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Thursday, June 7, 2007
Walport supplemental

We got a place to stay tonight at a presbyterian church thanks to pastor Howe. He even let us use the churches showers! It took a very long time to find a place to crash tonight, but eventually we were saved. (pun intended?)

Also, Ariel forgot to mention that Michelle from Alsea is going to Turkey this fall. Everyone wish her luck!

Posted by Seager {bio} @ 04:57 PM CST Link | Leave us a note!

Waldport, OR

We finally made it to the ocean!
Last night was lovely in Alsea. We met some local area hoodlums and played hackey sack with them for a while. When most of them ran off to play poker in the hills, Karen went to bed and Seager and I loitered outside the post office with our new friend Michelle. We found that even in a town that only consisted of a post office, a general store, a plant nursery (where we were given the yard to camp in, thanks Donna and Michelle) and a long-closed whorehouse, there is plenty to do. It was quite enjoyable to pass several hours bouncing a hackey sack off the post office wall and trying to outdo each other making animal noises.
This morning we were woken up at 5 by the rooster right next to our tents. I thought it was charming, but Seager seemed to want to behead him right then and there. Luckily, he restrained himself and went back to bed. The fog was beautiful when we finally did crawl out of our tents. I took considerably longer than Seager and Karen to do so, but after oatmeal and hot chocolate we were on the road again. After waffling about which route to take, we chose the road marked red, or extremely dangerous for biking, over a green route that would have taken us over bigger hills and taken us ten more miles to get to Waldport. The ride was beautiful, with hardly any traffic and nothing we really considered a hill after yesterdays pass. The smell of the Pacific Northwest rainforest is phenomenal.
Now Karen is waiting to use the computer, and Seager is off trying to schmooze our way onto someone's yard for the night. Life is pretty darn good, I would say.
Tomorrow we dip our tires and ride...well...North. We'll turn East in a couple of days. Keep in touch, everyone!

Posted by Ariel {bio} @ 03:11 PM CST Link | Leave us a note!

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Alsea, OR

Hello Everyone!

Karen and I did make it to town. The pass was...a pass. Coming down was nice, though rainy, so it made our brakes a little bit slick. I am looking forward to juggling and eating and writing a letter and doing pushups and going to BED...no, SLEEPING BAG!

More later...

-Ariel

Posted by Ariel {bio} @ 02:58 PM CST Link | Leave us a note! (1)

Alsea, Or

Dear readers, welcome to our first update from the road! This is our second day on the road, and I am typing from our overnight town of Alsea, Or. Ariel and Karen are still on the road and I expect them to arrive within the hour. More on that later- first, we have YESTERDAY! WOO!

Eugene, Or to Monroe, Or (31 miles)

We got off to a rough start in Eugene, but that is to be expected on our first day. We had some mechanical issues such as non-working brakes and loose handlebar stems that led to some crazy bike handling and safety issues. By the time we got those ironed out it was past noon but we had a short day that day so we weren't too worried about it.

Laura escorted us for the 1st third of the day on Eugene river bike paths where we all learned/remembered how to handle loaded touring bikes. It was definitely an adventure. An adventure complicated by frequent rain and us witnessing another biker have an amazing crash that invovled him flipping over and sliding on his back. He was fine, however, and got up laughing. This didn't help our nerve much though.

All in all we eventually got our cycling legs and the ride into Monroe was uneventful. We arrived around 4:30 and camped out at a park on the side of town and had time to practice juggling and our people stacking. Tired - we retired early. Except for Ariel, who stayed up late doing pushups. Ariel is a little wierd.

Monroe, Or to Alsea, Or (35 miles)

We are starting the trip with very low mileages because most of us didn't have time to train. My goal in picking a route was to avoid passes in the first few days as well. Today I failed at that goal.

The ride started out nice and easy despite the persistance of Oregon's intermittent rain. A little windy, a little hilly, but VERY beautiful. We met at important turns to make sure no one got lost and all was good.

All was good until a random the Pacific Crest Pass showed up out of nowhere near the end. It's on that pass that I believe Ariel and Karen still reside. But, with every good uphill there follows a good downhill. My good downhill was interupted with a bit of adventure. There I am cruising down a winding mountain road, in full crouch, going a cool 35ish MPH. All the sudden I hear a loud scraping crashing noise. My first reaction was that I must be crashing, but quickly ruled that out since I was still on my bike and breathing. My second reaction was that I was about to crash, but a quick glance at both wheels and the road ruled that out as well. All seemed good - until I looked behind me and saw one of my front panniers bouncing joyfulling down the road. Confused because I didn't hit any bumps that would cause something like that to happen I looked at my front rack and, sure enough, my left front pannier had jumped ship. I ran back, grabbed it from the path of an oncoming car, gave it a stern talking to, and reattached it. The damage was minimal, just a slightly ripped rain cover. All in all it could have been MUCH worse. I wish Ariel and Karen better luck.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we head to the coast. 40-50 miles on a narrow road the follows a river through the Coastal Range. Our route is not set in stone and we may add miles to bypass a sketchy road. We may also break the day up in two if we run into lots of passes that aren't well marked on the map and if we find a good camp ground. For now I must go scout out a place for us to stay tonight and gets things cozy for when the rest of the group arrive.

I'll attempt to do a picture update, keep an eye on the gallery.

ILYQ

Posted by Seager {bio} @ 01:45 PM CST Link | Leave us a note! (1)

Monday, June 4, 2007
Eugene, Oregon (day before we leave)

Well folks, here you have it. The first post of our Trans-America bike trip. The players are Ariel, Karen, MinWah, and myself. Ariel, Karen, and I leave tomorrow to head 40ish miles to Alsea, and then 40ish miles to Waldport on the coast. WinWah will be joining us on the 15th in Portland and we'll head east from there, possibly through the Columbia River Gorge.

Tonight we're going to attend a meeting at the UofO juggling club where I will attempt to teach Ariel and Karen to stand on my shoulders while I juggle - with any luck tricks like this will help us earn a few bucks on the trip for food.

Pictures from along the way can be found on our Photo Page as part of the TRS album.

Wish us luck!

ILYQ

Posted by Seager {bio} @ 10:59 AM CST Link | Leave us a note! (2)

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