We shall not cease from exploration...

It's April 13, 2020. Three days away from the two year anniversary of the start of our Transamerica bike ride. I found myself thinking about the trip a lot over the past several days. So's here's the winding path back to there. As everybody in the world knows, the last month or more has been dominated by the daily news of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 A month ago the first high school track meets were cancelled and our local high school made the decision to go to online schooling at least until April 13, today. Since then every day seems to bring news of increasingly stringent measures to "flatten the curve." As of now, the track season has been cancelled and the local school is entirely online until the end of the school year! Everyone is obliged to "social distance," stay home except for essential activities, grocery shopping for example. I'm not telling you anything you're not living through since around the world governments are taking similar measures! Lucky for me, I guess, since I'm retired my work has not been affected; but, millions of American's have been let go or laid off due to this. Also outdoor activities, running and biking among them, is still permitted albeit with restrictions on groups. So I'm doing my usual running/biking daily routine.

In the midst of this, a well-known singer/songwriter, John Prine, succumbed to COVID-19.  I've known his music but his death introduced me to him in greater depth.  He grew up in Chicago!  He was good friends with Steve Goodman, of "City of New Orleans" fame.  John's family has roots in the eastern Kentucky coal country.  This family history is revealed in one of his songs, "Paradise"  about the town his family was from in eastern Kentucky.  Hearing the song again, I wondered if we'd travelled near to Paradise, which is now a ghost town but was once home to a coal mine.  We travelled north of Paradise.  We stopped at Doolin's Grocery. There the proprietor told us of the end of coal mining in the area and the migration of families north.  In particular he shared that he knew of Hammond, Indiana, because he knew of people who'd moved there.  

Now, I've dug out the document I created of the bike trip, based upon my blog posts at the time.  I've begun making notes in the margins about coal country.  I've already learned more about our travels through Kentucky but I've also begun to go back to other spots along the route and added notes.  I guess the trip isn't really ever over, is it?

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~T. S. Eliot

New Year Ahead

I realize that there have been few readers since I got back from my Transamerica bike trip but I’ll take the rap since I’ve barely written anything since then.  I spent 2019 coaching track for the first time and working the front gate at the Indiana Dunes State Park over the summer.  Then back to my fall cross country gig.  My hope for another bike trip at the end of the cross country season got squashed by two weeks of sickness.  I didn’t realize I was sleep walking through the year until our travel partner for part of the bike trip, Finley, contacted me to see if I wanted to ride part of the Northern Tier route in 2020.  The adrenaline surge was immediate!  It turns out I can’t leave when he is leaving because I’ll be involved in the high school track season until June, but the seed was sown. I’ve decided not to work at the park this summer to free up some time and I’m thinking of following in Finley’s footsteps, so to speak.  The route goes from Indiana to the western North Dakota state line.  Much of the route will be new to me.  I’ve asked Steve about joining me but he hasn’t committed yet.   Actually I haven’t committed yet either.  I’m not big on resolutions but having something out there to work for is exciting.  By the way I bought a Bluetooth keyboard, a tip from Finley, to type out my blog entries just in case I take the next step.  Happy 2020!

Dunes National Park

So one of the consequences of the recent budget agreement is the transition of the Dunes National Lakeshore to the Dunes National Park.  I haven't heard that there will be any substantive changes, aside from changing the signs,  but I'd like to offer some suggestions without any knowledge of whether they're realistic or not!  Here goes:

1. Partner with the county parks department or anyone to fix and maintain the Calumet Trail!  This is a east/west linking trail that allow access to the state park from the Prairie Duneland Trail without resorting to roads!  As is the trail is pathetic!
2. Make the trail between the Cowles Bog parking lot and Waverly Road an official trail!  
3. Find somewhere to add some camping!  The current campground is inadequate.  These could be walk in or canoe camps?!
4. Expand!

That's all I've got off the top of my head.  I'm sure I'll think of more and time goes on.  

How I Spend My Time

Since 1999 I've been an assistant cross country coach at the high school where I ran cross country!  When I started this I took pride in being able to keep up with the team, if only on the long run runs.  I still run but more often it's alone or with the coach who has decided to go at my pace rather than his pace.  We plan and troubleshoot the competitive season on those runs.  From June until the end of October I'm immersed in the day to day lives of these young men. Today is the first day of the "off season", the time between cross country and track.   I'll see the team only occasionally between now and June, although I may drop in on track since I'm retired now.  I reminisce about this season during runs on the dune trails.  Fall will always mean cross country.

TA Post Mortem

I've been home three weeks (July 8th).  My bike made it back home on July 19th.  I have been searching for things to do with all the unscheduled time I have now.  I realize that prior to my departure I wasn't really retired.  I was involved a few hours at my work right up until a few days before we left.  Now aside from cross country practice, and a week of cross country camp, I have very little scheduled.  This might sound like a happy problem to have but I'm not happy about it.

I've run about 75 miles in the past three weeks after not having run for three months.  I've biked about 370 miles since I got back home; some of it on my mountain bike.  I've gone to two exercise classes.  If you know me at all you'll know that physical activity is a big part of my daily life.  I suppose it's part of the reason I could accomplish this long ride.  When I returned home I had this notion that I could maintain the fitness level I enjoyed on my trip.  I wanted to maintain this level of fitness.  I know this isn't realistic.

I still think a lot about my bike trip.  I'd talk a lot about it as well, but aside from Steve, I'm convinced I'd bore anyone else to death long before I ran out of things to say.  Everything relates back to those three months for me at the moment.  I go back and add details to my blog entries where I can and relive those days.

People have asked if I would do this again, ride across the country.  The answer is a definite yes!  I've also been asked "What's next?"  I take some pleasure in knowing that I'm seen as someone who might take up another challenge because when I began I wasn't confident I could accomplish this one.  Also I found out that there are people, lots of people, challenging themselves with these self-chosen undertakings.  I've got no deep wisdom or insights to share.  I don't know what's next but I know it will be something!

Looking forward to a fall filled with family and high school cross country!

Trans Am Numbers

I'll add stuff here as I crunch the numbers:

Days: 81
Miles: 4336.74 (updated 7/12/18)
Daily Average: 53.54 (updated 7/12/18))
Longest mileage day- 81 miles on 4/17/18; 80.8 miles on 6/22/18
Shortest mileage day-9.83 on 4/30/18
Longest cycling day-8:53:10 on 6/12/18
Shortest cycling day-55:29 on 4/30/18

Total Ascent in Feet=171,145
Daily Average Ascent in Feet=2194
Most Ascent-4530.8 on 4/22/18
Least Ascent-78.7 on 6/28/18

Days camping=43 (updated 7/13/18))
Days motel=20 (updated 7/13/18))
Days hostel=18

Days Off: 3

Bits and Pieces, Part #2

I'm home!  Steve and I left for the east coast on April 14th so it's been 85 days since I slept in my bed!  It was fun hanging out with my nephew and daughter and son-in-law in Seattle for a couple days being a tourist.  I ran about 2 1/2 torturous miles along the Puget Sound.


Here are the links to some of the players in our adventure saga.  Each of these blogs or Facebook pages is impressive in it's own way.  They put my meager efforts to shame for sure!

Jules' Blog

Finley's Blog

Phil's Blog

Richardo's Facebook Page

Alan Baker's Facebook Page

Susan's Facebook page

Anna's Blog

We rode many miles in the company of Rich; Nick; and Mike but none of the three of them was keeping a record of their trip.  They were relying heavily on the narrative provided by Donna Lynn Ikenberry's 1993 book Bicycling Coast to Coast to plan and followed most of her suggestions for mileage; places to stay; and other details.

As I mentioned in my last post I will be "enhancing" many of the pages about the trip.  This post in particular will get expanded as I come back to it and add things.  Stay tuned!  Thanks!  Tom

Bits and Pieces, Part #1

1. It’s tradition to save turtles that wander on the road during a TransAm trip.  Steve and I saved about a dozen, at least temporarily.  Several more at the side of the road, we yelled at.  Several in the road we left to succeed or not. There’s a philosophical issue here somewhere!
2. We went "off the route" three times.  First after Jules found a bridge closed, we took a direct route to Springfield, KY.  We cut some distance off.  Second we took an alternate route out of Pueblo to the Royal Gorge area based upon information that the official route had no shoulder to ride on.  I think it was slightly shorter than the official route.  Third, we took an alternate route into Astoria.  We’d  added distance by camping 4+ miles off route.  The Adventure Cycling Association allows that as long as we rode 90% of the mapped route, we’ve completed it.  We met that condition.  
3. We heard from Richard and Mike, you may remember them as two of the three cyclists we met after they started the second half of their Transamerica ride in Newton, Kansas.  We camped several nights at the same locations, especially in Kansas.  They just finished in Florence, Oregon.  Florence is the endpoint of an alternate route.  They’re headed back to Texas tomorrow.
4. I’ll be adding information to the daily entries after I get home.  In particular I’ll try to put links to information where I can.  I’ve never quite figured out how to do this with the phone app!  This may not be of interest to those of you who followed along.  This is more for anyone planning to do this themselves.

Day #81-Astoria

It was a rainy 4th of July.  We pack our wet tents and make the short ride to Astoria over a perilous bridge across Young’s Bay.  Astoria is a seaport on the Columbia River.  A huge cargo ship moved up the river as we rode along side it.  We later found out that many ships here are loaded with Midwest grain bound for China!

After a stop at a downtown coffee shop we fortunately got into our motel, the Columbia Inn, early. Then we took our bikes to be shipped at Bikes and Beyond, a local bike shop.  Steve’s shipping his belongings as well.  I’m checking my belongings.  It’s amazing how few belongings I have.  It’s true. Not to wax too philosophical but we, most of us, have much more than we really need.

Day #80-Fort Stevens State Park

We decided to go to the wreck of the Peter Iredale for our photo shoot because it was close to where we were camped and actually is on the Pacific Ocean! Yea I know we’re not actually touching the water in the photo.  There was a Bald Eagle overseeing the entire production!

It was weird not packing up to ride somewhere.  We did ride to Starbucks to take advantage of their WiFi! We may ride to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park which is close.

Happy 4th everyone.  I expected wonderful experiences. Biking the country put me in touch with it all in a way I don’t think I could get any other way.  The vulnerability of biking made it all the more intense.  If you find the thought of cycling across the country hard to comprehend, I’m with you.

Day #79-Cannon Beach to Fort Stevens State Park, OR 36 miles

We had a quiet night in a forest of Douglas Firs with the sound of the Pacific for white noise. My tape job slowed the leak in my mattress but didn’t stop it.  We planned breakfast at Pig 'N Pancake and had a great start.  Cannon Beach looks to be a popular destination,  as does the next town we went through, Seaside.  We saw groups of cyclists coming towards us in Seaside.  It’s a good sign if the locals are riding the route you’re on. From Seaside, we cycled on the Lewis and Clark Highway.  As might be imagined these guys are a big deal here.  Their trip culminated at the mouth of the Columbia River, although it wasn’t called that until later. We left the route to head west to Fort Stevens State Park, outside of Warrenton, OR.  The weather continues to be cool and dry.

Thursday we’ll have about a 10 mile trip to the monument in front Columbia River Maritime Museum, that is the official terminus of the Transamerica Trail.

Day #78-Bay City to Cannon Beach, OR 36 miles

The entirety of our ride today was on US 101, the Oregon Coast Highway.  Lots of traffic, not much shoulder to ride; and more dramatic views of the coastline.  We ended in Cannon Beach, pictured above.  The weather continues to be be cool but dry. We had two climbs and one tunnel!  We saw several cyclists out for day rides.  The route we’re riding is a designated scenic bike route.
I think we’ve settled on spending the next two days at Fort Stevens State Park about 10 miles from Astoria.  We’ll ride into Astoria Thursday morning and take our bikes to the bike shop.  They’ll box the bikes and ship them to our local shop in Valparaiso.

Finley made it to Astoria today.  He says there’s no way to dip our tires in the Pacific at the end.  We may have to stage it!

We’re in a private campground tonight, Wright's for Camping.  I bought some duck tape today and I’m going to attack my leaky air mattress with it.

Day #77-Neskowin to Bay City, OR 52 miles

What a day!  It rained overnight and everything seemed damp in the morning, including my spirits.  Another night blowing my air mattress up every two hours has me frustrated and exhausted.  Then we meet Nancy, our host.  We are already in our tents when she arrived home so this was our only chance to talk.  It’s apparent she loves where she lives and the many people she’s met through providing space for cyclists and Airbnb.  Her grandfather was governor of Oregon and served in Eisenhower’s cabinet as Secretary of the Interior! He had a home in Neskowin,  so Nancy has been coming there since she was little.  She bought the home she lives and moved to Neskowin full time only seven years ago.  She has seven people, including the two of us, staying in her home!

We say our goodbyes and ride nine miles to Pacific City.  I’ve found a breakfast place I want to try.  It’s called Grateful Bread Bakery!  It’s packed!  It’s not lost on me that recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon as there’s a store right next to the bakery!  Anyway after a wait-we’re told people line up prior to the 8:00AM opening-we’re seated.  I order the Box of Rain.  It’s kinda like an omelette in a bowl. Steve gets pancakes that rivel the pancakes he got in Darby several weeks ago.  I will survive!
It’s brightened up considerably but still cool in the shade when we get done with breakfast.  We ride up a hill to find at the top the road is closed and have to double back.  We’re on busy roads with NO shoulder!  We get several magnificent views of the coastline.  All in all a eventful day.

We’re camped at the Tillamook Bay City RV Park just beyond the Tillamook Creamery.  Their stuff is golden here abouts!

About 65 miles until Astoria!

Day #76-Grand Ronde to Neskowin, OR 30 miles

We made it to the Oregon coast today.  After we got off the main drag to the coast we rode a wonderful rural road through thick coastal forest to get there. There was 1500’ of climbing today, but now we’re at sea level!

Steve and I had made plans to stay with a woman who allowed camping in her yard.  It’s right above the beach, which looks very similar to the dunes!  Finley went on and camped at a state park further up the road.  This may really be our farewell as it’s doubtful we’ll catch back up to him before he gets to Astoria on Tuesday.

115 miles to Astoria!

Day #75-Corvallis to Grand Ronde, OR 51 miles

Today begins the last week of our journey.  Because we never did take that rest day, we have several days to go 200 miles.  We’re hoping the state parks on the coast will have room in their hiker/biker areas as summer is in full swing and the main campgrounds will probably be full.  It’s weird not needing to ride long distances.

We had great weather today but much of the ride was on a busy highway with almost no shoulder! We did take advantage of a nice bike trail between Monmouth and Rickreall. We passed a large blueberry patch packed with people taking advantage of u-pick blueberries at 8:00 AM! Must be opening day or something!

We’re camping at the Wandering Spirit RV Park.  It's right next to the Spirit Mountain Casino, the first one we’ve seen in Oregon. It’s on the Grand Ronde reservation,  which is a confederation of five tribes that historically occupied the area between the Cascades and the coast.

This will be the test of my patch job on my mattress.  I’m not very optimistic.  The glue was dried out!

As we were about to turn in for the night Finley shows up, having ridden over 100 miles!  He’s due to meet his wife in Astoria on Tuesday so his plan entails a few more miles than ours!

Day #74-Eugene to Corvallis, OR 38 miles

We found out that the Willamette Valley is the "grass seed capital of the world" by riding through huge acreage of the stuff. They also must be big into honey judging from the fields of clover! 

This was an easy ride.  Flat open farm land.  The challenge was finding a place to spend the night.  We were set to pay for a motel but balked at the rate.  Then we met Stephen from England who told us a motel in Monmouth, a bit further up the road, had a good rate.  We were set to go there instead of staying in Corvallis but when I called the motel the rate was almost twice as much!  The person said it was summer so the price was higher.  Anyway we bumped into a Days Inn with better rates and took it.  I sprang a leak in my air mattress that I wanted to try and fix it which made a motel a consideration in the first place.  I won’t miss the daily anxiety around where we’ll be every night when we’re done!

By the way the Oregon State Beavers won the NCAA Baseball championship today.  Oregon State is in Corvallis!

Day #73-Nimrod to Eugene, OR 40 miles

Today’s ride has the same good weather but otherwise it had little in common with yesterday.  Riding on a busy highway with narrow or non-existent shoulders feels like work!  We saw lots of what looked like orchards but turned out to be groves of filbert trees.  We’re in the Willamette Valley now and there’s stuff growing everywhere!

What do we do when we don’t ride many miles and have the afternoon?  Ride 15-20 more miles to get to the Trader Joe’s in Eugene!

We’re at an RV park near the east end of the last map.  Finley may stay here an extra day, but we’re headed to Corvallis tomorrow.  233 miles left!

Day #72-Sisters to Nimrod, OR 60 miles

Before and after McKenzie Pass.

Today’s ride, much anticipated, did not disappoint.  A cold start but clear blue skies and light winds resulted in near perfect riding conditions.  The road to McKenzie Pass is so serpentine that long vehicles are prohibited.  Good news!  No insanely long RV’s pulling stuff!  No cattle trucks! No lumber trucks!  Very few cars as there is now a quicker way to get where we’re headed. It was a gentle 2500’ climb over 16 miles to the summit.  The Belkamp eruption 1700 years ago covered the entire summit with lava.  The Civilian Conservation Corps built an observation tower, the Dee Wright Observatory, out of the rocks! It’s an amazing sight!  I took pictures from it but not of it!

Then we rode down into a lush forest unlike anything we’d seen for some time, sometimes gently sometimes rapidly, for more than 40 miles.  We felt a bit sorry for those bikers we saw heading up from the west, a much longer climb because it starts from a lower elevation.  By the way we’re below 1000’ elevation for the first time since Kansas!

We followed the McKenzie River most of the way to our camp in the front yard of a bed and breakfast.

Tomorrow we complete map #2 in our countdown. We have about 250 miles left.  We’ll be taking extra time along the way as we’re not due in Astoria until July 6th!

Day #71-Prineville to Sisters, OR 46 miles

Two of the three sisters above.  Relatively easy riding today.  Sisters is at the base of the last serious climb on the Transamerica Trail, McKenzie Pass,  that will be the main event tomorrow.  Today more high desert, filled with the smell of ripe juniper berries.

Finley is back riding with us, although he usually gets out before us in the mornings.  We’re sharing camping and other expenses.  He’s a bit faster than either Steve or I;  and his recumbent goes down hills like a bullet!

We’ll be camping at Creekside Campground in the city park tonight.  They only charge $5 for hiker/biker sites; but they’re going to get me with the pay shower.  It’s 1.00 for 2 minutes!  For that rate it had better be instant hot!

We had a great veggie pizza at Three Creeks Brewery 

There’s a cyclist camping here who is originally from Chicago, Serena, who will attend graduate school at University of Wisconsin in the fall.  More small world stuff!

Day #70-Mitchell to Prineville, OR 48 miles

We left the hostel early in anticipation of predicted 90+ temperatures.  We had Ochoco Pass (4720’) to tackle, some 2200’ of ascent from Mitchell.  Then the remainder of the route, maybe 30 miles or more, was gentle downhill!  We got to Prineville by 12:00!   Coming into town I think I got a glimpse of the Cascades, tall and snow-covered, in the distance!  I also spied a Starbuck's where Steve and I relaxed for a bit.

We’re camping at the city-run RV park, Crook County RV Park,  just south of town.  Shortly after we arrived,  our cycling buddy Finley showed up!  The terrain proved to be too much for the two guys who’d come to ride with him!  He was on his own again.

Astoria is 372 miles away!