Today’s ride took us through the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Cannon Beach, another tunnel, and Neahkahnie Mountain.

We left 101 behind in order to ride through the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. There was signage for Fort Clatsop, but I didn’t see anything. The road gave way to a single lane with little traffic, and went along ranches. The horses watched us roll by on the first climb of the day.

Then it was back to 101, through Seaside. The shoulder really suffers in town. Anne found us a park with a playground for lunch, so the kids could run around and play.

On to the second climb. We climbed into the mist layer, where we could see our breath and got a little rain. It had a really nice descent. A little too nice, as we missed our exit for Cannon Beach. A little map consultation later and we decided to take the next turnoff.

We passed a great many vacation rental properties and management companies. We parked, and Anne took the kids down to the beach to look at Haystack Rock.

Finally, it was time for the last two climbs, back to back. The first started with a tunnel. We excitedly pressed the bike button and raced through. As we approached the top of the climb, Ruth wanted to play the story game, where each person tells one sentence of the story. A zebra named Saskatchewan had adventures with mud, peanut butter, and household chores.

As we got peaks through the foliage of the ocean, Max made appropriate and cute “ooh”s and “woah”s.

Then back down, and immediately up again, across Neahkahnie Mountain. This one offered a bridge across a ravine as an introductory engineering example. Then, after another 500 feet up or so, it mostly leveled off and wrapped around the edge, providing spectacular views of the south.

The bad part about the climbs at the end of the ride is that you can be pretty tired. The good part is that when you’re done, you don’t still have 20 miles to cross. We rolled through Nehalem (a shocking amount of gravel in the shoulders) and into Wheeler, our home for the next 36 hours or so.

Today’s ride was nice. Pretty, varied (somewhat), and at a good pace. I’m ready for our rest day, though.