Been home for a bit now, bike made it home in good condition (except my saddle - got some scratches because of the packing job) a few days after I arrived by plane. Just finished posting all my pictures from the trip online here. I haven't gone through and deleted dupes, bad, or boring pictures - you've been warned.
Touched down in Denver this evening, took the bus to Boulder, grabbed a pita and a six pack, and went home.
Getting back is bittersweet for sure. Most of this trip has gone really smoothly, glad I got started with it. Seeing the width of the country was interesting, and I really enjoyed a lot of the small towns along the way. For the most part, the weather was beautiful, or at least tolerable, and The Infernal Machine handled things well. Except for some knee issues on the first couple days, some road rash in Wyoming, and an annoying respiratory bug, I've stayed pretty comfortable for the last couple months. To answer the constant question - the butt is, and has been, fine :) (Brooks B17.)
Visiting with family and friends was really good too, I'm proud to know some really great people, and spending time with them is always good. Met some really cool folks along the way - far too many to list here (that's cheezy anyways,) hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with some of them. And, of course, the conversation with bunches of random people in gas stations, diners, and parks along the way was fun. It's all about the people.
Getting a break from the 90mph pace of the previous year at school was good as well, last spring left me a bit fried after 20 credit hours and working a lot to pay for them.
When it boils down to it, I feel more at home on the road/trail/mountain than pretty much anywhere else. It's always good to be home.
But, now it's back to 90 for a while longer, probably more than two full years this time around, and only a small part of me is looking forward to that. I'm hoping to get this degree knocked out in three years, which is going to require heavy course loads, bending some rules (prerequisite stuff,) and taking classes next summer. School is generally interesting, but that long of a stretch could be tedious.
Some days on the road, I had to deal with bad drivers and occasional assholes - glad that's over. I feel strongly that most people are good people, but I think the sheer number of people, in the form of drivers, that I was seeing everyday was exposing my to more of that small percentage of jerks than in previous adventures. Plus, you don't generally take note of people who do a good (correct) job passing a cyclist, but the bad ones definitely stick out. Never before have I put my life in the hands of so many people. Not the most comforting thought, but I'm still here.
I'm glad that I'll be around more familiar people for a while too. The ride was a much more solitary trip than I had anticipated, and some of the longer stretches without any familiar faces got pretty lonely. Finally, my string of good luck appears to have had a hiccup over the last few days too - a few things happened that have me down a bit. One of them is that the guy who was subletting my room isn't going to be able to get his mess (and it is a mess) out of my room for another 8 days.
But, it takes a bit of bad to appreciate the good I suppose, and really my complaints about the trip are fairly trivial and meant just to show that it wasn't a complete joyride. On the whole, life is good.
As far as this blog goes, this is gonna be the last post most likely. That said, previous posts definitely aren't set in stone and I have plans to go through them to finish and edit text in some places, and add quite a few pictures. The editing might take a while since I've got more pressing things to deal with than getting the blog polished up. If you're incredibly bored, there will be more on school and such over at ianr44.blogspot.com.
We'll see how it goes.
Done. 4432.7 miles (Newport News, VA to Lincoln City, OR)
Wednesday: Lazy morning reading, then went on a failed mission to a couple different brewpubs before heading to the airport. Couldn't find one of them in a reasonable amount of time, and the improvised backup plan was closed. We decided it wasn't meant to be and headed to the airport. Pretty standard airplane trip from Portland to Denver, nice scenery on takeoff and a wind-buffeted landing, but nothing else to mention.
Tuesday: Did a couple more brewpubs and drove out to the Columbia River Gorge to check out a waterfall and the general scenery. The waterfall was really tall - think it's the second tallest in the US, but not too much flow. Still, it was an impressive fall, and we hiked up to the top of it on a very busy paved path. Nice to stretch the legs a little after a few days of relative inactivity. Saw some really nice old cars in the parking lot - four or five Bentleys and Rolls-Royces complete with an armed guard. One particular Bentley was really neat - looked like a 1940s model if I had to guess, and still had a right hand drive. Cooked up a nice little dinner back at the house, then we went to see the new Bourne movie - first time I've been in a movie theatre in god knows how long. Neat film as far as "action movies" go! 
Monday: Beer happens to be one of my interests in normal life, and Portland happens to be the city with the most breweries per capita in the US (likely the world, but I'm not sure.) Chris, one of the guys from the beach who's house I've been crashing at, is also a beer fan. So, we spent a good chunk of the day just going on a brewpub tour around Portland - even got a couple souvenirs! We also went to Powels Bookstore, which is the biggest bookstore in the country. Five stories and it takes up an entire city block. And, most of the technical books are in another store a block or two over. Unfortunately, I didn't know about the technical book store until later, but was pretty much overwhelmed by the main one already. Picked up a couple books, one on a guy's travels in Mongolia, and a Mongolian/English dictionary and phrasebook. Yup.
Realized that I loaned my phone charger to Smiles in Pacific City, then forgot about that while packing up. Oops. Had to start rationing battery life, then talked to Smiles and found out she wasn't going to be able to make it up to Portland afterall, so I've gotta stretch this charge out until Friday or so when the charger gets to my house by mail. Oops.
Sunday: Got up and decided at the last minute to pack the bike in with the guys who were heading up to Portland rather than hanging around Pacific City until Wednesday. Smiles has to work between now and then, I'd like to check out Portland, and there's really not much to do in Pacific City other than be on the beach. Went for a quick tour of St. Johns, the neighborhood where the guys all live, with Ryan, then went over to the bar Ben works at for some beers with the other guys. Smiles planned on driving over to Portland after work on Tuesday to visit.
Saturday: Spent the entire day being a beach bum, watching a longboard competition (favorite bit was overhearing a competitor talking about his run with a friend and mentioning he was waiting for his grandkids to get there,) drinking a lot of beer, and visiting. Blurred my magnificent tan lines a little bit, but got a picture first :).
Friday: 133 miles to get from Springfield/Eugene, OR to the coast at Lincoln City, OR. Ran out of sunlight before energy, but my friend Smiles popped down from Pacific City to give me a ride up to there where she had several friends from Portland already. Excellent beach party with some neat people on a nice beach. Never got around to taking the bike to the shoreline to do the wheel dip thing, but whatever. Rode something like 30 miles right along the shore. Riding wise, the traffic was hellacious all day long. About got clipped a few times, pulled off to avoid tight spots several times, and just raced through a lot of turns to minimize time in scary areas. Nice scenery though, and it was good knowing the coast was so close.
Thursday: Nice riding day! Got my first smell of the Pacific Ocean from a little hill about halfway through the day. Met another cross country biker, Jeff, who was just leaving on his eastbound journey, so we sat down and chatted for a good while. Jeff normally lives in Springfield (basically part of Eugene, OR) and invited me to stay in his house that night with a German couple who are spending a year or so traveling the world. They're going to drive around the west over the next couple weeks, and might be coming through Boulder, so maybe we'll get to visit some more later. Nice evening hanging out and chatting with them, much better than staying in another RV park! Hadn't had a shower at all in over a week at that point, so it was good to get cleaned up too! Cool people are neat :).
Wednesday: Weird day. After a fair bit of debate, I decided to head out early from Sisters, OR to try to get over McKenzie (or is it Mackenzie...) Pass before the construction crew got there to stop me from going through. I got started later than I had hoped, and they got to work a lot earlier than I had guessed, so I couldn't make it through. Beautiful ride up to the pass, with lots of fresh volcanic rock on the top from an eruption just a thousand or so years ago. Good views of the Sisters, and Mt Hood off in the distance. Made me think about Colorado a bit.
Anyways, after getting to the beginning of the road closure (a few miles on the other side of the pass, naturally) and chatting with the flagger girl for a bit about what was going on with the landslide that closed the road, I ended up riding back over the top to spend the day sitting in the woods near the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail - one of the three long trails that make up the triple crown; Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail.) Didn't meet any thru-hikers as I had hoped, but I suppose it's still a little early for them to be that far north. Read a lot in my book, slept a lot, felt bored a lot, then eventually it was time to roll. Managed to get through the construction zone relatively unimpeded, got confronted by the second to last truck out, but talked my way through that. The landslide area most definitely wasn't passable on wheels, but wasn't too big of a deal to get through on foot. Beautiful ride down from there through some nice woods with beautiful sunset. 
It got dark fast as I rode farther into the valley and into the night, but fortunately the road was very smooth and there wasn't any traffic on it (the first half past the pass to my destination was closed ;) .) Made it by headlight to a campground, but was disappointed to find that it didn't have any potable water source, and that it cost $10 (or maybe $12 - memory is fuzzy on that.) Ten bucks isn't that bad of a fee for a nice campsite with toilets, water, tables, and such, but without water it seemed like kindof a ripoff to me. All I really need to camp is water and enough space to lay down...
Quickly noticed that one campsite was occupied and awake, so I put on my invisible yogi hat and went over to see if they had change for a $20 (another small issue with the fee.) Brought up the water question and almost instantly the campers were forcing a gallon jug of water on me - people are great. They didn't have change, but mentioned the ranger came by every morning at 9, so I decided to just write a note on the payment envelope and drop it in the box so I could get change from him in the morning. The note was something to the effect of "Sorry I'm a biker and don't have exact change. Will meet the ranger in the morning and settle up, or failing that I'll drop a $20 in the box." Hoped I wouldn't have to do that, but it seemed likely that I'd be able to meet the ranger in the morning and get it straightened out.
Chatted a bit longer with the other campers, then went over to my campsite to get changed and cook up some dinner. Before I could get out my cookpot, the guy from the other campsite had come over and invited me over to dinner at their site! Turned out it was a family with one young child and a friend of hers out camping, and that they had anticipated more people coming that hadn't shown up. Ended up playing a round of checkers with one of the kids, chatting a bunch with the parents and kids, and eating some freshly caught trout and bratwurst. Super cool people!
Tuesday morning: I woke up at 6am or so as usual, and slowly ate some breakfast and got packed up and ready to go. Then read my book for a bit to wait for the ranger to show up. Sure enough, right around 9am, he pulled in and went straight for the money box. I hopped up and started walking over there, by the time I got to the self payment kiosk, he was reading the note and had a decidedly unhappy look on his face. I interrupted his reading to say that I was the guy who wrote the note and had my payment in hand. His response was a not too friendly statement to the effect of "it's a $250 (or something like that) citation if you don't pay the fee within 30 minutes of arrival." So, I kindof ignored that and went back to the change question, which he grudgingly made for me and reminded me about the citations. I mentioned something about trying to be honest and not having planned to stay there, but heard more about the citation. Anyways, this guy was a jerk. Pissed me off a bit too because I was going out of my way to pay the (in my mind, inflated) fee to use a campsite. Especially because my sleeping there left virtually no impact on the campsite, and I could have just as easily camped for free, legally, at any of a number of unofficial sites coming down the hill. Only reason I went to this place was that I thought it would have potable water. Only stayed because of the nice people who gave me water there. And, the thing that irked me the most, was that this guy didn't seem to understand that his citation threats were completely hollow - they didn't have anywhere near enough information on that envelope to track me down had I left early without paying. And, had I not written the note in the first place, they never would have even known I was there! Stupid.
Anyways, after the jerk got done whining about citations, I went over to a nearby creek to rinse off. Incidentally, that same creek ran right by one of the unofficial sites, so I could've gotten water from it and camped for free, but didn't want to wait 30 minutes for the bleach to work it's magic before I could cook. But I digress.
The creek was honestly the coldest fresh water I've ever been in (Ross Sea takes the cake on coldest,) which means something from a kid who grew up on Dukes Creek. Anyways, by the time it took me to hurriedly rinse off, my feet were mostly numb, and my toes definitely were numb.
Hopped on the road and rode on!
Once again, slightly rushed to get 'net stuff done in a library time frame. Also, once again, I've forgotten the little things I was going to remember to write about...
Anyhoo, the ride has been going nicely. It has still been pretty hot during the days, but not so bad lately as it was before. The nights have been nice and cool - this morning was actually a little too cold to go more than 10mph or so without fingertips freezing. I'm within 300 miles or so of being done, haven't added it up in a couple days, but the tentative idea is to get to the coast this weekend!
Planning on heading on down the road after this library stop, not sure exactly where to though because there aren't any campsites listed for a pretty good ways on the map. The next town listed as providing camping is Sisters, which is a little further than I'd like to go, but it's definitely within reasonable range. From there, I'll get to decide between two routes to get on to Eugene. The regular route goes over McKenzie Pass, the longer (by 20-something miles) alternate route goes over Santiam Pass. Problem is that McKenzie pass is apparently closed due to construction work and a rock slide. Heard through the grapevine that the road was closed to cars, but open to bikers until the rock slide. Also heard that the slide wasn't all that big, so I'm thinking I might just give it a try anyhow. But, that decision doesn't come until tomorrow, so I'll try to get some more current, local, information when it gets closer.
Baker City was a neat little town. Ended up getting in touch with Mike, another biker who was in town, and he showed me a little park to crash in for the night (his friend's place where he was going to invite me, was full with him and other family types visiting.) The park worked out well, except for another early morning (3:30) sprinkler session, but fortunately it wasn't nearly as bad as the one a few weeks ago. Killed several hours in the morning waiting for a bike shop to open up so I could get a couple innertubes. Bought a couple interesting books to read - one on a guy's travels with a Kayak and one on Genghis Kahn, had a coffee, and read for a bit. The kayak book only took a couple days to get through, but I really enjoyed it. It got me to thinking about international travel ideas. Definitely want to get out of the country more in the future.
After Baker City, I rode to Austin Junction, where there is a convenience store/restaurant type place that lets bikers camp out back for $5. It was a little bit strange, nothing major, just odd customers, weird (indoor) plumbing, strange attitudes, etc. The next morning, I had to fill up my bottles with a garden hose outside as the store hadn't opened up yet. Nastiest tasting hose I've ever drank out of - kept tasting rubber after several rinses down the road. Made some instant pudding for dinner thinking that the powdered milk and chocolate might mask the flavor. Nope! But, did sleep well, bought some gummy worms, and had water, so that's really all that I needed.
The next day after Austin Junction was neat riding. New mountains on the horizon, neat geology closer to the road. Still hot and dry out during the day. Stayed in a city park in Dayville right beside a small creek that was chock full of crawdads of all sizes. Thought pretty seriously about catching enough to cook them for dinner, but decided against it.
Monday morning I left Dayville and rode through the "John Day Fossil Beds National Monument" - didn't see any fossils unfortunately (probably because I skipped the visitor center.) Took a nice long break for lunch (Mountain Dew, granola bars, some chocolate, and an entire bag of Goldfish) in Mitchell, where I had a fun conversation with a couple local middle/highschool kids about cars, bikes, music, and other random stuff. They told me all about the campground at Ochoco Pass, a few miles further on, and mentioned that it had water, so I ended up heading there to camp last night. The campground was a USFS self-pay type deal, fee for a single vehicle/night is $12, but I only had a $10 and some $20s, ended up paying $10 and leaving a little note on the envelope, hope that my shorting them $2 doesn't end up causing a problem :). Seems like the fee should be less anyways for a single guy on a bike rather than 6 people in a big SUV, but that's just my opinion. Anyways, it was a nice campground with lots of shade provided by huge pine trees. Got pretty cold overnight, guessing somewhere in the lower 40s.
OK, so this is going to be another super-rushed posting from a library.
Got out of McCall yesterday morning via a ride up to New Meadows with Clair, then biking from there to a campground on the Snake River, which is the Idaho/Oregon border in that area. Ride was scenic, but quite hot. After that last post, I found a thermometer outside - 103 in the shade. At the end of the day, as the trail dropped down into Hells Canyon, I had some rediculous wind - sagebrush and sand blowing everywhere. Had to get into lower gears and push a little just to keep going downhill. Nice little campsite for the night with showers!
Today has been really hot. I don't know exactly what the temps were, but they were damn hot. And, just for fun, there's been practically nowhere to stop for a break. No shade either. It's been pretty, but I've been having to somewhat ration water, which isn't much fun. I'm about done with the arid/semi-arid climate thing for a while - think the coast is going to be a nice change in a few days!
On that note, I've been thinking about where to end this trip, and today think I came up with a good destination. I'll be flying out of Portland on the 8th, but hadn't decided how far to ride the bike. The official transamerica route finishes in Astoria, OR, but also has a spur off to Florence, OR which is a bit more direct route to the coast. I'm not set on following the official route the entire way, although I do definitely want to make it to the Pacific. Today, I called up a friend from the AT, Smiles (aka Laura,) who moved to the coast of Oregon fairly recently and found out that she lives right on the transam route! So, at this point, the plan is to ride transam to Smiles' place, then probably mail the bike home from there and head on to Portland one way or another. One benefit of that plan is it gives me a bit more time between riding and getting to the airport, so I might be able to spend a day or two in Portland on the way home. All that is subject to change, of course :).
Finally, just got an email from Mike, a biker I met a few days before the raft trip, saying that he's in Baker City as well and to give him a call. Yay for local contacts!
Man, it's really hot out.
That was in Cambridge, before dropping into Hells Canyon, wanna guess what the temps did then? Yup.
And, I'm way behind on this blog thing. Most of this was written up 8/11:
The raft trip was a lot of fun, and a lot of work - very glad that we managed to work it all out! Got to spend a zero day in McCall getting errands taken care of and getting my stuff ready to go on the river trip - think that was Friday.
Saturday was spent getting the gear and boats all ready to go over at the HCR (Hells Canyon Rafting - Clair's raft company) place, then getting that all out to the water. I helped out a bit with the packing to the extent I could without knowing where everything was stored in the shop. Ended up just doing a lot of heavy lifting once the boxes, coolers, and boats were ready to load into the boat. Kurt (HCR owner, guide, and cool dude) asked me what I was doing next summer - to us transient types that's a job offer! Still planning on doing summer school next summer in order to graduate sooner, but it's a damn tempting backup plan!
We packed an amazing amount of gear into the back of Kurt's truck and headed out for the put-in. Inflated the boats and got them in the water, then Kurt and Meg (the other guide for the trip) left to take care of other stuff. Clair and I camped out there for the night after getting the gear all set to go the following morning.
Somewhat surprisingly, the beach stayed pretty quiet all night - apparently it's a common place for local kids to go party, and given that it was a Saturday night, we anticipated there being a lot of noise. Also got to see some amazing stars with the clear air and low light pollution! Suppose that there had been plenty nice nights leading up to that, but with the high daytime temperatures, I had been going to bed early in order to start riding in the cool morning air and get to the day's destination before it got super hot.
Sunday morning, we did some more gear shuffling after breakfast (Poptarts!!) Meg, the other guide for the trip, showed up and got her boat setup the way she likes it (every guide has their own packing style and preferences on how to inflate the boats) The guests arrived by shuttle van and got a briefing from Meg on some basic rafting stuff in the parking lot. I stood back and listened to the talk, then we all got our lifejackets on, hopped in the boats, and were off! Two of the guests took the duckies (inflatable kayaks,) two hopped in Meg's boat, and Clair and I took the other boat.
For the first day, the river was relatively flat, with a couple little rapids, but as I recall the biggest was a class 2 (more on rapid classification here). We stopped after an hour or so and setup a "water bar" for lunch.
A water bar, in this sense, is just a folding table setup right on the shore, with the legs pushed down into the sand, so that you can keep your feet in the water while serving up food. These guided trips are very nicely catered; lunch had plenty of vegetables, multiple types of bread, meat, and cheese to make sandwiches, plenty of beverage options, and a choice of desserts! Apparently, some guests refer to these trips as "roughing it," but the food we had on the trip was, on average, better than what I tend to eat at home during the school year.
After a few more hours of rafting, including breaks to swim and cool off, we made it to our campsite for the night. Meg, Clair, and I quickly had tents going up, a kitchen being assembled, a toilet tent getting setup, and a table and chairs to eat at. Roughing it.... Fortunately, this group of guests turned out to be really cool and helped us with setting things up a little bit. As the trip progressed, they got more and more involved with the setup and breakdown of the camps and lunch breaks.
We took a nice break to go swimming, mess around with the duckies, and walk around. Dinner started with an appetizer of fried *** cheese and crackers, then the main course was salmon (gardenburgers for the vegetarians,) veggies, and chocolate cake (with confetti!) for dessert. After cleaning up, the guests had a game called "catchphrase" that they invited us to play. One of those annoying little electronic gizmos, but it turned out to be entertaining despite the annoying noises it was making. Not a big fan of electronics in the outdoors. Visited for a while, then the guests went off to their tents and the guides and I cowboy camped a little way down the beach. Another day of beautiful weather outside!
The other three days of the trip were more or less the same theme, but with different scenery. It was interesting watching (and I suppose being a part of) the guides and the guests get to know each other better and have more in-depth conversations on things. One interesting angle on this trip was that Meg is going down to work in McMurdo, Antarctica next October - the same place I spent the austral summer '05-06 (blog.) While Meg was picking my brain on Antarctic stuff, Clair was talking with one of the guests about doing recovery work in New Orleans (two of the guests coordinate reconstruction efforts over there,) I was talking with the guides about their jobs, and the three of us were talking retirement plans with one of the other guests, who is a financial planner. A floating career fair!
For most of the trip, I was just a passenger, but did row one of the boats for a few little sections. It's tough work, but I'm sure part of what makes it seem hard is not having good technique down. Got to take a spin in one of the duckies through a few rapids on the second to last day when there was too much headwind for the guests (who, to their credit, had kept the duckies occupied for the entire time up to that point. I was pretty amazed that they stuck with it that long given their desk-job type careers. And, they were damn good paddlers for their first trip!) Paddling through the confluence of the Snake and Salmon rivers was a lot of fun - reminded me of sea kayaking on a rougher day with the standing waves and wind combined with some weird (for a river) currents right around the confluence area. Hadn't tried a ducky before this trip, think I'm more of a hardshell guy, but they're fun fun!
Another quick post - just got back from the river trip earlier today! Had a really good time - we had four guests, who were pretty cool and very helpful. Neat scenery, fun conversation, exciting rafting, good weather, and getting to hang out with my friend Clair - all around fun! Would post more, but it's time to get food!
Ended up pushing out a long day yesterday and made it to New Meadows last night, the closest town to McCall on the transamerica route. Called up my friend Clair and got a ride over to McCall just as it got dark out! Beautiful ride yesterday, decent climb first thing, a fun downhill on a very quiet old windy road, then the rest of the day was cruising along the Salmon river.
Lazy day today, taking care of random errands around town and eating food. Tomorrow, we'll be getting ready for the trip and leaving McCall, then actual river time begins the morning after that! Might get some pictures from the last few days posted on here sometime in the next few days, but forgot to bring my camera into town, so that's not going to happen right now.
So, been riding my bike some more. Got a late start out of Missoula, left around noon, but made it up and over Lolo Pass before camping. Naturally, the pass was over-hyped, and wasn't that big of a deal. Nice ride up and over! The route parallels a river most of the way up, so there's neat scenery and the grade is very gentile. Saw a helicopter picking up loads of water to dump on a nearby forest fire, but couldn't see the fire from the road. I think I want to give the smoke jumper thing a try at some point :). Took a nice break at the top of the pass, then went for a very nice coast down the other side! The terrain is noticably different on the Idaho side of the pass - much like I had imagined the Pacific Northwest would look like. Not sure if I'm technically in the Pacific Northwest or not, but the scenery sure is nice! Waited out a thunderstorm with some spectacular lightening, but not much rain, at a little lodge type place, then rolled down the road to camp. Found what appeared to be a staging area for fighting fires - noticed it through some trees from the road.
Hit the road earlier than usual this morning, nice riding for the most part along a river all day long. I'm in Kooskia right now, but thinking I might go visit the laundromat, then head on a little down the road to camp at a place with free camping rather than staying here in town. We'll see what happens!
I should be getting to McCall this Friday, then heading off on a raft trip, so this might be the last post for a few days.
Bought my plane ticket home - should be getting back to Boulder on the evening of August 8th!
So, after that last post from Dillon...
Left the library and made some phone calls - talked with the family and left a message on Clair's machine about raft trip logistics. Took care of some errands, then shortly after I started rolling out of town, I got a return call from Clair. Turned out I was right beside a park, so pulled into it to sit and talk logistics. At some point in the conversation, Clair mentioned something about my stupid bike, and I'm pretty sure it heard...
Anyways, got plans figured out for this rafting thing - I'll have to pay a little bit for food (about the same as what I've been spending on the road for food anyways,) but will otherwise basically be a guest on a rafting trip next weekend on the Salmon River. So, that's pretty cool! Ended up calling the town police to see if I could just sleep in the park that I had pulled off into, they eventually decided that it would be OK, so I setup my bivy and went to bed.
Woke up a couple hours after dark to a bright flash of lightning directly overhead, and soon was in a nice, windy, thunderstorm. Discovered that my trusty old bivy isn't really waterproof anymore, but didn't get too wet. Anyways, the storm quickly rolled through, I opened the solid door (generally sleep with just the bug door shut to get some ventilation) and went back to sleep. Sometime around 1am, I was rudely awakened by a jet of water spraying my feet, then my legs, then after a brief moment of realization, right in the face. Turned out there were some sprinklers in this park! Quickly pulled the solid door shut, waited until the sprinkler made another pass, then jumped out of bed, grabbed the bivy, got nailed by another sprinkler, then ran James Bond style, dodging sprinklers, across the park in my boxers and dragging the bivy to get to a patch of grass that wasn't being sprayed. It was quite rediculous, and a little frustrating, but in hindsight pretty funny. Anyways, dropped off the bivy, then made another pass to get the bike out of the spray. Went back to sleep for another hour or so, then had another T-Storm roll through. Not as bad as the last one, but it packed a fair bit of lightning and did add to the moisture content of my environment a bit. Was getting a little frustrated at this point, but managed to get back to sleep shortly after battening down. Then, sometime after 3, another salvo of sprinklers went off - turns out that there were actually several different systems running in that park - surely designed by some sort of evil genius! Got a little more damp this time than the last one (as all the grass that I had to run through, James Bond style, had been wetted thoroughly by the first sprinklers and the following thunderstorm.) Found a better spot, and slept until the sun came up.
Decided to go to a diner for breakfast - needed some coffee and felt like poptarts weren't the proper way to start the day after such a frustrating night! Found a diner easily enough, then managed to spill my cup of coffee within maybe 25 seconds of getting it. Stupid stupid Ian. Had a nice breakfast burrito, managed to drink a cup of coffee, and got out of dodge!
The ride later in the day ended up being pretty nice for the most part, generally nice quiet roads with a couple decent climbs to keep things interesting. Hit my new speed record for the trip coming down from Big Hole Pass, had nice smooth pavement, a little bit of a tailwind, and a long grade down. Made it up to 54mph. Then, just a little bit past there, I started pedaling again and the chain hopped off the cassette (the cluster of sprockets on the back wheel) and jammed. Not cool. Couldn't figure out what exactly was going on until I pulled the wheel off and discovered that the little lock nut thing that holds the cassette onto the hub had somehow unscrewed itself. Not cool.
*flashback to installation of new cassette last year*
So, this new cassette that I put on the bike is exactly the same model/style as the one I replaced, but for some reason is just a teeny bit narrower than the old one. Not abnormal apparently, when you're replacing parts on an old bike. Found a shim to take up the extra space, but it was a little bigger than ideal, so the lock nut nut thing couldn't catch more than a couple threads. But, that seems stable enough, and it doesn't have to hold back any force, why not?
*return from flashback - hot sun beside rt 298, cussing at bike*
Managed to use my little multi-tool to put the wheel back together, without the too-fat shim, and get back on the road. The bike works without the shim, but the fact that the cassette is loose make shifting pretty nasty. At any rate, I made it to Wisdom, MT without further incident.
The ride from there on to Missoula over the last couple days was pretty uneventful. Did see a forest fire yesterday, watched that and took some pictures for a bit. Had a bunch of traffic coming into Missoula, but it was to be expected - usually happens around bigger towns, and the map had warnings specifically about this one.
Anyways, back in Missoula...
Had a nice afternoon hanging out with Matt (Rubberbandman) and Annie (Haiku) here in Missoula. T took my bike over to a bike shop and got the wheel issue straightened out with a smaller shim. Also got to stop by the Adventure Cycling office and had a quick tour, used their computer to make the last post on here. Matt and I went on a hike up to the top of a hill near town, it was a nice little hike and had some good views from the top. Cooked pizza for dinner back at the house - or rather sat back and watched Matt cook pizza for dinner :) Went over to a neat little ice cream shop here in town for ice cream and a game of Cribbage, then back to the house for some hanging out, more Cribbage, and eventually some computer time!
I'm guessing that this blog isn't going to get updated again for at least a week. Between here and McCall, the route sounds pretty rural, then once I get there it's going to be an evening of prep stuff then river time for a few days!
Will likely be posting more later, but while I've got internet access... Made it to Missoula! Pretty sure this is the farthest north I'll end up on the trip, should be in Idaho tomorrow and hopefully rafting by Saturday. Things have been going alright, although it's been quite hot (mid 90s - low 100s) and I've had a slight mechanical issue. More on that later as it ties in with my sprinkler/thunderstorm misadventure and Clair's jinxing of the bike (cause of mechanical issue) that happened after my last post here. Off to find ice cream!
It's kindof funny - just had to look at my map to remember what town I'm in to put a subject on this post :).
Nice ride today, although quite hot. Moderate traffic, but generally nice roads, not too many climbs except for one nice long one this morning. Had a couple packs of poptarts for breakfast this morning, then stopped in a little restored old town called Nevada City for an awesome breakfast burrito. As I was chatting with the wait staff and waiting for food, my TA from Calc 2 last semester, McCall, walked in for breakfast. Turns out she works up there during summers waiting tables and fly fishing. Small world!
Not too much else to report really. Still on track to get to Missoula on Monday and on track to go on the rafting trip in a week or so! Looking forward to both of those things.
It's nice to have goals within reach. I'm within days of friends and a big change of scenery (or at least mode of transport ;) .) Definitely something to look forward to rather than just riding to get to another random small town. I've also been looking forward to getting done with the trip and back to Boulder. Things out here are definitely enjoyable, but I do sometimes miss the comforts of home, seeing friends, having a real kitchen, all that good stuff. Looking forward to getting back into the grind of school too. Not so much because it's fun, but more because I want to get it done. That said, this next semester has the potential to be pretty interesting - am lined up to take some neat classes that should be fairly challenging as well.
Alrighty, so this is going to be another completely non-comprehensive, photo-free post for the moment, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on later this evening and at least put up some pictures!
So, made it out of Lander, eventually. That town has a very strong vortex! After the last post, I ended up wrecking my bike while still in town - warped the front rim pretty badly, scratched up the bike a bit (mostly handlebars and saddle,) got some road rash (left knee, elbow, and hip - neither too bad,) and a series of little punctures from the chainring on my right calf. Fun stuff! Moral of the story - don't hold on to moving vehicle while on a loaded bike...
Anyways, I had to wait around all day Sunday and into Monday until the bike shops in town opened up to buy a new front wheel. Fortunately, one of the shops had a suitable wheel, and the other one (where my friend Ben works) had some available space for me to get the bike straightened out! Got everything put back together and re-adjusted, had lunch with Ben, then bought a new helmet (somehow managed to loose mine in town) before finally getting out of town around 2pm.
After Lander, it was a long day of riding with strong headwinds and very few resupply options before the next town. Eventually made it in to Dubois, WY by 10 pm or so, just a little after dark and stopped into the bar to get some food and figure out a place to crash. Found out where the town park was and that there was a fire crew camping there, which was somewhat fortunate as the town park wasn't listed as being a camp site. Probably meant that bikers usually can't stay there, but I figured there wasn't any harm if a lot of people were camping there already :). Found the park, setup, and slept.
Tuesday had a lot of road construction, including 4-5 miles of dirt construction site where there had been road. Cars were being led through by pilot vehicles, and cyclists were being shuttled in the back of pickup trucks. So, long story short, I had to ride in a truck for a part of the coast-to-coast journey. Not too concerned about that though, it's only .1% of the total distance anyways :).
Anyways, I've got 2 minutes left on this round, will see about getting more posted later!
....and back after a short break. Posted some random pictures - time frame on those is roughly from Breckenridge to now. Haven't had a chance to look through them and pick out the best ones, just posted a few that caught my eye :).
So, I'm in Montana now - crossed the border yesterday evening. Spent the last couple days rolling through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. The scenery was pretty neat through both, but the traffic was hellacious and I was pretty glad to be getting away from that today. Lots and lots of vehicles in general, and a very significant portion were RVs or huge trailers. Plenty horrible driving to go along with the heavy traffic too, and it wasn't usually people being put into bad situations by other traffic. Bad drivers, plain and simple. I don't like RVs.
Did get to see some neat stuff though! The Tetons were very scenic, would definitely like to come back at some point and spend some time hiking/climbing around in them. Yellowstone wasn't quite as interesting as I would have anticipated, but the geothermal stuff was pretty cool. Got to see Old Faithful go off twice - rolled in right before it went off, then wandered around for an hour or so and saw it go off again before leaving. Also saw some big wildlife; a couple moose in Grand Teton, and some big elk in a few different places in Yellowstone. No bears, but lots of little rodent type stuff.
Speaking of bears, my first night in the woods in "grizzly country" got off to a funny start. I think some of my stupidity from Lander was left over. Was cooking up some dinner (one of those Lipton side dish things) and first off, without thinking about it, I opened up a big pack of tuna and dumped that in. Wasn't planning on cooking up a bear magnet first thing. So, after feeling a little stupid about that one, I managed to spill my pot of tuna noodles. Brilliant. Didn't loose too much dinner, but that table sure was fragrant by the time I was done with it! Cleaned up things (after eating, of course,) and didn't have any problems by morning.
Montana has been beautiful so far. I've only been riding in the state for ~80 miles (5 yesterday, 75 today,) but it's been nice rolling terrain with lots of stuff to look at in the distance. Service stations and towns have been a bit more frequent than they had been, but it's still much less populated than the eastern part of the country. Looking forward to more riding around here, and getting into Idaho soonish! I'm planning on nailing down a return date and buying a plane ticket when I'm in Idaho - want to see how this rafting trip pans out first. My next big stop should be Missoula, MT where Rubberbandman, a friend from the AT, lives. The Headquarters of Adventure Cycling is also in Missoula, so I'll stop by there and check it out too. With any luck, I'll also have a chance to check out Big Sky Brewing :).
That's all for now!
Well, rather than bumping into the WMI instructor (John, who does indeed live in Lander,) I was standing in line to order some food and my friend Deneen walked over and said hi. What a random small world thing! Turned out Kish and Deneen (an ice couple that I met in McMurdo) happened to be in Lander as well! Some other ice people live here in town, so they were up visiting and climbing. Naturally, a bunch of us stayed out late hanging out at the bar. Good times! I suppose I'll be rolling on towards Dubois, WY later today, but at the moment it's nice to sit around here and visit with some really neat people!
Yay for amazing scenery! Sixty-ish mile day, took it easy and still got into Lander around 1pm. Rolled past some pretty scenery today - mountains in the distance and neat deserty-rocky stuff closer up. There's an interesting mix of very red rock and white rock around here, makes neat contrast between the sky, rocks, and plants. Unfortunately, the library here closes soonish, so I'm not going to get any pictures posted right now.
Slept at Jeffrey City last night - a modern ghost town that formed around a Uranium mine that ended up closing in the early 80s. Kindof a weird place - all the buidings look relatively modern, but nearly all of them are empty. Stopped into a little bar first thing to cool off and get a soda, first thing I saw was a decent size decapitated pig layed out on a table getting dressed up to roast. Unfortunately, they take a good while to cook, so I didn't get to eat any :(. Also didn't quite get a chance to pose with it for a picture because they started wrapping it with foil right as I thought of getting a pic. Oh well.
I've been thinking for a couple days that I know someone who lives in Lander, but couldn't think of who it was until this morning - pretty sure one of my instructors from a wilderness medicine course a year ago lives here. Going to find out in a little bit, turns out the WMI/NOLS (organization that ran the course) office is right around the block from the library where I'm typing this. Convenient!
So, nothing much to post, just posting because I can. Made it into Rawlins, WY - 114.6 miles today! Tomorrow probably won't be as long. Staying at a commercial campground tonight - laundry, showers, and internet access!
Made it into Wyoming! Things have been going much better today than yesterday - feel like I'm getting over my case of SARS, but it's still around a little bit. Made it into Saratoga just before 1pm, average speed (not counting breaks - just what my speedometer spit out) was over 17mph, pretty quick all things considered! Although I had been planning on spending the night here, I'll probably head on to Rawlins, WY to make up for the rediculously short (~18 mile) day yesterday. Talked with my friend Clair yesterday from Steamboat Springs and made tentative plans to get to McCall, ID by the 20th, so that puts me on a schedule for the next couple weeks.
The scenery lately has been nice, plenty stuff to look at, but the hills are generally quite gentile and not too long. Most of the area I've been riding through has been pasture land with occasional cows and horses, this morning there were some fields of hay. The mountains are looking less familiar than a week or so ago, definitely in some new territory for me! I'm looking forward to getting up nearer the Tetons and Yellowstone, should be getting around there in a week or so. Not planning on spending much time off-route in those areas as I need to keep moving to make McCall on time, and get done with the trip before school starts, but it'll be nice to at least see the scenery from the road and campsites! Lately, towns have been quite a lot farther apart than most of the rest of the trip - it's often 50+ miles between towns with resupply options - so I've been careful to carry plenty of water and "camel up" in towns. Roads have been mostly very quiet, and since crossing into Wyoming this morning, have had nice shoulders too!
A little more on yesterday:
Woke up at a funky little rental cabin/RV park/camping place feeling pretty low energy and generally unenthused, but still ended up getting on the road reasonably early. A little over an hour into the ride, my chain "sucked" up into the front derailer and jammed, not by itself a huge issue - just backpedaled a little bit and everything sorted itself out. A couple hundred yards later, the chain just came undone and was dragging behind the bike - bad news.
My guess is that the section of chain that got sucked in had the special "master link" in it, and that it got disconnected when the chain jammed. Then, when I started pushing on it again, half of the master link wasn't holding onto anything, the other part bent, and suddenly my bike was non-functinal. Anyways, half the master link was bent and the other half looked fine. I made an attempt at straightening out the bent half of the master link using my little multi-tool thing (which, naturally, doesn't have pliers,) but couldn't get it quite good enough to reconnect. Thought about trying to use my chain tool to just cut out a link and reconnect things to end up with a shorter chain, but decided that was a halfass solution and that I'd need to get a new chain at some point anyways. And, I wasn't feeling particularally motivated, so I just packed everything up, changed into sandals, and started pushing.
A few short hills and coasting sessions later, I was just shy of Walden. Saw the first pickup truck heading my way since the chain broke, so I stuck my thumb out and it stopped! Had seen a couple passing cars, but didn't even try hitching with them as I didn't want to leave my bike beside the road that long. Anyways, the two guys in the truck, Mark and Randall, were heading over to Steamboat Springs for an outing, and convinced me to come along with them to Steamboat, where there are a few bike shops, to get things fixed. About an hour later, we were at a bike shop in Steamboat, I had a new chain (and another master link to repair my old one,) and we made plans to meet up at the truck a few hours later to drive back to the route. Lucky ride!
Spent a few hours relaxing in Steamboat Springs after fixing the bike, ate some food, and picked up some random other bike goodies (a tube and a new bottle of lubricant.) I was feeling pretty sick with this case of Dengue Fever most of the day, at one point I was standing in line to get a bagel (yay! first fresh bagel of the trip!) and started feeling really weak and had to sit down for a couple minutes. Not fun, but after that passed, the lunch was excellent!
When we got back to Walden, I met some other bike tourists who were heading the other way, we wound up camping together at the city park and having a good time visiting over dinner. One guy had a little PDA with Wireless capability, so I used that to post the last update here, neat little machines! Got some reading in before going to bed early (no fireworks to be seen in Walden) to try and kick this case of Bird Flu that I've been trying to get over for a few days.
I've been reading a very interesting (although somewhat geeky) book lately on modern physics, by Brian Green and is called "Fabric of the Cosmos." In mostly plain english (very little math,) it goes over how physicists understand the universe from standpoints of Newtonian Physics, General and Special Relativity, and Quantum Physics, and on to how the views all tie together, how time fits into the picture, a bit on entropy, and some other neat stuff. Very well written book, and it has definitely helped me tie together a few different concepts that I "knew" but didn't really "understand," and plenty of interesting theoretical stuff as well.
Anyways, my time here at the library here is about up, and a little thunderstorm has come and gone, so it seems like a good time to hit the road and roll to Rawlins!
Super quick update as I'm typing from a PDA and the battery is going out. Short day today- been kindof sick for the last couple days and I broke my chain 20 miles into the ride. Mnaged to hitch (w/ bike) into and out of Steamboat Springs (~65 miles) no problem and got a new chain there. Have been feeling pretty lousy -thougt it was just allergies, but I've been very low energy and got petty faint around lunchtime. Feeling better for the moment, so I'm oping it'll go away. Wyoming tomorrow!? Batteries dying...
So, naturally after my longest break to date on the trip, I've left updating the blog to the very last minute :). Got into Breckenridge Thursday afternoon and spent a few hours eating, drinking, running some errands with Chris, making an alcohol stove, and then eating some more before Max rolled in to pick me up and drive me down to Boulder! Had a really fun, busy, and even somewhat productive stay in Boulder between Thursday night and now (Monday morning.)
Spent Thursday night hanging out with my friend Isis, who was celebrating her birthday, and a bunch of other friends from the house and elsewhere around Boulder! Had a good time, but it was the first night of several that would go far later than my usual 8pm bedtime lately... Friday included errands and more visiting with people. Picked up a new bike pump (mine's a pain with road tires) and a new chain because the old one is wearing out, also went up to campus to deal with some more financial aid crap. I can't get away from those people. After all that, went out with Max, Ela, Ana, Alex, Isis, and a few other people to hang out on Pearl St - stayed up too late again. Saturday was mostly spent on Boulder Creek tubing. At one point, we had something like 16 - 18 tubers linked together in a long chain going down the rapids. After enough tubing to leave most of us bordering on hypothermia, we dried out and cooked out again, then stayed up too late. Sunday had some more errands, a visit with the family up in Longmont, and a pool party at Matt and Tina's house in south Boulder that turned into an Ultimate game, then more pool party. Somehow managed to get home and to bed at a relatively reasonable hour.
So, today I'm kindof tired, but will be getting back up to Breckenridge and continuing on with the bike ride. Things fell into place nicely to get a ride up to Breck with Roslynn, aka Skirt, an AT person who recently moved to Boulder, so we should be taking off within the next hour or so. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a few hours of riding in before the day is over!
Typing this from a library in Florence, CO - not sure if I'll end up staying here tonight, or pushing on to Canon (pronounced Canyon) City. Depends on weather and a bit of motivation :). The weather is looking a little bit iffy, think it might rain a bit tonight, and so far the ride today has been a bit draining. It's been rather hot, and the road surface has been chipseal, which sucks energy. Earlier today, I was having to pedal even on gradual downhills with a tailwind... Did happen to stop in Wetmore, CO to get some water and got invited to join in with a town potluck lunch! We had a good time chatting with some of the local folks, and had our pictures taken for the local paper! Nice lunch, and a good break from the heat!
Monday, we got an early start and ended up rolling into Pueblo around 3pm, pretty good time for a 90 mile day! The roads were slightly more hilly than previous days, but nothing that would count as "hilly" really. More elevation change than Kansas, but that's about it :). Stopped by a bike shop to pick up some random stuff, and went to get food and beer! Had a big hamburger then went across the street to a neat little brewpub for a few beers before rolling over to the park. Had a really nice sunset, and it was the first night in a while that we could see mountains on the horizon!
Sunday morning, I crossed the border into Colorado! Been looking forward to that state line for quite a while. In the first town west of the CO border, Eads, I caught up with a couple westbound transam bikers and had lunch with them. Two were staying, but the third, Chris, was planning on heading on, so we headed on to a town park in
On Saturday, I ended up making it to Tribune, a neat little town a few miles from the border with Colorado. The park had a nice pool facility, and the lifeguard was kind enough to leave it open for me to get a shower and have plenty running water!
Hello from Scott City! Just rolling along through Kansas farmland, gradually gaining elevation along the way (I'm at ~3000' now.) Thinking about elevation this morning made me think about what next week will have to offer. If things go as planned, I'll be riding up and over Hoosier Pass (~11,500',) but probably won't be too acclimated yet by the time I get there. Suppose that's what granny gears are for :). The climate has gotten a fair bit drier, which makes me happy. Suppose I haven't mentioned it here, but most of Kansas up until the last couple day has been rather humid. Just checked the weather (main reason I popped into the library) and I've got an easterly wind forecast for the evening rather than the mostly northern wind from this morning - a good thing for me as I won't have to pedal so hard!
Nothing much to report since the last update, the scenery has gotten slightly flatter and has less trees - it's pretty much what I had imagined Kansas would look like now. From here on until Pueblo, CO, the route follows the same road (US 96)nearly due west, so that'll make things super easy! Planning on riding something like 100 miles today to end up near the Colorado border. Hopefully, there will be some other westbound cyclists in town tonight, met a couple on a tandem bike heading east this morning and they mentioned they had crossed paths with a few bikers that were planning on staying in the same place as me tonight, so that's cool. The rockies are getting closer!
Quick post (unfortunately without pictures..) from Larned, KS. Ended up taking a zero day in Newton with Liz and Heidi - had an excellent time being lazy and running errands around town!
Did some maths and figured out that I should be able to average just a hair over 50 miles per day from here on out, and take ~10 more zero days, to make it to Oregon with time to get back to Colorado and school. That was a bit of a relief, especially considering that I've only taken 4 zero days so far (counting Newton,) and that I've been averaging over 60 miles per day overall. So, hopefully that means a weekend in Boulder, some time off the saddle in Idaho, and who knows what other adventures! Kansas has gotten really flat over the last 100 miles or so since Newton, and it has been windy! Fortunately, the winds have been out of the South (and I'm heading West,) so although they're kindof frustrating and do make riding tougher, it's nowhere near as bad as a direct headwind.
Scenery has been fairly dull really, not as bleak as I had imagined, but it's just a continuum of farm scenes, occasional oil well heads, dirt crossroads, and more farm scenes. Traffic hasn't been too bad, for much of yesterday, I was able to just take up a whole lane and do my own thing. Today there have been more trucks, so I've been riding the white line most of the morning.
Had a fun little adventure just south of the Quivra Salt Marshes (basically in the middle of nowhere) yesterday. A 10-15 foot chunk of road had been washed out in recent storms. Rather than following the recommended detour that would add 15 or so miles to my trip, I rode around a bunch of barriers and crossed the abyss. Slight exaggeration, maybe. Although the road was definitely collapsed for a section, and definitely had water in the middle, that was likely full of chunks of asphalt and sharp metal (from the culvert pipes that had gotten a little mangled,) it wasn't too hard to cross because someone had placed a nice stout plank between the two piles of rubble on either end. All I did was change into sandals, then shuttle my gear over in a few trips. Took the bags off my bike to make the bike easier to ferry across, and maybe 10 minutes later, everything was back together on the other side of the gap, where I had a nice little lunch break.
Had an excellent stay in Hudson, KS last night with the mayor, Harold, and his wife Sally. Long story, but basically I was anticipating just camping in a very small park (it's a town of ~120) under the stars, but ended up getting treated to a nice dinner of home cooked ribs, green beans, mashed potatoes, homemade bread (baked with flour from the local mill,) and homemade ice cream! Sally unlocked the town's community hall, so I ended up sleeping in a nice air conditioned building with bathrooms and a small kitchen - what a nice surprise! Got out of town around 8:15 this morning, and am about to grab a quick lunch in Larned before heading on West!
Should be crossing the border into Colorado the day after tomorrow if things continue as they have been, really looking forward to being back in Colorado, and especially seeing the Rockies!
Think I'll end up taking the entire day off riding today, but for now I'm going to proceed as if I'm leaving and try to ge a quick blog update done now :)
So, made it into Newton yesterday afternoon around 4:30 and managed to quickly find Liz, who I had heard about from way back in Virginia. Liz and Heidi rode coast to coast last year and are very generous in offering housing and a local contact for transam riders, I ended up hanging out with them all evening and staying at their house last night. Very nice ladies, fun comparing notes on the route and hanging out! Will likely end up staying again tonight to give me a day to rest, take care of town chores, and do a lot of stuff on the internet, like type this up!
Tuesday started out at a state park on Torono Lake, KS. Got a bit of a late start, but fortunately had a light tailwind all day. It was about a hundred mile ride to get to Newton, but with the tailwind, I was riding between 20 and 25+ when I was on the bike without pushing hard, and managed to arrive fairly early in the evening. Nice riding with some minor hills, and generally good road surfaces except for the last 15 or so miles into Newton. Weather started out kindof iffy, but by the end of the day was hot and sunny.
Monday, after writing that last update, I discovered that I had a flat tire on the bike. Turned out to be a little bit of glass that had worked its way through the 'tread' and kevlar to put a little hole in the innertube. The tire is getting noticably worn down, I figure it's got a fair bit of milage left on it, but I'm thinking I might go ahead and swap it out with the new tire that Continental is sending me to replace the defective one when I pop into Boulder in a week and a half or so. Patched the hole with one of the little no-glue patches I've been carrying. Unsurprisingly, it didn't hold up too well, so a few hours later, I had to swap the badly patched tube out with my last spare tube. Unfortunately, it'll be a while until I get to a bike shop, so I'm hoping to find a store somewhere that happens to sell bike innertubes before then. Should be able to get things patched up and keep going if that plan fails, or worst case I can go off route a bit to get to a bike shop. While fixing the flat, noticed that one of my spokes had wiggled loose, so tightened that back up and continued on west!
Arrived at Toronto Lake and met Tzuo, an eastbound biker who's trying to travel all the way around the world. Had some neat conversation over dinner, then as it got dark a really intense thunderstorm started up a few miles west of us. Fortunately, the rest of the sky was clear, so I ended up sitting out late watching the lightening. Nice night!
At this point, I'm hoping to get to Breckenridge, CO sometime around the Friday after next. From Breck, I'll likely get a ride into Boulder for a day or two off the bike and to take care of random things before next semester gets rolling. I'm really looking forward to getting to the rockies, especially into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho where I have never been before. Will likely keep up a pace of around 60 miles per day (just slighly less than my overall average so far,) from Breck up until Idaho, where I may end up taking several days off for a little rafting trip. At any rate, I'm still on track to get to the Pacific a little before the middle of August - right in time to get back to school work...
This is going to be a short post as I'm borrowing an office computer in the (very) small town of Walnut, Kansas, and the keyboard I'm using has seen better days.
Anyways, the ride has continued to go pretty well, been making good time and having fun. As of today, I have a better answer to the "what do you do when it rains?" question - used to be "Suppose I'll just keep on riding or take a break in town," but now it's "just keep on riding and hammer out a quick blog update." It's been drizzly today, and looks like it'll be about the same for the rest of the day. Slightly windy, but the wind is out of the South mostly, so it's a sidewind that doesn't really slow things down as much as it requires more concentration to stay on the road.
In generaly, Missouri was a hilly state, but the hills were generally short enough that you could use momentum to push halfway up them. The last day in Missouri flattened out considerably, and Kansas is continuing that trend. Probably by tomorrow or the next day it'll be really flat. I'm hoping to push through Kansas pretty fast to make up time for some days off in the Rockies to visit with people and check out the parks.
For the better part of the last week, I've been riding with three other guys; Dan, Brian, and Rob. We split up yesterday when they took a detour to see Springfield, MO, but there's a good chance we'll meet up again soon. They're cool guys, it's been a nice break from an otherwise fairly solitary trip.
The funny town names have continued - First I slept in Houston, MO then last night was Pittsburg, KS. Tonight, I'm probably going to stay in Toronto, KS...
Will get more updates in at some point in the future, along with pictures, but now it's time to zoom.
Crossed the Mississippi on ground level for the first time ever the other day, on a bridge by bike! Don't have much time to type right now, but just wanted to let people know I'm in Houston, Texas (county,) MO. Staying with some amazing hosts tonight, so might get more online time later, for now we're going to cool off, relax, eat, and relax some more!
DONE WITH KENTUCKY!
Crossed into the third state of the bike trip yesterday morning, woohooo! Lots of things to write about, but not a lot of time to write, so I'll try and cover most of it:
Today:
Woke up at the state park and rode ~5 miles into Carbondale. Spent the better part of an hour hunting down a waffle (it really shouldn't be that hard!) and eventually located one at the Corner Cafe. Went over to Phoenix Cycles, one of the three bike shops in town, and killed an hour and a half or so waiting around to eventually get to dig through a parts bin in hopes of finding an old rear hub that's the same as mine. Didn't find one, but was finally able to pick up a can of dog spice (pepper spray - not the official name of the product,) a couple new spare tubes, and some grip tape that I'm going to wrap over the exsisting tape to make my handlebars cushier. Went across the street to Carbondale Cycles (think that's the name of the place) and within minutes they had a brand new axle assembly including new cones for my hub - exactly what I needed and with labor included, it should only end up costing $25 or so! Yay for awesome bike shops! Strolled over to the library to do some updating, and here I am! Just got an email from Continental about my tire that's somewhat coming apart (not sure if I mentioned that here - not a big deal really) and it sounds like they'll be glad to replace it, so going to take care of that as well hopefully.
Yesterday:
Woke up in the Baptist Church in Sebree, KY, packed up, and went out for breakfast with Aaron and JJ. Decided to take the shortcut that we had discussed the night before, figured I'd like to get done with this trip in a reasonable amount of time to get set for school, and it's supposed to be flatter than the main route :). Got off to a moderately late start, 9:30 or 10, then rolled across some gentle terrain on to a gas station just shy of the Ohio river for lunch. Had some fun conversation with the guys working there, then headed on west! The bridge over the Ohio was a little bit sketchy, but fortunately there is a long stretch of road visible from the base of the bridge, so I was able to wait until there was a gap in traffic and zoom across pretty quickly to arrive in Illinois! The terrain on the Illinois side is very flat, and the roads have wide margins for the most part, so I ended up just tucking in and riding all the way to a state park just shy of Carbondale, IL. About 98 miles of riding, but considering the shortcut, I covered something like 140 miles of the offical route in one day. Met a motorcycle tourer, Bryant, from Texas and ended up chatting about travel stuff for a good while before bed. Nice day!
During the day, I noticed that there was a ticking sound coming from the back wheel on my bike - pretty sure it's one of the bearings in the rear hub. Long story, but I had checked it out before the trip and noticed it was getting a little worn, but wasn't able to do anything about it because of limited time and it being an old hub. I can't just replace the hub with a new one very easily as it would require converting the bike to a 9 (27) speed - quite a lot of new parts involved in that. Hoping to track down a solution in Carbondale, where there are a few bike shops - first ones in ages!
The day before yesterday:
It's hard to tell when this day really started, but we'll say it started when I woke up after finally getting an hour or so of sleep - say 7am. Groggy, not too happy, kindof hungry, and very tired. Packed up, thought about letting the air of a few people's tires, thought better of that, then headed out of the campground. Stopped at a gas station for breakfast after a couple miles - typical bacon, eggs, and gravy type breakfast. Gradually, the riding day got better and better; good weather, cool people, not too many bad drivers, and by the end of the day (~70 miles,) wonderful accomodations! There's a large baptist church in Sebree, KY that's been hosting bikers for a while now, and I managed to stay there as well! Violet, wife of preacher Bob, took me in along with JJ and Aaron, two eastbound riders. We got to shower, Violet did our laundry, we had a large space to spread out and relax, and to top it off Violet made us an excellent dinner! Good night, a very nice way to recover from the craziness of last night. Had a chance to talk with the eastbounders for a good while and got many tips about places to stay, alternate route bits, all that good stuff. Think that tomorrow I'll spend pretty much the entire day off route, but will cut off a solid 40 miles of riding by taking a more direct route to Carbondale!
The day before the day before yesterday:
Shorter day today, don't remember the milage off the top of my head, but I think it was about 60 total. Gradual rolling hills most of the day, with a heavy thunderstorm in the early afternoon. Fortunately, it was one of those very well defined thunderstorms that you can see the edge of, so I pulled into a gas station for lunch a few minutes before the sky let loose. The storm was intense, but very short, so by the time I was done eating, it had turned into a mild sporadic drizzle. Talked with some old time farmers for a while, then took off for the campground at Falls of Rough. Got there soon after leaving the gas station and reserved a campsite in what I thought was a quiet corner of the campground. Setup camp and took a nap before making dinner, then trying to go to sleep. Some local guys (~8-10 people) setup camp right next door and commenced with drinking, general roudiness, etc until sunup. Not a fun night. There was everything from friendly, but annoying, drunk people, loud talking, arguments, crying, fighting, breaking glass, more yelling, loud cars, bright lights, more annoying people, someone spraining their ankle (I got out of bed and checked it out - figured it would be good for someone with a little less alcohol in their system to see what was up - it was no biggie and they decided not to do anything about it,) blablabla. At any rate, I didn't sleep at all until a little break between 6 and 7am or something along those lines. Should've called the police early on, but honestly I kept assuming someone else already had, and I didn't have cell reception to make the call either way. Oh well.
Just a quick checkin from a conveniently located and air conditioned library in New Haven, KY. It's hot out, some guy at the park in Springfield, KY where I slept last night said it's supposed to get to 95 today so I started pretty early. Also rather windy, and the wind is out of the South or Southwest, incidentally the direction I'm headed most of the day. Not fun weather.
Was on the road by 7ish, picked up some groceries, breakfast, and visited an ATM before heading out of Springfield. The scenery has been nice and, although my legs are feeling something like jello, the hills haven't been too bad. Now it's 11am and I've only got another 15 or so miles to go today. Unfortunately, I'm coming up to a stretch where there aren't many camping options listed, so I'll have to quit fairly early today (although still covering 60-something miles of the route) to avoid having to do a super long day in the hot weather.
Took a 'shortcut' this morning - after Springfield, the official route makes a large semicircle to get over to Bardstown, I took state road 150, which is a much more direct line between the two. Heard it shaves off 8 miles or so, although I forgot to check that. First couple miles were very nice with wide shoulders and light traffic, then after that I started very much regretting that idea. Lots of truck traffic had me pulling off the road every few hundred yards, and as usual KY DOT has put those annoying grooves on the edge of the road that let you know when you're about to run off the road. Although I 'can' ride on those things, it's a last resort as they make it hard to control the bike, hard to see, very uncomfortable, and probably increase dental bills by a fair margin. Anyways, made it alive and the rest of the ride has been much more peaceful and quiet. Might get around to taking some pictures today as I only have another hour or so until getting to the destination for the night, we'll see!
