Lindsey and Joe Make A Bike Trip

Far From The End

2009-09-14T10:28:00.001-07:00

The train was going pretty fast, as trains do. This is a picture of the last place we camped. Yes it was about 100 feet from the train tracks.

No more bike for Lindsey.

Lindsey's bike is in the little box. The box was so small we had to take her wheels off and put them in with my bike. I think it took us a solid hour to pack our boxes.

Packing up the bikes. We got lucky, these were the last two boxes.

Our last campsite with views of dolphins, pelicans and offshore oil drilling platforms.

Our last big downhill (I think it was about 2 miles down) before our destination.

Check out that view.

We kicked its butt.

We chose the shortest of three possible routes. This was deemed "The Brave Way" by previous travelers. We didn't figure out why until this hill came into view.

We were on some really beautiful side roads in Southern California. Long rolling hills and a great tail wind. Ideal riding conditions.

Looks like a quilt shop.

Southern California, what a place.

Lindsey gets ready for another day in the sun.

Beginning of the End

2009-09-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

Warming up about the fog.

I think we missed the tremendous, breathtaking beauty everyone warned us about in Big Sur. It was covered in fog.

Big Sur, covered in fog.

Looking back to what we did this day.

Looking at what was left of the day.

Our drinking water chillin' by the sea.

Sardines at the Monterey Aquarium.

Birds at the Monterey Aquarium.

Escaping the beating sun under a picnic table.

Lunch break at a beach shaped like a bean.

Failed attempt at off-roading at Half Moon Bay State Park.

Leaving Berkeley on the Bart. It was odd passing through San Francisco so quickly and not by our own power.

Northern California to San Francisco/Berkeley

2009-08-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

We're currently staying with Louise, a friend of Ariel's, in Berkeley, CA. She's a pretty fantastic host, feeding us and providing laundry and advice for what to see the rest of the trip. After navigating the insane pedestrian and rental bike traffic of the Golden Gate Bridge, finding our way through downtown San Francisco, and getting our fully loaded bicycles onto the BART train yesterday, we spent a down day slowly wandering around Berkeley, exploring bookshops, eating everything in sight and buying a ton of bulk food and produce at the Berkeley Bowl. It was a good down day. Tomorrow morning we leave and continue down the coast to Half Moon Bay and then to Santa Cruz to stay with a friend we met along the way. HUGE salad in my stomach.
HUGE salad and sandwich in Berkeley.

Our first view of San Francisco.
Redwoods near Sausalito they couldn't bear to part with.
Eucalyptus buttons.
Biking along this was exciting.
Our sketchy hammock setup in the tree filled campground. The rain fly turned out to be unnecessary because it was the first campground were we didn't wake up shrouded in mist.
View for lunch.

Eating lunch on a cliff.
What we found at the top of the really steep hill.
We climbed up this, it might not look it, but it was steep. And this was only halfway up...
The coast
Mac n Cheese with farmer's market broccoli.
Flowers that attracted multiple humming birds.
Solar house on Judy's farm. Our second Warm Shower's experience. We pitched our tent next to a windmill between the volunteer fire department, the emus, and the sheep.
View from the top of our tallest climb yet. Unfortunately there were some trees in the way.
One Log House.

Biking over the Eel River after Benbow State Recreation Area.
Biking through Avenue of the Giants. We skipped biking through the drive through tree because it cost $3.00 that we'd rather spend on a campsite.
Produce stand in the middle of Avenue of the Giants. Blackberry Popsicles were delicious.
Goats across the driveway from Sharon's garden.
A kind lady named Sharon stopped her car as we were eating lunch on the side of a road and offered us her yard to camp in. She'd had a good experience with cyclists staying with her before and felt she should offer. We cut our day short and took her up on it and were very glad we did. She and her family were incredibly hospitable and shared the goods of the garden. We pitched our tent right in the middle and woke up among snap peas and beautiful flowers.

Cooking dinner in the garden.

Smelling Sharon's flowers.

Some more pictures.

2009-07-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Lunch on top of a big climb after Gold Coast. Cody and Walker helped us make it up this one.

Not every day was clear. But the ocean is still cool.

Most of the pictures were taken with a clear sky.

It was deemed good luck to add a rock to the stacks. So Cody and I each added a couple rocks.

The early morning fog.

Look at us. First lunch on the road.

So fresh and clean. It only got better.

View over the Colombia River Gorge.

This was on the ferry from Washington to Oregon.

I liked this. I found it in the Olympic National Forest on one of my hikes before the bike trip started.

2009-07-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys, here's some pictures.

There are blackberries everywhere! Walker and Lindsey seem to have an eye for good patches along the road.

They were everywhere!

Big indeed.

Lindsey gets her first flat. I think this is somewhere in California.

The incredible view in Southern Oregon. This was at the bottom of a really chilly descent. I think the hill was a little over 800 feet. It gets really cold coming down into the ocean air.

There are many pictures of Lindsey from behind. You can guess who has the camera in their handlebar bag.

Another incredible view at the top of one of our many climbs. It is always worth it.

The Octopus Tree.

The Cliffs of Insanity! or the Oregon Coastline.

Lindsey at the Tillamook Cheese factory.

You can see what we thought of it.

A fabric store in Wheeler, OR. This was the only thing open on a Sunday when we rolled through.

This was the first Hiker/Biker site we came to in Oregon. The state parks will never turn a biker away, and they have free hot showers. It's pretty incredible. The staff is always really nice.

Another view of the Oregon coast. This was the top of our first 800 foot climb.

We made it to the beach. Holding our bikes up over our heads was the only logical thing to do. It was a hike down, worth it.

Our sleeping spot on the beach.

The view.

Lindsey cooking one of her fantastic rice, chicken and corn combos.

The yard where we stayed in Washington. We were having trouble finding a campsite our second night out and Randy pulled up next to us and offered his yard for free. He had a great lawn next to a nice creek.

Randy's home, and Bandit.

Mmmmm... I love eating.

Bandit protected our food while we slept.

The ferry out of Seattle, WA. I look sick, I wasn't.

Getting ready to leave Kashena's house in Seattle. She gave us a base in the city and was willing to watch our car for the summer in order to make this whole trip possible.

One Week Down

2009-07-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

We've finally made it to a place where we can update. It won't be too long and we can't get pictures up, but we thought we'd say hi and give a quick overview.

Basically, it's been amazing and challenging. We've averaged about 60 miles a day since the first day. Bremerton, WA, the very first town we went through had some huge, steep hills we had to walk up and were somewhat discouraging but since then, every hill gets a little easier and now we're in shape and climbing hills with 800 ft. elevation changes. For most evenings we've been camping in state parks, the occasional RV park and one night in nice guy's backyard by a creek. He just pulled up to us while we were looking for an RV park and offered us his yard for free. We've decided we really love Oregon because their state park system is incredibly bike friendly. First off, they will never turn a cyclist away, even if they're completely booked and they have secluded hiker/biker group sites for $4.00 per person per night and free showers! And the park staffs have all been really friendly.

We've made a few friends along the way, other cyclists heading the same way. The first were a group of three Canadians who made us feel really organized. We saw them about three days in a row. The last three nights we've been on track with a couple of ladies celebrating their 50th years by biking the Oregon coast. Most bikers seem to be planning on ending somewhere around the end of Oregon or San Francisco. We may be alone on the road after that.

The weather was pretty hot in Washington, but now that we've hit Oregon and the coast, it's been foggy and chilly in the mornings and evenings. Overall I think we've been pretty lucky weather wise. For setbacks we've had one flat tire, my derailleurs acted up a little, and we've been chased by at least 4 dogs. Other than that it's working out pretty well.

We'll try to add pictures next time. But just so you know, we're really enjoying ourselves.

To Stillwater Minnesota for Family Wedding

2009-07-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Day 1

We biked to my sister's wedding in Stillwater, MN on May 15th. It was a beautiful weekend for biking and we decided to take it easy after Duluth. The first night our destination was Lake Elmo State Park, about 8 miles outside of Stillwater. The ride was a combination of city roads to the Gateway Trailhead in St. Paul and then county roads to the campground. The Gateway Trail is a great ride, pretty flat, some pretty scenery, and well traveled on nice days.

Joe's bike before starting out.

Final adjustments before leaving

First bathroom break of the day, 30 minutes in.

"Reading" at Lake Elmo Campground.

It took so much less time and energy to bike here than our first day to Duluth. We didn't know how to spend the rest of the day.

The Swimming Area

Pool or Beach or both?

Cooking dinner in the rain.

Dinner - some tasty dried soup.

View after the rain cleared.

Lucky for us, it stopped raining in time to enjoy a nice campfire before bed. Unlucky for Joe, it got colder than expected and he froze in his 30 degree synthetic sleeping bag while I stayed warm and cozy in my 15 degree down mummy bag.

Day 2

Snack break right before town.

What we see when traveling by bike.

Stillwater

Walking to the wedding

We were lucky enough to stay with Spike and Kathy, a friends' parents in a beautiful house right in downtown Stillwater. They kindly opened their home to us for the night. It's the oldest house in Stillwater and Spike, a carpenter and author has renovated and added on. Definitely ranks high on the list of coolest places I've ever slept. Meeting new and hospitable folks was a great experience and got me looking forward to staying with hosts from Warmshowers.org. Thanks again!

Heading Home

The ride home is a slight downhill grade. There's not much more to ask for.

Ride to Duluth - Day 2

2009-05-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

Packing up after our night of camping. In addition to the main bathrooms being closed, the water pumps were also shut off for the season. We had to choose between coffee and oatmeal. It was tough.

It was a fun ride out of the campground, not quite as tough as riding in the night before, whatever.

Weather started to clear up around noon on the second day. It was pretty awesome to see the clouds parting. It really reminded me why I like spending so much time outside. One develops this awareness of the weather you just don't have when you spend your day indoors. Maybe that's partly because of how much more it effects you when you're spending all your time outside. Regardless, it was awesome.

Lunch in a shady grove.

I think were excited about something, or frightened. I can't recall.

Ten miles out of Duluth. Carlton, MN. The next five miles or so of this go along the Northern portion of Jay Cook State Park.

Why no swimming?

Oh wait, that's why.

Jay Cook State Park.

I'm eyeing our bikes. I think this is proof that loaded touring bikes don't make appealing getaway vehicles for thieves. And nobody wanted a pannier full of our dirty clothes.

We made it. Thanks to Eve, Candace and Ricki and family for letting us crash at your house on the North Shore. It was a great stopping point. Thanks to the host guy at the Scenic Cafe for letting us fill our water bottles when all the other pumps were still closed for the season. And thanks to the tail wind we had most of the second day. It was a blast cruising along at 19 miles an our with fully loaded bikes.

Ride to Duluth - Day 1

2009-05-06T17:34:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is. This is the very start of our first bike trip. At this point our bikes were loaded with all the gear it would take for us to be self-reliant, for two days. The goal for the first night was Banning State Park where we would spend our first night, and on to the North Shore by Thursday night. That was the plan.

Although the bikes were heavy, we were ready for a trip. Our only downfall was having our first fully loaded trip with our bikes through downtown.

And look how happy we are ridding into Lake Vadnais. This is about 15 miles into our trip.

A good place for an early morning snack.

After this point we were pretty focused on getting to Banning State Park, not a lot of time for pictures. By the end of the day we had ridden about 120 miles, ~35 miles more than I predicted, and had been on the trail for about 14 hours. It was a long day. The tent worked amazing in the rain and that may have been one of the best nights of sleep I've had.

Practice Rides

2009-04-26T08:07:00.001-07:00

So far this spring we've taken three or four longer practice rides on the weekends. Also, we've managed to get up before the sunrise once or twice for some nice, but short morning rides. The firsone we were lucky enough to see the sun rise over Lake Calhoun.

The weekend rides have mostly been a tour of all the trails the Midtown Green Way can lead to. One Saturday we biked out on the Cedar Lake trail through St. Louis Park and beyond. The spring thaw was still battling for winter's claim over the trail and we had to traverse a number of ice covered patches and portage some mighty rivers of melting snow.

The next weekend we decided to meet up with some friends at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska for the annual Pancake Brunch with fresh maple syrup tapped from their very own trees. Being so excited for pancakes as well as underestimating the time and milage to get there, we forgot to eat a real breakfast before the 2 hour and 20 some mile ride. Those pancakes were the best pancakes I've ever had.

Really, ever.

Post Pancake Bliss

Overall, we learned some important lessons about stopping more frequently for water and snacks. While we didn't take much time to look around the Arboretum, the ride home was much more pleasant.

Stopping for water before catching the Kenilworth trail home.

Note my cool Nickelodeon water bottle. Thank you Axman Surplus Store.

The Stove and Cookset

2009-04-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Trangia 25-8UL/HA

This is the cook set we'll be using on the trip.

It's a simple stove. To light it just fill the fuel canister (top left) with methylated spirits or denatured alcohol, light a match, drop it in, and you're ready to cook. The flame can be adjusted with the simmer ring (bottom).

The stove resting inside the wind guard.

The pots rest inside the wind guard, as pictured here with the tea kettle.

So far we've boiled water and made oatmeal on Joe's front porch. Takes about 8 minutes total. Not bad for a small flame and cheap fuel.

The whole set fits nicely inside the wind guard.

Updates

2009-02-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

So apparently neither Lindsey nor I are any good at updating our blog... hopefully we'll be better about it once we're closer to/on the trip. We'll see.

Lindsey finally got a bike off e-bay. Its a pretty cool Surly Pacer, 50cm. It's Surly's lesser known racing bike, apparently people aren't too big on steel bikes for racing. It seems sweet enough to tour down the West Coast. She had it checked out at Freewheel and it passed for the most part. They built her a new rear wheel with more spokes, you know, load bearing stuff. The guy also helped her fit the bike and shorten the stem. The only bad part is that I have to get a cooler bike now to match the coolness of her bike.

We also ordered our stove online today. It took the two of us a large chunk of the day to figure out how to order the stove, but we finally made it past our internet illiteracy and managed to get the Trangea Stove headed in our direction. I'm excited. We chose a cheap stove with a good reputation, Swedish made. We will take some time to test it out and if it does not fill our needs we'll just get MSRs Dragonfly, but until then... Anyone who is looking for a cheap backpacking stove, check out Trangea. We'll post more once we test it out with some of Lindsey's great cooking.

We got our maps, they are maps.

Lindsey bought her sleeping bag, it's warm. We also had the obligatory trip to REI where we spent enough money to make up for the cost of getting the membership. You should see the sporks we got, they're pretty sweet, and then there are the quick dry towels, headlamps, little bottle things that we'll put little liquids in, and of course the membership to REI.

All around we're in pretty good shape for equipment. We've been trying to knock a few things off our list each month so the financial blow isn't as bad. Now I think we'll wait until the big spring REI sale to finish off our lists.

Winter Riding

2008-12-16T19:42:00.000-08:00

So it began. It really began a couple of weeks ago when it started getting cold, but now its on. It's us versus them. Commuters versus weather. People think I'm crazy for biking in this kind of weather, I think drivers are crazy for going out in this (you don't see bikers backed up all over the city). I should send a thanks out to all the patient drivers out there, I really do appreciate the space and not being hit. I've been able to keep the rubber to the ground so far which is a pleasant accomplishment, although I have good experience crashing on my own so I know how I will react to it.

More bike trip planning is underway. Lindsey and I have been reading other touring bikers' stories since Friday in an attempt to work on the perfect packing list for our trip. The first critical piece of information we learned was about the headwinds on the West Coast, apparently they blow south(ish). Had we stuck to our original plan we would spend most of our trip biking into the wind. Since we opted out of riding through North Dakota for the same reason we decided to change the direction of our trip so we'll be going South to L.A. This took some major trip planning work and also means I will not be attending the wedding. In addition to that, I will also be riding the train from Minneapolis to Seattle alone with two bikes (Sounds like the start of a cool hipster murder mystery). I would like to thank the person at Warm Showers for the information about the wind on the coast.

Unrelated:
I think I discovered the perfect pizza tonight. I leave the crust a little thicker than normal and leave out the red sauce. From there I put on mozzarela, artichokes, red onions, garlic, oregano and goat cheese (and of course salt and olive oil). Delicious, just in case you were wondering what I had for dinner (last night I had a salad).

The Route

2008-12-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

So it looks as though we have our route set in stone. The only question is do we want to stop in Seattle, WA or keep moving on up to Vancouver. Suggestions? As far as accommodations go I'm thinking we'll be mixing it up with camping, staying with people we may know along the way and maybe staying with some people we don't know. We'll be finding these people on Warm Showers, and if anyone knows people along the route, let us know if you think they may be interested in hosting us for a night or two.

This link from Adventure Cycling shows the routes we'll be doing the Pacific Coast route but we'll be starting out of L.A. instead of Imperial Beach, CA.

The Beginning of the Beginning

2008-11-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

As some may already know, Lindsey and I (Joe) are planning a West Coast bicycle tour for next summer. We are going to try to keep this updated with how the trip planning is going for everyone to follow and ultimately try to keep people updated while we are on our trip. We'll track everything here from packing lists to route choices and equipment purchases.

As of right now we both have our panniers and touring racks which we picked up yesterday. We both got the Ortlieb Back-Roller packs which each hold 40L, I believe the racks are Axiom Journey and have a load capacity of 70Kg. We found the packs at the Hub Bike Co-op in Minneapolis for $150.00 and the racks were $34.99, not a bad find.

I've also found the bike I will be touring on, a late 90's Bianchi Brava. This was a find on Craigslist in which I contacted the seller about 20 minutes after the posting and the transaction was made not much later. I had been watching the list for a while and decided I wanted a steel framed bike, as that is my general preference. Its a solid frame and nicer components than what would normally come stock on the Brava.

Lindsey is still looking for her bike of choice, the smaller frames are a little harder to come by. Currently watching for a 49 or 50Cm. steel frame with solid components in order to avoid excessive upgrade work on the bike, although it would be a blast to fix up its just not the greatest way to save money.

I'll post more on the route next time and also try to get some pictures up.