Goodbye no sales tax, hello booze at gas stations. I guess every place has its own charms.
We finally left Florence on the 22nd. We've gone through Gardiner, Reedsport, Winchester Bay, Lakeside, North Bend, Coos Bay, Bandon, Langlois, Port Orford, Gold Beach, Brookings, and Crescent City, outside which we're currently camped. Gardiner was sad... a dying little town that used to be a thriving port until people stopped sailing. Brookings would have been just another town, except that we were given a rack and a half of ribs. You have not seen ravenous eating until you've watched two hungry bikers mow down on pure, delicious protein.
You could -see- the heat change coming into Brookings. The California climate is just a bit more humid and warm, and it's visible in this thin fog hanging over everything even when it's clear. Hazy days, not lazy days.
We've seen so many amazing things recently. The last push down the coast was beautiful; I know I won't remember all of the things here, but I'll try. Outside Gold Beach was this huge rock - 'kissing rock' - with cracks all through it and wonderful climbing. By cracks I mean anywhere from tiny to 6 feet wide, running 30 feet into the rockface. Pretty wonderful, but definitely an easy place to get fucked up by the tide coming in. There seem to be a million big rocks like that just sitting out off the coast, or on the coast, or a mile inland in somebody's back yard, but kissing rock was one of the largest. Maybe 150 feet tall? not sure at all, and almost as wide.
We saw a 'giraffe swan' - so named by me because that is what it looked like. Was probably just an albino heron or some such. Do those even exist? We see a lot of herons. There's usually one hanging out in the river when we camp by one.
Lily pad pond dried out so it was a jumble of stems.. almost all the water was gone, and the plants were scrunched down in this thick tangle, pads tossed into the air and curling in the heat above 8 inches of shriveled stem over the water.
North Bend had a bridge that took us half an hour to walk over. Aaaaand it had THE most bumpy roads and sidewalks in the world, and the nastiest 'nice' laundromat ever. 17 bucks on laundry, but we did get our sleeping bags and all our clothing clean and mostly dry.
Every bookstore inside of 150 miles is now our acquaintance, and none of them have The Dragon Reborn.
Wind sucks sometimes.
We went to church one day, caught the last half of the sermon, got half a cup of free coffee, got a box of free food, and were fed elk soup at this family's house. The whole experience was very good and moderately awkward.
Myrtlewood gift shop in Langlois was amazing. Aside from the awesome everything that was there, the work spaces were amazing. This sweet lady showed us around the whole place and told us stories. Her husband's work station for epoxy was the best. The resin had dripped all down over the edges of the benches after pouring it on the wood pieces, and it made these rows of epoxy icycles. 300 or so foot-long yellow spear heads..
Sixes River for camping on our anniversary, where we saw a beaver, tiny frogs, and a heron, and didn't see what we hope was an elk.
Humbug Mountain. Gorgeous. Saw a branch hanging that looked like a dead antelope, and my brain taught me that the antelope got there because of a flying bear. This flybear had gone exploring at the 'wildlife safari walkthrough' thingety near Port Orford, and talked with a tiger who told stories about how his great grandfather used to hunt antelope in Africa. So the flybear flew there and got one and flew back with it and hid it in a tree on Humbug Mountain.
Wall of rock that was green. It looked like the color of sagebrush in the springtime, or a sulferous crystal or something. Other wall of rock that was black and lined and wonderful, under a pink sunset and some hanging grass coming into Gold Beach.
Cape Sebastian was ridiculously difficult to climb. We are getting massively strong. We're not just people.... we're mega people! (If you have not seen it, locate and watch a movie called Mega Pirhana.)
Tallest bridge in Oregon, Thomas Creek, was 345 feet above ground and pretty unimpressive for how talked up it was. And then we passed 'Bruce's Bones Creek'. Sorry daddy :)
For our celebration times, we bought booze in Brookings and hauled it the 20-some miles down to Jedediah Smith State Park. A bottle fits in a bag, but the 12pack of Hamms we got couldn't, so I carried it as a backpack, because I am that fucking awesome. I have a picture of it, and when I eventually find a way to put pictures online, you will see.
The redwoods are lovely. Yesterday we found this amazing spot on the river, though, and it really was one of the most fascinating and beautiful places I've ever seen. Beyond description. Soapstone sculpted into everything you can imagine, including a giant octopus and a giant angry man thing that come alive after sunset and eat bikers who stayed to late. Swirls and twists and cavities, lines of marbled rock, patches of smooth bright white crystal 2 feet tall running as a line through the rock, clear water in a tiny, narrow river dropping into deep pools and running over shallow sandy and rocky bottoms.... SO amazing.
Jed Smith has awesome Hiker Biker sites, but we can't use them because they shut that area down for construction.... so they put the HBs in a tent site, which we've had to ourselves :) It's been good. Although I should have learned my lesson last time I went biking after a drink, I apparently haven't yet. After a good amount of liquid poison I thought it would be a good idea to bike to the bathroom.... at least I put my helmet on first. Someday I'll learn. Maybe I'll just put a huge sign on my bike that says 'Have you been drinking? No bikey for drunky!!' or some such. Or maybe I should lock up my bike before I begin booziness. Whatever it takes...
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
About Jude. Also, Florence is a vacuum.
Jude is a sweetheart, and I feel the need to chronicle it here. She shared her campsite with us, including her firewood and her vodka. She gave us several cigarettes. She let me borrow her phone to call home when she learned that I missed Maci. She let us stay the second night with her for free. She bought us a box of tacos. She moved our stuff, including broken bike, to hiker-biker camping. She gave us her leftover box of firewood. She drove us to town, stopped at the 7/11 to look up bike shops, drove us to the bank, and dropped us off at the library. She offered to show us around Florence and the dunes and the casino, although we never did any. She gave us her address and phone number so that we could let her know if we were ever in her area. Jude, you're a sweetheart.
Florence.
It's Tuesday afternoon. We got here on Friday afternoon. Plan was to leave today, but the new fork got left out of the shipment to the bike shop, so we have to stay til tomorrow. Bike... her frame is bent, and the fork's shot. New fork, and dealing with the bent frame. It'll mean I go a little slower and -really- watch out with my new super-fast steering. My knee is a nice purple, but it's feeling a lot better. In other news, I have 26 bug bites on the outside of my right calf. No idea how many are elsewhere... I just counted the most concentrated region. I have a lot, though. It's because I'm so sweet....? All bugs love me. I'm like the sin of bug world.. attractive and delicious, and most often you get away with it when you take a bite, but sometimes you're discovered and fucking SMASHED. Death to all bugs I find near me.
Yesterday when we were walking back to camp, I thought I saw a butterfly on the road. It landed and turned into a grasshopper! Of course I had to startle it to show Miah... ya. Thing flew off, and under its croaky little lifeless grasshopper shell it had these startling blue-green wings with a yellow stripe across them. Lovely.
We ate a pound of turkey last night, mashed with an egg, ginger, sage, cayenne, and salt, and deepfried in italian salad dressing.
Can't think of much else interesting, except that the 4 miles between camp and town is magically getting shorter every day.
At this point we don't know if we'll make it to the redwoods in time for our anniversary as planned, but we will still go there. Then we're going to push like crazy and get to Denver by the end of October :)
Send me emails. I have one, you know... I feel like an information vomit machine, and those things run on different information. Gotta know what's going on with other people.
Florence.
It's Tuesday afternoon. We got here on Friday afternoon. Plan was to leave today, but the new fork got left out of the shipment to the bike shop, so we have to stay til tomorrow. Bike... her frame is bent, and the fork's shot. New fork, and dealing with the bent frame. It'll mean I go a little slower and -really- watch out with my new super-fast steering. My knee is a nice purple, but it's feeling a lot better. In other news, I have 26 bug bites on the outside of my right calf. No idea how many are elsewhere... I just counted the most concentrated region. I have a lot, though. It's because I'm so sweet....? All bugs love me. I'm like the sin of bug world.. attractive and delicious, and most often you get away with it when you take a bite, but sometimes you're discovered and fucking SMASHED. Death to all bugs I find near me.
Yesterday when we were walking back to camp, I thought I saw a butterfly on the road. It landed and turned into a grasshopper! Of course I had to startle it to show Miah... ya. Thing flew off, and under its croaky little lifeless grasshopper shell it had these startling blue-green wings with a yellow stripe across them. Lovely.
We ate a pound of turkey last night, mashed with an egg, ginger, sage, cayenne, and salt, and deepfried in italian salad dressing.
Can't think of much else interesting, except that the 4 miles between camp and town is magically getting shorter every day.
At this point we don't know if we'll make it to the redwoods in time for our anniversary as planned, but we will still go there. Then we're going to push like crazy and get to Denver by the end of October :)
Send me emails. I have one, you know... I feel like an information vomit machine, and those things run on different information. Gotta know what's going on with other people.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Crashycrashcrash.
Durp. And awesome camping.
So after we escaped the Pacific, we had a day of hills followed by way too much campground. Met a lovely gentleman who made us instant coffee in his RV, then took off and made it past the mountainy hills and through a tunnel, and stopped to look at the sea lions and Heceta Lighthouse from an overlook. Talking with this guy sitting on the edge of a cliff in a camp chair, and we discover that the violin is not with us. He drove Miah back to get it... where we had coffee that morning. Thankyou world for making some honest people. Also thankyou to driver dude whose name we forgot - he gave us a Golden Eagle pass, which gets us free day use of parks with fees, and half off some campgrounds.
Cruised into Florence, sold a wallet, headed out to the Honeyman Campground, where we planned to get the hiker-biker spot for 5 a person. The sweetest lady in the world, Jude, was registering and offered to split her campsite with us, so we did. Better for everyone. We ended up staying there a second night as well, because I'm an idiot.
We're cruising into town to hunt down some liquids, and I thought it was so fun to ride without a pack on that I was speeding as fast as possible, racing a car out of the campground. Giant lady termite smashes into my front, so I decide to get it off. Stop pedaling, glance down to find the bug, look up, still in the center of the road at a good speed.... look down one more time to brush the bug off, and when I look up, there's a giant freaking log right next to me. Couldn't avoid it, so I went limp and went with it. Flipped over the handlebars, smashed up my knee some, bent in the front fork of the bike.... ya. Sigh. Miah was a sweetheart and carried the crunched bike back to camp while I used his as a scooter, and then he went to town to get ice. So now we're staying here a third night, waiting for the bike shop to open. Silly Sundays. Bike should be ok though, and I seem to be in surprisingly good working order. Couldn't walk last night, but today it's ok - stiff and bruised, but functional. Thankyou Esther for getting me through that one.
So after we escaped the Pacific, we had a day of hills followed by way too much campground. Met a lovely gentleman who made us instant coffee in his RV, then took off and made it past the mountainy hills and through a tunnel, and stopped to look at the sea lions and Heceta Lighthouse from an overlook. Talking with this guy sitting on the edge of a cliff in a camp chair, and we discover that the violin is not with us. He drove Miah back to get it... where we had coffee that morning. Thankyou world for making some honest people. Also thankyou to driver dude whose name we forgot - he gave us a Golden Eagle pass, which gets us free day use of parks with fees, and half off some campgrounds.
Cruised into Florence, sold a wallet, headed out to the Honeyman Campground, where we planned to get the hiker-biker spot for 5 a person. The sweetest lady in the world, Jude, was registering and offered to split her campsite with us, so we did. Better for everyone. We ended up staying there a second night as well, because I'm an idiot.
We're cruising into town to hunt down some liquids, and I thought it was so fun to ride without a pack on that I was speeding as fast as possible, racing a car out of the campground. Giant lady termite smashes into my front, so I decide to get it off. Stop pedaling, glance down to find the bug, look up, still in the center of the road at a good speed.... look down one more time to brush the bug off, and when I look up, there's a giant freaking log right next to me. Couldn't avoid it, so I went limp and went with it. Flipped over the handlebars, smashed up my knee some, bent in the front fork of the bike.... ya. Sigh. Miah was a sweetheart and carried the crunched bike back to camp while I used his as a scooter, and then he went to town to get ice. So now we're staying here a third night, waiting for the bike shop to open. Silly Sundays. Bike should be ok though, and I seem to be in surprisingly good working order. Couldn't walk last night, but today it's ok - stiff and bruised, but functional. Thankyou Esther for getting me through that one.
Friday, September 16, 2011
We're in Florence. Ten days away from our anniversary. I wanna find work on the coast, probably after the anniversary, and rejuvenate our finances a little. The coast is amazing. Purple streaks across the sky with a calm darkish blue pushing through crossing a bridge going 15 miles an hour with the wind blowing in your face laughing like a corporation who just took over Target. Good times.
I also found Why I Write by George Orwell for a $1.25 at a gas station. Yup. Gonna read the shit outta that.
I also found Why I Write by George Orwell for a $1.25 at a gas station. Yup. Gonna read the shit outta that.
Just more stuff and things.
This week has been fun and slow. Lots of sightseeing, what -felt- like lots of biking, but not actually that much distance covered. It's Friday afternoon and we're in Florence, about to head out to the dunes. 75 miles in 5 days is pretty slow by biking standards, but that's not what it's about, is it?
Monday was pretty amazing. Long and frustrating, but we were the masters of it. After our shower, we went to the library, chilled on the beach, had a lovely relaxing time, and finally left town around 3. We made it down to Newport that night. On the way we split the most delicious bowl of clam chowder at the Sea Hag in Depoe Bay - courtesy of an anniversary gift from Regina :) If you pass through there, go eat clam chowder. I hate clams and it was delicious.
Passed Boiler Bay and saw awesome cliffs. Sorry for using awesome so much to describe things.. there's just not much else I can say. One cliff had this huge sheet of dark gray rock hanging down off it at an outward angle, like cliff was a girl with hair blowing out into the bay. Pretty fascinating. Also there was a fenced off area in which we could see a steep drop-down cave with another fence guarding it, but there were too many people around for us to investigate. Sad. Then we hit the otter crest loop. It's a nice little offshoot of the main highway that lasts for a few miles, and the bike route runs along it. VERY LONG HILL. Not as bad as Day Hill, but still challenging. Halfway up as Miah was struggling immensely and I was feeling more in shape than I thought I was, we discovered that his gears were all off and he'd been going up the whole damn thing in the hardest one. So he's basically superman. Ogreman. Dug out our lights just in time to coast down the hill and experience our first night-biking. We were trying to push to Newport to find the guys from the last night who had offered us a pizza if we met up with them, but we never found them. We did end up playing some pool and having a beer before heading out to find CAMPING: The Most Awesome Part Of The Day.
We came into a state park at midnight, tired as shit, not caring about the 12 bucks we'd have to pay. The ranger station was closed, so we pitched up and planned to pay in the morning. Come morning, no one approached us, and we weren't about to volunteer money, so we grabbed some free coffee and books, and headed out like stealthmasters.
Next day we went backwards. Finally made it to the bike shop and got a new axle, bumped into Regina again, free coffee and muffins, sat on a couch for an hour, ate stale cheetos that we found... good times. Loaded up at the food bank, went to a campground on the other side of town, and payed up. (Couldn't go back to the first one, 'cause they might have recognized us, etc..) Ate a FEAST. The bank gave us this giant bag of stuffed potato things - basically giant tater tots stuffed with cheese. Ya. Beach adventures, more showering, and bed. (Beach adventures will be published when I write them. It was pretty awesome. Giant sea slug banthas and such.)
We showered again the next day. Why not if you can? Pretty uneventful day. Made it down about 5 miles past Waldport, didn't find a free camping area we thought was there, and crashed.
And then yesterday.. Smelt Sands park is amazing. We saw it at high tide, with the water crashing up through this huge fissure thing. It had made a natural bridge over this huge undercut cave thing, and we got nice and salty trying to get a closer look. Settling down near the coast is beginning to call to us. Next we stopped at Devil's Churn, which was probably the coolest, most engrossing thing we've seen the whole trip. Another watery chasm/fissure thing, but waaaaaaaaaay longer. Couple hundred feet climb down to the mouth of it, then we hiked -very- carefully all the way around it. Also seen near high tide. It was pretty spectacular. Maybe 200 feet of rocky chasm jutting straight into the land, with surging waves crashing up into it, banks undercut, and the chasm goes back another 30 feet or so into the rock with a ceiling above it. Spent the better part of an hour exploring the beach around it, got lost in a million tide pools, saw the most fascinating rocks - all those striations in the lava flow that looks like a glacier went over it, but all bubbled and pitted from the salt spray, red and black and gray and tan... Daddy, you need to see it. And Ethan, we found you a piece of driftwood there. Cross your fingers that we don't loose it.
Ran into Regina AGAIN. I think she's our bicycle sidekick leapfrog buddy. Ended up camping in the woods, had a fire on the beach at low tide, which was wonderful until we looked up an hour later and saw that the water was about 20 feet from us. Seriously... the Pacific is a sneaky, treacherous, clingy bitch. It once tasted our feet and now it can't get enough. The instant we're not paying attention it comes crawling in to suck the life from us. 'The sea hates you'.. I think it just loves us. It was pretty epic. Got to remember that the tide flooding a foot means a lot more when you're on a flat beach than when you're on a steep one.
Miah says I'm writing a novel. So be it.
Monday was pretty amazing. Long and frustrating, but we were the masters of it. After our shower, we went to the library, chilled on the beach, had a lovely relaxing time, and finally left town around 3. We made it down to Newport that night. On the way we split the most delicious bowl of clam chowder at the Sea Hag in Depoe Bay - courtesy of an anniversary gift from Regina :) If you pass through there, go eat clam chowder. I hate clams and it was delicious.
Passed Boiler Bay and saw awesome cliffs. Sorry for using awesome so much to describe things.. there's just not much else I can say. One cliff had this huge sheet of dark gray rock hanging down off it at an outward angle, like cliff was a girl with hair blowing out into the bay. Pretty fascinating. Also there was a fenced off area in which we could see a steep drop-down cave with another fence guarding it, but there were too many people around for us to investigate. Sad. Then we hit the otter crest loop. It's a nice little offshoot of the main highway that lasts for a few miles, and the bike route runs along it. VERY LONG HILL. Not as bad as Day Hill, but still challenging. Halfway up as Miah was struggling immensely and I was feeling more in shape than I thought I was, we discovered that his gears were all off and he'd been going up the whole damn thing in the hardest one. So he's basically superman. Ogreman. Dug out our lights just in time to coast down the hill and experience our first night-biking. We were trying to push to Newport to find the guys from the last night who had offered us a pizza if we met up with them, but we never found them. We did end up playing some pool and having a beer before heading out to find CAMPING: The Most Awesome Part Of The Day.
We came into a state park at midnight, tired as shit, not caring about the 12 bucks we'd have to pay. The ranger station was closed, so we pitched up and planned to pay in the morning. Come morning, no one approached us, and we weren't about to volunteer money, so we grabbed some free coffee and books, and headed out like stealthmasters.
Next day we went backwards. Finally made it to the bike shop and got a new axle, bumped into Regina again, free coffee and muffins, sat on a couch for an hour, ate stale cheetos that we found... good times. Loaded up at the food bank, went to a campground on the other side of town, and payed up. (Couldn't go back to the first one, 'cause they might have recognized us, etc..) Ate a FEAST. The bank gave us this giant bag of stuffed potato things - basically giant tater tots stuffed with cheese. Ya. Beach adventures, more showering, and bed. (Beach adventures will be published when I write them. It was pretty awesome. Giant sea slug banthas and such.)
We showered again the next day. Why not if you can? Pretty uneventful day. Made it down about 5 miles past Waldport, didn't find a free camping area we thought was there, and crashed.
And then yesterday.. Smelt Sands park is amazing. We saw it at high tide, with the water crashing up through this huge fissure thing. It had made a natural bridge over this huge undercut cave thing, and we got nice and salty trying to get a closer look. Settling down near the coast is beginning to call to us. Next we stopped at Devil's Churn, which was probably the coolest, most engrossing thing we've seen the whole trip. Another watery chasm/fissure thing, but waaaaaaaaaay longer. Couple hundred feet climb down to the mouth of it, then we hiked -very- carefully all the way around it. Also seen near high tide. It was pretty spectacular. Maybe 200 feet of rocky chasm jutting straight into the land, with surging waves crashing up into it, banks undercut, and the chasm goes back another 30 feet or so into the rock with a ceiling above it. Spent the better part of an hour exploring the beach around it, got lost in a million tide pools, saw the most fascinating rocks - all those striations in the lava flow that looks like a glacier went over it, but all bubbled and pitted from the salt spray, red and black and gray and tan... Daddy, you need to see it. And Ethan, we found you a piece of driftwood there. Cross your fingers that we don't loose it.
Ran into Regina AGAIN. I think she's our bicycle sidekick leapfrog buddy. Ended up camping in the woods, had a fire on the beach at low tide, which was wonderful until we looked up an hour later and saw that the water was about 20 feet from us. Seriously... the Pacific is a sneaky, treacherous, clingy bitch. It once tasted our feet and now it can't get enough. The instant we're not paying attention it comes crawling in to suck the life from us. 'The sea hates you'.. I think it just loves us. It was pretty epic. Got to remember that the tide flooding a foot means a lot more when you're on a flat beach than when you're on a steep one.
Miah says I'm writing a novel. So be it.
Monday, September 12, 2011
We made it to the coast :)
Finally. Apparently central Oregon has been experiencing the most massive heatwave since 191? or what not.. It's about 55 right now in Lincoln City, and I'm freezing. One month will acclimatize you to extreme heat.
We were trying to imagine what the world would be like if alcohol were illegal and weed were not. If you could go to the store and buy a pack of spliffs, but you spent 50 to 80 bucks on a 5th of vodka and hid out in the woods to get drunk... Thoughts?
Esther, I will be a master of qwerty again by the end of this trip, but for now I really hate library keyboards. Grar.
So. We actually did finally have a day of rest. Made it a couple miles out of Salem and parked in a little grove off the highway. About 30 feet from traffic, on top of a 20 foot slope down to a river offshoot, just out of sight of everyone so long as we stayed sitting... which meant that we had to get up before dawn to break down the tent, then continue sleeping. We stayed there all day and spent another night. Much needed. Did laundry, then spent about 3 hours nakedly exploring the pond and its creeks while waiting for things to dry. It was lovely and completely isolated.
Miah got another flat in the night somehow. Everything's been going wrong with his bike. Went along the 22, got free coffee in Rickreal, a 'town' - dairy farm plus hardware store. The look the cashier gave us when we asked if there was a bike shop there was priceless. Had to buy water later... it's a nasty world when everyone has to pay for water. Utilities included in rent for the last 4 years has made me forget that sad fact of life. Anyways. Then Miah got another flat. BUT we still had a good day... saw interesting roadkill, a set of bleached deer? bones, a grungy little house with massive stone entrance thingies with lions on top guarding it.... silly people. Camped at the most amazing spot. There's a little town, Willamina, on the 22/18 jct, and we slept by its creek. Pretty sure it's an old lava flow. You could see the flows and fissures and bubbled out spots in the rocks... I took lots of pictures, but I forgot the camera outside AGAIN, so I'll have to wait.. again. Also there were probably 100 crawdads, and 10000 snails. Also also our tent collapsed.
Next day we ate fried chicken :) and I made a duct tape chessboard. Miah almost died of heatstroke, and I almost died of ground hornets. I'm walking through the woods looking for a nice spot to camp, find a good place, and the ground squishes down under my foot. I thought it was strange, but not alarming. Found a few other squishy spots, wandered out, and was waving Miah over when I saw the hornets angrily following me and connected the dots. Stupid stupid. Finally found a spot on the 18 near the something summit, heard scary animal noises during the night.. A big barking/huffing sound, and then later what sounded like a hyena yelping about 30 times. No idea.
Events of the night, though: We hear this strange clicking in the tent, figure it's a bug, but can't find it. Maybe an hour later it starts up again, so we get the flashlight trained on it and it's this ENORMOUS bug. Thought it was a spider at first, but it turned out to be a cricket. By enormous I mean its body was an inch long and half an inch wide, and it was 2 inches by 3 inches with legs included. Those of you with sensitive ears would have been squirming by about 3 seconds after we saw it. Thought it was funny how unconcerned we were with being visible due to the light.... we saw that thing, and our tent was mandatory glow land til it was gone. Then later we found a spider in our oatmeal... nasty bastid.
Yesterday we were setting out from cricket land when we met a bicyclist who used to be a mechanic. He was super cool. Helped us figure out what's wrong with Miah's bike - apparently the rear axle is broken, so now we're hunting for the elusive bike shop. He even followed us down to a town, charged our phone, and bought us beef jerky. He's headed to the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle, so if you meet an old bike dude named Mark tell him he's awesome.
We Followed the Salmon River for a while. It was AMAZING. Probably part of the same flow that we saw at Willamina. Under this beautiful bridge is a tiny rushing creek/river thing, with those same bubbly rocks and all, and those hex-shaped spiraly rock formations. Best part though was this one fissure that just opened up SO suddenly. Shallow creek, it gets darker, and all of a sudden the whole thing just drops down. We watched rocks go under til they disappeared, and they were still going. Also the bank was all undercut. I really wish we had scuba gear or something. Even an underwater flare to drop would have been awesome.
Made it to Lincoln City late afternoon, met a newbie biker girl, followed her to 6 dollar camping, hung out with these two awesome biker guys, nearly got into capitalism AND god arguments, etc.
AND THEN TODAY WE TOOK A HOT SHOWER. You have -no- idea how wonderful hot showers are.
Now to head south and hope that our bodies adjust quickly to the 50 degree heat difference.
We were trying to imagine what the world would be like if alcohol were illegal and weed were not. If you could go to the store and buy a pack of spliffs, but you spent 50 to 80 bucks on a 5th of vodka and hid out in the woods to get drunk... Thoughts?
Esther, I will be a master of qwerty again by the end of this trip, but for now I really hate library keyboards. Grar.
So. We actually did finally have a day of rest. Made it a couple miles out of Salem and parked in a little grove off the highway. About 30 feet from traffic, on top of a 20 foot slope down to a river offshoot, just out of sight of everyone so long as we stayed sitting... which meant that we had to get up before dawn to break down the tent, then continue sleeping. We stayed there all day and spent another night. Much needed. Did laundry, then spent about 3 hours nakedly exploring the pond and its creeks while waiting for things to dry. It was lovely and completely isolated.
Miah got another flat in the night somehow. Everything's been going wrong with his bike. Went along the 22, got free coffee in Rickreal, a 'town' - dairy farm plus hardware store. The look the cashier gave us when we asked if there was a bike shop there was priceless. Had to buy water later... it's a nasty world when everyone has to pay for water. Utilities included in rent for the last 4 years has made me forget that sad fact of life. Anyways. Then Miah got another flat. BUT we still had a good day... saw interesting roadkill, a set of bleached deer? bones, a grungy little house with massive stone entrance thingies with lions on top guarding it.... silly people. Camped at the most amazing spot. There's a little town, Willamina, on the 22/18 jct, and we slept by its creek. Pretty sure it's an old lava flow. You could see the flows and fissures and bubbled out spots in the rocks... I took lots of pictures, but I forgot the camera outside AGAIN, so I'll have to wait.. again. Also there were probably 100 crawdads, and 10000 snails. Also also our tent collapsed.
Next day we ate fried chicken :) and I made a duct tape chessboard. Miah almost died of heatstroke, and I almost died of ground hornets. I'm walking through the woods looking for a nice spot to camp, find a good place, and the ground squishes down under my foot. I thought it was strange, but not alarming. Found a few other squishy spots, wandered out, and was waving Miah over when I saw the hornets angrily following me and connected the dots. Stupid stupid. Finally found a spot on the 18 near the something summit, heard scary animal noises during the night.. A big barking/huffing sound, and then later what sounded like a hyena yelping about 30 times. No idea.
Events of the night, though: We hear this strange clicking in the tent, figure it's a bug, but can't find it. Maybe an hour later it starts up again, so we get the flashlight trained on it and it's this ENORMOUS bug. Thought it was a spider at first, but it turned out to be a cricket. By enormous I mean its body was an inch long and half an inch wide, and it was 2 inches by 3 inches with legs included. Those of you with sensitive ears would have been squirming by about 3 seconds after we saw it. Thought it was funny how unconcerned we were with being visible due to the light.... we saw that thing, and our tent was mandatory glow land til it was gone. Then later we found a spider in our oatmeal... nasty bastid.
Yesterday we were setting out from cricket land when we met a bicyclist who used to be a mechanic. He was super cool. Helped us figure out what's wrong with Miah's bike - apparently the rear axle is broken, so now we're hunting for the elusive bike shop. He even followed us down to a town, charged our phone, and bought us beef jerky. He's headed to the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle, so if you meet an old bike dude named Mark tell him he's awesome.
We Followed the Salmon River for a while. It was AMAZING. Probably part of the same flow that we saw at Willamina. Under this beautiful bridge is a tiny rushing creek/river thing, with those same bubbly rocks and all, and those hex-shaped spiraly rock formations. Best part though was this one fissure that just opened up SO suddenly. Shallow creek, it gets darker, and all of a sudden the whole thing just drops down. We watched rocks go under til they disappeared, and they were still going. Also the bank was all undercut. I really wish we had scuba gear or something. Even an underwater flare to drop would have been awesome.
Made it to Lincoln City late afternoon, met a newbie biker girl, followed her to 6 dollar camping, hung out with these two awesome biker guys, nearly got into capitalism AND god arguments, etc.
AND THEN TODAY WE TOOK A HOT SHOWER. You have -no- idea how wonderful hot showers are.
Now to head south and hope that our bodies adjust quickly to the 50 degree heat difference.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Ah Salem,
with your wishy washy middle class youth
wearing your designer jeans
smirking every time a lonely young male
gets that masturbatory twinkle in his eye.
Your streets, a coarse spin of tar and gravel
speckled with bits of glass like the
dolled up Christmas card your 6 year old
niece sends you, making me
anticipate another flat tire.
Your sun is blazing,
but your river is beautiful.
It would be easy to make you a home,
but only a fool commits to convenience,
so I must tip my hat and bid you farewell.
Thanks for the bagged lunch.
Miah
Day of 'Rest'
We had three very simple errands. Library, food bank, comcast. Library was easy. Food bank was closed, so we went back there this morning (we now have an incredible amount of food. Lovely church people who gave us tons of help, and even told us that the UGM kind of sucked :). Comcast. Comcast comcast comcast.
THE HUNT FOR COMCAST
I'm really not sure why we didn't return our modem in Seattle, but for some reason it didn't happen. No worries, though... Comcast is a big company. They should have stores everywhere, yes? And Yakima's a decent sized town. It should definitely have one.... But no. We couldn't find it.
Called Comcast. Sure enough, there's nothing in Yakistan. 'There are drop spots in all the major cities, so just drop it anywhere along your bike trip' the oh-so-helpful dude said. That was the last real live Comcast person I talked to until this morning. So... no worries, we're headed to Portland.
Portland's drop spot is no longer there.
Even that was ok. Frustrating.... but ok. After all, Salem is coming soon, and it will definitely have one...... right?? And yes! Google gave us the address; it was downtown, close, easy. Cruised over there.... the address did not exist. No Comcast. Checked the mall... nothing. Asked around. Turns out there's one in the mall on the other side of town. Biked 5 miles to get there. At this point in our 'day of rest' it's about 330-4ish. We still want to go swimming and relax. So.
I walk into the mall, holding my breath as I look at the map..... Gasp. Comcast is actually really here! Yayyyy! I rejoiced a whole lot. Walked through the mall looking for it.... after a while I felt like I'd gone too far, so I checked another map. Sure enough, Comcast was behind me. At this point I was a little suspicious. Went bakc to the correct spot.
THERE WAS NO COMCAST.
Questioned the security guard... turns out they moved out a couple weeks back. As I ranted to him, a very nice lady offered to look up the address for me. It's someplace far out in North Salem, obscure, in the industrial district. Woopdeedoo. Then I tried calling Comcast to check their hours..... Fair warning to you all. NEVER try to find information, or a real person, by calling Comcast. It was death and fail.
It's 415. We have no food. We decide to find groceries and save Comcast for the next day.
On the ride back to the river, Miah got a flat. More rejoicing. On the plus side, I am now fully confident in my tire changing abilities, AND we've discovered that Starbucks will give you samples of coffee if you ask nicely. A super nice kid saw that we were having a bad day and gave us treats. Made it to the river by 630ish, took a very cold bath, and watched shooting stars (one of which spanned half the sky, curved a whole lot, and may have hit ground in OR somewhere. Dono.)
So this morning. Comcast... the hunt continues. Food bank people helped us find out where it was (good thing. We'd never have found it on our own..) and we finally made it there. There's an equipment return box outside, but just to be safe I went inside. Good. Fucking. Thing.
For some reason the computer won't recognize my box... try the phone number? Nope. Try the address? Oh, you're from Seattle? We can't process equipment from out of state. You'll have to go up to Washington.
....
After 'nicely' explaining the situation, she agreed to mail it to the Seattle warehouse, we got an equipment receipt, and the whole ordeal SHOULD be done with.
To all of you..... Join with me in the general fucking of Comcast, because they are my new object of hate.
In brighter news, I think my favorite part of the trip so far is watching the greenery change. Fascinating. Also, there are orchards down here with absolutely no undergrowth.
Salem, we are leaving you today. Thankyou for the sack lunches.
THE HUNT FOR COMCAST
I'm really not sure why we didn't return our modem in Seattle, but for some reason it didn't happen. No worries, though... Comcast is a big company. They should have stores everywhere, yes? And Yakima's a decent sized town. It should definitely have one.... But no. We couldn't find it.
Called Comcast. Sure enough, there's nothing in Yakistan. 'There are drop spots in all the major cities, so just drop it anywhere along your bike trip' the oh-so-helpful dude said. That was the last real live Comcast person I talked to until this morning. So... no worries, we're headed to Portland.
Portland's drop spot is no longer there.
Even that was ok. Frustrating.... but ok. After all, Salem is coming soon, and it will definitely have one...... right?? And yes! Google gave us the address; it was downtown, close, easy. Cruised over there.... the address did not exist. No Comcast. Checked the mall... nothing. Asked around. Turns out there's one in the mall on the other side of town. Biked 5 miles to get there. At this point in our 'day of rest' it's about 330-4ish. We still want to go swimming and relax. So.
I walk into the mall, holding my breath as I look at the map..... Gasp. Comcast is actually really here! Yayyyy! I rejoiced a whole lot. Walked through the mall looking for it.... after a while I felt like I'd gone too far, so I checked another map. Sure enough, Comcast was behind me. At this point I was a little suspicious. Went bakc to the correct spot.
THERE WAS NO COMCAST.
Questioned the security guard... turns out they moved out a couple weeks back. As I ranted to him, a very nice lady offered to look up the address for me. It's someplace far out in North Salem, obscure, in the industrial district. Woopdeedoo. Then I tried calling Comcast to check their hours..... Fair warning to you all. NEVER try to find information, or a real person, by calling Comcast. It was death and fail.
It's 415. We have no food. We decide to find groceries and save Comcast for the next day.
On the ride back to the river, Miah got a flat. More rejoicing. On the plus side, I am now fully confident in my tire changing abilities, AND we've discovered that Starbucks will give you samples of coffee if you ask nicely. A super nice kid saw that we were having a bad day and gave us treats. Made it to the river by 630ish, took a very cold bath, and watched shooting stars (one of which spanned half the sky, curved a whole lot, and may have hit ground in OR somewhere. Dono.)
So this morning. Comcast... the hunt continues. Food bank people helped us find out where it was (good thing. We'd never have found it on our own..) and we finally made it there. There's an equipment return box outside, but just to be safe I went inside. Good. Fucking. Thing.
For some reason the computer won't recognize my box... try the phone number? Nope. Try the address? Oh, you're from Seattle? We can't process equipment from out of state. You'll have to go up to Washington.
....
After 'nicely' explaining the situation, she agreed to mail it to the Seattle warehouse, we got an equipment receipt, and the whole ordeal SHOULD be done with.
To all of you..... Join with me in the general fucking of Comcast, because they are my new object of hate.
In brighter news, I think my favorite part of the trip so far is watching the greenery change. Fascinating. Also, there are orchards down here with absolutely no undergrowth.
Salem, we are leaving you today. Thankyou for the sack lunches.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
By the way....
I pooped a foot long this morning. One solid piece. I thought it was epic enough to share. And yes, this is Lydia. Sorry guys.
Hills. And more hills.
Yup.
The ride from Molalla to Silverton was interesting. Aside from nearly getting heatstroke biking ten miles over hills in 90 degree direct sunshine (yes, it was stupid), getting pegged in the shoulder with a tomato while riding, and searching for camping for two hours, it was a good day. We saw kittens in a free box at the Molalla Safeway, and a nice gentleman at the MarKum Inn after our not-quite-heatsroke episode gave us bananas and a protein shake. Continued toward Silverton after a two hour recovery period (people in Colton told us Silverton would be the place to sell crafty things... the Bellingham of central Oregon, in theory), snagged a tomato with my shoulder and yelled some rather un-clever profanities, discevered that the Abiqua River - our camping destination - was actually a creek running through some yuppie backyards, entered Silverton, and crashed in another blackberry thicket in what appeared to be an empty carnival lot.
Camping for free should not be this difficult. I would love a law that said that every ten miles on every highway there was a designated spot where anyone could camp for free, provided they put their trash in a bin. I'm sure the state could find enough money to add small detours to their trash collection rounds to include these camping areas; a bi-weekly pick-up should suffice to keep them clean. Why is using unused land illegal?
Sunday. We tried to sell in Silverton, and after 4 hours the only luck we'd had was 1 old man who bought a wallet out of sympathy because his son had recently gone on a bike trip. Thankyou kind man! Using the bathroom in the wine bar across the street was fun. What I read on peoples' faces as I entered was 'You don't belong. What are you -doing- here? I'm too sophisticated to question strangers, so I'll just glare instead.' Found a nice patch of woods on the edge of town to camp, and slept -very- well compared to the previous night.
Day 5 started with a ten mile ride on no coffee, since everything's closed for the holiday. Sigh. -We're- laboring.... can't we have some caffiene????? We made up for it by yoinking a pocketful of espresso creamers from a minimart in Salem. Made it downtown, added cool duct tape to our pile, and promptly sold a wallet. Made off with a little over 12, so we're set for food for a couple weeks. A nice dude named Markly talked about music with Miah for a while, bought us kombucha, vitamin water, banana, orange, and SNICKERS. Love. Turns out he's in a band, has played with Autumn Electric, and thought Michael Trew was awesome. Small world :)
Camped in the riverfront park in Salem, slept forever, and are now on our day of rest. This morning we discovered that all Oregon rivers are public property, and that camping along the high-water mark is legal.
My left knee wants to give out. The tendon or ligament or whatever that runs along the lower inside of my kneecap is extremely sore.. any idea what's causing it, or what stretches/adjustments I can do to fix it?
We have some wonderful pictures to post, but the cam's outside with Miah. maybe he'll post them.
The ride from Molalla to Silverton was interesting. Aside from nearly getting heatstroke biking ten miles over hills in 90 degree direct sunshine (yes, it was stupid), getting pegged in the shoulder with a tomato while riding, and searching for camping for two hours, it was a good day. We saw kittens in a free box at the Molalla Safeway, and a nice gentleman at the MarKum Inn after our not-quite-heatsroke episode gave us bananas and a protein shake. Continued toward Silverton after a two hour recovery period (people in Colton told us Silverton would be the place to sell crafty things... the Bellingham of central Oregon, in theory), snagged a tomato with my shoulder and yelled some rather un-clever profanities, discevered that the Abiqua River - our camping destination - was actually a creek running through some yuppie backyards, entered Silverton, and crashed in another blackberry thicket in what appeared to be an empty carnival lot.
Camping for free should not be this difficult. I would love a law that said that every ten miles on every highway there was a designated spot where anyone could camp for free, provided they put their trash in a bin. I'm sure the state could find enough money to add small detours to their trash collection rounds to include these camping areas; a bi-weekly pick-up should suffice to keep them clean. Why is using unused land illegal?
Sunday. We tried to sell in Silverton, and after 4 hours the only luck we'd had was 1 old man who bought a wallet out of sympathy because his son had recently gone on a bike trip. Thankyou kind man! Using the bathroom in the wine bar across the street was fun. What I read on peoples' faces as I entered was 'You don't belong. What are you -doing- here? I'm too sophisticated to question strangers, so I'll just glare instead.' Found a nice patch of woods on the edge of town to camp, and slept -very- well compared to the previous night.
Day 5 started with a ten mile ride on no coffee, since everything's closed for the holiday. Sigh. -We're- laboring.... can't we have some caffiene????? We made up for it by yoinking a pocketful of espresso creamers from a minimart in Salem. Made it downtown, added cool duct tape to our pile, and promptly sold a wallet. Made off with a little over 12, so we're set for food for a couple weeks. A nice dude named Markly talked about music with Miah for a while, bought us kombucha, vitamin water, banana, orange, and SNICKERS. Love. Turns out he's in a band, has played with Autumn Electric, and thought Michael Trew was awesome. Small world :)
Camped in the riverfront park in Salem, slept forever, and are now on our day of rest. This morning we discovered that all Oregon rivers are public property, and that camping along the high-water mark is legal.
My left knee wants to give out. The tendon or ligament or whatever that runs along the lower inside of my kneecap is extremely sore.. any idea what's causing it, or what stretches/adjustments I can do to fix it?
We have some wonderful pictures to post, but the cam's outside with Miah. maybe he'll post them.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Escape from Portland
Getting out of Portland was rough. Started in Clackamas, where we spent 'a night' with Emily. Leaving morning turned into leaving afternoon turned into leaving evening. By the time it was all ready, it was 7pm, so we imposed for another night. Lydia's legs hurt so much after running erands that she could barely move. Fortunately they were better the next day.
Now it's September.... leaving morning #2. Got half a mile out of town, took a wrong turn that led us straight back into town, Lydia discovered that the mysterious thumping coming from her rear tire was actually a flat (now we know what they sound/feel like, at least), changed the tube, and ventured out again. At 330. We were terrified that leaving would fail a second time, and were feeling somewhat more than noobish riding around with all these experienced bikers staring at us, but it worked.
Made it safely along a -very- sketchy, twisty little road, and camped near a river a mile short of Barton, OR. Went wading in our undies and suffered the stares of teenagers floating the river, read 'the alchemist' on a log with our feet in the water, watched the sunset, the space shuttle, and an eagle, and passed out.
Day 2 was epic. Biked roughly 30 miles all done, ending up 2 miles out of Molalla. Easy stretch to Estacada, took a 2 hour break to eat and read, and then paid dearly for it. Just south of Estacada on 211 is 'Day Hill'. We tried to bike it. After 10 rests or so, we decided to walk it the rest of the way.... after all, it couldn't be -that- far... right? 4 miles later we were dead. Rewarded with a downhill coast for 6 miles, but still.
Parked for a while in Colton, where we splurged and bought a salad. DELICIOUS. Six more miles to the Molalla River, picked several cups of blackberries (the remainder are in a waterbottle becoming blackberry jam), and camped in the middle of an ancient blackberry thicket.
Sitting on the riverbank as it got dark, we were watching a hawk when a heron swooped down in front of us and flew off again. It gave us a full belly view from about 4 feet away. Somewhat terrifying, but totally awesome.
Now we're in Molalla, resting from the blistering heat that is the 3rd of September. Miah's wringing out his shirt in the bathroom, and my internet usage is about up. From here we head to Silverton to try our luck at selling crafty things, then we follow the 22 and 18 through Salem and over to the coast. Depoe bay, Newport, Coos bay, and south. Heading towards the Oregon Caves National Monument.... is that where the lava tubes are, or is it a different spot? (Daddy, the itinerary is for you. Have some peace of mind and a few imaginary blackberries. Love ya. :)
Hugs from your favorite sweaty smiles!
(Esther, you should have told us that biking was hard on your shoulders. Grar.)
Now it's September.... leaving morning #2. Got half a mile out of town, took a wrong turn that led us straight back into town, Lydia discovered that the mysterious thumping coming from her rear tire was actually a flat (now we know what they sound/feel like, at least), changed the tube, and ventured out again. At 330. We were terrified that leaving would fail a second time, and were feeling somewhat more than noobish riding around with all these experienced bikers staring at us, but it worked.
Made it safely along a -very- sketchy, twisty little road, and camped near a river a mile short of Barton, OR. Went wading in our undies and suffered the stares of teenagers floating the river, read 'the alchemist' on a log with our feet in the water, watched the sunset, the space shuttle, and an eagle, and passed out.
Day 2 was epic. Biked roughly 30 miles all done, ending up 2 miles out of Molalla. Easy stretch to Estacada, took a 2 hour break to eat and read, and then paid dearly for it. Just south of Estacada on 211 is 'Day Hill'. We tried to bike it. After 10 rests or so, we decided to walk it the rest of the way.... after all, it couldn't be -that- far... right? 4 miles later we were dead. Rewarded with a downhill coast for 6 miles, but still.
Parked for a while in Colton, where we splurged and bought a salad. DELICIOUS. Six more miles to the Molalla River, picked several cups of blackberries (the remainder are in a waterbottle becoming blackberry jam), and camped in the middle of an ancient blackberry thicket.
Sitting on the riverbank as it got dark, we were watching a hawk when a heron swooped down in front of us and flew off again. It gave us a full belly view from about 4 feet away. Somewhat terrifying, but totally awesome.
Now we're in Molalla, resting from the blistering heat that is the 3rd of September. Miah's wringing out his shirt in the bathroom, and my internet usage is about up. From here we head to Silverton to try our luck at selling crafty things, then we follow the 22 and 18 through Salem and over to the coast. Depoe bay, Newport, Coos bay, and south. Heading towards the Oregon Caves National Monument.... is that where the lava tubes are, or is it a different spot? (Daddy, the itinerary is for you. Have some peace of mind and a few imaginary blackberries. Love ya. :)
Hugs from your favorite sweaty smiles!
(Esther, you should have told us that biking was hard on your shoulders. Grar.)
Thursday, September 1, 2011
She's Leaving Home...
...with her husband in tow.
Formerly of Seattle, survivors of August heat in Yakima, Portland escape artists, soon-to-be professional bicyclists.
We're ditching the comfortable aspects of civilization in favor of the infinitely superior comforts of life on the road. Two people, two bikes, two helmets, two sleeping bags, four saddlebags, one tent, and a plethora of water bottles. Life is good, even if camping is somewhat sketchy.
We will miss our cat, and our Esther. Silly surgery.
Formerly of Seattle, survivors of August heat in Yakima, Portland escape artists, soon-to-be professional bicyclists.
We're ditching the comfortable aspects of civilization in favor of the infinitely superior comforts of life on the road. Two people, two bikes, two helmets, two sleeping bags, four saddlebags, one tent, and a plethora of water bottles. Life is good, even if camping is somewhat sketchy.
We will miss our cat, and our Esther. Silly surgery.
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