Ok... Let get serious

 

Track from our ride on Wed 6/3

The riding after the rest day in Walla Walla got more serious as we get closer to the mountains.  Our first day was a ride Pomeroy, WA, a small farming community with a campground at the country fairground.  It was a nice place and had showers which was good after our 68 mile and 4000' of climbing day.  The climbing wasn't steep but very long sections of constant up hill. 

Campground at the Pomeroy County Fairground

Yesterday was our big riding day for the week, over 70 miles and over 5000' of climbing with the biggest climb coming at the end of the day.  Our favorable tailwinds were not with us, but luckily we didn't have a lot of head winds either.  John (66) and I took an alternate route to the finish which took us up a 2300' climb where the first 8 miles were pretty steep, but then leveled out a little as we made our way to Winchester.  The views from the road were amazing and no traffic.  There are few main highways in this area, so the truck traffic is more than you would like.

Views along the road to Winchester.  The yellow field in the distance are Canola.

Today was a relatively easy 46 miles to Kamiah, ID.  There were a number of significant rolling hills, jand then an 1800' drop at the end that was a lot of fun.  It would have been more fun if there wasn't a 10 mph headwind in my face going down the big hill.

Train trestle along our route to Kamiah, ID

Tomorrow we join up with the route that Beth, Nicholas and I did in 2013 all the way to Missoula, MT.  It is a long slow climb tomorrow for nearly 60 miles.  Then the day after tomorrow we'll climb over Lolo Pass which will be the highest point on the trip so far.

The "Three Amigas" - (left to right) Dorothy (73), Jocelyn (62) and Sheri (74)

I'll fill you in on some of the riders from the tour.  We call them the "Three Amigas".  Almost from the first day they have been riding together or very close.  

Dorothy (73) is from the Finger Lake area of up state New York and taught Veterinary medicine specializing in large animals until just recently.  Her husband Steve rode with us from Astoria to Portland, but Dorothy is a far stronger rider and frequently was ahead of him.  This is her first long cycling trip and was fairly worried about being able to make it.  We are now 10 days in with a couple of serious riding days and she is doing fine.

Jocelyn (62) is from the Asheville, North Carolina area and still a part time CPA.  She has a Starlink with her so she can do some limited amount of work even in remote sites.  Jocelyn is a veteran touring cyclist with many multiday/week trips and is also a strong and steady cyclist.  She is frequently in the lead of the Amigas grinding their way up a hill.

Sheri (74) is from Bainbridge Island, WA, just across the sound from Seattle and a retired elementary school teacher.  She is riding an ebike we loving call "The Beast".  It must weigh well over 60 pounds fully loaded.  Sheri has also done a lot of cycle touring and is usually bringing up the rear of the Amigas, just peddling along and conserving her battery for the big climbs.

All three have a great sense of humor and are taking the riding and camping in stride.  Tonight there was a motel option at our campsite and they all took the opportunity for a real bed and a private bath.  I don't blame them, but I have been sleeping better in the tent than any hotel so far, so I am in the campground.

Rest Day in Walla Walla

Colville Street Patisserie dessert case

We had a nice rest day in Walla Walla, WA.  It is nice little college town with lots of winery tasting rooms in the well maintained downtown area.  At Heidi's recommendation, a number of the group went to the Colville Street Patisserie.  The pastries seemed to be right out of France and the desserts looked unbelievable.  Most of the day was taken up with doing laundry, running to the bike shop and everybody taking care of personal things while we had the chance.  

It also gave Hank, our cook, a much needed day off from feeding us.  He actually spends more time setting up and tearing down his cooking equipment and moving ice chests than cooking.  He is becoming very frustrated and more than a few of us are concerned he may quit.  The group is tossing around some ideas to make his life more manageable by packing our own lunches at breakfast and not having him set up for lunch.  This is the first time BIKEternity has run a coast-to-coast trip and there are some bugs to work out.

Food trucks in the park

For dinner, a few of us went to a local park for a "Food Truck Night" which was a good alternative to a restaurant, but I had flashbacks to RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa).  But at least there weren't 20,000 people in the park!

Today, we head into the mountains.  The next couple of days will be some of the more difficult riding days with 68 miles and 4000' of climbing followed by 71 mile and 5280' of climbing.  The week in general will be a good workout as we make our way to Missoula, MT for our next rest day on Monday (5/7)

Beth and I rode the route the final two days into Missoula back in 2013 on our ride across the country.  It is remote area mostly following the Lochsa River up to Lolo Pass then a big downhill ride into the Missoula area.  While remote, it is a very pretty area.

From Portland into the Columbia Gorge

Overlook of the Columbia Gorge and Vista House

 I knew this would be one of the pretty sections of the ride.  We rode out of Portland on a nice bike path and then start to climb old highway 30 toward Hood River.  It is quite a climb to get up here, but it is well worth the effort.

Closeup of the Vista House from the overlook

From the Vista House there is a twisting, rapid decent back to near the river level which was a lot of fun.  From there we passed several waterfalls, Horse Trail Falls, Latourell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls  but the most famous of them all is Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls

Because of some road construction we took a highway department shuttle for 3.5 miles to avoid the construction.  What we weren't told about was the landslide that had closed about 100 yards of the bike trail.  As more of the group showed up we formed a "bucket brigade" for bikes to hand them up a steep makeshift work around on the trail.

Landslide bypass.  The picture really doesn't do justice to how steep this was.

The landslide that covered the trail

We made our way across the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks, OR and entered Washington to reach our campsite for the night.  Of course the trip planner had to pick a campground 3 miles up a steep hill, but it was a nice enough campground.

Bridge of the Gods

Jim and Heidi came and took me to dinner at a local brewpub and it was good to see them one more time before I head to points east.  Heidi brought some cookies she had made from the Milk Bar cookbook that I am pretty sure Beth had given to her a few years ago.  They were a big hit with the group at our first stop the next.   They were really good!

The next day we were riding Washington Hwy 14 east toward Bingen, WA which is just over the river from Hood River.  Jim and Heidi and a number of others said this is NOT a good road to ride and they are correct.  There many places with very little shoulder, several tunnels with no shoulder and a significant amount of impatient traffic, but the tour organizer was hell bent on riding this road so we did.  No body died so we will call that a win.

Shoulder on parts of Hwy 14

View from Washington side back to Hood River.  Jim and Heidi's house is about mid-way up the hill to right side, but kind of buried in the trees. 

We made it past Lyle and the road improved and the traffic got thinner which was nice.  Plus we had a nice tailwind to our campground at Maryhill State Park.  That night the wind picked and with a thunderstorm.  But the wind blew so hard that the tents were dry by morning.  

The ride on Friday was an absolute scream.  We had 25-30 mph tailwinds the whole day which made our 61 mile ride a "breeze".  The average speed for the day was 17mph with 2700' of climbing. A lot of the time we were going 30 mph, so we felt like the pros in a peloton. We rode though lots of orchards and vineyards, so a really nice ride.

Cherries almost ready to pick

When we got to the Crow Butte campground for the night, the wind was still howling and our campsite was fully exposed to the wind.  The ranger for the area said we could camp in the Day Use area which had a number of shelters and buildings for us to get some relief from the wind which was really since some of the rental tents are very big and really hard to set up in the wind.

Using the bathhouse as a wind break for our tents

Today, Saturday, 5/30, was an easy 30 mile ride to Umatilla, OR.  We took the opportunity to stop in a local coffee shop and plenty of time to set up our tents in the Marina RV campground.  We are close to I-82, but the noise isn't bad with the wind still blowing east.  Tomorrow, we ride 60 miles into Walla Walla, Washington for our first "Rest Day" of the trip.  After that the riding will get more serious as we start to enter the western edge of the Rockies.

Mileage for the first week of the CX50 trip was 361 miles and 15,700' of climbing... it will be more next week for sure.  

I'm having a good time with plenty of adventure so far.  The camping adds something of a new dimension, but I have done it before, but at least I am not packing it!  

It is a good group, but sadly we will lose one of our riders tomorrow in Walla Walla.  Dave, our 80 year old, was in the hospital a couple of months ago with a pretty serious infection. Against the advice of his wife and doctor he went ahead and started the trip.  He has not been feeling well for several days and will head for home to recover.  However we were joined by two new riders yesterday, Doug and Deb from Iowa.  They are following our same route and had been in touch with Arlen, our tour director about joining us, so they will be with us to at least South Dakota. Plus they brought down the average age of the group being 61 and 65!

And so we begin... XC50

 

The Whole Gang

If you wonder about the XC50, this is the 50th anniversary of the publishing of a trans-America (XC -Cross Country) bike route by Adventure Cycling.  So I may frequently refer to this trip as XC50.

Before the rain started

The ride began for real from Astoria, OR and my expectations for the ride were met as we rolled to Rainier, OR.  I had anticipated this to be a wet ride on a very busy highway with many areas with little to no shoulder.  Yup... that is what is was.  Sometimes you just have to slog your way through some areas.  We got in a couple of hours of riding before the rain hit, but it was steady for several hours after that.  We had to wait a while at the campsite for the rain to let up so we could set up our tents and get a hot shower.  Nobody died, so we'll call that a win!

And as an added benefit my Wahoo GPS died in the rain and I don't mean the battery died.  It is gone.  I had enough cell service at the campsite to order a new GPS from Amazon and have it delivered to the hotel here in Portland overnight.  I am back in business with routing instructions on the bike.  Today I used my phone with an ear bud so I could hear the turn-by-turn instructions from the Ride With GPS app on my phone.  Plus, I rode most of the day with Chuck (76) and John(66) and their GPS's were working.  We are by far the strongest riders on the tour.

We didn't get a lot more rain overnight, but it was still cloudy with scattered showers around as we broke camp and headed out toward Portland.  We were still on Hwy 30, but as we got closer to Portland the road improved with either a bike lane or a wide shoulder, but the pickup trucks pulling 5th wheels had been replaced by semi's, so the traffic was still substantial.

As we rolled into Portland we had to cross the Willamette river at some point.  There are a number of bridges, but only a few that you would consider riding a bike across.  We followed the route directions to the Broadway Bridge.  During the route discussion, they kind of failed to mention the "stair climb".  There are several people with ebikes on the tour, so climbing 40 stairs is not really an option.  We have a group text message  set up and I used Google maps to find an alternate route onto the bridge and sent it to the group behind us, which they appreciated.

Right after we crossed the bridge we rode a mile to our next scheduled rest stop.  This provided insight into some of the things the Portland Chamber of Commerce doesn't publicize.  I am pretty sure there was a drug dealer on the street, a number of homeless smoking pot, or something stronger and some very colorful language between the park patrons, etc.  We arrived just as Susan, the guide, showed up to set things up for the snack table.  We didn't hang around very long.  As most of the riders showed up, Susan called the other guide and advised they just pass up this stop since it was only 10 more miles to the hotel.

Tomorrow we leave Portland and head into the Columbia Gorge.  I plan to have dinner with Jim and Heidi.  They will come pick me up from our campsite on the Washington side of the Columbia River and go to a local brew pub which I am looking forward to, plus they will get to meet this cast of characters.

I have found out the ages of all but 2 of the riders.  Dave at 80 is the oldest and Miles at 64 is the youngest (so far).  So I may be a little below the the average at 69.  

The 3 oldest men on the trip (L to R):  Dave (80 and you would guess it), Chuck (76), Glenn (77) - Dave and Glen are old friends, riding ebikes.  Glen has done RAGBRAI 18 times (ride across Iowa)

The back of Susan, one of our guides at lunch.  I wish I had a picture at the end of the day.  Her jacket was pretty much black from road grime.  

The first camp site of XC50 at Hudson Parcher County Park

Back on the Road... Again - The Prologue

It has been 8 years since Beth and I last posted on this blog. A lot has happened since then. A pandemic. Several more adventures that went undocumented here like a "Bike-n-Barge" trip from Paris to Brugge Belgium. A week long cruise on a converted crab boat into Glacier Bay National Park which included adding a bike ride in Juneau, Alaska to complete riding in all 50 states. 

And then the shock of Beth's diagnosis of Stage 4 Vulvar cancer in Oct of 2023. She passed away on March 2, 2024, just 4 and a half months after her diagnosis, while  enduring radiation and chemo treatments through the holidays. So the past 2 years have been very difficult at times and I expect will continue to be a roller coaster. 

I had thought about just starting a new blog, but decided against that.  If you come across this blog you can go back and visit some of Beth and my prior adventures including the original ride across the country in 2013. 

So a few months ago I was trying to come to some decision about what to do this year. One of the last things Beth asked of me was to keep doing what WE had been doing... taking trips that hopefully turned into adventures. 

I was poking around on Google and came across the description of a bike ride across the country from a small company called BIKEternity based in Missoula, MT. It was to be a celebration tour of 50 years since Adventure Cycling of America had published the "TransAmerica" route which was the basis of our 2013 Ride Across the USA with our 16 year old nephew, Nicholas, as our support person driving a 22' Sprinter motorhome.  What an adventure that was!

Terrain map I made of the cross country route

I looked at the route and saw that it included pieces of things Beth and I had done together like riding over Lolo Pass outside Missoula and the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills. But also plenty of places I haven't ridden including some sections of "Rail-to-Trail". Long story short I signed up and the ride begins today, May 24, in Astoria, OR. The average is 63 miles per day, so not quite the 80 mile per day pace we did in 2013, but I'm 13 years older as well! 

It is a small group of 11 riders with 4 staff. I think, at 69, I may be in the middle of the pack age wise.  I know that Chuck is 76 and a really strong rider, may be the oldest. The youngest I know of is John at 66 and also a strong rider.  There are 4 women and 7 men, so a pretty good mix for a long distance tour and two women guides, so it should be a pretty balanced group. It is an 11 week trip with over 50 nights of camping with a couple of nights in hotels every week or so.  Definitely NOT something Beth would have agreed to do.  The 17 nights of camping on our Africa bike trip were the first and last camping bike trip!

In the past, the blog was a joint venture between Beth and I.  So, I'll try to keep up with posting something every few days, but with cycling and camping I'm not sure how much energy I'll have for keeping up with the blog.  We'll just have to see.  Hopefully there will be some tales to tell!

The Peter Iredale

Today, we went for a fairly short ride from the hotel in Astoria to Fort Stevens State Park, which Beth and I had visited a few years ago on one our trips to the Oregon coast.  It was a beautiful day for spring on the coast.  We rode to the beach where the wreck of the Peter Iredale is located.  After the official dip of our bike tires in the Pacific Ocean we are on our way across the country.

The weather forecast for our first real day of riding toward Maine, is NOT supposed to be so picture perfect... Chilly and rainy all day and into the evening.  It will also be our first night of camping so we'll see how that goes, but that is just part of the adventure.

The women of the tour L to R: Sheri, Marianne, Susan (guide), Jocelyn, Kelly (guide) and Dorothy

John and me

Osaka

March 20 - Travel to Osaka

Imabari Castle

After our eventful bike ride and attempts at drying out our clothes, this morning we had a short time to explore Imabari.  Since it wasn't raining we took the short walk from our hotel was Imabari Castle.  This was quite impressive 5 story castle, very typical of a shogun's palace that is seen in many of the smaller towns in Japan.  It was also a museum with many old shogun army outfits but unfortunately without any English explanations.  The gardens and temples were quite lovely.  The walk allowed us to stretch out our legs before the long day of train rides traveling from Imabari to Osaka.  It was raining again by the time we arrived in Osaka (the weather has turned against us) so after checking in at our hotel, we found a small curry place for dinner and called it a day.

March 21 - Remaining in Osaka allowed us to get a later start to our day.  We traveled by subway to two different shopping centers (covered street malls).  The first was quite typical of what we have seen in other cities and areas of Japan but we did find the 100 yen ($1) store and had fun wandering around looking at the items.  In particular we have noted the laundry hanging from the apartment building balconies as we pass by on the train. 

The "100 Yen" store

We have seen all sizes and shapes of laundry clamps from the typical close pins to some that are a foot long to clamp bed comforters to the balcony.  We wondered where you buy them and now we know... the 100 yen store had a full selection.

The second shopping street was devoted primarily to kitchen and restaurant ware.  Every small dish, plate, bowl, etc. that we have seen throughout our meal journeys was available for purchase along with the charcoal grills, bamboo steamers, knives, octopus ball grills, restaurant signs, lights and anything else one might need to set up a restaurant.  It was a truly amazing collection of restaurant equipment and supplies.

"Clothes pins" of all sizes

We had planned to make a trip to Kobe from Osaka (about 40 minutes by train) as Ted has some good memories of his time there but we are both getting tired of the crowds in the train and subway stations.  It's hard to imagine millions of people using public transportation on a daily basis.  The images of packed subway cars and pushers to get as many people on as possible are all true.  It is pretty much a game of frogger just navigating the crowded subway and train terminals as 6 tunnels merge into one large intersection and people hurry on their way to their next train.

Tomorrow we return to Tokyo and will depart early on the following day to return to Albuquerque.  This has been quite the trip and a fascinating vacation.

A sampling of knives available at one of the kitchen supply stores

Hiroshima, Cycling the Shimanami Way

This is not on sale... a $100 cantelope
Perfectly grown fruit is given as special gifts in Japan

Before we move on, we have to back up a little because we forgot to tell you about our "fire sale" dinner.  We had written about the large grocery stores located in the bottom of the department stores at train stations and the choices are quite overwhelming.  The stores close at 8PM so at 7:30 or so all of the pre-made items are put on sale (often at 1/2 price) because they will not resell the following day.  So for dinner in Kyoto we experienced the "end of the day fire sale".  We got a great beef bento (lunch) box, meatballs, sweet and sour chicken and steamed buns all for about $20.

The following night after visiting Nara, we found a yakitori (stuff grilled on a small wooden skewers) restaurant just around the corner from our hotel.  It was a real hole in the wall type place with maybe 15 seats total around a small bar/kitchen.   Initially we were the only customers but the two workers welcomed us in and even provided us with an English menu.  There were a few set dinner menu combinations and a couple of "let the chef pick", but in general you just order items by the "stick".  There were some odd items like chicken feet, beef tongue, lots of intestinal parts, so letting the chef pick might be a little risky. So we started ordering items, one by one to sample all kinds of grilled and deep-fried meats.   It was a great experience and great food!  This place must have a regular customer base because there was one price listed on the menu for walk-ins and a slightly lower price for members.

March 19 - Hiroshima

A-Bomb Dome

Even taking the bullet train from Kyoto to Hiroshima, it was a two hour journey, mostly in tunnels or troughs so not much to see.   Hiroshima is, of course, known for the first atomic bomb used in war, so the must see places include the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Park.  The A-bomb Dome is portion of a public building that was near ground zero which withstood the blast.  The covering of the dome of the building was blown away, but the steel structure of the dome and most of the building remained.

We found another small Korean-style barbecue (small charcoal grill at your table) for dinner and enjoyed grilling our own meat and vegetables on the table top grill.  Again, the staff was great providing an English menu and helped with ordering.  Ted has noticed that finding limited English speakers is more common than his previous trips.  English is taught in the middle and high schools, so most young people speak at least limited English and feel comfortable talking with us.  Also, the widespread use of the internet has probably helped as well.  Just like in the states, everybody is glued to their phone on the sub-way, train or bus.

March 20 - Cycling the Shimanami Way

Beth modeling her $5 rain coat

After breakfast we arranged for our luggage to be transferred to Osaka where we will be staying on the 21st.  Then with our backpacks loaded for one night, we took two local trains to arrive at Onomichi, the beginning of our cycling route.  We'd been watching the weather all week and the rain prediction was correct.  The morning started with spitting rain which continued all day increasing in intensity from around 1PM on.  Although we had brought raincoats with us, we found out early on the trip that they weren't very water-resistant any more.  So we spent some time in Hiroshima looking for cheap raincoats.  At the ever ready convenience store (FamilyMart) we found 500 yen ($5) clear plastic raincoats and they really saved the day.  And yes, we found one that fit Ted,,the sleeves were a little short, but it sure beat nothing and did the job.

The cycle ride started with renting bikes in Onomichi and then a very short ferry ride to cross over to the next island.  About 4 miles into the ride, Ted had a flat.  The rental bikes had no spare tube or pump.  We saw several more cyclist, but none with a pump.  We

Bike "selfie" climbing up to one of the
 bridges...  had to keep thinking...
"ride on the left!"... just like the UK

were a long way from any bike terminal, but were fortunate enough to have a friendly Japanese bike rider, with a reasonable amount of English, stop and use his phone to call the emergency number.  After a lengthy conversation in Japanese, describing the problem and our location, he ended the conversation and indicated it would be about 30 minutes but we would get a new bike.  Ted's first bike was small for him and the next one was even smaller.  He raised the seat to the maximum and was still probably 2 inches short of being tall enough, but he made it work.

One the early bridges we crossed

In all, the ride is 50 miles linking multiple islands by 6 suspension bridges. Although the route is generally flat the climbs up to the bridges were not!   Despite the rain, the views were spectacular and well worth the ride.  It would be simply stunning in good weather and in better weather many of the small towns had temples and castles that would be fun to visit.  The last bridge, the Kurushima Kaikyo, was 4 km long and has 6 towers, the longest suspension bridge structure in the world.   By then it was raining harder, the wind was picking up and getting cold but we endeavored to persevere and made it all the way to the Imabari rail station to turn in our bikes.

Sadly, we walked into the nicest hotel in Imabari (4+ star) looking like dripping wet dogs covered with road grime.  After dripping all over the check-in counter, we slogged our way to our room to shed our wet clothes and clean up.  That night our bathroom was a sauna, what with trying to dry out all the wet clothes, our backpacks and shoes using the hotel hair dryer.  As tired as we were neither of us wanted to go out to dinner (in the rain) so again the ever ready convenience store (Lawson's) a block from the hotel provided dinner.

The Kurushima Kaikyo bridge is 4k long and fades into the fog.  The bike path spirals up from near sea level on both ends to get to the bridge.  It is an engineering marvel.