City Planning

Every medium size town seems to have two centers. The first and most obvious is giant and new. It's well engineered for parking and convenience and consists of huge stores like Fred Meyer and Lowes mixed with Taco Time and a few more local franchises. The other being small and often hard to find consists of antique shops, bookstores, and cafes that would look familiar to any SF hipster.

I tend to think of small rural towns in a particular way. It seems that once a town gets over 10,000 it shows (on the surface anyway) a lot of similarities with other like-sized towns not only in its big box stores but in its general hip-ness as well. You could cut four blocks out of Redmond for example and put it in Portland or SF and no one would know the difference. I bet that dastardly fellow The Internet has a hand in this.

Pictures While I've got some Internet

From bottom:
Hula-hoopers at the Eugene Saturday market (just noticed you can't really see them, but trust me, they're there)
The line in front of Voodoo doughnut on saturday morning.
A broad spot in the McKenzie River
Oddly burned trees on the way up Santiam Pass
Crossing the Pacific Crest Trail

Day 3 Numbers

Start: Blue River Reservoir
End: 7 miles East of Sisters, OR
Miles: 70.59
Seat Time: 6 hours 19 minutes
Average Speed: 11.1mph

New speed record of 35.5mph coming down off Santiam pass. Thats probably about as fast as I'll go. Technically the 520 is a more stable bike than the Madone but the bags more than cancel that out. In my head anyway.

Redmond

Enjoying some tea and a muffin at a groovy little coffee shop in Redmond. Putting on tights for the last few miles last night may have been a mistake in the long run. The extra pressure on the theoretically rehabilitated right knee has aggravated the old injury and it's causing a fuss. On the bright side, the weather is clearing up and the chai is fantastic, so, on the whole, a good morning.

Location:NW 12th St,Redmond,United States

Highway campin

About 7 miles East of Sisters I found a charming pair of trees to sleep under, just off the highway. There's an amazing feature that makes this noteworthy. For the first several miles outside town it's farm butted against farm. Solid private property, some even having signs touting video monitoring. I was starting to worry that it would be like that straight to Redmond, 20 miles away. Then the road turns around a little rocky outcrop and the land completely falls away into a wild valley. Aside from the road, there's no sign that people had ever been here. Even the farms were completely hidden after going only a few hundred feet. Neat.

Sisters

Made it to sisters pretty quick after the pass. Two of the group of three caught up to me as I had a snack and stretched my butt and the three of us made good time into sisters. They kept on while I pulled in to find food. I had time to bask in the glory of a half rack of BBQ ribs proffered by a bored but friendly girl in front of the grocery store before the rain that had been looming finally began coming down in earnest. So I'm here enjoying their AC power and their cell reception while I see if the rain passes. Also I found a spoon here. I was excited about that.

It's a funny place, Sisters. Everything here seems to be new but it's all fronted in the style of a wild west town. It's a look that doesn't scale well. These stores are way too big for it. Also there's a llama standing on a tiny hill across the highway.

No Service

There's quite a lot of it out here.

About 10 miles outside of sisters. Fun little detour...

Must say I'm very glad I was diverted from 20 at the beginning. I'm on it now and it's much bigger/busier than 126. Made it over the pass though. Touch of rain. Crossed the pacific crest trail and got to enjoy the descent that I had been earning for the past few hours at 5mph.

Into the mountains

12:26
Starting the first long climb as I approach the passes near mount Washington. I stopped at the ranger station near mckenzie bridge and saw some nice little printouts of photos of unplowed roads and snow banks several feet deep. I can't get through on highway 242. Instead I'm headed north to meet highway 20 and go over a different pass and down into Sisters. Not quite sure how many miles it adds but it is indeed longer. Gotta keep moving so I get over the top with the sun still high. Sisters may be as far as I get today.

Day 2 Numbers

Start: Eugene, OR
End: Blue River Reservoir Campground
Miles: 54.45
Seat Time: 4 hours 47 minutes
Average Speed: 11.3mph

The campground was way out of my way but once I had made the turn off I just went on and I'm glad I did. It was well off the highway and it introduced me to Dan and Nancy, the friendly couple at the next campsite over. Seeing my efficient but unappetizing dinner, they invited me over and fed me BBQ pork, beans and corn. I surely would have survived but it was nice to hang out by their fire and eat a well made hot dinner and talking with them. Their dog, Raleigh, was enormous.

Population

It's surprising how populated rural highways are. I figured I'd be passing small towns, farms and unoccupied land but it seems that at least once a mile there's someone working on a truck or mowing their lawn. Must be a pretty nice quiet life with just the highway and the river going by.

Management

My knees seem determined never to work quite right. I'm not exactly sure what it is about my lifestyle of the last few years that angers them so but they're surely not pleased. I suppose it's just retribution for my rambunctious teen years.

Managing knees, butts and solitude is really the trick it seems. Nothing actually difficult so far. Though I don't get mountains for a little while yet.

PS. It seems like everyone in Oregon smokes.

Eugene

The morning was spent exploring Eugene and picking up some things that the first day revealed would be nice to have. Also getting more food to carry since the next few nights look like they'll be in the woods.

It's a pretty cool place from what I saw. There's a big farmers market going on which seems to be the place to be on Saturday. I don't think I've ever seen a place with more bike lanes. There are bikes everywhere and nearly every street has a bike lane in addition to the dedicated paths all over. Time to figure them all out and find the eastward road again.

Day 1 Numbers

Start: Florence, OR
End: Eugene, OR
Miles: 64.52
Seat Time: 4 hours 50 minutes
Average Speed: 13.3mph
Total Time: ~5 hours 30 minutes

70 mile days don't seem unrealistic since today didn't actually start until well after noon. That is, they're not unrealistic if I don't do stupid things like today and go for 60 miles with minimal breaks on day one. My butt is sore.

Day 1

There was a slight change of plan from the get go this morning after we thought about the drive in to Newport. The road I was to ride out on had a lot of construction on it which made it a pretty unsafe route. Instead, we drove further south to Florence. I didn't know anything about Florence but it's where the TransAmerica trail starts Eastward on highway 126 so I'm on that now. After having ridden 126 today it's hard to say whether it was a lot better than the original plan since there was sometimes road construction and narrow shoulders there too. The weekend traffic made it hard to enjoy the scenic bits. I imagine it lightens up East of I-5.

On the whole just a straight shot on a semi busy state highway from the coast to Eugene. This is the biggest town I'll see on the whole trip and I'd like to take advantage of the last bit of populace I'll encounter for a while but my legs need rest after their first real ride in months. Seems like a neat town though. I found its contingent of drunk college kids and street hippies that made it very much resemble a mini Berkeley.

Phun Physics Phact

If you're driving 60mph past a cyclist going the other direction, how much of your shouted comment can the cyclist understand?

A) "Go You!"
B) "You!"
C) "Y!"
D) "!!!"

It's 'D'. I had a few people attempt to convey things to me from a very fast car and, positive or negative, I didn't even get a syllable. It was invariably reduced to a single indecipherable tone.

Phone Post

Testing out posting from the phone.

Location:8th St,Florence,United States

The Route

Put simply: Newport, OR to Bozeman, MT. 1,082 miles.

It’s more or less a straight shot except for a big jump north to get to a road across the huge national forest land in Idaho. On a map it looks like a silly detour but there just aren’t any roads through there. I have no idea what a realistic pace is going to be but if I can hold to my wild guess goal of 70 miles per day I’ll get to Bozeman around June 12th. It’s nice that that’s a Saturday so nobody gets in trouble at work when they all come out to cheer for me...

Google Map

Setting Out

Here goes. We pulled out this morning around 10 to make the trip to Newport. My parents graciously agreed to take a memorial day vacation in their camper to coincide with my chosen departure town. I chose Newport because it gets me fairly close to the TransAmerica route (I’ll join that route in two or three days) and it’s a nice familiar coastal town with the route inland being totally unfamiliar. I wanted to avoid covering ground I’ve seen a dozen times in a car. It’s all pretty much the same sort of terrain but it’s new roads. There was a slim chance I was going to start riding today. With a really early start and a fast drive I might have gotten 30 or 40 miles in but it wasn’t terribly realistic so I’ll be setting out in the morning.

Due to the wait for the bike it wasn’t until 9 this morning that I was able to take it out fully loaded. Who says I’m asking for trouble by starting an 1,100 mile bike trip with a bike I’ve ridden a total of 800 feet? Seems totally reasonable to me. Aside from that though, just about everything seems great. The load is reasonable, the bike (For some reason I’m constantly tempted to call it “the old dog” despite it being assembled barely 24 hours ago. That and it’s not a dog. I think it has something to do with the color and the way it’s built.) handles it superbly. I went with only rear panniers, thinking I’d just take more than I needed if I had fronts as well. The panniers I got are pretty slick. Everything I think I could want, just have to see about durability. 65 Litres and about 3/4 full, they weigh maybe 40-45 pounds. The bike itself is a little over 28 (4 pounds shy of double the Madone). This won’t be a fast ride.

We’re off I-5 and headed to the coast, unfortunately on the same road I’ll be biking back on so I’m trying not to look around. It’s not a great thought that, if I’m lucky, I’ll be back here crossing I-5 tomorrow night. There are patches of ominous black clouds up there but it’s mostly sunny and that’s enough for me.

Delays

It seemed reasonable to wait out bad weather on the Oregon coast (no sense making day one a wet one) but doing so led to much greater delays. Since I wasn't in a hurry to get out into the rain I wasn't in a hurry to pick up my bike yesterday. Well that was enough time for Classic Cycles to meet another patron my size and when I went in this morning the bike had been sold. A new one is now on it's way from Trek but it won't be ready to go for almost a week (Wednesday). Gregg's has one in stock but now I'd feel guilty having been to Classic half a dozen times then turning around and buying it from another shop.

The panniers are here and packed. I can either swallow my guilt and take off this weekend or cool my heels for another week. If the weather weren't so nasty I'd be dying to be on the road by now. Instead I'm just conflicted and going slowly bonkers.

Melinda Mae

Have you heard of tiny Melinda Mae,
Who ate a monstrous whale?
She thought she could,
She said she would,
So she started in right at the tail.

And everyone said,"You're much too small,"
But that didn't bother Melinda at all,
She took little bites and she chewed very slow,
Just like a little girl should...

...and eighty-nine years later she ate that whale
Because she said she would.