Seaside

The road to Seaside looked like it was made for a bike ride. It even had signs indicating it was part of the Oregon Coast Bike Route. It was relatively flat with wide lanes. I parked in the local cinema's parking lot and started off around 4:40 pm. The going was easy and true. I made to the county park and back by 5:50, an astonishing 11.8 miles per hour. I felt good about my chances of making the whole coast up and back this way. Looking at the map I saw the nearest state park was with camping was 15 miles away. No problem. I could do a 30 mile round tripper in a few hours the next day and move on. My hopes were soon dashed as I drove up steep grade after steep grade. One grade of about 5% even had a tunnel similar to the one I had narrowly escaped with my life in the other day. this one was even longer though. A 4 mile 7% grade was very discouraging. Finally I pulled into Oswald West State Park, "A unique camping experience" as the sign said. As I watched teenager after giggly teenager unload their cars into wheelbarrows to take to their campsite, I realized this site was not for me and my hopes of making the coast trip on bicycle were not for me either. No bother, I headed south to Tillamook. I got lost trying to find Kilsha river County park, but took my picture in front of the cheese factory. They would be some of the last pictures I would take with my new camera.

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