Jono's Travel Blog

13/09/2010 Day 13 Vancouver to Mexico

Distance Travelled: Hillsboro to Sheridan 75 km

Money Spent: $2.75 for the light rail ticket, $6 for some groceries and $15 for a cyclo-computer from Walmart.

It was very trusting of Amanda and Michael to let me stay sleeping in whilst they went to work, they only really got to know me for a few hours over some drinks last night. They left me a note in the morning telling me to help myself their food so I made some toast and had a small bowl of granola for breakfast. I packed up all my things, had a shower and set off at 11.

One thing I hate about the roads in North America apart from them driving on the wrong side of the road ;) and that’s 4 way stop signs; where at an intersection all cars have to stop, first one there gets to go first. It doesn’t work so well for cyclists as motorists will sometimes give way to cyclists even if you were not the first one there, this confuses things a hell of a lot and now when I come across them I say fuck it and just cycle steadily through.

I made it to the Visitor information center where I got all the maps I needed for the coast of Oregon, the guy behind the counter suggested a route to the coast that he cycled a few weeks ago, I would have taken the route but it was heading more-so North which is in the wrong direction. Instead I hopped on the light rail to Hillsboro, this way I avoided all the boring suburbs around Portland found Hwy 47 south and then Hwy 99W that joins Hwy 18.

I stopped by the dollar store to stock up on some food for the next couple of days and also popped by Walmart to pick up a cycle computer that gives me a bunch of useful info whilst I’m cycling. So far I’m averaging 15 Mph and my top speed is 27.8 Mph.

The farmland I passed today was nice and the views kept me entertained as it was a gorgeous day, well, until the sun started setting whilst I was on highway 18 west, not only was I getting blinded but at the same time I got pushed back by a bad headwind dropping my average speed to 10 Mph.

Anyways, I still pushed on till I got to Sheriden where I filled up my water jugs and asked a local where a good place to camp was, he suggested a park next to the highway beside a river where there would be plenty of blackberry bushes, I said great, good enough for me and I set off there.

The park was nice and I spent a while picking blackberries before setting up my tent under a tree.

For dinner I cooked up some noodles with tuna, chili sauce and bread, and for dessert I made banana pudding (just add cold milk…I used powdered milk) with blackberries. Not a bad meal, aye.

Cool looking Grain Factory I passed by