Weblog: Portland Cycle Tour: Woodland > Tenino
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Last night I didn't sleep too well due to a strong wind, and later a pickup truck pulled up just above me and a bunch of guys stood around talking and drinking beer for at least an hour without noticing me. After they had gone, it started to lightly rain, so I had to get up and set up my bivy and waterproof everything, which took me a long time due to the wind. Once I was finally comfortably in the bivy, shielded from wind and rain, I fell into deep sleep instantly.
I got going at 7:45 and took the I-5 north all the way Kelso. I was under the impression that bicycles weren't allowed on the freeway, but the sign at the entrance only prohibited pedestrians and hitchhiking (Doesn't prohibiting the former imply the latter?). I could have exited at Kalama and taken the smaller roads, but there was a bit of a tailwind and the I-5 was so straight and flat that I was making very quick progress.
From Kelso, I took SR 411 and another road north to the junction with SR 506 near Vader. I then briefly went east and crossed I-5 and cycled towards Toledo, but turned off before then north along the Old Pacific Highway to Chehalis. There I passed the library and thought it would be a good idea to check the Internet there for the ferry schedule from Seattle to Victoria. I discovered that the Princess Marguerite ferry was no longer running, leaving the very expensive (US$68 one way!) Victoria Clipper catemeran as the only option. Afterwards I took a long nap on the library lawn. I decided that instead of cycling to Seattle, I would take the US-101 from Olympia back to Port Angeles. In a way, this will be good because it will make the trip more of a closed loop.
From Chehalis I took SR 507 (still part of the Old Pacific Highway, I think) north through Centralia to Tenino, which is a fairly sizable town. Between there I went for a nice swim in the Skookumchuk River. Adjascent to the fairly busy county park where I swam, there were railway tracks and I was amazed by how frequent and fast the trains were. I would say there was a train at least every 20 minutes and and they didn't slow down at all for a crossing that has lots of children nearby. It was getting late as I continued north from Tenino on old hwy 99, and I once again had some trouble finding a place to sleep because of development (I was getting near to Olympia), but finally found an okay place after turning left onto a dead end road. The road went under the train tracks and there was a small ATV trail running parallel to them at the bottom of the high embankment that raised the tracks, with some trees and bushes inbetween (i.e. it was near to the tracks, but you couldn't see them at all). Unfortunately, this trail was right next to a field with a house nearby, but there were some small trees separating them. I pushed my bike until the trail went through a streem and set up camp, and it was actually quite a nice spot, though I was still nervous because of the proximity to houses.
The weather was again sunny and very hot, though the evening was cooler than before.
Distance: 143.50km today,
1054.12km total;
Average Speed: 18.8km/h;
Time: 07:34:23
Posted
on
Thu, 4 Sep 2020
at
Tenino,
WA,
US
(altitude 44m)
(map/google earth)
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