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