Two Wheeling West

San Juan Islands

Posted by Andrew on July 28th, 2009 - No Comments;  

I asked several friends for suggestions once I made it to the coast and heard, “go to the San Juans!” from all of them. So here I am, on Orcas, just wandering around for a few days.

I arrived in Anacortes just in time to catch a Ferry to San Juan Island, so I figured that might as well be my first stop. I spent the night at Lakedale Resort (campground), just about 3 miles from the ferry terminal. As I’ve found with several other popular campgrounds, the “hiker/biker” sites are way off in the outskirts of the grounds, the sites are typically lousy, and I end up walking to water/power. At $20 for the night + $2 for a shower, I figured the showers would be nice… they were, until the water slowed to a trickle and stopped mid-shower. Wet, soapy, and a little grumpy, I walked back to the main lodge and learned that the “water system was broken.”

They did OK by me though - a got a 3 gallon jug from the office to drink and cook (and rinse off a bit), and $10 off my site when I asked the next morning.  I can’t imagine the complaints they must have dealt with that night though - it was at least an hour before they decided to hang a sign at the bathhouse mentioning that the water didn’t work!

San Juan was fun - I saw all of the sights: a pod of killer whales from the west coast, the large alpaca farm, a random camel (yes, camel on the island), English Camp, the American Camp, and explored Friday Harbor.  Good riding a very cool landscape: hot and dry in some places and wet, dense, cool forests in the valleys.  I’d like to come back and see the island having not slept on the ground the night before!

Riding in honor of Brian Hahl

Posted by Andrew on July 24th, 2009 - 7 Comments...  

Update 7/27: I’m up to $1 per mile for my longest day so far. Currently thinking about the Seattle to Portland (STP) route. 200 miles should be enough space!

Update 8/3: I’m up over $3 per mile, thank you all! I managed 202 miles yesterday, Seattle to Portland in a day.  Whoa tired, didn’t think I’d pull that off…  (Note: there are other new posts below this one)

Update 8/6: 202 miles it is - I’ll be in Bend, OR until the 9th without riding very much. Thank you all, and I’ll be in touch via email with donation details.

On July 10th I had breakfast with Alan, Grace, Kevin, and Laurie in Wolf Point just before Kevin split off to head south. We said goodbye, snapped a few pictures, and everyone clipped in to hit the road. I checked my email one last time and received sad word that my friend Brian Hahl had passed away the previous afternoon. Brian had a heart attack while out riding his bike, surely training for his two big charity rides this summer.

I’m fortunate to have met Brian up at Lake Placid a few years ago. I was up to join Dan and try speed skating for the first time - the three of us ended up rooming together at Lysek’s. After dinner, we decided to head out for a few beers downtown; “a few” turned into several and a pretty late night. Brian was a big guy and he handled the fantastic local beer a lot better than Dan or me… skating the next morning was slow. I remember several things about Brian very clearly from that first night out: he loved teaching (clearly gifted at it), he pulled a picture of his 1973 Pinzgauer out of his wallet (I think he had a truck-related t-shirt on too), he often fed change into the jukebox to play Pink Floyd, and he was passionate about the 2 charity bike rides he does every year.

I saw Brian again at Lake Placid several more times during the next few years: skating, bowling, more time at ZigZag’s and the Northwoods Inn, and relaxing at Lysek’s. I’ve got pictures buried on my computer at home of us speedskating, wandering around Placid, and one of him stuffed into a tiny bobsled at the track outside of town. Heading up to Lake Placid is one of the highlights of winter for me, and meeting up with Brian was a big part of the experience. Skating and wandering around Lake Placid won’t be the same without him.

Brian was participating in 2 charity bike rides this summer, the National MS Society’s annual PA Dutch 2009 event and the Pennsylvania Perimeter Ride Against Cancer (PPRAC). He rode both for a long time, and I know they meant a lot to him - he rode the PPRAC in honor of his father who died of cancer.

I’m going to finish my ride in honor of Brian Hahl, a fantastic guy who worked hard on his bike to raise money for 2 worthy charities every summer. If you’ve been following and enjoying my journal, I ask that you please join me in making a donation to PPRAC in honor of Brian. It seems fitting to honor him by donating to a cause that meant so much to him. If you would rather mail a check, please see the bottom of Brian’s fundraising page for an ACS form and information.

Now, to make things a little more interesting: I will donate 50 cents per mile for the longest single day I can ride before August 8th, the day Brian would have finished his PPRAC ride. If you’d like to join in on the challenge, please let me know - leave a comment, send me an email, call, whatever you would like. I’ll get in touch with you after August 8th to let you know how far I managed on my longest day. Of course, if you’d rather make a donation without gambling on my legs, please feel free to do so!

Disclaimer: I have no idea how far I can ride. I rode 120 miles fully loaded back in IL and I did 104 a few days ago then followed it up with 95 (over Sherman Pass).

Goodbye Montana, Hello Idaho

Posted by Andrew on July 20th, 2009 - No Comments;  

I really enjoyed riding in Montana: new terrain, varied terrain, great riding partners, good camping, pretty good weather, and really interesting people along the way. One problem throughout the state: broken glass all over the side of the road.

I’m not sure I get it… are some of you that lazy that you can’t bring the bottle home with you? Just leave it in the back of the car, in the trunk, or those seat-back pockets that never seem to be as useful as they should be. Or tell the dude in the backseat to hang on to it - all of the action is in the front of a car anyway, whoever is in the back might as well just hang on to empties and watch the hills roll by. No, I didn’t have many flats, just two or three related to a tire puncture from NY that grew into a 3mm hole and gravel-magnet. I am pretty careful with my tires these days since I want them to last; I stop and check my tires whenever I roll over the remnants of your cheap beer.

Stop throwing bottles out of the window. Or at least get them more than 4 feet out of your window into the grass. What? Can’t throw it that far? Weak.

You can continue to throw sort-of crushed cans on the side of the road - they won’t puncture my tires, so I really don’t care. Besides, guess where those cans end up? You know, the ones that end up blowing off the side of the road into the grass? No idea? The cans end up in your hay. I have never purchased a bale of hay, but I would imagine that a shredded can sticking out of the sides doesn’t improve the value. So go ahead with the cans, I’m sure that’ll work out well for you in the long term.

Anyways…

Glacier NP was outstanding! I rode a long day to get to the east entrance to the park, then took a 0-day before climbing up over the Continental Divide at Logan Pass. I spent my time off cleaning the bike, replacing my front tire and brake pads, and cleaning up some gear before using the shuttle system to see some of the park.

Wow, outstanding shuttle system! I rode up to Logan Pass and down the other side to get a burger and a beer at Lake MacDonald Lodge. Burger was excellent, and the Moose Drool Brown Ale was outstanding - exactly what I needed on my day off! It was fun to scout out the road and see the sights beforehand, even though the experience is certainly different from a bike. You can’t feel the temperature changes from the shade, snow, ice, and streams when you’re in a car. I probably wouldn’t have seen the large black bear rummaging around by the side of the road in a car either. Even if I did, stopping a car creates traffic issues, but stopping my bike really doesn’t matter. I’ve got some good pictures of the bear!

The climb up to Logan Pass from the east is not too bad. The first 12-ish miles are flat or very gently uphill, and I never needed my smallest chainring (lowest gearing) for the last 6. Met up with a tourer from Scotland at the top who had only been on the road for 2 weeks. We exchanged traffic stories and talked bike gear, because that’s what you do. Also chatted with a few riders on a supported tour through several mountain passes in the area - all riding light road bikes. Pansies.

Heading down the west side is amazing! I didn’t bother sticking to the sides of the road since I was going down as fast, if not faster, than the cars and motorcycles. I don’t think I made it past 35 mph due to the twists, turns, and road construction, not to mention the slightly scary drop off the side of the road.

Perfect day, perfect weather, traffic was not an issue, and the huge huckleberry ice cream cone in West Glacier at the end was fantastic - I couldn’t ask for a better experience going through Glacier. This was my first time through, and I’d definitely recommend it however you want to get through the park. Make sure you get out of your car to feel what it’s like out - I saw too many people getting out at the top, then going straight back down

Approaching Glacier NP

Posted by Andrew on July 14th, 2009 - No Comments;  

Glacier National Park is just about 100  miles away, which could be 1 day, 2 days, or 3 all depending on the wind.  Yesterday I left Havre, MT with a slight headwind headed toward Shelby, MT.  I was hoping to do 100 miles, but the weather had other plans for my day.  As I sat outside of a bar in Hingham (40-ish miles) eating a brownie (very tasty), I watched the wind pick up.  I got back on the bike, then it picked up again, and again, and again.  By the time I arrived in Chester (60 miles), the wind was around 30 mph straight at me, making riding extremely hard.  At one point I could only manage 5 mph, so I got off my bike to walk for about a mile.  Walking 4 mph was a lot easier than riding 5 mph.  That’s the first time I’ve walked anything - I don’t plan on making a habit out of it, but it was a nice 15 minute break.

The wind typically dies down in the evening and we see calm weather through 9 or 10 AM on most days.  Not so this time.  The wind did die down a little last night around 1 AM, but then picked up again when it started to pour at 2-3 AM.  Fortunately Alan, Grade and I were camped under a pavilion in the Chester Town park, so we stayed mostly dry.  “Mostly” because the rain came in sideways and through gaps in the wall on the west side of the pavilion.  We all spent a good 20 minutes this morning drying things out - in the wind again.  Lazy day for me so far - it’s almost 2:30, and I haven’t left down yet.    The thought of grinding into the wind again doesn’t get me going…  weather.com says things should calm down a little later this afternoon, so I might put in 40 miles to Shelby, but we’ll see.  I’d give weather.com a 70% success rate so far with a few really lousy predictions.

Aside fom the wind, things are great!  I’ve been traveling with Alan and Grace for about a week now, and we’ve been joined by several others along the way: Laurie, Kevin, Lucy, and Barbara.  Meeting up during the day, sometimes riding together, and camping with them reminds me of backpacking.  In the 6 months I was out on the AT in 2004, I only spend 2 nights alone, and even then I found out that others were within a mile or two of my campsites.  Sharing dinner, stories, griping about the road, or hints from other bikers is a fantastic way to end the day.  If I get out of Chester, MT today, I’ll meet up with them again this evening for a few more days before we split up: Alan and Grace are heading north, and I’m continuing west to the coast.  Thanks guys, it’s been a lot of fun!

I’ve never spent any time out west, just a few days down in Arizona years ago.  I’m really enjoying checking out the landscape out here.  Flats in ND and MT, rolling hills, and now I’m starting to see hills in the distance again.  I’ll follow river valleys for the next 2-3 days before my route does any real climbing, which is nice, I get a good look at what’s to come.

A few stories from the folks I’ve met are in the works: Gordon, 100% Sioux told me all about Golden Eagles and tough times on the reservation, a rancher from Saco who used to race bikes and builds bike frames, Karen and Jim who took 6 of us in for a night, and fed s truly amazing cinnamon buns.

Photos from Indiana and Illinois

Posted by Andrew on July 13th, 2009 - 1 Comment...  

I had a great time riding in IN and IL - good weather, met some great people, and had a blast riding/camping with Jerry and Kris for a few nights. They were the only other long-distance bikers I met before skipping ahead to Minot, ND. I ran into a few people doing week-long trips, weekends, or just out for a day, but nobody else headed cross country. When I arrived in ND I met people 10 minutes after I left the train station, and I continue to see people every day. During my 60 miles from Malta, MT to Chester, MT today, I spotted 8 bikers going east (with the wind).

View IN photos on flickr…

View IL photos on flickr…

Wow, it's flat out here
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Welcome to Illinois
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Back on the bike in ND

Posted by Andrew on July 7th, 2009 - 1 Comment...  

I think I picked the perfect spot to get off the train in ND and start riding again!  Most of eastern ND (at least up north) is flat and looks pretty much like Indiana blanketed in wheat instead of corn.  I was up early on the train to watch the wheat fly by - I woke the guy next to me so he didn’t miss his stop, and the woman across from me decided to start snoring at 5 AM.

Anyway… got off the train in Minot and watched two guys try and run after the train when it left them in the station.  They were warned to stay close - we were an hour late and the conductor made it very clear that the stop would be a short one.  One train a day through this area, so I hope they enjoyed the coffee they absolutely had to  get!  After I laughed at them shuffling toward the train, I realized that I left my mirror (helmet mounted) on the train.  Damn, off to the local  bike shop.

Val’s Cyclery is great, and I ended up with a better mirror, gave my extra bungee cords away to another tourer, and got the last two Northern  Tier maps from someone else.  They also warned me against following the maps west (they were going east), and  suggested I take route 2 straight to Williston instead of the back roads.  There are several few small oil wells in the area with none large enough for a pipeline, so they haul the oil around in trucks.  The trucks must use the ACA maps as well - apparently the route is littered with them.  Route 2 has a nice shoulder, well graded, and traffic is certainly fast, but has been good to me so far.  The only car that got close to me was a school bus#$%!

This part of the route doesn’t have many campgrounds, or towns, or people, or much of anything, so I stopped in Stanley, ND for the night.  I used the Internet for a few minutes at town hall, had a chat with some people about the weather, then headed north to find a quiet corner of the town park.  Surprise! Other tourers!  Alan and Grace are on a 4 month cross-country/visit friends trip, and Laurie is headed west from Michigan.  We all shared mac and cheese, chips, steamed asparagus, and plenty of beer - good times, I’m glad I ran into them!  We’re all in Williston for the night after being rained on all morning - time for food, laundry, more food, and some rest.

56 miles yesterday, 72 today + whatever we ride around town, and possibly 90 tomorrow.  I feel great and could have covered more miles during the last two days, but purposely kept it low to take it easy on my body.  So far, so good!  I plan on gradually ramping back up to 80-90 per day, weather, terrain, and campgrounds permitting.

Minneapolis photos

Posted by Amy on July 6th, 2009 - 1 Comment...  

Amy here. Andrew said we had a great time in Minneapolis and he was telling the truth. Believe it or not, I was starting to miss the fellow, so it was nice to get away from NYC over the long holiday weekend and meet up in the North Star state. Though I saw no moose or mutant mosquitoes, I did see my first major league baseball game; on that account I’d still consider the trip a success (even if the home team lost).

We’ll rendezvous again in Oregon at the end of his trip. In the meantime here are a few pics from this weekend.

Lego-land! (Mall of America)
view on flickr»

from atop the Mill City Museum
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from the stone arch bridge
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View more photos from Minneapolis on flickr…

Adventures in Minneapolis

Posted by Andrew on July 5th, 2009 - No Comments;  

The train from Chicago to Minneapolis was uneventful, and only about 30 minutes late. I spent the 8.5 hour ride napping, eating, watching WI and MN pass by from the lounge car, dodging old people wandering around the sleeper car in their PJs, and trying to block the 4 unruly kids seated behind me. Note to Amtrak: seat loud kids together, preferably in the baggage car, and leave the sleeper cars in the back of the train - those old folks are tough to get around when one has to walk through the sleeper cars to get to the lounge.

Traveling with my bike was fairly easy. Amtrak has enormous bike boxes for sale ($15 + $5 handling fee) at stations with checked baggage service. I read that most bikes fit into the box with the handlebars turned sideways, but that didn’t seem to work with my drop bars. I removed the handlebars and taped them to the bike, removed the pedals, then rolled the whole thing into the box. Wandering around Union Station with 4 bags, my handlebar bag, and a helmet (on my head of course) got a few odd looks.

Amtrak dragged my bike out shortly after we arrived in Minneapolis, and I set to work putting things back together and digging out my bike lights: small, very underpowered headlight, blinking taillight, glowing ankle reflector, and my random red blinker. I hit the road at 11:30 headed toward the airport via Adventure Cycling’s directions. The first few turns were all local roads, and I arrived at a bike path in about 20 minutes.

Way to go Minneapolis! The bike paths are great, in pretty good shape, and they appear to be useful for actually getting places. I’ve seen several bike lanes or bike paths so far that are clearly an afterthought - they aren’t actually useful for getting to a downtown area, to transit, or to some thing interesting. I thought, “wow, this is great, I’ll get to the hotel quickly, then I just have to convince them to let me check in early.”

So… I got completely lost on the bike paths. I ended up riding around for about 3 hours, down all sorts of bike paths, random suburban neighborhoods, in and around Fort Snelling State Park, and finally to the airport. After 1 flat tire, 1 chat with a police officer, who probably wondered why I was riding a loaded bike around the runway approach lights, several snacks, getting rejected at the McDonalds drive through, and a slightly frightening ride through a very dark state park (remember, underpowered headlight), I arrived at the Hilton. I don’t know what I looked like at 3:30 AM, but Dennis at the front desk figured 3:30 AM would be a good early check-in time. Thanks Dennis.

Fortunately it was a beautiful night for a ride. I found Minneapolis to be very rideable, but then again, my arrival ride was between the hours of 12 and 3 AM. I’ll ride around again today on my way back to the train station.  And this time I know where I’m going!

Amy and I had a great time in Minneapolis (pictures coming!). The Mall of America is scary, huge, and oddly amazing all at the same time.  Mall, art museum, baseball game, wandered around aimlessly, visited the Mill Museum (very cool), and watched the fireworks from no less than a dozen different towns from the hotel - we did plenty of exploring.

So, I’m headed back to the train station today after a series of errands this afternoon: food, having an overpriced local shop true my wheels, food, Internet, email, food, new bungee cords for my sleeping bag (I left them on your trunk Sarah, sorry), and locating some snacks for the train ride.  I’ll board at 11:15 PM, and wake up in Minot, ND at 8:30 AM, if Amtrak is on time.  I overheard someone on this route mention that Amtrak is often 1-2 hours late by the time they get to Seattle.

I’m still working on my route, and I’d love some input if anyone is familiar with North Dakota, Montana, Glacier NP, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.  So far, I know I’ll ride from Minot to Glacier National Park to head up the Going-to-the-Sun road, after that, who knows!

NY/Canada, PA, OH Photos

Posted by Andrew on July 5th, 2009 - No Comments;  

Rain. Not sure what else stands out for me from NY, PA, and OH other than the rain, which is disappointing. Riding farm country in NY wasn’t bad, but I’ve seen farms in the northeast, so nothing new there. The best part of NY was not actually in NY at all - it was crossing into Canada, then back into NY later that day. Crossing the border on a bike amused me:

Border Policeman: where are you coming from?
Me: Um, New York? (huh? Bridge starts in NY and ends in Canada…)
BP: Where did your trip start?
Me: Maine
BP: Where are you going?
Me: Uhh, Canada?
BP: Where will your trip end?
Me: Hopefully in Oregon
BP: OK, go ahead.

The vineyards out in NY/PA were interesting too, but I blasted through most of it due to the rain. OH was my first experience riding in a truly flat area. We have little stretches of flat roads in VT, but nothing like this. Completely flat for as far as I could see in every direction.  More on the midwest later…

View NY photos on flickr…

View PA photos on flickr…

View OH photos on flickr…

At Niagara Falls, Canada
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Welcome to Pennsylvania
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Sunset over Lake Erie in OH
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Status = taking a few more days off…

Posted by Andrew on July 1st, 2009 - No Comments;  

Sorry for the vague status messages last weekend - I was busy trying to figure out where to go, and what to do!  From the beginning…

On the 26th I had good weather, very little wind, and a perfect opportunity for a long day; I rode 120 miles to Cornell, IL and camped just south of town at the Bayou Bluffs Campground.  I had planned on 110 miles, which put me at the Manville Nazarene Campground, but they were closed.  Suggestion for campgrounds: if you’re closed, then please specify that on your answering machine message.  If you leave an alternate cell number, please make sure the person that answers knows something about the facility.  At 110 miles for the day, I had to backtrack then ride south to get to the campground.  It was a nice evening for a ride, or I would have been really grumpy…  

120 miles felt surprisingly good: my feet, knees, hands, neck, and back all felt fine.  My ass was sore from sitting down for 8.5 hours, but that’s understandable.  When I left NJ to start this trip 3 weeks ago, my longest ride was 63 miles.  Turns out the quick increase in saddle time didn’t go as well as I had hoped…

The next day I planned on another 100+ miles to take me well into Iowa, and my legs seemed to think that was a good idea, but my butt sure didn’t.  I took a few long breaks in town to write some email, eat, and eat again.  Overall, I felt great, but I just couldn’t find a comfortable spot on the saddle, so I spent 50 miles fidgeting around, standing, and coasting.  Coasting is hard in IL, no hills to use for a break!

I settled on an 85 mile day into Kewanee, IL.  About 10 miles outside of town the sky started to turn gray - no thunder clouds, no wind, just gray.  I had no idea what to expect, but when the lightning started, it was pretty clear I was in for a fun storm.  30 seconds later I hauled up a hill and straight into someone’s driveway - no way I was going to ride anywhere near this one!  With all the corn and soybeans fields, my steel bike and I were often the tallest thing around for 4 square miles.  Nobody was home, so I waited it out on the front porch standing in the corner to try and avoid the rain blowing in sideways.  At the storm’s height, I saw lightning every 1-2 seconds and the porch shook from the thunder.  I waited over 2 hours before I felt it was safe to ride (standing up mostly) into Kewanee and find a hotel for the night.

I took it easy in the morning, then biked to the hospital at the edge of town to talk to a Doctor for a few minutes.  He confirmed what I expected - I needed a few days off to rest my butt, then I’d be all set.  I feel great, I’m only uncomfortable spending long hours in the saddle. Fortunately, after a few days I’ll be perfectly fine, and after some time off, I’ll be even more comfortable in the saddle for long days.  This is the price I pay for my training regimen before I left: sleeping, eating, and relaxing.  I didn’t spend very much time in the saddle before I started this trip, and I thought I was in the clear, since I was getting used to long days very quickly.  Had a taken a few random short days, or just one day off in the last 2 weeks, I probably would have been fine.  

So… I took a train from Kewanee, IL to Chicago to hang out with Sarah and Adam for a few days (thanks guys!).  From Chicago, I’ll take a train on July 1 to Minneapolis to meet Amy for a few days - meaning I have skipped the section from Kenwanee, IL to Minneapolis, MN.  Here’s where my route changes — a lot:  I’m going to hop on a train from Minneapolis (or somewhere close) and skip the rest of MN and North Dakota, and end up somewhere in Montana.  I decided about a week ago that I really didn’t need to keep riding through farm country, and I really want to get back to the mountains!

Yep, that means I’m definitely not riding cross country any more - that ended when I got on a train in Kewanee.  I’ll end up skipping a BIG chunk of the midwest by the time I start to ride again.  I’ve got a lot of reasons for skipping around, they basically boil down to this: there are a lot of things I want to see in the US; one of them was corn, but now I’ve seen plenty of corn, and it’s time to check a few other things off the list.

I’m not 100% sure what my route is going to be for the next month.  I know it’s going to include Glacier National Park and I know I’ll ultimately end up in Portland, OR (hopefully by way of Bend, OR).  Some things I’m thinking about: western Idaho and Boise, Seattle, Olympic National Park, The Cascades, and the coast between Seattle and Portland.  Any thoughts?  Things I shouldn’t miss?

Thank you all for the emails, calls, and messages!