[Next mail stop:
Andrew Morton
c/o Brad Bynum (this is so only one of us has to go into the post office to
pickup mail. )
General Delivery
Casper, WY 82609]
Our 70-year-old neiqhbor, Dick, woke us up at 08:00 by describing how well lip balm worked on his hemroids and then launched into another round his stories. It was like the pudding in a verbal medium: the stories were interesting but there's only so many you can hear before getting a bit sick. Somehow we managed to say GOOD BYE (you had to almost shout for him to slow the story down enough to be heard) and got going by 10:00.
We went down into the park a little ways and rode along one of the interpretative trails but decided we wanted to hurry up and get to Arco for lunch. At the visitor's center, where we'd stopped for water, Brad realized that one of the metal pins that holds the Bob trailer onto his bike was missing. I went in and asked if they had a coathanger or something I could use to secure the trailer. I narrowly avoided another conversation with Dick while I was waiting. They had some wire that we used to secure it so we were able to continue. [7/2/01 we called Bob and they're mailing us some replacement pins]
We pushed on to Arco and were ready for lunch. Brad had mentioned pizza and I was all for it as long as there was a salad bar. Amazingly there was a pizza place and they even had a one-shot salad bar. We stuffed ourselves and I perfected my saladbar-kung-fu, I fit about 5 lbs of vegetables on my plate.
We must have sat at that pizza place for two hours digesting. This time the long lunch worked in our favor, it had started to cool off by the time we left. With a full stomache it was pleasant riding. We knocked down 40 miles before the sun set on the way into Mud Lake.
I'd needed to page a friend so instead of stealth camping along the highway in the sagebrush before town, we went on into town in the dark. The bar we stopped in was exactly what you'd expect in a small hayseed town. There were four or five farmer types sitting around giving the western movie on the TV a thousand-yard-stare, an older crosseyed lady tending bar, and only Michelob on tap. I used the phone then we got a beer and sat down to watch the movie. We didn't ever learn the name of the movie, but Brad identified Burt Langcaster and I recognized Lee Marvin, it was really one of his signature films complete with chalkboard mission planninq, fretting about the necessary split second timinq but completing the mission only to find that the bad guys have cut off their escape. We left before they could finish off the bad guys.
The problem with being in town after dark is that it's impossible to find a place to camp. There could be a thousand places to camp but you can't see them because you really want a spot that isn't visible from the road. Eventually we found some people we could ask, they pointed us across the street to the baseball field that we would never have spotted.
Idaho has one big problem, the most common animal bred here is the misquito. By coming down into all the farms and canals in the valley, we'd entered primemisquito breeding grounds. That night was so hot and humid and with no shower since Boise I was so sticky that I slept with the sleeping bag on top of me. It was horrible, I woke up several times praying for dawn. My bag would start sticking to me so I'd shrug it off but then the mosquitoes would fly in and stinq me in spite of all the Off I'd applied, and the Off just made me stickier. Arrggh! This was the first time on this trip I've had dreams of a shower.
andrew
The pudding really did sound like a good idea. I'd just intended to stop at the store in Fairfield to check email. But then a V8 sounded good and then we decided to fill up our water. It was just bad luck that I walked by the Jell-O display.
The day before (Day 28) we'd stopped at the Tollgate Cafe on Hwy 20. We'd had a good pull up the grade and an iced tea sounded really nice. After getting to talking with the lady who owned the cafe, we ended up having a piece of chocolate pie, it was fucking excellent. We left with visions of pie dancing around in our heads. As the miles wore on the thought faded, when we woke up this morning (Day 29) it had been completely forgotten.
Staring at the Jell-O display, the pie idea came rushing back to me and I snatched up a box of pudding, some milk, cookies, and a tub of cool whip. Outside it only took a little persuading to convince Brad that we should go find some shade and make that pie.
The cook pot was still seasoned with corn pasta and alfredo sauce from the night before and beans and rice from the night before that but we didn't mind. The pudding set up quickly but we couldn't wait, we got at the Cool Whip with the cookies. I was already starting to feel a bit queasy before we started in on the pudding/pie mix, but out of some sense of duty or maybe honor we tried to finish the whole thing. It was tough, but we ate it all. Getting moving again was painful, while we'd been sitting in the shade the day had been heating up.
I'm sure there are a bunch of lessons to be learned here. You're not going to ride well with only the nutritional equililavent of sugar covered styrofoam in your stomache... Two hour breaks in the late morning when it's still relativly cool is a bad idea, same break at 14:00 when it's hot, no problem... Take small breaks and keep moving... And so on, I just remember how tough it was riding out of town only wanting to drink water and lie in a shady spot.
Coming up on the lava fields that make up Craters of the Moon National Monument made for a strange afternoon. The soil went from flat farm land to six foot piles of dark black rock with only lichen and the occasional sagebrush growing on it. It looked like there'd been a fire. I was glad I wasn't taking a bro (Mt.) bike or, even worse, a covered wagon across it. Impassible is the only word I can think of for it.
The campgrounds in the park were nice but the $10 fee was a bit much for us not having a car and them not having showers. Our neighbor, Dick Collins, was one of those talkative types that you can't walk away from. The seventy-year-old guy had a couple thousand stories, from his childhood in Michigan to his five years in the Air Force to the German tourists he'd met last week, and he could go from one to the next with no visible seam.
He kept us up after 24:00 describing his entire family and their relationships, telling us about running the boom on B-29 refuler, Texas cathouses, and his love of Jonathan Swift and calling CSPAN.
andrew
All we did today was hangout in the parking lot of Albertson's in Mountain Home, ID. We did a little riding in the afternoon.
andrew
Up late, and slow to start packing. We really didn't expect to leave early but we weren't planning on 15:00. It was tough to leave, I'd thought about just calling off the trip and spending the summer in Boise but that seemed like something I'd regret later. We said good-bye and found our way onto the Green Belt.
One plus to leaving that late was we were there when the care package from Chris Petrell, my friend from the Bay Area, was delivered. He hooked me up with a ton of batteries, a couple of CDs with software for uploading the pictures from my digital camera, and a tiny digital voice recorder.
What at first just seemed like a novel thing to have soon proved to be indispensable (that phrase sounds like it came straight from the mouth of my father). I've been using it primarily to dictate emails that I later write into my Palm. It also works great for keeping track of mileages: record the names of the cities and their mileages and the milepost nearest the sign. I'm totally stoked.
Rain was forecast for Boise and the clouds looked like they were ready to dump on us at any minute. The winds in front of the storms pushed us down the interstate at 15-20 mph. Other than a couple of small showers we managed to avoid the storms. It made for some pretty riding. Clumps of black clouds all around, you could watch them drop down and sort of lower a mist to the ground where they'd be raining. I enjoyed the afternoon, the weather was cool and we didn't have to worry about sunscreen.
I've spent quite a bit of time on the road and there are certain things you
expect to see on the side of the road. Beer bottles, pieces of bungee cord,
remnants from tire blowouts, aluminum cans, old car parts and plastic bottles
half full of urine. Other stuff surprises you, some because it's useful but no
one else picked it up: construction hard hats, a Winnie the Poo chew toy that
plays the song if you press a button, a 1 quart steel bowl with price tag still
attached, fruit and vegetables. You come up with a story to explain how each
thing arrived where it did. Some stuff is just plain discussing: dead animals,
with or without maggots, syringes,
but the single most disturbing thing I've ever seen on the side of the road has
to be the twelve inch transparent pink plastic dildo that was resting beside one
of Interstate 84's off-ramps. It was foul, and I've got a picture to prove it.
andrew
P.S. We just got word from Joe Lane that we aren't drinking enough porter, we'll
try to remedy this. Does Mississippi Mud count as porter?
[Hey our next mailing address is:
Andrew Morton or Brad Bynum
General Delivery
Ashton, ID 83420
we'll be there on 7/1/01]
Got up late and got started doing laundry and other cleanup stuff. Eventually we got going and borrowed Airielle's suby and ran around doing some errands. I got a BikeE cyclometer and Brad dropped off his film. We also picked up a box to mail unneeded stuff home.
We spent the evening sitting around drinking 40s with Airielle and Sierra. It was pretty fun, we ended up going to a Chinese food restaurant called Twin Dragon. It was some good greasy late night food, a bit pricey though.
--
6/26/01
I'd fallen asleep trying to finish The Giver, it was definitely not worth the
trouble. I woke up when Airielle's mom, Shannon, was making coffee. I talked to
her for a while, she's an interesting lady. She told me about living in a bus
for a year, working seasonal jobs and traveling around the west.
We went with Airielle to meet Sierra for lunch. The food was okay, but I enjoyed taking shots of hot sauce with the owner of the restaurant. Sierra's lunch hour was up so we dropped her off and looked around The Dragonfly, where she works (for the Reno people it seems like what Art Dogs aspires to be).
Brad wanted to go record store shopping so I got to read a couple of the Acme Comics they had at The Record Exchange while he looked. He found a couple he liked and one as a gift. Finally we were off to find a thrift store where I could buy a new pair of pants. After I'd purchased them I realized they were wool, I may end up tossing them but they were only $0.99.
That night we ended up watching True Grit with John Wane and Once Upon A Time In The West. I fell asleep 30 minutes into Once Upon a Time, it seemed like a cool movie though.
Boise's a nice town, sort of a big Reno. If I was living somewhere else and had to choose between the two Boise would win, there are way more cute bike girls.
andrew
[Hey sorry I sat on this a while we've been hanging out in Boise having too much fun to write emails.
On another note http://www.drewish.com is down temporarily, hopefully it'll be straight sometime next week.
We slept in since we were a full day early for Boise and hadn't gotten a hold of my friends to know we were coming. It was nice to get a shower, a clean change of clothes and a bit of time to read. I called my friends in Boise but no one was home so we decided to ride into town and find some place to hang out while we waited.
Bike riding in Idaho is a bit scary, we'd gotten used to wide shoulders and bike lanes on major streets in Oregon. Drivers don't seem to give you as much space, I compensate by going faster. It feels safer when you're moving at a speed closer to that of the traffic around you. We rode on the sidewalks when we needed to go slow or the wrong way on a one-way street and just tried to get into town.
We found a Mexican restaurant and had some overpriced food of reasonable quality. There were two guys playing live music, Spanish songs and English covers in Spanish. Brad got his tape recorder out and got most of Yesterdays and Under the Boardwalk, he probably got some other ones that I can't remember.
As we were trying to find a way downtown that didn't involve a freeway, an evil windstorm came up. It was like the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, with all the stuff blowing by. I swear I saw a refrigerator box go flying by. We started singing the "Why'd you ever wanna go to Idaho" song, it was so cool.
We found their Greenbelt, it's a bike path/park that runs along the river through town. The owner of a fruit stand we'd stopped at had told us about it and that they were having some kind of River Festival along it. Having nothing better to do Brad and I rode around in the crowds and watched a couple bands. The whole thing reminded us both of the kind of thing Reno would love to do (on a smaller scale of course). People were stoked on the bikes, we got the standard questions and gave the stock answers, I need to print out a handout.
Airielle called me back on my cell phone and we made plans to meet her and her friend Sierra. With a half-hour to kill I got to watch this badass country band do a 15 minute cover of Folsom Prison Blues, it was good. We were late meeting them, Brad stopped to watch this guy playing cello and I started staring at this gorgeous girl who was also watching the guy, Airielle actually ended up finding us.
We rode through Boise at high speed zigzagging toward Airielle's house. Once
there we dropped off our gear and hopped into her trusty Subaru wagon and went
over to Sierra's house for dinner. We talked about going to some hot
springs and the other person I knew in Boise, Little Bob, called me back.
I met Bob and Airielle when I visited my friend Dan in Spain. He was studying Spanish in San Sebastian and was friends with both of them. We all hung out a bunch during the two weeks I was in Spain.
Hot springs sounded good to Little Bob so he came over and we loaded into his Suburban and headed north. The hike in was pretty crazy but the springs were worth it. With no city lights near by you could look up and see millions of stars as you sat soaking. Hike out and back to Airielle's house to sleep.
andrew
Statistics
Days: 24
Bags of Sunflower Seeds: 5
Loafs of Bread consumed:16
Motel nights 1
Paid camping nights 3
Nights staying with friends 4
Showers: 6
Flat tires: 7
Payphones used to check PocketMail: 42
It was a great feeling waking up knowing that today we'd be finished with Oregon. It helped me forget about sleeping on the rockiest soil God saw fit to leave in the entire state.
There are a couple of things we'd gotten used to about Oregon. The first thing visible in any town being either a Les Schwab tire store or sign advertising a store. Only putting mile markers on one side of the road and the numbers count total mileage in the state (in Nevada and California they put mile markers on both sides and the mileage resets at each county line). Walking back into a store after drinking a beverage and swapping your bottle for your 5-cent deposit back. All the dirty hippies trying to get to the Rainbow Gathering in Idaho.
We hit a Dairy Queen in Vale after a long hot morning, got a Blizzard, filled up some water got the hell out of Oregon. Not that we expected Idaho to be much better, but we'd spent twenty something days there and were ready for a new state. Got a picture of us on the Idaho side of the Snake River and I swear you can see the flies, they swarmed as we soon as we were across. I felt like the nucleus of a uranium atom. We'd out run them on the downhill but they'd catch us on the uphill, the only good thing was they weren't stinging us.
Slowing down in Parma I ended up with a flat. Brad walked off to see if there was some place we could camp near by and I got started fixing it. As I was half way done two Mormon missionaries pulled up and asked if I needed any help. I told them I was pretty much done but told them about the trip. They were stoked on it, they asked if I knew who they were and if I'd ever read the Book of Mormon. I told them yes, I knew who they were but no, I'd only read Orson Scott Card's Homecoming books that are based on it. They said they had the real thing in the trunk and would I mind a copy. I'd already been given a copy that I'd left at home after deciding there wouldn't be any time to read it so this seemed like a good time to pick one up. We talked a bit more before the mosquitoes that were now swarming became too much. Brad got back shortly and we put my bike back together then headed for a campground in Caldwell.
It was one of the less safe things we've done. Pushing on the 20+ miles was easy with the 30 mile per hour tailwind that had just appeared in Parma but it was dark and the shoulder wasn't great. We'll definitely try to avoid doing that again but it put us 25 miles outside of Boise.
andrew
We knocked out the 20 miles into Burns by 09:30 but it was already 80*F. For breakfast we found R.J's. That was some dang fine food. We highly recommend it, best hash browns I've had on the trip. The other patrons were the best part, mesh backed baseball cap with farming product logo, button up shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots. They were talking about the recent death of their card-playing buddy when we walked in. They mentioned it had been 95*F the day before, we had no problem believing that.
It was at least that hot today, we got cooked all day. The tailwind moved us along but sure didn't cool us off. We hit two good passes and a bunch of construction along the way.
Riding across the time zone was cool. The weird part was that we're on God's time*, we rise with the sun and sleep when it sets. Setting the clock ahead just sort of makes it confusing, we'd gotten good at guessing the time by the sun, I'm sure we'll adjust.
* God's time comes from a story about a relative of mine. He refused to adjust his clock for day light savings time, he said he lived by God's time and wasn't going to change.
The Oasis Cafe in Junatua was the perfect place to top off some hard miles. While we had intended to just stop for a milkshake, the feel of the place was just too much. Vegetarian food was scarce, but it was the best meal of the trip. The owners, a couple, had just purchased it six months before. They said the restaurant had been there since 1951 and they were trying to keep up the reputation. We thought they were doing just fine, it was the perfect end to back-to-back 90-mile days.
We decided it had to be the road. Hwy 20 seemed like the perfect way to see a cross-section of the US. So we'll see how far across the country we can take Hwy 20. Diverging to see friends but trying to rejoin it as soon as we can.
This just goes to show you that you can never trust a bro biker for directions, they'll try to send you down Hwy 26.
andrew
God, if I didn't know better I'd think I was riding out Hwy 50 again. This whole desert thing is so familiar, up early so you can ride while it's still cool. Lather sunscreen on any thing that your helmet, long shirt and pants don't cover. Sweat your way up one hill then cool off on the way down so you're ready for the next one. Find some shade to hide in while you eat lunch, regret leaving it as soon as you're moving. Thinking that you're really on today, moving that fast, then stopping and realizing it's just a tailwind. Speaking of tailwinds, praying to Winnie Cooper paid off, we got hooked up. Not being ones to let a good tailwinds go to waste we picked up 90 miles, and had an easy doing it.
Brad figured out how to wear his earmuff headphones while riding, I'm not a fan of the practice but he rides a ton faster so I'm not going to complain. Plus it's really funny, he either looks like a quarterback (picture the part that joins them in front of his mouth) or some six-year-old trying to dress up like a Stars Wars character. I figured out how to make a visor for my helmet from an old map and duct tape, I'm so proud.
Sam Philips is, to borrow a phrase someone I used to work with said too much, the MAN. Not only did he host my mailing list on his machine, he also got me setup with weather by email. I email a city name or zip code to weather@dasbistro.comand it emails me back a forecast (any one interested in using it email me for details). Oh and most importantly he found out where avocados originated, central America. Now if anyone can tell me when they started being used in sushi...
andrew
We got a good start and were in and out of the Safeway in good time. Then the tire problems started. Brad had a flat on his back tire and later I had a slow leak on my front. While we were stopped for Brad's flat the guy from the Porches place on Hwy 30 drove by waving, it took us a second to figure out where we'd seen him before.
The other thing that took us a minute to figure out was why all the truckers were honking and waving at us. Without realizing it we were back on Hwy 97, they'd seen us on the way out of Klamath Falls and we'd been waving at them earlier.
It'd been a while since we had a shower, so that became the reward for getting to Bend early. The KOA was right on the edge of town so we put down the five bucks each and took turns showering, we even washed some clothes. As we were sitting there this mt. biker bro walked up and started talking to us. He was recommending we take Hwy 26 because it was more scenic, had less traffic but was just a little longer. We also talked about food, the one idea he had that Brad and I both loved was eating at Wendy's, they usually have an all you can eat salad bar. We decided to take Hwy 20 instead of scenic, we wanted to get the hell out of Oregon. The day before we'd done the math and determined Chicago wasn't going to happen by July 25th. Brad got a hold of Erin and she's going to move her tickets back. But in honor of his good idea we decided to go find a Wendy's and raid their salad bar. Unfortunately the Wendy's we went to did not have a salad bar nor did the Carl's Jr. next door. We settled for Wendy's and enjoyed the Biggie Value Menu.
The plan with towns is get as far out of them as you can before you camp. There's less traffic, more places to camp and less people to cause problems. With this in mind we sped out of town, ridding past sundown we picked up 20 miles before we camped.
andrew
Brad was up super early, he woke me when he was half packed and we were riding by 06:00. It felt good to be moving in the desert when it was early and cool. We dropped into Maupin and watched the rafters go by on the Deschutes river, which cuts through the middle of town. I'd love to take a road trip up to Oregon, visit Smith Rock go rafting. Anyone interested?
It was a nasty climb back out, maybe two thousand feet to the next ridge. We pulled half way up it and decided to take a siesta in the shade, we'd cleared 40 miles and it was just after 12:00.
While the area was not much for scenery, seen it in Nevada, it made for some good riding. We cleared several big passes, enough to make me wish I had a cyclometer with a built-in altimeter. Then when we finished we could have had an 80-mile day where we gained n-thousand feet.
We at dinner watching a beautiful sunset over the Three Sisters and Mt. Hood.
andrew
We got going late, not a normal late but a riding-around-12:00-because-the-place-you-camped-was-in-a-valley-and-under-some-trees-and-no-one-saw-the-sun late. I'd slept badly, my back hurt, my allergies were going and had made a mess of my throat and I was still tired.
We got going on a bike trail that used the route of the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. It was great riding and no cars, sadly it only went for a few miles.
We got back onto the interstate for a few miles until Hwy 30 started up again and we could get back on it. A mile or two down we saw a sign we just couldn't pass "ICE CREAM", ohh it was nice. The place, Route 30 Classics, was part ice cream parlor and part dealer/mechanic of older Porches. It was a run by a couple, he apparently was into the cars and she made an awesome espresso milkshake.
Back on Hwy 30 we snaked up high above the Columbia for no reason but scenery, you'll recall that that was the reason the road was built. Everything was much drier here, the mountains across the river in Washington were rolling but barren except for dried grass, it looked like the area around San Francisco in the summer. We didn't mind were two desert boys who were sick of rain forest. The allergies all but stopped, it was time to start up with the sunscreen again though.
Safeway in The Dalles was dinner, while Brad was inside bargain hunting I was outside trying to ignore the hobo guy who wanted to bitch about all the Mexicans in the area. He was trying to think up a trivia question to ask them, I believe he settled on "What was the name of the ship that was sunk starting the Spanish American War?". As we left town we got a great view of Mt. Hood
Question for the list: Where in the world did the avocado originate?
For bonus points prove or disprove the following: Tropical fruits generally have thicker skins than non-tropical ones
andrew
It wasn't easy getting up but we me met Ryan and Chelsey at Paradox at 08:00 for breakfast. We said our goodbyes and headed, with Chris, back to his apartment to finished packing. We did the good by thing with Chris too and headed North toward the river. We'd been told that there was a bike path along it that would take us most of the way out of town.
The path was super nice riding, we saw all the families out for a Father's Day bike ride. It went past the airport giving you a good view of the airport. It was cool watching these gigantic machines come dropping in as we rode underneath. I really realized how crazy it is that we can build things that fly, I get the same feeling watching trains go by. It's an awe that something that big is moving, it's not natural (literally too).
In Troutdale we got on Hwy 30, Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway, it was the first highway built along the Columbia. It was designed for scenic driving, no more than 5% grade, it made for great bike riding except for those pesky Fathers Day families driving around. There were probably seven waterfalls along the way, the ones we could see from the road were beautiful. Hwy 30 ended and we got onto I84 for a few miles looking for a campsite. We found it but Oregon has a bad habit of calling day use areas campgrounds. This was one of those cases but we sure weren't going to get back on the Interstate in the dark so we just got out of the way and setup the tent.
andrew
Long time takem is the Indian name Erin, Brad's girlfriend, gave him, he lived up to it this morning. He complained the only reason I was up so early was that I'd had to take a piss. It maybe true but I just wanted to hurry up and get to Portland. The estimated 8 to 10 day first leg had taken 14.
The ride into town was fast, it was mostly down hill and we had a tail wind. Hwy 6 went from two-lane road to divided four lane highway when it combined with Hwy 26, traffic increased proportionally.
We cut across a median and I got a flat tire. It was kind of like that scene in A Christmas Story where the dad almost looks forward to a blowout to see how quickly he can change it. We got it turned around in good time and were back on the road.
They were doing shoulder work on Hwy 26 outside of town and we got off to find surface streets to take us into town. We ended up going up past the zoo then dropping down through the park, through downtown and across the river to Chris's apartment.
It was good to see Chris, it's kind of like old times. We talked for a while and got unpacked. Erin had sent Brad a care package c/o Chris. Importantly she sent cookies, Brad gave me one and wow, that was a damn fine cookie.
Chris had some friends that were going to make dinner for us but the got stoned before the gave us so we ended up walking 40 (small) blocks before we called them. Not really wanting to take a bus back we went to a movie instead.
Yeah for the Laurelhurst movie theater, they serve pizza and beer. You get to take them right into the theater with you. I'd really love one in Reno, $3 to get in and $8 pitchers of good beer. We saw Amores Perros and enjoyed their pizza, tea and India Pale Ale.
I don't know if I'll do emails for the next two days while we're in Portland. If I do they'll probably go out Monday, so don't wait for them. The next two days will probably be spend eating, drinking, hanging out and doing bicycle maintenance.
andrew
Statistics
Days: 14
Bags of Sunflower Seeds: 3
Loafs of Bread consumed:10
Motel nights 1
Paid camping nights 2
Nights staying with friends 1
Showers: 3
Flat tires: 2
Payphones used to check PocketMail: 22
[Hey sorry these are kind of erratic in their timing. We have surprisingly little free time most of the day is riding or eating, trying to do these emails is a second priority. So often we'll be passing payphones but I haven't finished the email, today and yesterday I've had them done but we haven't seen a phone. The long and short is, if there's no email everything's okay we're just not passing phones or I haven't had time to finish the email.]
Up and moving at a reasonable hour, we were stoked. The motivation for miles was the self-inflicted deadline, hit Tillamook by 10:30 and get breakfast, otherwise its Safeway and then back on the road.
After making our deadline with time to spare we bought groceries and started the hunt for a good restaurant. After having it recommended, we ate lunch at the Localmotion. The food was good but the service sucked. I'd paid at Safeway so Brad was getting lunch. I had a fit when I saw him leaving a 20% tip, he replied with "My daddy taught me that you shouldn't be looking at the check unless you're paying it".
After all this riding we were finally going to see the ocean. Six miles from Tillamook and we were finally there, we pushed our bikes down onto the beach and took a taste of the water to make sure it was salty. As we were drinking the two root beers we'd purchased we met a couple from Helena, Montana that offered us a place to stay if we passed through. Pushing the bikes off the beach was a pain in the ass but we managed.
Out through Tillamook on Hwy 6 and finally the wind was with us. Up in the hills we stopped to eat and met two kids from Wisconsin (spelling?) who'd hitched a ride to Portland and were hiking to the coast. They were going to camp on the beach and work their way south.
TOMORROW: We should finally get to Portland to spend a couple of days with Chris Larson (our old roommate and all around nice guy).
andrew
It felt good to get moving again, the weather had cleared up and it was
starting to look like a nice day.
We headed north to Hwy 22 and found a headwind with it. This was to the most
unremarkable day of the trip, up hills that weren't rolling enough to be fun and
not steep enough to be a challenge (spelling?). I don't remember much except it
got cold and we camped in a park.
The highlight of the day was seeing a dead deer, which by itself was not that remarkable, we've seen enough road kill to guess the type by smell (from 1/4 mile away if the wind is right). This particular deer however was covered in thousands of squirming maggots, I thought about taking a picture but the smell and sight were too overwhelming.
Back at mission control, Charles has been putting some pictures up on the web site (http://www.drewish.com/ride/ come on go check it out) and sending us lyrics to songs. We've been working on the Johnny Cash's Long Black Veil, it's a pretty good one to scream at the rain. Next we'll probably try to memorize The Beach Boys' Barbara Ann.
andrew
One of us really should have a digital watch. We'd both woken up several times before I got up to check the time. It was only 06:30, it's impossible to tell time when it's this cloudy.
After screwing around for way too long at the KOA and Brad relating his dream where he met Dionne Warwick we finally got going and ate at a Mexican restaurant. Brad, unintentionally doing a Woody Allen impression, said "I just... just haven't had a good experience at this... restaurant... what ever it's called. " It was funny, funnier was seeing him that happy about the comparison, he vowed to hunch over and whine more.
We rode out to the BikeE factory/offices, I asked them if they had tours for BikeE pilgrims. The reply was only if my first name was Andrew and last name was Morton. Apparently Martin Kreig, my friend in Santa Cruz with the National Bike Greenways (http://www.bikeroute.com), had called and warned them we were coming. We met half the office (Doug, Gary, Nicole and a bunch of people who's names I've forgotten) then got the full tour from Chad (one of their excellent customer service guys) and they hooked up the free stuff.
We got with some schwag, polo shirts and hats. I'll probably keep the hat with me and mail the shirt home, I could probably use it to get into InterBike for free... Then they re-welded my seat, hooked Brad up with a kickstand (excellent, no holding his bike every time he has to pee), a kit to rebuild my shock, and a new front tire. My seat is a work of art, the strengthened up the struts that I'd cracked the weld on and switched out the saddle, it rides like new. I even got to use Chad's computer to upload some pictures to the web site (http://www.drewish.com/ride/).
When we finally got going it was finally raining. This is the Oregon I'd hoped to avoid, I was wet in places that don't get wet in the shower. My rain gear (hereinafter "rain soaking gear") didn't work so well, as long as we were going up hill it was okay, I froze my ass of the rest of the time. I spent time trying to decide which was worse mosquitoes or rain, Brad seemed to be doing better I heard him mumble something about Erin, cheesecake and Miles Davis being at the top of the next hill.
Eventually we started looking for dry places to stop. What we found was an old gas station, we parked under the cover and went to find out if we could camp there. The owners, who lived next door, said it'd be fine, they even let us use the wood stove in the store to dry out some clothes. They're definitely on the postcard list.
andrew
Tomorrow: ride out Hwy 22 to the coast.
We went out to breakfast with Andrea at some hipster cafe. The food and coffee were good but all I could think about was what a bubble Eugene is. All these hippy-ish people packed into such a small area, 20 minutes riding in any direction will take you back to the land of pickups and logging.
Brad bought a new tape recorder and second long sleeve shirt. We packed up and got out the door by 15:15, leaving behind only the flag I praised in the last email (hopefully we can be reunited with it in Portland). Riding north to Corvallis to visit the BikeE offices and let them know that Brad wants a kickstand on his ride.
We were pulling down the miles because any time we'd stop our allergies would go freaking nuts. Brad would be rubbing his eyes and I'd be alternating between sneezing and shooting snot rockets. I don't know why but some how they supercharged Brad, a few times I was pumping and still couldn't catch him.
If we'd left at a reasonable hour we could have made the forty something miles to town and had light to find the campground. As it was we made it to Corvallis by dark but the KOA was in Albany 4 miles away. We rolled out there with no trouble but decided we'd try to leave earlier next time.
Those of you who got my emails on the way to Salt Lake City last year may
recall I vowed never to stay at a KOA campground again. Well the Albany KOA has
restored the name. Unlike the Ely KOA, they've got a pool, laptop hookup (dang I
should have brought it
Tomorrow: go visit BikeE (our bike's manufacture) then out to the Pacific.
andrew
I was glad Brad had suggested we put up the tent because those clouds didn't stay happy. Our entire day was going to be down hill into Eugene, all we really had to do was keep moving.
We hit 20 miles before 10:00, it was the most exhilarating riding we've done. Dropping in from the top of the Cascades was unbelievable. Rain forest flashing by as we pass down through the clouds. Mother semi passing with her little babies following, all of them throwing water into the shit-eating grin on my face. I couldn't help but throw in a Slim Pickins "Yahoo" as they'd pass.
Now before any of Brad's family writes regarding safety (my family's given up on worrying about me) we've made a dangerous endeavor like this about as safe as can be. We don't want to wake up in the hospital staring at a broken leg in traction. Though I scoffed at Brad's dad's neon orange flag initially, after we sawed off the bracket and fitted it to the Bob trailer in place of the stock one, it's a damn nice thing to have. If the weather is inclement we ride with blinking LED lights on and we ride the mirror all the time (so you know what's coming up behind you).
We rode along a creek for most of the afternoon, after stopping in Oakridge for lunch, and past Lookout Point (?) Reservoir. We checked email on the way to I5 and found an email saying we could stay with Andrea in Eugene.
Andrea had been living in Reno and worked at Pneumatic with Chris and Erin, she had even contemplated riding to Eugene with us. We were giving each other high-fives because a house is n times better than a KOA campground. We called her number but got the answering machine for the people she was staying with.
At the first exit into town we found a phone book and looked up the address of the house. We then began consulting the map, in the front for directions, planning to camp in the front yard if she wasn't there. Right as we finished my cell phone rang, it was Andrea. We didn't really need directions so the conversation was a short.
We stopped at the Albertson's on the way to the house to pickup some wine and a watermelon (our fathers taught us not to show up empty handed). This was the Oregon I was promised; 12 feet of covered bike racks, a beer and wine section that stretched as far as the eye could see, $4 6-packs of Weinhards and hundreds of cute girls. Yes this was the Oregon I was promised
The house Andrea was staying at was pretty two-story number in an older part of town. We got a shower and she made us burritos and watermelon. We drank wine and the Black Butte Porter six, purchased in honor of Joe Lane, and listened to Bob Dylan.
andrew
Up late (imagine that), we both commented that we miss(ed) Charles. He'd been such a part of the trip that it was odd not to have him around.
We stopped for milkshakes and fries in this nothing town of gas stations and signs. As we were eating this grizzled recumbent guy, named Ken, rides up on a Ryan recumbent with Bob trailer. We talked to him for a while about bikes and touring. He was going up 97 all the way to Canada doing a big loop and then coming back down the coast. He was 63 and had retiered at 58 from computer consulting over a dispute with a new manager and his assistant. They didn't want some "old guy who was going to die any time now" being the only person who knew how all the code worked. He was happy to relate that one of the two had just had their first heart attack and that he'd "be pissing on both their graves". Seeing him ride off you couldn't really disagree with him.
The only other thing of any mention was seeing Odell Lake. It was made famous to our generation by an video game of the same name for the Apple IIe that we all got to play in school. You were a fish that had to make split second decisions whether to eat certain things or flee. It was free fishing weekend so I'm sure that the real fish were getting to practice their fleeing.
When we totaled up the mileage today we were close to 70 mi which is right where I'd like to be. Portland here we come.
andrew
"God after this trip I'm not going to be able to fall asleep without the
sound of a highway next to me." - Brad
[Sorry these emails are delayed, we've been riding more and the emails have been getting longed.]
I hate Mosquitoes. The only good thing about them is you'll try to get up early to leave while it's still to cold for them to fly; w were up and riding by 07:00.
In Ft. Klamath we passed a sign for fresh donuts at the Ft. Klamath General Store and couldn't resist it's siren like call. We ended buying a dozen, two cups of coffee and an apple turnover. The store was really cool; it was part liquor store, gun shop, gas station, and deli in addition to selling the standard small town store merchandise. I got to talking to the owner, Mark, who made the donuts, a bit. One of the better things he mentioned was "Ounces to lead to pounds and pounds lead to agony", he's on the post card list.
The ride up to lake really got me pumped we gained almost 3000 feet of elevation that morning. What blew me away was the was you just come right up to the edge without seeing it and them bang. We took some pictures and had a root beer to celebrate. Charles was going to meet his friends here for a ride home on Friday. We'd been planning to camp with him that night but didn't realize that the campgrounds were all back down the hill. We didn't want to go down just to come back up again the next day so we decided we'd campout in the bush on the way out of the park.
We started trading gear around, giving him the stuff we wanted to send home and taking what he'd been carrying that we'd need. His friends were going to be there late Friday night so he'd have time to see the park better than we did. We all said our good byes and rode off our separate ways.
We rode out around part of the lake on our way out of the park and the lake was incredible. It was the deepest blue you can imagine and its island just seemed to float there. We found ourselves at a turnout at 7350ft, the highest point of the trip.
andrew
Our wake up call was at 09:00 but I got up around 08:00 out of habit. I started calling around to find out where we could take Brad's bike. Bicycle Jones was open when I called and they said come on down. We finally got our stuff crammed back into the bag it entered the room in and left around 10:30.
Ridding into downtown Klamath Falls made me realize how much bigger it was than I'd thought coming in the night before. Downtown Klamath Falls was very pleasant, they'd done a good job of preserving the older buildings and feel of the town.
Bicycle Jones had just moved into a new space they'd fixed up. They worked us in as soon as we got there. The owner, Stan, got Brad's bike squared away for a grand total of $12. Apparently BikeE hadn't tightened up the crank set properly before they shipped it, we'll yell at them when we get to Corvallis. I do have a new favorite bike shop in Klamath Falls now, and Stan is on the post card list.
We got directions to a Safeway so we went and picked up some groceries. Notably a $6 container of potato salad, if $6 sounds like it'd buy a lot of potato salad you're correct it will. We knew we probably wouldn't be able to eat it all but got it any way. We got about half way through it before deciding to just bring it with us.
While we were packing up in the parking lot Charles fell in love with a sea gull, with feet but no legs, that was flying around. He named it Stubby and tried to tame it but Stubby just couldn't give up his freewheeling lifestyle and settle down. So we left.
We rode out of town with 60+ miles to Crater Lake and about 7 hours of light. We took Hwy 97 out along Upper Klamath lake, which was pretty sketchy shoulder, wise. Brad's new trip highlight was seeing a hawk and snake fighting in a field across from the lake. The snake lucked out and got away. As we were watching the snake slither off some asshole trucker honked at us.
After a little riding you begin to categorize vehicles by how worried you need to be about them. Of the two classes car (cars, trucks, SUVs) and heavy (semis, RVs, buses) you've got to be a bit more concerned about the heavies. They're wider but, with the exception of RVs, professionally driven and will give you as much space as they can. SUVs and RVs are the two to really worry about, their drivers don't know how wide their rig is and they don't spend 40 hours a week driving.
Hwy 97 got a whole lot more ride able after it got away from the lake where there was some room to put in a shoulder. We got onto Hwy ??? and started out toward Crater Lake after stopping to try to eat some more potato salad. We went into this valley that was straight out of a post card, green green grass, meandering streams, old barns. Very pretty but not a good place to camp. We ended up camped in this lot across from a cemetery a ways from water but those freaking mosquitoes found us. God, it's the only thing I hate about Oregon.
andrew
Woke up early in the rain, approx 06:15. I looked down at the tent that had been hastily erected last night in the rain, had let a bunch of water in onto my sleeping bag. With the thought of going back to sleep banished from my mind I decided to wake Brad up instead.
My brother, Charles, had faired even worse. He'd wrapped a leaky, he found out, survival blanket around his sleeping bag and got soaked. We all got packed up and hit on the road, the new plan, get to Klamath Falls and get a motel.
At 11:00 the weather was still cold and cloudy, the road was straight but the wind was still in our faces, it was up one hill and right back down again (repeat). When we finally got out of the hills and onto the plain (Klamath Basin?) the wind picked up and it just got more demoralizing.
We rode past lots of pretty scenery and as the sun burned off the clouds more and more hand painted signs staying nasty things about US Fish and Game and the Endangered Species Act started to appear. By the time the sun was out the signs were completely silly with bad grammar and phrases like "promises broken" and "greatest water theft of all time". Every store window in the towns in the valley had "We support our farmers" in it. By the way they were jumping on the bandwagon you'd think that someone had killed all their firstborn not diverted the water to keep the fish from becoming extinct. I have very little sympathy for their cause. The fish were here first, the "theft" was the water from the fish in the first place to irrigate their fields.
In Klamath Falls we pulled into Motel 6 and got a room. We kept the bikes out of sight and snuck them into the room to prevent it from being an issue.
Across the street was Stage Coach Pizza. If you're in Klamath Falls I can highly recommend it. We made a mockery of their one trip salad bar, picture a plate with salad piled to a 45* angle, at $1.90 that was the deal of the trip.
Tomorrow we go find a bike shop get Brad's bike looked at and pick up some gear then it's off to Crater Lake.
andrew
Dave Torch was the winner of our "Yes these are references to the Oregon Trail video game" contest.
We had a plan worked out where the second and third people up would owe the first person up a beverage. Brad woke up first and was actually out of his bag, but we'd camped in the trees and it was early and cold so it didn't take much persuading to get him back to sleep. When we did get up around 09:00 we all lamented that if Joe Lane (our PCT hiker roommate who rode with me to Mammoth, CA from Reno) was here we'd have gotten up. He'd have made good coffee and be telling you how good those pancakes and hash browns were going to taste at breakfast. And if that failed he'd just take down the tent while you're still in it. He's been here in spirit, I keep saying Joe things like "nice".
We pulled into Adin and had nice breakfast that made me remember what touring is all about, food. We got groceries at the general store and met some of the locals, they were stoked on the bikes. They told us about an alternate route that was a lot less traveled and had better grading, two big cycling pluses.
The entire time we were on the side road we kept getting passed by semi-trucks full of pine chips (assumable from some logging operation). Every time they'd go by it would smell like either Pine Sol or gin depending on whom you asked. We decided to invent a gin drink and call it "getting passed pine tree truck at 60 mph while ridding a bicycle".
We camped off under a clump of the few remaining post-forest fire trees. The clouds that had been had been happy shade clouds at about 16:00 now were sad rain clouds but we didn't put up the tent. We got to do it at 21:00 when it started raining.
andrew
We woke up to an annoying bird squawking at about 07:00
We had a strong head wind the entire day but made it through two gruesome passes and past Eagle Lake which was beautiful. It was almost all up and down with a bit of riding across wide wetland valleys (spelling?). Going along the ridgeline looking down into them, you can imagine how Reno might have looked before the city and its suburbs appeared.
On my previous bike trips I've really enjoyed the solitude, riding and thinking. This trip has been a real change, instead of mulling over a thought for half an hour wishing I had someone to tell it to, I just speed up or slow down and blurt it out to Brad or Charles.
Ridding 50 or 60 feet behind Brad and heard this weird sound carried on the wind, it sort of sounded like a child screaming. Later Brad told us that it was him "singing When A Man Loves A Woman in a falsetto" and that it was the new "highlight of the trip".
Fire crews have been driving past in both directions the entire trip. My climbing instructor, Wojo, from last semester is spending his summer fighting fires. I've been wondering what he's been up to, probably long hard days. I kind of think I'd like to get on a crew next summer.
We ended up camping in trees in the Modoc National Forest, it was probably the prettiest thing we've seen. Grand total 50 miles, very good considering the obstacles.
andrew
Grueling pace, meager rations
We roused ourselves close to 09:30 and got a slow start.
As we got started Brad pointed off to the right into a field and yelled something I couldn't understand. I looked over and saw a dead cow, he then repeated "dear" and I was confused. I soon came to realize that he was referring to the deer behind the dead cow.
In Doyle we had an interesting encounter with a guy at the grocery store who, as best we can determine, was trying to decided if we were Mormon missionaries or not.
A gentle side wind turned into a frustrating head wind as the day progressed. Six more hours riding only gave us 10 more miles over yesterday.
We stopped at the Safeway in Susanville and Brad was totally stoked on the (homeless?) vet, named John Grace "The Baptist" the third, playing coronet out front. He sat and talked to him and recorded him with the $7 thrift store tape recorder he found at some. In his words it was "the highlight of the trip so far".
It was getting late so I started freaking out trying to get us out of town before sundown. We made it out Hwy 139 about two miles before pulling off to camp. Down the road was the circus; they played cool Eurodance music all night; Brad was not happy.
andrew
We went hunting and shot 2305 lbs but could only carry 200 lbs back.
We went out to breakfast with Andrea at some hipster cafe. The food and coffee were good but all I could think about was what a bubble Eugene is. All these hippy-ish people packed into such a small area, 20 minutes riding in any direction will take you back to the land of pickups and logging.
Brad bought a new tape recorder and second long sleeve shirt. We packed up and got out the door by 15:15, leaving behind only the flag I praised in the last email (hopefully we can be reunited with it in Portland). Riding north to Corvallis to visit the BikeE offices and let them know that Brad wants a kickstand on his ride.
We were pulling down the miles because any time we'd stop our allergies would go freaking nuts. Brad would be rubbing his eyes and I'd be alternating between sneezing and shooting snot rockets. I don't know why but some how they supercharged Brad, a few times I was pumping and still couldn't catch him.
If we'd left at a reasonable hour we could have made the forty something miles to town and had light to find the campground. As it was we made it to Corvallis by dark but the KOA was in Albany 4 miles away. We rolled out there with no trouble but decided we'd try to leave earlier next time.
Those of you who got my emails on the way to Salt Lake City last year may
recall I vowed never to stay at a KOA campground again. Well the Albany KOA has
restored the name. Unlike the Ely KOA, they've got a pool, laptop hookup (dang I
should have brought it
Tomorrow: go visit BikeE (our bike's manufacture) then out to the Pacific.
andrew
the gear finally got packed, the bikes are in running order, we're ready to leave. i'll be checking email via pocketmail so feel free to email me. portland should be less than 10 days away.
A lot has happened since my last email.
My brother will be riding with us up to Portland on a BikeE borrowed from a generous Chris McClendon.
I've spent a bunch of time worrying about the technical aspects of this ride. I've told everyone, from the people we'll be visiting to friends in other countries, that we'll keep in touch via email. The pressure is on to make sure everyone doesn't think we've died because my Palm crashes and we can't send email. I think it'll work out, but if I ever try this again I won't trust my email to a Microsoft server (two guesses why I'm up so late).
The plan was to leave at 0800, that will be pushed back, 1030 seems more likely.
I'd like to apologize now for any spelling errors. I don't have spell-check and the screen is so small that an i looks like l and a q like a g.