Before starting today, there was the route dilemma: use 101 as recommended by Kirkendall and Spring in the “Bicycling the Pacific Coast” book, or 112/113 as recommended by Adventure Cycling. The former uses a busy shoulderless section of 101, while the latter is ten miles longer. K&S seem inconsistent in their recommendations: they will often take an alternate route if it means less traffic, but they do not consistently do so. Whereas I find that AC is a little more consistent in their approach. I went with the AC route, figuring if I’m already going 70 miles today, then what’s another 10 miles?
Category Archives: Bicycling
Day 2: Hurricane Ridge, 40 miles
Today’s route: Part 1 and Part 2
I started the morning off with a run. Why should I give up my newly found running fitness just because I’m on a bicycle trip? But I am scaling back to the bare minimum: two miles every other day at an easy pace. (And on a flat route below.)
Continue reading
Day 1: Port Angeles WA, 50 miles
Today’s route: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
The Coast hotel near Vancouver airport worked well for this one night stay. Then, aside from some navigational challenges to get to the bike path on the Alex Fraser Bridge, it was 30 miles of uneventful riding through the Vancouver suburbs and farms in order to get to the ferry in Tsawassen.
Day 0: Final Preparations and Travel to Vancouver BC
First, some developments from the past few days of preparation.
Unlike most of these trips, I may be doing enough camping to make a stove worthwhile. I dusted off my old stove, and while it still works, it seemed like a bit overkill for this trip.
Washington Coast Bicycle Tour: Preparations
Another bike trip is coming this summer. Soon I fly with my bike to Vancouver, British Columbia. Then, via a combination of ferries and riding, I will end up in Port Angeles, Washington, which will be the “real” beginning of the trip. From there, I will ride around the Olympic Peninsula and down the coast (as much as it is possible in Washington state) to Astoria, Oregon, where I started my Oregon Coast tour last year.
Oregon Coast Bicycle Tour Video
I’m finally done with the video from this summer’s Oregon Coast Bicycle Tour! This summer’s journal entries are here.
Bike Friday – a Review after Ten Years
I previously had an S&S coupled bike which I used for travel. Although the detachable frame couplers are a solid design, the downside is that the assembly/disassembly time for the bike was quite excessive for short trips. This post on the impracticality of S&S couplers for most people pretty much echoes my views.
Sometime around 2003 (?), I bought a used Bike Friday Pocket Rocket folding road bike as a replacement for the S&S coupled bike. There are a number of other bikes that fold smaller and/or quicker, but my goal was to have something that folded relatively quickly into a standard-sized airline luggage, yet with a ride quality as close as possible to that of my fast road bike.
I envisioned a couple of main uses for the bike: Continue reading
Open Street Maps for Garmin Edge 800
I just picked up a Garmin Edge 800. It has mapping capabilities, but to make a long story short, you need to install maps. If you haven’t done so already, read DC Rainmaker’s excellent post for background.
There’s a couple of sites which give advice on downloading free Open Street Maps. Continue reading
Oregon Coast Tour: Travel Home and Final Thoughts
One last update before I turn off the auto-posting to Facebook and Twitter. Having just cycled the Oregon coast, as well as the Northern California coast two years ago, here’s a wrap-up with various thoughts. Continue reading
Day 7: Crater Lake Rim Road, 33 miles
Today’s route: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1479689
I’ll pick up the story from where I left off late Saturday afternoon.
My flight home from Crescent City is Monday afternoon, with no chance of getting an earlier flight. Rather than stay in Crescent City for two nights, I rented a car and drove to Grants Pass, Oregon. Then on Sunday I drove to Crater Lake and rode the rim road around the lake.
I followed the recommended approach of entering from the south (Highway 62) and doing the ride clockwise from the visitor center about four miles from where you pay the entrance fee. As mentioned at the second link below, this puts the hardest climb at the beginning and makes for an easier finish. Continue reading