Jeff is Where?: Pacific Northwest (US)

Once I finally had the bike ready to go from Boise, I headed west to meet up with my friend Chad who I’d worked with in Sudan as he and some friends were camping on Oregon’s Cannon Beach. For those of you who are familiar with the movie Goonies, it was filmed there. For those of you who don’t know that movie, I highly recommend that you drop by the local video store or order it from Amazon and watch. In fact, I think I need to find it somehow over here and watch it again as it has been probably 2 years since I last watched.

Cannon Beach

Riding along through the Columbia River basin across Oregon was beautiful. If it wasn’t for the extremely strong wind, I would have enjoyed the day thoroughly. As it was, I still was glad to be able to make the drive, but my shoulders and back were extremely tired by the time I finished the 500+ mile trip from Boise to Cannon Beach. Arriving at the Pacific Ocean at about 5pm or so local time was a great way to stop for the day. With the sun setting in the West, the Pacific coast enjoys spectacular sunsets everyday. It was almost as good as the sunsets on the west coast of Zanzibar Island. Cooking a can of soup over the campfire, catching up with Chad and telling stories around the fire were a perfect end to the day.

Welcome to the West Coast

Another Beautiful Sunset

Camping here was awesome

The following day we looked into surfing, but it was a bit too expensive, and with the water being so cold and the temperature not so hot in early September, I think we had a much better day anyhow. Hiking around Ecola State Park, going to Haystack Rock, taking a nap on the beach was a great way to spend a beautiful, sunny day on the Pacific Coast. Another night camping right on the beach and cooking over an open campfire made another marvelous ending to a fun day on the journey. And finally reaching the Pacific Ocean after having been on the road for nearly two weeks, and especially after the four unexpected days in Boise with mechanical troubles, made this part of the trip all the better.

Handstand contest??

The next morning I headed up the Pacific Coast Highway and across the Astoria Bridge into Washington State. Unsurprisingly, it was a wet morning and the rain fell till noon. By mid-afternoon, I was able to stop by Black Lake Bible Camp and visit Phil’s (who I worked with in Sudan) parents as I was on my way up to Seattle. It was a beautiful camp with some nice facilities, and it seems like a great place. A nice dinner by the water in Tacoma, Washington with my friend Michelle from Taylor University provided a great view of Mt. Olympia and a couple of seals came up to the surface. From there I went to Seattle to stay with David and Callie, and the hills really made me think I was in San Francisco with how steep it was.

Seattle's Puget Sound

After a relaxing day going to the Pike market and seeing the space needle in Seattle, I went with David and Callie to her parent’s house in Yakima and attended one night of the Dave Mathews Concert at the Gorge. It was a majestic venue and full of people. While I’m not so much of a Dave fan, it was a great event. And spending a day in Yakima, drinking Seattle coffee, meeting Callie’s friends and beating them at Carcassonne was a lot of fun as well (not to mention I got to ride as a passenger in a car for quite a few hours instead of having to do all the work on the motorcycle). On top of it all, a Josh Garrels concert my last night in Seattle was a superb ending to the American side of my Pacific Northwest adventure. In spite of all the rain, it was a splendid time.