Introduction

First, a warning. The photos in this journal are from pre-digital days. Not only that, the only "scanned" copies I have were saved from the the previous home of this journal, so the quality is questionable at best. I've included them here to provide a taste of the land I was passing through. Clearly I need to visit the area again with my current skills and cameras.

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Thinking back to 1999...
How do you plan a bike trip when you don't know how far you'll feel like traveling each day? I did quite a bit of soul searching for this trip, and settled on the Pacific Northwest. I wanted to take a month-long trip, figured on traveling 50 to 60 miles a day, and somehow came up with a starting location of Spokane, Washington, and an ending location of Crescent City, California. My choice of starting and ending points had a lot to do with the area I wanted to cycle in, but the actual points were strongly influenced by transportation - was there an airport anywhere near there? Spokane and Crescent City both met the airport test, although Crescent City hosted only small commuter planes. My sort-of-planned route was to loop through western Idaho, then pick up the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route across northern Washington, then pick up the Adventure Cycling Pacific Coast route to head south through Washington and Oregon. I hoped that this would take around 4 weeks...

So, the extent of my planning was to get Adventure Cycling maps, get road maps and cycling maps from the Department of Transportation in Washington and Oregon, and set a date. I decided on an August to September timeframe and started keeping an eye on airfares.

Then - I ended up with an unexpected job opportunity, so I quit my job in mid-June. The new job was north of Boston, and my home was south of Boston, making for a pretty awful daily commute. Time to sell my townhouse and look for a new place to live. And of course I still needed to take my bike trip - let's keep priorities straight here! I took close to 6 weeks off between jobs, which left me some time to deal with housing arrangements plus take a 4-week bike trip. The week before I left for my trip was pretty crazy. I put my townhouse on the market, found a new place to buy in North Andover, had a home inspection, applied for a mortgage, gave someone power of attorney to deal with the purchase & sales agreement for my new place, gave someone else power of attorney to deal with offers (and P&S) on my old place, kept my fingers crossed, and left town! It was a whirlwind week!

In the two weeks between when I gave notice and the last day of my job, I purchased my plane tickets, and arranged for a place to stay for the first and last nights of my trip. When I made the reservation for the last night's hotel, I asked if they would be willing to accept and hold a package for me - I needed someplace to stash my bike case! The hotel was willing and able. If they had said no, my next call would have been to a local bike shop. And the one after that would have gone to a Mailboxes, Etc. or some similar place.

I shifted my bike trip to start 6 weeks earlier than I'd originally planned - so I had a late June start. It's time to bike and clear my head of all of these job / house / financial things!

Table of Contents

For now, please use Blogger's list of posts in the sidebar to follow my trip in reverse sequence. I plan to flip this blog on its head so that the posts flow from oldest to newest (like the table of contents in a book), adding a real Table of Contents and a Page by Page sidebar entry, and adding (better) next and previous links at the bottom of each post. I probably won't be able to make these changes for the next several weeks. ...Denise, January 16, 2009

Home... looking back

Home again, and a culture shock - as expected. It's time to start my new job, and it's time to move to my new condo. A side effect of moving to a new area is a chance to learn some new biking routes close to home, and to take some more "mystery rides". I'll use that to keep me busy and biking until I plan my next adventure.
When I checked in for my flight I was told that there was a chance that the bike wouldn't be on the same plane with me. I was taking a small commuter flight from Crescent City to San Francisco, and the flight was full. The airline staff told me that if the bike case didn't fit that they would send it on a later flight, deliver it to my house, and waive the $75 excess baggage fee. I was almost sorry that the bike and I did end up traveling together since it would have been nice to beat the bike fee - but I was happy to see the bike when I arrived at Logan Airport in Boston!

As I read back over my journal, I see a couple of themes to this trip - hills, rain, and fog - and beautiful scenery. There was definitely a lot of rain and fog, but I'd do the trip again in an instant. I've done my share of riding in the rain before this trip. In fact, last year I did a lot of my training rides in the rain. That was a first for me - it used to be that if it was raining that I wouldn't start out. But when I was getting ready for my Rocky Mountain tour I quickly realized that if I didn't train in the rain I wouldn't get any riding in at all - the sign of a very wet spring! This time my training rides were dry, but my tour was wet.

I also spent more nights in hotels than I'd planned, but again, I don't second guess my decisions on any of those nights. In an ideal world, I would have preferred more nights camping.

Brookings, OR to Crescent City, CA

My last riding day was a relatively short one, Brookings to Crescent City, and a little further south toward the redwoods. Another pretty ride. I ran into major construction on the road south of Crescent City and decided that I didn't want to spend time on the road with lines of cars for what seemed like miles, so I headed back to Crescent City, which was the planned end point of my trip. I did notice an interesting change in the road as I crossed from Oregon to California. Oregon appears to be much more biker-friendly than California. The size and condition of the shoulder changed drastically between the states. I know that Oregon has done alot of work on the coast route, and it is really noticeable.





I arrived a day earlier than planned, which isn't really too bad considering that I didn't know how far I'd be traveling each day. I was able to change my last night hotel reservation and my flight home to a day earlier, so I'll be headed back to New England tomorrow. It's going to be hard to adjust not only to not being on the bike every day, but also to dealing with buying and selling my home and starting a new job.

I checked into the hotel and picked up my bike case from the manager (I had asked when I made the reservation if they would be willing to accept and hold a package for me, and they said yes.) I cleaned the bike, and as usual couldn't get the pedals off. One of these days I'm going to figure that out! So - I found a bike shop in town and wandered over to get some help from the mechanic. I also found a gas station that would accept fuel, since I can't take the remaining fuel on the plane tomorrow. Had a nice dinner, then went for a walk along the beach and out to the lighthouse. There were signs in town showing how far the water came in the 1964 tsunami. This town must have been pretty much wiped out then.



It's time for me to go back to the world where I have to work to support myself - but it's also time to start dreaming of the next bike trip. I wonder where that will be?

Langlois to Brookings

I finally spoke with Cathy. The offer on the condo looks good!

The KOA has a pancake breakfast every morning - 1 huge pancake, sausage, and coffee for $2.25. It's nice to have someone else cook breakfast once in a while.

I'm glad I stopped at the KOA last night. It turns out that Cape Blanco where I was considering staying wouldn't have shortened today any for me. It's 5 miles south of where I stayed, but there is an additional 5 miles out to the tip of the cape.

It was an unbelievable day - bright sunshine all day long. In fact, there were stars out last night when I got up for my at least once a night trip to the bathroom!





It was quite hilly today, as expected. But not as expected - the big hill was after Gold Beach, not before. I met 2 riders from Switzerland before the hills and leapfrogged with them several times. Another rider from Europe caught up with me on a later hill. I had seen him several days earlier at a rest stop - riding with no helmet and very little gear. He scared the shit out of me - snuck up on me, but didn't pass, and was riding close enough to cause both of us to crash if I had to stop unexpectedly. I don't mind drafting if the other rider is a good rider, but I had my doubts about him. I finally pulled out into the driving lane and he pulled up next to me. He was making me nervous because he was swerving and trying to talk. I think he was tired of riding alone. But at that point in the day (60 miles in) I needed my concentration on the road. I stopped to rest at the top of the hill, and he continued on with the couple from Switzerland. I was actually relieved that he didn't stop at the same campground - the first rider I've met who I didn't want to spend the evening with! I would have enjoyed talking with the Swiss couple some more though. They started riding in New York, and are heading for San Francisco.

It was another very windy day. The wind hit at Gold Beach, and I was very happy to be heading south. I had a hard time just standing up when I wasn't riding - I think I could have been pedaling hard and standing still if I'd been headed north. The tailwind gave me a welcome push.

I stopped to watch some windsurfers for a while.

Ended the day at the state park in Brookings. Another tree-covered site, and again in walking distance to the beach. This time the beach was more rocky, with lots of folks climbing on the rocks.

North Bend to Langlois

Well, I did it again - took the scenic route instead of the highway. You'd think that I'd learn. There were major hills and no traffic, but the scenery wasn't too exciting either. I figured out on my trip last year that alot of the scenic routes are in the trees, or that they at least don't give you as scenic a view as you want. Sometimes you have to put up with a little traffic to get the views. If I ever ride the Oregon Coast again I think I'll stick to the highway between North Bend and Bandon. (And by the way the highway is not what I think of as a highway. It's still a 2-lane road!)

I took the scenic route out of Bandon too - but that one was a good choice, running right next to the water with several state parks along the way.

Stopping in North Bend last night was a good idea. It turns out that the two campgrounds that I was aiming for were totally off the route - and for some reason I didn't realize that. I would have ended up riding all the way to Bandon, which would have been a 75 mile day. And I don't think that would have made me too happy.

It was a nice ride today once I finished the monster hills. They were short steep hills, and I find the longer gradual hills easier to deal with. One of these days I'm going to turn into a good hill climber. I'm getting better as I continue to ride, but I'm still a slow climber. Sometimes I think I'm crawling up the hills.

Bandon was a nice little town. I found a bakery/deli, restocked on bagels, and had soup and fresh bread for lunch. Yum. One of my lunch neighbors told me that Bandon is in the sun belt. It's situated in such a way on the coast that it has sun when towns north and south are still in the fog. I considered just hanging out here today but decided to push on so I have a chance of hitting the redwoods too. My destination for tomorrow is somewhat up in the air. Gold Beach is really too close. It may just be a long day. There's a state park in Brookings, which is only 30 miles from Crescent City. I'm thinking maybe I could overshoot Crescent City by 20 to 25 miles, get into Redwoods National Park, then ride back on Tuesday. I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow. Brookings is 65 miles from here, and there's what looks to be a major climb between here and Gold Beach. I would like to get to Brookings though - I'd like to have one more night camping in a beach park.

The campground I'm in tonight - a KOA - is in the middle of no where, but I don't really care since the sun is out, and has been since about noon. And I've got a sunny spot to sit in for a while. Nice, after a gloomy and drizzly start to the day.



Message from Cathy (my real estate agent) - she's waiting for an offer on the condo from another broker. I'll try to reach her once more tonight, then again in the morning. She didn't know what the offer would be when she left the message. I hope it's workable. As much as I've tried not to think about it, the condo sale has been in the back of my mind. It would be great to have it settled.

Florence to North Bend

It was just a transportation day today, heading inland a bit, with dunes between the road and the ocean. It was a relatively low energy day for me, so I decided to stop in North Bend for a hotel and laundromat.

The scenic route from here starts with some serious hills, and I'd rather tackle them in the morning when I'm fresh - not at the end of the day. It looks like rain, too.



The woman at the Chamber of Commerce office in Reedsport said the road south of Bandon is really pretty. So far, the prettiest stretch was between Newport and Florence.