Today marks Day 5 of my journey.
It has been been pretty jammed packed so far and much more than I had expected has already happened. The road is simply gorgeous. Thanks to American Cycling Association and their lovely little maps I have been on back roads for the most part with NO trucks, very little traffic and just the sounds of my bike tires and the woods besides me. Those have been the best moments thus far.
Going the speed I am I can hear the birds communicating to one another, feel the slight change in forest temperature as I travel from a shady spot to one that was previously in the sunlight. I can smell the differences in forest make up on the air and try my best to savor them all.
These past two days have taken me off the maps and on to Google map directions to my campsite and then on to Portland. What a drastic change. There are two really good things about these directions the first being that they worked. The second is that they kept me off any major highway or byway. This is huge for my safety and mental well being. That is pretty much all I can say for these directions though. There was very little sight seeing and alone time in the woods. In fact even though it kept me off the major roads it in turn kept me right along side them. If anyone has ever heard of I-5 you know what I'm talking about, if not then it is a major interstate that runs from Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC. It is no minor highway. A lot of today and yesterday was spend within eye or ear shot of said highway. Quite a different experience.
This brings me to one of my first forgotten stories. As I was riding, what I will call, "off route" to my campsite yesterday I was passed by a female rider. Feeling a surge of energy, (oh my god there is someone else on the road, I can actually talk to her!) I slowly caught up to her on the next hill and started talking. Turns out she is from Canada, I knew before she even told me her accent was awesome. She was returning from a sailing trip with a friend of hers. She told me that they started in Kalama, Washington and sailed out on the Columbia River to the pacific and then north to Vancouver. Sounded pretty awesome to me. Her only catch was that she drove down from Canada and had to come back to pick up her car. So she joked that its been like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Remember the movie with John Candy? Well it was a good one. Anyway, she had taken a boat to two trains to her bike to her car. So its more like Boats, Trains, bikes and automobiles. It's official she has the movie beat. We chatted it up and I ended up helping her with directions, thanks to my trusty GPS mapping system built into my phone (that was fully charged cause of the nice people at Nipps Burgers in Longview). It's funny how things all come together sometimes. We rode together through some pretty epic Railroad yards. Well maintained and actually kinda beautiful to see for their mechanical wonder. One of them said that their engines run on remote control. If that's not a child's dream I don't know what is. Remote controlling a train yard, HECK YEAH.
Forgotten Story #2
(warning this one is a little racist but funny/interesting)
Before I arrived to my campsite two days ago in the Old growth forest I stopped off at a corner espresso shop to warm my body and spirits before I set up camp in the rain after a full day of riding in the rain. The place was barren inside, apparently designed for drive up customers only. This old asian lady was running it, I assumed her name was Marry as it was Mary's Corner Espresso (I later found out that intersection was called Mary's Corner). I ordered a nice tall coffee and a scone. She was so nice and we got to talking. I told my story for another time, allowing some of the details to wait for the right questions. Where are heading? Where did you start? Where are you from? Why are you doing this? What do you do? etc. That's generally how the line of questioning goes.
Somewhere in that line of question we got to talking about the Washington forests. I expressed how amazing I found them. So lush and green and full of life. At which point 'Mary' asked me why I want to move to California when the forests are so wonderful up here. She said her sister "the jokester" likes to say the trees in Washington are like Asian hair, long and straight. Where as "the trees in California are all kinky like black people hair because they are always struggling for water, not like Washington."
As I retype it I wonder if that's not a 'Had to be there' moment. Anyway I found it funny and quite possibly an accurate assessment... of trees.
Day 5:
Everyone at the campsite woke up at the same time. Apparently a few Crows mistook themselves for roosters and as of 7:04 am they flew right into our site and started crowing at each other. It was perfect for me, but from the looks of the other campers they were not that happy. I packed up camp (keeps getting easier and easier) and stretched in hope that it would help my knee not hurt as much.
Today's riding was short (29 miles) but definitely not sweet. I started out and only a few miles down the road I had to stop and tape my knee up again. It was pretty painful and I was struggling with the uphills. Looking back, I think my seat is set too high and I'm gonna need to lower it. I also need to slow down my average pace. I think I'm cranking too hard and my body doesn't like it so much. All throughout the day of riding side by side the interstate all I could think of was arriving on Luke's doorstep. It was so close and I really needed the break. The directions were a little convoluted. Left, right, right, left, right right, etc. but it got be there. Through a few towns and onto the bridge over the Columbia.
I hate to admit it but at some points I unclipped my left leg and started pedaling with just the good leg. I figured why add insult to injury ;) As I came continued over the bridge a lady rode up behind me. She seemed like she was a seasoned rider as she looked at all my gear. I nodded and smiled saying "too much gear huh" She nodded with a smile "yeah way too much". She chatted it up with me about her husband and son who rode to San Fran once. Said the hills are pretty tough at times. We rode together until I was only a few blocks from Luke's house. Nice to have someone around who knew the area and wanted to talk.
Showed up at the house with luke already preparing a kick ass salad made from the ingredients in the garden, some smoked steak and fried eggs. Nothing could have been better. After a much needed shower and a nap I headed off to the local coffee shop which definitely held up to the Portland standard in coffee, Extracto. Then a stint in the local "soaking pool" to ease the pain of my knee and muscles and some good conversation with everyone around. Man this day was packed and its not even over yet.
We then went to a local bbq joint, so damn good. I got the brisket with collard greens, corn bread and squash cassarol. A helluva lot of food, but I ate it all! And still managed to have room for a good ol slice of pecan pie. Gotta love southern cookin/bakin!
So an end to another packed out day. Its amazing how much can happen in one day when you are open to it all. If you think of all the things we do in our routines, that are second nature now, it really adds up to a lot. I felt that when I was back in NYC I had so many thing packed into my routines that they didn't even count as doing things. Now as I slow down I realize that I was packing my days in just as much there just with a lot of stuff I overlooked or didn't highlight as being important to notice. Just some random thoughts at the end of a kick ass day. Be well world and love life (its the only one we've got)
Cheers
Pic 1: welcome to oregon (my first state line)
Pic 2: my animal cookie life sized
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