Follow that water

Sunday, I rode to breakfast:

From 8-17-2009

From 8-17-2009

I bu adieu to Joe and Sue and Dave and Edna, and headed out for a final look at the Columbia and the Pacific:

From 8-17-2009

From 8-17-2009

I decided to try coming back US 26 rather than crossing over into Washington, This proved to be a mistake ,a s it was slower. Since I had a late beakfast, I didn't stop for lunch, but filled up at Grants' Pass, and stopped for the night in Yreka:

From 8-17-2009

I stayed ta the super 8 (really super!) and Had dinner at Casa Ramon across the Street (too much food for too little money!)
I woke up the next morning on got on the road. I stopped to take a picture of Mt Shasta, it glaciers, and Black Butte:

From 8-17-2009

From 8-17-2009

I stopped again near Shasta lake:

From 8-17-2009

and again once I got to the Central Valley:

From 8-17-2009

I was going to go down 99, but changed my mind,. It turns out 5 was pretty busy. I stopped and took a picture of the California aqueduct:

From 8-17-2009

Ans that's where the title of my post comes from. The Aqueduct starts in the bay area and runs all the way down to SoCal. It's where the Cucamonga Valley Water supply district gets 60% of its water from. And since the Sacramento starts at Mt Shasta, I pretty much followed my drinking water rout all the way down > I remember filling a water bottle near Shasta Lake and think I jut getting my water a couple of day earlier.
I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley is 400 miles of this:

From 8-17-2009

But for relief and to continue the water theme:
The Former Tulare lake:

From 8-17-2009

and Kern lake:

From 8-17-2009

lots of orchards. these were pistachios:

From 8-17-2009

Eventually I did get to the Grapevine and La County. still had about 100 miles at this point:

From 8-17-2009

I stopped and had dinner in Santa Clarita. I would have taken my bike to Bent Up, since I was about 5 miles wasy when I came Newhall pass, but they were not open on Mondays.
Got home about 6 to no a/c. Gloom, despair and misery on me...

If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all

This day started out promising we were to meet and ride someplace for breakfast. Joe and Sue were going to drive somewhere, so I decided to hang out with Dave and Edna Van Gundy.
Edna had a nice jacket. but she works for Team Estrogen:

The reason why mention that is being the northwest, it started to rain, and I had left my jacket in my tent. Enda had a socked bike:

So borrowed her jacket.
I would up following a group to the wrong restaurant. I realized my mistake, and found the right one:

after breakfast, we went back on the rail trail to the campsite. Lovely view of the bay:

The next event of the day was the photo shoot. They were 125 bike, so it took a while:

From 8-17-2009

some folks were more dressy:
Joe and Marilyn were matchy:

From 8-17-2009

After this, they were several ride on the agenda. Joe was going to do the waterfall ride, and I had signed up for that. But Sue was not feeling good, so he decided to do the Ft Clatsop ride instead. I plunged on, only to be stopped by chain going past my derailleur and into my spokes at Youngs falls:

From 8-17-2009

We did some field repairs and made back to ft Stevens after a stop at the Diary Queen in Astoria. My bike was doing ok (I didn't think I could screw up much more), so went on the bike path to Ft Stevens
Here's a recreation of how looked in the forties:

After I parked, I found the bike rack:

Ft Stevens was one of the places on the coast that was attacked by the Japanese navy in World War II. Part of why it was abandoned is that shore cannon were obsolete when the enemy could sail a submarine under the water past the fort. Here's a bunker that got hit:


Our navy did return fire:

Coming back, I went over a bridge:

This ain't SoCal:

We had a potluck for dinner. I let some one else do the cooking:

And we had speechifying afterward. this is Lonnie, the gentleman who helped me out of my derailleur jam

We then headed back to our campsite to watch the recumbent parade. Folks decorate thier bikes and make a grand loop of all the campsite (supposedly the largest in Oregon) after dark:

And to think, some told that they thought the parade was hokey. Ok it is Hokey, but in a good way, like hee haw

On to Astoria

After spending four hour getting my car fix, I was soon on the road to Astoria.
I decided to drive up the i-5 to Longview, WA. The drive up was uneventful. after longview, I crossed back over the Columbia and took US 30 to Astoria, it took longer, because it was mostly a two lane road.

once I got there, I decided to head up to the Astoria Column:




150 steps later:

There was also an Indian burial canoe:

Then I went to the Columbia river Maritime Museum:

The highlight was an old Coast Guard lighthouse ship:

Next to it was the USCGS Shark:

Coming back to my car, I saw the Astoria Trolley:

I then headed across the bay to Ft Calstop, where Lewis: and Clark wintered:



I had to check on Mr Drouillard:

and Here's Mr lewis:

I then headed over to the park and set up camp. Joe was testing a front wheel drive Raptobike

I decided to check out the wreck of the Peter Iredale before the Marshmallow roast: