IDAHO!

Day: 6
Location: Baker City, OR - The Snake River Border of ID
Miles: 87
Total: 597


After a late start (the shop opened at ten), I made my way toward Hell's Canyon after ditching my p.o.s. Blackburn frame pump and picking up a Park Tools one instead. Oregon must have really liked me because it made every god damned effort to keep me in as it pounded me with head winds. Nevertheless, as I made my way down the snaking road to the Idaho border, the riding conditions turned in my favor. I managed 87 miles today which I'm pretty stoked about considering I lost and hour to a time zone change at the state line on top the time wasted I wasted in Baker City. So far, what I have seen of Idaho is completely Barren. There was nothing on the way here. The only cool part is that it is totally kosher to just camp in the road's shoulder. The are a bunch of RV's set up this way with tents too. I figured I'd do it too and set up my tent on an exposed cliff over looking the Snake River. Bad move, because as soon as I set up my tent, a storm rolled in and began throwing my horribly exposed tent around. I managed to get the situation under control by weighing down my tent with a few rocks, and slept the night away waking up to every car (did I mention that there's nobody here? maybe 5 cars drove by that entire night...) that drove by feet from my tent.

 

Tuesday May 24 2011

Stuck in Baker City!
 
Day: 5
Location: Mount Vernon, OR - Baker City, OR
Miles: 93.5
Total:510

After a pretty uneventful day passing by the Elkhorn Mountains, I found myself in Baker City around 90 miles. I stopped at the local sports shop, Flagstaff Sports, to pick up some leg warmers, the one piece of clothing I forgot on my trip. Afterwards I head over to the Chinese place in town and have order up what turned out to be a rather uninspired dish. Its all good though because the portion is large and hits the spot. On the way out I snagged a few extra fortune cookies, two of which where identical and read something along the lines of "today is your lucky day, You'll remember it." Boy where they spot on! As I set out of the restaurant, I come to find my rear tire deflated. My first flat of the trip, fantastic. That's okay because I came prepared; I whip out my frame pump and what do ya' know, it doesn't work. I walk back to the shop, it's closed. I start to head toward the gas station. As I amble around town, I come across some cool bmx kids and we chat for a little. I don't ask for a pump because the station should have an air compressor. The compressor doesn't provide enough pressure to inflate my tire. I'm beginning to worry, and start to ask random people whether or not they happen to have a portable car compressor with them, no dice. Finally I meet a woman who has one in her trunk as I walk toward the interstate truck stop where apparently they have powerful air compressors. Nevertheless, hers only inflates my tires half way to where they need to be. I'm bummed, I only got 90 miles in and I have to wait until the shop opens up the next morning. Where was I gonna spend the night? The terrain outside of town is so barren that I cant hide anywhere and not to mention that everywhere on the parries is fenced off anyway. I try a local church to see if I can get in contact with the parishioner and ask if I can camp on the premises, but he can't be reached. I finally settle on staying in a campground just outside of town, and am feeling pretty bummed about the fact that I paid to sleep the two nights . I'll certainly remember this one you damned fortune cookies! Tonight, I sleep in 'cause the shop don't open till 10.

click it^

 

Monday May 23, 2001

The Big One

Day: 4
Location:  Redmond, OR - Mount Vernon, OR
Miles: 130
Total:440

My Journal entry from today was brief to say the least. After miscalculating my finish point, I spent the last two hours of the day struggling to get another 20 miles under my belt which would all together lead to what would for a while be my biggest day on the trip. Early today, I had tackled two passes. The first comprised of a pleasant climb through a beautiful forest followed by a ridiculously long downhill into a dessert sprinkled with mesas. The second would have been a significantly less enjoyable climb if it hadn't been for the motivational messages, directed at cyclists, that had been spray painted in its shoulder. Little things like this really give you a boost when you've spent so much time alone, and I was delighted to read things like "piece of cake!" every half mile or so.  

Curiously enough, while flying down the first descent, I rode by one of the most bizarre things on my entire ride. There, on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, was a tree that was covered in hundreds of shoes!  

The ride down from the second pass was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the scenery in southern Utah. I spent most of my time getting video there so I don't have many pictures but it was fantastic to zip down through dessert canyons while riding along side a beautiful river.

 Now the reason I had made the extra effort to ride those last 20 miles today was because "The Bike Inn" was listed on my maps in Mt. Vernon, the next town over. I had no idea what to expect there, but boy was it great! When I rolled up the drive way, Cristie, the owner, was gardening and jumped with excitement when she saw me! She explained that I was their first cyclist this year and quickly ushered me into their guest room. I couldn't have been more satisfied with anything else. The modest room was so homey and welcoming! It even had a kitchen and a wall of VHS tapes to watch. I however was beat, and crashed on the futon. The Bike Inn is truly a terrific and special place! Thanks Cristie and Auna! 

Sunday May 22, 2011

 Crossing the Cascades!

Day: 3
Location: Leaburg, OR - Redmond, OR
Miles: 107
Total: 310

 Today marked the day that I tackled my first real set of mountains. I started of the day really well and was at the base of my climb by 11am after finishing an awesome breakfast which also happened to mark my first encounter with biscuits and gravy. Boy do they love their biscuits and gravy out west... Anywho, the climb was slow but satisfying and I altogether quite pleasant as I slowly spun up the Sierra Cascades. The most direct route was snowed over, so I had to instead take an alternate that tacked on an additional 20 or so miles to my route. Along the way I met the first other transamerican cyclist (also an eastbound-er) of my trip at a beautiful waterfall that I stopped to take a look at. After sharing some of my water and food with him I took off once more. Along the way a truck pulled over and out came the owner of Chief's, the restaurant I had eaten at in Coburg, with a smiling face excited that he had run into me. The funny thing about crossing the Cascades is that their summit is literally the boundary between two different worlds. The west side of the range sees about 100 inches of rain annually, while the east sees about 7. It was surreal to be climbing in a frosty mist over snow capped mountains at one point and then to find myself bombing down those same mountains into an arid high dessert only minuets later. On the other side of the range, I pulled into Sisters, a town named after "The Three Sisters" (a series of gorgeous mountains that rule its horizon). At this point I was still feeling good; so, I decided to make today another big day and rode all the way to Redmond where I indulged in a motel.

Lava Flows to the left

The Three Sisters

Saturday May 21, 2011

Culture, Boredom, Beauty 

Day: 2
Location: Monmouth, OR - Leaburg, OR
Miles: 88
Total:  203
 

I hit the road without breakfast at 8:40 this morning. I need to start getting up earlier... I got lucky this morning and happened to be passing through the city of Corvallis as they were having a farmers market/street fair! The atmosphere was so quaint and humble that I spent almost 2 hours there, filming and taking it all in. I'm actually super excited to edit the shots I got here together because I think they'll make a fantastic little sequence. I had brought a yo-yo with me on my trip in the hopes of getting really good at it in my down time, but I haven't had the chance yet. At the fair however there where two kids doing some monstrous yo-yo tricks trying to raise money to go to yo-yo nationals. In fact, there were tons of performers and street musicians that made the event really quite lovely. I felt pretty guilty for spending so much time there but I justified it with the fact that I was traveling and had all summer to be out on the road after all.

The next 40 or so miles were mind numbing. I passed through a the town called Harrisburg where I asked a local kid where the post office was and he responded, "I don't know." I asked, "Library?" and he said, "Maybe." This nasty little interaction left me quite bitter and found me interpreting everyone's actions as hostile. Headwinds and boredom set in and the magnitude of the trip was starting to dawn on me. Things were slow going and I just wasn't feeling it. Beside for the 1 mile I got to draft behind a tractor, I was bumming hard.

Around 4 in the afternoon I had only put about 60 miles under my belt and was debating where or not to ride into Eugene, which was only little bit off route. I stopped in the quaint little town of Coburg just north of the city and had by far the best burger I've ever eaten at Chief's, a local restaurant where the owner had taken a big interest in my trip and chatted me up for a little while. He explained that Eugene was where hippies went to die (an interesting sounding place if you ask me), nevertheless I followed his advice and ended up bypassing the city.

 I couldn't be happier with that decision. As soon as I left Chief's, the sun came out and everything seemed right again. At this point I was slowly approaching the Sierra Cascades which I would be crossing the next day. The ride up the McKenzie River Valley was simply delightful. Gone was the grogginess from earlier in the day, and I felt great pedaling through the wonderful scenery. I rolled in to a small village called Leaburg around mile 88 where I asked an old man who was walking his dog where a good place to set up a tent would be. He said that no one would care if I set up behind the Library, so that's what I did.

Today would be my first experience with just how dynamic my days would become. When you're riding 10-14 hours a day, things change. Almost everyday would turn out to be easily divided into clear cut sections based on my mood, the weather, and geography.

Friday May 20, 2011

First Full Day of Riding  

Day: 1
Location: Bay City, OR - Monmouth, OR
Miles: 115 
Total: 115
 

Last night was far from a good nights sleep. I'm was still a bit nervous about the whole free camping thing and slept with my bear spray and knife next to me. Fear, excitement, and anticipation kept me from any real shut eye but the real problem was the owl who, perched above my tent, began to blabber with his buddy across the gorge.

I got packed and hit the road around 8:40 (a time which retrospectively seems ridiculously late). An important thing to note here is that earlier in the western portion of my trip, my days would start much later as the climate was simply far too cold to facilitate an early start. The blistering heat of Kansas would of course soon change that.

My first official stop of the trip would turn out to be the Tillamook Cheese Factory. For the east coasters reading this, they're sort of like the Land o' Lakes of the west. I had originally had intentions of sending home post cards along the way but that plan, just like my goal of updating this blog from libraries along the way, fell apart. Anywho, I picked up some post cards and a big sample bag of cheese for snacking on along the way and it was good eats for a while coupled with a baguette from Fred Meyers but after 2 hours my tummy just couldn't take it anymore as the unrefrigerated cheese became steadily grosser.

So prior to embarking to Portland I had loaded up my Ipod with audiobooks to keep me company along the way. I began listening to Harry Potter (which I am sad to say I never fully read as a kid) this morning and it kept me entertained until up ahead I saw two touring bikes making their way up the winding road. I was stoked! These where the first people I had seen and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I'd have some riding partners for the rest of my ride. I sprinted up to meet them. As it would turn out, the two where from Alberta and doing a tour down the west coast. Although, I wouldn't be riding with them for very long, it was still neat to have someone to talk to for a while. I even got some great footage of them as we zoomed down a flowy downhill. I'd soon come to realize that the route down the Pacific Coast was packed with cyclists and I broke off of them and began riding with this dude Chris from Toronto until I began heading inland.

As the miles rolled by, I was shocked at how far I was getting. Two days prior I had been charlie horsing like a mad man after a 50 mile jaunt and was really worried as to what that would entail, but today I was flying and I felt great. Considering that I had anticipated to be doing around 80 miles a day, a 115 mile first day was insane! I felt like I could have kept on going until Jersey but restrained myself around 7:00 pm to find a place to camp. I ended up setting up in a field to the side of a pretty busy road after riding through one of the most bizarre things on my trip. All around me was a strange snow like substance falling from the sky, although it wasn't cold and resembled shredded cotton more than anything else. It was crazy! Tonight's campsite was freaking me out more than yesterday's because of its proximity to people and the fact that someone stored a boat trailer right next to where I had set up in the field.  Oh well.

Thursday May 19, 2011

The Oregon Coast

Today started of great with some tofu scramble that Julien threw together and only got better from there. After a final gear shakedown, we made our way out to the coast with Julien's friends, Jeff and Liz, along rt. 26 which was littered with huge empty plots of Forrest due to the local lumber industry. Our first stop was Canon Beach which happens to be the site of one of the scenes from the Goonies (which itself is set in Astoria just north of where we were).

I had intentions of leaving around 2:00 pm today but since everyone was heading south along the coast anyway, I figured I'd just stick with them. Our next stop was Hug Beach. This place was out of this world gorgeous! I got a bit soaked when I went to dip my wheel in the Pacific but it was no big deal because this place was amazing! At low tide, you can walk around a cliff face to a hidden cove where a freshwater waterfall empties into the ocean surrounded by huge and impressive coastal caves. It was, however, high tide so we had to do some delightful bushwhacking to get there. After a crawling through a ton of mangrove-esque undergrowth and scrambling down a steep cliff face, we made it to the most phenomenal cove I could have ever imagined! An immaculate patch of grass that seemed as though it had been meticulously manicured was placed right behind the edge of the waterfall and made for an incredible lounge area. Visually, the freshwater that dropped off its ledge blended into the ocean behind it the most spectacular fashion. What a place! I even considered making it my first campsite, but the day was still too young. So the gang and I moved further southward.

Now just when I thought I had seen the best that the coast had to offer, I was thrown for a loop. We pulled up to a tiny trailhead on the side of the road and started descending towards the ocean. Soon thereafter we broke off on a much overgrown and rarely trodden path, a path that would lead us onto an absolutely phenomenal peninsula who's edges dropped 200 feet vertically into the ocean below. As if the place wasn't majestic enough, it was flanked on either side with 400 ft cliffs. One of which was promptly climbed by Julien. The vast ocean before us sparkled and, in a phenomenon that I found most curious, was completely barren and devoid of ships. 

Our third and final stop together was a bit of a gamble. We stopped at a park called Manhattan Beach, a place unfamiliar to all of us, to check it out. Our first impressions where positive as the park had some of the nicest and best maintained bathrooms I've ever seen at a state park! Although not nearly on the same level of immense beauty that the places we visit prior where on, the deserted beach was a pleasant one who's erosion formed sand forms where a blast to play on. All in all, it was a great place to finish off an amazing day! But now it was business time, and after making my goodbyes, I finally set off.

Photo Cred: Julien Jaborska

Photo Cred: Julien Jaborska

 I rode down the coast for a bit looking for the perfect place to free camp on my first night on the road. It was getting pretty late so I wasn't looking to actually put any good miles down. I was still pretty new to the free camping game and decided to break from my route in hopes that some side roads would be more barren. Later I would come to learn that free camping is one of the easiest things ever and breaking from your route is hardly ever necessary. Nevertheless, I found myself a nice overground forest road heading up a mountain that looked as though it hadn't been used in years. A couple dozen feet in, the road opened up a little to what would have made a perfect campsite, but I stubbornly kept pushing my bike up the steep rocky hill. At this point of the trip I was still really nervous about the possibility of someone stumbling across my campsite during the night and hassling me. I would soon come to realize that its hardly that big of a deal and that, if your marginally savvy about where you set up, no one will even notice you or really care if they do. Nevertheless, my tenacity payed off and the road ended up leading to a small abandoned quarry carved into the middle of a hill. This awesome spot more than satisfied my desire for aesthetic coolness and I deemed it infinitely better than the more reasonable spot at the bottom of the mountain. 

This first night out I had executed exactly as I had planned out my nightly schedule would be. I cooked myself diner, tried to do a little reading, and even felt a little bored. Little did I know that this relaxed schedule would soon be ripped to shreds. 

My trip had started immaculately and in the best manner I could have ever conceived! Julien had been a fabulous host and the last few days had been a blast, especially today. I can't even believe how glorious the scenery out here is, and it hasn't even rained (the regions west of the Sierra Cascades are notorious for their gloomy weather and see about 100 inches of rain per year)! Tomorrow the real riding begins!