falls, Moe. It falls on you.
Lots of fast truck traffic on the road overnight but I slept well enough to it. I had dreams, so I guess that means I got REM sleep. I remember opening my eyes and seeing the Milky Way shining overhead. The next time I was semi-awake most of the stars were obscured. The time after that they were gone. A heavy mountain fog had rolled in, and the temperature had dropped about 30 degrees.
That van rolled in with it, in the wee hours… same idea, a free roadside snooze… When I rode out this morning I saw a half dozen other scenic viewpoints full of trucks, vans, cars… Johnny Law in Manzanita had told me these pull-over lanes are the only boondocking sites where the State Police will let you sleep through to morning.
About to saddle up, 5:30 this morning. Here’s a log hauler pulling into the viewpoint space at speed so a tailgating pickup can blow by him in the travel lane. I guess every Oregonian can’t be the laid-back type… How would anything ever get done?
Here’s what’s different about Oregon from the last time I rode through. This sign. A tent with a line through it. Close your eyes, throw a rock, you’ll hit one.
It used to be you could camp on any beach in Oregon that didn’t have a sign expressly telling you not to. And most beaches didn’t. Now, it seems, most do.
This morning, someone who works in the tourism biz here in Cannon Beach told me the town governments are so dependent on the lodgings tax they’re eager to bring the beachcomber riff-raff & biker trash indoors. Mammon answers all, baby.
So, a new day, started out right, cowboy coffee & Fig Newtons. As a first course. Since I had breakfast for dinner last night (groats), I felt like dinner for breakfast today (pasta).
Will go ride somewhere now, and look forward to a home-cooked meal tonight, in Battle Ground, Washington, home of the bride’s cousin, Jody Larimore.
Tony DePaul, August 22, 2018, Cannon Beach, Oregon, USA
You had a tough week for travel by bike in the NW. Ash fell like a light snow in downtown Seattle. We are all hoping for a reprieve by Thursday.
Good luck going through the hot spots in Southern Oregon. If you haven’t seen a major fire camp, they are a striking operation. Much like an army campaign. And, an interesting band of brothers and sisters. You may wish to poke Piggy’s nose in the driveway of one of those this trip.
And this is why I don’t ride with Tony !! I think Days Inn or Motel 6 is really roughing it (prefer Marriott properties). Sleeping on the road? Ahhhh….no. There are axe murderers EVERYWHERE.
Suck about the smoke. Big Time. Huge. You can’t get away from it.