Dave rides his bike to school

Above: Best Billboard EVER!  Roger and Bryan: I thought of you guys instantly when I saw this billboard.  I walked by this billboard a few times, and I laughed every time.

Above: The Rose Festival Parade in Portland, OR. 

Above: Another pic of the Rose Festival Parade in Portland, OR.  

Above: This is for you, Tacy.  🙂

Above: Tori at PGE park (Portland General Electric.  NOT Pacific Gas & Electric) 

Above: Tori and I inside PGE park

I never got around to writing a real entry for my weekend in Portland, so here’s a quick recap:

– We just happened to pick the best weekend of the year to be in Portland.  Tori arrive Friday night, and the Rose Festival kicked off on Saturday morning.  There was a huge parade, a carnival, and a flotilla of 7 Navy/Coast Guard/Canadian Navy ships in port. 

– After 4+ years of traveling to Broadlane’s Dallas office and staying in the Galleria Westin, I cashed in ALL of my Starwood Preferred Guest points in exchange for…  get this…  two nights at the Portland Westin.  It was really cool to stay in such a nice hotel, but after probably 60 nights in the Dallas Westin, you’d think I’d get more than TWO free nights using all my points!  Oh well, so is it.

 – Tori and I walked by Portland’s ballpark, and the billboard said that there was a game on Saturday night.  Tori is a big baseball fan, and we both love minor league games (having seen the Durham Bulls on many occasions), so we were super excited.  Well, it turned out to be a soccer game, which wasn’t quite as cool.  However, in light of this summer’s World Cup, we couldn’t complain one bit.

– We watched the Prairie Home Companion movie.  I’d give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.  Good, but not great.  I think Tori may have liked it more than I did though.

– Portland is one cool town.  We really enjoyed walking around, visiting the local coffee shops and eating at great restaurants.  It was a great way to spend the weekend!

 Above: 12 miles to Portland.  Hmm, isn’t that thingy supposed to be ON my bike? 

Above: The Little Nestucca River. 

Above: My last glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for a long time…  This is the rock off the coast of Pacific City, OR. 

Friday, June 9th, 10am
Location: Portland, OR
Coordinates:
45.4434 N
122.7383 W
Today’s mileage: about 87 miles
Tomorrow’s destination: HERE!  I’m not going anywhere until Monday!

Yesterday was the kind of day that I’ll tell my grandkids about.  As I’ve mentioned, I didn’t know how I was going to get from the coast to Portland.  All I knew is that I needed to get to Portland or somewhere near Portland before Friday evening, when Tori is scheduled to arrive at the airport. 

From my biking maps, it looked like the most direct way to get to Portland from the coast is to take Highway 6 from Tillamook.  However, Tori poked around the Internet and found this passage about Highway 6 on Wikipedia, “The stretch through the coast range is well-known for its scenic beauty (as well as frequent accidents; the highway is a highly-travelled route despite numerous twists and turns and steep grades).”  Based on that description, and from Google Maps (double true!), I decided that I needed to find an alternate route.  Tori dug around and found a route starting from Pacific City.  Approximate distance to Portland: 90 miles.

At about noon, I said goodbye to Belinda.  She’s continuing north to Whistler, Canada, so we parted ways in Pacific City.  I had a lot of fun riding with Belinda over the past few days, and I wish her the best of luck and good weather as she rides on.  Thanks for everything!   

I departed Pacific City, OR, at about 1pm.  The first 20 miles were perfect!  The weather was nice, the road conditions were good, and the scenery was unbeatable.  I was riding upstream alongside the Little Nestucca River, as it got smaller and smaller until it was just a little creek.  Each new road that I merged onto grew bigger and busier on the way to Portland. 

I had a tailwind, and the roads were pretty flat, so I was making terrific time.  I was cruising along at probably 17 mph, which is like Mach 3 when I’m on a fully-loaded touring bike.  Pretty soon, I starting thinking to myself that maybe, just maybe, I could make it all the way to Portland in one day.  Granted, at about 3pm, I had about 60 miles to go, but I figured there was still a chance…

Suddenly, a song began playing in my mind.  “NO! …. SLEEP! …. ‘TILL PORTLAND!  PORTLAND!!   NO! …. SLEEP! …. ‘TILL PORTLAND!  PORTLAND!!”  Like a madman, I started chanting out loud.

At about 4:30pm, I stopped at a Subway in McMinnville.  I asked the guy in front of me if the road would be safe for a bicycle heading to Portland.  He said, “Oh yeah, no problem!  You’ll be there in about an hour.” 

I thought to myself, “An hour?!  Wow, I must really be FLYING!  I must be right outside of Portland.”  Keep in mind that I didn’t have a map; I just had the Google directions that Tori had given me over the phone.  I got back on the road (Highway 99W, at that point).  Here’s what the next road sign said: “Portland 38 miles”.  38 FREAKIN’ MILES?  THAT GUY THINKS I’M GOING TO RIDE 38 MILES IN “ABOUT AN HOUR”?  DOES HE THINK I’VE GOT A JET PACK HIDDEN SOMEWHERE ON MY BIKE?

Argh!  Well, when I finally got over that shock, I sucked it up and pressed on.  About two hours later, I was closing in on Portland.  The mile markers showed about 12 miles to go.  I was beginning to get pretty fatigued, but I downed some candy and some Mountain Dew, and I kept on. 

In Tigard (right outside Portland), I began ascending a small hill.  Suddenly, my left pedal felt loose.  I looked down, thinking that maybe my shoe had come loose from the pedal.  Instead, when I made one more downstroke, the entire left crank (the thing that holds the pedal to the bike) fell off.  AHH!  WHAT THE F? 

I stopped, looked down, and sure enough, my left crank was now on the road behind my bike.  Doh!  Getting to Portland with one pedal was really going to be tricky. 

I managed to coast down to a Safeway, where an ambulance was standing by in the parking lot.  I asked the driver if he knew of a motel close by.  He must have been a cyclist himself, because he said, “Well, that’s an REI bike, right?  You know, there’s an REI about 3 miles from here.”  What are the chances of that!?

I went inside the Safeway and persuaded one of the cashiers to let me put my trailer in the employee room.  Next, the ambulance driver sketched a map for me to get to REI.  In the most bizarre twist to my trip so far, I then rode WITH ONE LEG (my right) for about 3 miles to the REI.  I was in and out of REI in about 5 minutes.  I jumped back on my bike, now with TWO pedals, and rode back to the Safeway. 

At this point, getting to Portland had become a mission for me.  I was only about 12 miles away, I had a wide, well-marked bike lane, and I had lighted streets, so I felt pretty good about pressing on, despite the fact that it was almost 9pm.

To my great surprise and relief, after about 5 miles (and roughly 20 minutes later), I approached a “WELCOME TO PORTLAND” sign.  I was done!  I made it!  I coasted to the first motel I saw and checked in.  At almost 90 miles, it had been, by far, the longest day of the trip.  I gorged myself at the vending machine and then hit the sack, with a big fat smile on my face.

Above: 06/06/06.  I think this is Cape Perpetua, just south of Yachats, OR. 

Above: 06/06/06.  This is my attempt at taking an action shot of Belinda riding her bike while I was riding my bike (don’t worry, mom, we weren’t on the main road at the time).

Above: 06/07/06.  The rocky Oregon coast off Otter Crest Loop (between Newport and Lincoln City).

 Above: 06/07/06.  Old Scenic Highway 101, between Lincoln City and Neskowin.

Above:  06/07/06.  I barely escaped with my life after this run-in with a wild rabbit.

Wednesday, 6/7 10pm
Location: Pacific City, OR
Coordinates:
45.2161 N
123.9660 W

Yesterday’s mileage: about 57
Yesterday’s destination (reached): Newport, OR
Today’s mileage: about 56
I didn’t make an entry in Newport, OR, so this this post covers Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The ride from the Oregon Dunes to Yachats was the most difficult part of the Oregon coast.  It’s hilly, the road isn’t very wide, and the headwinds were constantly aggravating.  That said, it wasn’t as difficult as parts of California.  By the time we reached Yachats (the midway point), I was pretty beat.  Fortunately, there’s a flippin’ sweet bakery and cafe in Yachats.  I didn’t catch the name, but it’s on the East side of 101, and it’s impossible to miss as you go through town.  The food was fantastic and the atmosphere was very chill.  It was just what I needed to pick me up.

Belinda discovered that our destination for the day, Newport, has a sushi restaurant.  Being a sushi fanatic, she basically planned her day around eating sushi in Newport for dinner.  Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the restaurant at 8:20pm, they had just closed.  I felt bad for her…  Imagine riding 60 miles to eat sushi and then arriving 20 minutes late.  Big bummer.  Plus, I had suggested that we drop our stuff off at the campsite before heading to the sushi place, so I felt a little guilty for making us late.  We ended up eating at Mo’s Diner, which is a small chain in Oregon.  Not bad, but it wasn’t sushi.

On Wednesday, for the 3rd day in a row, Belinda was able to pack up her stuff and leave camp about 20-30 minutes earlier that I was.  I’m not sure why it takes me so long to pack up camp, but for anyone who knows me, the fact that I’m slow packing up camp probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. 

Belinda finally got her sushi at a little Japanese/Chinese restaurant in Lincoln City, where she stopped for lunch.

Wednesday provided the best riding I experienced in all of Oregon.  We took a detour off of 101 and onto Scenic Old Highway 101.  It certainly wasn’t as breathtaking as the redwoods in California, but in terms of weather, road conditions and traffic, it was by far the most enjoyable segment thus far in Oregon.  For 12 miles, I only saw 2 or 3 cars.  All you could hear was the wind in the trees, birds singing, and the Neskowin Creek.  It was biker bliss.

Pacific City, where we stopped for the night, was not a bad little town.  It had a good pizza restaurant, its own brewery, a nice beach, and a cool huge rock offshore (see my next post).  On the other hand, I couldn’t find anywhere in town that had Internet after about 7pm.  I’ve gone a whole week since my last blog update, so I was really pining for an Internet connection.  Oh well, they just might have the Internet in Portland.

Oh yeah, this town is bunny crazy.  They’re everywhere!  It kinda freaked me out a little bit.  From experience I can tell you that seeing hordes of clowns at nighttime is frightening (especially when you’ve been drinking).  Well, hordes of bunnies are spooky too.  Just doesn’t feel right.  I kept daydreaming about a horror movie in which bunnies go crazy and start attacking people.  Kinda like Hitchcock’s The Birds, but with bunnies.  I’m telling you, that’d be some scary sh_t.

In honor of www.hotornot.com (which Landin is probably visiting at this very moment), I have compiled a selection of photos that will test your ability to distinguish forests that have been clear cut with those that have not.  So, let the game begin.  (answers will follow)

Clear cut or not?

Clear cut or not?

Clear cut or not?

Clear cut or not?

OK, clearly that was an easy test.  If you had trouble answering any of the questions, you either can’t see or you work for a lumber company.

Above: Belinda crossing the bridge over Coos Bay, in North Bend, OR.

Above: Skater dudes in Reedsport, OR.

Above: The sunset over the Oregon Dunes.

Tuesday, 6/6 8am
Location: Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, OR
Coordinates:
43.8567 N
124.1462 W

Yesterday’s mileage: about 67
Today’s destination: Newport, OR

The theme of the day yesterday was “clear cuts”.  The forests here in Oregon are really nice to look at… when they’re not all cut down.  I don’t know anything about the logistics or economics of the lumber industry, but it sure would be nice if they could “thin” forests, instead of leveling them.  There was one stretch where I was riding along through the woods, approaching a medium-sized hill.  When I reached to top, I looked around, and all of the hilltops were barren.  Just acres and acres of stumps.  Pretty sad.

I left Bandon a few minutes after Belinda did.  I didn’t catch up to her until lunchtime.  I stopped in Charleston, OR, to get some food, and I saw her bike parked outside a market (the only market in Charleston).  Note to my fellow cyclists: I’d recommend riding through Charleston.  It’s pretty dreary.  For the rest of the day, Belinda and I kept within about a mile of each other.  Typically, when I’d stop to give my legs a rest, or to drink some water, she’d catch up to me.  She was planning to stay at a friend’s place in Reedsport, but when we got to Reedsport she couldn’t get a hold of the friend.  So, at around 6:30pm, we set out for the Oregon Dunes. 

We just barely reached the campsite before the sun went down.  We hopped off our bikes and began setting up our respective tents as quickly as possible before the daylight vanished.  However, as soon as we were off our bikes, a cloud of mosquitos converged on us like paranas.  After my fifth mosquito bite or so, I forgot about sunlight and focused on saving my skin from the ravenous insects.  I put on all of my rain gear so that only my face and hands were exposed. 

When you hear “Oregon Dunes”, you envision camping near the ocean on mounds of soft sand, right?  Well, I found myself in the woods, next to a mosquito infested lake, with no ocean in sight.  To say the least, it wasn’t exactly what I had anticipated!  In defense of the Dunes, it wasn’t THAT bad.  My picturesque ocean view was hidden behind the next mound, which was just a short climb away.

So far, I’m making great time to meet Tori in Portland on Friday.  I’m still not sure exactly how I’m going to cut over to Portland from the coast, but I figure that I’ll just ask around in Tillamook if it’s safe to take Highway 6 from Tillamook over the mountains to Portland.  Otherwise, I might just chill out in Tillamook and do some chores so that I won’t have to waste time doing them when Tori arrives.  The downside of that is that Tori will have to drive 75 miles west after she gets in, but that’s a whole lot easier to do in a car than on a bike, especially in the mountains.

Above: The Bandon Harbor Harbor at about 9pm on Sunday. 

Above: A pier in the Bandon Harbor. 

Monday, 6/5 9am
Location: Bandon, OR
Coordinates:
43.1195 N
124.4114 W

Yesterday’s mileage: about 60
Today’s destination: Reedsport, OR

As has happened several times now, it rained/drizzled until about 1pm yesterday.  I finally got out of Gold Beach at about 1:45pm.  I made it to Bandon at about 6pm, which was super fast by my standards.  I had a tailwind, which makes all the difference in the world.  Along the way, I ran into a kid going south who said that there were a few bikers in front of me also going to Bandon.  Since I haven’t really hung out with anyone since Tori went back to SF, I decided to push ahead and see if I could catch up with the others. 

When I arrived in Bandon, I called the local hostel to see if they had space.  As I was pulling out my phone and my map, a girl walked by and asked if I was looking for the hostel.  It turned out that she was one of the cyclists in front of me, and she was also staying at the hostel.  I also ran into two guys on bikes, but they stayed at a campsite, so I didn’t really have a chance to chat with them much.

Bandon turned out to be a pretty cool little town.  It has a picturesque harbor adjacent to the main downtown area.  Most of the buildings are small, wooden, and two stories.  Very quaint. 

It’s been nice to stay in a hostel…  I got to sleep in a bed (albeit, a bunk bed), and it was fun chatting with the other cyclist here (Belinda).  We sat in the commons room swapping biking stories, which must have sounded super boring to anyone listening.  However, when you’re on the road ALL day long, things like which towns to stop in, how many flats you’ve gotten, and how terrible the Dairy Queen in Brookings is, are all terribly interesting (and useful).  Plus, Belinda is pretty much a career traveler, so she has a lot of fascinating stories to relate.  I’m pretty sure that this just scratches the surface, but she has (not in any order):
-worked in Japan for 3 years, teaching English
-worked on diving boats in Australia, and in hostels, for 13 months
-lived in England (not sure what she was doing there)
-rode her bicycle around Cuba
-worked on cruise ships in the Pacific islands, doing various jobs
-traveled throughout Asia, on numerous occasions
-worked as a ski guide in Whistler, Canada (where she lives)
-biked from San Francisco to Whistler (in progress!)

Everyone keeps saying that the rain is behind us now.  I sure hope they’re right!

Above: According to the locals, this marks the beginning of the 50 most beautiful miles of coastline in the world.  You be the judge…   (Note: I didn’t get many good pictures today because of the cloudy weather)

Sunday, 6/4 9am
Location: Gold Beach, OR
Coordinates:
42.3877 N
124.4196 W

Yesterday’s mileage: about 65
Today’s destination: Bandon, OR

One of the things that I was looking forward to on this trip was the adventure of riding to Chicago on my own, unsupported.  Well, Fate responded loud and clear: “If adventure is what you seek, adventure is what you shall get.  Beeyotch.”

Saturday started off well enough…  I woke up in the Best Western feeling nice and refreshed.  It was still completely fogged over, but to my surprise, the ground was dry.  I grabbed my free breakfast buffet and hit the road.

About a half hour into my ride, I got my first flat of the trip.  A staple went straight into my tire.  No problem, I got that taken care of quickly enough. 

When I finally reached Oregon, I chatted with two dudes on bikes who told me that the next 50 miles were the most beautiful 50 miles of coastline in the world.  With all the fog and cloudy skies, I thought to myself, “Too bad nobody’s ever seen it.”  Once the clouds burned away and the sun peeked out, sure enough, it was a beautiful coastline.  It looks like God sprinkled the coast with massive boulders and rock formations.  Quite scenic indeed.

OK, so lemme get to the adventure part.  I pulled into Gold Beach at about 6pm, set up my tent at an RV park, and asked around about where to get some grub.  The office manager said that town is only about 2 miles away, so I figured I’d just walk there and hit up the grocery store.  It started raining again, and the office manager guy (also the owner, I believe) kindly offered to drop me off in town.  I gladly accepted the ride.  Well, what I didn’t think about was how to get BACK.  I picked up some food at the grocery store and started heading back toward my campsite.  At that moment, if was lightly drizzling, but all considered, I felt pretty fortunate.  About ten minutes later, that all changed.  Out of nowhere, I was in the middle of a rainstorm.  The winds picked up so that the rain was coming down at a angle, inconveniently spraying right for my face.  Of course, by this time, it was also pitch-black, and I was walking down the shoulder of 101 with cars whizzing by at 50 mph, oblivious to my existence. I didn’t have any lights, so I just followed where the cars were coming from.   I tied an extra grocery bag around each shoe, which actually worked brilliantly in keeping my feet dry.  I must have been quite a sight to see: hunched over, my eyes barely surfacing from my rainjacket, with a grocery bag around each foot, and a grocery bag in each hand.  Sorta like a Bigfoot returning from Kroger.

Here’s the kicker.  When I finally made it back to my campsite, I discovered that my tent was now sitting in puddle about an inch deep.  The entire area was covered in standing water.  My tent spikes were more like anchors!  I looked inside my tent, which of course was totally dark, but amazingly, it was still dry inside.  Somehow my tent managed to keep the waters at bay.  I crawled in, left my soaked clothes in the puddle outside, and climbed into my sleeping bag.  Ironically, after my miserable trip to the grocery store, I wasn’t even hungry anymore.

This morning (Sunday), I woke up to rain and more rain.  I managed to get all of my things, except for my tent, into the bathroom of the RV campground. Hopefully I’ll be able to pack everything up in a semi-dry state.  As I type out this blog entry, it seems all too appropriate that I’m using the top of the toilet as a desk, while I descibe this shitty weather…

Random musings:

I ran into 2 pairs of people on bikes yesterday who were all over 65 years old.  The first was a friendly married couple who yelled out, “You’re almost there!  You’re almost to Oregon.”  Next, I passed two men, probably in their early 70’s, who were pulling trailers identical to mine.  There I was, thinking that I was so tough for surviving the rain, the headwinds and the hills, and then I pass by Grandma and Grandpa just cruising along, smiling like it’s Sunday afternoon.  Old folks like that put the rest of us to shame!  Speaking of which, in my last triathlon (St. Anthony’s), if I had competed in the 65+ age group, I would have finished in 8th place.  That’s right; a 66 year-old man beat me by 26 minutes.  Incredible!  My point is just that there are some BADASS old folks out there who completely defy the conventional expectations of how “seniors” are supposed to look and act.  I have the utmost admiration and respect for them.

 Above:  One of my favorite pictures of the trip so far.  This is Redwood National Park in the rain/mist.

Above: Across the street from the RV park at which I stayed last night.  I took this picture just before departing, in all of my profound wisdom.

Above: Goofy Dave, wearing his goofy raingear, arriving in Crescent City with the rain still coming down…

Friday, 6/2 10pm
Location: Crescent City, CA

Coordinates:

41.7511 N

124.1822 W

Today’s mileage: about 25 (Ah!) 

Tomorrow’s destination: Gold Beach, OR

It rained all night long!  I could not believe how hard it rained.  When I woke up this morning, it was still pouring.  Because I couldn’t pack up my tent in the pouring rain, I decided that today would be laundry day.  So I washed all of my clothes, and when I was finished, it was still raining.  I read a few chapters of Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell (which by the way, is excellent), and when I was finished, it was still raining.  I ate a little breakfast, and when I was finished, it was still raining.

You repeat this enought times, and eventually a pattern emerges…  At around noon, I decided that I could be wet in Klamath, CA, or I could be wet making my way north.  Taking advantage of my legendary dexterity and nimbleness (ahem), I managed to disassemble my tent while it was still under the rainfly.  As a result, I was able to get the fabric of the tent to a dry, covered area without exposing it to the rain.  As for the rainfly, I just bungee’d it to my bike trailer.

Anyhow, I hopped on my bike at about 2pm and survived the single most harrowing bicycling experience of my life.  After 4 years in kollege, you’d think that I would have figured out the following truism:

When it’s foggy, rainy, and hard to see at sea level, it’s REALLY foggy, rainy, and hard to see at 1200ft up in the mountains.

The ride from Klamath to Crescent City would have tested the true grit of any cyclist.  I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to scare me poor mum, so let’s just say this: I won’t be doing THAT again.  Mom, I’m safe and sound, so no need to worry!

When I finally pulled into Crescent City a little before 5pm, I decided that I’d had enough of the rain.  I booked a room in the first Best Western I saw, and now I’m sittin’ pretty with dry clothes and a comfy bed.  Yeah, yeah, I know, a hardcore bikepacker would have camped out.  Well, a hardcore bikepacker would also be sleeping in a rain puddle tonight. 

Random musings:

–After I descended down from the mountains, I rode past a guy getting ready to go surfing in the wind and rain.  I thought to myself, “Doesn’t that dude know it’s raining cats and dogs right now?  You’d have to be crazy to go surfing today!”  He looked at me with a perplexed expression that said, “Doesn’t that dude know it’s raining cats and dogs right now?  You’d have to be crazy to go biking today!”

Guess what I saw lots of today.  I’ll give you one hint:

 (I guess that should be plural)

Below are some pics from the spot along the river where I ate “dinner”.

Thursday, 6/1 9pm
Location: Klamath, CA
Coordinates:
41.5429 N
124.0519 W

Today’s mileage: about 62
Tomorrow’s destination: TBD

Today was incredible.  I got rained on for the first 3 hours of my morning today, and the weather report said that I should expect more of the same.  By 10am this morning, which was about an hour after I had wanted to leave, I still didn’t know whether I was just going to have to write off today as a rain day.  Well, I ended up leaving Arcata a little before noon, fully expecting to get rained on all day.  In addition, I didn’t really expect to make it to Klamath, which was my originally planned destination.  To top it all off, my maps showed a 1000 ft climb at the end of the day’s journey. 

Things could not have gone any more differently!  It didn’t rain on me at all, even though it was completely overcast all day. I DID make it to Klamath, with energy to spare.  Finally, that big hill on my map…  it didn’t exist.  I’m not sure where it went, but there was no huge climb, thankfully.

I pulled into an RV campground sitting on the banks of a wide, pristine (it looks that way, at least) river.  Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the river.  Anyway, I bought a can of chicken meat, a small jar of spicy mustard, and the nice old lady who runs the RV park gave me two slices of bread.  It’s no Boulevard meal, but it’s dinner.  Sitting on the banks of the river, looking across at Redwoods National Park, I had to admit that at least the ambiance was exemplary.  In fact, as I watched the water slowly roll by, I thought to myself, “THIS is why I’m riding my bike cross-country!”

Just as I finished eating and took a shower, it started raining again.  I’m glad Mother Nature was nice enough to let me get ready for bed before unleashing on me!

Random musings:
–Based on my observations, here is a statistical breakdown of the niceness factor of the people who I have run into during this trip:
80% – very friendly and welcoming
19% – aloof
1% – mean (this category is pretty much represented by the jerks who drive by me and yell insults or scream “get off the road!”)

–Kombucha.  I’ve seen this stuff in stores ever since I got north of San Rafael.  Generally, it looks like some sort of bad science experiment.  It’s a kind of Chinese tea that is fermented for 30 days.  It contains a trace amount of alcohol, but mostly it just has a really strong taste.  Even after I watered it down by about 50%, it still had too much of a kick for me.  Actually, from my one experience today, the stuff kinda tastes like wine that’s gone bad (or any kind of wine that David Kerwar serves).  Supposedly it’s the magic elixir to solve all your problems.  I don’t know about that, but I’ll bet that it’ll be the next health food craze.

 –You really do notice a lot of things while riding on a bike that you wouldn’t notice in a car.  For example, I was riding down this one road north of Trinidad, CA which runs alongside the rocky coastline.  As I was cruising along, I heard the sound of seals (or maybe sea lions… I get them confused) coming from the rocks below.  A few moments later, a car drove by, and it completely drowned out the sound of the animals.  I’m sure the people in the car had no idea that there were seals below.  It’s kind of ironic that they were driving down a designated “scenic” drive, and they were completely oblivious to the scenes around them, as most drivers are.  That’s cool, me and the seals don’t need ’em anyway…

Thursday, 6/1 10am

Location: Arcata, CA

Coordinates:

40.8268 N

124.0828 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 40

Today’s destination: it depends on the weather… (with any luck, it’ll be Klamath, CA)

After it stopped pouring yesterday, I rode a few more miles and set up camp at a KOA just south of Arcata.  Since I didn’t want to put my tent up in the rain, I decided to play it safe and pull over while it was dry (OK, damp).  Luckily, this is a pretty nice KOA, and they have free Internet!  Camping has gone high tech…

 I woke up at 6am this morning, hoping to get an early start.  However, it soon started raining, and it’s been raining for about 3.5 hours.  The forecast says it’s going to rain more today (here and in Klamath).  So, I’m left with a decision: should I pack up when there’s a break in the rainfall and head out knowing that I’m going to get rained on?  Or, should I just chill out today and hope it’s better tomorrow?  The rain doesn’t actually bother me much while I’m riding, but there are two problems with the rain:

1) I’m going to be riding down a highway for a while (on the shoulder).  It’s already scary enough to have cars whizzing by at 60mph right next to you, but in the rain (with reduced visibility), it’s even worse.

2) Setting up camp in the rain is really lousy because it’s pretty hard to do without getting your stuff soaked (unless, I suppose, I stay at a motel…)

Well, I guess I’ll let you know how it plays out the next time I log in…

Until then, I wish you tailwinds and sunny weather! 

Above: This one’s for you, Paul.

Above: A view down Avenue of the Giants.

Above: On my way out of the redwood groves, on the way to Stafford.

Wednesday, 5/31 3pm
Location: Stafford, CA
Coordinates:
40.4556 N
124.0557 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 62
Today’s destination: Trinidad, CA

Greetings, folks! I just stopped in the Eureka Chamber of Commerce to get out of the rain, so I’ll try to make this quick…

Most of my day yesterday was spent riding through redwood groves. If you’ve never seen the redwood trees of Northern California, you’ve got to do that some day. Redwood trees are amazing. They’re taller than most of the skyscrapers in San Francisco, and they live for over a thousand years (if they aren’t cut down by loggers). Riding through a redwood forest is a unique experience because even in the middle of the day, it’s really dark and cool, because very little sunlight makes it to the ground. But when you look up, you see rays of light coming through the trees. Incredible. Actually, my neck started to get a tired from looking up all the time. At the end of the day, I stopped in a “town” called Stafford. There isn’t actually anything in Stafford, as far as I could tell. Not even a store. The only thing there appears to be an RV campground. Well, works for me.

My plan for today was to ride through Eureka, CA and Arcata, CA. However, at about 12:30pm I ran into a rainstorm, so I pulled over in Eureka. I’ll have to see what the weather looks like for the rest of the day and if there are good campgrounds nearby. In any case, I’m not likely to get to my original destination of Trinidad, CA. No big deal; I had a rest day coming up soon, so I may just use up that buffer.

My other reason for stopping was because Tori was going to look into signing me up for health insurance, since my Broadlane insurance expires today. To my surprise, when I gave Tori a call, she had already signed me up, and it’s all taken care of. I had been concerned about whether I’d be insured after today (5/31), so that’s a big worry I don’t have to think about anymore. Thanks Tori! Actually, thanks to Mike also, because Mike put Tori in contact with the right people to get everything set up.

After Eureka and Arcata, there aren’t really any decent sized towns until Portland, so I may be about of touch for about a week or so. I’ll do my best to keep everyone up to date, but there’s no telling what sort of cell phone coverage or Internet access I’ll have north of here. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll check back in as soon as I can!