Day Seven
Paradise Point SP to Troutdale, OR, 37 miles
I’m never in bed by 9 PM, but I crawled into my sleeping bag early last night. I slept fitfully. Terribly, actually. I woke at least hourly to roll over onto a side that didn’t hurt. And here’s the weird thing: yesterday, I unchained the beast. In each of us there is a primal version of our more civilized selves. Our inner beast must be taunted to come out. Too often, it comes out through anger, when someone has really pushed a button and our beast rises to fight. More productively, the beast will rise when we commit to a goal that can only be reach by taking the road of pain. Gainful suffering releases the beast.
After yesterday’s crux effort, and after a terrible night’s sleep, I woke at 5:30 AM ready to go. Unlike every morning this last week, I wasn’t sore, just a bit stiff. It was just, “let’s hit it”. I banged out this morning’s 38 miles to the McMenamins Edgefield Hotel before 11:00 AM. Today, I am totally confident that have found and released the rider in me. It took a week but now I’m ready to attack this ride to the Mexican border.
The route from Paradise Point passes through rural north Clark County, then brushed E. Vancouver towards the I-205 bridge that crosses the Columbia River. The bridge has a cycling path nestled between the northbound and southbound traffic lanes. Again, today’s roads were in good shape and drivers polite. In fact, the only bad roads and traffic all the way down from Blaine were the ones I complained about in Snohomish County. Washington is predominantly bike friendly. What I didn’t see were many other cyclists. In all of Washington I saw only two riders geared up for cross-country travel.
And now, I’m switching things up. Over the next few days, I will be coaching a whitewater leadership seminar on the Deschutes River. My original plan was to return from the river to Troutdale, pick up where I am leaving off, and continuing cycling towards the Oregon coast and points south. Instead, I’m going back to Missoula to wrap up some family business, and build up a new bike. After a week or so getting all that done, I’ll pick up again here and continue pedaling south.
For you cycling gear heads, here’s what is driving the bike switcharoo. I love my Cannondale CAADX cyclocross bike. It’s quick, nimble and tough. But touring on this bike loaded with gear was a constant management problem on last year’s ride across the southern tier. I thought I would resolve the loading issues by pulling a trailer. But when I started riding with a fully loaded trailer, that is, with all the gear I need for extended travel, not just a light weekender kit, the bike couldn’t handle all that mass hanging off the rear axle. The issue is that the aluminum chainstays, the part of the frame connecting the bottom bracket to the rear axle, flexes under the stress. When I turn it bends like a spring and when I straighten out it springs back releasing that energy in the opposite direction, oscillating the entire bike, trailer and rider. It’s the same issue as when you tow too big of a trailer with your car or truck. It whipsaws the whole rig, dangerously. It might also wreck my cycle cross bike for what it’s meant to do, which is ripping up and down trails and gravel roads.
My solution is to return to a purpose built touring bike, with panniers front and back to carry the load. I have my eye on a Priority 600, a gear hauler with a new fantastic feature: a belt drive and a bottom bracket transmission, replacing the traditional chain and derailleur system we have grown up with. No grease, no complicated shift patterns, and perfectly sequenced gear spacing. As soon as I have it in hand I’ll post pictures. It SHOULD work great. Of course, that’s what I thought about this trailer…
So I’m signing off for a couple of weeks. I expect to be back in the saddle by August 11 or 12, to continue this last leg of my circumnavigation of the United States. See you down the road!
