Greetings from Tillamook! Our first day in Oregon had an 800-foot climb but some stunning views of the Pacific. Today we're hoping to set our own record for 75 miles in a day.
Here's a fun encounter we had last week:
On a ferry on our way to Port Townsend, we met a bright-eyed 21-year-old Catholic boy named Greg who is also riding down to San Diego. But we soon realized that he had completely outdone all of our attempts to become "hard core." Greg, for example, rode every day for the past month with 70 pounds worth of dumb bells in his bike bags (panniers). I rode with my panniers on my bike ... once. Not only was he better trained, he was also better packed. He has a topogrophical map book, a compasss (the geometry kind) and hunting spray that suppresses human scent. He couldn't believe that we hadn't brought our hatchets and fishing poles. But we were very grateful for his hatchet when he used it to help make us a fire at camp at the end of our first rainy rainy day. (His hatchet was made my Gerber. Just in case you were wondering, that's NOT the same people who make the baby food.) He was just going to have beef jerky for dinner that night, so we invited him to have burritos with us. Fire for burritos seemed like a fair exchange. He took off the next day for Portland, but we hope to meet up with him again...we could always use a little more hard core.
2 comments:
Hi Jen! I just got the email about this yesterday because I check stanford email, oh, twice a year. Then I talked to Kathleen tonight and we both agreed that we were mildly concerned for your safety (the entry about you almost keeling over from hunger was the most concerning UNTIL I read the most recent post from your friend Amy about the logging trucks . . . ). I'm going to keep tuning in to monitor your physical well-being.
jen, i am so enjoying this ride. thanks for letting me tag along. travis and i are anxiously awaiting the day we can bring you in and out burgers when you pass through the bay area. we just rented bikes in SF yesterday and biked across the bolden gate bridge. it was so windy that i couldn't get around these little corners we had to take. i would try and then just get blown over. i thought of you with every down stroke of the gears. keep trucking!!!!
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