Back Jack Do it Again

We're back!!  After some glorious days through the Sonoma and Marin counties we decided to make SF our final destination. We celebrated our last night in Marin with some other bikers we'd been leap-frogging with for the past couple of days.  We had a potluck style feast while battling plagues of raccoons.  Seriously, we looked up at one point during dinner to realize that we were surrounded by roughly 30-40 raccoons.  Precocious little buggers!!  

So we didn't make it all the way to Big Sur, but we took our time and we enjoyed every mile (well almost every mile) In our five weeks and 1600 miles, we've seen about as much coastline as we can handle.  And for me it was time to get home and rest up before returning to work.  Jessie and I have been working on a garden we've built that supplies local SF restaurants (Amyitis Gardens).  While I have been gone, Jessie has been stuck with all of the work.  Not only could she could use my help, the garden is work that I am really ready to return to as well.   I have to admit though,  I was torn between wanting to stay on my bike for eternity and wanting to come home and invest myself in projects again.  This is what they mean when they say that life is too short. So much to see and do!!

We returned to SF on Wednesday October 1st.  So far the slow and steady acclimation back to city life has been both easy and not so easy.  Every morning I still think about packing camp and how many miles I might ride.  But being back in my home with Jessie is a great reminder that I am right where I am supposed to be; at home, saving and planning for the next trip!!! 

Thanks to all of you that followed along and we hope that you still do in the future.  There are hundreds more photos that we'd love to share with all of you plus a video/slide show that we are working on.  Keep posted on this blog for other stories, pictures, video, and our next adventure maybe sometime in 2009.  

Thanks all,

David

Rhythm Section

 As suspected, the Oregon and Northern California coasts don't offer anything really in the way of Internet Cafes.  Rather than do too much to try to catch you all up on the progress of events we've decided to let the pictures do most of the talking.  

Our presence on the coast has given us a nice anticipated sense of rhythm that we had only found in parts before.  The daily rituals of setting up and breaking camp, washing dishes, cooking meals, pushing a simple machine over vast stretches of land and surviving have become seemingly effortless as we move through some tremendous scenery.  There is a pulse to our days that has made each day flow as though they were one.  Being blessed with good weather doesn't hurt either.

That said, we now find ourselves in the cozy confines of our friend Nick's "Gorgeous" place in Mendocino, CA enjoying the vast comforts of a beautiful home in the incredible countryside.  

Once again we are relishing the comforts of modernity, shelter, a home garden, and reunion with a friend; and are glad for the respite.  Not to mention, those thighs really did need a day of rest after all.  

Our talented friend Nick is quite the troubadour.  "Gorgeous" has a band he calls El Paso Chapel and we arrived just in time to back him up tonight at a club in Mendo.  After a quick rehearsal yesterday and again maybe today, Jeremy and I will be his weather-beaten rhythm section.   I am surprised it is not illegal to have this much fun.

It's an adventure Dammit!!

wish us luck!!

more soon, 

David and Jeremy

Flats and Shrugs or (Tacoma to Portland)

It is becoming harder and harder to keep up with the documentation of our trip as we go along.  Since we left Twisp, WA we have encountered so much and words increasingly cease to do justice to those sights.  As we've left the relative desolation and isolation of the farther Northern reaches for the more populated Southerly cities of the Northwest, we've had an increasing amount of amazing stimuli.  (Well mostly amazing.  The greatest proportion of flat tires and other bike trouble began on this leg of the trip as well.  More population,= more towns, more glass, debris, trash, metal, roadkill, you name it.  It all pops tires. ) The following are just a few of the more notable experiences we've had in the past week.  

As we departed Twisp, we again headed out on highway 20 across the North Cascades.  It was a much easier trip from East to West.  If for no other reason than we decided, having nothing left to prove, to hitch a lift to the top of  Rainy Pass and ride the remaining 70 miles downhill back to Rockport.  A nice kid named Bobby gave us a ride in his pickup the 20 or so miles from Twisp to the top.  With that, he saved us about a day of riding.  As it turns out having that extra day proved to be invaluable.  We were able to get to Aunt Liz's house in time for her to show us the Tacoma Museum of Glass.  Liz hosts the artist in residence program there bringing in famous and burgeoning artist from around the world to work in a world class "hot shop".  We got to see it all wrap up on the final day of the summer season.  

After giving us the tour behind the scenes at the Museum, Liz treated us to a fabulous dinner.  Being at Liz's gave us a great opportunity to do some bike maintenance.  Jeremy and I have both shredded a tire and had to replace them.  We've logged 800 miles at this point and little bike issues are beginning to surface.  Nothing serious though.  

On the road to Tacoma and Portland we've slept in some increasingly strange places.  A dock in the middle of a lake and a roadside park to name a couple.  Rural America has fewer campsites than you'd expect but increasingly more food at gas stations and "drive thru espresso". Both of which have given us some essential fuel for the journey.  More logging trucks, less shoulder, and rougher roads have made the journey this leg a little less enjoyable (most notably a scary freakin' bridge across the Columbia at the Oregon border). But the stress of cities and rural logging routes is leaving us increasingly more excited to get to the coast.  

For the Past few days we've enjoyed the hospitality of friends Mason and Karen, and our friend Kevin from Burlington.  The good times here in Portland are many. We're grateful for the pit stop and more time with friends seldom seen.  We're now doing our best to take advantage of the copious resources (and bike shops) of the city before we head out to the coast.  It is likely that our blogs will be fewer and farther in between as we venture there.  Services will be sparse.  Fun will be plenty!

Thanks to all of you that follow along and keep those comments flowing.  It is great to get a little encouragement from all of you and know that people are reading.  

Things are grand for us and it is clear that we are really lucky to be able to do this.  Thanks to everyone who's helped us along the way.  

Cheers, 

David

Some photos (with mustaches)

Mamma Mazama!!!!!

As suspected, access to computers has been slim to none on our journey thus far. Blogging, as you must know by now has been at an unfortunate snails pace. But, then again so have we!! Well, actually, I suppose it is all relative. Considering this is the first tour for either of us, we feel that we're moving at a respectable clip. All in all, we traveled for about 340 miles through BC. and another 170in WA. Despite setbacks like torrential rain, missed ferry rides, long lunches, and overly friendly and talkative locals we made it through Canada to the comfortable confines of my friends Chris and Lexi's house in Eastern Washington in 6 days. In those 6 days we've seen sights too beautiful and vast to do justice to with these words.
We've been blessed most of way by good (yet unseasonably cold) weather giving us sunny vistas of the small seaside farms and towns of BC and intimidating mountains of Washington. We've ridden luxurious ferries between craggy inlets. We have eaten like 18 year old hockey players every day ( I don't know what is cheaper: gas or feeding our own internal combustion engines with the calories required to pedal 90lbs. of gear up mountains). We've seen sunrise and sunset from day to day and we feel great!!!! Impressed with our bodies' ability to adapt to all of the work, I can sense that with each passing day we're getting stronger and faster.
The greatest indication of all this was our ride on Tuesday 9/2/08. We pedaled from the foothills town of Rockport, WA across the North Cascades trail on scenic Highway 20 to Twisp, WA on the other side. This grueling son-of-a-bitch was a 108 mile journey; 70 miles of which were up a 5600 ft. pass!! This day was both our longest and steepest yet. We spent about 10 hours in saddle and the trip took from sunrise to sunset. Luckily, our destination was one of the best and most healing we could have ever asked for.
Chris and Lexi run a medicinal herb farm and have constructed an impressive modern day homestead atop the deeply beautiful hills of the Methow Valley. You can check out their products at www.ancestreeherbals.com.
We arrived at sundown to a delicious meal of their homegrown veggies and local lamb. Truly a special treat. Now, for the last two days we've been here enjoying their warmth and hospitality, as well as getting a taste of the modern homestead/small business reality. We helped to harvest oats and toured the "medicine forest" of common and rare healing herbs and plant medicines. While excited to return to the saddle and the coast, we'll be sad to leave the comforts of friends.

I think we've learned that Bike touring really forces one to enjoy any small pleasure with overwelming enthusiasm. Nothing is taken for granted. And being an unintimidating akward sight on the road, one tends to attract people's inquiry, hospitality and openness (the moustaches don't hurt either). We've also learned that you get so hungry that "even the ass-end of a skunk would taste good" (thanks Mike from Crofton).

Onward to Tacoma to visit my aunt Liz.

Cheers,

David

"famous frances"

Greetings from Powell River, BC-

Dave and I packed up our soaking tent at 5:30 this morning and left our otherwise (for the pouring rain) beautiful, majestic treed campsite and made a 20mile dash for our 8:10 ferry. We arrived at the ticket station just to hear our boat's departing horn (which means it was already pulling out of dock). So we're waiting out the next 4 hours in a cafe until the next big boat leaves for Comox. If the weather stays dry- they're calling for sun- we'll attempt to ride another 50 miles to this evening's campsite.

This is our third day of riding and we've been having a blast. Okay, time is limited but here's a quick recap:

Day 1- we rode out of the city along the seaside bike bath. Despite threats of rain, clouds parted and a beam of sunshine followed us the entire day. We meandered past commercial loading docks, lush green parks, and the most unbelievable glass high-rise buildings. I've never seen so much glass - really impressive. Turning north, we made our way through the bucolic Stanley park- great views of the city skyline, horse-drawn carriages, and totem poles. We crossed an enormous steel bridge out of the park, on to North Vancouver, made a lot of turns, got a bit lost, and ended up on a long stretch of road winding through hills, along the coast. Dave thought it was the San Marin County of BC- big houses, fancy cars; Dave almost t-boned a Rolls-Royce(?). All around, a great ride to our first ferry at Horseshoe Bay. - Oh yeah, I saw my first black squirrel- jet black. I almost ran over him.

Day 2 was a burly day with intermittent rain showers and a lot of hill climbing. We stopped at a roadside grill and put down some disgustingly delicious burgers, fries, rootbeer, and heaping icecream cones. It seems we're burning calories faster than they can be replaced. We ended the day with another ferry ride to Saltery Bay (south of Powell River). By the time we were off the ferry, the rain was coming down, and we had to set camp in unfavorable conditions. Under a dripping tarp we prepared dinner- avocado, tomato sandwiches, two cans of tuna, and a family-sized box of Annie's mac and cheese. It could of been Mom's tuna casserole; Amazing how good everything tastes after a day of riding, even in the rain.
It rained through the night; my tent couldn't handle it. Water seeped in through the bottom seams, forming small puddles on the floor, and the ceiling dripped through the night. Without bothering to change clothes from a sweaty day of riding, we crawled in our sacks and hoped to fall asleep before we noticed how wet we were about to get.

Stay tuned.

And...they're off!!!!

Jeremy and I touched down safely in Vancouver on Monday night brimming with excitement and running on no sleep. After a couple flight delays for Jeremy, he finally landed a full 5 hours after me. While waiting, I got to enjoy various views of the Vancouver airport, sleep a few cat naps, almost finish my book, eat a shitty sandwich, and listen to almost my whole Ipod. Once he touched down we quickly got comfortable with our neighborhood and the Cassandra hotel just outside the city center.

We figured out, as we slurped down bowls of Pho, that neither of us had any idea about Vancouver. We'd spent so much time looking into the U.S. part of the route that we failed to really research the Canadian portion. Vancouver, as it happens, is a truly special and thriving Canadian hot spot and its been a blast to check out the city. I have my sights set to return here after my bank account heals from this trip (if it ever will. B.C. is expensive). Despite a rainy rainy forecast for the duration of our Canadian leg we're pumped none the less to explore British Colombia. Coming here is a reminder of how much for granted we take our friendly neighbors to the north.

Tomorrow we head out for North Vancouver and Roberts Creek provincial park with an 80% chance of rain. Wish us luck!!

cheers,

David

It's a mule.

Fully loaded and ready to go- my dress rehearsal ride through the scenic Champlain valley had me thinking, "damn, my bike is heavy; I'm glad I didn't try to tackle any hills today.".... and that's exactly what we'll be doing a few days into our ride- tackling hills... I mean, the CASCADE MOUNTAINS!!  Even with plenty of room left over in the panniers, I'm seriously thinking of trimming down.  Out with the mountain pie irons, kerosene lantern, texas hold'em set, and terry cloth robe.

Seriously, though.  This mule told me were going to have an incredible journey.  

See you on the western side, Davey.

Packin' Heat!!

Packing the bike in the box wasn't hard..but then again wasn't easy either.  I'm not sure how Jeremy's experience is going to be (seems like he'll have expert help) but mine took me only about two tries before I was comfortable.  It is disconcerting to see the vehicle you'll be relying on for a month on the road in pieces.  Not to mention, knowing how airlines have historically handled things like guitars, doesn't exactly settle the mind either.   After watching a painfully done YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch/v=P2jCN2nVnNY) about how to pack a bike box, I gave it a shot.  Taking your bike to pieces is easy.  Let's hope that putting it all back together again when we get to Vancouver will be close to the same.  

I went through two boxes trying to fit my large frame into the box.  It still is a stretch being that the fitting for the seat post pokes over the top edge of the box by about 1/4 inch. I suppose I'll have to be generous with the bubble tape.  I feel much better after learning that I can jam my panniers and bed-roll in with the bike.  I am sure they will provide needed padding to insure against airline roughing.  Flying with camping gear requires some creativity.  Naturally, I can't end up with any excess baggage when I arrive, so all of my equipment has to ride in disposable containers.   We'll know more come travel day on Monday.  Wish us luck.

Cheers, 

David

Please Join us.......

Join us as Jeremy and I (David) ride our bikes from Vancouver B.C. to Big Sur, CA throughout the month of September 2008.  As we are able, we'll post pictures and stories from our adventures down the Pacific coast.  You can track our whereabouts and relative havoc we are wreaking on our bodies.  In your own way you can enjoy the ride.  

Cheers, 

David