Category — Uncategorized

I’ve ridden about 37 miles today and I’m pretty worn down. Last night was pretty cold, and I slept poorly to say the least.

I’m stopped at a little co-op cafe in Point Arena looking at maps and paths. The blue sky has finally decided to show itself literally 5 minutes ago. The clouds combined with a moderate head wind have made this morning cold and rough. It’s looking like I’ll make it to Gualala, but I don’t think I’ve got the energy to cover 60 more miles today to make it to Bodega Bay. The hills are taking their toll for sure, and without Jas, my motivation is dwindling. Most of it is that I don’t think I can handle another frigid night without a shower and every campground between Gualala and Bodega supposedly doesn’t have showers. So, I may wind up in a motel for the night… Blowing up the bank for sure.

As of Saturday night, I’ve ridden 100+ miles in a single day twice in my life.  We started from Miranda’s house in Arcata at about 9am.  The weather was cold and overcast to the point of misting.  By the time we got through Eureka things cleared up, but we hit a gnarly patch of roadway that was under construction.  Not the kind where there are flaggers and stopped traffic, but the kind where there’s about 3 miles of torn up, bumpy-ass road.  It was hell to get through, but we made it.

The agenda shows yesterday’s planned route, but we wound up getting off 101 for about 30 miles to ride through Ave of the Giants, a redwood-laden two lane road with much less traffic than 101.  The detour added about 5-10 miles to the ride, pushing us to the century.

In the afternoon, we ran into other riders headed for the same campground as us, making our destination reasonable.  Jas went ahead as usual and made it to camp, breaking a spoke somewhere along the way.

I didn’t get up the hill to the campground until after dusk.  I picked up some food at the store across the street, and by the time I came out, it was dark.  The campground had tree canopies, so it was even darker in there.  I started whistling when I thought I was near the hiker/biker section, and Jas yelled out my name to lead me to the camp.  So I made it, but just barely.

When I arrived, Jas notified me of the spoke and that someone had offered him a temporary spoke bungee.  He put it on before going to bed, but didn’t try to true the wheel until morning.  While he was truing the wheel, the bungee snapped, and with it went Jas’s motivation.  The nearest bike shop was 20 miles behind us, and riding without a spoke would bend the rim, possibly to the point of destruction.  Luckily, we were close enough to santa cruz that Jas could get Cat to pick him up.

The whole ordeal put me at a late start, but gave me time to investigate an issue I had been having with my middle chain ring while the cassette was in a higher gear.  It turns out that one of the teeth in the middle cog had snapped off completely, and two neighboring teeth were bent, causing the chain to nudge towards the large cog every pedal.  I tried straightenning the bent teeth with a pliers, and that seems to have solved the issue for now.  After the trip I’ll have to get a new chainring, but it should be fine to get to Santa Cruz.

Today’s ride was incredibly strenuous.  The day began with a climb to 2000 ft. (starting from about 750), then an incredible downhill back to nearly sea level, then another steep climb up to about 800.  The second climb was deadly, and the descent more dangerous than the first (more sharp U-shaped turns), but the reward at the end of the descent was epic: the Pacific Ocean.  I finally made it to the California coast on hwy 1.

The rest of the ride was rolling hills and unfortunately strong head winds.  Since I was fairly exhausted from the climbs and Jas wasn’t already 10 miles ahead of me, I decided to take it slow instead of hauling ass to make Gualala.

So here I am at Russian Gulch State Park writing up the details.  It’s only $3 per person for hiker/biker, but their showers are on the fritz, so I’m sleeping with road grime on my legs.  Fun.

By the time this is posted (probably in Mendocino proper), I’ll be on my way to Bodega Bay.  San Francisco on Tuesday. 

tomorrow:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3119172

sunday:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3119175

monday:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3119181

A few days have passed since the last update. It’s certainly harder than expected to maintain this thing daily while riding 80+ miles per day.

We left Newport at around 8:30 on Tuesday morning and landed in Winchester Bay in the evening. Jas at around 4, me at around 5. Three of the bikers we met in Newport made the trip as well, and I saw them a few times during the day.

Oregon turned out to be quite hilly, with many short climbs followed by short spurts of speed. There was also some road construction a bit inland, and some of the stray tar chunks managed to get into my tires, causing them to pick up pieces of debris like my bike was a Katamari.

When we got to Winchester Bay, we were offered a ride down to Brookings the next morning, and since we’re cramped for time, we decided to take it. As it turned out, we got a ride all the way to the border and then rode down into Crescent City. Rode 80 miles Tuesday, only 25 or 30 Wednesday, but traveled a good 130 miles by truck. That bought us a day, letting us hit Arcata last night.

A slight aside, when loading the Bob trailer into the guy’s truck, one of the pins flew off, so I only had one proper attachment to my bike wheel. In place of the lost pin, I tried zip ties for the day. They didn’t work to well.

Rescuing Jas from the Woods of Orick

Yesterday morning we got a late start. Weather was shitty and overcast, so we were slightly unmotivated. We also toyed with the idea of riding to Klamath (about 15-20 miles) and then catching a bus the rest of the way if weather was bad. We ate breakfast at a place called the Good Harvest Cafe, which was delicious, but we didn’t hit the road until 11 or noon.

At the beginning of the ride, we turned off 101 to what looked like the bike route. After a mile or so, it dead ended and we found another couple of bikers. The road actually continued as a dirt road, but given my trailer’s deficiency, I didn’t want to truck it on the dirt.

Jas wanted to go, and I convinced him that if he wanted to, then he should go and that we could meet up after the dirt road meets up with 101, so I turned around and started climbing the 1200 foot hill while Jas followed the dirt path with the two others. On the way down to Klamath (about 1pm or 1:30pm), I ran into two more bikers at a road construction flagger for a single lane ahead. We went after all of the cars and had the downhill road all to ourselves.

In Klamath, I found some wire to use instead of the zip tie holding the other side of the trailer to my bike. It worked a little better, and at least didn’t break.

After Klamath was another hill climb, and I took a chance taking a Pacific Coast Bike Route path off Hwy 101 at Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway, which turned into Old Hwy 101, an amazing descent through the Redwood forest.

Between pretty much the first hill south of Crescent City, through Klamath and Old Hwy 101, there was no cell phone service, so when I got to Orick, the first town after Old Hwy 101 with service, I stopped for a Gatorade break and sent Jas a text message. Considering I hadn’t seen him go by during my delay fixing the Bob in Klamath, I figured he was well ahead of me, so I kept on trucking down 101.

The road between Orick and Arcata was curvy and hilly, with many ups and downs. I’m pretty sure yesterday I was in my lowest gear more than I have been on any other day. The late start didn’t help my motivation too much.

At about 6:40pm it was approaching dark, I was about 20 miles out of Arcata, and I got a call from Jas. He had just reached Orick, and he had taken the 101 the whole way, rather than following the bike route through the Redwoods. His decision meant another 1200 foot climb for him (as opposed to my 800 foot climb to Old Hwy 101) and many more hills. Since it was getting late, he wanted to stop riding before he lost cell phone service again and was stranded.

I got on the phone with Miranda and when I got to Arcata, we went to pick Jas up, since 35 miles in a car wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as 35 miles on a bike through dark and dangerous slippery-when-wet hills.

Disaster averted. Day off. Tomorrow, we have more climbing, and in two days, our biggest climb of the trip, 1900 feet. Definitely time to rest.

Yesterday was Tillamook to Newport, about 70 miles (80 for the day when all was said and done).  We rode through some of Oregon’s beautiful forestry and then along the coast through Lincoln City and Depoe Bay.
Jas is still outpacing me, but the good news is that my knee isn’t paricularly sore anymore.  Now it just hurts as much as everything else in my legs.
Our goal was to make it to Newport in time for the 6pm tour of the Rogue Brewery.  We arrived in time, but about a month ago they stopped doing the 6pm tour without updating their website.  We were bummed, but they gave us a quick private tour after we ate.  The menu was exactly the same at the brewery as it was at the pulic house in Astoria, so it was a bit redundant, but a fun place to visit nonetheless.
After the brewery, we headed south 2 miles to South Beach State Park.  Signs on the road said “campground full”, but we decided to check it out anyways.  It turns out that they put the sign up when there are still a few sites left.  And, they usually have hiker/biker sites available (and they’re only $4 per person!), so we were hooked up and camped with a handful of other touring cyclists for the night.
Next stop, somewhere after Reedsport. 

Lets see if this works now…

Just ate many cheese and ice creams at the Tillamook factory. It’s hot and clear skies and my knee is hurting a bit more today than it did last night (weird). I think I’m going to go to the store to get a knee brace and see about adjusting my seat post and saddle.

Watching cheese get manufactured was interesting, but eating said cheese was even better. The ice cream was good, but nothing too spectacular…

Time for long overdue photo post? Yup.

Wow, so, it’s only really been 2 days since my last update, but it feels like I haven’t updated this thing in ages. I guess since the last post was from my iphone…

I’m going to try to go in order. Monday was more rain than Washington’s seen all summer.. in my shoes. Tuesday was a day off. And Wednesday (which we’ve yet to really tell you about) we flew like bats out of hell.

Wednesday – We set the alarm for 5:30, knowing full well the night before that we needed to hit Aberdeen to really boost morale. Aberdeen’s a good 120 miles from Forks, so we were mentally preparing for the impending century. After snoozing the alarm until 6 and showering, we hit the road at about 7, stopping briefly at Forks Outfitters for Jas to find tubes. Just his luck, they didn’t carry 700c tubes, so we stocked up on food instead. I wanted to get a proper sleeping bag, but without the space to hold it, I decided on a second fleece blanket with a zippper under the impression that I could just double bag. So far, that impression has been spot on, and I’ve slept warmly since.

Eventually we stopped going west and turned south towards Kalaloch. During that time, we were passed by a team of 4 older cyclists who were doing a mini motel tour (nothing in the way of equipment, only about 50 miles a day, and hauling ass the whole time). Jas tried to keep up with them since they offered him a free tube if he could keep up. He didn’t, but at around that time, he started outpacing me by a lot. Also around that time we met a lone cyclist from Chile named Filipe (not sure about the spelling, pronounced fill-eep, not fill-eep-ay). Filipe rode with us for the rest of the day even though he had only planned for 100km that day. Filipe’s pace was closer to mine, which was pleasant after riding many miles with Jas so far ahead (and out of sight).

Just after meeting and joining up with Filipe, we hit Kalaloch, where we stopped for a lunch rest of sandwiches and Snickers bars. We then proceeded down 101 which had recently been chip sealed to accomodate all of the logger trucks. If I never have to ride on a chip sealed road or shoulder ever again for the rest of my life, it will be too soon. Chip seal is a huge pain in the ass to ride in. Not fun at all. Plus, it gave me three flat tubes — twice on the rear wheel of my bike, and once on the wheel of the Bob.

By the time Filipe and I hit Amanda Park (about 30 miles out of Aberdeen if I remember correctly), Jas had been waiting for a good half hour. I took the opportunity to mail some things that I wasn’t using back to Santa Cruz, Filipe took the opportunity to eat a cheeseburger, and Jas hung out and tried to figure out camping in Aberdeen.

Filipe’s camping experience throughout his trip had been guerilla — simply pulling off the road and going in far enough to be invisible and then pitching a tent. By the time we hit Humptulips, Jas and I had ridden something like 99.3 miles for the day, and all three of us were well beyond exhausted. Delirious and sore, we rode the remaining .7 miles to complete the century before turning around to pull off the road along the Humptulips river. The woman at the cash register at the Humptulips gas station (really the only public establishment in the town of Humptulips) told us that bikers camp on the side of the road all the time and it’s completely safe, so we weren’t worried. There were even some folks camping on the other side of the river.

I’m pretty sure I passed out before dark Wednesday night, after attempting to treat with IcyHot a pain that had developed in my right knee.

Thursday — It was difficult to wake up on Thursday, for obvious reasons. I was still exhausted, and though we made it back up to the road by about 10, we went back to the Humptulips convenience store to get food and didn’t make any progress until after 11.

The rest of Thursday was incredibly discouraging for me. My knee was hurting with every pedal, so it took me a while to get into Hoquiam (a major destination for us since it contained Washington’s only bike shop since we arrived at Port Angeles). Upon arriving, Filipe suggested that I take the bus from Hoquiam to Astoria to take a day or two off on my knee and wait him and Jas to arrive (Jas would camp in Filipe’s tent).

There weren’t any busses that went the whole way, so I did the next best thing and took a bus from Hoquiam to Grayland and set up camp early. Filipe and Jas rode in at around 6 after battling the wind all day to ride westbound along the bay.

I was still exhausted from the century the day before, so I passed out at around 8:30, well before dark. The bus ride left me a bit disappointed though, as I felt like I had cheated through part of the ride. It was definitely necessary for me to avoid blowing out my knee, and we couldn’t afford to take extra days off due to our time constraint to make Burning Man, but itstill left me feeling a bit empty and like a cheat.

After discussing things more with Jas, like what we’ll do if my knee goes boom and I have to stop riding, I felt marginally better — at least I’m still on the trip and I’m not holding him up, and I’ll be able to ride when my knee feels better.

Friday – Yesterday was Grayland to Astoria. My knee felt substantially better in the morning, but wasn’t up to 100%. I was able to maintain a decent pace of about 13mph through noon when we hit Raymond. After that, I think I went a bit slower, but Jas curbed his desire to ride fast and stayed with me at the moderate pace for the day. The ride was about 85 miles all said and done, from the campground to a house Jas had lined up through his mom.

Looking back on it, we didn’t do much of anything on Friday except for ride. We didn’t stop for lunch (just ate granola bars and clif bars during short breaks), we didn’t stop to take many pictures, and we didn’t go to any bike shops. By the time we hit the Colombia River, we were delirious and thrilled. Washington had given us nothing but rain and chip seal, while Oregon promised mostly clear skies and a place to stay for the first night. However, first we had to make it across the river, which meant riding on a 2 mile bridge with about 2 feet of shoulder (right next to 60mph traffic!), and a gigantic steep incline at the end of the bridge. My knee was feeling reasonably fine all day until that incline. It was deadly steep, and riding next to traffic meant no leway.

Once in Astoria, we took a minute to rest, ran into another guy on a bike going west for the night, and were offered free coffee by a little shack that was closing up for the day and about to throw it out. We were grateful for the warm beverage and then continued on to our accomodations.

Jas’s mom went to high school with a guy who lives in Astoria, so we were able to connect with them. They’ve encountered touring cyclists before and offered up their lawn for us to camp on and their showers for us to clean ourselves. It was nice to see people and shower in a home. They also offered us breakfast in the morning.

Friday night we went out to the Rogue Ale Public House on an Astoria Pier. We drank some beer, at some food, and had a jolly old time (riding 85 miles in a day really gives that first pint a huge kick). Jas thought he ate too much and shouldn’t have drank, and was probably right, but it was a fun time and quite enjoyable (our servers being cute brunettes talking about riding from Astoria to Portland didn’t hurt much either).

And all this brings me to today. We got a bit of a late start out of Astoria (booze’ll do that to you), but we hit up Safeway for an obscene amount of Chewy bars and goods. I got an ace bandage for my knee and some Tiger Milk bars as well. Then we went to the bike shop where Jas got tubes and gloves. I got a new tire for the Bob so that I don’t encounter as much road resistance (it’s slick and doesn’t have much traction) and a rack for the rear wheel that I can strap the tent and my sleeping mat onto.

With just the Bob, I have been putting the tent and sleeping mat (my two bulkiest items) at the bottom of the bag since they’re entirely useless during the day. This has meant that I’ve had to repack every morning, which has cost us a fair bit of time. With the rear rack, I can strap the tent and the mat to the bike (and strap a pouch for food), leaving more space in the Bob bag, and letting me pack up my stuff at night so that we can hit the road sooner in the morning.

After the bike shop we went to the Astoria Column, which is at the highest point in town and quite a spectacle of its own right. Coincidentally, it re-opened from renovation on Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 10am. A mere hour or two before we arrived. Good timing.

Getting to the column, however, was quite taxing and really hit my knee hard. The ride down was great, but as we started heading out of town, I rewrapped the bandage, got on my bike and felt immense pain. Instead of riding the 66 miles down to Tillamook, I decided to cheat again and take the bus. Jas mentioned taking tomorrow off, which will give me two days off of the knee, so I should be good to ride on Monday.

The bus ride down the coast was a bit boring, and the scenery was great, making me even more disappointed that I wasn’t riding it. There was a huge hill though, between Cannon Beach and Manzanita, that would have destroyed my knee, so despite the obvious disappointments and drawbacks, I think it was the right decision.

I’m now sitting at Pacific Campground, about 200 yards from the Tillamook Cheese factory, where we’ll go tomorrow if we take the day off. After that, it’s down to Newport to see where they make Dead Guy Ale.

Hope that wasn’t too long to read.. a lot happened in the past few days..
-kevin

Slept on the Humptulips river last night after riding 100 miles down the 101. Boy are my wings tires. At least there was no rain.

So, we hit what was apparently “More rain than Washington has seen all summer” yesterday and were drenched to the bone.  After about forty miles we saw the first sign of habitability (yeah, there really was -nothing- and stopped at the Hungry Bear Cafe & Motel.  In hopes of the weather clearing up a bit, we decided to take a day of rest here.  Admittedly, I’m quite impatient at the moment and a bit irritable all in all, though it was a good time to tune the bikes back up, do some laundry and get things back in order.  The weather report is looking mildly better as we head south tomorrow, and then looking poor again.  Hopefully we’ll be better prepared to keep moving on.

It is fun to note that while tuning up I made some modifications and rode my bike without weight – it’s really like riding a whole different bike.  Movements are agile and the speed of it feels amazing.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a nice long ride and make it to a good spot with minimal weather.  Looking forward to drought-ridden California!