TwoInMotion: Great Columbia Bridge Crossing -- Astoria, OR

We were debating how many times we have done the Astoria Bridge Crossing and we aren't sure, perhaps 4 or 5 times. We do know that the first year was an absolutely HORRIBLE storm and that the water was coming up the drains in the bridge maybe 6 feet high. It's quite surprising that we ever went back, but we did.

This morning we got up at 3:45 am so that we could head to Astoria for what we hoped was a nice day to run across the bridge from Washington to Oregon. This is a 10K run/walk where one lane of traffic is closed on the bridge so that the 1000's of people can walk or run across. The only guidelines are that the runners and walkers must be finished at 11:00 am.

We checked the weather before leaving and the forecast was 45 for a low and 55 for a high. During the drive the temps dropped to 26 degrees....brrrr this was not encouraging, it did warm up to 44 degrees by time we arrived in Astoria.

Packet pick up ended at 7:30 this morning so we planned our arrival at 7:00. There were already lots of people there. Bill dropped me off at the tent to pick up our numbers and there was the usual issue on where they filed my packet. Was it under the B's or the J's. No one ever seems to figure it out. Finally after checking the B's and then the J's and then the B's and then the J's and then going to the main list, they found my packet so off we headed to the parking area.

Parking is at the Port of Astoria is a LONG ways from the bus waiting area. As we drove into the parking lot sunrise was so beautiful we couldn't resist taking a picture.

The next big decision was what to wear, should we take a clothes bag over to the start line and drop it off so that we could stay warm, or not bother with that and just tough out the cold while waiting for the bus. In the end we tried on a couple of different items. Made the decision and decided not to take warm clothes to the start line. So, off we headed to the bus line.

The bus line went on forever and we were actually in line for about 45 minutes. Here I am freezing my buns off.

Once we finally got to the head of the line, we seemed to be in the forgotten line. I think that six different buses passed us before it was finally our turn. The bus was toasty warm after standing outside for so long and we both enjoyed the warmth on the very short ride across the river to Washington.

Once we were off the bus we took a couple of pictures at the start line, which is at a rest area 1 mile from the bridge. I don't know how many people were actually there but it was packed without much room to move around.

At 9:00 the run started and we headed off. It was COLD to say the least. White caps on the river, and a very breezy wind blowing.

It was a pretty good run this year, and this was the first year that we have taken the camera with us. It was kind of fun to stop and take a few pictures along the way. When driving this bridge in a car, it doesn't seem quite as steep as it is when on foot. We took pictures heading up the incline (I over heard someone say it was about 1/2 mile) and then turned and took pictures of all of the people behind us. It's very hard to tell in this size photo, but there are people all of the way back to shore in the looking back photo. The bridge itself is 4.1 miles and we are about 1/4 mile from the summit.