The Bay Area, A Few Days of Rest AND Whats With Nor Cal Anyway?

We've arrived in Mill Valley, and, last night, when it looked as if we would be over-spending on an econo lodge on the side of Highway 101 in Marin County we connected with Brian Thysell, whom I met while working for OPI years ago. Not only did we get to go out to a great place in Mill Valley for dinner, Brian invited us to stay at his place - for multiple days. He even threw in his car to sweeten the deal. So here we are, saved from a wicked fate by the kindness of yet another friend.

We took most of day to rest and re-hab and will be going out to dinner tonight with some old family friends from my adolescent years and then tomorrow into the city where we hope to connect with Sean Lawson who is in town for the weekend. Some more people to visit with over the next few days makes this a very different type of experience than last week, when we were rolling through Northern CA on 1 feeling like the world was an empty place indeed (which leads us to "Whats With Nor Cal Anyway? If anyone knows, let us know).

We plan on riding through San Fran on Sunday morning and making our way to Santa Cruz by Monday, where I've arranged a visit at UCSC to look at graduate school opps there.

The last few days of riding were great, though 1 is a bit stressful with its minimal shoulders. Fortunately there isn't much traffic. I finally got my next surf in at Bodega Bay - the first since Crescent City. We saw so few surfers all along hwy 1 and I was fearful to get in the water alone after hearing all of the local shark stories. That, combined with an almost complete lack of swell kept me out of the water until we passed North Salmon Beach. I made Christine stop, even though we'd only ridden about 20 miles that day. Such are the wages of biking with a surfboard. We've turned off the coast now, but will start to hit some spots around Pacifica.

We are continuing to try to make arrangements for our next leg into Mexico. If anyone has any sailing friends we are trying to figure out how to communicate with the sailing world and get onto a boat out of San Diego as crew. It would be great to know the right listservs to hit or the right place to post flyers. If anyone ahs any contacts let us know.

We still have our cell phone until Oct 13. If any of you get a hankering to call we would love to chat. 360 808 1103.

The Quickest hello...

All,

Just the quickest post to say that we are alive and well, and rolling into the bay area. We plan on spending at least one full rest day here, but we still have to work out where to stay and such. We should be able to post a fuller account of the north coast tomorrow. Until then...

We're Being Tracked...

We are, really. One of the many cool parts of this trip is that we are being followed.

Elizabeth Watkins (to make the connection, Al, Elizabeth's Dad, has been at OPI for a long time, cooked for our wedding, and was the famous mandolin player from the rocking bluegrass band Cherry Hill), as a geography education project, is tracking our trip around the world. Just before we left we gave her the world map that we used to plan and dream our trip and she now has it up at her house.

We just got our first picture of the map and love it!

Ian

Thank you Kevin

We are in Point Arena, approaching San Francisco (computer just told me I have 5 minutes for this post!) and all is well. This section of coast is so different and new - one of the highlights of the trip for me has been watching the slow ecological transitions as we've moved South - new species of trees starting to show up, different characteristics of shoreline. Here its grass-covered hills. We just didn't see that up north on the coast. Anyhow, yesterday we had a great meeting with Kevin in Elk, California. He invited us over to his place after finding us trying to fix Christine's broken mirror with some Crazy Glue. We got to use his tools, epoxy and such and got it done up right. Thank you Kevin. He had just emerged from a morning paddle on the Mendocino coast and showed us his catch of Cabezon, Ling Cod and rockfish, as well as a clump of sea palm destined for lasagna. Very cool!

Today, we think, is our half way point. Its amazing that we've come so far and, speaking for myself, I still feel like my body is adjusting to the constant exercise. I love it. Every day is a solid work-out.

We are still uncertain as to where we will be staying in San Francisco, or what that will look like.

The lovely views are endless.....

At the moment we find ourselves safely (mom I thought you would like to hear that word) in Mendicino, CA - a lovely little "New England like" town nestled along the rocky bluffs of the rugged northern Cali coastline. We arrived on Highway 1 just yesterday after two days of being inland along highway 101 and what a joy it was to descend around that final sweeping bend after hours of climbing, curving,and screaming downhills to that final trusted sound of the waves cresting ashore below us as we looked down over the windswept ridge of Highway 1. For the moment I am taking comfort in the fact that the worst is behind me. There were moments of the last several days as we suddenly found ourselves on a shoulderless freeway with trucks beaming past at 70 miles that I found myself wondering " so,.... why did I agree to this????" Which was interesting feeling as it was intermixed with amazing redwood forests and random tourist trappings (which we did take in -each and every one.) Trees that leave you in awe, dark pockets of forest with the sunlight finding only small windows to cast onto the pavement, and statues of Big Foot in every small town.
Tonight we are treating ourselves to a B&B stay - hopefully one with a hot tub!!!

Rolling Out of Arcata

We are leaving Arcata this morning, back on the road heading south for Highway 1 and San Francisco. Ahead of us we have one of the busiest sections of 101 we will experience broken by long sections of the Avenue of the Giants, which I've been looking forward to since the beginning of our trip.

Our visit here has been fantastic, due largely to the incredible hospitality of Jen and Erik, who have put us up in style (Today, for those who know him or even those who don't), is Erik's 30th Birthday by the way - hit him with a happy bday at erikjwilson@gmail.com). Jen and Erik went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and we got our own bed (which is extremely hard to leave :)), we got fed, coffee brought to us in the morning, taken to special places in the area and many other things that have contributed to a very hard departure this morning. Arcata is a great town as well, with an interesting natural history and unique political landscape.

Yesterday Jen and Erik lent us their car and we took a day to drive and hike around the Lost Coast south of Humboldt Bay. It is an area that has intrigued me for some time, where 101 bends sharply off the coast, leaving a large swath of very sparsely populated and seemingly forgotten coastline and coastal hills. Not only was it fantastic to travel with such ease (as with our jet boat experience, I couldn't help but think how easy internal combustion makes travel) but we saw some amazing country. We travelled through Petrolia (the site of the first oil well dug on the western coast) and through Honeydew (the site of some serious contemporary pot production). We hiked on the southern coast - a 25 mile wilderness hiking section. It was an eye-opening experience that sated my desire to know at least a little about this unique section of the west coast.

a short video

so we couldn't do video, but we did put together a very short collection of some clips we've taken as we've made our way south. Its loaded on youtube.com and you should be able to follow this link to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bhsf-sss2c

Made it to Cali

For some reason I can't get any photos to add to this post, so you will have to use your imagination...

We are now in Arcata, CA taking two much needed rest days at the home of Jen Westenberg and Erik Wilson. We rolled into town on Monday afternoon and immediately took advantage of their superb hospitality to take showers and do laundry and we also spent yesterday repairing gear, mailing more stuff, and making a visit to the department of health for some travel immunizations.

Last weeks riding was both tough and incredibly rewarding. We encountered the "mythic" hills (at least amongst the coast-riding circuit) of So. Oregon and No. California and also, after entering California, found that the character of the road changed somewhat. Unlike Oregon, California has long sections of 101 that are virtually shoulderless and relatively busy. We even took an afternoon off in Cresecent City, CA so that we could ride one of the most infamous hills, just south of Crescent City, on a Sunday morning. By doing so we hoped to avoid the commerical truck traffic that can be so rattling on a shoulderless highway.

On the flip side, we made it to California! The road sign was a comic testament to all of the other groups doing this ride, and was covered in biker graffitti. We also entered the redwoods zone, which provides some truly awe-inspiring riding. One 7 mile section of road just north of our last campsite at Prairie Creek State Park was rimmed by giant redwoods right next to the road. We also took a jet boat ride on the Klamath River - something that we probably wouldn't ever have considered before seemed like the right thing to do. It was a blast and allowed us to get upriver a bit and experience a different zone than we can on the bikes.

From here we leave tomorrow and ride south to the avenue of the giants before climbing up and over the coastal hills to get on highway 1. We expect to be in San Francisco by the middle of next week, though we have talked some about a detour to the Napa Valley to visit a friend we made biking from Portland to his home in Napa.

Thanks so much to everyone for your emails and blogs comments. It makes us smile every time...

New Photos up

Just a quick post to let you know that we've put our photos from our east coast trip AND the Oregon leg of our bike trip into our photo gallery. Probably more photos than you ever wanted or needed of us. You should be able to reach them from www.christineandian.com. If not try the link below...

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/soulcedar/my_photos

California here we come

We currently find ourselves in Port Orford along the southern section of the coast after several lovely days of travel. As Ian mentioned in the last post we met up with 5 fabulous ladies from Port Angeles who were on their annual ladies bike trip. I had my first good dose of girl time in what feels like quite some time. We had the pleasure of camping with them for two nights in route, not only were they a laugh a minute but also hard-core, super-buff women- They logged 80 miles on their first day!!! An inspiration to us all my girlies of PA.
Fortunately for us the scenery has taken a small turn to almost boring which means we can actually get a few miles without stopping in awe. I believe tomorrow though we will be back to the same old same old of gorgeous views and rugged coast. Life is really pretty tough out here. Speaking of glorious views we took a slow day yesterday so Ian could search out the perfect wave along Cape Arago. While this never surfaced which did get to take in the majestic views along the Cape Arago Highway and visited Shore Acres State Park, a lovely arboretum overlooking the ocean.

- Christine

one week on the road

well, today represents the end of our first week of biking, and it has gone very well. We've pedaled an estimated 160 miles thus far, and are now in Florence, with another 5 miles to go today. That puts us somewhere around an average of 25 miles a day all told, though we did take two almost full days off over the weekend so that we could meet the Sanfords in Yachats.

We spent last night with Tom, Carrie and Abby Sanford in a rented house just south of Yachats. It was a wonderful night, and in addition to spending a wonderful afternoon and evening with the Sanfords we also pedaled away with our laundry done and every dish spotless. Pretty sweet! As if we hadn't had enough vicarious port angeles time about 3 miles up the road we ran into a group of five cyclists from the peninsula, including Megan from Star Video and Connie who I worked with at OPI some years back (she was a teacher in the P.A. schools). Pretty amazing coincidence. We will spend more time with them tonight.

From here we continue on, hoping to be across the CA border by Friday. We shall see!

Continuing down the road...

We are in Newport, Oregon for a rest day. We've arranged to meet Tom and Carrie in Yachats, Oregon tomorrow, so that gave us more than a full day to laze around a bit and do some shopping, stop at a bike store, sleep in, etc. I can't say enough about what a great way to travel this is - just the right speed. We are doing very well thus far and the initial awkwardness of riding a fully loaded bike quickly dissappears. A few images from the trip - our loads. I am carrying a surfboard and wetsuit, and a guitar with me, which is much to the delight of other cyclists that we meet. Other than that, we are pretty standard, if a bit on the deluxe side (we also have things like a mini espresso maker with us).

On Friday we passed Lincoln City and started down what some call the magic 20 miles - a beautiful rugged section of coast created when a river of magma flowed from Eastern Oregon some time ago. The cooled basalt creates a coast of a different character. One of our first stops was at Boiler Bay, where I saw my first Gray Whale about 17 years ago. Sure enough, there was one there on Thursday, and we spent a good 30 minutes checking it out, looking almost straight down on it. It was Christine's best view of a Gray Whale ever, and I got a little photo of it blowing in the background. Thats it, that bit of mist!

We continue to meet excellent people (the cult of cyclists referred to earlier :)) - We finally camped with Randy and Nancy on Thursday - they, along with a Kiwi named Stuart were the first group of cyclists we met on the road. They are riding, incredibly, from the Arctic from the Antarctic and have set up a web page at www.hobobiker.com. Check it out.

We also happened to be in Newport the weekend of The Gathering surf contest. I decided, after much deliberation, not to surf in the event, but we are planning on making the party tonight. Have to go catch that now...

The ring has arrived!

Don't know if you can zoom in on this image, and we are at a library computer, so I can't find software to crop it, but this is a photo of my ring, which came in the mail while we were in Portland last week. It is beautiful, with a scene etched in to it that Christine came up with - waves and a seastack. Definitely a bit more appealling than the ring pop that I was married with...

how much can I say in 4 minutes?

At the public library in pacific city with only 4 minutes to write! How ever will this work with so many stories already accumulated after only 50 miles of riding? Our first two days into our bike trip have gone well, though not without there comical lessons learned. No near death experiences, no major blow-outs, just a lot of pedalling combined with problem-solving new difficulties. We made or second trip to the post office today to off-load gear that we never should have brought. I am delighted, however, that I brought my surfboard and got my first surf in just a few minutes ago.

One aspect of distance touring that we are finding particularily intriguing is the little cult that forms out of the various groups of bikers that you encounter. we will write more on this later!

a journey of a thousand miles always has the second step second...

The first step was when we left Port Angeles. The second step is starting the bike trip.

Well, i had a great photo to post to this one, but we are now sans computer, so I am on Sandra's Mac now and can't figure the thing out. Oh well, a written description will have to do...

But before that, we are leaving for the Oregon Coast with Sandra and Sean tomorrow and will spend two days with Sandra and Sean on the coast. On Monday night they will drop Christine and I at a campground around Manzanita and will start pedalling from there on Tuesday morning. Christine and I just returned from shipping our stuff down to so. california where we will pick it up after the bike trip. All that remains for us to do now is pedal...

and pedal...

and pedal...

and so forth. You get the idea. Life simplified.

And now the story. So Sean, Christine and I rode our bikes in to downtown Portland two nigths ago to visit REI for a new bike helmet for Christine. It is a short ride, just a few miles, on great bike paths and lanes and over the willamette river. Two things made this trip particularily notable. First, I was carrying a surfboard on my trailer to give my new attachment system a test run. It worked great and I am looking forward to seeing how this whole process is going to work with a fully loaded trailer. Next, as we were riding down a downtown street Christine got her front tire stuck in the rift created by the Max tracks built into the road. And then she fell. Hard. It was hard enought that sean and I were both convinced that she would be severely injured (i had even convinced myself that I saw her lower leg break in the fall) - but she came up, quite thankfully for a whole host of reasons, nearly unscathed.

and then we learned that this was Christine's initiatory, virgin, first-time wreck on a bike. she walked a away with a scrape on her shoulder (that was the photos, imagine if you will) and a tiny dot of blood on her elbow. I certainly hope that there won't be any more, but we do have 1100 miles to go. My next wish is that, should we need to have a few, the crashes that we do have are as free of consequence as Christine's first.