Day 1--Astoria OR to St. Helens, OR

Day 1—June 19, 2006—Astoria OR to St. Helens, OR—69 miles—2650’ climb

SON OF A GUN! OUR RIDE’S BEGUN IN STATE NO. 1—BEAUTIFUL OREGON, HOME OF THE SALMON, MT ST. HELENS AND MT HOOD, WILD HORSES, AND ALL THINGS GOOD.

O, what a beautiful morning! Our first day of the 50 to follow dawned gorgeous: sunny, clear, temps in the mid 70s warming to the low 80s and a mild quartering wind that as the road twisted sometimes became a tailwind giving riders a boost over the hills on today’s route.

After breakfast, all 58 riders gathered behind the motel (which is nearly under the Astoria Bridge) for a group photo (see below), and then wheeled out of the motel parking lot and turned east to begin Day 1 of their cross-country adventure.

The directionally challenged had an easy first day on the road: Turn left out of the hotel parking lot and ride SH-30 all the way to St. Helens. (St. Helens is not the site of Mount St. Helens, which is northwest of St. Helens on the border with Washington.) Originally settled by New England loggers, the old town portion of St. Helens on the riverfront dates back nearly a century. Like the mountain, the town was named by Commander George Vancouver for British diplomat Alleyne Fitzherbert, whose title was Baron St. Helens.

View from Rt 30 to the river valley  below

SH-30 is a fairly busy road, its traffic at times included pungent smelling logging trucks and also large trucks of chipped wood for the paper mills, but the drivers of these rigs were very polite and generally gave us wide berth . . . even an occasional encouraging toot of the horn. SH-30 runs along the broad Columbia River, and in places we could look down on the beautiful river and to the green hills rising beyond it (see above) . . . and sometimes we could inhale the acrid odor of the paper mills counterbalanced by the piney odor of the lumber mills along it. Our first SAG stop was in Bradley Park high above the Columbia. Riders took photos of the scenic vista.

Flat-topped Mount St. Helens

As we neared our destination, Mount St. Helens popped into view, puffing smoke, her flat top capped with snow. It is hard to imagine the devastation that occurred when she blew her top in 1980. Her eruption marked the re-awakening of a relatively young (40,000-year-old) volcano that had been dormant since 1857. The northwest Indians told early explorers about the fiery Mount St. Helens. In fact, an Indian name for the mountain, Lou-wa-la-clough, means “smoking mountain.”

Everyone was in by 3, so had time to relax and get to know one another before enjoying a spaghetti and/or lasagna dinner at the Village Restaurant next door to the motel.

OVERHEARD ON THE ROAD TODAY:

• “I’m suing for false advertising. They didn’t show all these hills in the brochure.” 
• “Did you see that drive-thru cigarette kiosk near the SAG stop?” 
• Jim: “A miracle has happened. Everyone has signed in.”
  Rider: “Oh, I wasn’t supposed to sign all those?? Guess I thought I was at work where I just sign it if it’s in front of me.”