Katie MacDonald - Bike the US for MS
Day 5 - Aug. 10 - Astoria - Rest dayFirst rest day of the trip! First stop was laundry. It was a short walk to the gas station that had a laundromat, and 43 beers on tap, which was an interesting addition. After that I walked down to the bike shop to look around, and then grabbed lunch with Andrea at the Wet Dog Cafe. We met Sully there, and Michael joined us slightly later. Andrea and I split two burgers, which were really good. On the way out, we met up with Sarah, Alison, and Ryan, who were on their way to get lunch, so we joined them and went to Fort George Brewery. Our waiter, John, was great, and we had a lot of fun. After the brewery, I headed back to the church to work on the blog, and then met up with Sarah at the Safeway to grab food for dinner. We ate our food outside, while a bunch of people cleaned their bikes. We ended the night by watching Goonies as a team, which was filmed in Astoria, and celebrated Richard's 72nd birthday. Back on the road tomorrow! Also, big thanks to Kevin for his donation today! Day 6 - Aug. 11 - Astoria to Tillamook - 70.9miOregon is so beautiful. I woke up at 5:15am to people moving around and getting packed up, which was a full hour earlier than when I planned to wake up. I was not overly thrilled about this. We left the church as a big group at 6:45, and headed out of Astoria. The group got a little split up, but the group I was with ended up taking an accidental shortcut. It was cool to ride with Matt, Jeff, and some other guys that I had never ridden with before. We had an incredible descent on Lewis and Clarke Road, which took us right into Seaside for rest stop one. The van wasn't there yet, but a Northern Tier alumni had set out a whole spread of donuts, bananas, bagels, and coffee. We also got to see the ocean for the first time on the trip. As soon as we headed out, we came across a huge volleyball tournament- the beach had 151 courts, and it looked like they were all being used. We got to Cannon Beach as a group, and then it split up so that I was with Melissa and Sharon as we checked out Haystack Rock on the beach. We rode together most of the way to rest stop two. This stretch had some of the best views of the trip so far, and we stopped a lot to take photos. On the biggest climb of the day, Melissa and I got a bit behind Sharon, and rode with Richard for a bit. After rest stop two, it was mostly flat with some rolling hills, but we were absolutely crushing it in terms of speed. We were going 16-20mph the rest of the way to camp. I stopped to take a few photos and got behind, but ended up riding with Rob, Fay, Shannon, and a couple others. We are camping behind the Tillamook YMCA tonight, but we didn't have access to showers right away so we headed to the brewery for a late lunch. After lunch I stopped to get wifi at the library, and then chilled at camp until the showers opened at 4:45. After this, Melissa and I went to the fair to see the Ford-n-Pig race, which apparently involves racing old fords around a dirt track, while periodically stopping to catch a piglet. Unfortunately we missed it by about 2 minutes, but we're able to grab ice cream and walk around for a little bit. After the fair, we biked out to the cheese factory to meet up with Sarah and Kelly for a cheese tasting. The place was super cool, and I picked up a few postcards that I'll eventually send out. All this riding around added approximately 8 extra miles to our day, but it was well worth it. Back at camp, Richard ended up answering a FaceTime call on Amanda's phone which she had left behind when she went for dinner. It was pretty funny way to end the night. Day 7 - Aug. 12 - Tillamook to Lincoln City - 64.6miHad a surprisingly good sleep last night, and didn't get woken up until my alarm went off at 6:15am. I headed out with Melissa and Sharon, but we stopped 2mi in, because the turn we were supposed to make had a "Road Closed in 6.2 miles" sign. We called the route leaders to give them a heads up, and then ended up flagging down a few cars to ask what the road was like ahead. All three said that we could easily walk our bikes through, so we decided to go for it. This ended up being a really great decision, because the ride was beautiful. We were along the water, and it was so still it looked like glass. The turn onto the road with the closure brought us to a fairly big climb, on which the rest stop van passed us to check out the closure. James biked out to make sure it was safe, and then we followed suit. The road wasn't too bad, only one section that we had to walk through, and a couple gravel sections. The decent brought us right into rest stop one, where we met up with the van again. After the rest stop, I rode with Sarah, and we took on the next big climb, about 800ft. There was a beautiful overlook about halfway up, and we stopped to take pictures. The descent was great, and we rode with some of the guys for a bit, before falling back. At rest stop two, we grabbed lunch at the Pelican Brewery in Pacific City, which was delicious and had a great view. I rode by myself after lunch, and ended up making a wrong turn onto a street that had the exact same name as the street I was supposed to turn on. I corrected this mistake pretty quickly, and got into the correct road, which took us off Highway 101. The day ended up being ~5 miles longer than expected, and the highway was pretty busy which didn't make for great riding. Finally made it to camp though, which is a banquet hall for the night. Apparently some neighbour called the cops to report transient when they saw people setting up tents in the back, but Jen explained what we were doing, and that we had permission. Jan, who lives right behind the hall, opened up her house to us to shower, which was so incredible of her. Fred and Donna also showed up and provided dinner and wine for everyone! After dinner, I went over to the Rusty Truck brewery with Sully, Michael, Brian, Sarah, and Kurt, which was a fun way to end the night. Day 8 - Aug. 13 - Lincoln City to Florence - 73.8miJan invited the whole team to come and grab breakfast at her house before we headed out this morning, and a few of us took her up on the offer. They had prepared bacon, potatoes and toast for us, and we had a great time chatting over breakfast. It was really cold, and drizzling rain all morning, and I rode with Claire, Melissa, Sharon, and Shannon. I didn’t think I’d need to put my booties (waterproof shoe covers) on, but this turned out to be a mistake as the rain picked up a little bit, and my shoes became puddles. In Depoe Bay, we stopped at the bridge to see if we could spot any whales, as the sign welcoming us to town proclaimed that it was the whale watching capital. We ended up seeing a couple from the bridge, and then some more really close to shore a little further down the road. It was really incredible to see, and definitely a highlight of the trip so far. Rest stop one included a trip to the bakery across the street, which had incredible cinnamon buns, and by rest stop two the sun was shining in full force. I grabbed a really good breakfast sandwich at the second stop, and relaxed in the sun, wringing out my socks so that my feet would be a little drier. I rode the rest of the way to camp alone. We are staying at an RV park at the marina tonight, and Florence seems to be a really cute town. A big group of us had dinner at the Zebra Bar, which was a relatively fancy place, but most of us were wearing sweatpants. That’s about as classy as you get one a bike trip. Back at camp, Sarah and Kelly were commenting on my Roots sweatpants, which turned into a conversation about beavers being the national animal of Canada, which then turned into us watching How I Met Your Mother clips on YouTube. Big thank you to Gemini, Stef, Charlie, and Olivia Waghmare for their generous donation today! You guys are awesome :) Day 9 - Aug. 14 - Florence to Coos Bay - 47.4miToday was Alison and Ryan's last day of the trip, so a big group of us went out for breakfast together. Sarah and I split cinnamon roll pancakes which were delicious, and we all just had a great time chatting. We all left from breakfast as a group, but got split up pretty quickly, so I rode with Shannon and Sarah into rest stop one. There were a few climbs, but nothing too bad. I left rests stop one with Sarah, and we had a short climb almost right away. At a scenic lookout near the top, we met a man named Gou, who is cycling from Alaska to Panama, and is currently on day 26. We got some photos, and then enjoyed a nice descent. We rode with Michael and Shannon for a few miles after this. It was a great afternoon, mostly trending downhill, and we had a nice tailwind towards the end. In the last 10 miles or so, we were riding at about 20mph. Coming into North Bend, we had to bike over a bridge, and had two people yell at us to get off the road, and someone else honked at us. Coming into camp, there were two short but really steep hills that knocked the wind out of us. Our tents were soaked from the dew this morning, so we pulled them out as soon as we got to camp. Then we hitched a ride to the showers with an awesome lady named Janice, and her two dogs. Later that night, we took a taxi into town for dinner, which consisted of poutine at the brewery, followed by pad Thai at the Thai restaurant. After dinner, we said goodbye to Alison and Ryan, and then headed back to the church, where Sarah, Kurt, Michael, and I played hearts for a bit before going to sleep. Day 10 - Aug. 15 - Coos Bay to Humbug State Park - 64.2miThe church provided a pancake breakfast for us this morning which was so generous of them. It was cold and foggy when we first woke up, but by the time we were ready to go, it was sunny. Our first hill of the day was on Seven Devils Road - named for the seven hills along the road. Michael said he remembered them pretty easy, but the first hill was pretty steep. Sarah's chain dropped on the first bit, but we eventually got through them all. First rest stop was in a gravel parking lot near the water, where I finished my leftover pad thai. There were some incredible views right out of the rest stop, of giant rocks in the water. Rest stop two came about pretty quick, and happened to be at a market claiming they had world-famous hot dogs. Naturally we had to see if they lived up to the hype, and I have to say that it was a pretty good hot dog. Approximately 6 miles before camp, we stopped in Port Ordford to grab food at a place Michael recommended called Redfish. The view from this place was incredible. The 6 miles following the restaurant were some of the best of the trip, and we stopped to take lots of photos. Camp tonight is in Humbug State park, which is right near the water. I cooked soup for dinner, which was not as good as I hoped it would be. After eating, a bunch of us walked down to the water for the sunset, which was really beautiful. Photos don't do it justice. Overall a pretty amazing day.
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katie macdonald
Summer 2016, I biked 4,295 miles, coast to coast across the USA to raise money and awareness for MS. March 2017, I biked self-contained from San Francisco to San Diego with my friend Carissa. August 2017 I connected the dots and biked from Seattle to San Francisco. Summer 2018 I am heading to the UK! Follow my journey here! Miles biked for MS:
6,800.13
Updated August 27, 2018 Archives
January 2019
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