Here we go with some numbers.

Time gone from LA: 75 days

Miles on bike: 2150

Miles ridden while bike touring (fully loaded with gear): 1661 (500 in Alaska in 10 days, and 1161 Vancouver to San Francisco in 19 days)

Times paid to camp/sleep: 11

Total spent on camp/sleep: $45

Oddest place camped: A pumpkin patch in Garberville, Ca

Coldest nights: Denali National Park, (single digits) and Nora/Themba’s house without heat in Olympia (low 30’s)

Longest consecutive time in sleeping bag: 14 hours (On the Sunday night after two days of straight rain)

Time spent on internet while away: Unfathomable

Longest time alone straight: 13 days

Longest period w/o being inside a motor vehicle: 21 days

Estimated weight of bike plus trailer plus gear and food: 100 pounds

Packages of little debbie donuts and peanut chews consumed: Unconceivable

Top 3 camp stove meals: 1. Ramen noodles with tofu, broccoli and peanut sauce 2. Rehydrated beans and rice w/ tortillas 3. Pasta with olive oil and nutritional yeast

Flat tires: 1 (seriously, only one fucking flat tire in 2100 miles!)

Broken/worn out parts: 1 chain, 1 seat bag, 1 spoke, 1 gear (broke two teeth riding at a skate park in Alaska)

Major mechanical problems: Twice my rear axle came loose and separated from the frame.

Total money spent on transporting bicycle on 4 flights: 0

Money spent on mailing things to/from myself: $55

Total sets of non-riding clothing: 1 (1 shirt, 1 pants, 1 fleece)

Number of new warrantied frames waiting for me when I returned: 1 (!)

So that’s it for this trip. Send me an email, leave a comment. Peace for now, see you in real life.
Matt

It seems now, after this trip, that ‘bike touring’ has become more about the traveling then the traveling by bike. Seeing this part of the world was my priority, I just happen to do it by bicycle to add to the experience. And what an experience it has been; probably one of the most spectacularly scenic trips I have ever taken.

Getting to the coast from Portland was uneventful, but immediately the beauty of the Oregon coast was obvious. Coming from the east coast and living in so cal my idea of ‘ocean views’ involves boardwalks, sunbathers and surfers. Not in Oregon. Huge rocks line the coast where angry waves crash against what can hardly be described of as a beach. The road I was following rolled right along this coast most of the time, occasionally drawing inland, but soon retracting back to the coastal views and the undulating hills.

Traveling in the fall has definite advantages; the first and most obvious being decreased traffic. Campsites were at maybe 10% occupancy. An occasional RV passed me (but almost always too closely). ‘Vista points’ were deserted. The drawback was the short days (dark by 430-5pm) and the cold, sometimes rainy weather. I knew what to expect and was preparing myself for the rain. It’s not the riding in the rain, it is the camping that is difficult. Previously, when it rained I was paranoid about any water in my tent or if any of my stuff was wet. Those days have been long gone since I have spent DAYS in the rain. Like when you set up your tent and there is already a puddle inside from packing it wet that morning. It is absolutely impossible to keep things dry. My (expensive) rain gear worked fantastic, but when you have to put it a garbage bag in your tent when you wake up and put it on the inside is wet; there is no way to avoid it. Sometimes you cannot find a covered place to cook dinner, so there you are, in a downpour, firing up your stove and measuring out rice. I left Portland on a Monday morning and it didn’t rain hard until that Friday night, but it rained through the weekend and into the following Monday. News of a coming storm persisted through all of last week, but thankfully never came. It was not until the end of that week that all my stuff finally dried!

Another change about this trip was my use of state campgrounds. The Oregon and Cali coast are covered in state parks that offer hiker/biker tent sites for $2-4! This includes picnic table, water, restrooms, shower and (most importantly) a flat, level place to put your tent. If you are familiar with my previous trips I never paid to camp. 3300 miles cross country without spending a dime! Also it was worth the ambiance of the sites. I camped in forests 1/4 mile from the beach and in redwood groves. And of course I was the only person in that area. It added to the beauty of an already fantastic trip.

And this is the part I have the most trouble describing in here. How can I convey the beauty of riding through a forest of the largest trees in the world? Or riding on a narrow road 200 feet above the edge of the continent? In a car you see it as you pass by, on a bike it absorbs you for hours. In a car you could dose off and miss the environment it took me an entire day to ride through. So, I will leave the descriptions at that and maybe in person I can get into it more.

Meeting other travelers rules. Like the kid from Germany who confronted me at the golden gate bridge, my final destination, and said, ‘Great time from Portland’. I looked at him perplexedly and he told me he saw me south of Portland and then two more times in the next 13 days while he hitchhiked down the coast. And the walking guy (who has a website, but I don’t have the link). He left Florida in March and was heading to Canada. He had a trailer, the same one I had attached to my bike, but attached to his pack. He has done all the long distance trails in the USA. He was not as insane as he may seem, but was still a bit crazy. We shared our mutual disdain for RV’s and the people who drive them and exchanged some stories. He told me a guy from Alaska was a couple days ahead of me! When you are bike touring it is really exciting to meet up with someone headed in the same direction.

As luck would have it, about a week later I ran into him at a small coffee shop in an extremely small town. He’s 47, has lived in Alaska (the southeast) for over 40 years and had not spent anytime in the continental US. An avid cycle tourist, he took 4 months off of work, took a boat to Northern Washington and is heading down the coast and then across the southern US. We shared stories over coffee and then did 5 or so miles together before he pulled off and called it a day. He told of grizzly bears in Alaska and of the 38 miles of paved roads in his home town with one stoplight. I told him my parents were from NYC and that I hadn’t slept in a tent till I was 19. So here we are, from completely different walks of life and we came together based on our mutual love of traveling by bike. As you can imagine he was extremely nervous about riding through SF and LA. He told me that he thought there were so many people in Northern Cali! The same place I went to to get away from people. I told him about how bike friendly SF is and how I can meet him in LA. We swapped info and I went on my way.

Now I am sitting in Los Angeles, it’s sunny and warm, I am on a laptop eating vegan cupcakes and listening to muskabeatz. I have only been back 24 hours and already riding 60 miles a day in rural California and sleeping in a tent seems so far off. It is easy to feel like nothing has changed but I have so much to take with me from this 2.5 month trip. I will update with more quantitative info soon (like 1 flat tire in 2100 miles ridden!).

Look at me, firing out journal updates the day after I arrive! DSL rules. Olympia = cold, Portland = not as cold. But, like the guy in the bike shop told me, ‘What did you expect touring this late in the year?’. True indeed. I wasn’t expecting snow on the ground south of Olympia, thats for sure. My first day out was pretty perfect. Early start, sunny, no wind, flat, low traffic, some small roads that winded through farm communities. I put in 69 miles before doing my ‘arrive in a small town’ routine. It goes something like this: 1. Arrive in town, ask where the grocery store is. 2. Buy tofu, broccoli, ramen noodles (dinner), and bananas (breakfast). 3. Ask the cashier where there is a park with picnic tables. 4. Go to the park, cook dinner, set-up camp, ignore the bewilderment of passer-byers. 5. Go to sleep at some ridiculously early hour. The Thursday night town was Castle Rock and I settled in next to a monument dedicated to Harry Truman. Now if anyone ever asks what Harry Truman has done for me I can say that his monument in Castle Rock, Washington gave me a place to put my tent and sheltered me from passing cars.

My day into Portland was not quite as smooth. It started raining early in the morning; the clouds never lifted, but the rain stopped pretty soon there after. I had to decide where I was going to cross into Oregon, either on the freeway just north of Portland or on a small highway 50 miles to the north. I chose the small highway and I don’t think I made the correct decision. Construction, no sidewalk, no shoulder. Shitty, to say the least. After that drama I had a straight shot on one highway the 50 miles into Portland. I’ve said it before: This is the type of riding people who have never bike toured imagine. 4 lane highway, very few towns, very little to look at. Just me pushing along slowly counting down the mile markers. So in two days I had both extremes of what you experience while touring. Funny. Oh, but to get into Portland I had to cross another bridge. Same circumstance. I just got behind a bus and hammered across. There was enough traffic that the car behind me really had no reason to pass.

Finally get to my friend’s house and chill. We went out to see a skate video premiere and almost every road had a bike lane. This is the Portland I heard so much about. We stopped in a pizza shop and Ryan knew the kid = free vegan pizza. Loving it. By then, of course, it is raining, but we managed to ignore it and happily pedal home. It’s Saturday morning, it’s not raining, and I am stoked to get out and see all the bike and food related things I can do in this city that is well known for its abundance of.

After here it is a 12-day straight shot ride to San Francisco. After this weekend this hang out trip is going to quickly turn into a bike trip.

I left the land of volvo wagons with ‘no war’ stickers on them and headed to the magical land of crimethinc and indy rock (also known as Olympia). I left Seattle super duper early cause I know the sun is down by 5pm these days and after that it is mighty cold. In PA I switched my 0 degree sleeping bag for my 32 degree ‘3-season’ bag and my big hiking boots for some skate shoes to save some weight/space. I am estimating that my bike and trailer weigh at least 100 pounds (compared to the summer trip with road bike and panniers and a total of about 75 pounds) so every pound makes a difference in my mind. Will I be freezing at night? Probably. I had sunny, but cold weather and my route was outside of most traffic. I did have to do a stunt of 8 miles on the interstate which is never fun, but never as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

This is the end of my second day in Olympia. Its just like I had hoped; full of local co-ops, bookstores, coffee shops, etc. I bought a new chain at a worker-owned bike shop, hopefully in time to save my cassette from being worn out. Lots of chillin with some friends who I had the pleasure of putting up in LA a couple of months ago. This trip is so different from trips of the past where I camped almost every night and saw very little of anyone I knew. This trip is mainly just to hang out, but I am riding my bike in between cities. Even when I get to Portland I will not of ridden more than 3 days in a row!

That does make it more difficult to get into the rhythm of riding though. I am looking forward to that. Also I am looking forward to the time alone. This trip has been difficult for me in some ways. I feel as though, for the first time in my life, I am not content with just being somewhere new. I need more. What is that more? I am not sure. What am I going to do when I get back to LA? I am not sure. I am almost tired of that question. I hate these times when I have to pick a direction. Wait, thats not right, I do not hate them, I am very privileged to have the opportunity to decide the direction of my life. Politics, career, bikes, travel all pull in different directions. How am I suppose to commit to any one when they are all so important? Who knows. Enough diary shit for now, just know I have a lot to think about in the next 3-4 weeks before I arrive back in LA. I leave tomorrow for the two-day ride to Portland, where I will then spend the weekend. I hear it’s some sort of bike mecca. We’ll see. Email me about grammatical errors, I am being lazy about spell/grammar checking.

Some oddities as well. Seth’s roommate Tyson had a friend come visit from Vermont (where they are both from). Bill from Vermont ended up really being Bill from PA who I know from back in the day. So we all hung out. Had some dumpstered delights, read every bmx magazine issue published in the last year, did critical mass, went to the anarchist bookstore (left bank books at 95 pike), and I ate the largest chocolate chip cookie I have ever seen (I had two). Not much rain, but fuck it was cold. Like 38 during the day! What’s up with that? Mad chillin was in effect, friends were so so hospitable, I can’t wait to get back when its warm and I have my bmx. But then, since they have regular summer guests, I probably won’t have my own room with a bed.

Yes, I will admit that sometimes I am ridiculous about saving a couple of dollars. You don’t have to tell me. But, what many people don’t understand is that the challenge of saving those couple of dollars in fun in itself.

So there I am in Seattle, in the rain, carrying two sketchy cardboard boxes I built and taped together, walking to my bus transfer. I could barely get the boxes onto the bus and once I did I took up more than my fair share of space. Some might say I was abusing public transportation. At the airport I was dropped off pretty far from my terminal and my boxes had already begun to fall apart from dragging them ( only occasionally!). I decided to get a push cart, but they were two dollars! Insane. I tried to talk a worker into just letting me have one when he was putting them back, but he wasn’t havin it. I searched for one as best I could without wondering too far from my boxes. Finally someone let me talk them into giving theirs to me when they were done. So many people wouldn’t let me have theirs! Why is that? I got to my terminal, gave the usual lie about what was in my boxes, then proceeded to the security gates. I had put on extra layers and filled my pockets with stuff in order to lighten up my boxes and the workers at the metal detectors insisted, to the dismay of everyone behind me, that I take off layers down to my t-shirt. Finally on the plane off to PA.

Pennsylvania ruled as usual, good friends, good eats; if I only had better weather and more time…..

If I type too much about non-bike trip stuff I will feel like I am some regular online diary kid and get made fun of more than I already do. At least I am not on friendster.

Leaving Vancouver was hard. It was Canadian thanksgiving. Punk and pro-Indigenous kids can still make a festive atmosphere on a day that celebrates less than praise worthy events. It took me an hour to say good-bye to all 12 or so kids that were in the kitchen cooking. I made some good friends in the 10 days I was there; friends I hope to return the hospitality to if they can ever get over hating LA so much.

From Vancouver to the us border is a string of smaller towns/cities that make navigating especially time consuming. One town, whose name escapes me, was predominantly Sikh and Muslim populated. Indian/Middle East grocers lined the road and the smell of curry was fresh in the air. When I eventually return to Vancouver I will be sure to spend some time here. Some steep hills, in combination with not leaving till 2pm or so, put me at the border just before dark. I was not tired at all, probably due to my new sleep schedule, and road for a couple of hours in the dark! The small amounts of traffic made me feel comfortable doing this and I was able to hammer out the 65 or so miles I needed to do in order to get to Seattle in 3 days.

The route included a lot of time in beautiful forests early on, and then also some coastal roads/paths and some back roads through farm communities. I am following a lonely planet book that gives directions/maps for the coastal ride from Vancouver to San Diego and they have picked the scenic over the direct route. Before I got to Seattle I had taken two quick ferry rides and had ridden across numerous islands in the pungent sound. When I got to Seattle I called a bmx friend of friend, Seth Holten, who hooked me up. Ride from the ferry (it had poured on me all 60 miles I had pedaled), own room in his house, ride to his work in the morning to build boxes to get my bike on the plane. love it. BMX has produced some amazing kids. Approx 200 miles ridden from Vancouver, pulling about 70 pounds of gear in my trailer. nice.