June 11 - Jeff's post

June 11

Few leftovers.  On Sunday, we saw what we think was the home of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.  Went by what looked like a hayfield, but there were all these huge white balls in the field.  And you thought they were made in factories.

Celebrity sighting.  Mick Jagger stopped to talk to us outside Eugene giving us directions.  He is not a rock and roll singer anymore.  Now he sells Trek bicycles, lives in Oregon, and rides $5000 bicycles.  It sure looked like him.

Yesterday, we camped in a campground at a bed and breakfast.  It sat on the most beautiful mountain river.  Clear as a bell.

Today, we did a climb up McKenzie Pass.  About 22 miles up.  Reached 5,325 feet.  We were unprepared for the weather at that altitude.  Not sure how we failed that IQ test.  It was cold with a huge wind chill.  We couldn’t get down fast enough.  Bad thing, there was so much to see.  Snow covered mountains and a lava field, and beautiful scenery.  Last eruption of the volcano was 400 years ago.  It was amazing.  Never seen anything like it and probably never will again.  There was an observatory built out of lava rock.  Going down the other side was fun and precarious.  Jack reached a speed of 34 miles per hour.  Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have let Teri know.  The wind was blowing us sideways a little, but we had to get down to a warmer altitude.  Saw a cool covered bridge on the way to McKenzie Pass.  No coffee shops this morning.  Total mileage  today, 60 miles.

At the bottom of the descent was our campground called Cold Spring.  Not much in the way of facilities.  Sue got it for $7 per  night.  Going to be cold tonight and tomorrow morning.   At an altitude of about 2000 feet still.  We went to the library in the city near our campground called Sisters.   .   Named after three mountains nearby Faith, Hope, and Charity. Used the computers to check e-mail and I read a little of SI Used the computers to check e-mail and I read a little of SI.  SI thinks Joey Votto should be batting 2^nd in the order.  Do you know why Babe Ruth wore number 3?  Let you know in the next blog.  Here is another trivia question.  What are the two states that do not allow you to pump your own gas?  Anyway. 

Went to eat at a brewery called Three Creeks.  Great food and got to watch a little of NBA Finals.  And of course we had a couple pork chops.

Jeff

McKenzie Pass

Day Four, June 11th (Jerry reporting)
This getting up at 4:30 am to get an early start and beat the traffic is getting to be a routine that I don't particularly like, but for now with the traffic situation it seems to be necessary.  We spent the night at a nice campground adjacent to a B&B (although it was a bit pricey and services were limited, but it worked fine).  We had a pleasant 20 miles to the cutoff to McKenzie Pass, then began the long uphill 22 mile climb.  The road was fairly gentle, but 22 miles of any uphill gets wearing.  I dropped down into my lowlow gear after awhile, and settled in for a long crawl to the top.  We watched the elevation signs go by one at a time - 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000...and the temperature began to drop...and the wind began to pick up...and the snow patches on the side of the road began to get larger.  Finally we got to the summit where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses.  There was a nice stone observation tower, and a great view of the surroundings.  Much of the entire area is covered with lava flows, some a couple of thousand years old, some only 400 years old. The distant mountains were snow covered, although it was somewhat cloudy so we couldn't get the whole picture.  It was cold and windy, and we were poorly dressed for winter conditions, so we didn't stay too long, and started the long, speedy, very cold descent.   It was 6 mph up the hill, and about 30 down the hill.  There were many cyclists coming up as we were going down, which was nice to see.  Finally we made it to the bottom, to a town called Sisters.  There are three large mountains around the city, for three sisters apparently.  We were told that they are called Faith, Hope, and Charity.  Sue, along with our friends Jim and Karen, had gotten a camp site at a National Forest campground nearby, and that is where we are spending tonight.  But as a special treat, and due to the cold weather up here, we are in town and going to a restaurant for dinner.  All is well, and we will continue on...

Day Three, June 10th. A Hundred and fourteen miles. Really

(as reported by Jerry)  We started today at Rickreall, where we had a great campsite all to ourselves at the Polk County Fairgrounds.  We did an early start at about 5:45 am to try to beat traffic, and had a nice tailwind which contributed to a pretty fast pace (for us anyway).  A bike trail for about 6 miles made it very pleasant riding, and even after hitting the highway the traffic was light and the shoulders were wide, so we were feeling great and enjoying the ride.  Corvallis (home of the Oregon State Beavers) was a nice coffee shop stop at Starbucks.  Reenergized, we headed for Eugene.  Unfortunately, we failed the IQ test regarding closely reading the map from Adventure Cycling, and we wound up going all the way into downtown Eugene (home of the Fighting Ducks) and spent about 45 minutes going in circles, asking people for directions, before realizing that we should have taken a left turn about 5 miles back.  We can report that downtown Eugene is very nice, but we regretted the time lost.  Once reoriented, we stopped briefly for lunch and a cyclist stopped by to visit.  He was a local cycle shop owner, and gave us some good advice on where to head the next day.  He looked suspiciously like Mick Jagger, according to Jeff.  He said we should definitely head for McKenzie Pass, because they had not yet opened the road to car traffic from the winter snows.  Anyway, from there, we found ourselves on a really nice section of road for awhile, and then the last twenty miles was back on a major high speed, heavily traveled road with a veryverysmall shoulder.  Not very pleasant.  So we had 95 miles of very pleasant riding, and about 19 miles of anxiety.  Most drivers are very courteous and give us some space.  A few seem determined to try to blow us off the road, as a warped kind of sport.  Sue had found us a great place to stay at a Bed and Breakfast which also has camping sites, so here we are ready to dive into a great meal of pasta and salad.  Sue has done a great job of supporting us on this adventure.

    I love the riding each day.  It is exhilarating to ride and ride for extended times.  The traffic has been a  bigger problem than I thought it would be.  Hopefully the conditions will improve as we get more into rural areas.  Tomorrow we go over McKenzie Pass, which is reported to be a bicyclers dream.   Tune in tomorrow for the outcome.

    

June 9 - Jeff Again

Shoutout to Becky VH, celebrating her 19^th birthday today.  She had the luxury of having her papa bear singing her happy BD over the phone from Oregon.

Day 2 began with an unexpected hill out of the campground.  As that great philosopher, Ken Shields, the former coach at NKU once said, “inch by inch, life’s a cinch.  Mile by mile, it takes a while.”    I know everyone thinks Mt. Sinai is not in the US, but when we got to the top, we saw a guy who looked like Moses holding 2 tablets.  It was quite a hill to start the day.  But as Jack says, it is better not to know ahead of time.

Stopped at a coffee shop.  I got reprimanded for drinking my cup of Joe too slowly.  It was one of our last stops with a view of the Pacific before we started going east.  Next road was a back road where we saw one car.  We all agreed that if we left today, the trip would have been worth it.  Saw a school where Jack thinks they may need an AP Calculus teacher.  Saw a llama in a backyard.  And of course there was a hill.  After this road, things changed.  We got on Route 18 where traffic was a nightmare.  It was very tense.  We could not figure out where everybody was going.  Route 22 was next.  We thought it had to be better, and it was a little.  But still a lot of traffic.

We had lunch on Route 18 at a roadside trailer. Today, Jack was the one who got the hotdog with everything on it.  Jerry got an espresso shake.  We are living large. We got to sit in the front yard and eat.  Jerry and Jack in chairs.  Jeff sitting on a rock.  Always the bridesmaid.

Route 22 provided views, a golf course, 2 vineyards.  Sue passed us on the route and went ahead to look for evening accommodations which were slim pickins.  We ended up at a fairgrounds in Polk County which is not officially a campground but they consented to let us camp anyway.  We were originally going to be next to the sheep barn, but they put us in a different spot.  Showers and restrooms.  God bless America.  They were holding a gun show at the fairgrounds today.  One of the guys doing security gave us a lead on a wine tasting.  He said just tell them that Kevin sent us.  It was the Eola Wine Cellars.  They treated us great and would recommend them to anyone going to Oregon.  Mare, you would have loved it.

Back to the campground for a pasta meal that Jerry predicts is to die for and then probably an early to bed.  Planning on doing 100 miles tomorrow.  Eighty today.  

June 7 - Jeff Reporting

Jack and Jeff got in about 10:00 on their flight from Cincinnati.  We rode Frontier.  Good experience.  Jerry and Sue picked us up, and we made the two hour trip to Astoria where they had already secured a campground.  We went out to dinner at a place called the Rogue where they had 9,193 beers on tap.  Had a great meal.  Everybody was able to finish their meal except Jack.  He needed help finishing his pizza.  A large pizza.  Jeff and Jerry and Jim Lubbers ( he and his wife Karen are along part of the trip) were more than happy to oblige helping Jack finish the pizza.  Hard to believe.  The Rogue was a very rustic establishment that I would highly recommend.  Great food, character and of course 9, 193 beers on tap.  Seas lions were in the bay outside the bar which used to be a cannery.  The odd thing about the bar was that there was no TV.  We could not watch the Reds/Cardinals game.  Across from the Rogue was the house that the Academy award winning movie, the Goonies was filmed.  And if I am not mistaken, I think the Kindergarten Cop was filmed in Astoria also.  Of course, we had a toast to the success of the trip.  Had a campfire and turned in early with time change in effect.

Big news.  Jeff developed a list of contacts, learned how to take a picture, send a picture , and reply to a text on  his new phone.  Those of you who know Jeff, know how big this is.

June 8

No flat tires today.  But last night we did drink a Fat Tire. 

Strange thing about the Transamerica Trial is that there is no official starting spot.  The map shows an address that is the Maritime Museum in Astoria.  So our original idea was to dip our back tires in the Pacific and front tires in the Atlantic.  No place to dip tires in water at the Museum.  So we started our adventure from the Museum location and rode to a city called Seaside where someone suggested there is a place to dip.  So we get to Seaside after traveling along the Lewis and Clark trail.  It is a low tide, so we had to carry our bikes to the water because we didn’t want to get sand on the bikes.  Sand is very very bad for bikes.  It was a distance of about 400 yards.  We carried them to make it official.  Not sure if we passed the IQ test on that one.  Got a picture and made it official.  On the way along Lewis and Clark trail, we stopped at all the Historical Marker spots.  Thus, the trip will be educational as well.  We will be experts on certain things when we get back.  We did have to consult the map on several occasions and get help from a young lady of about 58 who could tell we needed  help because we were riding in circles at a four way stop.  We crossed a sign that said Draw Bridge.  Big problem.  Nobody brought crayons or a pen.  So we continued on.    Jeff made the statement that the draw bridge looked exactly like the bridge that Jimmy Stewart jumped off of in the movie It is a Wonderful Life.  Jerry and Jack did not agree.

After Seaside, which is a great little resort town, we encountered ots of hills, lots of trucks, and lots of beautiful scenery.  Hills were very gradual.  We probably stopped about a dozen times.  If we stopped at every coffee shop or pub or restaurant that looked special.  We would have gone a total of 20 miles rather than the 75 we did the first day.  Oregon is a very very neat state.  I can say neat because I was born in the 50’s.

Met one lady who was pushing a stroller loaded down with her supplies.  She had begun in O’ Canada and was shooting for San Diego.  She was walking for Peace and children in Africa.  Met another guy doing the same trip as us only to Washington DC.  He was doing it unsupported while smoking an artificial cig.  Met a guy watching the waves in the Pacific behind the Catholic Church, St.  Mary’s of the Seas. I don’t know if he was sure about us.   Everyone was more than friendly.  Met a couple in one of the cool little town of Marinzata who informed of us that Oregonians are all very friendly.  Got sketched by some guy in Marinzata.  While in Marinzata, we stopped to check out the beach and take a short break.  Jerry and Jeff went to the coffee shop.  On the way to the coffee shop, Jeff spotted a picture of a Mudd Dog.  A version of the Chicago Dog.  It had a whole pickle, Vienna sausage, sweet relish, pepper, sauerkraut, and mustard.  I could not resist.  Road after Marinzata was rough pavement. Thank God for the Gators.   And lots of traffic.

Jack bought some cherries from a roadside stand giving free samples.  Attendant said Oregon has only 50 days of sunshine a year.  Ninety-four inches of rain last year.

We ended up in the city of Tillamook.  Well known for their world renown cheese.  Jack got free samples first before he bought some of their cheese.  Good cheese no matter who cut it.

On the way back to campsite, Jeff purchased a condo.  Well not like land but a tent.  Sorry Clair, but your tent made me claustrophobic.  So I bought a 3 man tent for me.  I figured that if I’m going to do this for three months, I’m not going to suffer.  Not sure how Clair slept in that tent for the months she was on the Appalachian Trail.

Tomorrow, we  head out early to avoid the traffic along route 101.  Hope to get in at least 60 more miles.  Depends on traffic and weather.

Got back and went to the beach in walking distance of our campsite.  Powerful waves.  Sue made  us a deeeelicious dinner of pasta with mett.  No leftovers. 

Giants of the Woods

We are at Redwoods National Park today, and went for a  walk in the woods under some of the biggest trees in the world, towering more than 300 feet overhead.  I was astounded at the beauty and size of them, and also at the number of them.  The areas that have been protected in the park are fairly large, and as you walk through the forest, they are everywhere.  Down in Yosemite we saw some giant Sequoias, and they were indeed impressive, but there were only a handful.  Here, there are hundreds and hundreds of the Giant Redwoods.  It is quite remarkable.    Our campsite is in an RV park, near the ocean, and in the morning it was covered with a dense fog.  Don't worry Jack, I had the bikes covered so no dew settled on your bike.  The fog didn't burn off for quite awhile.  They say the fog off the ocean is one of the major sources of moisture that creates the proper environment for the redwoods.  The forest was very lush, and fortunately for us the rhododendron was also in bloom, and there is quite a lot of that also.  Plus some trillium, and other plants that we didn't recognize but looked somewhat similar to plants from our part of the world.   Tomorrow we will head north into Oregon, intending to be in Astoria no later than Thursday night.  There is some sort of sea lion habitat on the coast near Florence that we hope to visit tomorrow.   So, another day here in Paradise, and all is going well.

Sunday in the Park with John and Teddy

A little over a hundred years ago, John Muir, co-founder and first president of the Sierra Club, and Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States, spent three days and nights camped out in Yosemite Valley, and discussed the importance of wilderness and how to protect it for future generations.  Sue and I spent the past three days in Yosemite, and I can only say thank you to those who have preserved this magical, marvelous place for us to enjoy.  Looking out over the valley, seeing Yosemite Falls, Half Dome, El Capitan, and all the other incredible sights to be seen here, I confess the beauty brought tears to my eyes.  This is truly a special place, and we are fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience it.   We got a great campsite in a National Forest area just outside the park and spent three nights there, driving up into the park on the Tioga Road.  The sights along this road were spectacular enough, but on Sunday we went on over to the Yosemite Valley area, and that was even more inspirational.  We have all seen the iconic pictures of Yosemite, many taken by Ansel Adams, but no picture can do it justice.   

    From here we hope to get to the Redwood National Forest tonight.  Our plan is to be near Astoria on Thursday night, ready to pick up Jack and Jeff in Portland on Friday.  Then the next phase of this adventure will begin.  So far it has been wonderful.