Month: April 2026

Pedal to Phoenix Day 10

Gold Beach to Crescent City (Garmin File)

The rest day helped.  The warmer weather helped.  The fact that the climbs came in the first half of the day helped.  I arrived at the Ocean View Inn with something left in my legs.  That’s a good thing since it’s back to 70+ mile days with 4000+ feet of climbing, tomorrow.  More good news is we made it out of the Pacific Northwest with only one half day of rain and the ten day weather forecast between here and Half Moon Bay is sunny with highs in the 60s.  That is better than anything I had hoped for. Overall we are doing well. Parkinson’s Disease is not beating anyone down too bad, that I can tell.  Age and a lot of time in the saddle is another story.  My Garmin tells me I have been on the bike 56.7 hours and have made 29,164 pedal strokes since leaving Seattle 10 days ago.  In the group I am aware of sore knees, hips, backs, and necks.  A big blister on someone’s toe.  One person claims saddle sores – I will take his word on that.  Since Norwegians are stoic there are probably a few more aches and pains I am not aware of.

The big news of the day was entering California.  With Washington and Oregon out of the way all we have left is California and Arizona, we are 1/2 way there right? Oh, the Elk are massive.  The internet tells me that they are Roosevelt Elk the largest species of Elk in North America.  California is incredibly diverse!

Pedal to Phoenix Day 9

Gold Beach Rest Day

Our knees hurt.  Five hundred fifty miles and over 26,000 feet of ascent over 8 days is a lot for us.  Although our legs are slowly adjusting.  The highlight of the day was watching harbor seals swim up and down the Rogue River.  Many of these animals originate from the nearby Rogue Reef, located just offshore, which is one of the largest seal and sea lion rookeries in the Pacific Northwest and they come up river in the spring to hunt spawning salmon. [1, 2].

Pedal to Phoenix Day 7

Florance to Bandon (Garmin File)

Some days, like yesterday, it is unicorns and rainbows; today was not that type of day.  The entire morning I rode the white line of death, while dodging road debri and trying to clean my glasses with gloved hands.  Fortunately, the rain cleared out by early afternoon.  The white line separates the road, where cars try to kill you from the shoulder, where you try to kill yourself.  When it rains the white line gets slick as ice, so it tries to kill you as well.

It probably sounds overly dramatic, but many sections are “Russian Roulette”, with little to no shoulder, blind curves, tree limbs, truck tire tread, pot holes, pavement cracks running parallel to the road, road kill.

I even passed an entire pile of nuts and bolts large enough to hold a bridge together.

Pedal to Phoenix Day 5

Garibaldi to Lincoln City (Garmin File)

We left the Garibaldi Inn and headed south.  My legs were still adjusting to the milage, 300 miles in the last 4 days, so I opted for a shorter alternate to avoid going around cape Mears and the associated big hill is required.  It was also the first day that it rained.  We were incredibly lucky with the weather.  We had two days with scattered showers and one half day of light rain, in a place where it normally rains 15 days a month that time of year.  After 5 days I was also starting to settle into a routine. Roll into town, check into the hotel, wash your shorts and hang them out to dry. Do some basic hygiene, saddle sores are a real concern and they can end a bike tour.  Cleanliness is the key to prevention.  Only after these chores are done do I search out food.  The criteria is how far do I walk, how healthy is it, and how much does it cost?  I would like to say we erred on the side of healthy, but honestly most days it was distance, distance, and distance.  If you could not walk to it you had to have a really good reason to eat there.  More often then not this meant Fish and Chips. 

Pedal to Phoenix Day 4

Long Beach to Garibaldi (Garmin File)

We left the Inn at the Sea in Long Beach excited to enter Oregon.  I know we passed many very pretty places. Lisa and I used to live in Vancouver, WA and have been to the Oregon coast many times.  Sunset Beach,  Seaside, Ecola State Park, Haystack Rock, Hug Point, Arch Cape, Short Sand Beach, Manzanita are all beautiful places and I have fond memories going back 25 years of this area.  However, from this trip all I remember from this day is the Astoria-Megler Bridge (url). 

Rather than describe it myself, I will just quote Gemini AI, when I asked if the Astoria bridge is safe to ride a bicycle across.

“The short answer is no, the Astoria-Megler Bridge is not considered a safe or comfortable place to ride a bicycle, though it is legally permitted.

While it is a critical link on the Oregon Coast Bike Route (U.S. 101) connecting Washington and Oregon, it is widely recognized by touring cyclists and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) as a major, high-stress barrier.

The primary safety concerns include:

  • Extremely Narrow Shoulders: The bridge is 3.7 miles long, and for the vast majority of that distance, the shoulder is only about 2 feet wide. There is very little margin for error between you and the fog line.
  • High-Speed, Large-Vehicle Traffic: The speed limit is 55 mph. The bridge is heavily trafficked by commercial logging trucks, wide-loaded RVs, and tourists who may be distracted by the views or uncomfortable with the narrow lanes themselves.
  • The “Astoria Hill” Climb: If you are traveling south from Washington into Oregon, the bridge is relatively flat for the first 3 miles, but the final half-mile features a steep, sustained 170-foot climb to clear the shipping channel. Grinding up this section fully loaded forces you to ride at a slow climbing speed right next to fast-moving traffic, which many riders find highly stressful.
  • Severe Winds and Weather: The mouth of the Columbia River is notorious for sudden, violent crosswinds, heavy fog, and rain. A sudden 25–30 knot gust while you are balancing a loaded bike on a 2-foot shoulder can easily push you into the vehicle lane or against the guardrail.
  • Debris: Because the shoulder is so narrow and hard to street-sweep, it frequently accumulates road debris, glass, tire wire, and even dead birds (from the cormorant colonies nesting below), forcing you to make quick, micro-adjustments.

The Good News: There is an Easy Alternative

Because of these conditions, many experienced bikepackers and touring cyclists choose to skip riding the bridge entirely.

The Sunset Empire Transportation District (SETD) operates a public bus service (Route 24) that runs between Ilwaco/Naselle in Washington and Astoria, Oregon. The buses are equipped with bicycle racks, allowing you to easily and safely shuttle yourself and your rig across the river for a couple of dollars.

Summary Recommendation: If you are highly confident, experienced with high-stress highway riding, and catch it early in the morning on a clear, calm day, it is entirely doable—hundreds of coastal tourers cross it every summer. However, if it is windy, rainy, or busy with midday weekend traffic, utilizing the local transit shuttle is the much safer and more relaxing choice. “

Photos pulled from the internet.

Now,  back to the blog.  It was on this day we coined the term, “Bridges of Death”.  While the Astoria bridge was the first, it was certainly not the last dangerous bridge we crossed.  Most of them were in Oregon, all were old, long, high traffic, and little to no shoulder.  If there was a walkway it was elevated above the roadway and narrow.