First 5 Days - Smoke - Fire - Lots of Miles

First, my sincere condolences to all that have endured Hurricane Harvey's wrath. I am so very sorry for the misery it has caused both physical and mental. In my life I can only compare my days in New Orleans with my brother just after Katrina hit. Sights and smells I will never forget. A storm that in my mind eventually led in many ways to my brothers suicide.

We are now in John Day. Our first rest day of the tour. 5 Days of riding; Florence, Eugene, McKenzie Bridge, Prineville, Mitchell, John Day. The photo below was taken near the Heceta Light House up Hy 101 from Florence.

Following are a few stats pertaining to our ride thus far:

• Total Miles thru Day 5 = 361
• Total Approximate Calories burned = 21,000
• 32 Hours on the bike
• Ascent or Climbing Thus Far: 15,000'
• Average Speed: Does not matter cause it's a tour. :)

By far the two most beautiful days have been Florence to Eugene on day 1 and then yesterdays ride from Mitchel to John Day. Coastal rain forest are indescribable. And the country west of Mitchel turned out to be moderately lush high desert. Meaning there were trees and water on the route and we had a beautiful descent with little traffic. 

As we have said many times in the past, sitting behind the seat of a car windshield or watching touring videos from the comfort of a sofa can never compare with touring on a bicycle. All 5 senses are engaged with the country around you. The smell of Blue Spruce and Sequoias and smoke from the many forest fires along our route. The sounds of the rivers and streams. The feel of the air and our tired legs and fatigue. The sights unfolding in front of you while you take in the other senses. 

So far this tour has been pretty much all I had hoped for. We have many stories to tell. Stories that will be retold for years to come. Here are the highlights of a few of those stories so far. 

• The Golden Wheel Awards - Joe and Bill have received them every day. The first time for missing the route turn and deciding to "do it their way" and riding through Eugene traffic instead of following the Adventure Cycling map that took BJ and I to down town via safe bicycle paths. 
• BJ walking over to a car and opening the rear hatch with the driver standing right beside him. Only to find out it was really the drivers car not Bills rented car. 
• The climb over Santiam Pass that lasted over 35 miles with smoke and Sunday traffic that I don't ever want to see again. We rode 105 miles that day. Opps, sorry we all rode 105 except Bill who decided to go to Bend instead of Mitchel. 
• Joes side wall flat and the ensuing frustration after it blew out again in the same side wall cut that he missed the first time. Not to mention his use of racing tires instead of touring tires for the tour. 
• Bills equipment failure. His $300 carbon racing shoes split in half as he attempted to ride from Sisters to Mitchel to make up for his side trip to Bend. The failure led to a trip back to Bend for new cheap shoes and the loss of that segment of the trip. 
• The wrong turns and almost wrong turns we all made during the trip. These should be fewer now that we don't have to follow a map so closely and watch signs to make sure we are on the right road. But a few tricky turns still await us.

Ok enough for now. If you wish, you can view the photos I've taken so far by clicking here. 

It may be a few days before I post again. 

Houston We Have A Problem

We are now in Bend Oregon after 4 days on the road. Almost 2000 miles. Stayed in Boise Idaho last nite. The roads were clear and with light to moderate traffic all the way through the desert of Utah. Only moderate traffic in Boise Idaho and Salt Lake City. It was in Burns, Oregon that things got interesting. This is what the country looks like:


You might recall Burns was in the news in January of 2016 when a group calling themselves Citizens for Constitutional Freedom holed up at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  There were about 12 of them intent on taking over the US and starting a new government to make America Great Again. Followers of Ammon and Ryan Bundy who ever they are. Click on the link if you want to know more. Anyway, that's not what I'm writing about today.

What I'm writing about today is what Burns looked like when we arrived - Gridlocked. Looked like an evacuation. Every friggin gas station had multiple lines waiting to get gas at over $3.00 per gallon. There were like 6 stations and all had lines.

We finally just picked one and waited our turn. When we made it to the pump the pump attendant told us it was the Solar Eclipse. He said the town had been like this for 3 days. People from the west coast and parts of Idaho traveled there to view the eclipse and were heading home. Looks kind of like it did in New Orleans after Katrina but without the devastation. Amazing to see that out on the high desert. Kind of scary. Both the gridlock and the attempted take over of the United States government.

Any way that is only part of the story. When we got to Bend we found out there is a wild fire out of Sisters Oregon. A big fire called the Milli Fire. Like 11,000 acres big and right on our route in a few days. So we now have a humongous wild fire on our route we are going to have to plan contingencies for.



That's it, I'm tired. We pick BJ up at the airport tomorrow afternoon. Then on to Florence on the coast. Gosh I hope we don't see any more drama. This is supposed to be a nice leisurely bicycle tour.

More soon.

We're Not in Houston Any More Toto

Gay and I departed Amarillo about 8:00am this morning. Heading the usual way toward Colorado but turning in Walsenburg and following SH 69 thru the scenic back roads of South Central Colorado. Places like, Gardner, Wolf Springs Ranch, Texas Creek and then Salida.

Took us maybe 2 hours more today because we did the retirement thing, we TOOK THE ROADS LESS TRAVELED. Imagine that. Taking a road that takes you longer than it would have if you were 30 years old and in "Bust Your ASS" work mode. It's not all bad folks. My brother Larry used to call that "Smelling the Roses".

We stopped in Salida and visited a couple of bike shops and walked by the river and watched the swimmers and kayakers in the city park. A place I've been on at least 2 Bicycle tours of Colorado in the past.

We then proceeded on to Gunnison and Black Canyon on the Curecanti National Recreation Area then on to Grand Junction. All places we have visited on past bike tours and very beautiful country on the Western Slope of the Rockies.

The bikes are all fairing well. Only 2 rain storms. Shipping these bikes up would have cost approximately $300 in RT shipping charges and up to another $200. in boxing and disassembly/assembly costs Rt. Or about $500 per rider. Vs. us driving them up.

Tomorrow it's on to Salt Lake City and then Boise Idaho.

The Mormon Hand Cart Tragedy of 1856

Gay and I made it to Amarillo mid evening August 19th after about 600 miles in my truck. We have at least two more days of driving to make it to Oregon.

As we progress toward Oregon I am remembering chapters recently read from the book: The Oregon Trail - A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. In two days we will pass through Salt Lake City on our way to Boise, Idaho. I cannot get the chapter about the Mormon Hand Cart Tragedy out of my brain. Over 200 Mormon converts died attempting to make it to the new promised land of Salt Lake City and on to Oregon. Below you will see a photo of a statue of a settler and his family and the hand cart they would have built and pushed and pulled from Iowa with about 17# of luggage per cart.

Your getting the "thumbnail version" of this tragedy in this blog. I'll link you to more detail if you want it below.

History records that there were actually 5 parties of pioneers that left for the promised land that summer. The first 3 made it through before the winter storms began in early October of 1856. The last 2 parties, the Willie and Martin companies left late in the season and were caught in the first storms to hit the Wyoming territory in October. Over 200 died along the way. Husbands, Wives, Children and even Grand Parents.

There is much more to this story. But I know many of you are working and have to get back to production. So when you have time. Click here to read more. 

I write this because all through the summer as we trained for this tour, we worried about the heat. Here it is, we are about to embark on a 1000 mile journey that will take us into early September and I cannot help but wonder what if heat really not going to be our challenge? What if it's rain and sleet before the snow of October?

Time will tell.....More soon.

Tommy10

Bikes Loaded and Ready

Our group met last evening to situate and load and cable lock our bikes in the back of my truck. The photo below shows the results of our work after a few beers and alot of story telling.

 From left to right: Standley, Oswald, Schumacher, Davis or in our handles: Tommy10, Gray Ghost, Gotta Go Joe, Voice of Reason.

We depart in the morning for New Mexico and then Salt Lake City and then Oregon we hope. With luck we will see the solar eclipse.

Interestingly our tour will travel over most the the path of the eclipse all the way to the Snake River.

More Soon
Tommy10

Ride Report - Saturday August 12th

This marked our last weekend training ride before our Oregon Trail ride begins. Out of 7 original riders, we ended up with 4 that I'm confident will be on this tour and will finish their stated goals. Those riders are: Voice of Reason - BJ Davis, The Gray Ghost - Bill Oswald, Gotta Go - Joe Schumacher, and Tommy10 Standley. 

Today we rode with the Woodlands Cycling Club. There were approximately 35 riders on the ride out of the Honea Baptist Church off FM 2854 this morning. All the riders mentioned above except Joe were there along with many old timers like Cynthia Ullman, Bill Wiedline, and others we have known for years. 

The ride had a number of options that I won't go into, but was basically a 50 to 60 mile ride. I ended up with almost 60 miles riding from my house in Wood-forest.

Route Brief - Honea Baptist Church on FM2854 to Kennan Cutoff to FM149 to Jackson Road, to Dobbin and then Dacus and then back via the Gorilla Loop to FM1097 and then Montgomery and FM2854 back to the Church. 

It was a spirited ride with speeds up to 35 miles an hour on stretches with down hill slopes and up to 28 miles an hour on many of the flats. 

There was a reported crash behind us just out of Dacus on the railroad tracks. A rider hit the tracks at speed and went down. Don't know who it was but he was not able to ride again and had to be transported I'm told. 

This was my first ride with the club with my recumbent set up for the tour. The larger tires and touring rims performed well and were comfortable with an acceptable performance reduction. 

The next post will be from the field on our way to Oregon and then along the way until we reach Montana. If you want to follow our tour, you will need to sign up for e:mail notifications by clicking on the appropriate link to the right of this post.