Day Total - 48.7 miles
Trip Total - 1,116.8 miles
Today started easily enough, as we pulled out of camp around 10:00 onto a very flat Highway 4. We made great time upriver for the first 10 miles, despite Kevin's bike continuing to cause him problems. It worked well enough to survive the lumber trucks rushing by us though, and not much more than 45 minutes after starting, we turned onto Coal Creek Road into the hills.
This too seemed to be easy until we got to the village of Coal Creek. The problem here wasn't the road or traffic or weather though. It was dogs. All through town, dogs were barking aggressively at us, until on our way out, one got free. It ran into the road after me, of course as I hit a fairly steep section of hill. I was ready though. I had my pepper spray out, and with a flick of the safety and a quick mist, that angry dog was stopped in its tracks. I quickly left the scene as Fido went to go rub his head in the grass for a couple hours. Scoreboard: Cyclists 1, Dogs 0.
It wasn't far form there to the top of the hill, and after a rolling descent with no serious dog scares, we were in the town of Castle Rock. We stopped at the grocery store there and then turned north roughly following Interstate 5. It was a pleasant, almost suburban, road for the next several miles, with only a couple of hills. But then, the dogs (I should say dogs complicit with their owners) of Cowlitz County struck again.
We rounded a corner, and three dogs immediately began barking. One of them was much angrier than the others though, and it came flying out of the driveway after me. I had been carrying my pepper spray in my hand ever since the first dog encounter though, so this dog didn't stand a chance. As it closed on my, I shot a stream of pain straight at it. That ended things quite satisfactorily (for me at least), and hopefully it will teach that dog not to go after those spinny things in the road. Cyclists 2, Dogs 0.
Now it was Kevin's turn. Not far down the road, another dog decided that bikes were a grave threat to his very existence and charged at Kevin. Kevin stopped and tried to intimidate the dog, which kept it from getting any closer. It didn't back off though, so again, the pepper spray (actually a mixture of capsacin and tear gas) came out. Cyclists 3, Dogs 0.
I have to say that these roads were really excellent for riding apart from the dogs. They were smooth, had almost no traffic, and wound pleasantly through the Washington farmland. Even most dogs were fine. Most of those that wanted to chase us were restrained in some way - that's why I blame irresponsible owners more than the dogs. We have had dogs barking at us the entire trip, but it wasn't until today that we finally had one chase us. And it still wasn't over.
Trip Total - 1,116.8 miles
Today started easily enough, as we pulled out of camp around 10:00 onto a very flat Highway 4. We made great time upriver for the first 10 miles, despite Kevin's bike continuing to cause him problems. It worked well enough to survive the lumber trucks rushing by us though, and not much more than 45 minutes after starting, we turned onto Coal Creek Road into the hills.
This too seemed to be easy until we got to the village of Coal Creek. The problem here wasn't the road or traffic or weather though. It was dogs. All through town, dogs were barking aggressively at us, until on our way out, one got free. It ran into the road after me, of course as I hit a fairly steep section of hill. I was ready though. I had my pepper spray out, and with a flick of the safety and a quick mist, that angry dog was stopped in its tracks. I quickly left the scene as Fido went to go rub his head in the grass for a couple hours. Scoreboard: Cyclists 1, Dogs 0.
It wasn't far form there to the top of the hill, and after a rolling descent with no serious dog scares, we were in the town of Castle Rock. We stopped at the grocery store there and then turned north roughly following Interstate 5. It was a pleasant, almost suburban, road for the next several miles, with only a couple of hills. But then, the dogs (I should say dogs complicit with their owners) of Cowlitz County struck again.
We rounded a corner, and three dogs immediately began barking. One of them was much angrier than the others though, and it came flying out of the driveway after me. I had been carrying my pepper spray in my hand ever since the first dog encounter though, so this dog didn't stand a chance. As it closed on my, I shot a stream of pain straight at it. That ended things quite satisfactorily (for me at least), and hopefully it will teach that dog not to go after those spinny things in the road. Cyclists 2, Dogs 0.
Now it was Kevin's turn. Not far down the road, another dog decided that bikes were a grave threat to his very existence and charged at Kevin. Kevin stopped and tried to intimidate the dog, which kept it from getting any closer. It didn't back off though, so again, the pepper spray (actually a mixture of capsacin and tear gas) came out. Cyclists 3, Dogs 0.
I have to say that these roads were really excellent for riding apart from the dogs. They were smooth, had almost no traffic, and wound pleasantly through the Washington farmland. Even most dogs were fine. Most of those that wanted to chase us were restrained in some way - that's why I blame irresponsible owners more than the dogs. We have had dogs barking at us the entire trip, but it wasn't until today that we finally had one chase us. And it still wasn't over.
A few miles south of the town of Toledo, we came to a driveway where three black dogs with no restraints were barking at us. Kevin and I both tried the intimidation tactic, and although it kept two back, one dog still went after me. Once again, pepper spray welcomes dog to world of hurt, et cetera, et cetera. At least I couldn't blame this one on Cowlitz County, since we had crossed into Lewis County some miles back. Still, the scoreboard was now Cyclists 4, Dogs 0. And I may need more pepper spray.
From Toledo, it was another 7 miles along Jackson Hwy. to our campsite at Lewis and Clark State Park. Along the way, we had a view of Mt. St. Helens, only about 35 miles to the east and still mostly snow covered. The campground turned out to be quite strange - the hiker/biker site was just a single campsite, and a small one at that, instead of the large area that we are used to. Fortunately, the place was nearly empty, so when 3 other cyclists arrived, they just took other open car spots.
View Day 30 - Cathlamet, WA-Toledo, WA in a larger map
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