Day 41- 62
California, Oregon, Washington
Day 41 - McArthur Burney Falls State Park, California
26 June - Rest day - 25.69 miles 1:41 hours
Spent the day at the Burney public library. Spent a lot of the time talking to Connie the librarian who had been to Burnie in Tasmania. Connie had actually retired three years ago but kept getting called back for casual and part time work. However today she was getting laid off due to budgetary cuts so her and her workmates invited me to celebrate with a bottle of champagne. “Probably the only time that you’ll get to drink alcohol in a county building”.
“Camping” in America is strange. Often I’m the only tent in a sea of RV, caravans and buses.
I’d never heard of taking a TV, a DVD and even a TV satellite dish to a campground until I came here. And padded camping chairs. And even a fabric garage tent for an SUV. Green Astroturf laid out so they don’t bring any dirt into their RVs. Camping stoves with four cook tops. And as I walk past the bathrooms I can hear ladies blow drying their hair.
“How about we take the entire contents of our entertainment filled house out into the woods this weekend, honey?”
We wouldn’t want to get bored would we?
Day 42 - Medicine Lake, California
27 June - 57.07 miles 5:26 hours
Today was the first day that I did not pass through a town. Had to climb over 3000 feet up to Medicine Lake. On the way I stopped to have a look-see at some ice caves beside the road. I saw an old looking 4WD-wagon pull up so abandoned my look-see and went back to my bike. The father of the family Paul introduced me to his wife Gail and their two kids. They were from Oregon and were on a month and a half holiday for the school holidays (Gail was a teacher). Paul handed me a lovely peach “Corporate fruit” and generously tried to get me to take some tins of fruit salad they had. Paul could tell a great story, knew a helluva lot of history, and they offered to load my bike onto the car so that they could take me to see some other caves. I told them I’d meet them at Medicine Lake for a swim later and continued riding. Half an hour later on their way back from the caves, they pulled up in front of me. Paul got out with a rope determined to tie my bike to the roof of their car.
I refused and insisted I’d get to the lake soon enough.
When I got to the beautiful lake I headed straight to the beach to find them. We swam a while in the cool water and they invited me to hang out for some lunch that was healthy and gluten-free. Paul told us some great stories of his younger days and his hitchhiking adventures in Mexico. He didn’t quite make it to Guatemala because of an enormous earthquake that killed twenty thousand people. Before we left, Paul ended up giving me a brand new book that he hadn’t even read yet and more fruit. They gave me their address in Oregon and told me to stop by when I got up that way.
“We’ve got an old car that Paul’s been working on that you can have if you like”.
Wonderful people.
Day 43 - Lava Beds National Monument, California
28 June - 60.76 miles 4:37 hours
Lava Beds National Monument is full of caves. I quickly discovered that spelunking in dark caves alone isn’t much fun. Spent the rest of the day above ground.
The view from the campground is amazing. I much prefer desert over forests, I like being able to see horizons in all directions.
Day 44 - Rocky Point (near Klamath Falls), Oregon
29 June - 79.96 miles 5:24 hours
The ride out of Lava Beds this morning was wonderful. I rode into Oregon and past Tule Lake; hundreds of beautiful waterbirds but about five miles of riding through millions of tiny insects. As I was approaching Klamath, a young guy on a bicycle, Chris, began to ride with me. Chris was home with his folks for the holidays but was a bassoon player at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco. We talked a lot and he ended up taking me all the way into town to the best grocery store. While I was shopping he rushed home and brought back some cycling maps for me and gave me some directions for getting up to Crater Lake.
When I got to Rocky Point I stopped in at a gas station to fill up on water and get directions to the nearest campground. As I was walking out, an old guy buying a carton of beer asked me where I was heading. I told him I was about to camp for the night and he suggested that I could camp in his back yard and he had water available. I hesitantly agreed, but refused his offer of putting my bike on the back of his pickup.
I instead asked for directions, thinking that at the worst I could just check out the place from the road and then ride off if it looked bad. A five minute ride later and I was in a wonderful wooded area with beautiful houses. Audie came out to greet me, and introduced me to his wife Helen and their dog Meathead. “I’ll show you where you can camp” he said, as he led me to their 24 foot luxury 5th wheeler!
Audie and Helen let me do a load of washing while outside it rained heavily for several hours. Audie cooked us burgers and a lovely salad, homemade ice-cream for dessert, gave me a tour of his neighbourhood and showed me home videos of the large snowfalls they get during the winter (they have to clear the roof of the house occasionally so that it doesn’t collapse). I felt like instant family, it was wonderful.
Day 45 - Crater Lake National Park (Mazama Campground), Oregon
30 June - 84.29 miles 6:33 hours
This morning I was woken to a breakfast fit for royalty. Fruit salad with sweet watermelon, then scrambled eggs with bell peppers and biscuits similar to warm scones with homemade pineapple jam, orange juice and of course a lovely, freshly plunged coffee. It was hard to leave.
Struggled up to Crater Lake National Park with a stomach going haywire but it was well worth it.
After setting up my tent beside several slabs of melting snow I took my unloaded bike for the ride around the lake. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA and once set a record for clarity. The ride around the lake also goes down in my “Top Ten Bike Rides List”. I could only ride three quarters of the way around the lake, the eastern side was still closed due to snow.
Day 46 - Valley of the Rogue State Park, Oregon
1 July - 84.27 miles 5:25 hours
I can now be fed and packed up in the morning within an hour.
The first forty miles of riding today was all downhill through shady tree lined roads, the wind chill was ridiculous. I had to wait fifteen minutes for my camera lens to un-fog.
Day 47 - Jedadiah Smith State Park, California
2 July - 87.38 miles 5:48 hours
Today is Friday and it’s the Fourth of July weekend. I rode madly all day, thinking that all the campgrounds are going to be full of mad weekend warriors and their noisy kids. I even had the “TIRED AUSSIE…” sign hanging behind my bike, but no luck. As I was taking down the sign a guy walking past me said he was pretty tired as well, “after a night of drinking here and there”.
Had to climb two small summits, the second one culminated in a very long, dark tunnel. Luckily it had a bicycle warning system; a button to start a set of flashing lights at each end of the tunnel, warning drivers that I was somewhere in the tunnel.
It was terrifyingly noisy and very nerve racking and I had to stop at the other end and rest my nerves for ten minutes. After that it was another twenty miles of mostly downhill road but very windy and with very little shoulder. Too many close shaves with RVs and logging trucks and fighting a head wind from the coast didn’t make for very nice riding, even though the scenery amongst the redwoods was great.
The state park was full, but luckily it had a $2 hike and bike section, completely empty. The park is set amongst the magnificent redwood trees. I think George Lucas filmed “Return of the Jedi” somewhere near here.
Day 48 - Jedadiah Smith State Park, California
3 July - Rest day - 29.95 miles 2:37 hours
Tomorrow is the Fourth of July but tonight I decided I’m having a celebration of my own. I bought a whole bunch of food in town, snaggers, potatoes, cheese and Australian Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon. I’m considering that this is my 50th riding day celebration, two days early.
When I am halfway through the wine I also decide to name this honourable day the “International Day of Leisure”. As well as that, I decide that I’m gonna celebrate this auspicious occasion more often, maybe corresponding it with every future rest day.
Day 49 - Jedadiah Smith State Park, California
4 July - Rest day - 29.69 miles 2:30 hours
Woke up in the middle of last night and had to make a rush to the nearest toilet, about 300 yards from my tent. I think I may have overdone it; eating four sausages, five potatoes, a slab of cheese and finishing off the bottle of wine in just one meal.
Hugged some trees today and felt a bit better.
Day 50 - Jedadiah Smith State Park, California
5 July - 16.17 miles 1:22 hours
Currently reading the brand new, unread book that Paul (day 42) gave me. It’s called “Arabian Sands” and was written by Wilfred Thesiger who spent several years of his young life travelling with Arabs in Saudi Arabia in the 1940s. Very interesting and not the sort of book I would have picked up to read myself. These Arabs could look at the footprints of a camel in the desert sand and tell you whose camel it was, if it was pregnant and how fast it was going. I think the Arabs thought more highly of their camels than their own wives.
Bought a helmet mirror at the local bike shop. It’s ridiculous how close some of the logging trucks will pass by on roads that have plenty of room.
I’m gonna use the extra warning that the helmet mirror gives me to stop my bike and get off the road completely. A friend reckons it’s because loggers equate cyclists as being hippies. Hippies of course are bad for the logging business, chaining themselves to trees, etc, so it’s only natural that a logging truck would want to give a cycling, tree-hugging hippie a bit of a scare. I’m considering putting a “HUG A LOGGER” sign on the back of my bike but that would probably start me getting run off the road and abused by left-wing, tree-hugging, liberal hippies in their gas guzzling SUVs.
Day 51 - Prairie Creek Redwoods (Elk Prairie Campground), California
6 July - 66.69 miles 5:32 hours
Day 52 - Harris Beach State Park, Oregon
7 July - 64.59 miles 5:21 hours
At the campground last night I met a great Dutch guy, Rodge, who had started in Calgary three weeks ago and was heading south. Makes me feel totally inadequate knowing that I having been riding for seven weeks and still being in California. Totally great enthusiastic guy and I hope to meet up with him again at some stage to ride together.
Yesterday I had started riding south back towards San Francisco. After meeting Rodge last night, I felt inspired to head north and see more. And so I did.
Just before the Oregon border I met a German cyclist, Dirk.
He saved me from being accosted by an aging hippy who had cornered me outside the supermarket. The hippy was complaining to me because no one had told him how much his balls were going to hurt when he rode all around the States in the ‘60s eating mung beans that he’d soak all day in his panniers. Dirk is a German radio DJ from Munich being sponsored by Tatonka to ride around, literally, the States. I was instantly envious of his stylish matching all black pannier bags and clothing. I could not compare, my multicoloured, fading get-up garb and plastic bags full of food dangling from my handlebars were a poor match. But as we were both heading north we decided to ride together a while.
Day 53 - Bullards Beach State Park, Oregon
8 July - 86.69 miles 7:58 hours
Day 54 - Honeyman State Park, Oregon
9 July - 71.86 miles 5:50 hours
Day 55 - Beverly Beach State Park, Oregon
10 July - 62.47 miles 5:11 hours
Dirk has introduced me to the delights of Dairy Queen ice-cream blizzards with crushed up Snickers. I wanted to introduce Dirk to the joy of early morning riding, he wanted to show me the joy of evening riding. We both got our own way and unfortunately ended up riding from early morning to late afternoon.
It’s great to have a riding partner, and as we learned, unusual to meet anyone else riding northwards along the coast. Didn’t take long to realise why; with fifteen to twenty five mile per hour headwinds that made balancing on the bike a task in itself. At one point it took me three attempts to get back onto the bike. At every tourist info centre we stopped at, we get a very surprised “Oh” when they discover we are riding north. Everyday we would be passed by a dozen or more cyclists heading south. Woosies.
Day 56 - Cape Lookout State Park, Oregon
11 July - 58.52 miles 4:47 hours
Dirk has been harassed by terrible bike problems, he is up to his 13th broken spoke and has even had his wheel rebuilt. Today he broke his clipless pedal.
This morning Dirk reported in to his Munich radio station to do an update of his ride. I got to say a few words to the DJ, which will be on the radio tomorrow. Too bad I don’t know German.
Day 57 - Nehalam Bay State Park, Oregon
12 July - 40.52 miles 2:58 hours
Riding with Dirk was fun at first, but it’s getting a bit exhausting having someone around all the time and the decision making that goes with it. I can’t remember much about the Oregon beaches and campgrounds we’ve been through; it’s a blur of getting in after dark, trying to organise dinner and laundry and then on the bikes again first thing in the morning. Yesterday we decided to have a barbeque so we brought snaggers and spuds at lunchtime. When we got to the campgrounds, just before dark, Dirk wanted to organise our time and was deciding in just what order we should do it:
“Well we could do the photos now, then we could try and go for a dip in the ocean, then we could watch the sunset, then barbeque and then have showers”.
Dirk had wanted to take a bunch of photos of us on our bikes and of me posing with my “TIRED AUSSIE…” sign so that he could put the photos up on the Tatonka website. After the last hour long “photo session” he had put me through at the Oregon sand dunes I knew it was not just a matter of a couple of snapshots. Dirk also had not yet gone for a swim in the Pacific Ocean, even though it had been a couple of hundred metres to the left of him ever since he left Los Angeles weeks ago. I was already exhausted by this stage and more than a little annoyed at having my time divided into allocated tasks. I just wanted to sit at the table and rest; not go anywhere, not do anything. I just wanted some “me” time.
He got the message and decided that the photo taking session could wait;
“We should go down and go for a quick swim now”.
“You go, Dirk, I’m just gonna hang out here a while and chill a bit”.
He got the message and decided the swim could wait;
“We are gonna miss the sunset!”.
“You go, Dirk. You don’t need to have me there to see the sunset”.
He got the message and decided to start the fire for our barbeque. Dirk got out his camera and his four lenses and took a dozen photos of me cooking sausages, me cooking potatoes, me eating sausages, me eating potatoes. Finally I told him that I’d had enough of posing and that he should put the camera away.
After dinner, I quickly headed off for a shower before he could organise anything else to do.
None of the Oregon shops stock Nutella.
Day 58 - Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon
13 July - 56 miles 4:12 hours
I was up and ready to go at 7:30am and told Dirk I’d meet him at our next planned campground. The last thing he said before I rode off was to set up my tent at the next campground, but “don’t take anything off your bike so we can do those photos”. I got to the campground at lunchtime and spent some time chatting with Skylar and Chad; both seventeen years old and hitchhiking from their home town of Sooke on Vancouver Island to Montreal, via LA and Detroit. I was expecting Dirk to show up at any time but after two hours there was still no sign of him. I was enjoying being on my own again and headed down to the beach for a snooze. On the way back to my tent to continue napping, Dirk spotted me and suggested we go for a quick swim in the ocean and then take some photos. I told him of “my plan” and agreed that we could take the photos later. By the time I’d finished my nap, Dirk was there again wanting to take the photos of us on the bikes.
I told him I wasn’t up to taking any photos and just wanted to chill out. Later he asked to talk about our riding plans for tomorrow and I told him I was gonna have a short riding day and stop at the last state park in Oregon.
“Well I guess this is our last night then”, he said.
Yes, and instead of spending time with him I pissed off down the beach again to watch the sunset. Spoke with Skylar and Chad some more and then agreed to look over Dirk’s digital photos with him, as he’d previously organised for us to do…
Nothing was ever spontaneous with Dirk.
Day 59 - Fort Stevens State Park (Rest Day), Oregon
14 July - 35.18 miles 2:59 hours
Got up at about 5am and was ready to ride not long after. A dozy Dirk emerged from his tent and I went over to him and shook his hand. He reminded me that I had agreed last night to take some photos this morning and get a “statement” from me. I knew this could take some time so I told him I’d just email him a whole bunch of my photos when I finished my trip. This seemed to satisfy him but he still wanted a “statement”. He pulled out his microphone and asked me a few questions about the highlights of my trip, and I babbled away.
And then that was it. We had a quick hug in which I accidentally hit him on the chin and then I took off.
Had a wonderful short day of riding and had a huge campground almost entirely to myself. I camped under the thick canopy of a tree and despite it raining quite heavily during the night, not a drop hit my tent.
Day 60 - Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington
15 July - 91.2 miles 6:16 hours
Have ridden 3000 miles. I’m sick of corn grits for breakfast. I’m sick of bananas. I’m sick of rice cakes and peanut butter. I’m sick of Snickers. And today, for the first time, I’m bored of riding. Even the prospect of entering a new state, Washington (the Evergreen State) didn’t cheer me up or quell my boredom. The only consolation was finding a jar of Nutella in a small store near the Washington border, my first Nutella since leaving California.
I got a rear tyre puncture today on the way across the bridge into Astoria, the first since day 2. I used the opportunity to hang out in the emergency lane of highway 101 during morning peak hour traffic and change my tyre as well. It’s done 3500 miles and was worn down to the threads.
After setting up camp at the state park, I took a ride along the peninsula but from the road there is barely any sign of the coast unless you do some hiking. I did get to see my first family of racoons slowly crossing the road in front of me, a mother followed closely by her four young cubs, all the time keeping a very close eye on me.
Day 61 - Twin Harbours State Park, Washington
16 July - 81.67 miles 5:52 hours
Another mediocre day. I’m bored again of riding and bored again of eating the same old gluten-free food. I called my boss today to quit my job. It’s been two months since I took leave, so I figured I should give them a month’s notice. I’ve thought seriously about the job situation for the last two weeks. I think my mind was kind of made up when I decided not to ride back to San Francisco. I told my boss where I was and how much I was enjoying myself and then “ah…umm…I think I want to resign”.
He declined my resignation. He said take off more time if you need it and just come back when someone calls you. Before he ended the conversation he told me that he wished he was in my shoes. I don’t think he really would have liked to have been in my shoes because my feet have been very sore for the past few days.
Day 62 - Quinault Lake (Gatton Creek Campground), Washington
17 July - 66.3 miles 4:35 hours
The last few days have been low points of my trip. I now realise why. I need a bit of a challenge. My plan lately has been to make it to Vancouver and then head across to the east coast of America as fast as I can in order to see the Autumn colours.
Today I had my map of the USA out and for some reason I turned it over to read the travel warnings on the back of the map. And there on the back, hidden away in a corner, was a little map of Alaska (and a little map of Hawaii). I’d forgotten all about Alaska. I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska and see the Northern Lights ever since a friend of mine, Herman, told me his stories of being an ambulance paramedic in Fairbanks. For some reason I’d totally forgot about that dream while thinking of places to visit . I feel challenged!
I got to Quinault lake in the early afternoon after spending the day singing to myself, the only entertainment, albeit quite poor entertainment, on another mediocre riding day. Maybe it is possible to spend too much time with one’s self, like a friend of mine once remarked to me. Quinault Lake is on the edge of the Olympic National Park and the primitive campground I’m in is literally right on the edge of the lake, I only have to walk a few feet from my tent and I’m standing in the clear cold water of the lake. My campground neighbours are a young family from Seattle; Michael (a physician of internal medicine), his wife Rebecca, their three-month old baby and their wonderful golden retriever Bella who keeps coming and sitting on my feet. I was asking them all about Alaska and they mentioned that a ferry runs up there from Seattle but to ride back by bicycle would require going through some pretty isolated stretches of country.
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