Ha, so I've been more than a little lazy about updating this. Between my apparent need for lots and lots of sleep, and my having been following MotoGP, Moto2, WSBK, House, and Dexter...I got distracted. That said, I should probably offer an apology right off the bat to the people whose names I can no longer recall. Those of you I've met across my travels deserve better than that, and I regret that I wasn't a bit more diligent about remembering or recording the names of the wonderful, helpful, kind, charitable, and awesome people who have supported me in many different ways thus far.
Today begins the 26th week of my tour, making me just about 6 months in. Kind of hard to believe when I don't think about it too much, but when I start to go back through all the 14 states I've been in til now, it feels like it has been a long time since I left home. I got to see my younger sister a couple weeks ago though! She bravely made the arduous drive out there from back home in California, and we got to camp together for a few days and hang out. It was really nice to see a familiar face, family even.
I have been considering how to catch back up as far as this blog goes, and after thinking about it, I think I am going to do a summary for each state, hopefully nothing too droll.
Washington: July 22nd: After I got to Caitlin's house in Bellingham, I immediately felt out of place, haha. For brevity's sake, she and her housemates are wonderfully kind hippies of both genders, who were great fun to hang out with. After the night there, I set off back down the I-5 to find the WA-20, AKA North Cascade Highway. After getting on the new road, I actually had a decent tailwind for most of the day, for the first time on the whole tour! Upon climbing a bit into the Cascades, I found a place to camp for free, got to take a shower, and met another bike tourist, who started telling me about a biking couple I had met back in Big Sur, CA. Turns out he met them the day after I did, LOL! Th next few days were intensely difficult, filled to the brim with hot weather, huge endless climbs, and very narrow road. Winthrop, Twisp, Okanogan, Omak, where I met a nice older German couple, then on through the desert, over "Dysentary Pass" en route to Grand Coulee.
There I met Kort and Gloria, who invited me to camp at their place. Gloria made me breakfast, I killed a day in town, as it was too hot to ride, we 3 had dinner together, then I set off for a night ride to a rest station between Creston and Rearden on WA-2, which as it turned out was surrounded by coyotes. Onward to Spokane, got my first new rear tire, and headed to the Bowl and Pitcher state park, where I was mistaken for a ranger, invited to a wonderful BBQ/picnic/party, and got to meet Teri and Robert, who were the most gracious hosts I could ever imagine meeting at a campground! After camping for a few days, I set off for Idaho!
Idaho: August 3rd: Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene, camped in Cataldo where I met Megan and her husband, who were in the process of moving, and also camped in Cataldo. They made me hot food and we talked too late into the night. After not getting trampled by a moose I was warned about, I set off to summit Lookout Pass, which lies on the ID/MT border.
Montana: August 5th: Western Montana. I made it over the pass and pushed a huge, hot day to get to a rest station in Quartz Flats where I spent the night. Another miserable day to get to Missoula, where I almost quit. I was so burned out on the construction zones, and the endless heat. After arriving at the ACA HQ, enjoying my free ice cream, and talking to some people about why I wanted to quit, I felt a little better. I took a couple days off here, as I found a hostel there run by a nice guy named Dave, who let me camp behind the hostel for pretty cheap. I met some real characters while I was there, namely Peter, and other biker, traveling from Iowa to Yakima Washington, just for fun. We talked a lot about biking and other stuff. Along with Rory, an ex-pat Brit who, for a brief time, went to the same high school as I did, albeit years before I did, we hit the bars one of the nights and had a great time. My ears hurt afterward, but since I don't drink, it was a cheap night for me. Thunderstorms prevailed most of the time I was there, and followed me for quite some time. I made it to the Gold Creek rest area where I ate rehydrated chicken slurry that, while delicious, looked like vomit. From there I pushed to Butte, which really proved its name to me that day. Spent the day in a Starbucks to wait out the heat, then pushed to the top of Homestake Pass, my 1st Continental Divide crossing, where I slept in the back of a flatbed trailer filled with traffic cones.
The next day, I headed for the Lewis and Clark Caverns state park to see some caves! A single 3.22 mile, Cat 2 climb to get to the caves, but it was worth it. Back at the campground I met a youth crew of the MCC, who were a lot of fun to hang with. Another T-storm, but it didn't rain. Slept in the giant stone picnic shelter, and headed for Bozeman the next day. A very dull, hot, and not fun ride. Did I mention I hate cycling? Found a coffee shop to hole up in for the remainder of the day before I got in touch with McKenna, who gave me directions to her and her sister's place. Upon arriving I asked if there were any parks I could stay in, and they invited me to just stay with them. Awesome! I got to meet all the other housemates, and people who were just crashing there for a while, haha. Everyone was incredibly fun and nice to me! We went floating on the Jefferson, jumped 30 feet from a bridge top into the fast water, to parties, Music on Main, and generally just had a good time.
I spent 2 weeks in Bozeman waiting on mail that got lost and I had to have forwarded to Billings, like a month later. After cleaning the whole kitchen at the house while everyone was gone, I headed to my next host's place, Dan and his housemate James, which is also where I met Andrew, a fellow CS'er. Dan, Andrew, and myself did a 4am sunrise hike to the top of the Bridger Bowl ski area, which was amazing. After a few days at Dan's, I headed off for Yellowstone! Took me a day and a night to get down there, a night I spent at Specimen Creek, under a pine tree, with mice running over my bag...
Wyoming: August 18th? Yellowstone was rad, despite running over a huge rock on the way there. I met a family from Australia, the father of which went to Poly! I also met Alex, another fellow biker, also from AU. We rode together for a couple days and camped at Canyon Village for a night, where we got grape-sized hail and a lot of rain. Saw tons of the thermal/water features of the park, then headed out after spending my second night in the amphitheater, from where I watched an amazing thunderstorm light up the night. Headed out of the park, along the lake, I saw a grizzly, which was neat, but I didn't stop, since dying from bear attack doesn't seem like it'd be a quick way to go out... Mailed home some postcards from Fishing Bridge, where they do not sell stamps! Summoned the strength needed to get over Sylvan Pass, got as far as Newton Springs rest area, where my night was again filled with thunder and lightning. From there I made it to Cody, had a sidewall blowout, fixed it at Walmart, then stayed with Jim Pollock, the very nice father of a nice family I didn't get to meet in my brief time there. He reminded me of my own dad in so many ways, it was bizarre, but we got along great and talked about cool guy stuff. Got a late start the next day, only making it to Powell. Another night at a really nice, new rest area in town, the pushed a century to make it to Billings...
Montana, again: Late August: En route to Billings, I met a couple LDS missionary girls at an ice cream shop type drive-in...thing...place. We talked for a couple hours about my trip, saw a gigantic spider under a soda machine, then rode the last 30 mi to Billings, where my hosts Rob and Carey offered to have me come over a day early. Celebrated my 25th while staying with them, got my lost mail finally, and learned about bagpipes. They were really awesome, and even baked cake for all of us! The rest of my time in Montana was miserably stressful, very hot, and not worth continuing to lament.
North Dakota: Another 2 day state, and I hated it a lot. More desolate scenery. Darn good traveler stop in Bowman though, and more wonderful people, gotta admit. It was hot, windy, and boring here. There may be other parts of the state that are far better, but I only saw wheat and dirt, ha.
South Dakota: Identical to ND, til I got to Sturgis. Met some really nice people there, and the ride from there to Rapid City was actually not too terrible. There I met David LaPorte, who is, (and I've confirmed this with other people who have stayed with, him, who I then stayed with in SLC, lol) quite possibly the nicest guy I've ever met. I got to meet a lot of his friends too, while staying in his dorm room with his roommate Erik, at SDSM&T. So fun!!! We went cliff diving at Hippie Hole, made a communal dinner, and generally just had a lot of fun! Looking forward to maybe hiking the AT with David someday, maybe! After 5 days, I reluctantly said my farewell and headed into the Black Hills. Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse were rad, camped in Custer, then back into...
Wyoming, again: Only good things about my 2nd and last time through WY was the people I met. More generous souls who gave me food, cash, encouragement, water, shelter, and were great help! Lusk, Douglas, Casper, Alcova, a bitchin bicycles-only TeePee campground that was FREE, near Lamont. Finally into Rawlins after several more CD crossings, where I met Damon and Roxy, the amazing Australian biking couple who were on the ACA Great Divide route. Mad props to them for that! We met up by chance at the McD's there, and spent the next day and 2 nights resting up and camping in parks and gazebos. They are hilarious, and super nice! We went shopping at the Mennonite discount grocery store in Rawlins, battled sprinkler systems in the park, and totally skimmed free hotel continental breakfast! After saying farewell, I stayed another night in the Gazebo, then rode out towards another middle of nowhere rest area along the I-80, Green River, Lyman, and Evanston, where I CS'd at Mauritzio's house. He is an awesome Army guy who was a lot of fun to hang with for a night, and really saved me from another night in a park, lol! This was my last night in WY, and the next day I made it into...
Utah: September 30th: Promptly got a flat as soon as I left Evanston, just by the state line. Fixed that and booked it to Echo, UT, with a downhill tailwind, only the third time of the tour! Got to the rest area there where I was planning to camp, got some maps and talked to the nice lady there about the terrain and Utah in general. Somehow managed to rock like 80 miles or so to get to Kimball Junction, where I stealth camped an overpriced RV park, and let a guy use my phone to Onstar himself back into his locked H3. Woke up to ice all over my stuff, warmed up in the McD's and started over the Parley Summit area to begin my epic awesome bitchin cool descent into SLC! Hit 53mph on the way down the I-80 grade and passed a few trucks, lol!
At this point I had made arrangements to meet up with Sandy, my soon-to-be riding partner, but she was about 18 days behind my schedule, so I had a lot of time off in SLC, which was great. I read 5 novels: Anathem, The Instructions, Carte Blanche, Shut Your Eyes Tight, and Half Past Dawn. Met a lot of cool people while hanging out at B&N, got my bike worked on for super cheap, though I had to ride 30 miles r/t to the REI there. Did some people-watching at the Gateway Mall. All told, I stayed with 5 different hosts: Kara and Bucky-Great young couple who met at Burning Man! Travis-Rock climber extraordinaire and fellow adventurer. Aliska and Nate-Greeted my arrival by running from unearthed backyard beehive, lol! Brian and Jamie-A marathon running couple who took me to a great night at a local pub called Squatters and taught me cool stuff about marathons. Audrey-Free spirited climber girl who rides a moped, yeah! Then Travis and his housemates Sky and Steve again, but by then I had Sandy with me too. Everyone was so gracious and awesome to hang out with, and I look forward to being able to go back and acknowledge all these people in a huge list someday, maybe in a book...
October 19th: From SLC, Sandy and I rode to Provo. Here it became very clear that we would be taking non-interstate roads for a while, haha. Stayed with Christine in Provo, she made us breakfast, and we were back on the 89 for the rest of boring Utah. Some more cool places to camp, but more hot weather during the days. We fought a few righteous battles against some really intense winds, sometimes while climbing. It was gnar! After week or so we made it to Mt. Carmel Junction where Sandy opted to go west to Zion, whereas I had already made plans to meet my sister at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My night in Kanab was my last in Utah, and of course, we had a huge T-storm that night...
Arizona: Fredonia rest area was a great place to sleep. Climbed the entirety of the Kaibab Plateau to arrive at the North Rim.
My sister and I camped both rims over several days, then I met back up
with Sandy and her 2 newfound partners, Richard and Gina, in Flagstaff. Reluctantly had to drop a lot of coin on staying in a hostel in Flagstaff, as it was thunderstorming and snowing for 2 days. We had a lot of fun meeting people from around the world, and eating lots of food. Sandy split off with R&G to go down to Tucson and take the southern route to our next planned meetup in Lubbock, Texas. I still needed to check CO off my list, so I set out from Flag on the I-40 east. Winslow, Holbrook, Lupton, then food poisoning. First night was the worst, but started to get better after that.
New Mexico: This state is a lot like AZ, but seems to have some more foresty areas. Still not quite off the CO Plateau though, so elevations are still rather high. Due to weather concerns like continued snow storms, and the fact that I was not feeling up to my normal level of performance, I hitched a ride with an awesome driver named J, who kindly put my rig in his truck and helped me get through a corner of NM and over the one huge pass that lies on the CO/NM border, Raton Pass, which was still inundated with snow. I feel really bad about "cheating" for this part of the tour, but since I ended up getting back on the bike and riding as far north as CO Springs, on the off chance that I might get to see a friend who lives here, the mileage to Lubbock will be the same as my original route of only touching the very bottom, SW corner of the state while en route through the length of NM. Still, sucks that I had to take a ride, but riding while sick is crappy.
Colorado: On the I-25 North the whole time en route to Coloado Springs. Nausea pretty much totally gone at this point. Half of it was open, flat, snow-covered fields, the other half was hilly with some ravine-looking features. A lot of snow still on the ground, and sometimes a little still falling. It gets down to freezing by sundown, so not a lot of time to stay up and do stuff. Good thing though is that coming up past Trinidad, Aguilar, and Pueblo, there are several DOT rest areas, which I cannot tell you how nice they are to find and stay at! Slept on the carpeted 2nd story balcony of a condemned apartment building in Fountain, before getting up for the last 20 miles or so to
Colorado Springs. I got kind of lost in the city and had to backtrack South on the interstate for a bit, but then I found this cool place called the Coffee Exchange on Tejon st. Really nice place. They had great food, free wi-fi, and a nice seating area outside. I was planning to stay in a park, but my aunt Jenny got in touch and told me that her best friends lived there and that I could stay with them. Yay! I'm at Phil and Lorri's lovely home right now, and it's been wonderful to have such a nice place to stay with such amazingly kind and generous people! I leave tomorrow to head south, hopefully making it to Lubbock, Texas, in time to meet back up with Sandy, Richard, and Gina.
Hopefully this format is a little easier to parse, enjoy!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Goodbye to the Pacific, the I-5, and my voicemails...
I'm Camping at the Bowl and Pitcher State Park in Spokane, Washington. I am eagerly awaiting making it into Idaho tomorrow and finally being out of WA. Riding the North Cascade Highway, and the way south through Grand Coulee to Spokane has been miserable, with extremely challenging terrain, lots of heat, and mostly headwinds, despite heading SE.
Anyway, going back to where I left off last time, I met a guy named Martin while heading up the I-5 to Bellingham. He was also on a very long tour which had begun about a year prior when he left his home in Estonia to tour through western Europe for 6 months, before heading to the Canary Islands, the Carribean, and Miami, where he began a ~6 month tour of the US. He was on his way to Vancouver, BC, when we met at a McDonalds in Burlington. We talked for a bit before he headed out, then met up later at a DOT rest area where we talked more about our mutual dislike for touring, haha. Talking to someone else who knows exactly what I mean when I say it that way was great. Some people think it's all fun and lollygagging when you tour, and forget that towing 75 pounds of gear 60-90 miles a day is actually more like gruelling torture than any kind of fun. For me at least, the only real fun has been the neat places I've stayed, and all the awesome people I've met so far. The actual cycling component of the trip is really pretty crappy.
After we exchanged info and headed north at different rates, me determined to get to Bellingham ASAP, I began a frighteningly fast descent into town. I found the REI and finally swapped out my rear cassette to something with more hill-friendly ratios. I also had my spokes tightened, as they were apparently half as tight as they should have been, eek! I bought loads of freeze dried food in prep for being on the ferry to Alaska, since I assumed correctly that food on the boat was very expensive, and was able to leave my trailer and a bunch of stuff at the REI, things I knew I would not need while on the ferry, or in Alaska, since I wouldn't be staying in any one of the cities in Alaska for very long before getting back on the boat.
I got to the ferry terminal just before the walk-on passenger cut-off time and paid for my tickets, both to Juneau and back to Bellingham. I got in line to board the ship, slowly pushing my stuff forward as the line creeped on. The two girls ahead of me were wondering aloud why the line was moving so slowly if they weren't checking through anyone's luggage, to which I had to submit my half-joking theory that the longer they make you wait, with screaming kids all around, the more likely you are to get pissed off and head straight for the bar once you get onboard, thereby creating more revenue for themselves. This got some laughs, and so began my getting to know the group I have affectionately nicknamed the LSU Crew. Meredith and Victoria, the girls I had just met, were among a group of about 30 students from Louisiana State who were all headed to the college in Juneau for some summer courses. Naturally, while en route to Alaska, we all talked about why we were headed up there. After telling them about my tour they were pretty shocked, as are most people, but if nothing else it always makes for a great conversation starter. We made it onboard eventually as everyone began to explore the ship a bit to get a feel for where everything was. Soon, I set to stowing my stuff, taking pictures, and trying to find a wireless signal before we left the harbor. I was pretty giddy about the idea of going to Alaska, and my first time on a big boat.
Our first stop was to be Ketchikan, and not for like a day and a half, so we had lots of time to kill. There is something odd about the atmosphere on the ferry that seems to make everyone just want to sleep all the time, which is at odds with the fact that once we were far north, there was only about 6 hours of darkness. Among other things, this led to spending a lot of time in the bar/lounge, lol! The first night of the 3 it took to reach Juneau, technically the Auke Bay Terminal, I wandered into the lounge to see what it was like, and saw most of the LSU people there already. Regardless of my not drinking, it was the most entertaining place to be for me, so I found Meredith and Victoria, said hi, and so began the funnest boat trip I've ever taken!
I was introduced to like 20 new people that first night, and though it was a joke when I met 3 Katherines, though I think they all spell it differently. We talked some about my trip and why I would do something so crazy, where all of them had grown up and come from, what they were studying, etc. it wa a hell of a lot of fun and everyone was so incredibly nice to kind of adopt me into their little groups for the duration of the trip. Over those 3 days we all spent a lot of time in the bar, apparently making one of the bartenders really mad. There was not exactly a mob of all 30 someodd of us at all times, but when in the bar it was at least a dozen, or more if one of their teachers was drinking with us too, lol. Of course, my drink for the weekend, as always, was ice water with a cherry, which the bartender remembered the whole time I was in there. I took the liberty of shooting some pictures of everyone in the bar one of the nights, much to the delight of all who saw them. I have since hosted them online for all of them to copy at their leisure, and have received many thanks for giving them another way to remember the fun times on the trip.
We all spent a lot of time on the upper decks watching active displays of sea life, and soaking up the occasional sunny hours. I ate with some of the groups a few times, spilling HOT lasagna all over my lap at one lunch, which was more than a little embarassing, lol. After we ended up waiting for our breakfasts for an hour, and the LSU crew needing to get to class onboard the ship, which was held in the bar FYI, I delivered our food by wheeled cart in the middle of class, and more or less sat in on their classes for the day after we all ate our late breakfast during the class. I cannot stress how nice it was to have people to hang out with over the course of what might have ended up being a very boring boat ride. Everyone was so friendly and funny and just awesome! If any of you read this, you have my sincerest thanks for making my trip up there so much damn fun!! :D
I slept in when we arrived in Auke Bay, my major stop, preferring to sleep til the last minute before I had to get off the ferry and head into the Alaskan summer rain. It was about 6am or so when I got outside and headed for the bus terminal in Auke Bay itself, which would take me and my stuff toward Juneau. I saw the Mendenhall Glacier, lots of trees, and lots of clouds, ha. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and almost foggy near the Glacier, so the pics are few and less than ideal. Th sense of scale of the scenery is hard to grasp, but seeing it in person, even through the rain, was incredible. Obviously I saw a lot from the ferry itself, but traveling along the base of these huge snowy mountains was different and awe inspiring. I will admit to spending much of my time in the Juneau/Auke Bay area inside Safeway, using the internet to download MotoGP races, lol! I did explore some while I was there, but the constant rain made me think more and more that although it was cool to go there and tour around a little, getting a small slice of what it's like there has made me want to plan an entirely separate, non-bicycle based trip back up there someday, which made me feel less bad about only being there for a short time.
The night I caught the ferry headed back to Bellingham, WA, it was about midnight when the ship arrived. While waiting at the terminal for a few hours, I met Jack, and 50 something from SE Australia who was doing some world travel. He was an awesome guy and we shared some good travel tales, and talked about my crazy trip. I learned a lot about Australia that I didn't know, and got some good tips on some places I now want to visit when I hopefully make it down there someday. Once onboard I was lucky enough to land a reclining chair space in the Solarium, which is the glass top, heated, partially enclosed deck on the aft end of the ship, basically where everyone wants to sleep, as most people don't want to pay for a cabin. Over the whole trip I stayed up pretty late most nights, partly to help me sleep later than 6am, ha. Editing/taking pictures, journaling, and without the LSU Crew, spending a lot of time watching anime and motorcycle races on my laptop. They have a recliner lounge onboard that shows movies so I watched a couple I hadn't seen. Secretariat had the place pretty full so I sat on the floor in an empty space next to the two girls who would end up making the return leg of the trip much more interesting and a lot of fun.
Taking a step back though, in case you haven't from the pictures on the FB page, I only have one pair of pants with me: my fatigues. Also known to most people as "camo pants." When I was packing for this trip, aware that space and weight are at an absolute premium, I looked at my closet and thought "what are the most durable clothes I own?" Well, all my t-shirts were the same quality, so I simply chose my favorite. For pants, the decision was clear: fatigues. I have had this pair since middle school, they still fit, and are in excellent condition even after years of use. Granted, it does make me feel like a weirdo to wear them so often while off the bike, but it is what it is. Those of you who know how I used to dress on a daily basis in the years before I left to start this tour, can hopefully fully appreciate how odd it is for me to dress like this nowadays, ha!
So, I think it was on the second day headed back to Bellingham, I was ascending the narrow stairs up to the Solarium when, upon reacing the landing at the top of the stairwell, the girl ahead of me turns and compliments me on my pants...I may or may not have blushed. Usually such a comment from an attractive young lady would have been made in jest, or perhaps even out of ridicule, but it seemed it was sincere. I said thank you and proceeded to offer a brief explanation, similar to the one I just offered you, as to why I was always wearing them. This began a long, splendid conversation, though partially, unfortunately, ruled by my motor-mouth (I hadn't even had any coffee! :/ ), but also the making of this awesome new acquaintance, McKenna.
She and her sister Haley (I'm so sorry if I spelled it incorrectly! ;D ) had been who I was sitting next to while in the movie room the day prior. We chatted about where we were from, my bike tour, travel, school, weather, all kinds of stuff. Sometime into this, my manners came back to me and I introduced myself. Eventually her sister came up and I met both her and the 2 other fellow travelers, Chris and Louie. After introductions and a brief explanation of my trip we all talked and hung out for a while. McKenna and Haley were headed to Montana for school, Chris was eventually making his way back to Minnesota, while Louie was, if I remember correctly, just hanging out in Bellingham for the day before heading back north on the ferry towards his home. Again, I had been blessed with meeting new, incredibly awesome people while on the boat, so cool! Later that day, in search of food, we headed down to the dining room to see about dinner. After waiting around, killing time for over an hour (The arcade!!!), and a false alarm of a ready table, we were finally seated for dinner, and of course, more great conversations. After sharing food, stories, and our respective destinations/travel plans, (but not before McKenna and I discovered we share the same favorite book(!)) we set off for the lounge where we was treated to live music, singing sisters, and Haley rocking out on the guitar! Good times, indeed. After a truly great night of getting to know these fine new fellows of mine, we all retired to sleep until the next morning, bright and very early, when we were approaching Bellingham, our final stop.
Waking a couple hours before our arrival time, we said our groggy good mornings and regrouped to seek food. After finding out that the dining room would not be open that morning we headed to the cafeteria where I ate probably my 20th and 21st bagels since I had started my ferry journey a week prior. After packing up we all met up on the car deck where I had the pleasure of meeting the final member of our little troop, Charlie, the fluffiest dog I've ever met, and a very well behaved pup, considering the hectoc, loud environment that is the car deck upon disembarking. Eventually the four of them drove off the ship, I walked, and they found me again near the terminal driveway. We somehow managed to fit everyone's stuff, all 5 people, and Charlie into the car as we headed into town to drop people off, a service for which I am eternally grateful. :D Along the way, as everyone's phones were coming to life, I was apparently stored in a phone as "Loren camo pants," despite my protests, haha!
We dropped Louie first at a coffee shop, then me at the REI so I could pick up my stuff and start the ride to my hosts' house in Bellingham. After exchanging contact info, donating half of a huge back of sugar smacks to their long drive, and making sure I had all my stuff, I bid farwell to my new friends. I say farewell instead of the usual goodbye since, in keeping with their infinitely kind demeanors, all 3 offered to meet up again along the rest of my trip when I was to pass through their respective parts of the country. Big smile on my face even as I type that. I'll be so stoked to see a familiar face or two!
While waiting for the REI to open I killed most of the day at the Sbux across the parking lot, doing more mapping, trip research, and getting in touch with my CouchSurfing host, Caitlin. Once I left REI I had some errands to run in town, like the bank, and the Verizon store in the mall off I-5, just north of Bellingham center. The bank took no time at all, but the phone thing took forever. I had to switch my account to pre-paid, huge PITA, made easier only by the fact that the people who were handling it understood that I was not in a rush, so they were getting it done right...for the most part...I just found out that I was apparently misinformed with regards to my voicemail setup, and have consequently lost all my saved voicemails, 20 or so I had saved over the past 6 years, really special ones from dear friends, funny ones, happy birthday wishes from family, etc. I'm fucking livid, since I even asked about that and was not told they would be lost in the conversion. Now there is no way to go back and get them. Very displeased...
Anyway, I'm too pissed to keep typing so I'll have to pick this up again soon to cover from leaving Bellingham to wherever I am when I have internet again...TTFN.
Anyway, going back to where I left off last time, I met a guy named Martin while heading up the I-5 to Bellingham. He was also on a very long tour which had begun about a year prior when he left his home in Estonia to tour through western Europe for 6 months, before heading to the Canary Islands, the Carribean, and Miami, where he began a ~6 month tour of the US. He was on his way to Vancouver, BC, when we met at a McDonalds in Burlington. We talked for a bit before he headed out, then met up later at a DOT rest area where we talked more about our mutual dislike for touring, haha. Talking to someone else who knows exactly what I mean when I say it that way was great. Some people think it's all fun and lollygagging when you tour, and forget that towing 75 pounds of gear 60-90 miles a day is actually more like gruelling torture than any kind of fun. For me at least, the only real fun has been the neat places I've stayed, and all the awesome people I've met so far. The actual cycling component of the trip is really pretty crappy.
After we exchanged info and headed north at different rates, me determined to get to Bellingham ASAP, I began a frighteningly fast descent into town. I found the REI and finally swapped out my rear cassette to something with more hill-friendly ratios. I also had my spokes tightened, as they were apparently half as tight as they should have been, eek! I bought loads of freeze dried food in prep for being on the ferry to Alaska, since I assumed correctly that food on the boat was very expensive, and was able to leave my trailer and a bunch of stuff at the REI, things I knew I would not need while on the ferry, or in Alaska, since I wouldn't be staying in any one of the cities in Alaska for very long before getting back on the boat.
I got to the ferry terminal just before the walk-on passenger cut-off time and paid for my tickets, both to Juneau and back to Bellingham. I got in line to board the ship, slowly pushing my stuff forward as the line creeped on. The two girls ahead of me were wondering aloud why the line was moving so slowly if they weren't checking through anyone's luggage, to which I had to submit my half-joking theory that the longer they make you wait, with screaming kids all around, the more likely you are to get pissed off and head straight for the bar once you get onboard, thereby creating more revenue for themselves. This got some laughs, and so began my getting to know the group I have affectionately nicknamed the LSU Crew. Meredith and Victoria, the girls I had just met, were among a group of about 30 students from Louisiana State who were all headed to the college in Juneau for some summer courses. Naturally, while en route to Alaska, we all talked about why we were headed up there. After telling them about my tour they were pretty shocked, as are most people, but if nothing else it always makes for a great conversation starter. We made it onboard eventually as everyone began to explore the ship a bit to get a feel for where everything was. Soon, I set to stowing my stuff, taking pictures, and trying to find a wireless signal before we left the harbor. I was pretty giddy about the idea of going to Alaska, and my first time on a big boat.
Our first stop was to be Ketchikan, and not for like a day and a half, so we had lots of time to kill. There is something odd about the atmosphere on the ferry that seems to make everyone just want to sleep all the time, which is at odds with the fact that once we were far north, there was only about 6 hours of darkness. Among other things, this led to spending a lot of time in the bar/lounge, lol! The first night of the 3 it took to reach Juneau, technically the Auke Bay Terminal, I wandered into the lounge to see what it was like, and saw most of the LSU people there already. Regardless of my not drinking, it was the most entertaining place to be for me, so I found Meredith and Victoria, said hi, and so began the funnest boat trip I've ever taken!
I was introduced to like 20 new people that first night, and though it was a joke when I met 3 Katherines, though I think they all spell it differently. We talked some about my trip and why I would do something so crazy, where all of them had grown up and come from, what they were studying, etc. it wa a hell of a lot of fun and everyone was so incredibly nice to kind of adopt me into their little groups for the duration of the trip. Over those 3 days we all spent a lot of time in the bar, apparently making one of the bartenders really mad. There was not exactly a mob of all 30 someodd of us at all times, but when in the bar it was at least a dozen, or more if one of their teachers was drinking with us too, lol. Of course, my drink for the weekend, as always, was ice water with a cherry, which the bartender remembered the whole time I was in there. I took the liberty of shooting some pictures of everyone in the bar one of the nights, much to the delight of all who saw them. I have since hosted them online for all of them to copy at their leisure, and have received many thanks for giving them another way to remember the fun times on the trip.
We all spent a lot of time on the upper decks watching active displays of sea life, and soaking up the occasional sunny hours. I ate with some of the groups a few times, spilling HOT lasagna all over my lap at one lunch, which was more than a little embarassing, lol. After we ended up waiting for our breakfasts for an hour, and the LSU crew needing to get to class onboard the ship, which was held in the bar FYI, I delivered our food by wheeled cart in the middle of class, and more or less sat in on their classes for the day after we all ate our late breakfast during the class. I cannot stress how nice it was to have people to hang out with over the course of what might have ended up being a very boring boat ride. Everyone was so friendly and funny and just awesome! If any of you read this, you have my sincerest thanks for making my trip up there so much damn fun!! :D
I slept in when we arrived in Auke Bay, my major stop, preferring to sleep til the last minute before I had to get off the ferry and head into the Alaskan summer rain. It was about 6am or so when I got outside and headed for the bus terminal in Auke Bay itself, which would take me and my stuff toward Juneau. I saw the Mendenhall Glacier, lots of trees, and lots of clouds, ha. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and almost foggy near the Glacier, so the pics are few and less than ideal. Th sense of scale of the scenery is hard to grasp, but seeing it in person, even through the rain, was incredible. Obviously I saw a lot from the ferry itself, but traveling along the base of these huge snowy mountains was different and awe inspiring. I will admit to spending much of my time in the Juneau/Auke Bay area inside Safeway, using the internet to download MotoGP races, lol! I did explore some while I was there, but the constant rain made me think more and more that although it was cool to go there and tour around a little, getting a small slice of what it's like there has made me want to plan an entirely separate, non-bicycle based trip back up there someday, which made me feel less bad about only being there for a short time.
The night I caught the ferry headed back to Bellingham, WA, it was about midnight when the ship arrived. While waiting at the terminal for a few hours, I met Jack, and 50 something from SE Australia who was doing some world travel. He was an awesome guy and we shared some good travel tales, and talked about my crazy trip. I learned a lot about Australia that I didn't know, and got some good tips on some places I now want to visit when I hopefully make it down there someday. Once onboard I was lucky enough to land a reclining chair space in the Solarium, which is the glass top, heated, partially enclosed deck on the aft end of the ship, basically where everyone wants to sleep, as most people don't want to pay for a cabin. Over the whole trip I stayed up pretty late most nights, partly to help me sleep later than 6am, ha. Editing/taking pictures, journaling, and without the LSU Crew, spending a lot of time watching anime and motorcycle races on my laptop. They have a recliner lounge onboard that shows movies so I watched a couple I hadn't seen. Secretariat had the place pretty full so I sat on the floor in an empty space next to the two girls who would end up making the return leg of the trip much more interesting and a lot of fun.
Taking a step back though, in case you haven't from the pictures on the FB page, I only have one pair of pants with me: my fatigues. Also known to most people as "camo pants." When I was packing for this trip, aware that space and weight are at an absolute premium, I looked at my closet and thought "what are the most durable clothes I own?" Well, all my t-shirts were the same quality, so I simply chose my favorite. For pants, the decision was clear: fatigues. I have had this pair since middle school, they still fit, and are in excellent condition even after years of use. Granted, it does make me feel like a weirdo to wear them so often while off the bike, but it is what it is. Those of you who know how I used to dress on a daily basis in the years before I left to start this tour, can hopefully fully appreciate how odd it is for me to dress like this nowadays, ha!
So, I think it was on the second day headed back to Bellingham, I was ascending the narrow stairs up to the Solarium when, upon reacing the landing at the top of the stairwell, the girl ahead of me turns and compliments me on my pants...I may or may not have blushed. Usually such a comment from an attractive young lady would have been made in jest, or perhaps even out of ridicule, but it seemed it was sincere. I said thank you and proceeded to offer a brief explanation, similar to the one I just offered you, as to why I was always wearing them. This began a long, splendid conversation, though partially, unfortunately, ruled by my motor-mouth (I hadn't even had any coffee! :/ ), but also the making of this awesome new acquaintance, McKenna.
She and her sister Haley (I'm so sorry if I spelled it incorrectly! ;D ) had been who I was sitting next to while in the movie room the day prior. We chatted about where we were from, my bike tour, travel, school, weather, all kinds of stuff. Sometime into this, my manners came back to me and I introduced myself. Eventually her sister came up and I met both her and the 2 other fellow travelers, Chris and Louie. After introductions and a brief explanation of my trip we all talked and hung out for a while. McKenna and Haley were headed to Montana for school, Chris was eventually making his way back to Minnesota, while Louie was, if I remember correctly, just hanging out in Bellingham for the day before heading back north on the ferry towards his home. Again, I had been blessed with meeting new, incredibly awesome people while on the boat, so cool! Later that day, in search of food, we headed down to the dining room to see about dinner. After waiting around, killing time for over an hour (The arcade!!!), and a false alarm of a ready table, we were finally seated for dinner, and of course, more great conversations. After sharing food, stories, and our respective destinations/travel plans, (but not before McKenna and I discovered we share the same favorite book(!)) we set off for the lounge where we was treated to live music, singing sisters, and Haley rocking out on the guitar! Good times, indeed. After a truly great night of getting to know these fine new fellows of mine, we all retired to sleep until the next morning, bright and very early, when we were approaching Bellingham, our final stop.
Waking a couple hours before our arrival time, we said our groggy good mornings and regrouped to seek food. After finding out that the dining room would not be open that morning we headed to the cafeteria where I ate probably my 20th and 21st bagels since I had started my ferry journey a week prior. After packing up we all met up on the car deck where I had the pleasure of meeting the final member of our little troop, Charlie, the fluffiest dog I've ever met, and a very well behaved pup, considering the hectoc, loud environment that is the car deck upon disembarking. Eventually the four of them drove off the ship, I walked, and they found me again near the terminal driveway. We somehow managed to fit everyone's stuff, all 5 people, and Charlie into the car as we headed into town to drop people off, a service for which I am eternally grateful. :D Along the way, as everyone's phones were coming to life, I was apparently stored in a phone as "Loren camo pants," despite my protests, haha!
We dropped Louie first at a coffee shop, then me at the REI so I could pick up my stuff and start the ride to my hosts' house in Bellingham. After exchanging contact info, donating half of a huge back of sugar smacks to their long drive, and making sure I had all my stuff, I bid farwell to my new friends. I say farewell instead of the usual goodbye since, in keeping with their infinitely kind demeanors, all 3 offered to meet up again along the rest of my trip when I was to pass through their respective parts of the country. Big smile on my face even as I type that. I'll be so stoked to see a familiar face or two!
While waiting for the REI to open I killed most of the day at the Sbux across the parking lot, doing more mapping, trip research, and getting in touch with my CouchSurfing host, Caitlin. Once I left REI I had some errands to run in town, like the bank, and the Verizon store in the mall off I-5, just north of Bellingham center. The bank took no time at all, but the phone thing took forever. I had to switch my account to pre-paid, huge PITA, made easier only by the fact that the people who were handling it understood that I was not in a rush, so they were getting it done right...for the most part...I just found out that I was apparently misinformed with regards to my voicemail setup, and have consequently lost all my saved voicemails, 20 or so I had saved over the past 6 years, really special ones from dear friends, funny ones, happy birthday wishes from family, etc. I'm fucking livid, since I even asked about that and was not told they would be lost in the conversion. Now there is no way to go back and get them. Very displeased...
Anyway, I'm too pissed to keep typing so I'll have to pick this up again soon to cover from leaving Bellingham to wherever I am when I have internet again...TTFN.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Vampires, ferries, and Fireworks
Timeline is a little tweaked...As I post this I'm actually in Auke Bay/Juneau, Alaska...
Port Angeles, Washington, stayed with some awesome CouchSurfing hosts. I did a 2 day excursion to Forks, the Twilight Capitol of the world, so that I could fulfill a promise and mail off a few postcards. The ride was abhorrent, haha. Some areas were pretty, but most of it was just tree-encompassed, grueling uphills, and long slight downward slopes. I battled a stiff headwind 90% of the way there on Friday, and the same damned wind on the way back, Saturday, which makes no sense to me, but oh well. It was "only" 60 miles one way, which looked simple enough on a flat map, but the topo views would convince me otherwise. It also took 3 pieces of French toast, 2 eggs, 5 english muffins, 1 Payday candy bar, 3 bananas, 1 cup of coffee, and about 2 gallons of water to get me back to my hosts' house. I stopped at the store on my way back and then devoured half a pound of Chinese-chicken salad from the deli, 3/4 of a loaf of french bread, 2 cinnamon rolls, drank most of a 1 liter chocolate protein shake (64g whey/soy blend) which I used in place of milk so I could eat 3/4 of a huge box of Cocoa Rice Crispies. I was still hungry, but I knew I needed to save some food. Fortunate for me though, an anonymous couple who I can only assume overheard me talking about my trip with someone else, paid for my breakfast in Forks. Thanks again, that was a really nice surprise. :)
But, I digress, back to Eugene, land of microbreweries, natural food stores, and lots of bicycles. It also happens to be where my friend Ian calls home, which was awesome. Hanging out with a fellow devoted cyclist and outdoorsman was a lot of fun, and he was gracious enough to have me stay with him for a couple days. Used most of my downtime to eat and sleep in, as well as doing some mapping and figuring out where I'd be staying in Portland. My last night at Ian's place we feasted on some delicious chicken tacos that he cooked, which was way cool. Still getting used to having people cook for me, but it is indeed pretty rad.
Leaving from Eugene I made it a bit over 100 miles to the Badlock rest stop off I-5, and made it there dry too, which was a big blessing. A nice place, with lots of trees, good lighting, and nice people. In just a few hours I met a lot of really nice people who wanted to follow the trip, and a sweet little older lady who wouldn't take no for an answer when she insisted I accept the dollar she wanted to donate to my trip. :) I found one of the buildings toward the rear end of the park that was closed, so I set up camp there, knowing it was going to rain, which it did, quite a bit. Got up in the morning and was scolded for having camped there, so I ate in a hurry and caught a break in the rain that allowed me to book it towards Portland along I-5, in the wet, during rush hour...
Stopped at a Starbucks just south of Portland and got in touch with my next CS host, Kristin, who got back to me in a flash and kindly agreed to host me for a couple days. After arriving at her awesome apartment in Portland and chatting for a bit, I got cleaned up and got to relaxing and taking in the view. I explored a bit later, taking the super cool aerial tram up the to hospital campus above the city. They have a little grassy area near the base of the lift where they keep goats that eat all the weeds so no one has to go down there and mow under the cables! So cool! Back to the apartment, did some mapping. Got a great night's sleep on the comfy couch and took most of the next day to go explore the city. Took the aerial tram again for fun, read at Powell's Books for like 5 hours, got some food, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed riding the streetcar system that takes you all over the city.
Kristin cooked a wonderful salmon dinner one of the nights I was there, thank you very much! I'm finding that I've grown to like fish after all, so long as it doesn't taste fishy, heh. The morning I left and set off toward Lewis and Clark state park was a rough stretch of I-5 that seemed to go on forever. Finally made it there and found out that all the hike&bike areas in WA are 14 dollars! I decided that was way too rich for my tastes so I camped on yet another picnic bench that night...Got up the next day to head to Tacoma, where I was planning to take the ferry to Vashon Island. Scrapped that upon further review of my route so after 80 miles, I illegally rode over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which, thankfully, did not fall apart. Camped at Goodman middle school in Artondale. Slept great, got up the next day to ride up 30 miles to Bremerton where I took my very first boat ride EVER to Seattle!
Once I got to the ferry port at Bremerton I assumed I'd have to stop, get out my wallet, tell them where I was going, etc. I saw the booth and turned off my mp3 player just in time to have the guy lean out the booth and ask if I was going to Seattle. I yelled back that was correct and he waved my through and said "Hurry, it's about to leave!" I raced down the ramp towards the boat as they were preparing to leave. The parking controllers waved me where to go and we were away, already moving before I had parked my bike. I was a little freaked out, ha. After I got my bike situated I talked to some other cyclists, then headed up to the passenger decks to snap some pictures. It was about an hour long ride but it went fast, and was a lot less scary than I thought it would be, so long as I didn't think about how deep the water was. We made it to Seattle and I disembarked with the horde of other bikes, heading to the first Starbucks I could find. After asking another cyclist, I found one just up the street from the docks. Parked the bike, got out my laptop and set to work looking for a last minute couch in Seattle. I did eventually find one, but not before I met a guy named Blake.
Blake was on a solo motorcycle journey that started in Vermont a month prior. He was also hanging out at the Starbucks and we got to talking about motorcycle stuff, and traveling in general. We got to talking about where we were staying and he offered me to crash with he and his friend who had put him up in the best Western down the street. I thanked him and said if I didn't find anything else that I'd be stoked to have a place to stay. 4 Hours later or so, Blake and his friend came back to the Starbucks and we got to talking about how to smuggle me into the hotel. Turned out it was as simple as walking the bike in, waving the to desk clerk, and taking it into the elevator up to the room, haha. Now, imagine fitting 3 guys, a bike, and my trailer into a small hotel room...It was pretty snug, haha. I crashed on the floor for the 2 nights we were there and it was awesome. Blake and I are both on VERY tight budgets and were eternally grateful for the amazing breakfast room at the hotel, eating ourselves more than full on both days, and taking extras back with us.
Watching the fireworks in Seattle for July 4th was pretty rad. Didn't really do much else while in the city, but it was nice to relax. Tuesday afternoon I headed out on another ferry, across the sound to Bainbridge Island, beginning the 50 someodd mile ride to Kitsap Memorial State Park, where I had the lucky fortune of finding an empty building to sleep in, due to a more or less unlocked log cabin type structure, used for large parties and such. That night I got a call back from my next CS host in Port Angeles. E said she'd be happy to have me stay with her and the fam. I was very glad to know I would have a place to stay. I left Kitsap headed for PA, mostly along the 104 and the 101 West, a direction I'm not used to seeing printed on the US-101 signs. I almost got hit by a dear while about to merge onto the 101, which was pretty gnarly. It continued running across the highway and in front of a Prius, narrowly avoiding another collision. The rest of the ride to PA was really pretty tough, with lots of hills and lots of headwind. I finally arrived at the McDonalds where I used the wi-fi to check my emails. I called E back and got directions. Once I arrived I was welcomed in, met Mike, and told to make myself at home, shown my ROOM, and told to eat anything I found in the house, haha. We immediately started talking about the tour, and Mike's similar touring experiences in Germany and neighboring western EU countries. It was pretty rad to find people to stay with who were also into outdoors stuff! E is a bigtime surfer who has lived all over the world, and she knew exactly where I was from when I told her about Morro Bay.
Mike and E were setting off for a big walk so I jumped in the shower and got cleaned up a bit, which felt great. I ate second dinner before we all enjoyed home made mango pie with vanilla ice cream. At this point I felt pretty spoiled, haha. Called it a pretty early night at around 1am and passed out, sleeping in til about 9 or so. I used most of the day to blog some stuff, then went to the grocery store and explored a bit. Ate lots of food, hung out for a bit, then got rested up for my ride west to the edge of the US, and Forks! E said I was welcome to come right back after my 2 day out and back to Forks, which was totally rad. Including breaks it took me 7 hours to make it to Forks! It was VERY hilly, windy, and not fun. After completing my obligatory tasks in town, getting some food in me, and chatting with a nice Swiss couple about places they should see while driving down the CA coast, I retired to my stealth camping site at the back of Forks elementary school, lol. Shortly before dark, a police unit stopped when he saw me throwing away some trash. I assumed I was in trouble and was gonna get the boot. He asked me what I was doing, where I was coming from, the usual stuff. I told him my wallet was near my bike, in the alcove, but gave him my info and waited while he checked it out. He came back and we talked a bit about my bike tour, where I was headed, all that. I showed him my ID and he was a lot more chill when he saw that I really just had my bike there and needed a place to crash. He told me to have a nice night and to stay warm. What a cool officer! I was relieved to not get kicked out. Bedded down for the night and managed to sleep OK.
I left the school in search of hot food, stopping at the Forks Coffee House. After eating and filling out my postcards I was ready to leave when I was informed that some lovely older couple had already paid for my food when they left. I can only assume they overheard me talking about my trip with someone else and decided to do something very nice for me. Happy as could be, I mailed off my postcards, had a nice talk with the shop owner, and headed East back to PA. The ride back only took 5 hours, despite having a headwind for about half of the ride, which had me pretty pissed. Getting back to a grocery store and E's house cheered me up some, as I arrived to find her dogs had treed a large raccoon in the backyard. Entertained for hours, and fed by the tons of food I got at the store, I waited for E and mike to get home from picking up their daughter from volleyball camp. We all went to bed pretty early, I spent the whole next day mapping out the next 2 months of the tour, and was then treated to amazing turkey burgers and a really fun game of Scrabble! It was a very close game, and according to Mike E is a bad loser and an even worse winner, haha! I won, barely, but was mainly just super stoked to find such gracious hosts with whom I got along so well. After exchanging contact info and saying goodbyes the next morning, I spent all day monday riding back the 101, then the WA-20 towards Port Townsend. Took the short ferry ride to Keystone at the south end of Whidbey Island, then rode the length of the Island up to Deception Pass State Park, where I have been camping for 3 days. Only hours ago did I get my tent finally dry enough to pack up, after enduring 14 hours of Washington's finest rain...Ugh. Next I will ride the 45 miles to Bellingham where I depart for Juneau, Alaska! Hoping for good luck with the crew, as it is apparently a case by case basis as to how they deal with and charge for bicycle trailers...I'm really hoping they charge me the regular bike fee and let me take the trailer on as luggage, since I couldn't find anywhere to store it in Bellingham. Either that or I'll have to figure something out at the last minute...
Port Angeles, Washington, stayed with some awesome CouchSurfing hosts. I did a 2 day excursion to Forks, the Twilight Capitol of the world, so that I could fulfill a promise and mail off a few postcards. The ride was abhorrent, haha. Some areas were pretty, but most of it was just tree-encompassed, grueling uphills, and long slight downward slopes. I battled a stiff headwind 90% of the way there on Friday, and the same damned wind on the way back, Saturday, which makes no sense to me, but oh well. It was "only" 60 miles one way, which looked simple enough on a flat map, but the topo views would convince me otherwise. It also took 3 pieces of French toast, 2 eggs, 5 english muffins, 1 Payday candy bar, 3 bananas, 1 cup of coffee, and about 2 gallons of water to get me back to my hosts' house. I stopped at the store on my way back and then devoured half a pound of Chinese-chicken salad from the deli, 3/4 of a loaf of french bread, 2 cinnamon rolls, drank most of a 1 liter chocolate protein shake (64g whey/soy blend) which I used in place of milk so I could eat 3/4 of a huge box of Cocoa Rice Crispies. I was still hungry, but I knew I needed to save some food. Fortunate for me though, an anonymous couple who I can only assume overheard me talking about my trip with someone else, paid for my breakfast in Forks. Thanks again, that was a really nice surprise. :)
But, I digress, back to Eugene, land of microbreweries, natural food stores, and lots of bicycles. It also happens to be where my friend Ian calls home, which was awesome. Hanging out with a fellow devoted cyclist and outdoorsman was a lot of fun, and he was gracious enough to have me stay with him for a couple days. Used most of my downtime to eat and sleep in, as well as doing some mapping and figuring out where I'd be staying in Portland. My last night at Ian's place we feasted on some delicious chicken tacos that he cooked, which was way cool. Still getting used to having people cook for me, but it is indeed pretty rad.
Leaving from Eugene I made it a bit over 100 miles to the Badlock rest stop off I-5, and made it there dry too, which was a big blessing. A nice place, with lots of trees, good lighting, and nice people. In just a few hours I met a lot of really nice people who wanted to follow the trip, and a sweet little older lady who wouldn't take no for an answer when she insisted I accept the dollar she wanted to donate to my trip. :) I found one of the buildings toward the rear end of the park that was closed, so I set up camp there, knowing it was going to rain, which it did, quite a bit. Got up in the morning and was scolded for having camped there, so I ate in a hurry and caught a break in the rain that allowed me to book it towards Portland along I-5, in the wet, during rush hour...
Stopped at a Starbucks just south of Portland and got in touch with my next CS host, Kristin, who got back to me in a flash and kindly agreed to host me for a couple days. After arriving at her awesome apartment in Portland and chatting for a bit, I got cleaned up and got to relaxing and taking in the view. I explored a bit later, taking the super cool aerial tram up the to hospital campus above the city. They have a little grassy area near the base of the lift where they keep goats that eat all the weeds so no one has to go down there and mow under the cables! So cool! Back to the apartment, did some mapping. Got a great night's sleep on the comfy couch and took most of the next day to go explore the city. Took the aerial tram again for fun, read at Powell's Books for like 5 hours, got some food, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed riding the streetcar system that takes you all over the city.
Kristin cooked a wonderful salmon dinner one of the nights I was there, thank you very much! I'm finding that I've grown to like fish after all, so long as it doesn't taste fishy, heh. The morning I left and set off toward Lewis and Clark state park was a rough stretch of I-5 that seemed to go on forever. Finally made it there and found out that all the hike&bike areas in WA are 14 dollars! I decided that was way too rich for my tastes so I camped on yet another picnic bench that night...Got up the next day to head to Tacoma, where I was planning to take the ferry to Vashon Island. Scrapped that upon further review of my route so after 80 miles, I illegally rode over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which, thankfully, did not fall apart. Camped at Goodman middle school in Artondale. Slept great, got up the next day to ride up 30 miles to Bremerton where I took my very first boat ride EVER to Seattle!
Once I got to the ferry port at Bremerton I assumed I'd have to stop, get out my wallet, tell them where I was going, etc. I saw the booth and turned off my mp3 player just in time to have the guy lean out the booth and ask if I was going to Seattle. I yelled back that was correct and he waved my through and said "Hurry, it's about to leave!" I raced down the ramp towards the boat as they were preparing to leave. The parking controllers waved me where to go and we were away, already moving before I had parked my bike. I was a little freaked out, ha. After I got my bike situated I talked to some other cyclists, then headed up to the passenger decks to snap some pictures. It was about an hour long ride but it went fast, and was a lot less scary than I thought it would be, so long as I didn't think about how deep the water was. We made it to Seattle and I disembarked with the horde of other bikes, heading to the first Starbucks I could find. After asking another cyclist, I found one just up the street from the docks. Parked the bike, got out my laptop and set to work looking for a last minute couch in Seattle. I did eventually find one, but not before I met a guy named Blake.
Blake was on a solo motorcycle journey that started in Vermont a month prior. He was also hanging out at the Starbucks and we got to talking about motorcycle stuff, and traveling in general. We got to talking about where we were staying and he offered me to crash with he and his friend who had put him up in the best Western down the street. I thanked him and said if I didn't find anything else that I'd be stoked to have a place to stay. 4 Hours later or so, Blake and his friend came back to the Starbucks and we got to talking about how to smuggle me into the hotel. Turned out it was as simple as walking the bike in, waving the to desk clerk, and taking it into the elevator up to the room, haha. Now, imagine fitting 3 guys, a bike, and my trailer into a small hotel room...It was pretty snug, haha. I crashed on the floor for the 2 nights we were there and it was awesome. Blake and I are both on VERY tight budgets and were eternally grateful for the amazing breakfast room at the hotel, eating ourselves more than full on both days, and taking extras back with us.
Watching the fireworks in Seattle for July 4th was pretty rad. Didn't really do much else while in the city, but it was nice to relax. Tuesday afternoon I headed out on another ferry, across the sound to Bainbridge Island, beginning the 50 someodd mile ride to Kitsap Memorial State Park, where I had the lucky fortune of finding an empty building to sleep in, due to a more or less unlocked log cabin type structure, used for large parties and such. That night I got a call back from my next CS host in Port Angeles. E said she'd be happy to have me stay with her and the fam. I was very glad to know I would have a place to stay. I left Kitsap headed for PA, mostly along the 104 and the 101 West, a direction I'm not used to seeing printed on the US-101 signs. I almost got hit by a dear while about to merge onto the 101, which was pretty gnarly. It continued running across the highway and in front of a Prius, narrowly avoiding another collision. The rest of the ride to PA was really pretty tough, with lots of hills and lots of headwind. I finally arrived at the McDonalds where I used the wi-fi to check my emails. I called E back and got directions. Once I arrived I was welcomed in, met Mike, and told to make myself at home, shown my ROOM, and told to eat anything I found in the house, haha. We immediately started talking about the tour, and Mike's similar touring experiences in Germany and neighboring western EU countries. It was pretty rad to find people to stay with who were also into outdoors stuff! E is a bigtime surfer who has lived all over the world, and she knew exactly where I was from when I told her about Morro Bay.
Mike and E were setting off for a big walk so I jumped in the shower and got cleaned up a bit, which felt great. I ate second dinner before we all enjoyed home made mango pie with vanilla ice cream. At this point I felt pretty spoiled, haha. Called it a pretty early night at around 1am and passed out, sleeping in til about 9 or so. I used most of the day to blog some stuff, then went to the grocery store and explored a bit. Ate lots of food, hung out for a bit, then got rested up for my ride west to the edge of the US, and Forks! E said I was welcome to come right back after my 2 day out and back to Forks, which was totally rad. Including breaks it took me 7 hours to make it to Forks! It was VERY hilly, windy, and not fun. After completing my obligatory tasks in town, getting some food in me, and chatting with a nice Swiss couple about places they should see while driving down the CA coast, I retired to my stealth camping site at the back of Forks elementary school, lol. Shortly before dark, a police unit stopped when he saw me throwing away some trash. I assumed I was in trouble and was gonna get the boot. He asked me what I was doing, where I was coming from, the usual stuff. I told him my wallet was near my bike, in the alcove, but gave him my info and waited while he checked it out. He came back and we talked a bit about my bike tour, where I was headed, all that. I showed him my ID and he was a lot more chill when he saw that I really just had my bike there and needed a place to crash. He told me to have a nice night and to stay warm. What a cool officer! I was relieved to not get kicked out. Bedded down for the night and managed to sleep OK.
I left the school in search of hot food, stopping at the Forks Coffee House. After eating and filling out my postcards I was ready to leave when I was informed that some lovely older couple had already paid for my food when they left. I can only assume they overheard me talking about my trip with someone else and decided to do something very nice for me. Happy as could be, I mailed off my postcards, had a nice talk with the shop owner, and headed East back to PA. The ride back only took 5 hours, despite having a headwind for about half of the ride, which had me pretty pissed. Getting back to a grocery store and E's house cheered me up some, as I arrived to find her dogs had treed a large raccoon in the backyard. Entertained for hours, and fed by the tons of food I got at the store, I waited for E and mike to get home from picking up their daughter from volleyball camp. We all went to bed pretty early, I spent the whole next day mapping out the next 2 months of the tour, and was then treated to amazing turkey burgers and a really fun game of Scrabble! It was a very close game, and according to Mike E is a bad loser and an even worse winner, haha! I won, barely, but was mainly just super stoked to find such gracious hosts with whom I got along so well. After exchanging contact info and saying goodbyes the next morning, I spent all day monday riding back the 101, then the WA-20 towards Port Townsend. Took the short ferry ride to Keystone at the south end of Whidbey Island, then rode the length of the Island up to Deception Pass State Park, where I have been camping for 3 days. Only hours ago did I get my tent finally dry enough to pack up, after enduring 14 hours of Washington's finest rain...Ugh. Next I will ride the 45 miles to Bellingham where I depart for Juneau, Alaska! Hoping for good luck with the crew, as it is apparently a case by case basis as to how they deal with and charge for bicycle trailers...I'm really hoping they charge me the regular bike fee and let me take the trailer on as luggage, since I couldn't find anywhere to store it in Bellingham. Either that or I'll have to figure something out at the last minute...
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sorry about the wait, enjoy the book...
Sitting in the Lodge at Crater Lake, Oregon. I took all day yesterday as a full day off to enjoy the sights and lack of sounds here at the Lake. This place is amazing, beyond description, and wholly awesome. But, I'll get back to this a few thousand words later...
I think the last time I updated was from Monterey...Oops. I've been journaling though, and of course taking lots of pictures, so it's easy to go back and recall the past few weeks. My apologies for not keeping up with this as regularly as I had hoped, as I'm sure most every amateur blogger says all the time. I have come to realize that a couple hours of internet access is not enough to punch out quality entries, and that if I'm going to do a better job of keeping everyone up to date, I'm going to have to be typing more often, in shorter bursts, and whenever I have time, regardless of internet access. That said, this is going to be a big one, as it will cover a few weeks. My hope is that saving entries every 5 days or so on my laptop, then posting whenever I can, will both improve the consistency of the blog, and cut down on time I actually need to be online.
Anyway,1007 1149 miles so far. I tabulated I've actually only ridden 18 of the days I've been on the road, since I've been doing a lot of visiting with the people I know in CA and NV, like my Dad and Stepmom, which means I've been averaging like 65 miles a day...Need to bump that up. I think all the hills and mountains have been hurting my mileage, since pulling 75 pounds of trailer is something I'm still not quite used to...
I left Monterey headed north along the amazing bike trail that goes about as far as Castroville. Made great time along the bike trail since you don't have to stop for most any of the intersections through towns. I stopped at a burrito wagon type thing near Elkhorn, a large agricultural area, and ate some awesome food. From there I continued up the 1 north to Watsonville, aka Dustville, and realized I was starving again. Reluctantly, I stopped at a burger place and got 4 double cheeseburgers to go. I ate one right away and could already tell it was a bad idea. I'm not used to fast food and I immediately felt like I had eaten playdough. Oh well, I needed the calories, and it was cheeeap! Out of Watsonville I caught the CA-152 east, over Hecker Pass, which was a bitch and a half to climb in the heat, then made it out to my next few back roads. I was stopping for water every chance I had, and to eat more burgers. Once on Uvas road I kept heading northeast in the general direction of San Jose. Once I had made it to where I had been considering stopping for the day, I realized that despite a nasty headwind, I had a lot of daylight left, so I decided to make the big push all the way to San Jose. More rolling hills, dead oak trees, and dirt. I swear, any of California's drier back roads look the exact same. I felt as though I might be right back in Paso Robles, ha. Finally found my turnoff for the last few roads into San Jose, but I managed to get confused by some of my directions and I went about an hour in the wring direction, heading back south out of the other side of town! A kind soul stopped to ask where I was headed and let me use his GPS to find my way back. Ugh, 19 miles the wrong way. I turned around and raced the sun to my destination, arriving shortly after sunset, about 101 miles total, lying down on my friend's lawn after knocking on the door. We talked about how crazy I am and about my rig, then I took a shower and we set off to go get food. IHOP was about the only place open, so we went there. I had half a pound of popcorn shrimp, bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, toast, and stuffed French toast. It was awesome, and even more so since my friend's graciously paid for mine. Thanks!
I spent 4 days in San Jose, hanging out with my friends, eating food, watching motoGP races, rock climbing at Planet Granite, and buying some gear at REI (Thanks Jen!). I needed a new sleeping bag, one that was warmer, and a Jetboil. Also got a Petzl headlamp, which I have since lost because I am an idiot. Anyway, had a good time hanging out but I needed to get to San Francisco so I could ride across the Golden Gate. I didn't want to go through the city at all, and since my next big stop was Sacramento, it would have made more sense to go around the east side of the bay, but alas, I had never been across the Golden Gate in any way, so I opted to go the long way through the city. Leaving San Jose went well for about...an hour. then I rode through rain for almost the whole day's ride into SF. Stopped in a Starbucks to dry off some in a little town I can't remember, but I met this awesome girl named Helena who was a fellow traveler, who recommended I try Couchsurfing. We chatted for an hour or so before we both headed out into a small break in the weather.
Finally made it to SF, small detour on Brannan where I bought fuel for my stove, some freeze dried food, and some SmartwoolREI who were really interested in my trip, which was rad. I think it was then that I realized that I need to have business cards made for the Project. Handwriting it is getting tedious. The rain let up when I left REI as I headed for Union Square. I know there are a lot of other places and things to do in SF, and despite wanting to explore the Mission, et al, I didn't want to be in the city any longer than I had to. I rode the rest of the way to the HI hostel in Fort Mason, locked up my bike in the awesome bicycle room, took a shower and ate some food. Made my maps for the next legs of the trip, talked to a lovely Australian girl about here first trip to the states, and then headed to In n Out for second dinner. Went to sleep that night in a comfy bunkbed (!) and was planning to leave in the morning. Woke up to pouring rain...talked to the desk and decided to stay another day and wait out the ENORMOUS storm that was sitting on CA. Did nothing for the most part but play on the internet and investigate the Couchsurfing site.
I made my profile and started looking for a place to stay in Sac, since there are basically no tent campgrounds within the city itself. I searched for people to stay with and sent out a few requests. 2 People were booked, 1 maybe, and 1 person I never heard back from. The maybe was enough to set my hopes aflame. A while later I heard back from this kind soul who said they could host me for a night! I was very glad not only to have a place to stay, but also to meet/thank my hosts, Christa and Michelle. I guessed an ETA and finally got some sleep.
Finally set out the next day...
It was bone dry at Fort Mason, like 2 miles from the GG bridge, but when I got to the bridge it was raining pretty hard, so not too many pictures were taken. I managed to bumble enough French to ask a gentleman to take my picture, which he agreed to help me with. Back on the bike, swearing up a storm about the damn weather, headed into Sausalito and stopped at a Starbucks on Princess to waterproof my directions, which were getting wet. Back on the road heading towards my stop for the day in Napa, I got turned around a few times, stopped and asked directions at least 4 times, met an awesome motorcyclist gentleman who got me back on track, then the rain came back for a while. Riding through wine country was hot, windy, and pretty boring, aside from seeing weird fences and giant purple lawn chairs, ha. Took a lunch break at Infineon Raceway to get out of the rain, charge my mp3 player a little, and rest. Made the last of the push through the nothingness into Napa, paid the FIFTEEN dollars to camp at the "campground" there and set up camp on another picnic bench. Got up early, had breakfast at Denny's, and headed for Sacramento. As soon as I had the chance, I jumped on the I-80, lol. I didn't really know if I was allowed to, but found out later that day. I guess 3 people called to report me to the CHP for riding on the interstate. I was stopped outside of Dixon when the CHP motorcycle cop pulled up and talked to me about how I was reported and not supposed to be there. He took a great interest in my trip, was incredibly nice, and helped me with directions to Sac, via Davis. 10 Feet later, I got a flat. Fuck. He asked if I could walk it, I said yes, and walked the mile to the gas station off the I-80. Spent an hour fixing the flat, rode into Davis and stopped at a gas station to ask how to get to Sac. 2 Super nice girls helped me find my way to a bike path via county road 32-A...small road, lol.
Upon arriving in Sac I stopped to take some quick pictures at the Capitol building before making my way to my couchsurfing destination. I parked the bike and knocked on the door. I immediately felt dizzy and really embarrassed, haha. I realized that I didn't double check the address, call ahead to announce my (on time) arrival, or do anything to remedy my rather thrashed appearance. Nevertheless, I got the address right and one of my hosts, Christa, answered the door. Sigh of relief, not only for getting the address right, but seeing that my host was not actually a serial killer posing as an attractive girl in hopes of harvesting my organs upon my arrival. Yay!
The house was amazing, very clean but still cozy. I set my stuff down and we talked for a bit before I took a quick shower. It was so nice being in a place where I felt safe, welcome, and comfortable. I mean, camping is fun, but not the same as staying in a house with incredibly kind people, with whom I felt like I could converse forever, ha. A bit later, Michelle got home, I was introduced, and the 3 of us sat around talking before cooking dinner. The foooood! It was delicious, and incredibly humbling to be sat down and fed without being allowed to do pretty much anything, haha. After dinner, more great conversations, went to get ice cream and some other groceries, came back and stayed up late scaring eachother with stories about our fears of spiders, water, and people looking at us in our sleep. :D
Before we all went to sleep, Christa jokingly threatened to scare me in the middle of the night, but I was too tired to worry about it for very long. I slept in a bit in the morning and was then fed more awesome food for second breakfast. There was still more rain on the way so I had made arrangements to stay at the hostel in town. I changed and was about ready to head out when Michelle and Christa told me that they had enjoyed having me as a guest and that I was welcome to stay another night if I wanted to. I was at a bit of a loss for words, as I had already been wrestling with the feelings of intruding on someone else's life, as well as the inexpressible gratitude I felt for their kindness. I asked to make sure if that was ok, and made it clear that I didn't want to be cramping their plans. They countered and assured me that it was ok, so I gladly accepted another stay with some of the coolest people I've ever met!
I had a great time hanging out with them, and helping cook dinner that night. I got to meet a couple of their friends, well all went to the store to get supplies for nachos and waffles dinner and we all had a lot of fun. Stayed up kinda late again, got up, I did some dishes, had another half a box of Cheerios for breakfast. I gathered up my things, we took some pictures of the 3 of us, talked about how to stay in touch and they saw me off as I headed for the mountains!
East on a bunch of side roads towards Placerville was my goal. It started raining on me pretty good just outside of the El Dorado hills area when I met up with Kevin and Thomas, a father and son duo who are doing a coast to coast tour. They had just started that day. We were able to talk a little during the riding enough to figure out that we were headed to the same place in Nevada, more or less. We stopped at a Starbucks somewhere and talked more about routing and such, and our respective tour plans. They're both really nice guys, and incredibly fit to boot. Without them I'm sure it would have taken me an extra day to cross the Sierras! We got to Placerville, CA, that first day, which was where I had considered stopping, and where I would have split onto the CA-50, but after looking at their route, I decided it was more fun to ride with friends rather than go my own way. We agreed that after getting some quick food we would press on, despite having already endured many, many miles of climbing. I forget where we actually camped out, but it was behind the backboards of a baseball diamond in a park, and it was awesome. There was a concrete pad big enough to cook on and be out of the mud, and even a water fountain back there! Kevin and Thomas set up a single tent, where I opted to just sleep in my bag on the concrete. It was a little dewy when I woke up, but not bad.
The next morning when we got up, I detailed my bike, topped off my tires, and we all set things out to dry from the copious amounts of overnight dew. As soon as we hit the road it became quite clear that most of the day would be spent climbing...fuck, again. I hate days like that. But, like I said, having someone else to ride with made it moderately more tolerable, ha. Our major stop was at 5000 feet at Cook's Station. Great food, service, prices, and views. We were stopping quite a lot towards the end of the day, all of us more than a little worn out, thirsty, hungry, fed up with climbing. We considered investigating a closed ski resort or something, but after consulting the maps, and all our computers reading different mileages, haha, we kept going for a bit until we finally found our way to the top of the huge hill that leads down to the relative bottom of the Carson pass climb. We found a day use site next to the frozen Silver Lake, CA, and decided to camp there. We got set up and I pictched my tent for the first time since the start of the tour. We hung our food across the CA-88 and hunkered down for a cold one. It must have gotten into the 20s, since everything was frosted over when we got up. Tent performed very well. Another morning of laying things out to dry, and hiking over 3 feet deep snow to get to the restroom. Getting everything packed back up was a pain, but I figured it out.
We left heading for Nevada, but had Carson Spur and Carson Pass in our way. After climbing Carson Spur to 7900 feet, and heading back down to Kirkwood, my front fender vibrated itself inot two halves, my chain got jammed in my crank between rings, and I dropped my sunglasses, which I had to go back for, losing kevin and Thomas for half an hour. Got my shit together after some yelling and chased them down, meeting at Carson Pass, 8574 feet above sea level!! From there we began an incredibly fast descent towards Nevada. I touched 45.4 mph and was having a blast after all that damned climbing. We reached Wolfwords, had some food, tried fruitlessly for cell service, and relaxed for a bit before heading into NV. got on our next road, a hot, rolling, desolate strip of black through the dirt toward Genoa. Stopped at the state line to take pics and make calls. I got a hold of my stepmom who said I should stop by after all, telling me that my dad had come around and did want to see me after all. I was a couple hours out at this point. Shortly down the road, I got a flat. Kevin and Thomas kindly waited for me to fix it, and we got to Genoa, FINALLY. We stopped at the general store, drank lots of water, exchanged contact info and said our goodbyes. They were heading to Carson City for the night, where I was headed west across the 395 to my Dad's place north of Minden.
At the intersection with 395, 2 girls kindly gave me directions to the street I needed, and I got to my dad's place. I parked my bike, and no sooner than I had taken my helmet off, my dad walked into the open garage from the house and was stunned into silence, haha. I had hoped not to scare him, but he was clearly a bit beside himself at the sight of me. He calmed down in a few minutes and we talked and got my stuff put away in the garage. My stepmom was still at work so I took a shower and changed. I spent 4 days there just hanging out, and amusing them with the amount of food I needed to eat to stay conscious.
I hadn't seen them for a little over a year so it was nice to catch up and tell them more about my ride to put them at ease. It was a subtly different, one of a kind visit to their place. My 5th time there, I finally felt like I was treated my age, allowed to cook my own food even, which is a huge allowance from my dad, haha! We talked briefly about my reasons for doing this trip, and he said, very soberly "I've never been in your shoes, and I don't have any advice for you this time." It's hard to explain why, but it meant a lot to me to have someone finally say that, let alone to hear it from my dad.
After I left, I headed for a 4 hour trip to the south Reno area where my older sister and her boyfriend live. I told her when I would be there and said that if she came home to find someone asleep on her lawn, that it was me. She told me how to let myself in, and shortly thereafter Nick got home and we talked for a bit. I took a much needed shower and as soon as Leanne got home we all headed to a late lunch. They insisted on buying my lunch which I thanked them for many times. I spent a couple days there hanging out and catching up, made another trip to REI to buy some bike shorts, CO2, and some more NUUN. Had a great time, great food, and really enjoyed being there. We said our farewells and I headed for Susanville, back in CA. That was a miserable ride. Hot, more wind the entire time, dead tired, legs blown, but too close to stop short. This is also where I lost my Petzl headlamp! After an 11 hour day, and 102 miles, I stopped at Starbucks, got some groceries, and camped under a Rubbermaid picnic bench at the RV park in town. Awoke at 3am to find the sprinklers going off next to me, soaking my bike. Fixed that, went back to sleep. Packed in a rush in the morning and I guess left my headlamp under the bench. Sadface.
Climbing started right away, most of the day all the way to and through Lassen National Park. I met a woman named Kathy, who was doing maintenance at a Caltrans rest stop on the 44 west. She was super nice, helpful, and gave me a lot of advice about the roads and where to stop along my route. She was also really interested in my trip and wanted to know all about it. She gave me hope that I might be able to make it to Redding that same day, since most of the way from Lassen to Redding was downhill...Kinda, haha. I kept trucking the rest of the way toward Redding, stopping all the time for water and rest breaks on the large, flat portions between downhills. Got to Shingletown on the 44 and started down the 10% grade to Redding. Only, it didn't lead to Redding. It was downhill til about 10 miles from Redding, then it was big rolling hills, hot, flat stretches, and 2 big grades into town. I finally arrived at my friend Morgan's house, and felt like death. I had pushed 117 miles in a 12 hour day. He welcomed me in, showed me where to put my bike, and where the shower was, which I promptly took advantage of. Feeling better after that, I then met a couple of Morgan's friends who had come over for dinner. It was great to hang out and talk about motorcycles with fellow riders, as well as to sit on a comfy chair again, despite being told that my chair of choice was a heap, haha.
Had one hell of a good time in Redding, and if the oppressive heat was not getting worse, I would have liked to stay longer. Did a shortish hike to see a bitchin waterfall, stood on my first large dam, took pics of everything, ate lots and lots of amazing food, saw a PT about some hand-strength issues I've encountered, met more cool people, and learned how to kick ass at horseshoes, and how to play Liar's Dice! Very eventful day and a half for sure. I have to say a HUGE thanks to everyone I met, not just Morgan and his wife, for being so friendly and awesome, and to Jed for hooking me up with a visit to that PT; those stretches help a lot and I'm going to see a massage therapist as soon as I can.
From there it was pretty, but mostly boring riding up I-5 out of Redding. My dear new friend Kathy actually saw me when I was on the 5 and saved me from taking a route that would have taken all day to climb! From there I pushed to the Grass Lake rest area where I camped behind the main building. It was super windy at night, but I was able to tarp over my bike and use it as a makeshift shelter from the wind. Made breakfast the next morning and set off to get as close to Crater Lake as I could before it starts climbing into the mountains. I made it across the CA/OR border around midday, stopped at the welcome center and got an OR cycling map from a nice lady named Linda who was super helpful. Stopped in Klamath Falls to do some grocery shopping. The manager let me keep my rig inside the store, which was rad. got some food, called my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day, ate lunch and headed out. The ride from K Falls to where I ended up camping in Kimball park was fuckin miserable. Next to a bunch of lakes the whole time so there was a very strong headwind the whole ride, and tons of gnarly, heartily bred mosquitoes. 100 Some odd miles later, I finally stopped to camp. I have to admit, I could have stopped sooner and camped somewhere else, but I wanted my 4th century. I also wanted the next day to be nothing but the 20 mile climbing ride into the park itself. Mission accomplished.
The campsite was primitive, and a great blessing since I was almost alone there. There was fresh water there, and a locking bathroom building where I kept my trailer instead of having to hang my food from the bears. Used half a can of bug spray to stay alive, but slept pretty well, all things considered. The next morning I made a fire and toasted 3 blueberry bagels which I slathered in cream cheese, 2 packs of oatmeal, and some NUUN. All was routine until I started ascending into the park itself. 3 Hours of shirtless climbing up the sunny road to the park HQ was actually really hard. I put my pack on top of the trailer, drained over 80 ounces of NUUN water, and ate like 3 protein bars just to get to Annie Creek, which is still another 7 miles from the Lodge/Lake itself. Opted to splurge on the lunch buffet there, and am glad I did. I ate an absurd quantity of food over 2 hours of eating, met a few cool people, like Lodge bellman Anthony, and headed for the ranger station at Steel, up the road about 4 miles. Paid my $5 to get into the park and climbed some more to Steel. After a bit of runaround, made it over to the dispatch station to get my backcountry camping permit. After discussing my options and the rules, a newer rangerette helped me fill out the forms, much to her chagrin. The other lovely rangerette Abra was very helpful in helping me figure out where to look for camping, as well as keeping me in mind when inquiring about the road conditions of the northern entrance/exit road which I wanted to take, and she even warned me about the giant mutant squirrels they have at the park called Pine Martens (Technically they are American Martens).
After departing from dispatch, I headed for the lodge where Anthony worked. More twisty climbing road, but the view was 100% worth the pain. I won't spend too much time trying to describe it, since it would take me forever, but I'll put it this way: If there are 10 things you must see in the US, make one of them Crater Lake in early summer while there is still some snow. Even for someone like me who has issues with large, deep bodies of water, it was hard to look away. Anyway, hung out for a while, took some pics, talked to Anthony about my ride, and then headed out West Rim drive to look for camping. Now that I'm out of the park I can say that it was not technically in accordance with the rules, since I wasn't a full mile off the road, but I could not be seen from the road, which is that point of the mile rule, so I think it was OK. There are pics of the site on the FB page, and it was awesome. It's supposed to be a lookout at Watchman Point, but it was all under snow, with a small part of the fencing exposed, which I used to block the wind while sleeping. There were gaps in the fencing, so I used a huge piece of sheet ice to cover them, haha. Apart from having one of those pesky martens jump on my legs in my sleep, and make off with a pack of sliced salami I had buried in the snow, it was a great night. With near zero man made light pollution, I could see the Milky Way clearly, as well as watched the sunset, moonrise, and sunrise on the summer solstice. Needless to say, I felt very privledged.
The next 2 days I spent writing most of this, drinking free decaf, sitting by a huge stone fireplace, and meeting new people at the Lodge. I am now convinced that it will be worth the weight to have some business cards made for Project Runaway. I met a lot of people offering places to stay around the US, people who gave me free Clif Bars because they work for Clif, people who wanted to hear all about the trip, and a few more of the employees who work at the Lodge. It was a great, relaxing stay, and I even got to take hot showers both days I was there!
The last night I was in the park the weather got windy and with windchill, below freezing at my campsite (@ ~8000 feet). I had to use the nearby restroom building as shelter from the elements so as to hide from the wind and clouds. Yes, clouds, not fog, haha. I wanted to leave at 6:30 and make it all the way to Eugene, but the temps made it hard to start off even at 8:30am. After a short climb out Rim Drive, I decended about 1000 feet to entrance station at the North Entrance. Cell reception was good so I texted my sister and called hottie rangerette to confirm that I had safely left the park and that there was no need to come searching for me. This was not me being cute, FYI, but actually a required step in backcountry camping there, so that if you do not check in by an established time and date, they can search for your body, haha. Short climb onto the 138 East, big descent to the 97 North. Stopped for more coffee and started the big haul toward the 58 West that would take me to Eugene. The 97 North is long, rolling, and shittily paved, with very heavy traffic. The headwinds were horrid, but I made it to the 58 West....Which was all the same and worse. From the time I left Crater, I rode for most of the 11 hours it took me to finally reach Dexter, just outside of Eugene by about 20 miles or so. I was getting a bad joint pain in my right hip, and the sun was setting fast, which means time to stop for certain cyclists without a headlamp or rear blinkers. The nice ranger lady at the park in dexter told me that I could camp there that night, even though it was day use, so long as I was out of sight. Bitchin. Camp I did, away from the poison oak, and slept like the dead.
This morning I rode the 20 ish miles into Eugene and found a bike shop to stop at, right next to Sbux. Got suckered into conversation with some crazy scary girl who wanted to sell me a cycling computer (Read: kill me and steal my stuff) so I ducked into the bike shop and talked to the guy there who, as it turns out, knows Eric Clausen, AKA Drawing Amerca By Bike! Small world, I guess. Now here I sit, cracked out on coffee, getting ready to ride to a friend's place here in town so I can clean up and sleep some more before stuffing my face again, lol.
Sorry if this is way too detailed. I'm far too lazy to go back and edit it all, so here it is.
I think the last time I updated was from Monterey...Oops. I've been journaling though, and of course taking lots of pictures, so it's easy to go back and recall the past few weeks. My apologies for not keeping up with this as regularly as I had hoped, as I'm sure most every amateur blogger says all the time. I have come to realize that a couple hours of internet access is not enough to punch out quality entries, and that if I'm going to do a better job of keeping everyone up to date, I'm going to have to be typing more often, in shorter bursts, and whenever I have time, regardless of internet access. That said, this is going to be a big one, as it will cover a few weeks. My hope is that saving entries every 5 days or so on my laptop, then posting whenever I can, will both improve the consistency of the blog, and cut down on time I actually need to be online.
Anyway,
I left Monterey headed north along the amazing bike trail that goes about as far as Castroville. Made great time along the bike trail since you don't have to stop for most any of the intersections through towns. I stopped at a burrito wagon type thing near Elkhorn, a large agricultural area, and ate some awesome food. From there I continued up the 1 north to Watsonville, aka Dustville, and realized I was starving again. Reluctantly, I stopped at a burger place and got 4 double cheeseburgers to go. I ate one right away and could already tell it was a bad idea. I'm not used to fast food and I immediately felt like I had eaten playdough. Oh well, I needed the calories, and it was cheeeap! Out of Watsonville I caught the CA-152 east, over Hecker Pass, which was a bitch and a half to climb in the heat, then made it out to my next few back roads. I was stopping for water every chance I had, and to eat more burgers. Once on Uvas road I kept heading northeast in the general direction of San Jose. Once I had made it to where I had been considering stopping for the day, I realized that despite a nasty headwind, I had a lot of daylight left, so I decided to make the big push all the way to San Jose. More rolling hills, dead oak trees, and dirt. I swear, any of California's drier back roads look the exact same. I felt as though I might be right back in Paso Robles, ha. Finally found my turnoff for the last few roads into San Jose, but I managed to get confused by some of my directions and I went about an hour in the wring direction, heading back south out of the other side of town! A kind soul stopped to ask where I was headed and let me use his GPS to find my way back. Ugh, 19 miles the wrong way. I turned around and raced the sun to my destination, arriving shortly after sunset, about 101 miles total, lying down on my friend's lawn after knocking on the door. We talked about how crazy I am and about my rig, then I took a shower and we set off to go get food. IHOP was about the only place open, so we went there. I had half a pound of popcorn shrimp, bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, toast, and stuffed French toast. It was awesome, and even more so since my friend's graciously paid for mine. Thanks!
I spent 4 days in San Jose, hanging out with my friends, eating food, watching motoGP races, rock climbing at Planet Granite, and buying some gear at REI (Thanks Jen!). I needed a new sleeping bag, one that was warmer, and a Jetboil. Also got a Petzl headlamp, which I have since lost because I am an idiot. Anyway, had a good time hanging out but I needed to get to San Francisco so I could ride across the Golden Gate. I didn't want to go through the city at all, and since my next big stop was Sacramento, it would have made more sense to go around the east side of the bay, but alas, I had never been across the Golden Gate in any way, so I opted to go the long way through the city. Leaving San Jose went well for about...an hour. then I rode through rain for almost the whole day's ride into SF. Stopped in a Starbucks to dry off some in a little town I can't remember, but I met this awesome girl named Helena who was a fellow traveler, who recommended I try Couchsurfing. We chatted for an hour or so before we both headed out into a small break in the weather.
Finally made it to SF, small detour on Brannan where I bought fuel for my stove, some freeze dried food, and some SmartwoolREI who were really interested in my trip, which was rad. I think it was then that I realized that I need to have business cards made for the Project. Handwriting it is getting tedious. The rain let up when I left REI as I headed for Union Square. I know there are a lot of other places and things to do in SF, and despite wanting to explore the Mission, et al, I didn't want to be in the city any longer than I had to. I rode the rest of the way to the HI hostel in Fort Mason, locked up my bike in the awesome bicycle room, took a shower and ate some food. Made my maps for the next legs of the trip, talked to a lovely Australian girl about here first trip to the states, and then headed to In n Out for second dinner. Went to sleep that night in a comfy bunkbed (!) and was planning to leave in the morning. Woke up to pouring rain...talked to the desk and decided to stay another day and wait out the ENORMOUS storm that was sitting on CA. Did nothing for the most part but play on the internet and investigate the Couchsurfing site.
I made my profile and started looking for a place to stay in Sac, since there are basically no tent campgrounds within the city itself. I searched for people to stay with and sent out a few requests. 2 People were booked, 1 maybe, and 1 person I never heard back from. The maybe was enough to set my hopes aflame. A while later I heard back from this kind soul who said they could host me for a night! I was very glad not only to have a place to stay, but also to meet/thank my hosts, Christa and Michelle. I guessed an ETA and finally got some sleep.
Finally set out the next day...
It was bone dry at Fort Mason, like 2 miles from the GG bridge, but when I got to the bridge it was raining pretty hard, so not too many pictures were taken. I managed to bumble enough French to ask a gentleman to take my picture, which he agreed to help me with. Back on the bike, swearing up a storm about the damn weather, headed into Sausalito and stopped at a Starbucks on Princess to waterproof my directions, which were getting wet. Back on the road heading towards my stop for the day in Napa, I got turned around a few times, stopped and asked directions at least 4 times, met an awesome motorcyclist gentleman who got me back on track, then the rain came back for a while. Riding through wine country was hot, windy, and pretty boring, aside from seeing weird fences and giant purple lawn chairs, ha. Took a lunch break at Infineon Raceway to get out of the rain, charge my mp3 player a little, and rest. Made the last of the push through the nothingness into Napa, paid the FIFTEEN dollars to camp at the "campground" there and set up camp on another picnic bench. Got up early, had breakfast at Denny's, and headed for Sacramento. As soon as I had the chance, I jumped on the I-80, lol. I didn't really know if I was allowed to, but found out later that day. I guess 3 people called to report me to the CHP for riding on the interstate. I was stopped outside of Dixon when the CHP motorcycle cop pulled up and talked to me about how I was reported and not supposed to be there. He took a great interest in my trip, was incredibly nice, and helped me with directions to Sac, via Davis. 10 Feet later, I got a flat. Fuck. He asked if I could walk it, I said yes, and walked the mile to the gas station off the I-80. Spent an hour fixing the flat, rode into Davis and stopped at a gas station to ask how to get to Sac. 2 Super nice girls helped me find my way to a bike path via county road 32-A...small road, lol.
Upon arriving in Sac I stopped to take some quick pictures at the Capitol building before making my way to my couchsurfing destination. I parked the bike and knocked on the door. I immediately felt dizzy and really embarrassed, haha. I realized that I didn't double check the address, call ahead to announce my (on time) arrival, or do anything to remedy my rather thrashed appearance. Nevertheless, I got the address right and one of my hosts, Christa, answered the door. Sigh of relief, not only for getting the address right, but seeing that my host was not actually a serial killer posing as an attractive girl in hopes of harvesting my organs upon my arrival. Yay!
The house was amazing, very clean but still cozy. I set my stuff down and we talked for a bit before I took a quick shower. It was so nice being in a place where I felt safe, welcome, and comfortable. I mean, camping is fun, but not the same as staying in a house with incredibly kind people, with whom I felt like I could converse forever, ha. A bit later, Michelle got home, I was introduced, and the 3 of us sat around talking before cooking dinner. The foooood! It was delicious, and incredibly humbling to be sat down and fed without being allowed to do pretty much anything, haha. After dinner, more great conversations, went to get ice cream and some other groceries, came back and stayed up late scaring eachother with stories about our fears of spiders, water, and people looking at us in our sleep. :D
Before we all went to sleep, Christa jokingly threatened to scare me in the middle of the night, but I was too tired to worry about it for very long. I slept in a bit in the morning and was then fed more awesome food for second breakfast. There was still more rain on the way so I had made arrangements to stay at the hostel in town. I changed and was about ready to head out when Michelle and Christa told me that they had enjoyed having me as a guest and that I was welcome to stay another night if I wanted to. I was at a bit of a loss for words, as I had already been wrestling with the feelings of intruding on someone else's life, as well as the inexpressible gratitude I felt for their kindness. I asked to make sure if that was ok, and made it clear that I didn't want to be cramping their plans. They countered and assured me that it was ok, so I gladly accepted another stay with some of the coolest people I've ever met!
I had a great time hanging out with them, and helping cook dinner that night. I got to meet a couple of their friends, well all went to the store to get supplies for nachos and waffles dinner and we all had a lot of fun. Stayed up kinda late again, got up, I did some dishes, had another half a box of Cheerios for breakfast. I gathered up my things, we took some pictures of the 3 of us, talked about how to stay in touch and they saw me off as I headed for the mountains!
East on a bunch of side roads towards Placerville was my goal. It started raining on me pretty good just outside of the El Dorado hills area when I met up with Kevin and Thomas, a father and son duo who are doing a coast to coast tour. They had just started that day. We were able to talk a little during the riding enough to figure out that we were headed to the same place in Nevada, more or less. We stopped at a Starbucks somewhere and talked more about routing and such, and our respective tour plans. They're both really nice guys, and incredibly fit to boot. Without them I'm sure it would have taken me an extra day to cross the Sierras! We got to Placerville, CA, that first day, which was where I had considered stopping, and where I would have split onto the CA-50, but after looking at their route, I decided it was more fun to ride with friends rather than go my own way. We agreed that after getting some quick food we would press on, despite having already endured many, many miles of climbing. I forget where we actually camped out, but it was behind the backboards of a baseball diamond in a park, and it was awesome. There was a concrete pad big enough to cook on and be out of the mud, and even a water fountain back there! Kevin and Thomas set up a single tent, where I opted to just sleep in my bag on the concrete. It was a little dewy when I woke up, but not bad.
The next morning when we got up, I detailed my bike, topped off my tires, and we all set things out to dry from the copious amounts of overnight dew. As soon as we hit the road it became quite clear that most of the day would be spent climbing...fuck, again. I hate days like that. But, like I said, having someone else to ride with made it moderately more tolerable, ha. Our major stop was at 5000 feet at Cook's Station. Great food, service, prices, and views. We were stopping quite a lot towards the end of the day, all of us more than a little worn out, thirsty, hungry, fed up with climbing. We considered investigating a closed ski resort or something, but after consulting the maps, and all our computers reading different mileages, haha, we kept going for a bit until we finally found our way to the top of the huge hill that leads down to the relative bottom of the Carson pass climb. We found a day use site next to the frozen Silver Lake, CA, and decided to camp there. We got set up and I pictched my tent for the first time since the start of the tour. We hung our food across the CA-88 and hunkered down for a cold one. It must have gotten into the 20s, since everything was frosted over when we got up. Tent performed very well. Another morning of laying things out to dry, and hiking over 3 feet deep snow to get to the restroom. Getting everything packed back up was a pain, but I figured it out.
We left heading for Nevada, but had Carson Spur and Carson Pass in our way. After climbing Carson Spur to 7900 feet, and heading back down to Kirkwood, my front fender vibrated itself inot two halves, my chain got jammed in my crank between rings, and I dropped my sunglasses, which I had to go back for, losing kevin and Thomas for half an hour. Got my shit together after some yelling and chased them down, meeting at Carson Pass, 8574 feet above sea level!! From there we began an incredibly fast descent towards Nevada. I touched 45.4 mph and was having a blast after all that damned climbing. We reached Wolfwords, had some food, tried fruitlessly for cell service, and relaxed for a bit before heading into NV. got on our next road, a hot, rolling, desolate strip of black through the dirt toward Genoa. Stopped at the state line to take pics and make calls. I got a hold of my stepmom who said I should stop by after all, telling me that my dad had come around and did want to see me after all. I was a couple hours out at this point. Shortly down the road, I got a flat. Kevin and Thomas kindly waited for me to fix it, and we got to Genoa, FINALLY. We stopped at the general store, drank lots of water, exchanged contact info and said our goodbyes. They were heading to Carson City for the night, where I was headed west across the 395 to my Dad's place north of Minden.
At the intersection with 395, 2 girls kindly gave me directions to the street I needed, and I got to my dad's place. I parked my bike, and no sooner than I had taken my helmet off, my dad walked into the open garage from the house and was stunned into silence, haha. I had hoped not to scare him, but he was clearly a bit beside himself at the sight of me. He calmed down in a few minutes and we talked and got my stuff put away in the garage. My stepmom was still at work so I took a shower and changed. I spent 4 days there just hanging out, and amusing them with the amount of food I needed to eat to stay conscious.
I hadn't seen them for a little over a year so it was nice to catch up and tell them more about my ride to put them at ease. It was a subtly different, one of a kind visit to their place. My 5th time there, I finally felt like I was treated my age, allowed to cook my own food even, which is a huge allowance from my dad, haha! We talked briefly about my reasons for doing this trip, and he said, very soberly "I've never been in your shoes, and I don't have any advice for you this time." It's hard to explain why, but it meant a lot to me to have someone finally say that, let alone to hear it from my dad.
After I left, I headed for a 4 hour trip to the south Reno area where my older sister and her boyfriend live. I told her when I would be there and said that if she came home to find someone asleep on her lawn, that it was me. She told me how to let myself in, and shortly thereafter Nick got home and we talked for a bit. I took a much needed shower and as soon as Leanne got home we all headed to a late lunch. They insisted on buying my lunch which I thanked them for many times. I spent a couple days there hanging out and catching up, made another trip to REI to buy some bike shorts, CO2, and some more NUUN. Had a great time, great food, and really enjoyed being there. We said our farewells and I headed for Susanville, back in CA. That was a miserable ride. Hot, more wind the entire time, dead tired, legs blown, but too close to stop short. This is also where I lost my Petzl headlamp! After an 11 hour day, and 102 miles, I stopped at Starbucks, got some groceries, and camped under a Rubbermaid picnic bench at the RV park in town. Awoke at 3am to find the sprinklers going off next to me, soaking my bike. Fixed that, went back to sleep. Packed in a rush in the morning and I guess left my headlamp under the bench. Sadface.
Climbing started right away, most of the day all the way to and through Lassen National Park. I met a woman named Kathy, who was doing maintenance at a Caltrans rest stop on the 44 west. She was super nice, helpful, and gave me a lot of advice about the roads and where to stop along my route. She was also really interested in my trip and wanted to know all about it. She gave me hope that I might be able to make it to Redding that same day, since most of the way from Lassen to Redding was downhill...Kinda, haha. I kept trucking the rest of the way toward Redding, stopping all the time for water and rest breaks on the large, flat portions between downhills. Got to Shingletown on the 44 and started down the 10% grade to Redding. Only, it didn't lead to Redding. It was downhill til about 10 miles from Redding, then it was big rolling hills, hot, flat stretches, and 2 big grades into town. I finally arrived at my friend Morgan's house, and felt like death. I had pushed 117 miles in a 12 hour day. He welcomed me in, showed me where to put my bike, and where the shower was, which I promptly took advantage of. Feeling better after that, I then met a couple of Morgan's friends who had come over for dinner. It was great to hang out and talk about motorcycles with fellow riders, as well as to sit on a comfy chair again, despite being told that my chair of choice was a heap, haha.
Had one hell of a good time in Redding, and if the oppressive heat was not getting worse, I would have liked to stay longer. Did a shortish hike to see a bitchin waterfall, stood on my first large dam, took pics of everything, ate lots and lots of amazing food, saw a PT about some hand-strength issues I've encountered, met more cool people, and learned how to kick ass at horseshoes, and how to play Liar's Dice! Very eventful day and a half for sure. I have to say a HUGE thanks to everyone I met, not just Morgan and his wife, for being so friendly and awesome, and to Jed for hooking me up with a visit to that PT; those stretches help a lot and I'm going to see a massage therapist as soon as I can.
From there it was pretty, but mostly boring riding up I-5 out of Redding. My dear new friend Kathy actually saw me when I was on the 5 and saved me from taking a route that would have taken all day to climb! From there I pushed to the Grass Lake rest area where I camped behind the main building. It was super windy at night, but I was able to tarp over my bike and use it as a makeshift shelter from the wind. Made breakfast the next morning and set off to get as close to Crater Lake as I could before it starts climbing into the mountains. I made it across the CA/OR border around midday, stopped at the welcome center and got an OR cycling map from a nice lady named Linda who was super helpful. Stopped in Klamath Falls to do some grocery shopping. The manager let me keep my rig inside the store, which was rad. got some food, called my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day, ate lunch and headed out. The ride from K Falls to where I ended up camping in Kimball park was fuckin miserable. Next to a bunch of lakes the whole time so there was a very strong headwind the whole ride, and tons of gnarly, heartily bred mosquitoes. 100 Some odd miles later, I finally stopped to camp. I have to admit, I could have stopped sooner and camped somewhere else, but I wanted my 4th century. I also wanted the next day to be nothing but the 20 mile climbing ride into the park itself. Mission accomplished.
The campsite was primitive, and a great blessing since I was almost alone there. There was fresh water there, and a locking bathroom building where I kept my trailer instead of having to hang my food from the bears. Used half a can of bug spray to stay alive, but slept pretty well, all things considered. The next morning I made a fire and toasted 3 blueberry bagels which I slathered in cream cheese, 2 packs of oatmeal, and some NUUN. All was routine until I started ascending into the park itself. 3 Hours of shirtless climbing up the sunny road to the park HQ was actually really hard. I put my pack on top of the trailer, drained over 80 ounces of NUUN water, and ate like 3 protein bars just to get to Annie Creek, which is still another 7 miles from the Lodge/Lake itself. Opted to splurge on the lunch buffet there, and am glad I did. I ate an absurd quantity of food over 2 hours of eating, met a few cool people, like Lodge bellman Anthony, and headed for the ranger station at Steel, up the road about 4 miles. Paid my $5 to get into the park and climbed some more to Steel. After a bit of runaround, made it over to the dispatch station to get my backcountry camping permit. After discussing my options and the rules, a newer rangerette helped me fill out the forms, much to her chagrin. The other lovely rangerette Abra was very helpful in helping me figure out where to look for camping, as well as keeping me in mind when inquiring about the road conditions of the northern entrance/exit road which I wanted to take, and she even warned me about the giant mutant squirrels they have at the park called Pine Martens (Technically they are American Martens).
After departing from dispatch, I headed for the lodge where Anthony worked. More twisty climbing road, but the view was 100% worth the pain. I won't spend too much time trying to describe it, since it would take me forever, but I'll put it this way: If there are 10 things you must see in the US, make one of them Crater Lake in early summer while there is still some snow. Even for someone like me who has issues with large, deep bodies of water, it was hard to look away. Anyway, hung out for a while, took some pics, talked to Anthony about my ride, and then headed out West Rim drive to look for camping. Now that I'm out of the park I can say that it was not technically in accordance with the rules, since I wasn't a full mile off the road, but I could not be seen from the road, which is that point of the mile rule, so I think it was OK. There are pics of the site on the FB page, and it was awesome. It's supposed to be a lookout at Watchman Point, but it was all under snow, with a small part of the fencing exposed, which I used to block the wind while sleeping. There were gaps in the fencing, so I used a huge piece of sheet ice to cover them, haha. Apart from having one of those pesky martens jump on my legs in my sleep, and make off with a pack of sliced salami I had buried in the snow, it was a great night. With near zero man made light pollution, I could see the Milky Way clearly, as well as watched the sunset, moonrise, and sunrise on the summer solstice. Needless to say, I felt very privledged.
The next 2 days I spent writing most of this, drinking free decaf, sitting by a huge stone fireplace, and meeting new people at the Lodge. I am now convinced that it will be worth the weight to have some business cards made for Project Runaway. I met a lot of people offering places to stay around the US, people who gave me free Clif Bars because they work for Clif, people who wanted to hear all about the trip, and a few more of the employees who work at the Lodge. It was a great, relaxing stay, and I even got to take hot showers both days I was there!
The last night I was in the park the weather got windy and with windchill, below freezing at my campsite (@ ~8000 feet). I had to use the nearby restroom building as shelter from the elements so as to hide from the wind and clouds. Yes, clouds, not fog, haha. I wanted to leave at 6:30 and make it all the way to Eugene, but the temps made it hard to start off even at 8:30am. After a short climb out Rim Drive, I decended about 1000 feet to entrance station at the North Entrance. Cell reception was good so I texted my sister and called hottie rangerette to confirm that I had safely left the park and that there was no need to come searching for me. This was not me being cute, FYI, but actually a required step in backcountry camping there, so that if you do not check in by an established time and date, they can search for your body, haha. Short climb onto the 138 East, big descent to the 97 North. Stopped for more coffee and started the big haul toward the 58 West that would take me to Eugene. The 97 North is long, rolling, and shittily paved, with very heavy traffic. The headwinds were horrid, but I made it to the 58 West....Which was all the same and worse. From the time I left Crater, I rode for most of the 11 hours it took me to finally reach Dexter, just outside of Eugene by about 20 miles or so. I was getting a bad joint pain in my right hip, and the sun was setting fast, which means time to stop for certain cyclists without a headlamp or rear blinkers. The nice ranger lady at the park in dexter told me that I could camp there that night, even though it was day use, so long as I was out of sight. Bitchin. Camp I did, away from the poison oak, and slept like the dead.
This morning I rode the 20 ish miles into Eugene and found a bike shop to stop at, right next to Sbux. Got suckered into conversation with some crazy scary girl who wanted to sell me a cycling computer (Read: kill me and steal my stuff) so I ducked into the bike shop and talked to the guy there who, as it turns out, knows Eric Clausen, AKA Drawing Amerca By Bike! Small world, I guess. Now here I sit, cracked out on coffee, getting ready to ride to a friend's place here in town so I can clean up and sleep some more before stuffing my face again, lol.
Sorry if this is way too detailed. I'm far too lazy to go back and edit it all, so here it is.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Ok, I'm almost a week in now. Cranked out a century yesterday in order to get to San Jose by nightfall. That was...intense. But, before that...
I had to detour all the way back to Paso Robles, then head up past Lake Nacimiento towards Ft. Hunter Ligget, where Mission road turns into Nacimiento Ferguson Road. I had to take NFR all the way over the mountains out towards the CA-1, just 10 miles north of where the landslide was. It took me more than half a day to climb the thousands of feet in elevation, in order to reach the peak of the road. The terrain in the Los Padres national forest is predominantly very hilly, thick with pines and oaks, and is rather dry right now during summer. Lucky for me I stopped at a small campground along the road so I could refill my CamelBack. Life saver! I munched on some compressed Hawaiian sweet bread and peanut butter for a snack, then headed out. a Few hours later, after reaching the top of the road, I attached my GoPro Hero to the bike and began the 25 minute long descent back down to Highway 1. Talk about sketchy! With my regular road bike it would have been much faster, but the trailer limits me to safely only doing around 25mph. even still, it was pretty crazy, but the views were incredible. I will be posting the video on youtube as soon as I cut it down.
After the descent, I rode for another 4 hours into a hellish headwind up the coast to the Julia Pfeiffer day use park. Camped illegally overnight. It was very cold and I didn't sleep very well, though that was mostly because of my constant fear of getting busted. Alas, the ranger never came to lock up the park, thank God, so I got up, ran around for a bit to get warm, then set off for Nepenthe for my first hot breakfast of the trip. It was only about 90 minutes of uphill riding to reach the restaurant, yay! I had to wait around til 9am when the cafe opened, but it was worth it. Apparently I'm a coffee drinker now, having never had more than a few cups a year since I moved out on my own back when I was 17. The server/barista was very nice and informative, and the food was great. Not something I'll be able to do often, because of how much it costs, but I thought I deserved a treat after like 6 hours of climbing NFR, heh.
After leaving Nepenthe, I headed out for the Big Sur State Park. I think it was only about half an hour before I arrived at Pfeiffer Big Sur, checked into the hike&bike area, and met friends. Hans, Scott, Mike, and later, Julian and Ellie. Hans was headed south later that day, but we all got to talk for a while and discuss lots of touring things and whatnot. It was really nice to come across other people with more experience than me; I learned a lot and it was jut nice to sit around and chat. I didn't really need a rest day, but I grew up camping in Big Sur, so it's kind of a special place for me and I wanted to hang around. Hans headed out later that afternoon to go to Nepenthe, before reversing my whole route back down to San Luis Obispo. It was so cool to be able to give turn by turn directions to someone visiting the area where I grew up! Someone mentioned a chance of rain so I called my awesome sister Jessica who informed me that yes, in fact, there was a 50% chance the next day, so I planned to leave early and beat it to Monterey.
Anyway, well all agreed that one big, long lasting fire made more sense than 4 small ones, so I built my first fire, which lit the very first try, thank you very much, and the rest of us hung out around the firepit in my camp spot. It was awesome hearing where everyone had been and where they were headed. I hope I have more encounters like this along my trip! I got up at 6:30am, worked on my bike for a bit to adjust the brakes and put some CO2 in my tires before heading north again. Julian and Ellie were up later and we said our goodbyes/good lucks before I left. I departed at about 8:50am, stopped a lot to take pictures, but always mindful of the fact that I wanted to beat the increasingly purple clouds to Monterey. Most of the way to Monterey and Carmel was ok, with only a few sections presenting that strong headwind. I ate like 4 apples, some dry salame, and a few bananas to stay fueled. Mostly climbing until I reached Garrapata where it flattened out a little. I rode through the construction sites and saw the damage that Rocky Creek had suffered, with half the road having fallen 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean below. I was blessed with not getting any flat tires, as I have had happen other times while riding through active construction sites. Hooray!
Upon finally reaching south Carmel, I stopped at a Shell station, my old favored pit stop location from when I used to fly up the 1 on my sportbike. I knew there was a very sever grade literally right around the corner, so I chugged a Gatorade, ate half a cinnamon roll, and set off to climb for what seemed like forever up this insanely steep ascent into the Carmel Highlands. I swore a lot, but eventually made it to the top and enjoyed the extremely fast descent into Monterey via Munras avenue. I stopped at Aquarian Bicycle shop to ask for some tips about my route towards Watsonville the next day, and to buy a Presta-to-Schrader valve adapter. This was unfortunately the last straw for my luck with avoiding the rain. It started coming down in the blink of an eye as soon as I left the bike store. I yelled a lot and booked it for Cannery Row, knowing just wherre I was headed: Starbucks! I illegally rode through the Lighthouse Drive Tunnel because it's awesome and sounds neat, and pops you right to Cannery Row, as well as keeping me a little more dry. The shopping area next to Starbucks has a little tunnel that leads back to more shops, where I planned to park my bike. I flew into the building and proceeded to wipe down the bike some. This is when I learned that full wrap fenders are awesome!
After getting cleaned up from the light soaking, I walked into Starbucks, ordered my coffee, and proceeded to unpack all my electronics and set up camp inside before locking the bike up. All in all it had taken about 4.5 hours to get from Big Sur to Monterey. It continued to rain for about an hour or so, maybe a bit more. then, just like back home, the sun came out and it was dry 2 hours later. I used the time to warm up, look at maps, answer emails, talk to family and friends, and the usual rest stop stuff. I retrieved my electric razor and ducked into the restroom to clean up. Looking and feeling like a non-bum type person is going to be really important to me for the duration of the voyage, as it turns out that most people, around here at least, don't trust men with beards, lol.
After waiting too long to find something to eat, I hurriedly packed everything up, profusely thanked the guy at the counter, and set off in search of food while headed to Veterans Park where I would be camping. I found a market off Pacific and bought some cheese, more salami, hard boiled eggs, a bag of dried cranberries, and this awesome wheat/rye sesame cracker bread stuff. I turned up Jefferson and began the grueling 30 minute climb to the par, which is built like a citadel up on a hill overlooking the bay. I found the hiker area, put my stuff down, changed shoes, and went off to pay my 5$. After getting settled, it was totally dark, so I hung a mini Maglite from the tree above the dewy bench so I could eat dinner. No sooner than I thought about how nice it would be if there were other bikers here too, 2 showed up! I think his name was Rolly, and he and his German friend had come from the north and were also headed for SLO! We hung out for a little while before the 3 of us retired for the night. I bedded down and slept very well, waking with the sun and no alarm. I took a hot shower, talked to Rolly and his friend some more, then rode back down to the waterfront to get something to eat and some coffee to get me all cracked out for the ride north.
I forgot to mention, one of the reasons I don't drink soda and have always avoided coffee is because I'm naturally pretty high strung anyways, and I am very sensitive to caffeine. When I am halfway done with a cup of coffee, I'm already wired and shaky, haha, but it's great for starting my rides because it lets me be all wired when I need to be. Anyway, I stopped at Bay Bikes on Cannery Row to see if they had a pump I could use to top off my tires. At 120 psi, they leak down about 8 psi a day due to the nature of the rubber which comprises the tubes themselves. Lucky for me there was a guy there opening the shop before they officially open for business, and he let me use a floor pump. I know I'm going to butcher your name and I'm really sorry...His name was Torren. He was interested in my choice of helmet and BG shoes, and the fact that I had no water bottles, just my Camelback, heh, so we got to talking about my trip and stuff. Super nice guy, incredibly helpful, recommended I head for Cafe LaStrata (Peets) instead of Sbux, so I headed there, right around the corner. I set my stuff down after parking the rig and here comes Torren on a bike with a basket full of 2 water bottles and 3 cages! He said the shop was going to contribute to my trip. I asked if there was anything I could do, or pay for them, and he kindly declined. I said I'd find the facebook page for the shop and be sure to mention it and his act of generosity. I thanked him a lot and set to work installing my new kit. After that, I had pasta salad and coffee for breakfast, checked my route for the day, and set off.
I got off to a really good start thanks to the Monterey Peninsula Recreational Trail that took me all the way to Castroville. Then I was on the freeway part of CA-1 north to Watsonville, which was an awesome descent! I stopped in Elkhorn at a produce stand that had a burrito-wagon type thing out front. I ordered 2 taquitos and a Gatorade and met another super nice guy who was amazed at what I was doing. I ate fast, dumped the Gatorade into one of my new water bottles and set off for Watsonville. Upon arriving there I reluctantly stopped at a Burger King to fill up my water bottles with ice water. I also ordered several double cheeseburgers, which ended up being a good and bad idea. I have not eaten fast food more than a few times a year since I gave it up in 2001. I hate it, and it makes me sick, but it is super cheap and super dense in calories, so I did it, in prep for the Hecker Pass grade coming up that day. All stocked up and very loaded down with all that water, I started up the 152 towards Hecker. It took a few hours but I finished the climb and took a pic at the top. Suck it, Hecker Pass! But it would have its revenge...
I went to put my jersey back on after climbing topless, only to find that the zipper on my favorite jersey, my original jersey that I've been using since I started riding road in 2004, was borked! I got it to go back together, but I'm not sure how long it will last before it breaks permanently. :(
After that I kept descending down the back side of the mountain into the valley, and low and behold, a fierce headwind. Not a big deal when you're flying down a steep ass hill competing with car traffic, but once if flattened out and I made my next turn onto Watsonville Road, it became rather discouraging. The next several hours were rather dull, terrain was gently rolly, looked a lot like home too. It was warm and I was low ish on water so I tried to conserve, resting often. I kept doing rough math in my head trying to figure out how far San Jose was, and at some point I think I decided to just say screw it, and book it the rest of the way in one day. I passed the turn off for my planned campground and continued northeast. I passed IBM HQ on Bailey, and there I made a crucial wrong turn onto Monterey Road. The directions included a u-turn and some weird ramp that I got confused on. I ended up riding about an hour in the wrong direction before a helpful stranger informed me I was about to ride back into the hills south of San Jose!
I yelled some more, turned around, and booked it back the other way, all the while racing the quickly setting sun. I averaged almost 16mph back to maintown SJ and finally arrived at my friends Scott and Phil's house at about 8:40. Dead tired, I knocked on the door, said hi, then collapsed on the lawn to rest, haha. We talked some, discussed how crazy I am, then I took a shower and we went to IHOP, since it was the closest thing still open at 10pm. I was gifted my dinner and ate a lot of food until I was uncomfortably full. On the menu:
I had to detour all the way back to Paso Robles, then head up past Lake Nacimiento towards Ft. Hunter Ligget, where Mission road turns into Nacimiento Ferguson Road. I had to take NFR all the way over the mountains out towards the CA-1, just 10 miles north of where the landslide was. It took me more than half a day to climb the thousands of feet in elevation, in order to reach the peak of the road. The terrain in the Los Padres national forest is predominantly very hilly, thick with pines and oaks, and is rather dry right now during summer. Lucky for me I stopped at a small campground along the road so I could refill my CamelBack. Life saver! I munched on some compressed Hawaiian sweet bread and peanut butter for a snack, then headed out. a Few hours later, after reaching the top of the road, I attached my GoPro Hero to the bike and began the 25 minute long descent back down to Highway 1. Talk about sketchy! With my regular road bike it would have been much faster, but the trailer limits me to safely only doing around 25mph. even still, it was pretty crazy, but the views were incredible. I will be posting the video on youtube as soon as I cut it down.
After the descent, I rode for another 4 hours into a hellish headwind up the coast to the Julia Pfeiffer day use park. Camped illegally overnight. It was very cold and I didn't sleep very well, though that was mostly because of my constant fear of getting busted. Alas, the ranger never came to lock up the park, thank God, so I got up, ran around for a bit to get warm, then set off for Nepenthe for my first hot breakfast of the trip. It was only about 90 minutes of uphill riding to reach the restaurant, yay! I had to wait around til 9am when the cafe opened, but it was worth it. Apparently I'm a coffee drinker now, having never had more than a few cups a year since I moved out on my own back when I was 17. The server/barista was very nice and informative, and the food was great. Not something I'll be able to do often, because of how much it costs, but I thought I deserved a treat after like 6 hours of climbing NFR, heh.After leaving Nepenthe, I headed out for the Big Sur State Park. I think it was only about half an hour before I arrived at Pfeiffer Big Sur, checked into the hike&bike area, and met friends. Hans, Scott, Mike, and later, Julian and Ellie. Hans was headed south later that day, but we all got to talk for a while and discuss lots of touring things and whatnot. It was really nice to come across other people with more experience than me; I learned a lot and it was jut nice to sit around and chat. I didn't really need a rest day, but I grew up camping in Big Sur, so it's kind of a special place for me and I wanted to hang around. Hans headed out later that afternoon to go to Nepenthe, before reversing my whole route back down to San Luis Obispo. It was so cool to be able to give turn by turn directions to someone visiting the area where I grew up! Someone mentioned a chance of rain so I called my awesome sister Jessica who informed me that yes, in fact, there was a 50% chance the next day, so I planned to leave early and beat it to Monterey.
Anyway, well all agreed that one big, long lasting fire made more sense than 4 small ones, so I built my first fire, which lit the very first try, thank you very much, and the rest of us hung out around the firepit in my camp spot. It was awesome hearing where everyone had been and where they were headed. I hope I have more encounters like this along my trip! I got up at 6:30am, worked on my bike for a bit to adjust the brakes and put some CO2 in my tires before heading north again. Julian and Ellie were up later and we said our goodbyes/good lucks before I left. I departed at about 8:50am, stopped a lot to take pictures, but always mindful of the fact that I wanted to beat the increasingly purple clouds to Monterey. Most of the way to Monterey and Carmel was ok, with only a few sections presenting that strong headwind. I ate like 4 apples, some dry salame, and a few bananas to stay fueled. Mostly climbing until I reached Garrapata where it flattened out a little. I rode through the construction sites and saw the damage that Rocky Creek had suffered, with half the road having fallen 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean below. I was blessed with not getting any flat tires, as I have had happen other times while riding through active construction sites. Hooray!
Upon finally reaching south Carmel, I stopped at a Shell station, my old favored pit stop location from when I used to fly up the 1 on my sportbike. I knew there was a very sever grade literally right around the corner, so I chugged a Gatorade, ate half a cinnamon roll, and set off to climb for what seemed like forever up this insanely steep ascent into the Carmel Highlands. I swore a lot, but eventually made it to the top and enjoyed the extremely fast descent into Monterey via Munras avenue. I stopped at Aquarian Bicycle shop to ask for some tips about my route towards Watsonville the next day, and to buy a Presta-to-Schrader valve adapter. This was unfortunately the last straw for my luck with avoiding the rain. It started coming down in the blink of an eye as soon as I left the bike store. I yelled a lot and booked it for Cannery Row, knowing just wherre I was headed: Starbucks! I illegally rode through the Lighthouse Drive Tunnel because it's awesome and sounds neat, and pops you right to Cannery Row, as well as keeping me a little more dry. The shopping area next to Starbucks has a little tunnel that leads back to more shops, where I planned to park my bike. I flew into the building and proceeded to wipe down the bike some. This is when I learned that full wrap fenders are awesome!
After getting cleaned up from the light soaking, I walked into Starbucks, ordered my coffee, and proceeded to unpack all my electronics and set up camp inside before locking the bike up. All in all it had taken about 4.5 hours to get from Big Sur to Monterey. It continued to rain for about an hour or so, maybe a bit more. then, just like back home, the sun came out and it was dry 2 hours later. I used the time to warm up, look at maps, answer emails, talk to family and friends, and the usual rest stop stuff. I retrieved my electric razor and ducked into the restroom to clean up. Looking and feeling like a non-bum type person is going to be really important to me for the duration of the voyage, as it turns out that most people, around here at least, don't trust men with beards, lol.
After waiting too long to find something to eat, I hurriedly packed everything up, profusely thanked the guy at the counter, and set off in search of food while headed to Veterans Park where I would be camping. I found a market off Pacific and bought some cheese, more salami, hard boiled eggs, a bag of dried cranberries, and this awesome wheat/rye sesame cracker bread stuff. I turned up Jefferson and began the grueling 30 minute climb to the par, which is built like a citadel up on a hill overlooking the bay. I found the hiker area, put my stuff down, changed shoes, and went off to pay my 5$. After getting settled, it was totally dark, so I hung a mini Maglite from the tree above the dewy bench so I could eat dinner. No sooner than I thought about how nice it would be if there were other bikers here too, 2 showed up! I think his name was Rolly, and he and his German friend had come from the north and were also headed for SLO! We hung out for a little while before the 3 of us retired for the night. I bedded down and slept very well, waking with the sun and no alarm. I took a hot shower, talked to Rolly and his friend some more, then rode back down to the waterfront to get something to eat and some coffee to get me all cracked out for the ride north.
I forgot to mention, one of the reasons I don't drink soda and have always avoided coffee is because I'm naturally pretty high strung anyways, and I am very sensitive to caffeine. When I am halfway done with a cup of coffee, I'm already wired and shaky, haha, but it's great for starting my rides because it lets me be all wired when I need to be. Anyway, I stopped at Bay Bikes on Cannery Row to see if they had a pump I could use to top off my tires. At 120 psi, they leak down about 8 psi a day due to the nature of the rubber which comprises the tubes themselves. Lucky for me there was a guy there opening the shop before they officially open for business, and he let me use a floor pump. I know I'm going to butcher your name and I'm really sorry...His name was Torren. He was interested in my choice of helmet and BG shoes, and the fact that I had no water bottles, just my Camelback, heh, so we got to talking about my trip and stuff. Super nice guy, incredibly helpful, recommended I head for Cafe LaStrata (Peets) instead of Sbux, so I headed there, right around the corner. I set my stuff down after parking the rig and here comes Torren on a bike with a basket full of 2 water bottles and 3 cages! He said the shop was going to contribute to my trip. I asked if there was anything I could do, or pay for them, and he kindly declined. I said I'd find the facebook page for the shop and be sure to mention it and his act of generosity. I thanked him a lot and set to work installing my new kit. After that, I had pasta salad and coffee for breakfast, checked my route for the day, and set off.
I got off to a really good start thanks to the Monterey Peninsula Recreational Trail that took me all the way to Castroville. Then I was on the freeway part of CA-1 north to Watsonville, which was an awesome descent! I stopped in Elkhorn at a produce stand that had a burrito-wagon type thing out front. I ordered 2 taquitos and a Gatorade and met another super nice guy who was amazed at what I was doing. I ate fast, dumped the Gatorade into one of my new water bottles and set off for Watsonville. Upon arriving there I reluctantly stopped at a Burger King to fill up my water bottles with ice water. I also ordered several double cheeseburgers, which ended up being a good and bad idea. I have not eaten fast food more than a few times a year since I gave it up in 2001. I hate it, and it makes me sick, but it is super cheap and super dense in calories, so I did it, in prep for the Hecker Pass grade coming up that day. All stocked up and very loaded down with all that water, I started up the 152 towards Hecker. It took a few hours but I finished the climb and took a pic at the top. Suck it, Hecker Pass! But it would have its revenge...
After that I kept descending down the back side of the mountain into the valley, and low and behold, a fierce headwind. Not a big deal when you're flying down a steep ass hill competing with car traffic, but once if flattened out and I made my next turn onto Watsonville Road, it became rather discouraging. The next several hours were rather dull, terrain was gently rolly, looked a lot like home too. It was warm and I was low ish on water so I tried to conserve, resting often. I kept doing rough math in my head trying to figure out how far San Jose was, and at some point I think I decided to just say screw it, and book it the rest of the way in one day. I passed the turn off for my planned campground and continued northeast. I passed IBM HQ on Bailey, and there I made a crucial wrong turn onto Monterey Road. The directions included a u-turn and some weird ramp that I got confused on. I ended up riding about an hour in the wrong direction before a helpful stranger informed me I was about to ride back into the hills south of San Jose!
I yelled some more, turned around, and booked it back the other way, all the while racing the quickly setting sun. I averaged almost 16mph back to maintown SJ and finally arrived at my friends Scott and Phil's house at about 8:40. Dead tired, I knocked on the door, said hi, then collapsed on the lawn to rest, haha. We talked some, discussed how crazy I am, then I took a shower and we went to IHOP, since it was the closest thing still open at 10pm. I was gifted my dinner and ate a lot of food until I was uncomfortably full. On the menu:
- A full pound of popcorn shrimp (post-cooked weight!)
- 2 Scrambled eggs
- 2 Sausage links
- Hash Browns
- French fries
- Sweet cream stuffed cinnamon raisin french toast topped with whipped cream and strawberry compote
- A carafe of water, taken straight from the carafe
Sunday, May 22, 2011
On the run!
Things I want you to know:
Touring is very different from all the cycling I've ever done. I found out a lot in a very short time about what I really need to carry, and what I really don't need. The trailer is a hell of a burden, but it also holds the essentials that will be keeping me alive for a while, so I don't mind that. I've re-packed it a few times already, trying to find the optimal way of keeping it's center of gravity low, while maintaining ease of access to commonly used items.
Solar power is awesome, despite cloudy coastal California mornings rendering my panel. The ability to charge my phone and mp3 player when the weather lets me is fantastic!
Despite my helmet being heavier than a normal road helmet, I'm liking my choice more and more. It's very warm and vents well. Quieter than a regular bike lid too, and safer. Hopefully my neck muscles get used to it soon...
I found out that it would be a felony if I was caught sneaking around the Alder Creek landslide on CA Highway 1, so I had to double back from that area, head east into Paso Robles, and embark on a alternate, MUCH longer route to Big Sur. Oh well, I'm sure this kind of thing will happen again...Ha.
My first night on the road was OK, all things considered. I found a legit campground, saw a baby deer, and was warm all night. Only spent 5 dollars on that, so I'm stoked. While I was bedding down for the night, the magnitude of what I've begun really started to sink in for the first time. I'm still a jumble of emotions about it all, but I'm still every bit as dedicated to doing this. :)
Touring is very different from all the cycling I've ever done. I found out a lot in a very short time about what I really need to carry, and what I really don't need. The trailer is a hell of a burden, but it also holds the essentials that will be keeping me alive for a while, so I don't mind that. I've re-packed it a few times already, trying to find the optimal way of keeping it's center of gravity low, while maintaining ease of access to commonly used items.
Solar power is awesome, despite cloudy coastal California mornings rendering my panel. The ability to charge my phone and mp3 player when the weather lets me is fantastic!
Despite my helmet being heavier than a normal road helmet, I'm liking my choice more and more. It's very warm and vents well. Quieter than a regular bike lid too, and safer. Hopefully my neck muscles get used to it soon...
I found out that it would be a felony if I was caught sneaking around the Alder Creek landslide on CA Highway 1, so I had to double back from that area, head east into Paso Robles, and embark on a alternate, MUCH longer route to Big Sur. Oh well, I'm sure this kind of thing will happen again...Ha.
My first night on the road was OK, all things considered. I found a legit campground, saw a baby deer, and was warm all night. Only spent 5 dollars on that, so I'm stoked. While I was bedding down for the night, the magnitude of what I've begun really started to sink in for the first time. I'm still a jumble of emotions about it all, but I'm still every bit as dedicated to doing this. :)
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Rain...
Pretty much all set to go. Stuff almost all packed, bike ready, trailer hooked up...and it's going to rain for 4 days...I know I'll get wet sooner or later, but I don't want to head right into a storm...Guess I'm waiting it out...
On the bright side, I paid my last visit to the DMV yesterday. The girl helping me gave me a hi-five when I told her it was my last time there, haha. I'm looking forward to Half Dome!
On the bright side, I paid my last visit to the DMV yesterday. The girl helping me gave me a hi-five when I told her it was my last time there, haha. I'm looking forward to Half Dome!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Gear shopping...
Selecting the appropriate gear for the trip has been a much more complicated and taxing ordeal than I originally anticipated. I thought mapping out my route was hard, but this is crazy! There are so many big companies offering up the best of the best mountaineering and extreme weather technical clothing, it's making it difficult to decide what will work best for my applications. All the cycling equipment was a relatively straightforward hunt, since my cycling background lends me a lot of insight as to what I need, like the BOB Yak trailer, Surly LHT frame, and the rest of the hardware I already had from previous bike builds. Though, it would seem that there are currently no companies who produce a visor-equipped, full-face road cycling helmet that isn't designed in the moto-X style. I would have thought there would be other motorcyclists-turned-bicyclists who longed for the security and protection afforded to them by a standard full faced moto helmet, but simply without all that excess weight.
Even simply selecting a good waterproof hardshell jacket has been tough. Naturally, one is drawn to proven names like Marmot, The North Face, Arc'Teryx, and Columbia, but even then, their ranges are so expansive that it's been confusing to not be able to touch and physically interact with the products. Looks like I might be needing to make a trip to the nearest REI when I get further north, AFTER the trip has already begun...Eek...
Even simply selecting a good waterproof hardshell jacket has been tough. Naturally, one is drawn to proven names like Marmot, The North Face, Arc'Teryx, and Columbia, but even then, their ranges are so expansive that it's been confusing to not be able to touch and physically interact with the products. Looks like I might be needing to make a trip to the nearest REI when I get further north, AFTER the trip has already begun...Eek...
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Facebook!
You can now follow Project Runaway on Facebook too!
Facebook.com/ProjectRunaway
Just look for the Facebook badge on the left side! There's also a like button in each of the posts too!
Facebook.com/ProjectRunaway
Just look for the Facebook badge on the left side! There's also a like button in each of the posts too!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Project Runaway is now live on Twitter!
Follow the project on Twitter too!
http://twitter.com/ProjectRideAway
@ProjectRideAway
http://twitter.com/ProjectRideAway
@ProjectRideAway
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New contact email!
Beeswithtires@gmail.com is now a live, up and running email address for Project Runaway!
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