Day 2 - St Helens, OR to Welches, OR

We left St Helens on the tandem to a beautiful, sunny and 52-degree day. At the 40-mile sag stop, we traded in the tandem for Michael on a single bike. That 40-mile ride was tremendous on a tandem as it was basically flat. The scenery on the bike path along the Columbia River was super. We saw some 50-100 floating homes; really they were on some kind of pontoon system. No yards to cut, plenty of opportunity to fish whenever you want and most important little worry about the river flooding. Maybe we should do that on the Mississippi! The last 35-miles on the single bike was nice, too, especially when we reached the countryside away from all the traffic and trucks. The traffic is one item we are still trying to adjust to. Those big logging trucks go pass sometimes within less than 10'. We can be thankful there is nothing like those in Iowa. Although OR has bike lanes everywhere, the drivers do not drive like it is a bike friendly state. Often on a three or four lane highway, they don't move to the inside lane. My stop during the 35-mile was at Calamity Jane's, home of the biggest hamburgers, the large was 1 lb! That's a lot of beef. Accommodations tonight are fabulous as we are staying at the Resort at the Mountain. Tomorrow will be challenging as it starts out with 13-mile climb from an elevation of 1,300' to 4,000'. Currently, it is 57 degrees and raining. I will be praying that is stops raining by the time we leave.