Day 48 - Tuesday October 13th

Newhaven, WA to Mount Vernon, WA
64.47 miles
4:05.30 hrs
31.8 max
15.7 avg

Today, I broke the 4000 mile marker on my trip and theoretically completed a cross country tour. I have not yet seen the ocean but I am only 15 miles away from touching my toes into the deep blue that they call the Pacific. I highly contemplated traveling the extra distance today just to jump in to the frigid waters, to feel the accomplishment of traveling ocean to ocean. Unfortunately, unless I want to be freezing cold and wet tomorrow during my ride to Vancouver, I will have to wait until I get up to Vancouver to jump in.

According to local weather forecasts it sounds like it is going to be raining all tomorrow, and for the next week. Fortunately, it was supposed to be raining today and I didn't feel a drop! Maybe the weather people can be wrong for the rest of the week?

Since I got to sleep really early last night I woke up on my own and felt pretty good. I was happy to find that the food that I hung up on the pavilion beams was still there and no little creatures appeared to have tampered with it. Much to my dismay I found out that I had consumed all of the coconut milk and therefore could not have cereal like I had been looking forward too all night long! So, I improvised and ate some dry granola with a bowl of chili... I know, not much of a substitute. Nonetheless, still good! I was very happy to get an early start this morning and thought to myself that it may be a good idea to try and get to bed that early every night so I am as productive every morning.

As I was doing my morning duties, I happened to walk down by the river with all the dead fish of which I had convinced myself, the previous night, they were poisoned. As I took a closer look, during a time when there was actual light, I noticed that all the fish were salmon. Upon further examination of the waters at my feet, I noticed hundreds of live salmon swimming around. Heck, I said to myself, if I would have known that there were salmon I would have tried to catch a few for dinner last night (and filled up my water bottles).

The views of the countryside leading out of the Northern Cascades were gorgeous. I no longer had to worry about any massive climbs, the roads were newly paved (or so they seemed) and I knew that I did not have far to travel to the coast! All these circumstances lead to a very nice day of riding (not to mention that it was not raining!). I also knew that I could take my time getting into town because the people I was staying with were not going to be home till 5pm and I had a comparatively early start!

The day went by pretty fast and allowed for many pitstops along the way: coffee at Cascades Organics, browsing at a local bike store and even a lunch break on a bridge where I watched the salmon frolic around in the current. Overall, a great day!

Not to mention the Moffitt's hospitality. It is always great to have some good company and conversation at the ends of a days ride. Not to mention treating me with one of my favorite meals in the whole world: fresh caught salmon! What a way to be welcomed to the coast! Thanks you two!