I sent off yesterdays post while in Port Orford, because I wasn’t sure I could get an email out from last night’s camp at Humbug Mtn. State Park. After I posted, a couple of things of note happened. I was talking with Victoria at Port Orford’s Portside Market about how genuine and kind people are here on Oregon’s South Coast.

I still have about seven miles to ride to camp at Humbug Mtn., but on the map the campground appears to be in a hollow behind the mountain. I can get this post of from here in Port Orford and not risk having a bad signal in camp

A light day today, but filled with interest. I finished yesterday’s post at a Winchester Bay pizza restaurant while enjoying excellent halibut and chips. It’s the coast, after all.

On my 5th or 6th time awake this morning, it was getting light. I got one more doze in and rose with the sun sometime before 7. Super groggy, and not enough water with me to make coffee. Everything was wet with dew and I was glad I put the rainfly over the bike. I did so for concealment. Nice that a rainfly also keeps things dry. 

As predicted, it rained hard last night, let up by mid-morning and the pavement was nicely drying by 10:00 AM. Today was goodbye to the Willamette, since I’m going to the coast instead of inland. I stopped by Fred Meyer to grab some WD40–ejecting from my pedals takes too hard of a twist—and lunch to go. I got some baked chicken on day-old discount, which chewed like rubber.

Today’s ride was a beeline almost straight south on 99W from Corvallis to Eugene. The plan was to continue SE through Eugene into the Oregon Cascades foothills and on up the course of the Willamette River tributaries, then drop onto the high Central Oregon plateau and work south to Klamath Falls. I got to Eugene, called it a day and reassessed, again. 

That’s right, Corvallis, not Lincoln City. Yesterday was my needed limp day, and I changed up the whole ride. As I’ve mentioned, Joan and I sold our house last month and have been vagabonding around for a few weeks. While I was back in Missoula last week to receive and build the Priority 600 bike I am now riding, we used the days to also consolidate all of our worldly possession from 4 smaller storage units to one big one.

Hello and welcome back from the brief intermission (of nearly two weeks). I’m back on my new bike after a few days of rafting the Deschutes River, then returning home to attend to some family business, and most importantly, TO BUILD UP MY NEW BIKE! Today, I’m riding my Priority 600 bike for the first time. 

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.

Up and out early from the Olympic Club in Centralia. This is another of the McMenamin brothers’ restored historic buildings, now serving as quaint and interesting restaurants, hotels, and in the case of the Olympic Club, a pool hall.

Today’s ride was on familiar roads, following the Seattle to Portland (STP) ride route that I have done many times with my strong-riding brothers. This year’s STP was just a couple of weeks ago and the painted route markers are still on the road. Hard to get lost. 

Today’s route took me down the east side of Lake Washington, then due south along the Interurban Trail through the Kent Valley to Sumner, and finally a right hook into Puyallup, to stay with my brother Paul and his wife Anita. Nice pavement, mostly not in traffic, under a sunny sky and (finally) something of a tailwind.

Training continues, which is another way of saying I’m not yet in touring condition, physically. At some point I’ll write more on this topic, but for now I’ll simply say that there are basically three kinds of suffering, the first imposed by conditions, the second imposed by the will of others, and the third imposed only by an intrinsic motivation to do or be something different.

Today’s ride included one of my favorite stretches of cycling, Chuckanut Drive, south out of Bellingham, which is cut into the side of the mountains and winds mid-slope between Bellingham Bay and the summit of Chuckanut Mountain. Looking out on the bay to my right (as I ride southbound), there is a stiff breeze and whitecaps, but on the road I am riding, very little wind.

Today, I started my ride of the West Coast from Blaine, WA to Imperial Beach, CA, the Canadian border to the Mexican border.. This ride will complete my 11,600 circumnavigation of the contiguous United States.

I woke up early and my mind was already buzzing.

The big daily miles I’ve been doing recently put me a day ahead of schedule.

Today I rode from Daytona Beach to Melbourne, Florida. I did not take many pictures. In fact, I hardly stopped.

I have been asked what I'm riding. My bike is a Cannondale CAADX Cyclocross, aluminum with a carbon fork, 2x10 gears and hydraulic disc brakes.

Epic day. The most epic day. 129.4 miles. Numbers speak for themselves.