Pedal On and On...: Day 1 - and We Are Off !!

Astoria, Or to St. Helens, Or

Distance: 69 miles
Time: 5.5 hr
Elevation Gain: 3015 ft

It was a great day for a ride!! Today we had our first full day of ridding, 69 miles from Astoria to St. Helens. The weather started out cool with an overcast sky, but warmed up as the day went on. There were two climbs today. The first was long but not very steep but with a great down hill. The 2nd hill was a steady 5 to 6% grade 3 to 4 miles long and the downhill side was fast with a lot of traffic and we had to maneuver a very tricky on and off ramp to a bridge at the bottom of the hill. The scenery was absolutely fantastic, lush forest, rivers, house boats, and small towns. The road conditions were mostly OK with decent shoulders to ride on. We had two SAG stops today to grab some food and fill up the water bottles (I'll talk more about SAG stops later). Tomorrow we ride 75 miles to Welches, OR with a large hill to climb towards the end of the day, we also might get our fist glimpse of Mt. Hood if we get clear sky's. One last thing, one of our riders took a bad fall today and broke is shoulder bone and is going home tomorrow, Charles will be missed.

Link to GPS rout