Top 10 List

10 things we learned touring the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway. A collaborative blog.

10. Ben is an under-exaggeranger when it comes to bikey journeys. When he says the day’s journey is 60 miles, he really means 80. When he says the ride is flat, expect some hills anyway. And when he says there’s a little hill coming up, expect to see Mt. Everest.

9. Kyle has a grasp on languages. Near the beginning of our ride, Kyle says, “Hey, what’s the name of this area again? It’s some French word.” Ben: “Uh… the French Prairie?”

8. Your legs can handle quite a bit of mileage. It’s the butt-igue that really gets to you. Especially Day 2, after having ridden 78 miles the day before. Apply Butt’r liberally. And re-apply, if necessary.

7. When you see bee boxes, ride on the other side of the road, with your mouth closed, and sunglasses on. And pray that none fly into the vents of your bike helmet.

6. If you are a young lamb, stay near your mommy. Bald eagles are very big and have big claws. And they will fight over you.

5. Some bikelists carry bike pumps that they know how to use properly. And others carry bike pumps that they don’t know how to use and cannot actually be used on their tires, but just want to look hardcore. *cough* Kyle *cough*

4. God loves us. Giving Kyle a flat tire in Brownsville was very considerate. And so was giving us the bright and cozy Corner Café – where we watched a downpour while eating warm soup and amazing chocolate cake.

3. Two new useful terms were coined on this trip. The first is “Hoo-day”, and is a noun. The proper usage in a sentence would be, “Wow, that restaurant looks really good, but I don’t think we can go in there smelling like hoo-day.” Kyle thinks hoo-day is a French word. The second term is “Idaho” and is an explicative. Kim started using this term as she was going over bumps on a loaded bike with significant butt-igue.

2. Trains are the cheese. And everyone should travel by train more often. They are quiet, comfy, and cheap. We are composing this blog while reclining in our faux leather seats and munching on snacks and listening to our iPods.

1. Lorraine is hardcore. While the rest of us bikelists have done a tour before, she accomplished more daily miles in her first tour than we did last year. Almost 150 miles in two days… while carrying a questionable bike pump for fashion. But she didn’t put it there, so that doesn’t make her less hardcore.

Willamette Valley Bike Route

The truth be told, we were planning on updating this blog while we were en route – so, yesterday, and the day before. Unfortunately, we never actually got a chance to do so; because right about the time we could get online with the netbook, we were ready for bed… both days.

But, for those who are interested in knowing what our journey was like – here it is: Our experience riding the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway…

Day 1 (Friday), we started out in Champoeg State park, and rode south. Our destination was Albany… a little over 70 miles away. Now, mind you, 70 miles is a pretty aggressive ride for us as bikelists, since none of us have ridden past 60 yet; loaded or not.

First of all, the route: this route is published online with maps, and they are a wonderful way to plan the trip, since the string of roads is very well documented. It is a wonderful route. Almost all flat. During one stretch – Talbot Road – we rode for 9 miles, and only saw 1 car.

We made great time – averaging about 12 miles per hour on loaded bikes. The scenery was beautiful, and mile after mile just flew under our wheels during most of this ride. Actually, the most memorable part of this ride, for me, was one of two hills – Scravel Hill. As we were climbing the hill, I discovered a profession that I had never knew existed... We passed a huge sign read “Mobile Slaughtering.” I guess I had never thought about it before… so, um… how does that work? Is it messy? If I called him, would my Neighborhood association complain about my discolored grass? Just wondering.

Since I live in an overly-sanitized, immaculately groomed, always well-kempt neighborhood, I feel like the world may be moving away from this profession. But in the mean time, I am glad to know I can hire a hit man to take out any animal I want. It would be especially nice if he can make it look like an accident… and if he doesn’t require me showing proof of ownership before making the ‘hit’. (there are neighbor animals that always come to mind)

We also discovered at the top of Scravel Hill, that it’s very inadvisable to applaud each other, and give accolades for climbing to the top of a hill when you are not absolutely certain that you’re at the top. In fact, our accolades and laurels were so fulfilling at the halfway point, that after we continued, and discovered there was a lot more hill to climb, we felt no need for further self-congratulation at the actual top of the hill. So in umbrage, we rolled right on over the real summit.

The most memorable view for me, was our view of Albany atop a hill, with the sun hanging low behind the beautiful Albany mill. Aah, bliss. After a ride of 78.5 miles, we rode in to Darrell Decker’s house, (preacher for the church of Christ in Albany; really neat guy) and he put us up for the night.

78.5 miles. I went to bed at 8pm. Bliss.

~ Ben the bikelist

The Bikey Tour Route

Hi folks!

We've had a request for some information on the route we have taken during our bikation. Well, we don't have one particular map, but will try with links to show you the route we are taking.

Day 1 - Rode from Spokane to Coeur D'Alene - 58.5 miles

http://www.spokanecentennialtrail.org/

Day 2 - Took a (free) Citylink Bus from Coeur D'Alene to Plummer, then rode along Highway 5 to St. Marie's. Then took the Old Milwaukee Road to The Big Eddy Resort near Calder. - 41.5 miles (half of it gravel)

http://friendsofcdatrails.org/milwaukee.html

Day 3 - Continued along the Old Milwaukee Road from Big Eddy's to through Calder, to Avery. 34 miles (all gravel)

Day 4 - Took a gravel road to the Pearson trailhead of the Route of Hiawatha, then rode to the East Portal of the Route of Hiawatha (ending in Montana!). Then took the North Pacific trail through Lookout Pass to Mullan. - 51 miles (all gravel)

http://friendsofcdatrails.org/Hiawatha/index.html

Day 5 - Started on the Trail of CDA in Mullan, and rode to Harrison. - 58 miles

Day 6 - Continued on the Trail of CDA to Plummer, then took the bus back to Coeur D'Alene. - 22 miles

Day 7 - (Today!!!) We're hanging out in CDA. They have a street fair going on right now; vendors all over the place. Lots of artsy fartsy stuff. Woot!

Day 8 - Tomorrow will be the last of our tour. We're heading back to Spokane along the Centennial Trail. Then will drive back to Portland on Monday.

Hope these links give you some good info. You could also check out the towns on a Google Map... Gotta go - it's time for breakfast! =)

The Perilous Path

7/30/09 - Day 5 of Riding

Today started out.... perfectly. We asked a local where to go for coffee in Mullan, and were pointed in the direction of The Bitter Root.

The coffee house has only been open a few months, but the service was fantastic, the coffee was good, and their cinnamon rolls were HUGE! Plus, they had free Wi-fi. We sat in there for a few hours, enjoying the quiet and the luxury of the internet.

We weren't in a rush. We knew that today was going to be cake. Riding (slightly) downhill. On a paved trail. We've braved through so many other, more difficult trails. This would be no problem. But after our ride yesterday, we needed to make sure to start off with some bikey stretching.

There were a few challenges during our 58 mile ride today.

• Sometimes on the path, there are small sticks and leaves. And even pinecones. We had to watch out for those.
• The kamikazi grasshoppers were back with a vengence. Spattering through the spokes, into our faces, smacking our legs as they jumped at us. We would recommend you wear sunglasses.
• Sometimes we did have to pedal. Even though it's mostly downhill, there are some flatter spots. And leading up to a gorgeous footbridge there's usually a little incline.
• There was plenty of wildlife. We didn't run across any Idaho Bears. We did, however, run across plenty of Idaho Gators in the swamp-land. But we rang our bells and called "hey, gator!" and they didn't bother us.
  
• More concerning than the gators, though, were the Pturd-dactiles. They were all over the swamp-land! When they take off, they hypnotize you with their beauty. And then they crop-dust their generous amounts of poo. We saw plenty of evidence that the trail was a regular target, but luckily we were able to avoid getting poo-ed on. We didn't get a picture of one because we were cowering in fear, but here's an artist's rendering. The ones we saw were... bluish greyish.
  
• We weren't able to avoid the bees, though. About 10 miles into our ride, a bee flew into my hair and couldn't get out. I screamed and totally freaked out, but managed to stop without crashing my bike. The boys caught up with me as I was ruffling my hair wildly and twitching. I had to explain that I wasn't going crazy.
  
  Shortly after that, it happened again. Except the bee flew in my ear, got stuck, and stung me. Ugh. Kyle pulled out the first aid and we decided I should keep my hair UP. At about mile 45, Eric got stung on his chin when a bee got caught in his chinstrap. He managed to be a lot more calm about it than I was when I got stung. Whatever.

• Boredom was a big challenge during our ride today. The boys would get bored of going downhill in a straight line, and would make up their own wavy lines. Or would race. Eric would go fast, then slow. It would have been quite ironic if we didn't crash on any of the other majorly difficult trails, but instead crashed on the tamest one.
• It was a hot day, and while we were pretty certain we would have access to water along the trail, that wasn't the case. Most of the water is undrinkable - even when filtered. And while they have built bathrooms along the trail, they are pit toilets and there's no water. Praise God for the Park Ranger that we came across at around mile 40! He had a giant.... thing... of water in the back of his little truck, and we gratefully filled up our water bottles and had enough to make it the rest of the way.
• Ben and Kyle discovered that they both had sweat spots on their butts towards the end of the ride. This developed into a competition of who could get a picture of the other person's butt. They walked backwards, they did track-stands, pretty much anything to keep their butts away from each other. But Kyle won. We came across a bald eagle's nest, and Ben stopped to take pictures. While Ben took pictures of the bald eagle...
  
  Kyle took pictures of Ben's butt.
  

We did hit the milestone of 200 cumulative miles today. We had to have a little celebration.

So you can see that the Trail of Coeur D'Alenes has its own treachery. But we felt pretty accomplished as we rolled into Harrison and found our adorable hotel, the Lakeview Lodge. It's been undergoing renovations, but the inside of our room is beautiful and the outside front is looking nice. The back is still not done but there's a deck with a perfect view of the lake. After we all cleaned up, we had ice cream, then ate dinner at an established bar/grill called One Shot Charlie's. The sunset from the view of our deck was amazing!

It's a good day to die.

I know - sounds overly dramatic, doesn't it? But this blog is being updated today (which is actually the day after) - the day it's posted - because I could not stay conscious long enough to do anything but eat yesterday. Yesterday was, hands down, the hardest ride I've ever been on. And I'm sure our whole group can say the same...

Now - yesterday was also the crowning acheivement on our bike ride. The reason we went riding on this whole adventure - to connect to the Route of the Hiawatha. And it was amazing. But because we were doing this unsupported, we didn't do it the way most people do - starting at the top, and riding to the bottom, and then get picked up. We started at the bottom. NO - we started 10 miles from the bottom, and rode gravel trails for 10 miles to reach the Hiawatha trail.

Suffice it to say, it was a hard ride. By the time we reached the Hiawatha, we had already climbed several steep inclines on loaded bikes, over very rough terrain. After getting to the trail, we had done enough riding that most people would be done... but not us. No, no.... we finally arrived, and had the 17-mile ride on the Hiawatha... uphill.

Now, the previous day was 35 miles on these old gravel roads... and I knew that this ride would be tough - but, wow. Tired as we were, we were able to slow down and enjoy the sights. Amazing sights. This is a trip well worth the wait. Lots of high trestles, and tunnels, and lots of terrific views... But my favorite spot couldn't be caught on camera... it's a 1.7 mile long tunnel, which took us over (technically thru) the continental divide, out of Idaho, and into Montana.

Montana was beautiful. But promptly after finishing the ride... and thoroughly exhausted, we faced the sobering reality that we were only halfway finished... and biking the next 25 miles meant trekking off into the bitterroot mountain wilderness to hopefully end up in Mullan... back in Idaho.

So we began climbing the grade up the NorPac trail to summit at Lookout Ski Resort. We quickly realized how tired we were when none of us could move our bikes faster than 5mph. On the gravel roads, we couldn't really go faster than 7 safely, but to not have the energy to move past 5mph is frightning - in the middle of the wilderness. So we took breaks. We drank Gatorade and ate energy and protein bars. And got back on the bikes... 5mph. We stopped and did it again. Then again. Practically nothing helped. About 20 miles away from Mullan, I distinctly remember thinking "oh this was a terrible mistake. I'm going to have to stay the night. We can't get back." And then just a few miles later we reached the top of the pass!!!

We were all so exhausted that we strongly considered just taking I-90 (which was accessible at that point) all the way into Mullan - because from Lookout, the highway route took only 5 miles, but the NorPac took 12. After a very long break, and a good amount of reassuring, we took the NorPac. And it was all downhill. All 12 miles.

I really can't say the terror that goes through your head when you feel like you may have had to camp the night in the wilderness because you just can't physically continue. But I felt like we were all pretty close yesterday. Thank you so much for the prayers and thoughts. Praise God for being sooo good!

I don't know if I would ever choose to do quite that route again, without much, much better conditioning. But just to recap: we crossed the continental divide. Twice. We rode 52 miles. On rocky trails. Uphill 3/4 of the way. With loaded touring bikes. I would rather have ridden a century.

My favorite moment was when, just shortly after leaving Lookout pass, we got cell service. Kyle called his folks to say that we were all alright, and nobody even knew that they should be worried. :)

The Trestle of Doom

7/28/09 - Day 3 of riding

Ben is a big, fat liar. It wasn't uneventful.

I haven't had the opportunity to write a blog yet. It's not that I don't want to. But, unfortunately, there's this looming spirit over my head when I have free time - the evil Anatomy and Physiology Mid-term spirit. I am missing a mid-term while we're on our bikation and have arranged to take it the day after we return from Spokane. So I've been diligently studying while on this trip so I don't completely fail the mid-term. *Sigh* It's sad that even while on bikation I still have responsibilities. Other than taking care of my legs, feet, butt, and hands.

Being the only girl on this trip has been an adventure in itself. I went into this trip determined to work just as hard as the boys, so I wouldn't be the weakest link. I've been perfectly willing to pee in the wilderness (or... more). I didn't freak out and crash my bike when I came within a millimeter of running over a snake. I've been fine with eating a few bugs and dealing with the kamikazi grasshoppers. And with sleeping at Big Eddy's.

I must admit, though, that the gravel miles have really been a challenge for me. Granted, there are different qualities of gravel roads. You have the small rocks that are compact, which are a breeze. You have the roads that haven't been "maintained" in a while and most of the rocks are gone or well embedded into the ground - "ahhhhhhh". But the ride from Big Eddy to Calder was brutal. This road was either recently re-rocked, or it's just travelled so little that the rocks never get broken down. They were huge. There were places that you could ride at about 7 mph (did you know that's about the speed that a butterfly flies?). But much of this stretch was ridden at about 4 mph. Maybe 5. My arms were getting weak from having to work so hard to keep my bike upright - any large rock that you hit makes your loaded bike want to buck you off.

Ben kept reassuring us. "In just a few we should come up to a trestle. It's impassable by cars, but pedestrians and bikel-ists can cross." Shortly after that, we came across a very worn down bridge-ish-thing. Oh, so that was it. That was cake. Now we should see Calder soon. Bump, jostle, bump, bump. I still don't see Calder. Hmmm... maybe the trestle was further out from Calder than Ben thought.

Then, about a mile later, we hit it. Not Calder. The wall.

Ben and Eric were riding ahead, and stopped abruptly at what looked like a pile of construction rock, with cement dividers on top. Kyle and I weren't far behind, and as we approached Ben and Eric were off their bikes peering over the wall. Ben says, "We can get over the wall, no problem." And Eric says, "Sure, but then how are we going to get over THAT?" I tried to stay calm as I got off my bike and climbed the wall of rock to check out the view past the cement barrier. Oh. That back there, that wasn't the trestle Ben read about. And in my opinion, it's not just impassable by car. It's pretty impassable. Period. We've ridden over a few trestles already. With boards layed down perpendicularly to the trestle boards so bikel-ists and pedestrians can pass safely. Not so here. No boards, just big beams with large gaps in between. And a giant gap in the middle. And no railings on either side.

I tried to keep myself calm as Ben laid out the plan. We haul our gear over the trestle first, then the bikes. It's like we're fording a river. Except if we fall, we go about 20 feet before we hit the water. Can we just go around? Nope. And then I knew. I was going to FREAK OUT if I had to carry my heavy gear across that thing and try to stay balanced enough to not fall over the edge or through the beams. I don't even go past the third step on our ladder at home. There's just no way I'd be able to do this.

That's when I decided. It's time. I've been holding it at bay on this trip, but I needed to let it out now. I flexed my girl muscles.

They were very gracious about it, really. Ben told me it was fine, he'd carry my stuff over and I could just walk across the trestle and wait on the other side with all the gear. I felt bad, but I knew my limits. I was able to climb over the rock wall with no problem. As I started across the trestle, though, I could feel my legs start to shake with just the first few steps across the beams. Ok. So I'm going to crawl. I got down in a crouch and tried to pull myself together. Deep breaths.

I was able to stand up after Kyle and Eric got behind me and encouraged me to keep going, that it really wasn't that bad. I can do this. I can do this. Wait. What is that? These beams have been burned! Oh, so it's an impassable, rock-walled, huge gapped, BURNT OUT trestle. I started to feel myself shaking again. I pulled together enough courage to look ahead and see how far I still had to go - oh, that's still pretty far. About halfway. Maybe more. Yup. I'm going to die.

Then Eric saved me. He shifted his gear into one arm, and held my hand with his free hand. He waited patiently while I slowly walked with him across the beams. Kyle was behind me, encouraging me the whole time. I made it across, and didn't die. Ben carried my gear and my bike across, and fell down the side of the rock wall on the other side.

Praise God that Kyle was there to help Ben back up and assist with getting Lulu back up.

Yup. I'm a girl. I admit it. And I'm blessed to be surrounded by some amazing boys.

bloggity blah blah

7/28/09 - Day 3 of riding.

It was boring... and very uneventful.

The only thing to report is that we discovered that miles on a bike are not all the same... No, really. One mile on gravel is roughly equal to three miles on a bike. There's just no other way to quantify it. Our ride today was only 35 miles or so (which should be short!) but the same amount of force that would be propelling our loaded touring bikes up to 12mph got us all the way up to 6.

So, it was a long, hot, hard 35 miles. The only thing good about this ride is that we left Big Eddy's in the dust... OOH, OOh - I forgot that... Last night there was a HUGE thunderstorm - lightning cracking across the sky everywhere. Claps of thunder that would just make you curl under your covers cowering! The nice thing was that it cools everything down (remember, no AC?). The horrible part is that it felt like the final chapter of the horror movie that we were living in. I really expected to see the silhouette of Eddy through the window backlight by a bolt of lightning! Or maybe hear the creak of the door that locks but doesn't close... So, needless to say, we were all low on sleep today -- except for Eric, who, halfway through today said "What? There was a thunderstorm last night?" (how does that happen?!?!?)

Notice the dark "amber" color of the hummingbird feeders...

drunken hummingbirds fight a lot...

After arriving in Avery, I began to realize the peril of our journey. 35 gravel miles = the hardest day on the trail yet. Avery (where we knew we could resupply for food and water), was a very small town, with a General Store about the size of my son's bedroom. Everything was 3x what it should normally cost... and after talking to the natives, we discovered that NONE of the 3 trails we were taking tomorrow were any better maintained than the one we just came on. And, unlike I was led to believe by lying maps, none of them are paved.

Oh, and to boot - no civilization. For 50 miles. Almost completely uphill. Gravel miles. We... Are gonna... Die. No, seriously. I'm really worried about tomorrow. Beginning to think this is NOT a smart idea.

We are so tired, and achey already... if there was any way to actually make it tomorrow, we needed a big meal tonight, so we opted for a very, very big, beefy meal - two hamburgers each for dinner...

Ok, now I'm done. Time for bed.