Day Three- Astoria, OR to Pacific City, OR

Well, the Oregon coast is living up to it's reputation today. Definitely one of my more memorable days on a bike!  90+ miles, 4800' of climbing, eventually 70F, and lots of sun... oh, and a tailwind!!

The day started cool and overcast, with a pretty heavy marine layer over the Columbia at Astoria.  I set out at about 7:30am after a nice breakfast at the Pig & Pancake, and headed south on US 101.  While there's a fair bit of traffic on 101 at times, it's nice early in the day, and consistently has a huge shoulder in good shape, so it doesn't make a bad route on a bike.

It's also a part of the Oregon Coast Bike Trail, which marks the way south on the "best" bike friendly roads.  Sometimes I question the Oregon DOT's judgement on what constitutes a usable shoulder on the smaller roads, but they usually seem to get it right ;-). They clearly even recently added a bike specific shoulder on the pass over the Lookout Point headland, complete with bicycle stencils on the road.  So for 2.7 miles going up hill at 6-11% grade, I was very grateful!

The scenery along this leg was everything it's cracked up to be (sorry Washington... Maybe I'll ride the Olympic Peninsula someday and it'll make a better comparison!). I really enjoyed this one, including the great fish tacos in Tillamook... Tomorrow it's on to Yachats, a little easier day of about 70 miles, with one more big climb early in the day.  More then-- Cheers from the dunes in Pacific City!