I woke early and got going pretty quick this morning not too long after sunrise. Hoping to get the ride over with quick so I could see my wife in Portland and beat the heat. I didn't have any trouble sleeping and it was very quiet all night. Barely any traffic to speak of. I met up with my original route soon and attempted to try a gravel road on my map that I thought might be ok. It turned out to be a gated Weyerhauser owned rail grade gravel road. Oh well. I would be meeting up soon with an official rail trail so I continued on the pavement. And after a few miles, I met the same rail line and it was open. The Crown Zellerbach trail followed an old logging rail line and went through a big timber company camp. I was glad to see gravel again although the traffic on the parallel road was non-existent. After a significant climb up to a pass over the coast range, I descended very gradually back to the Columbia river valley again at Scappoose. I stopped for a quick breakfast of apple turnovers and a soda from the Grocery Outlet, a budget store. The highway wasn't that busy and had a big shoulder. But I turned off onto a deserted climb that was pretty steep. It hit 15% in the middle. It wasn't that hot temperature wise but it was really humid and so I sweated through everything. I was fine once I got to the top and the hills rolled for a time. As I got closer I saw more and more cyclists and they were all way more friendly than I would have thought, and I actually chatted with a few that were interested in my trip. Such cool people here. What few cars I saw gave me plenty of room. Such a nice change from the crazy mess of the coast riding. After a while of riding the ridge, it seemed that maybe I was off course and on the way to somewhere else. But I dropped down into the city at the last minute and was instantly in downtown. I never really saw much of a glimpse of it from anywhere, the trees were always in the way. I found it pretty easy to negotiate the streets and paths, in contrast to riding through Atlanta. You have to plan out a safe route in advance and stick to it like glue. And after some back and forth I finally met Jen after two months of being away. Looking forward to spending the week with her and getting some rest and pretending to be a real human person briefly.