SO CLOSE

quick update still alive Kentucky was pretty nice and Virgina has been awesome. I have a mere 13 miles left to Yorktown tomorrow. My plan was to make it today but I think a combination of old age and hell like weather 100+ kicked my butt. Nice update with pictures soon, super tired tonight.

Kansas, Hedi in Newton, Gillian with sheep In Ordway

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Illinois Oak tree, Mississippi River, Blue hole

Carbondale IL

Missouri in the Ozarks was spectacular, my oddest experience in Missouri was eating at a bar that was having a 12 gauge shot gun contest out of a back window, I guess it would be bad news to piss off the bartender. Yesterday I crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, to my surprise Chester IL is the birth place of Popeye. I am currently in Carbondale IL I stayed here last night with a really cool guy, Chris who was kind enough to take me in with very little notice.

Toto I don't think were in Kansas anymore

Yeah Missouri
Missouri is Hot, Humid and Hilly and so far lots of fun. Kansas was much better than expected, kind of boring but the people were very nice. Highlights in Kansas were sleeping in a girls locker room to avoid crappy weather, Lane county fair, Hedi and Liz in Newton and tons of corn which is crap to eat for the most part. I am currently in Fair Grove Missouri, I enjoyed excellent pie at cooky's in golden city Missouri and look forward to hanging out at the Houston hotel tomorrow. Sorry my blog updates have been poor, I have a had hard time getting up early so I am usually biking late.

Just when you think your crazy

Stuart and Dave are a couple of English lads who are walking across the United States. They make me feel super fast. You can check out thier web site at www.walkingthestates.com

Hoosier Pass

Biking Posse

Colorado

I should ride this across the country

Woo-hoo Almost in Kansas

Sorry I have not updated my blog in a while. Since my last update I climbed over the wind river range into Debois WY a funky western town with great pies at the cowboy cafe. After leaving Debois I headed to Lander WY A nice town with a good outdoor vibe. Rick and I left Lander at the crack of dawn for our epic day, there is very little between Lander and Rawlings WY so we decided to make a 127 mile push in a single day. Every thing was awesome until about mile 90 then it got really hot and I got really slow. It was survival biking from one watering hole to the next. Once in Rawlings we ate at Rose's lariet a nice mexican food resturant and retired at the KOA to lick our wounds. The next day we headed to Saratoga WY a nice short day of riding. This day was also very sad because I was loosing my Riding companion Rick who had been with me since Baker City. After saratoga I headed into Colorado the highlight of the day was watching a bald eagle fly off with a prarie dog in his talons. I arrived in Walden Colorado and was welcomed by a west bound rider Chris. A very interesting guy from Washington state who had recently returned from the peace corp. After walden I headed to Kremling CO it was a pretty uneventful day of riding. leaving Kremmling I was of to a hotel to hang ouit with my parents and aunt Shelia for a few days in silverthorn. It was super nice. After hanging out with my family Logan, Christe, Karl and Molly came to ride with me for a day. It was one of my favorite days of riding I had my own biker gang. We rode to fairplay were I camped a few nights and hung out with my great friends from Colorado, Thanks everyone. the highlights of camping were mountain boci and archery. I like archery so much I wanted to take the bow and arrow with me. From fairplay I went to Florence CO
A nice little town that had seen better day. I sleep in the city park which was really nice, but since I am a weeny and was alone I didn't sleep very well. The next morning I headed of to Ordway CO to visit the fabeled Gillian. Gillian turned out to be one of the coolest free spirits I have meet on my trip so far. She is a Kiwi who opens up here house to cyclist traveling through. I was very fortunate that the day I was passing through was her day off. An amazing woman who loves to travel and is very giving. Today I went from ordway to Eads CO it should have been an easy day because it was only 60 mile but headwinds changed that. If anyone has the power to change the wind I would greatly appreciate a tail wind or no wind tommorow.

An appropriate name for an RV

The Grand Tetons

Tom and Mina the cool couple from Belgium

Dave and his fixed gear mountain bike

Yellowstone

Madison River Valley

National parks

After leaving Dillon a cool little town, we biked to a wide spot in the road called Alder. The next day we left for a big day, thought we could get to West Yellowstone and the comforts of a hostel bed and a day off, nature thought otherwise. The morning was easy enough however the afternoon was hell (I was an unhappy biker). The Madison river valley is gorgeous however it is also very windy, and sadly it was not at or backs. We fought through the wind covering a whole 5 miles every hour. Then would retreat in hopes that it would calm down, then attack again. We lost and retired to a RV park and cooked our not so tasty meals. Our neighbors were very nice and gave us apples, I had peanut butter so that was a highlight of my day. The next day we woke up to Ice on our tents, we were determined to start early to beat our arch Nemesis the wind. After a cold start we had a tasty breakfast, and a nice ride into west Yellowstone. All of a sudden we are in this crazy world of tourists, and RV's. I think we might be loving our national parks to death. Although we had planned an easy day the vibe of west Yellowstone made us decide to go ahead and enter the park.
The day turned out to be about 96 miles and we arrived in Grant village around 8:00 to say the least a very long day. Two redeeming things in west Yellowstone are the freewheel and heel bike shop and a little place to eat called Uncle Laurie's. Yellowstone is an amazing place that all should enjoy, but maybe a lottery system would be a good idea Homo sapiens out numbered every other mammal about a gazillion to one. The next day was an easy day only about 40 miles to Grand Tetons. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and the Tetons were magnificent. On our way we meet an awesome mountain biker named Dave. Dave was participating in the great divide race. The great divide race follows the continental divide from Canada to Mexico about 2500 miles. The racers only have 25 days to complete the trip. It is crazy at the level of amazing. The craziest thing was that Dave was trying to be the first to complete it on a fixed gear mountain bike. I was in Awe he carried only about 18 pounds, was chased by a moose, a had a close call with a momma grizzly. When we ran into him he had gone about 1000 miles in 10 days, he could barely hold a conversation, he was toast and was dropping out, but what an amazing idea and attempt.
This stopping point proved to be great we also meet Tom and Mina a couple from Belgium riding a tandem. Definitely free spirits that had never rode bikes before their tandem and are planning to go all the way to Chile, after starting in the Canadian Rockies. The great thing was we all ended up at the Hiker/Biker sites at Grand Teton and had a cookout for dinner. It was a great evening I will remember for some time. Today we had our biggest climb in Wyoming, I am currently in Debois WY. From here on out I think Wyoming will be not much more than sagebrush.

Big hole Valley

Bitteroot Valley

Montana is amazing

Leaving Missolua I headed South through the Bitteroot Valley, gorgeous mountains to the West. One section of our ride was on old farm roads, really nice to get away from traffic. I spent Thursday night in the little town of Sula, not much there but I had a nice evening of sleep and some awesome biscuits and gravy in the morning.

Heading out of Sula towards Jackson Hot Springs you climb over Chief Joseph Pass, a slow grind up, but the views were amazing. After summiting the pass you descend into an immense valley known as Big Hole Valley, mountains as far as the eye can see. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the Big Hole Valley. Along the way you pass the Big Hole battlefield a site at which the army slaughtered the Nez Perce Indians, really sad. I spent the night at Jackson Hot Springs not much there but a lively place. I am currently in Dillon, MT it suits me, kind of funky and outdoorsy.

I am running a little ahead of schedule, I should be coming into the state of Colorado on the 1st of July and plan on being in Summit county for the fourth of July. I am also currently seeking riding partners for the great state of Kansas lovely waves of grain, straight flat roads, and Bar-B-Que

Hot spings and Lochsa River

Idaho to Montana

Riggins was not quite the oasis I had hoped for, even though we were descending there was a crazy head wind not much fun. Ran into an interesting fellow from Berkeley that was headed west, some good info about super nice people up the road.
A really nice couple from Tennessee was doing their laundry at the RV place we stayed at in Riggins. They were on a summer boating adventure. It really made me miss playing on the river.

After leaving Riggins we had our big climb of this section--White Bird Hill. People see you with a fully loaded bike and start warning you of climbs at least 50 miles out. White Bird turned out to be a nice climb. We took the old highway which had a series of crazy switchbacks at this point in the day I was feeling less than superb. However after grubbing some chicken at the next town and enjoying an unexpected long decent I was raring to go. We had originally planned to spend the night in Koskia but decided to press on to Lowell. In Koskia we met Bob and Ron, Bob is 72 years old and Ron is 66 pretty amazing. I hope I can be that cool when I grow up. Idaho was gorgeous through this section. A nice couple waved us to the side of the road to enjoy some cherries from their tree, aah the joys of being on a bike.
Lowell was super cool basically a boating mecca and they had hot tubs. The next day was awesome slowly cruised up the river, the cool thing was lunch was at natural hot spring. Definitely need to get back to this part of Idaho to play.

One last climb and Idaho was behind me Lolo pass, was a nice gradual climb followed by a descent into Montana. Currently in Missoula and falling in love with the place. It has awesome biking, boating and skiing, plus everyone is really chill. Met one fellow on the way down named Ben turns out his wife cheated on him so packed up his bike and headed out, seemed like a really nice guy whose life had been turned upside down, on the plus side he got out of Lincoln NE and planned on biking as long as possible. Adventure cycling's office is here in missoula really nice. what is amazing is that in 1976 4000 people rode the bike centennial trans America route

Snake river at the bottom of hells canyon and the 7 devils after the climb out

Bye-bye Oregon hello Idaho

Shortly after leaving Baker City there appeared a florescent yellow up ahead, yeah another biker. It was a gentleman by the name of Rick, I had him meet briefly the day before at the library. The miles began to tick away as we chatted and approached the Idaho border. We were on our way to the bottom of Hells Canyon, on the way we stopped at an awesome town called Halfway that was overshadowed by even more amazing mountains the Seven Devils. The camp ground in Hells Canyon turned out to be super nice.

After a wonderful night of sleep we headed out for Council Idaho. The climb out of Hells Canyon was not so bad just a little hot. As we rolled into Council we decided to stay for free at the town park. Council was filled with big trucks, and cowboy boots, and here we were these guys wearing that stretchy spandex, we did not exactly fit in we might as well have been dressed in drag. After the bars closed echos of big trucks going fast filled the town, but our camp stayed calm except a couple of dogs that visited us in the early morning hours.

Today we are headed to the town of Riggins it sets right on the Snake River so I figure it will be filled with friendly river trash type people

Pirate Ship stuck in the mountains

Dad you should know what this is

Eastern Oregon

The highlight of the past few days has been how friendly people are to me. I stopped in a state park in Mt. Vernon after a great ride through cottonwood trees and wild rose bushes, the guy I shared the hiker/biker area with was pretty down on his luck. He was a homeless chainsaw carver even though he had virtually nothing he offered me food and a soda. It was nice to have company later. We were joined by a couple of young fellows training to be fire fighters. The next day I was headed for Sumpter OR a little gold mining town. There is very little along the way, there is one store at Austin Junction but it is closed on Tuesdays (the day I was passing by), I packed extra food accordingly.
As I was descending Dixie pass the first of three passes that day, I was stopped for construction along with a green Ford. The lady rolled down her window and informed me she owned the store in Austin Junction and she would open up if I needed anything. I stopped and had the best milkshake ever.

Eastern Oregon

After a very fun descent from McKenzie pass I went through the town of Sisters just north of Bend, and saw that awesome collection of bikes, there was a parade before I got to town. I should have climbed faster.

Eastern Oregon is pretty desolate. I stayed in this small town of about 150 people called Mitchell. I was the only one at the hostel. I watch too much TV because it felt like the Bates Motel. Even though every one was super nice. The towns claim to fame was a black bear named Henry, that lived in the middle of town. A biker rally had just finished up in Baker City OR, so there were a lot of motorcycles on the road. I can't help but imagine how funny it would be if I rode my bike in an ass-less pair of leather chaps and they rode theirs in spandex. As Oregon has dried out on the eastern side I am amazed at how many snakes I see on the road they are mostly dead but they must have been alive sometimeB

Mckenzie Pass

After leaving Eugene I rode up the Mckenzie River Valley. Pretty chill grade and made for a nice day of riding. I stayed the night at this super fancy RV park, hot springs and all. Chilled in the hot springs and did some laundry in the afternoon--,aah clean cloths. Big day to follow, I was climbing McKenzie pass. All the locals had me intimidated when they described it. It was long and I spent alot of time in my easiest gear but overall not that bad. The cool thing was that the pass was still closed to cars.

My riding companion Carrie super fast

This was on our ride into Eugene,sadly Carrie's last day. Looking for replacements: must make me laugh alot and spit up my food or drink multiple times. Thanks so much for joining me Carrie I really enjoyed the company.

Cozy accommodations at Polk County fair grounds

Old Growth Forest

An awesome road between the coast and Rose Lodge

The Oregon Coast is amazing

Blog Trivia

What movie was this a backdrop for

Hint: one-eyed willie

Prize an amazing souvenir

Arrived in Eugene

After leaving Pacific City we went through an amazing old growth forest with very few cars. Oregon is super lush our next stop was an RV park in a little place called Rose Lodge. Super nice camp sight by a river, a little sad though, most people at the RV park lived there long term. Finally I am making progress towards the East coast not just going North and South. My ride on the fourth day not very exciting all the East/West routes to the coast are fairly congested with traffic. Our final destination was the Polk County fair grounds. It was interesting, we camped in a shed/barn.

Day 5
Really nice ride into Eugene, absolutely gorgeous farm roads with very little traffic. I am still amazed at how friendly everyone has been. Checked out the REI here in Eugene a pretty nice store but actually a little smaller than us in Sandy.
I promise pictures soon. Turns out most libraries have firewalls or won't recognize my camera

Pictures

Pictures shortly can't upload here in Pacific City

Josh

First few days have been awesome

Beth and I arrived in Portland about 7:00, (Beth is always amazing at supporting my adventures Thanks Beth) After arriving we went to dinner with Beth's family here in Portland. Charlie, Beth's new nephew is super cute. He is always flapping his arms, training to fly. I am very impressed with Portland it is like a whole town of hipsters (like Ewen). Saturday super sunny amazing breakfast with Beth at the Tin Shed(highly recommend if ever in Portland). Then we picked up my riding companion Carrie, followed by an adventure through Portland, including a stop at Saint Cupcake and Carrie acquiring her riding companion lobster.

To the coast
Very uneventful trip to the coast, woke Sunday morning to beautiful Oregon weather-- rain. Beth (the awesome one) was kind enough to join me a Carrie for the first few miles of our trip.

After stopping in Seaside, Beth turned around and Carrie and I cruised on. Next was the awesome town of Cannon Beach and David the friendliest bike mechanic ever. After fixing Carrie's bike he offered us a place to stay and told us about an ultimate Frisbee game later that day. As you climb out of Cannon Beach there is a sketchy tunnel(not fun). After that the views where amazing. If any of you have ever considered touring the Oregon Coast do. It is amazing. As we rolled in to Manzanita our stop for the night we ate at an awesome burrito place recommended by our new friendly bike mechanic who soon cruised by on his high bike (might have to get Seth to build one). Concluded our day with a wonderful hot shower at the state park. Oregon is very biker friendly. Their state parks have hiker/biker sites that are only 4 bucks a night. The other good thing is they are secluded from those evil road hoggers known as RV's

Day two
We cruised along Tillamook Bay. Once again amazing Oregon weather Rain!! If you do come to bike Oregon make sure to pack yellow sunglasses it is almost as nice as the sun. Tillamook not very cool. However Three Capes scenic route after Tillamook was amazing, topped off with a cool light house and amazing views. Beware Cape some how also means climbing. Charging through the rain we ended our day in Cape Lookout. There we meet the friendly German biker who had started the trip from the east coast. He seemed a little burned out and eager for social interaction, which was great as he gave me lots of good information.

Day three
Still raining a lot, but we have seen the sun. One benefit of Oregon is the fact you just go for it no matter what the weather. If your on your bike you will be wet sometime during the day. Right now I am in Ppacific City a very nice dry library.

Bike trip itinerary

Week 1 Astoria, OR to Eugene, OR June 3rd-9th 235 miles

Week 2 Eugene, OR to Baker City, OR June 10th-16th 340 miles

Week 3 Baker City, OR to Missoula, MT June 17th-23rd 413.5 miles

Week 4 Missoula, MT to West Yellowstone, MT June 24th-30th 332 miles

Week 5 West Yellowstone, MT to Rawlins, WY July 1st-7th 351 miles

Week 6 Rawlins, WY to Pueblo, Co July 8th-14th 393 miles

Week 7 Pueblo, CO to Alexander, KS July 15th-21st 292 miles

Week 8 Alexander, KS to Girard, KS July 22nd-28th 331.5 miles

Week 9 Girard, KS to Murphysboro, IL July 29th-August 4th 407.5 miles

Week 10 Murphysboro, IL to Berea, KY August 5th-11th 416 miles

Week 11 Berea, KY to Christiansburg, VA August 12th-18th 381 miles

Week 12 Christiansburg, VA to Yorktown, VA August 19th-25th 370 miles


Route info available at http://www.adv-cycling.org/routes/transamerica.cfm

Trusty Stead

Bike Test Ride

One week and my bike adventure begins, I am nervous and excited all at once. It has been an interesting year to say the least, last year at this time I thought I had my life pretty well planned out. As of today that plan no longer exists, but because of that I can pursue my dream of biking cross country, hopefully this plan will work better than the last one. It definitely sounds like more fun than working, and I think it was meant to be. Working at REI has enabled me to get some cool toys for my bike ride and meet some really great people. One drawback of my trip is not getting to hangout with those cool people this summer, but adventure plans are already set for fall. It will also serve as motivation to bike faster so I will be able to get in some summer backpacking trips.

I went for a fully loaded test ride of about 30 miles today everything performed awesome, the weakest link is probably my training. I hope my butt can handle 4000+ miles, it is a good thing I am stubborn. Although I figure it fits into my overall mileage plan of less in the beginning and more miles toward the end. My trusty stead was a little bit more like a donkey a little heavy, I guess that makes us a matched set. I am going to use the next few days to trim weight, simplify, simplify, simplify. I think it will be very liberating and maybe a little stinky to live with very few items this summer. I look forward to hopefully meeting new friends and catching up with old ones along the way. If any one would like to join me just shoot me an e-mail I would love the company



Josh