Tag: oregon

Day 7: These hills have hills

We rose with the sun… Then said screw it and slept in a few minutes more. Boiling water the night before allowed for a thermos of hot coffee in the tents… An amazing luxury.

MJ and I got out a full hour earlier than normal, knowing we had a nice easy ride to the border and on to Crescent City, followed by two monster 1000 ‘ + hills standing in the way of our campsite in Humboldt County. Day 7 also featured the longest ride of the trip so far: over 70 miles. Basically, a decent challenge.

After a big forage at the Safeway, we hit the first hill that was the gateway to Redwoods State and National Park. The Goblin groaned a lot as it turned out the hill had 3 peaks. It also featured a crazy pavement project that made one of the upper downhills a little more treacherous than fun. The final downhill felt like flying over the coast as the blue waters of the Pacific lapped at the coastal rocks in the distance.

Some tourist trap in Klamath served as the intermission for hill number 2. Two miles of steep granny gear later and we were rewarded with an epic 5 mile downhill ride through a forest of redwoods that seemed to get progressively larger around every bend.

Day 8 looks to bring me to the same campground where last fall’s Climate Ride began. A fitting way to connect the experiences… And maybe begin exorcising some of the (few) demons of that trip. Look out Leggett…

MJ tip of the day
Use an old, unused phone number for all grocery discount cards… You’ll remember it easily and the marketing people will never be able to contact or find you! Genius! And… mysterious….

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Don’t forget you can track this madness on a real live map at and also on Twitter.

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Day 6: Best day ever, except when it wasn’t

Day 6 was looking to be the final day of the Oregon ride. A little back of the napkin calculations over dinner the night before had MJ and I determining we were behind on our projected SF arrival target, so Day 6 looked like a good day to make up some miles with a flat 30 miles after Brookings.

Some of the hillier parts of the ride stood in the way before that – Seven Devils (apropos name) from Day 5 notwithstanding. I had a really strong start as the Goblin munched up some decent hills, putting us ahead of the game as we descended into Gold Beach. One of our favorite podcasts offers the phrase “best day ever!” as a rallying cry, and it totally fit.

Snap!*

Two spokes on the rear wheel went all kaplooey (hypertechnical biking term). Spokes are important… when perfectly tensioned they keep your wheel, well… wheel shaped. Miss a few and eventually your wheel will wobble like a kid who sat on the Tilt o’ Whirl one ride too many. A quick google, a quick call, and I knew we were 30 miles and a series of climbs away from a bike shop in Brookings. Oregon would have us for one more day after all.

Turns out the Goblin’s rear wheel had seen its best days… A new wheel (thanks Eric) and we’re ready to rock some California ridin.

Playlist today featured obscure 90s songs including that one by Primitive Radio Gods with the really long title. No, you do know that one. Trust me.

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*Not to be confused with 90s exclamatory favorite, “oh snap!” but I guess it would have worked if I had said that following the spoke incident.
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Don’t forget you can track this madness on a real live map at and also on Twitter.

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Day 2: Headwinds, climbs and magnets

Heat advisories on the Oregon coast are declared when temps hit 82. For real. I love this place!

Day 2’s ride featured a sometimes windy 55 miles of stunning coastline and a lunch stop at the famous Pig n Poke in Lincoln City. Powered by omelette and pancakes, I hit the big hills pretty well. This will be good training for Leggett next week.

MJ passed along interesting information on the odd band called Insane Clown Posse… Apparently they are science deniers (yep) and believe (a) all things not easily explained are miracles and (b) science is an enormous conspiracy to deny this fact. One of their songs features the line, “… Magnets! How do THEY work!? Miracles!” Ditto for rainbows and a few other easily explainable phenomenon. Awesome.

My thermarest got a friend in Newport: it was leaking someplace so I got another one at a used gear store for a song. For some reason I can’t part with the one I brought so I’ll probably haul around both. Guess I’m loyal.

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Day 0: international diplomacy and the art of bike maintenance

Today began with the unwelcome wake up alarm following a mere 2.5 hours of sleep… I had a big project due that kept me up and at ’em til the wee hours, and if you’ve ever spent time processing audio and coding websites, you know you can’t just shut down right after completing.

The flight out to Portland was eventful only because I changed up plans at the last second. A group of ten Chinese students were introduced to the American concept of “overbooking” and didn’t have seats on the only plane that could get them to San Francisco in time to connect with a flight home to Shanghai. I knew I had a little time to play with and at the end of the day, I was the 10th person to allow them to all go as a group (it was all or none) and I got the added benefit of a nice travel voucher for the two our delay it cost me. So, win win.

Once in Portland, my brother got me at the airport and I got to work on the Green Goblin. A new set of tires, a new (way too complicated) rack, and we’re good to go. I’ll be sure to snap a pic of the fully loaded green goblin mañana – it looks pretty good and rides great. Big thanks to Community Cycling Center for rehabbing the goblin… It’s a cool little vintage touring bike that I’ll get great use out of here on the west coast.

Mysterious James (MJ, I think for short as we get going on this) joins me in Tillamook tomorrow… I grab a bus from Portland in the morning, and we’ll bike about 30ish miles to Pacific City and the amazing Pelican Pub.

I hear they have beer.