Day Seven: 5/31/08

We're at a diner about 30 miles south of Eureka right now. Unfortunately, there's not any time to write anything substantial. We rode about 80 miles yesterday, with about 3000 feet of climbing. We rode into the Humboldt Redwood Forest State Park in the afternoon and camped under some seriously big trees. Here's some photos of the past few days. More later. We have to get out of here. the headwinds are really nasty today.

Fast Forward to Day 4: 5/28/08

I've learned a lot of things these past few days, many of the lessons gleaned were done so the hard way. A lot of stupid little mistakes, and miscalculations as to my fitness level coming into this ride, and the sheer force of the chilly northern headwinds had me feeling pretty nervous after the second and third days. I was fearful that my calculations had been seriously misplaced and that we, (or I more specifically), wouldn't come close to making it to Seattle, much less to New England and beyond. Today, those fears were somewhat allayed. PeterB and I just came off the road after 70+ miles off rolling terrain, and none the worse for wear. He's still making me look foolish overall, but the time margins separating us have been greatly diminished. More importantly, I'm getting into shape fairly quickly. My legs feel much stronger and my endurance on climbs has greatly increased.

Anyhow, another thing I miscalculated was how sparse WI-FI connectivity would be along the way. In a way, it's not so surprising considering there's not a city along the west coast for San Fran to Seattle; it's basically sleepy hamlets and defunct fishing villages.

We have, however been lucky to have some nice weather the past few days. Yesterday was absolutely spectacular. We left camp in Bodega Bay to sunny skies and serious ocean vistas to our left.

It was pretty much cow county up through there, which is kind of nuts. The cows run free on these cliff sides with incredible views, but they're too dumb to appreciate it.

I guess it's better and parceling the land and developing the entire coast.

Today was overcast the entire day, but it helped to keep us cool on the climbs throughout the day.

The rate at which one cools off when one stops after riding is marked and quick, so we kept the stops brief.


Overall the sheer number of hills and the steepness of some of them are pretty surprising to me. I always had assumed the coast was relatively flat. Obviously, I was wrong. In two days we're tackling the biggest climb so far. I think it will go much better than the major climb on the first day, but still....


By the way, I'm writing this in Mendicino,CA. Don't come here unless you want spend money. EVERYTHING is expensive here....

5/25/08 Day 1: San Fran to Mt. Tamalpais

PeterB got the itch to start moving. In his words, “I'm kinda sick of this neighborhood.” And so it began. Carnival was going on in the Mission today, and the parade route went right in front of his place. The sights of scantily clad women and the sounds of free spirited drums permeated PeterB's home while we double checked and packed everything. We left as soon as the parade was winding down around noon.


PeterB concocted a nice plan whereby we would not ride very far today and use tonight as a kind of test run for all the gear. The campground we selected to stay at was in Mt. State Park, and a mere six or seven miles off the marked route on the map. Once we rode over the Golden Gate Bridge It didn't take very long to figure out why the campground wasn't on the route. We endured a 1500 foot climb in under six miles to get up to the park. For those who are not topographically inclined, that's a steep climb. Walking it would have been a pain, but it's whole other world of pain dragging up 80 pounds of bike and gear with you.



PeterB tackled the climb like a champ. He just hammered away and left me in the dust. The lack of significant training for me this spring was clearly on display today and I hacked away all afternoon. In the end we made it though, which is good because it's a long downhill back to the route in the morning, and we'll only hit one other comparable climb in California. It was a rough opening act, but my heart didn't explode, so I feel like that's a good sign....

It's been a fun 72 hours in San Francisco thus far. This is the first time I've ever been here, and like most people who have visited, I find this town to be great. I'm certainly not illuminating much to most people reading this, but it's fairly arresting how different, (insert any number of adjectives here: liberal, relaxed, stoned, etc.), this area is compared to the places I've lived. Most markedly, the general puritanical aspects of New England were glaring as soon as I walked around here for five minutes. That's not to say that the East Coast, or the Midwest are somehow deficient, but the the moral code of conduct is far less rigid here. Then again, this is nothing new or insightful to most people reading this. I should best leave it at saying that I have finally experienced this new perspective.

I've been pretty busy dealing with a lot of loose ends around here since landed here on Wednesday night. UPS smashed up my bike badly enough to destroy my rear dérailleur and bend the hanger to where I couldn't mount the rear wheel into the dropouts. I took it to a good shop and they fixed the problem, but had to torch the hanger to bend it back into place. I'm going to file a claim with UPS for the cost of the parts and repairs, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

The reassembly of the bike beyond that was relatively painless.

I saw my old friend from Nebraska, Sam, on Friday night and all day Saturday. Sam plays drums in a number of (mostly jazz) bands around here, and he was playing a gig at a small gallery space. PeterB and I went with and drank a lot of beer while a bunch of people packed into an adjacent gallery to look at some terrible diorama "art". While we were at this art event I got a call from Rebekah, a friend from my college days in Vermont, and who I hadn't seen since graduating six years ago. She happened to be right down the street, and came over. I wound up drinking tea and shooting the shit with her at her place for a while, which was great. She's one of the people in my life that lives life mush ore differently than most everyone else I know, and it makes for a refreshing perspective.

I woke up at PeterB's this morning with Sam sleeping on the floor. He was bummed and grumbled all day about how he had "blown it" with some girl the night before. I called the Whaaaambulance for him....

I went to a farmer's market with Rebekah and a friend of her's, and loaded up on food stuffs for the ride. It was a fairly substantial walk, over some steep hill I can't remember the name of. She showed me a few cool places, including the house she was born in, which kind of put the zap on me because I've only seen the house I was born in once, and that was for about 30 seconds.


I've been eating a lot of good food here, which is not hard to say because the food in Minneapolis and Vermont is generally terrible. I'm been eating a ton of Mexican food, and some Asian food thrown in, including a Vietnamese place we went to for lunch today. It was good. Really good.

Carnival in Mission is tomorrow and the parade goes right in front of PeterB's place. I was hoping to start the ride in the morning, but given the chaos that's sure to be abound, we've decided to compromise. We're going to head out over the Golden Gate Bridge in the afternoon and set up camp fairly close to the city in order to make a good test run of the gear and then set out in earnest on Monday morning. We're pretty much completely packed and ready to go. I'm itching to get out on the road and start putting on some serious miles....

Starting From the Wrong Side

I'm drafting this entry while on the flight to San Fransisco, (San Jose to be precise). I'm not a good flier. The first leg of the flight, Hartford to DC, was awful: a tiny shuttle plane with a ton of turbulence. This flight has been much better thus far.

The trip from Nebraska to New England was a blur. While in Nebraska my parents celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. That seemed like a pretty big number to me. Otherwise, I did yard work with my mom, while dad rode around on his lawn mower acting as though it were some kind of chariot. I left my parents' homestead in Lincoln – which, by the way, was experiencing wonderful weather without the usual attendant bugs – around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. The next thing I knew I was watching the sun rise east of Cleveland. I figure I'll be taking in my surroundings on a much more intimate level by the beginning of next week, so the hasty travel was no big loss.

I made it into southern Vermont on Monday afternoon. I stopped by the home of a couple of friends in Marlboro, VT, Megan and Mark, but they weren't home. I wound up heading to Brattleboro, and running into them at the food co-op while I was staring at my feet and hoping the ground would quit feeling as though it was moving. They had me come up to their place, fed me great food, a few beers and gave me their couch to sleep on. I don't remember too much. I know I enjoyed myself and probably said a lot of strange sleep-deprived things to them.

I went up to the booming metropolis of Waterville, Vermont, pop. nil, to drop my belongings off at another friend's, Marshall, home, about 30 miles south the Canadian border. When I had originally bought my plane ticket, I was assuming that Marshall would accompany me to the airport in Hartford and then drive my car back up to his place. That assumption turned out to be erroneous. Marshall had, after finishing his first year of law school, taken his wife and two daughters to the shores of sunny North Carolina on little more than a whim a few days before I go there. I got into his house, stashed my stuff and started trying to figure out ways to get to Hartford the next day (today). Luckilly, Megan was kind enough to take time off from work, and a picnic she had put together for her co-workers, and take me to the airport AND let me stash my car in Southern Vermont until Marshall can pick it up at some later date. So I haven't even ridden a mile on this trip yet and I'm indebted to a couple of friends already. Thanks again Megan, Mark, & Marshall. I'd really be behind the 8-Ball without your help.

While I was at Marshall's last going through a bunch of gear, I finally confirmed a bonehead move I had been suspecting ever since I got to Nebraska. I bought a bike rack that fit on the trunk of my car, and loaded my track bike, (which I am not taking on the ride), and a wheelset onto the rack. The bike had the pair of pedals that I was going to take on the ride mounted on it. When I was leaving Minneapolis, I noticed that the bike was swaying a bit from the wind. I pulled over and also noticed that one of the pedals was rubbing against one of the wheels I also had on the rack. I got my multi-tool, took the pedal in question off, promptly put the pedal and multi-tool on the road, got in my car, and drove off. Stellar. Now I'm out a set of pedals and a multi-tool that I love. Both will be replaced quickly, but it certainly doesn't instill confidence.....

I'm looking forward to landing in San Fran. I've never been there, and have heard nothing but good things about the place. There's a ton to do before we leave, but I'm lookingforward to seeing some old Marlboro College friends and Sam the Ospovat who all live in the bay area now, (although I'm pretty sure Sam is moving to Paris soon. That must be rough). Now I'm going to tap into the whiskey the stewardess placed in front of me.

Rocco "The Dog"

I think maybe Rocco has been getting a little too accustomed with the atmosphere in the Mission.  I found him like this after I came home and he said, "despite all my rage I am still just a doggy in a cage."

I didn't think I would have to cage him for a quick walk with M and A -  sure enough he drank my beers, ate my bmx helmut, ate my morph pump for the tour and gnawed apart a patch kit for the tour.  Still, he crosses his paws like he's some kind of intellectual (and puts on my hat).

They didn't teach him that at the academy.

Holding Pattern

Yesterday was (finally) my last day at work. After a little more than two years writing briefs and prepping trials, it's admittedly a bit hard to come to grips with the idea of not having a job for some time, or even knowing what that job might be. In the end there's obviously some things I'll miss about working at the firm, and there are a number of things I'll miss about working in criminal defense. I was lucky to have been able to work with a good friend of mine, Kevin, at the firm, and I realize the odds of something like that happening again are nil. On the other hand it was becoming increasingly more difficult to see the same six people every work day.

The Minneapolis Wednesday Night CC Club regulars (and a number of not-so-regulars) and I got together this past week, and it turned into a little informal going-away party. A good time was had by most, if not all. Here's a picture of me about ready to give into peer pressure, (while Marty looks with an almost inappropriate gaze into the camera):


I will certainly miss the Wednesday night CC Clubs. They were undoubted the click of the metronome that focused my weeks.

After a long night driving back to Nebraska yesterday, I spent the day unpacking and re-packing -- which is almost becoming a hobby for me -- and squaring away some loans for law school. Fun. Unfortunately I don't have the time to see any friends while I'm here, but the weather's been nice so I'm dedicating my labor to my mom tomorrow as a belated Mother's Day present. I'm not sure when the next I'll see my parents is, so it's obviously nice to spend some time with them.

I'm headed out to Vermont with all of my belongs on Sunday, with an ETA of Monday evening. The drive out East will give me a lot of time to mull over every hypothetical scenario for failure on this bike trip imaginable. So to fight this wall of doubt I will likely soon face, I present to all of us a message of hope, glory, and sweet fighter jets. Ready to get psyched?



P.S. Does anyone know whether or not Tom "Maverick" Cruise was a Scientologist when this movie was shot? I ask because those F-14s look an awful lot like the "spaceships" L. Ron Hubbard wrote about (and illustrated) in his Scientology texts....

This may be one of the best or one of the worst videos ever.

I happen to think this video is great, largely for one reason alone: PeterB used to ride freestyle bikes all the time. I always thought it was cool. I gave it a try from time to time, but I never developed to balance and coordination like he did. Anyhow, I like this video because it's a nice example of how bikes could or would work themselves into a Lynch film.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Updated Map

View Larger Map

This map reflects the likely route from San Fran to Bar Harbor, Maine. I haven't included the route from Maine to NYC, largely because I don't know what that route is. We'll push toward Gotham if time permits, but at this point I'm operating under the assumption that it won't.

Bad Pictures of a Half-Assembled Bike

I tried to avoid posting the few pictures that have been taken of my bike. I don't own camera, (PeterB will be bringing his on the trip), but I rattled a few off about a month ago on a friend's while I was taking shots of stuff to sell on eBay. As you'll see, the pictures aren't very good. The bike is is in a state of mid-assembly, and the pics aren't action shots like PeterB's photos. But my brother's marked enthusiasm for pictures of bikes has been noted, so I'll finally post what I have:



This is my Surly Long Haul Trucker. As the name implies in an overtly hip way, it's built around a touring frame. Unlike PeterB, I opted to build it largely from scratch. The frame is manufactured so that the smaller sizes accept 26"(MTB) wheels, and the larger sizes take 700c (traditional road) wheels. Mine happens to be a 54cm which makes it the biggest frame size to have the 26" wheels. This makes the bike look a little funny at first glance and means that PeterB and I will have to keep different cadences from each other in order to maintain the same speed out on the road. (His bike takes the larger 700c wheels which affects his gearing relative to mine - it's really not worth delving into.)

I opted for Surly front and rear racks, which are heavier than other options, but I like having a platform to store gear on both the front and rear rack. I also went with antiquated frictionless downtube shifters a la 1975. I want to focus more on simplicity and durability at the expense of any perceived benefits of newer, more complex technology. I'm the kind of guy wh0 would go crazy if the indexing got knocked out of whack in the middle of nowhere. I added SKS fenders which are nice but are fitted for 700c wheels, (a lot of bike shops who carry SKS fenders will tell you the P50 model will fit both 700c and 26" wheels just fine. This is a lie), so they don't look as pretty as I'd like, but I've decided to stick with them because the correct model isn't sold in the States and costs a fortune from Europe due to the weak dollar. I also have a Brooks leather saddle which is really nice. It's not completely broken in yet, so that should be fun for the first week on tour.

The panniers are made by a Canadian company, Arkel. They're the Cadillac of bicycle panniers - what a lofty title.... and they're huge. Huge enough to where I don't plan on using a handlebar bag.

I'll write more about the gear that's being stashed in the panniers later, because I know my brother, Brad, will want to see pictures of it all. Brad likes pictures. Lastly, I have to put out a huge 'thanks' to Jeff Frey who got me a sweet deal on the frame and racks. His generosity helped in a lot of ways when I was putting the bike together. So, thanks again Jeff.

Hectic....

It has been a hectic month since I penned the inaugural entry on for this blog. A lot of wheels have been put into motion on a number of fronts.

First, I committed to attending law school at the bucolic Vermont Law School this coming fall. I'm excited to be headed back to school. Orientation begins the 18^th of August, so the deadline on this trip is pretty much set in stone. I hope that I can successfully make the transition from a bicycling vagabond to engaged student come Labor Day.

With the decision of school come the usual attendant headaches. School loans, arranging housing, (which is surprisingly difficult as the law school, like most things in Vermont, is in a relatively remote area), administrative forms. The twist for me is that many of these decisions will likely be made while I'm on the road. I'm sure everything will be ironed out in time for me to sit for classes, but it's already added another significant dimension to my life this summer.

I moved out of my apartment at the end of April in an effort to save a few bucks during my last two weeks in Minneapolis. May 15 is my last day of work so I've been couch hopping this past week. Luckily I have friends here that a) are gone a lot so I've been able to house/dog sit most of the past week, and or b) can stand me enough to not mind seeing my mug on the couch first thing in the morning. It's been pretty good all-in-all, but living out of a suitcase really puts a zap on one's usual routine. Then again, that's exactly what I'm going to be doing for the next three months.

I've been putting together a google map outlining the likely route for the trip. I've been working on it off an on when I've has time. I got a bit OCD with the level of detail after a while, so the map isn't complete yet. Here's what I have so far:

View Larger MapI'll finish it up as soon as I can...

Lastly, I just bought an Asus eee laptop for the trip this evening. I'm typing on it right now, in fact. It really is an amazing little machine. 4GB solid state hard drive, 7” screen, Linux OS, and it weighs in at 2lbs. It's about the size of my mom's old calculator from the 80s. It's really only good for office applications, wireless internet connectivity and storing photos, which is exactly what I want it to do. The only downside to it is its small keyboard which has a certain learning curve to it. Check it out:

The Steed

I guess I got the impression from Brad he wanted to see our bikes.  So here is mine.  I'm kicking myself for not buying a Peugeot cycle off of craigs list and fitting it up for me - while saving a lot of money too.

So Brad, this is my Rocky Mountain Sherpa 30 with Carradice panniers and Tubus racks.  I got it for the 853 tubing, shimano indexing at the levers and just having a gig ready to go (kicking myself for that now).  Aside from getting a new bike the only luxury are the king cages.  Shimano style shifters are causing havoc with the bar mounted bag.

I'm making a few gearing mods you'll see later.

I guess since this is my first post I would like to say I have lived in SFO for a year now and it is the most biker friendly place I have ever visited.  People complain here sometimes about cars and trucks cutting them off but after living in Lincoln (which was great!) I can say riding a bike is even easier here.  Of course part of what makes riding a bike great here are all the wonderful people and experiences too be had.