As tonight was extremely foggy and it rained slightly during the morning, my tent was wet when I packed it. Not to worry, it would dry when I would pitch it tonight... or so I thought at that moment :p.
From Fort Stevens it was a short ride into Astoria, the endpoint of the Trans America Trail! I took the very steep (18%!) road up towards the Astoria column, an old lighthouse overlooking the city. The view was supposed to be great from there, but as it was still very foggy there was no view at all, so I didn't even bother climbing up the stairs. After descending back to the waterline, the route, now the Pacific Coast Trail, led along the Astoria riverwalk, running along and over old railway tracks.
After Astoria there was a climb away from the waterline again along a busy highway. After lunch the skies seemed to have cleared a little and the west wind had picked up. As I was riding eastbound today that meant tailwind for a change :) After some more miles along the highway I had to take a ferry. The ferry appeared to be going only once an hour and my timing was crazy perfect. Truly if I would have been there only a minute later I would have missed it! First the ferry and then a bridge brought me across the Columbia River and into Washington state, the final state of this trip.
After the crossing there were only a few miles left to the campground of tonight. Just before I got to the campground it started raining and it didn't stop for a number of hours. So I had to pitch my already wet tent in the rain :(. The shower afterwards was heavenly and worth every quarter. Soon thereafter another cyclist, Jesse, who is riding the Pacific Coast Trail from Vancouver to LA and rode the Trans America Trail to LA a few years ago, approached me asking to share the site as all tent sites were occupied. When the rain stopped, we both cooked our dinner and ate together and shared experiences. After that Jesse built a fire and we spent some time sitting by the fire talking untill the rain started again.
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