Another rainy day. Decided to make it a short day and made a stop or two along the way. Overall the route took me over the coastal range and then to 101 the main highway along the coast.

Ate breakfast in Forest Grove before I left. There was a light rain starting out and hence the roads were wet. Crossed main parts of Forest Grove and then followed OR 8 out along Gale Creek. After 11 miles it came to intersection with OR 6. Stopped here briefly at gas station to get a snack. Asked if there were any stores between there and Tillamook and was told there were none. That turned out to be incorrect as I later found out. After this the road slowly climbed as it followed Gale Creek.

Around 17k miles the grade increased as it climbed away from the creek. There was a nice lookout over site of a huge 1933 fire.

Just after 20 miles reached the summit of the road, elevation 1586 feet.

From here it would follow the Wilson River downhill. Unfortunately, I’d been keeping warm on ascent with extra energy but on descent was rather cold. So I was happy to see signs for visitor center for the Tillamook State forest at mile 32. I arrived 10 minutes before they opened. In 1933 there had been huge 200,000 acre fire here and then after that other huge fires in 1939, 1945 and 1951. Residents noted it must have a “six year curse”. The state inherited a lot of land for non-payment of taxes and eventually this became a state forest. There was also a huge replanting effort with some 72 million trees planted in 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Overall nice displays here and fortunately also warm and dry.

After this another 22 miles mostly following the river and I was down to Tillamook. Weather hadn’t improved much, so first had lunch and then visited the Tillamook cheese factory. The next town with motel was 27 miles further south and into both headwind and rain. I had plenty of time, but decided to keep it easy today and stopped in Tillamook. Forecast is slightly better for tomorrow so will see how the weather does then.



Garmin