PowerCycle

09/28 I was going to skip an update for today and write something tomorrow but there was a pretty serious accident and it certainly deserves some mention. For the last 4 days a group of about 12 riders, most of whom are doing a Portland/Seattle to San Francisco trip, have been meeting up at the same CG and hanging out.

The accident, as unfortunate as it was, started out as a joke. We all get along great and since it’s 90% guys there’s a lot of goofing off (and farting). One of the guys here makes a point of locking his bike up every night even though there’s really no need to. He even takes the front wheel off and locks that up too. Well tonight he enlisted one of the others guys, Dave, to help him really get it into a secure spot. I’m not sure the exact details because I was by my tent but basically Dave was standing below the bike while the other guy hoisted it 15 feet up into a tree using some rope. Well the rope came undone and down came the bike. The medal chain ring (thing with teeth that the chain wraps around) came down right on Dave’s chin and opened a 2 inch gash right down to the bone.

Obviously none of us have a car so we sent someone running up the front gate to call an ambulance. They got here pretty fast and took Dave to the hospital for repairs. This was after Dave had us pose for pictures while he’s laying on the ground and I’m cradling his head in my hand and trying to keep pressure on the wound. I think I’ll skip posting pictures of the cut but I saw it up close and it was freaking nasty. We’re all going to hang out here and wait for Dave to get back before leaving since we’re almost family now. It’s also good to stick together for protection against roving hippies.

So about the hippies… here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. They never sleep.
2. They have no food.
3. They have no means of transportation.
4. They do horrible, disgusting things to bathrooms.
5. They talk like pirates.
6. They all have dreadlocks.
7. They all have dogs.
8. They think there should be no government (overheard while they were staying at a state-run campground).
9. If there’s a free music festival they’ll be there.
10. They appear in places you’d never expect them–sometimes I’ll be riding in the middle of nowhere and I’ll happen to glance up in the treeline and there’ll be a hippie sitting there. That always freaks me out.

Last night we couldn’t even sleep at the hiker/biker area in the state park because the hippies had overrun it. We took a normal camp site and split the $35. One of the girls, Sara, arrived at the camp just after I did and before she could even make it over to where I was a hippie asked her if she had any food. I warned her about doing this because I saw the South Park where they gave a hippie $20 and within hours the entire area was flooded with them.

Enough about hippies though. Most of the riding has been on Hwy 101 which went from a pretty laid back road to a freeway. The freeway parts have sucked. Any chance to jump off it and take a side road I took. One great detour was through the Avenue of the Giants. This 32 mile road winds through huge redwood forests and along Elk river. Lot’s fun things to see in this area. One thing was the 1000 year old “Immortal tree” as they call it. There was also the Bigfoot gift shop that has the worst tasting well water I’ve had.

For the last 2 days the temperature has been over 100 F. Made for some very hot riding on the open road with no shade. Even going down hill offered no relief. Waves of heat would just pummel you. There’s also been a bout of deadly green algae bloom in rivers here. Knowing this a couple of us still went down to the river to see if we could go swimming (that fast parts didn’t have the algae build up). No luck though. The water was too shallow.

Made it back to the coast this morning and onto US 1 after some big climbs. Actually broke 4100 feet in elevation gain for the day.

Oh and I fell for the first time yesterday. I was going about 1 mph when, and I’m not making this up, a hippie started coming up the road toward me when I was making a pretty sharp turn. Not sure why I stopped but I did and started tipping over. Then I couldn’t get unclipped from my pedal so down I went. Nothing broke but I messed up the tape on my handlebar pretty good. It was pretty embarrassing. First fall on my entire trip.

Tonight I heated up the corkscrew on my Swiss army knife and drilled 4 holes into my leather bike seat. Then I took some tie wraps and pulled the bottom flaps in tighter so they don’t rub against my thighs when I’m riding. I’ve been meaning to do this since seeing the Brooks Imperial saddle that already has lacing builtin that does this. Hope it helps.

Dinner tonight (pre-accident) was amazing. 3 of the guys here made burritos for everyone and we ate like kings.

GPX Track

09/25 Landed in Eureka for the night. A bike shop guy told me the Motel 6 would be the cheapest place I’d want to stay at. I’d stopped in to see if they had a stock of Brooks saddles I could check out. They didn’t. Other than a ridiculously overpriced KOA campground (surprise) there’s no other camping for 20 miles. There are a lot of seedy-looking motels in this city. Lot’s of transients too. Bound to happen with the 101 passing right through. The history of this city is interesting. They actually expelled all the Chinese citizens at one point due to a perceived immigration problem. There’s a downtown historical district that I’ll go check out in the morning.

The hiker/biker area at the SP last night was packed. I ended up having a German car/backpacker stay in the area I was. I’m all for sharing my spot if a CG is full but he pitched his tent less than 5 feet from mine even though there was plenty of space. That’s just way too close. I kept thinking something was outside my tent which woke me up a lot during the night.

When I was leaving this morning a few of the other riders and I stopped and watched 2 huge elks fighting it out next to the road. First time I’ve ever seen that. They just banged into each other for 10 minutes at a pretty slow rate and then the loser turned and walked away (the one on the right won).

My Suunto Core watch is dead. Looks like the days of getting rained on finally did it in. I have the back off and the battery out– maybe in a day it’ll dry out and work again. I’ll have to call the Suunto people when they are open and see about some warranty work since it’s under 2 years old. It’s definitely not the battery like I thought. Cost me $6 to figure that out. Now I have no idea what day it is. If I notice an increase in crazy pickup drivers towing boats/ATV’s then at least I know it’s a weekend day.

Rode on the 101 a lot today. It gained “freeway” status a few times and I got the feeling that drivers didn’t like me being on the road during those parts. One 18-wheeler buzzed me so close that the wind blew me down into the embankment. Fortunately it was paved so I was able to come to a clean stop, rubber side down, as they like to say. I’m also noticing that it’s pretty damn hilly around here. My elevation gains for the day have been higher than they were in most of Alaska or through most of the Rocky Mountains. Makes it a bit harder to get in more than 50 miles.

Had the typical morning fog again. It didn’t lift until 2pm. It kind of stinks riding in it because it’s cold to start with–probably about 58 F or so. So now I have to wear my rain jacket which always results in my shirt getting soaked from sweat. Lunch ended up being inside at a cafe but they had the door open so I had to order hot blackberry cobbler just to stay alive.

GPX Track

09/24 Another day for big hills. My butt feels a little better since I tightened the tension nut under the bike seat but it’s still on it’s way out. A couple of the other guys here at camp have to Brooks B-17 and that doesn’t seem to be a giving in the center area. Maybe I’ll try that one next.

After leaving Crescent City it was uphill for a while into some pretty thick forest. The best part was when I got to the town of Klamath which is just outside Redwoods National Park. The 101 through here was also uphill but once you get to the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway it’s a gentle downhill for several miles. Riding along this part was fantastic. On both sides are towering redwood trees that, in some cases, sit only a foot away from the edge of the roadway. I stopped at The Big Tree and had a bit of a scare. I went to take a picture of it and my Canon camera wouldn’t turn on. I took a mental picture and went back to my bike. My other smaller camera was fine but I was too lazy to walk back. At the CG I took the batteries out and replaced them with AA batteries. It turned on fine so I guess I need to re-charge the Li-ion ones.

Saw a friendly face from Alaska at the camp site. Chris was riding south on the Alcan highway about a month ago when I passed him during my northern trek. His new site is cycleamericas.blogspot.com. He’s still heading down to Argentina although his route is a little different than what mine will be. Also ran into Robin on the road just before a construction site. We ended up have lunch across the the Mystery Tree attraction outside Klamath. She’s at camp here too along with about a dozen other bicycle tourists.

Just noticed that my stupid watch battery is dead ahead. Did America get hit by an EMP or something? All my batteries died today (OK except my laptops).

GPX Track

09/23 I’m not really in Crescent City but close enough (3-4 miles). Still made it into CA only one day behind schedule. My primary CG for the night was supposed to be a small city park but when I got to where my GPS said it was going to be there was a drive-in theater instead. I spotted an RV park only couple miles away so I started to head off for that. I made it about a 1/2 mile and then saw the sign to the park. Funny how things just have a way of working out.

Saw Oris on the way into the town of Brookings, OR. We chatted for a bit at a fresh fruit stand where I also loaded up on peaches and pears. Also saw Joe, a rider heading down to SF from Connecticut. I’ve seen him on the road and at various CG’s for about a week now. He was looking for a hiker/biker site to camp at (that’s what he calls state parks which have areas set aside for those without cars). I have no idea if CA even has cheap tent camping in the state parks like Oregon does. I’ll find out soon enough. Joe is kind of on the s-list of the other bikers I’ve been riding with because he talks very loud and likes to wake up at 6:30am and call his family. Hopefully he found a spot for the night–just not one close to where I am.

The ride up and over the big hill north of Gold Beach was a cinch. In fact I didn’t stop pedaling from the time I left GB until I’d ridden about 20 miles. The weather helped a little because the entire coastal area was blanketed in fog and it was kind of cold. Rather than putting a jacket on to warm up I just kept riding. The fog didn’t lift until I crossed into California and then it was beautiful out. I was also 1 mph away from breaking my top speed record coming down from the hill from GB. If I would have realized how close I was I would have tucked in and broken it. Next time I guess.

Saw something I haven’t seen before in one of the feilds just past the OR/CA border. A guy driving a tractor was towing 2 sleds, one behind the other. Each sled had 4 wheels and was very close to the ground. Laying face down on each sled was a guy (or girl; couldn’t tell) picking whatever was growing in the plated rows as the tractor towed them along. What a horrible job– sucking in tractor fumes as the sun beats down on you all day. Great for the environment too. Is that the best idea they could come up with for harvesting whatever it was? It was probably the cheapest and that’s all that matters.

GPX Track