day 1 4/15 38 miles 4 hrs

Parents were nice enough to wake up super early and drop me off at fort clatsop state park. Its is just south of astoria, Or. I travelled along a nice road that had a decent climb for a little bit and then a nice twisty descent. I was almost into the town of seaside coming off the descent when I heard a rubbing and my back tire was rubbing against my seatstay. My rear quick-release lever had somehow came loose and my rear tire shifted in my dropouts! I had to take all the stuff off my rear rack and then remount the tire in the dropouts. First mechanical issue solved. I stopped in seaside and rolled my bike out to the surf and dipped the back tire in the pacific ocean being careful not to let the water touch my front tire. I have to wait for the atlantic ocean to do that. I took a couple of deep breaths, said a little prayer and walked it back to the bike path. There were about 3-4 little climbs of 200-600 feet and they all felt over 10% even though they were only 3-4%. Even with my rediculously low gearing its tiring to push it up hills. I passed through a tunnel and they had a button to push if you were a cyclist going through to let motorists know that there are bicycles in the tunnel. Any car that passed through sounded like a jet by the time it was right behind you with the acoustics of the tunnel. I also climbed up a road where they were filming a 'boxer films' movie. they had closed down the road to 1 lane and from what I saw of the trailers and whatnot it looked like some type of car chase scene. I spilled my dinner of couscous all over a book I was planning to read, so I ended up eating oatmeal with raisins. Had a free hot shower and only paid $4 for ahiker/biker site at nehalem bay state park.