tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236551268205051812024-03-05T01:40:26.090-08:00Bicycling & Surfing the Pacific CoastBicycle and surf trip down the Pacific Coast of the US: Washington - Oregon - California. Bicycling, surfing, meditation, tai chi chuan, 'ukulele, and dancing.Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-33756830946961864012015-01-09T18:27:00.000-08:002015-02-08T14:54:53.687-08:00Introduction / Navigating this blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Thank you for checking out the blog of my biking-surfing-meditation-tai chi-dancing-'ukulele journey down the Pacific Coast of the US.<br />
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The general plan:<br />
- Bicycle from lower Washington State to Santa Cruz<br />
- Surfing when access and swell permit; meditating throughout<br />
- 'Ukulele as musical accompaniment; camping and cooking<br />
- Taking my time and enjoying the journey<br />
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(note - for the photos, click on them for a larger view)<br />
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This blog is arranged in reverse chronological order. Scrolling down will start at the end (with post-trip thougths and wrap-up) then follow the trip backwards.<br />
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If you are interested to start at the beginning, then start here with the entry on gear (<a href="http://bikeandsurf.blogspot.com/2014/06/gear.html">link</a>). At the bottom of each page there are links to the next 'Older Post' or 'Newer Post.' The blog archive on the right hand pane allows you to navigate directly to any entry.<br />
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For highlight photos without text, they are here (<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109908096582524335367/albums/6088714770471637089?authkey=CKjwzoSb3eH0lwE">link</a>) - though the photos without text omit the people I met on the trip and they were the most interesting part of the journey to me. For example, in this post (<a href="http://bikeandsurf.blogspot.com/2014/07/wakonda-to-heceta-head-people-kari-jim.html">link</a>). <br />
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-30311615295683063382014-09-05T17:39:00.002-07:002014-12-02T19:50:52.918-08:00Post-trip thoughts and wrap-up.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After bicycling/surfing/meditating/practicing tai chi/etc. for 40 days from Washington state back to Santa Cruz, reaching home was an abrupt change but the contrast helped me crystallize some of my thoughts on the trip and things I'd like to do differently in my life as result.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsDtOvG9lumAxI6tjSUPYtezMJo-1ldbURiGaQkEnXqcHxOcOoviIEkmn3_3ZBuXaE-iNC0ZN6YHTmbNujjpkfqryQEv1ajo4LTTyH0WlCWosnLFcBwyt_N0GEIVbofgZ9V1LxAK1jfE/s1600/BSSDsunset_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsDtOvG9lumAxI6tjSUPYtezMJo-1ldbURiGaQkEnXqcHxOcOoviIEkmn3_3ZBuXaE-iNC0ZN6YHTmbNujjpkfqryQEv1ajo4LTTyH0WlCWosnLFcBwyt_N0GEIVbofgZ9V1LxAK1jfE/s1600/BSSDsunset_small.jpg" height="640" width="564" /></a></div>
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Post-trip photo - was shooting photos of a sunset session while my friends were surfing</div>
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I received a suggestion to continue to share online, so I plan to eventually add info on the environmental/ethical products I will be developing and the environmental/simple living ideas I have on my website: <a href="http://peterweng.com/">peterweng.com</a>. </div>
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REFLECTIONS - A few thoughts on the trip and bicycle touring:</div>
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- <b>Continual reminders on generosity</b>. This was one of the most striking aspects of the trip. I was struck by how generous people are. It was notable to me that I also was able to help others regularly. I suppose this was due to the increased engagement with people when biking.</div>
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- <b>Each day is vivid</b>. I usually journal every day, but I would get up to two weeks behind on my trip and then have no problem at all remembering the day very clearly. I was amazed at how vividly I could remember each day. Some days in my normal life, I have trouble remembering what I did two days prior.</div>
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- <b>There is a precision to living simply</b>. I recently jotted down my equipment list to remember it for myself and it was quite easy to do off the top of my head. This was due to the fact that I had carefully considered each item I brought on the trip and each item was put to good use (except the emergency items which I was glad to not put to use). This was again in contrast to my normal life - even though folks often comment on my relative minimalism, I sometimes lose things in my house that I can’t find for weeks and also own things I have not used in a long time.</div>
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- <b>Accumulation is difficult</b>. I found myself passing shops without any hesitation. It didn’t matter if it was unique local art or CDs of local bands or anything - I just had no interest in buying things that I would then carry for hundreds of miles. The sum total of sentimental items that I acquired on my own (vs. equipment which is outlined in the previous post and the few gifts I received - which consisted of two rocks and a wire heart) was a handful of pebbles. No other mementos necessary and I feel a deep connection to this trip - so it suggests to me that sentimental items are of very limited value.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg59zKR5O0LrFZjyuYE7rhzem4CEDp0mR8GZPiAraMbuXg1qd3lEvnVpGsXjprH_F-6bqkXEQXL71FmH0yU8mJm1yolsaA0pxOYKI61AZnBMQPQulXxfplnA6OPfbf9sDzQyUwjJRH84/s1600/IMG_20140814_151917339_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpg59zKR5O0LrFZjyuYE7rhzem4CEDp0mR8GZPiAraMbuXg1qd3lEvnVpGsXjprH_F-6bqkXEQXL71FmH0yU8mJm1yolsaA0pxOYKI61AZnBMQPQulXxfplnA6OPfbf9sDzQyUwjJRH84/s1600/IMG_20140814_151917339_HDR.jpg" height="320" width="180" /></a></div>
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- <b>Discipline is easy</b>. It was far easier to keep discipline on the bicycle trip. In my daily life, I try to set rules to help keep discipline. For example, on weekends, I have a rule to practice tai chi chuan and meditate before I have breakfast. I set this rule after finding that if I set off on my day, I would never get around to practicing tai chi or meditating. However, even with the rule, at home I find many distractions and often it will be several hours before I finally practice (usually hunger for breakfast is what prompts it). When cycling, there are very few distractions - my main choices in the day were generally to either sit in the campsite or get on my bicycle. So I found that I would just get my tai chi chuan and meditation practice done right away - little to no procrastination. The distractions of life (internet being the worst of the worst) were exposed as major impediments to discipline.</div>
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- <b>Emotions are more obvious</b>. I found myself feeling and noticing stronger emotions on the trip - both highs and lows. I feel this may have been due to something similar in that there were fewer distractions to clutter my thoughts, so emotions were much more noticeable.</div>
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- <b>Ego is more obvious</b>. With a simple life and simple choices (do I bike further or not?), the motivations for making choices became more obvious and clear. After I hurt my back, I could see clearly that there were times I wanted to continue riding just because it would hurt my ego to ride less. Taking the bus was a major concession and I realized that it was only major from an ego perspective. It makes me wonder how many other choices I make throughout my life that are driven by ego. With lots of things going on in my normal life, my motivations for specific decisions are not always as obvious (even to myself). </div>
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I realize that getting hurt was a helpful learning experience in that it made me really assess my motivations for the trip or even for each day.</div>
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ACTIONS - Things that I plan to do differently as a result of these lessons:</div>
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1) <b>Explorations in generosity</b>. I already had one in mind before the trip but the trip is motivating me to put it in motion: giving away bicycle lights. It bothers me that folks ride around at night without lights so I have purchased a bunch of lights that I’ll just give to people when I see them cycling without bicycle lights. I also discussed it with the local bicycle advocacy group and they thought it was a great idea so I'll post info about it at <a href="http://bikelightfoundation.blogspot.com/">bikelightfoundation.blogspot.com.</a></div>
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2) <b>Further reduce my time on the internet</b>. I already have my internet router connected to a timer which shut off my internet connection at 9:30pm. I have decided to experiment with turning off my internet connection at ~ 7:30 PM). I am also unsubscribing to sites that feed videos/articles that are interesting but not necessarily truly valuable (ex. surf videos).</div>
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3) <b>Acquire and give things only which have lots of purpose and/or meaning (and make them when possible)</b>. I have already been trying not to buy gifts just to buy gifts and also not to buy things for myself without lots of thought. But buying so little over the course of a month made me realize that I can cut that down further.</div>
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4) <b>Meditate and practice tai chi chuan outside</b>. Instead of doing my morning practice inside where distractions are readily available, I will be going straight outside to do tai chi chuan and meditation. This will hopefully keep me from procrastinating until late in the morning.</div>
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5) <b>Communicate more openly</b>. This is another area I have been working on and after realizing that I am often not that aware of my emotions, I will strive to pay more attention to them and express them when appropriate. </div>
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6) <b>Assess my motivations regularly</b>. Based on noticing how ego influences many decisions, I am going to work on assessing my motivations for my decisions on a great frequency. I hope this will help me make better decisions (I can’t see how it would do anything but help).</div>
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Additionally:</div>
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7) <b>Invest more in friendships</b>. Missing friends at home made me realize that I should invest more in my friendships. Meeting lots of people is exciting, but it’s the long-term friendships that really are significant.</div>
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8) <b>Bus travel</b>. It’s a funny outcome, but I was so appreciative of the bus rides I took (in helping me when injured) and the conversations on the bus were so interesting, that I intend to use the bus more. </div>
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Surprisingly, the ride made me appreciate motorized vehicles more rather than less. I still think bicycles are the best form of transportation, but at times it is pretty great to have a bus or car to help. Examples would be when you are hurt or have to move something extremely heavy - though I did see someone in China cycling with a full-size refrigerator strapped to his bike (that has been an inspiration to me ever since and I’ve often challenged myself to take my bike even when carrying large/unwieldy items). In any case, it was nice to have motorized vehicles come to the rescue for me rather than just viewing them as polluting, evil forms of transportation.</div>
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I think that the whole vehicle perception thing is aligned with how this trip has impacted me - it’s helped me to see a number of areas where I had blindspots. It’s helpful for me to realize that I have lots to do to be more present, accepting, and open-minded.</div>
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<b>Looking back:</b></div>
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It has been also interesting to see how the trip has evolved. As I was planning the trip, I was really excited about surfing and bicycling. The monastery visit was also something I was looking forward to. I did not realize how great the trip would be for meditation and Tai Chi Chuan. I did not foresee how amazing it would be to meet so many people (and so many interesting people) on the road. And I do not think I expected the trip to provide this much insight to me and prompt so much introspection. </div>
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<b>Finally:</b></div>
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Thank you for sharing the journey with me via this blog. I have really appreciated the words of wisdom I have received, the great advice, and positive feedback that was due to the blog. It has been a wonderful trip and I am going to try to use the lessons I learned from it in my daily life. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-85836648691578105252014-09-03T11:41:00.002-07:002014-09-05T17:30:35.704-07:00Gear List, Map Updates, Gratitude<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">This post is a bit of a public service for bicyclists and also my expressions of gratitude for those who have helped me on the trip.</span><br />
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For anyone considering doing the ride, I have included my gear list plus my updates to the bike maps/book.</div>
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1) My full gear list with commentary. </div>
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When I did an assessment of the gear (without food and water, but including things I bought on the road) was ~35 lb. My surfing gear was 9 lb, which meant the rest of the gear was 26 lb. </div>
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So, in my assessment and my levels of comfort, 26 lb. of bicycling gear allows for a very comfortable trip. The 9 lb. of surfing gear is clearly a big indulgence, but I was happy to be able to surf along the way.</div>
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<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="163"></col><col width="505"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Clothing"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Clothing</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Comments"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Comments</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Baseball cap"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Baseball cap</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"See entry for Yana: http://bikeandsurf.blogspot.com/2014/07/wakonda-to-heceta-head-people-kari-jim.html"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">See entry for Yana: http://bikeandsurf.blogspot.com/2014/07/wakonda-to-heceta-head-people-kari-jim.html</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Biking shorts x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Biking shorts x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I bought these just before the trip (used to tour with normal shorts), only suggestion is to try them ahead of time"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I bought these just before the trip (used to tour with normal shorts), only suggestion is to try them ahead of time</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Overshorts x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Overshorts x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"These are for vanity, I don't prefer to walk around in lycra shorts... could have gotten away with one pair though"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">These are for vanity, I don't prefer to walk around in lycra shorts... could have gotten away with one pair though</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sleeve warmers"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sleeve warmers</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I don't like these - bike shop guy convinced me to get them, I ended up buying a long sleeve shirt later"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I don't like these - bike shop guy convinced me to get them, I ended up buying a long sleeve shirt later</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"T shirt x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">T shirt x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Doing over, I instead would have gone with two long sleeve shirts (for cycling) and one t shirt (non-cycling)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Doing over, I instead would have gone with two long sleeve shirts (for cycling) and one t shirt (non-cycling)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Lightweight pants"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Lightweight pants</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"The quick-drying kind"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">The quick-drying kind</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wool thermal shirt"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Wool thermal shirt</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wool is good as it keeps you warm even if wet"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Wool is good as it keeps you warm even if wet</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Light fleece"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Light fleece</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I'd wear this over a tshirt to cycle in the mornings when cold"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I'd wear this over a tshirt to cycle in the mornings when cold</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Medium fleece"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Medium fleece</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For the coldest nights I'd wear a t-shirt + wool shirt + light fleece + medium fleece"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For the coldest nights I'd wear a t-shirt + wool shirt + light fleece + medium fleece</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rain jacket"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Rain jacket</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Must have, I brought my commuting rain jacket which is bright yellow"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Must have, I brought my commuting rain jacket which is bright yellow</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rain pants"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Rain pants</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very nice to have, I put them on at camp with my rain jacket - mosquitoes were stymied by this!"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very nice to have, I put them on at camp with my rain jacket - mosquitoes were stymied by this!</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Long underwear"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Long underwear</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Lightweight silk"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Lightweight silk</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Helmet cap/liner"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Helmet cap/liner</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I liked this - kept me from getting burned on my scalp and was nice to be able to wash it easily"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I liked this - kept me from getting burned on my scalp and was nice to be able to wash it easily</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cycling gloves"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cycling gloves</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very helpful for vibration reduction (mine have some padding) and reducing sun exposure to hands "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very helpful for vibration reduction (mine have some padding) and reducing sun exposure to hands </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Socks x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Socks x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Thin polypropylene socks (polypro dries quickly)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Thin polypropylene socks (polypro dries quickly)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Underwear x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Underwear x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Thin polypropylene underwear"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Thin polypropylene underwear</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Reflective vest"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Reflective vest</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"It's good to be visible"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">It's good to be visible</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Helmet (bright yellow)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Helmet (bright yellow)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"ditto"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">ditto</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sneakers (Vans)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sneakers (Vans)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I cycle in my Vans, super-comfy, I put in some shoe liners in them to give a bit more support"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I cycle in my Vans, super-comfy, I put in some shoe liners in them to give a bit more support</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stuff sack</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For the clothes, used a thin material dry sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For the clothes, used a thin material dry sack</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Eyeglasses"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Eyeglasses</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Necessity if you need them :)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Necessity if you need them :)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sunglasses"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sunglasses</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very nice to have, brought ones I could also take in the water"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very nice to have, brought ones I could also take in the water</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Flipflops"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Flipflops</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For using in the camp showers - some are a bit grimy"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For using in the camp showers - some are a bit grimy</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mosquito netting"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Mosquito netting</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I had a bit from DownWorks, would wrap around my neck like a scarf when the mosquitoes were bad"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I had a bit from DownWorks, would wrap around my neck like a scarf when the mosquitoes were bad</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bandana"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Bandana</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"General purpose"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">General purpose</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"On the bike"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">On the bike</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rear panniers (2)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Rear panniers (2)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For (1) tent, sleeping gear + pot filled with cooking stuff + toiletries (2) clothes + food + stove"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For (1) tent, sleeping gear + pot filled with cooking stuff + toiletries (2) clothes + food + stove</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Handlebar bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Handlebar bag</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Maps, papers, sunglasses, sunscreen, knife, PLB, long-sleeves, phone/camera, bandana, mosquito netting, lighter"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Maps, papers, sunglasses, sunscreen, knife, PLB, long-sleeves, phone/camera, bandana, mosquito netting, lighter</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Top tube bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Top tube bag</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For tools and the lock, it did get in the way of my water bottles a bit, I think behind the seat tube is a better location"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For tools and the lock, it did get in the way of my water bottles a bit, I think behind the seat tube is a better location</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stem bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stem bag</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For little snacks - I didn't find this as helpful as I thought it'd be"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For little snacks - I didn't find this as helpful as I thought it'd be</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Compression stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Compression stuff sack</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Surfing gear + sleeping pad + flipflops, on rear rack; doubled as clothes washing bag "]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Surfing gear + sleeping pad + flipflops, on rear rack; doubled as clothes washing bag </td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Water bottles x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Water bottles x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"One large, one regular"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">One large, one regular</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Water bottle cages x3"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Water bottle cages x3</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Two for water bottles, one for the fuel bottle(adjustable size as fuel bottles have a smaller diameter)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Two for water bottles, one for the fuel bottle(adjustable size as fuel bottles have a smaller diameter)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Robust lock"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Robust lock</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I got a folding lock... in case I had to leave for extended period in a city"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I got a folding lock... in case I had to leave for extended period in a city</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cable"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cable</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"To lock the front wheel"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">To lock the front wheel</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Small wire lock"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Small wire lock</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Like a luggage lock, used for my 'ukulele and panniers"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Like a luggage lock, used for my 'ukulele and panniers</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Seat cover"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Seat cover</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Waterproof (since my seat is leather)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Waterproof (since my seat is leather)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"'Ukulele",null,null,null,1]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">'Ukulele</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Strapped on top of compression stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Strapped on top of compression stuff sack</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cooking"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cooking</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stove"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stove</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"MSR Whisperlite Int'l - great stove, takes many fuels (white gas, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, unleaded gas)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">MSR Whisperlite Int'l - great stove, takes many fuels (white gas, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, unleaded gas)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fuel Bottle"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Fuel Bottle</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"11 oz., small capacity but it fit in the water bottle cage and I refilled it roughly every 1.5 weeks"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">11 oz., small capacity but it fit in the water bottle cage and I refilled it roughly every 1.5 weeks</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pot"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Pot</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Enough to cook dinner for two (in case someone needed some food)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Enough to cook dinner for two (in case someone needed some food)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Spoon"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Spoon</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Containers x3"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Containers x3</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Screw top containers, could hold things like a tomato or onion or leftovers; used top for cutting board"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Screw top containers, could hold things like a tomato or onion or leftovers; used top for cutting board</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Spices"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Spices</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Important, and refilled along the way"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Important, and refilled along the way</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Olive Oil"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Olive Oil</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"In a small nalgene bottle"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">In a small nalgene bottle</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Soy Sauce"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Soy Sauce</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"ditto"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">ditto</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bouillon"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Bouillon</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Great for cooking, had some vegan bouillon"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Great for cooking, had some vegan bouillon</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Swiss army knife"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Swiss army knife</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Necessity - used every day for cooking"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Necessity - used every day for cooking</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Refillable butane lighter"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Refillable butane lighter</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For lighting the stove"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For lighting the stove</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Matches"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Matches</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Backup to the lighter"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Backup to the lighter</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stuff sack</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For the food and also used to hang the food"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For the food and also used to hang the food</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cord to hang food"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cord to hang food</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Long length for hanging the food to keep from animals"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Long length for hanging the food to keep from animals</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sleeping"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sleeping</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bivvy/Tent"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Bivvy/Tent</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I brought a bivvy sac which I found not great for damp conditions, eventually decided a tent is better"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I brought a bivvy sac which I found not great for damp conditions, eventually decided a tent is better</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sleeping Bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sleeping Bag</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rated for colder weather than is predicted - I find they are generous with themselves in the rating system"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Rated for colder weather than is predicted - I find they are generous with themselves in the rating system</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sleeping Pad"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sleeping Pad</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Old thermarest 3/4 length pad"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Old thermarest 3/4 length pad</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sleeping bag liner"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sleeping bag liner</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very nice to have - silk liner, can be washed easily, and nice when it's warmer at night"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very nice to have - silk liner, can be washed easily, and nice when it's warmer at night</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pillow"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Pillow</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Luxury, in past I used to roll up a fleece, but I liked having a little inflatable pillow"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Luxury, in past I used to roll up a fleece, but I liked having a little inflatable pillow</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Earplugs"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Earplugs</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Important for when folks who snore pitch a tent right next to you (happened)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Important for when folks who snore pitch a tent right next to you (happened)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Eyeshade"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Eyeshade</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"If you want to sleep past sunrise (up north the sun rises early)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">If you want to sleep past sunrise (up north the sun rises early)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mini-flashlight"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Mini-flashlight</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Kept with the eyeshade/earplugs - earplugs + eyeshade + flashlight + extra chapstick in a small mesh pocket"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kept with the eyeshade/earplugs - earplugs + eyeshade + flashlight + extra chapstick in a small mesh pocket</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stuff sack</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Dry sack - all of the above sleep gear went in the dry sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Dry sack - all of the above sleep gear went in the dry sack</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Electronics"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Electronics</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Phone"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Phone</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Kept on airplane mode most of the time to conserve battery"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kept on airplane mode most of the time to conserve battery</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Phone charger"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Phone charger</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Long cord is helpful as the plug locations can be awkward"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Long cord is helpful as the plug locations can be awkward</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"USB cord charger"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">USB cord charger</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"To connect to solar charger (could have been combined with charger but not the one I brought)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">To connect to solar charger (could have been combined with charger but not the one I brought)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mini water camera"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Mini water camera</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For surf photos, I brought a gopro that was temperamental so wasn't too happy about it"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For surf photos, I brought a gopro that was temperamental so wasn't too happy about it</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Personal locator beacon"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Personal locator beacon</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"In case I fell off a cliff and no one could see me, mainly since I was traveling solo, maybe a bit of overkill"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">In case I fell off a cliff and no one could see me, mainly since I was traveling solo, maybe a bit of overkill</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Solar charger"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Solar charger</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Handy, I used a small, inexpensive solar charger that I ordered online and it worked well"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Handy, I used a small, inexpensive solar charger that I ordered online and it worked well</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Headlamp (flashlight)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Headlamp (flashlight)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very useful for camp at night"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very useful for camp at night</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Toiletries"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Toiletries</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tooth brush"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tooth brush</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tooth paste"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tooth paste</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Chapstick"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Chapstick</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Chamois butter"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Chamois butter</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I ended up giving the big tube away, but had a little bit on hand"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I ended up giving the big tube away, but had a little bit on hand</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Shaver"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Shaver</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Sunscreen"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Sunscreen</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Important"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Important</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Lense cloth"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Lense cloth</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For cleaning glasses"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For cleaning glasses</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Soap"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Soap</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Small bottle of Dr Bronner's"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Small bottle of Dr Bronner's</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Hand sanitizer"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Hand sanitizer</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Ended up with one with toiletries and one in handlebar bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Ended up with one with toiletries and one in handlebar bag</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Stuff sack</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Toiletries above in stuff sack"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Toiletries above in stuff sack</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Chamois towel"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Chamois towel</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"(in clothing sack), I brought a small one (hand towel size) for drying off after showering"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">(in clothing sack), I brought a small one (hand towel size) for drying off after showering</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mosquito repellent"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Mosquito repellent</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Handlebar bag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Handlebar bag</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Documents"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Documents</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wallet (ID, cards)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Wallet (ID, cards)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Kept in pocket of overshorts"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kept in pocket of overshorts</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cash"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cash</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"ditto"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">ditto</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Maps"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Maps</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Annotated (see prep entry at start of blog)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Annotated (see prep entry at start of blog)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Small notebook"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Small notebook</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"To write down folks' addresses"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">To write down folks' addresses</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Journal pages"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Journal pages</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I've kept a journal for many years. Cut out some pages rather than bringing the entire journal."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I've kept a journal for many years. Cut out some pages rather than bringing the entire journal.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Local maps"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Local maps</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Often given to me by rangers - they have county campsites which is helpful."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Often given to me by rangers - they have county campsites which is helpful.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tide table"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tide table</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very useful up north - big tidal swings, important if hiking along beach or surfing."]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very useful up north - big tidal swings, important if hiking along beach or surfing.</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pen x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Pen x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"only one really needed but nice to have an extra"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">only one really needed but nice to have an extra</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"First few days' itinerary"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">First few days' itinerary</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"printed on paper"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">printed on paper</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tools"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tools</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Mulit-tool"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Multi-tool</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very helpful to have, much more compact than separate tools"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very helpful to have, much more compact than separate tools</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Pliers"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Pliers</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Only thing I felt missing from the multi tool"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Only thing I felt missing from the multi tool</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bike pump"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Bike pump</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Necessity, one with a hose and pressure gauge"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Necessity. And nice to have one with a hose and pressure gauge</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Patch kit x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Patch kit x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Extra patches seem good to have"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Extra patches seem good to have</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Inner tubes x2"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Inner tubes x2</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Some folks recommended three, but I felt pretty good about having two"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Some folks recommended three, but I felt pretty good about having two</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tire levers (2)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tire levers (2)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Important"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Important</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Extra spokes (2)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Extra spokes (2)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"On chainstay"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">On chainstay</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fiberfix"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Fiberfix</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Need thing to fix a spoke without removing wheel"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Neat thing to fix a spoke without removing wheel</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cassette remover"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cassette remover</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Got a combo tool that allows you to use the frame to lever off the cassette"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Got a combo tool that allows you to use the frame to lever off the cassette</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Rag"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Rag</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Very useful to have for doing any work"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Very useful to have for doing any work</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Chain lube"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Chain lube</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Used after getting through Oregon - chain needed lube"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Needed after getting through Oregon - chain needed lube</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Zip ties"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Zip ties</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Just in case"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Just in case</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Cord"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Cord</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Extra for lashing gear if needed"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Extra for lashing gear if needed</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Hose clamps"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Hose clamps</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"In case something on rack broke"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">In case something on rack broke</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Nuts/bolts"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Nuts/bolts</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Extra, again just in case"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Extra, again just in case</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Spare brake/shift cable"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Spare brake/shift cable</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"In case"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">In case</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Electrical tape"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Electrical tape</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Helpful for handlebar tape issues"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Helpful for handlebar tape issues</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tent tape"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Tent tape</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"To repair stuff sacks/bike bags"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">To repair stuff sacks/bike bags</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"First Aid Kit"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">First Aid Kit</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Ultralight backpacking first aid kit"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Ultralight backpacking first aid kit</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Surfing"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Surfing</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Surfmat"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Surfmat</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fourth Gear Flyer, Standard mat"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fourth Gear Flyer, Standard mat</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wetsuit, 2mm"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Wetsuit, 2mm</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Way too thin for the conditions (5mm would've been nice), but was trying to save weight"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Way too thin for the conditions (5mm would've been nice), but was trying to save weight</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Swim fins + leashes"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Swim fins + leashes</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Kicks fins - quite lightweight"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Kicks fins - quite lightweight</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fin socks"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Fin socks</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Prevent blisters, also helps for warmth"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Prevent blisters, also helps for warmth</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Contact lenses"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Contact lenses</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Single use"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Single use</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Poncho"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Poncho</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Really helpful - used for changing clothes (lighter than a big towel) and as a raincover for my bike at night"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Really helpful - used for changing clothes (lighter than a big towel) and as a raincover for my bike at night</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Swim googles (freediving)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: nowrap;">Swim googles (freediving)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Didn't end up using - probably not necessary"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Didn't end up using (didn't go freediving) - probably not necessary</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"What I shipped home:"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What I shipped home:</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Parka"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Parka</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Felt I didn't need that much warmth - didn't except for one night"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Felt I didn't need that much warmth - didn't except for one night</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Camera accessories"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Camera accessories</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"ex. tripod, clamp mount, etc. - not worth the weight/trouble"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">ex. tripod, clamp mount, etc. - not worth the weight/trouble</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Additional items bought on the road:"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Additional items bought on the road:</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Strap"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Strap</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"To better secure my baseball cap to seat after losing the first one"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">To better secure my baseball cap to seat after losing the first one</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bowl"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bowl</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Luxury, wanted a bit more aesthetically pleasing bowl than my storage container"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Luxury, wanted a bit more aesthetically pleasing bowl than my storage container</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Fork"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Fork</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Could have made it without it, but made eating noodles easier"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Could have made it without it, but made eating noodles easier</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Scraper (for cleaning)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Scraper (for cleaning)</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Nice to have, earlier I was just dealing with not fully clean things (bowl, pot, etc.)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Nice to have, earlier I was just dealing with not fully clean things (bowl, pot, etc.)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Bottle for tabasco"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Bottle for tabasco</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Lighter weight"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Lighter weight</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Monocular"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Monocular</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"I only had heavy binoculars and didn't think of it until later"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">I only had heavy binoculars and didn't think of it until later</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Seat cushion"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Seat cushion, inflatable</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For meditation, great as I was sitting on hard surfaces (logs, rocks)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For meditation, great as I was sitting on hard surfaces (logs, rocks)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wool hat"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Wool hat</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Earlier parka had a hood, but I shipped the parka back"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Earlier parka had a hood, but I shipped the parka back home</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Long sleeve shirt"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Long sleeve shirt</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Lightweight, for cycling (sun protection)"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Lightweight, for cycling (sun protection)</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Additional charger"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Additional charger</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"One charger for both the phone and water camera was not great, so bought one on the road"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">One charger for both the phone and water camera was not great, so bought one on the road</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"What I would have brought:"]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">What I would have liked to have brought:</td><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Down sweater"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Down sweater</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"A lightweight one to add just a bit more warmth than I had"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">A lightweight one to add just a bit more warmth than I had</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Funnel"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Funnel</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"For filling the fuel bottle"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">For filling the fuel bottle</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 20px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Wetsuit hood"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Wetsuit hood</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"That water was super cold, would've been nice to have a hood"]" style="padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">That water was super cold, would've been nice to have a hood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Detail of my cooking gear. The green containers are really useful. As mentioned, the lid of the larger one is what I used for a cutting board. The semi-clear bowl is the one I bought instead of eating from the green storage container all the time. The red thing in the bowl is the cleaning scraper. The bottles are filled with olive oil, soy sauce, and tabasco.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3_kPCFgBV-A3R5FnMNv7oMLl9ha86JkiW9e5uxaKI7cQuPIpPo4ixjoA4f5g-HBE0oKy9VPtl22Cbg5rxJSw6QoLPTkmK-5aog_9YiXdRUH0ubNgqqJVhULzHLSB0kmbrjY1d5Y9z8M/s1600/IMG_20140825_125748704_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3_kPCFgBV-A3R5FnMNv7oMLl9ha86JkiW9e5uxaKI7cQuPIpPo4ixjoA4f5g-HBE0oKy9VPtl22Cbg5rxJSw6QoLPTkmK-5aog_9YiXdRUH0ubNgqqJVhULzHLSB0kmbrjY1d5Y9z8M/s1600/IMG_20140825_125748704_HDR.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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2) Updates to the Bicycling the Pacific Coast and Adventure Cycling Maps (the standard book and maps that most people use along the route). Both of them could use some updating. Here are some items I thought would be worth highlighting:</div>
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- The fruit and vegetable checkpoint at the Oregon-California border is closed (and apparently has been closed for years). So it is *not* necessary to eat or throw out all fruits and vegetables before entering CA as it lists in the book.</div>
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- Hidden Springs campground in CA does not have an official hiker biker site, but it seems that the rangers there are quite accommodating (CA website lists that they will accommodate as needed)</div>
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- Scotia, CA has a great market with a nice selection of food</div>
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- Klamath, CA and Orick, CA have a very limited selection of food at the markets there - so better to buy groceries in Crescent City, CA</div>
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- Redwood Lily hostel in Arcata, CA offers a 10% bicyclist discount (for example, rate at the time for a bed in a shared room would then be $36 v. $40 regular rate)</div>
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- There is no longer a full service bicycle shop in Garberville, CA. However, if you ask for Robert at Allsports and Toy, he may be able to help</div>
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3) Gratitude</div>
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I have felt so, so fortunate to have had so many people help me along the way on this trip. I'm not sure if I am capturing everyone but I wanted to call out the following:</div>
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- Housing (Zac, Sue, Katie/St Paul’s)</div>
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- Ride and journey help (Zac, Sue, Ted and Lina, Rosemary, Geri and Sandy)</div>
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- Looking after my place (Ana, Tim, Joey)</div>
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- Advice (Dad, Tina, Aunty Betty and Uncle Stanley, Alice, Bill, Jason, Omari, Rob, Rich, Yeh, Jeff, Geoff, Hemant, Pierre, Amy, Jonathan, Brandon, Zach, Bosco, Matthew, Adrien, Grant, Rob, Lexi, Giles, Oliver, Per, Jon)</div>
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- Food (Sue, Marie)</div>
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- Fuel, soap (the Hardys, Caroline)</div>
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- Gifts (Louise, Yana, Sue, Agate Beach couple, Ariel)</div>
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- Inspiration (everyone I met)</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-64962439937966190052014-08-26T12:42:00.002-07:002014-08-26T12:42:57.143-07:00Final stretch. People: Tamarr. Claire and Adam.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Home sweet home.</div>
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I stayed at a hotel along the coast with only a day's bicycle ride left of the journey. I had a quiet night and didn’t have to break out my stove and cook on the roof or anything here as the main restaurant in town had a nice vegetarian option on the menu (good thing as I was out of food and arrived after the market had already closed). :) I was definitely feeling sad about it being my last night on the road, but also excited to be getting home.</div>
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The weather the next day was perfect - sunny but not too hot. After my morning meditation and tai chi chuan practice, I rode slowly and was glad to get to appreciate the beauty of the scenery near home. </div>
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Monocular-cam photo of turkey vultures by the coast.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">I stopped by the Pigeon Point lighthouse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">It was neat to see such an awesome Fresnel </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: center;">lens. I was excited to see Fresnel lenses on display at lighthouses in Oregon, only to realize at Pigeon Point that there is a huge lens so close to home.</span><br />
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I stopped at two places which offer bicyclist discounts - Pie Ranch (tasty pies and fresh produce) and Swanton Farms (super sweet strawberries - much better than ones from the big berry company that begins with a 'D', I have heard concerns about 'D' company's business practices and treatment of workers... so I really like that we have local farms like Swanton). A bicyclist discount is a nice positive incentive for folks to bike.</div>
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Tamarr at Pie Ranch is also a bicyclist - in fact, she cycled once to Pie Ranch and liked it so much that she decided to stay. This was a similar story to the bicyclist at the hotel in Point Arena. I thought that was really cool and maybe it's good that I hurt my back so that it forced me to go home... otherwise, who knows where I might have just decided to stay (and there were so many incredible places along the trip).</div>
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I also met Claire and Adam who are cycling from Alaska to Argentina. </div>
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That’s a pretty serious trip. We had a fun discussion about cycling and gear. We also figured out that we knew Marie and had camped one night apart at Cape Blanco. Marie was the cool woman from Quebec who had offered me quinoa at Cape Blanco - it was neat to have a connection to Marie and to an earlier point in my trip via Claire and Adam.</div>
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Reaching Santa Cruz was quite exciting. It was so nice to see familiar sights. There was a small swell and it was incredibly tempting to go in for a celebratory 'back home' surf. However, I was feeling it in my back and managing to fight the urge to help myself with recovery.</div>
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I reached home. After taking the bags off my bike and putting them in the house, the first thing I did was then bicycle to the grocery store. I must admit, getting on a bicycle felt like the last thing I wanted to do just after getting home, but I thought I ought to stick with my bicycle life habits. It’s my normal routine at home to cycle to the grocery store but I only bought about two days’ worth of food - guess I was still on the bicycle tour mindset. I did however buy things that are hard to buy when bicycle touring (fruit that crushes easily, for example).</div>
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It was quite a weird feeling to realize that my life would suddenly be so different - being able to stay in the same place each night, no packing, no wondering about where to get food, etc. It’s interesting that while on a bicycle tour, your identity becomes that of a bicyclist on a bicycle tour. As soon as you step home, you are no longer a ‘bicyclist’ (in the bicycle tour sense of the word) and revert back to your normal self. It’s a bit strange - almost like stepping out of one world in to another.</div>
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Additionally, I was struck by a feeling of appreciation for having just done something very special. I examined that a bit more and realized that this trip has been indeed very special for me. I feel that it has been incredibly meaningful from the people I met who helped and inspired me to the self-reflection the trip has prompted. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-89016638536052505112014-08-26T12:20:00.001-07:002014-08-26T12:20:25.122-07:00Marin County. SF. Ferry, transit. People: Geri and Sandy.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In Marin County, I was initially cycling slowly. I was feeling the heat of the day and also absorbing the scenery.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">However, I wanted to make the ferry to San Francisco and I began to get worried that I was moving too slowly to make the ferry I planned to catch.</span></div>
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Shortly after I was getting concerned about timing, two sleek women riding sleek road bikes zoomed past me. They politely said ‘hi’ as they rode by and quickly rode ahead. I realized that this was my chance to make the earlier ferry. I hustled to catch up to them (Geri and Sandy) and they kindly agreed to let me draft behind them. Of course then I still had to work to keep up with them. To give you an example of the difference: with my ‘enjoy-the-scenery’ pace I rode ~ 7 miles in 55 minutes, Geri and Sandy passed me ~10 miles before town and we reached town in 30 min. Riding with them was more than twice as fast. Thank goodness for Geri and Sandy to get me motivated, cycling at a decent pace, and for the drafting help. </div>
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Geri is a federal agent who investigates environmental crimes, among other things. I overheard Sandy mention that she worked for the newspaper for many years. In addition to helping me with my ride, they were so nice and interesting that it would have been great to talk more - but they had their road ride to do and I had a ferry to catch.</div>
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I caught the ferry from Larkspur and enjoyed the views of the Bay. </div>
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I also was reminded of history passing by Angel Island which used to be the Ellis Island of the West. It’s one of the sad things from US history when there was heavy discrimination against Chinese immigrants in California. Upon arriving to the US, many Chinese immigrants were arbitrarily locked up in a facility on Angel Island, essentially imprisoned, for long periods of time (up to two years). </div>
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The immigrants would have spent potentially their life savings to immigrate to the US (and were often family breadwinners) only to be locked up without a trial or due process. It is a good reminder that discrimination can happen at a systemic level and that it’s important to look out to prevent this type of thing from happening again.</div>
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When I reached San Francisco, I decided to take public transit to get myself across the city and down the coast a bit (the ferry terminal is on the Bay side of the city). When I lived in San Francisco, I rode across from one side of the the city to the other fairly regularly. Many of the bicyclists in San Francisco ride fast and aggressively and they used to get annoyed with my leisurely pace. Given that I was riding even slower with gear, I thought it might be better for everyone if I used transit rather than cycling through the city. </div>
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The transit station was quite a contrast to the natural beauty that I’ve been in for the past several weeks. I realize it’s an unfair comparison since it’s just a functional transit center and San Francisco is an exceptionally beautiful city - but it was a pretty noticeable difference from my recent surroundings. The blandness of the transit center helped keep me from being tempted to stay in SF to catch up with friends and stick to the plan to get home faster to rest/recover. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-74149476773372431282014-08-25T22:36:00.001-07:002014-08-26T10:17:41.553-07:00Sonoma County coast. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Improvised food.<br />
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On the Sonoma Coast, I was for the first time on the trip reaching places I had spent time at before. It was fun to bicycle by a surf break I surfed this winter (which was not breaking well on this day) and the hotel where I helped teach a meditation class. It was also striking how much more I saw/noticed/experienced while bicycling than last time I was in the area in a car.<br />
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I was also able to use my monocular-cam setup to catch photos of pelicans with an egret as well as a cormorant sunning itself.<br />
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With my back still not doing too well, I bicycled and used the public bus for a stint in line with my new plan. Instead of being a letdown it was incredibly interesting. On the bus we had a group conversation on solar chargers v. batteries. We were comparing them because one of the guys was considering buying a computer but did not have electricity. He will probably just wait as he is turning 62 soon and is looking forward to receiving social security so he can move from a campground to a studio apartment. He estimated that he would need ~$700 a month as his total net income to be able to live comfortably. I was very impressed with how low that figure is and his example inspires me re-think what is the minimum amount I need to live on.</div>
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I stayed in a small town that only had one restaurant. The one restaurant in town did not have any vegetarian options on the menu, but fortunately I still had camping food supplies. So, I washed the vegetables in the hotel shower.<br />
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I then went out on the second floor roof balcony and set up my camping stove.</div>
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It was quite fun cooking on the roof balcony and I ended up having a very tasty dinner (quinoa + kale with cheese). It was a reminder to me that fun can be had in many circumstances - doesn't necessarily need surfing and camping. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-87769848952705807902014-08-25T21:42:00.002-07:002014-08-25T22:03:30.981-07:00Inland detour: Ch’an Buddhist center. Coast: Mendocino County. People: Mayra.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Inland and back.</div>
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To try to give my back some rest from the cycling (I emailed Esther Gokhale, a back/posture expert I have taken classes from - she highlighted to me that since my back was hurting that it would likely continue to hurt when bicycling until I obtained some rest), I decided to take a detour inland to visit a Ch’an Buddhist center. My original introduction to meditation was from Ch’an Buddhist monks visiting the US from Taiwan. I found the teachings of those visiting monks in Texas extremely profound so I was looking forward to the visiting a Ch'an Buddhist center. </div>
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Sidenote: an abbreviated (and I hope not too inaccurate) history…an monk from India brought Buddhism to China, where it became Ch’an Buddhism, which then was brought to Japan. The Japanese romanization of Ch’an is Zen (which is much more well-known in the West). So Ch’an and Zen are at their heart the same thing but in Chinese and Japanese (the actual organizations that sprung out of the practice were both influenced by their respective cultures so there are interesting differences).</div>
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After a bit of a crazy bus-assisted journey inland with the Reggae on the River festival crowd I eventually made it to the center and did some tai chi chuan and meditation practice there in the heat (inland is so much hotter than the coast). The grounds are interesting as the entire facility was a former state asylum that closed due to budget issues. Monks and nuns live there now and there is a school (and peacocks!) at the center. </div>
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The center never responded to my email inquiries (there seemed to be a relaxed ambivalence coupled with kind tolerance towards visitors - I would contrast it as the polar opposite to the strong embrace of welcome with intent of conversion I remember experiencing when visiting a southern Baptist church in the past), but I knew that day visitors were allowed so I booked a nearby hotel to allow me to practice at the center each day. It seemed like a great plan to me but I had not anticipated that the hotel I booked would be full of high school baseball players on a trip who seemed to be up and about both late and early. Staying at the hotel was utterly un-restful and not helping my back recover and I could not find a better option nearby. So, I decided to cut the inland trip short and decided to use bus assistance as much as possible in efforts to get back home faster and rest my back.</div>
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I returned back to the coast in Mendocino County feeling a bit sad that my brilliant plan to rest inland did not go so well. My camping gear also ran in to some issues (not so interesting story), so I was likely going to not be surfing or camping for the remainder of my bicycle trip. It felt like my trip was going to become less interesting and less fun.</div>
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However, I saw upon reaching the coast that the ocean was basically flat - so I would not have had a chance to surf anyways - but the coastline is beautiful. As I checked in to the hotel for the night in Point Arena, it turned out that the guy at reception was also a bicyclist (I forgot his name, unfortunately). We were talking about my trip it turns out that he had heard of me from several other bicycle tourists. He mentioned that I was infamous within the bicyclists on the road right now. I suppose carrying surfing gear for hundred of miles on a bicycle is a somewhat harebrained idea that might be memorable. In any case, it these things made me realize that my trip would still have funny and interesting interactions with folks even if I didn’t surf or camp that last few days of the trip.</div>
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Mayra. Mayra is the really nice owner of Elegant Touch hair salon. </div>
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I went for a haircut after visiting the Buddhist center (maybe seeing monks and nuns made me feel that my hair was too long :) ). I really liked the story of how she started the salon. Mayra used to work at a major chain salon and did not like the strict time limitations they put on the stylists (she is very nice and likes to give attention to folks). One day she passed by the building where her current salon is in and she noticed the space for rent. Later that week, she was at the hardware with her husband (who is a contractor) and noticed a very nice flooring which she thought would be perfect for a salon. The flooring made her follow up and call about the space which set things rolling for her to be an entrepreneur and set up her own business. Flooring in a hardware store can inspire a business venture - it pays to be open to inspiration from many sources.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-76925764660579631192014-08-25T20:44:00.000-07:002014-08-25T20:47:39.283-07:00Eureka to Humboldt Redwoods. People: Brent and Gabby. Mark. Kelsey. E.T. and Hugo.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Back to the redwoods.<br />
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After having my back pain recur, I decided I should limit my daily mileage on the bicycle and use the bus to help me if I needed to get to campgrounds/cities.<br />
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This sounded like an efficient plan to me but it was a bit trickier to implement than I expected. The Humboldt county bus is extremely well-used. In Arcata I had tried to catch the bus, but the bike rack was full and there were three other cyclists trying to catch the bus as well. In my next try from Eureka the following day, it was also full but fortunately Rosemary was willing to take her bike off the rack and leave her bike at the stop. She had someone who was going to give her a ride on the other side as she was heading to a wedding. She did have to walk a bit to get to the point where she was getting picked up though, so I really appreciated her help. One more example of generosity.<br />
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The bus was full, running behind schedule, and many people were obviously stressed. I was standing next to a tall, thin guy in a top hat who kept meowing loudly (like a cat meow). He’d meow every 30 seconds or so and then on occasion make some type of statement (to no one in particular). It definitely added a sense of absurdity to the bus ride.<br />
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I exited the bus got off the bus after a bit and then resumed bicycling. It was nice to have peace and quiet with no crowds and no meowing - though I also appreciated that the bus helped me on my journey. Stopped at the grocery in Scotia… note to cyclists, Scotia has a nice grocery store (unlisted on my map).<br />
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The initial part of the ride was uneventful except when I dropped my helmet in to poison oak. I put my helmet in a bag for the rest of the day (for washing at camp). Shortly after that I was back in the redwoods. I rode through the Avenue of the Giants - I have a hard time thinking of a road with a better name. It just sounds so cool.<br />
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It was great to be back in the redwoods. The redwoods were equally beautiful and impressive here as in Elk Prairie - hiking around was great. For the first time on the trip, the weather was dry and hot (it was surprising after all the fog and mist).<br />
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My back was still not feeling great after the first night so I decided to stay a second night - had fun conversations with other cyclists both nights. While there I spent some time making arrangements to do an inland detour to visit a Ch'an Buddhist center. <br />
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Brent and Gabby. Brent and Gabby were the only people I met on the tour who rode similar mileage to me each day.<br />
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It was nice to meet them and for once not receive any grief over the low amount of miles that I ride (it’s usually just jokes as most folks are appreciative of taking the time to appreciate things, but I one guy at Elk Prairie was almost miffed). They’re educators from Calgary and we had a pleasant dinner and breakfast at the campsite.<br />
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At one point, Brent and Gabby were asking me about my work and the interview process came up. I explained how my interview process was long (8 months) with many people (11 interviews with 9 interviewers in 2 different cities). They expressed surprise at this and thought it was crazy and made a statement on how it wasn’t like I was a director there or anything. It was quite funny to me (I didn’t mention that I am actually a director there). :) Anyways, it was fun talking to them and meeting the only other people who seem to do low miles per day.<br />
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Mark. Mark is a super-experienced bicycle tourist and he tours with a carbon fiber bike and panniers that he hand-made himself.<br />
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I had been thinking about making panniers for a few years and never got around to it - Mark has made some really cool panniers and has everything on his rig tricked out to be ultralight. He has gear made by companies I had never heard of. For example, his tent is only 1.5 lb., made by a specialty maker, and it cost more than my bicycle.<br />
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Mark's gearing ratio is that of a normal road bike to allow him to cover lots of miles quickly. He could do this as his bicycle and gear together weigh only 45 lb. The weight of our camping gear was not that different (I did go pretty light with my gear), but my bike is ~13 lb. heavier plus I have the additional 9 lb. of surfing gear - so I'm carrying about 22 lb. of additional weight on my bike... that's quite a difference over several hundred miles. Mark has one of the coolest set-ups I have seen.<br />
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Kelsey. Kelsey attends Humboldt State University and has worked for the State Parks for two summers.<br />
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She is considering doing seasonal work with the parks after graduation. This was one route I had also considered after university (particularly after spending a summer fixing trails in Utah) so it was fun talking about work in the parks. It was also nice to be reminded of how lucky I am now as well (Kelsey was commenting on how great things sound with respect to my life and the balance between work, home, surfing, etc.).<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">One other fun conversation was with two hardcore bicycle tourists. I shared with them how I missed friends at home and how they dealt with it. The younger (E.T., maybe late 20's) cyclist mentioned how it happens to him as well and how it can be a downer but typically passes after a bit. The older cyclist (Hugo, I'm guessing early 50's), who had been all over the world, vehemently expressed how he doesn’t like people because they are disrespectful to each other and how he likes animals more than people. He preferred to be on the road and felt restless when at home. It made me think maybe I don’t have the right outlook/personality for really long (greater than one year) solo tours as I also love my life at home (surfing, meditation, music, etc.... as Kelsey reminded me, it's a pretty darn good life). :)</span></div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-2732660849831028072014-08-23T21:21:00.001-07:002014-08-23T21:21:41.681-07:00Arcata and Eureka. People: Muriyah. Brooke. Darren and Dave. Brittney. Noelle. Russ.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After being in the redwoods and in relative solitude along the coast, it was quite a contrast to spend time in Arcata and Eureka but I had a great visit to both cities. This stretch of the route has a particularly big gap between campgrounds, so stopping over in one of them helps keep each day manageable when cycling (some of the hardcore bicycle tourists would do a 90+ mile day to get to the next campground but I was not quite up for that).</div>
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Arcata is a major fixture in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Triangle">Emerald Triangle</a> - the pot (marijuana) growing area of California. The pot culture seems to permeate everywhere I went in the city. I have lived in many cities which are very heavy pot-using places but I had never seen anything to this extent. It was also funny to me that I liked Arcata so much since I abstain from any type of intoxicant or mind-state altering substance (so smoking, drinking, drugs, caffeine, etc.) to the extreme point where I have never even had a whole cup of coffee in my life. </div>
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I was glad that I was able to join the zen group in meditation in Arcata. They had done a beautiful job of converting a garage into a lovely zendo. After the meditation session, I checked if I could take a photo inside (I wanted to make sure it was not a sacred space that would be inappropriate to photograph). A woman re-opened the zendo to allow me to take the photo - but interestingly, the photo of the inside of the zendo disappeared from my phone. I’ll let you decide if that was coincidence or the result of some higher power. :)</div>
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I also went blues dancing in Arcata. Most of my pictures from the dance didn’t come out well (just due to the low lighting, no metaphysical implications here) but I had a fun time there. I had particularly fun dances with Brittney (who is interested in roller disco) and Noelle (who has ties to Santa Cruz).</div>
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My back started hurting again as I cycled out of Arcata and it hurt enough that I decided to stay in Eureka (was lucky to find a room at the last minute at a nice B&B - Cornelius Daly House). Initially, I was just sore about being there due to the back pain. Then I realized that I was in an interesting (and not that easy to understand) place and that I should simply appreciate it.</div>
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Eureka has some great murals:</div>
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It has quite a bit of contrast within the city - a well-preserved Victorian downtown with fancy shops and also some parts that look like they have seen better days.<br />
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I wandered around town a bit and ended up having a really cool night watching the band Scuba Mountain (see Russ below). </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">In the end, the visit Arcata and Eureka had great conversations, music, meditation, and dancing. I loved being in the redwoods and along the coast prior to getting to Arcata and Eureka, but the visit reminded me of the fun and intellectual/cultural stimulation of cities.</span><br />
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People:<br />
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Muriyah. I met Muriyah at the zen meditation session. In mindfulness circles, I have heard some folks commenting how many of the conversations with other mindfulness practitioners are very similar - don't think that applies to Muriyah. She is ultra-spontaneous and she was sharing with me some of her adventures. <br />
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Muriyah once decided, with three days notice while visiting her sister in LA, to buy a one-way ticket to Peru and flew there without a clear plan of where to stay (or a job, for that matter). Someone had told her it was easy to find work as an English teacher there, so she just bought a ticket and went. Muriyah ended up living there several months in 2-3 different cities. When one living situation would become problematic, somehow other ones materialized. She ended up not being able to find work though, so she eventually moved back to the US when she ran out of money. Muriyah has a far bigger risk appetite than I have - so much for my self-image as a free spirit. :)</div>
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The photo is in front of a high wall inside an old building that used to be an auto shop but is now a restaurant. At the restaurant they were explaining that the wall was a firewall and was likely quite deep across. It was a beautiful wall. It made me think that folks were quite loose with how they used redwood though - too put such a massive and beautiful wall of probably old growth redwood inside an auto shop.<br />
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Brooke. Brooke works at the Redwood Lily, a cool hostel I stayed at that has a bicyclist discount, and lives in a communal living set-up (outside of the hostel). </div>
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Brooke and I had a fun conversation about Arcata, the pot industry, communal living, and a bunch of other topics. She had a funny thing that she would do - she tried to guess if folks she didn’t know in Arcata were, “townies, trimmers, tourists, transplants, transients, or students” and how it took some practice to be able to distinguish them given that everyone kind of dressed the same in Arcata. I meant to get a photo of her boyfriend as he majored in computer science but makes a living doing construction for pot growers, but he headed out with his backpack to go out to a grow site for a few days. </div>
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Based on our discussion on communal living, it occurred to me that I’d like to chat with some older folks (maybe in their 50’s and 60’s, or even better in their 70’s and 80’s) who have been doing the communal living thing for a long time - any referrals would be great.</div>
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Darren and Dave. Darren offered to watch my bicycle while I was in the post office in Arcata. He was waiting while Dave (holding the art he did of Eureka harbor) was in the post office and then they both watched my bike until I returned. </div>
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Darren and Dave were telling me to be careful in Garberville because of rumors of a woman who is a serial killer of men in the area. They were funny and sharing a bunch of stories and also giving me advice on safety.</div>
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Russ. Russ is a professional saxophone player who is particularly articulate about the philosophy of music. He went to the Berklee school of music and now plays in multiple bands in Eureka.<br />
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We had a great discussion about music shortly before the Scuba Mountain gig. I really liked his descriptions on how playing music feels more and more like straight self-expression and allows him to communicate his ideas as his instrument becomes more of an extension of himself.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-12557373623043128572014-08-19T20:03:00.002-07:002014-08-20T11:05:55.789-07:00Elk Prairie to Patrick’s Point. People: The Hardys.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Solitude and a photo extravaganza: coastline, plants, wildlife, etc.... Patrick's Point is beautiful.</div>
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It was a relatively easy and scenic ride to Patrick's Point which made for an easy cycling day. I rode with a guy who had cycled to the West Coast from Washington DC for a bit. It was interesting to see how he optimized his time. He did not take stops but instead snapped photos with one hand and ate energy bars while cycling. It made me realize that most people do not spend the time to cycle off-route to find spots with nice views and eat lunch the way I do.</div>
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We only rode together for a short stretch as I pulled off the road to check out some surf breaks. I looked at some beachbreaks that were not quite working and then stopped for a nice lunch (by the ocean :) ).</div>
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Food was again a bit of an issue this day. After Elk Prairie, I stopped in Orick to buy groceries for the next two nights at a store that had only a meager selection of produce. Note to cyclists - stock up on groceries in Crescent City, not Klamath or Orick!</div>
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At the store, I overheard a family buying some charcoal lighter fluid so I asked them if they would be interested to go in together for some. My fuel bottle still had fuel in it, but it seemed like a good idea to add fuel when available since the bottle is small (11 oz.). They (the Hardy’s - pictured above) were really nice and just let me fill up my fuel bottle and wouldn’t take any money. The Hardy’s are from Utah and were on a pretty epic road trip.</div>
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Patrick’s Point State Park has a fantastically beautiful coastline. The rock formations are awesome. </div>
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The plants were also beautiful. It also struck me how delicate and intricate our local wildflowers are - some times I think it's easy to be enamored with 'exotic' plants raised in greenhouses, but our wildflowers are just amazing.</div>
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After the big social scene at Elk Prairie, it was really quiet in Patrick's Point - the coast was foggy and overcast and I was the only one at the hiker biker campsite. </div>
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The campsite location was nice in that it was probably only a 60 foot walk down a trail to get to the ocean and far from all the other campsites. It was a bit weird in that it seemed to have been recently been converted from a picnic area, as there was ironically a big car parking lot in the hiker biker site (with handicapped parking and everything) and micro-litter/debris from picnic-use embedded in the grass (I tried to clean up as much as I could) - but it was quiet and peaceful. </div>
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In any case, I had a nice hike around the rocks and cliffs in the state park the first day. The tidal swings are quite obviously large here and there are some neat plants and marine life visible below the high tide line.</div>
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I cooked dinner and went to sleep fairly early. It was quite wet from the fog/mist/light rain, so in the morning I tried to let my gear dry out a bit. I was also cleaning off the pine sap that made it on to my super nice down sleeping bag. As I was packing up to leave, I noticed that my rear tire had low pressure. I took off the tire to find a staple in the tire. This was my first flat of the trip - not too bad.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">However, it was already late when I noticed the tire. After finishing that, cleaning up, and getting my gear together, I again realized that it was quite late in the day and that it’d be hard for me to get to the next spot at a decent hour. Additionally, I was not feeling 100% physically, so I decided to stay another night in Patrick’s Point.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhAGgHne7hMPhYCa-2pItMmvVyroY_zZdYYpW2Z9a014ZUx1pHOOgesjwL5rNe8rM-Q6ArDw_eEa-0i1gtbmzX8eMOmJM66cp6LzBkATVu_pk_k7I-Oqb2W-0vanW4I0kzTfQLdRJssrU/s1600/IMG_20140729_081657038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a>Another foggy/misty/damp night (and again the only one at the hiker biker site) and then another morning spent on the gorgeous coastline - tai chi chuan and meditation on a large cliff jutting out to the ocean followed by checking out some of the other short trails. My monocular was put to use and I had a great view of a harbor seal haul-out. I figured out that I if I placed the monocular at the right spot over the camera lense of my phone I could make a low-budget telephoto camera. </div>
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Those vignette photos are not effects - its real-deal vignette from my improvised monocular-cam (guess you can tell I am proud of the set up). And aren’t the harbor seals cute?</div>
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On my way out, I wanted to stop by Agate Beach to check out the agate that washes up on the beach. Agate is silica that has been heated in the air pockets of volcanic rock (which was lava) and then when the volcanic rock dissolves the agate is left. It’s a semi-precious stone apparently and I love the story of how it is formed.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SzqYZLkwyBi_nG31thAVJ8yXnJsdlpAKQCXHWoiNZ0QMS1KNBGgPXTR-JoPaFg4MLKdurWuQl-XLwrFBkUtoh_85L7_RpctpKABtD4WzOheWYZq0M9jHLBg1NnVy06wuDrhR9ez8RBY/s1600/IMG_20140730_132354164_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-SzqYZLkwyBi_nG31thAVJ8yXnJsdlpAKQCXHWoiNZ0QMS1KNBGgPXTR-JoPaFg4MLKdurWuQl-XLwrFBkUtoh_85L7_RpctpKABtD4WzOheWYZq0M9jHLBg1NnVy06wuDrhR9ez8RBY/s1600/IMG_20140730_132354164_HDR.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a>So, I was inspired to take up what is possibly the dumbest hobby a bicycle tourist could possibly do: collecting rocks (and I had already had a few from Oregon). Collecting rocks and then toting them for hundreds of miles on a bicycle is ridiculous - but I limited myself to small rocks. </div>
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I did find agate! It is very fun to scour for neat rocks and I spent way more time than I planned to on the beach. A local couple that I met in the morning was out on the beach as well and they gave me three rocks - way nicer than the ones I had found. That was really generous of them and they insisted that I keep them as they mentioned that they will find more. Another example of generosity - these examples keep making me want to ensure that I am more generous in my life.</div>
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I finally left Patrick’s Point I think around 2pm. It was my latest departure to-date (unless you count the times when I was too late to even head out), but I was feeling grateful to have had such a beautiful morning. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-54171818978995389812014-08-17T15:40:00.002-07:002014-08-18T00:38:55.569-07:00Klamath to Elk Prairie. People: Caroline and Nigel. Megan and Max and the Yuans. Dave and Jan. Cayla. Anne. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The ride from Klamath to the campground in Elk Prairie State Park was short - which was perfect because the redwoods are beautiful so it was nice to be able to spend time to stop and check out the different trails. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">My back felt OK but I was feeling pretty tired from the lack of sleep and junk food the day before.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">I pretty much forgot all of that upon reaching the redwoods and seeing such</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> amazing trees.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">I also felt sad seeing the stumps of the old growth trees. It’s a shame we cut down so much (almost all of it) of the old growth forest as it must have been incredibly peaceful and impressive.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px;">But even the second growth trees are pretty awesome and there occasional older tree is just mind-blowing in terms of age (some are ~2,000 years old), height, and girth.</span><br />
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I spent lots of time checking out the redwoods and then set up camp under a nice pine tree in the hiker biker area. A huge group (14 people) with two support vehicles joined the camp. I think folks in camp were a bit wary of so many people but it ended up being great as it was a nice and fun group that joined (and strange that I used to live in some of the largest cities in the world and now I think 14 bicyclists seems like a lot of people).</div>
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After dinner, we had a little ‘ukulele and guitar jam session which was fun. I inadvertently ended up staying two nights at Elk Prairie, but it was pretty great to get to be there among the redwoods so it turned out well. On the second day, I went on a mini-hike with Dave and Jan and Steve plus two of the kids in their group. In the afternoon, Anne and I went for a mellow hike that started from the campground.</div>
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Caroline (green jacket) and Nigel (red jacket). Caroline and Nigel run bike tours in New Zealand and are very relaxed and friendly folks - it was nice chatting with them. Caroline kindly gave me a hotel bar soap when I realized I left my soap/shampoo at the church in Crescent City. It’s pretty great how the cyclists all help each other out. Nigel brought a travel guitar so we had a fun little jam - with Caroline contributing some vocals as well.</div>
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Megan (blue jacket) and Max (black jacket) and the Yuans. The Yuans are a hardcore family. The parents teach outdoor recreation and the kids are crazy athletes. Megan is on a track scholarship at WVA (a NCAA Division I school). She runs steeplechase, which I think is super cool. Megan also has a funny frankness in her communication style that had us in stitches over dinner. Max is a freestyle skier who does all those crazy and complicated aerials. He also plays guitar and joined in on our little jam session. It’s pretty neat to meet a whole family that does outdoor/athletic stuff.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyc3lx-GFKk9HNbBhWQHu1HlTzCGB_suMyVomSQI6txCO6NWHZKwRUBR4zsR_NJ47qGDzTTXjCLG6y5cENpR62su4HiF-lY-QhQHaL1u5J5eoiSP8EuCt6dHKSzM5aB9-1c9nA_tGoMc/s1600/IMG_20140727_142629933_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyc3lx-GFKk9HNbBhWQHu1HlTzCGB_suMyVomSQI6txCO6NWHZKwRUBR4zsR_NJ47qGDzTTXjCLG6y5cENpR62su4HiF-lY-QhQHaL1u5J5eoiSP8EuCt6dHKSzM5aB9-1c9nA_tGoMc/s1600/IMG_20140727_142629933_HDR.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a>Dave and Jan. Dave and Jan were very welcoming and invited me to join them on a hike where they had a car (one of the support vehicles). They’re from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada (where Max and Megan are also from). Dave is a psychologist and Jan is a physical therapist, so it was really interesting to talk to them. Dave has interesting observations on how treatment (drug treatment, for example) needs to be present in people’s normal lives (and not just in rehab centers). Jan was giving me advice about my hurt thumb and back. Riding the car ended up taking a lot longer than expected, so by the time we returned and I packed up, it was quite late in the day. I said ‘bye’ to everyone, cycled to the ranger station, consulted with them on timing/distances/etc. and realized I wouldn’t make it to the next campsite until quite late, so I turned around and stayed another night at Elk Prairie. Again, it was so beautiful, that it was a nice thing to stay an additional night.</div>
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Cayla and Otis. Cayla and Otis were also part of the dinner and jam session group - lots of laughs over dinner and talking later. I had heard about Cayla earlier in the trip from other bicyclists as she was traveling with her 55 lb dog, Otis. Otis gets to ride in the trailer while she pedals - that’s pretty serious cycling. I believe Cayla was hauling the heaviest load of anyone I had met (Otis alone was about the weight of most people's total gear weight - so Cayla was hauling at least double). Here's a link to Cayla's blog: http://caylastravels.blogspot.com.</div>
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Anne. In contrast, Anne was the first cyclist I met with a regular set up who had less gear than me. Granted, I met Candace earlier in the trip and she had a lighter set up - but that was due to her riding off-road on this trip (Continental Divide... serious, serious bike touring) and her normal touring set up was heavier. There was also Ryan who was at Burnside in Portland, but he was so crazy (virtually no gear and seemingly no concern for safety or comfort) that I think most folks would be hard pressed to use his extremism as a model (it's ultra-cool, but I don't think most folks can replicate - I can't anyways). </div>
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So, Anne qualifies as the first person I met on the trip with less gear than me as a normal set up - she fit her things neatly in her two rear panniers + tent on the rear rack. Most folks doing the route also had front panniers and therefore had quite a bit more gear. I had been quite interested in the gear thing since some of my friends at home felt strongly that I brought too little gear (good news that it has seemed fine to me on the trip). Anne did make one pretty heavy concession on gear in that she did not bring a stove and would eat cold fruit/veggies for dinner. Fortunately, I had packed some extra food so was able to cook dinner for both of us after our hike (the hike was really nice, Anne seemed to have a similar approach to hiking as me - enjoying the place and not rushing). Anne's blog: http://annefoster.wordpress.com.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-65296354571278086152014-08-17T15:04:00.003-07:002014-08-17T15:56:19.292-07:00Crescent City to Klamath. People: Timo and Rosa.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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While in Crescent City, I cycled up to Jedediah Smith State Park to check out the forest there. It was used in the filming of ‘E.T.’ and also the ewok chase in ‘Return of the Jedi.’ I almost never watch movies any more (my long-time average was two a year, but in the past few years I’m down to one every 2-3 years), but I loved both of those movies as a kid so wanted to go to the forest. </div>
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It was bit of a harder ride there than expected (steep uphill) which resulted in me not being in much of a picture-taking mood (ate the lunch I packed - that was more of a priority). This tree was interesting though - guessing it's been roughed up by elk getting fur off their antlers. I hope it will survive as it looked like the bark had been stripped almost all the way around:</div>
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On the way back, I stopped by an Indian gaming casino (their labeling, not mine) just because I have never been in one - I just poked my head in as they didn’t want me to leave my bicycle up near the building or take my bicycle bags in. After spending so much time in the outdoors, the dark room filled with stale, smoky air seemed incredibly depressing. I can’t really believe people spend hours of their time and their hard-earned money there as a form of entertainment. Particularly because the region is full of natural beauty such as old growth redwood forests and beautiful beaches). To each his/her own, I suppose. I don’t have any photos as they wouldn’t let me take photos either (they’re real easy-going there, obviously).</div>
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I was initially planning to stay a second night in Crescent City since I thought I’d be too tired to bicycle further after going to Jedediah Smith State Park, but I started to feel a bit homesick and wanted to continue to move forward in my trip even though my back wasn’t feeling great. I realized that I could use the bus to help me get part of the way given that it was late afternoon already, so I use a bus-assist to get partially up to the hills.</div>
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I made a bit of a mistake on food planning. Since I made a last-minute decision to leave Crescent City, I didn’t have a chance to get my groceries as planned. It seemed OK as my map highlighted that all services, including restaurants and grocery, were available in Klamath. When I checked at the one restaurant I could find, the hostess responded with an emphatic *no* when I asked about vegetarian options on their menu. </div>
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The 'grocery store' was a shelf with some produce at the gas station. Dinner ended up being a burrito from the gas station plus hostess cupcakes - not the healthiest meal of the trip. I was questioning the wisdom of my last-minute change of plan given that there was a big natural food store in Crescent City.</div>
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My back wasn’t feeling great, so I checked in to a motel. It was a nice motel, but I didn’t sleep that well after my junk food dinner. It’s funny, as I had stocked up on healthy food (ex. organic food, whole wheat pasta, etc.) each time I reached a larger city earlier in my trip but had found that healthy food seemed readily available in many places so I stopped the practice. Well, it turns out it is not consistently available on the route - so making notes for myself to remember in the future.</div>
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People:</div>
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Timo and Rosa. Timo and Rosa are from Germany, work on medical devices (research and clinical work), and set the gold standard for trip planning. </div>
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They started planning their trip a year ago and had everything calculated and listed out (daily mileage, cumulative mileage, hotels, hotel prices, etc.) on a spreadsheet page which they had in printout and on their tablet (the tablet version was the latest, but I was getting glare off the screen). </div>
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Timo and Rosa are strong bicyclists so they were comfortable carrying loads of stuff. They had 5 bags each - one which was like a suitcase. Inside, they had neat things like a full-size DSLR camera and big telephoto lens that had to be packed separately from the camera body. They also had all the tools to take the bikes completely apart and put them together again. </div>
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In fact, Timo had done just that. He took his bike completely apart and put it together again so he knew exactly what tools he would need for pretty much anything. I admired how thorough he was in his preparation. I shared my slightly differing philosophy: I carried a slim set of tools that would get me through most things but with some trouble and I instead focused on keeping the weight of my bags low so that it would be very unlikely for anything on my bike to break. I know enough to keep myself rolling and helped someone out with repairs earlier in the trip - but if we were selecting teams for bike repair, Timo would be the varsity team captain and I'd be lucky to make the cut on junior varsity.</div>
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I was super impressed with the amount of planning they put in to their trip and they were really nice. It was fun talking to them and contrasting our approaches to bike touring. It’s neat when you meet folks that have a very different approach and really enjoy their company - it is often much more interesting that folks who do things exactly the same way.</div>
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We were laughing at how I had essentially planned my trip in three weeks and didn’t know when I’d get home or which place I planned to stay in two nights. For the motel, they had booked it nine months ago - while I called 5 minutes before I showed up there to see if they had a room (I was pretty lucky that they did). I related to them how I really enjoyed the first week of my trip which I had actually planned out fully (but even then I accidentally got one day ahead of my plan and showed up at the monastery a day early). I would like to plan out my trips more - but I also realize that it’s pretty unlikely that I will as I get somewhat impatient to just get on the road. However, it was great to see how a fully planned trip would look like - pretty impressive.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-24806315704821547012014-08-16T12:54:00.000-07:002014-08-16T20:13:32.414-07:00Brookings to Crescent City. People: Katie. Steve.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Leaving Oregon, Entering California.</div>
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State borders are artificial boundaries, but it still felt significant to be leaving Oregon. I spent so many nights in Oregon and had so many great experiences that I felt sad to be leaving.</div>
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Heading out of Brookings was quite neat - at the edge of the city, there is a wall where folks write in chalk. People have left chalk on the sidewalk for others to add to the wall. I think it’s a great practice and I would have liked to have bought some chalk to leave there. I did add a little bicycle message though. :) </div>
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There are some places in WA and OR with the same names as spots in CA (I'm used to the multiple name thing, having grown up in New England - when I lived in the UK, I saw town names from my childhood all over the place). I thought San Francisco folks would enjoy this sign for OB and Crissy Field which would work fine in the Richmond District (but this is from right at the Oregon border):</div>
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In addition to this, other funny names: I surfed at Waikiki Beach in Washington as well as went by Manhattan Beach and Newport Beach in Oregon. It’s kind of great that all of these places are surf breaks (well, with the exception of Crissy field which is a windsurfing spot). </div>
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As I reached the end of Oregon, I felt sad. I had spent a long time in Oregon on this trip and felt so welcome by folks here and had such a wonderful experience that it was sad to leave. I lingered for quite a while to hike a bit at the trails by the border. I stopped in to the Oregon Visitor’s Center. Suzy, who was working there, was extremely friendly and was very interested to hear about the bicycle trip. I also dropped off the Oregon bicycle maps I had printed out. As I was leaving, Suzy gave me a hug - it was nice for that to be my last interaction with someone in Oregon on this trip.</div>
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Reaching the California border was quite exciting though - I felt a certain sense of accomplishment to have reached CA. It was a neat feeling to ride in to CA. Even though the border is still very far from home, just being in the same state made me feel that I had made significant progress towards getting home. It was also nice that there was a road parallel to the freeway so I didn’t have to ride along 101 for a bit.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Just over the border, there was a herd of elk in a yard between several houses. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">I was reading how striking it is to see them in person given their size.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> This was my first chance to see them up close (when I saw them earlier in the trip I was quite far away) and I agree with that assessment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">It was a relatively flat ride to Crescent City so I made decent time there, which was fortunate as I had sent a note to stay at this neat church (St. Paul's) which hosts bicyclists (more info below). </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">There is a network of folks who let bicycle tourists stay over and St. Paul's has joined the network</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> and lets people stay in the community room</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">. So, I spent a night in the community room of St. Paul's in Crescent City.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Katie </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">(sadly, my picture of Katie seems to have been lost off my phone).</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Katie is the energetic and generous host who makes all the arrangements with cyclists at St. Paul's. My understanding is that she accidentally hosted one bicycle tourist about a year and a half ago and it was such a positive experience that she signed up St. Paul's to be part of the hosting network. In that time, she's hosted more than 100 cyclists! That to me is a wonderful example of generosity. She opened up the community room for me to stay, gave me an overview of the facilities (really great for a cyclist - showers, bathroom, fridge, stove) and even explained to me the sights around Crescent City. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Katie also is part of a neat spinning (of yarn, not stationary bicycles) group on Fridays - so neat!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Steve. Steve makes art out of discarded items and installs it in his yard (that's also his hotrod in the second photo - he also soups up and races hotrods).</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">I spoke with Steve for a good part of an afternoon and enjoyed checking out his art and hearing about his viewpoints. I was on my way to the grocery but wanted to learn more about the art installations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">He had many stories and opinions - I particularly liked his comments on how human beings are the only animals that put themselves in a frenzy doing “meaningless toil.”</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">I think that is a nice way to phrase what I feel is what much energy is exerted upon.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">I am going to try to remember that phrase and use it to assess what I’m doing with my time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Steve mentioned some hard issues - being a Vietnam War veteran and that he had post traumatic stress disorder and that he felt he had no brains left due to Agent Orange or something else incurred by the war.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> But h</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">e was also a bit of a prankster and told me about a funny story of filling his outdoor fountain with bubble bath and how confused folks would be to have massive amounts of bubbles covering their vehicles or trees in the neighborhood.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
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As a side note on 'meaningless toil' - prior to my trip I had been looking in to this already (how I spend my time). I read a great suggestion to make a pie chart of how you spend your time, by activity. When I did that, I was surprised at the results. Some things I self-identify with were not necessarily the biggest part of my day. Other things that I don’t think much of consumed a much larger amount than I had realized. I’ve since made several changes to my daily schedule to try to address the imbalances I was unhappy about. It’s an interesting exercise that I’d highly recommend. I keep thinking of doing a non-travel blog to share things like the pie chart - if I get motivated, I may do a posting at some point on the pie charts.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-56436379754097767902014-08-12T16:22:00.004-07:002014-08-16T20:08:04.695-07:00Myers Creek to Harris Beach. People: Ted and Lina. Isbee. Hannah and Rachel. Alice and Marc-Antoine.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is a beautiful stretch of the coast (and I handily had the hiking guide that Sue had so kindly given me).<br />
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There are some absolutely gorgeous rock formations along the coast (ex. Natural Bridge in the photo below). I stopped a few times to hike around - it was a bit funny to be hurting a bit from cycling and then going hiking up and down steep inclines as a ‘rest’, but the scenery was incredible.</div>
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My back was not hurting as much, but I realized I think I had been cycling funny due to the back injury and now other pains + old injuries were presenting themselves. So after a bit I started to struggle with pain while cycling. I think I hadn’t been paying much attention to my body while cycling in the rain the day before as I was focused on not getting run over. It reminds that I only saw one cyclist the entire day before in the rain. He was cycling north and as he waved the only thing he said was,” Stay alive!” </div>
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In any case, I was probably 5-6 miles from the campground when I was feeling pretty done. I was at a turnoff and I saw a pickup truck getting on the road. I asked if they were heading south and if they’d be willing to give me a ride. They (Ted and Lina - below) were very cool and gave me a ride to Harris Beach campground where I was planning to stay that night. <br />
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Ted inspects mines and ensures they adhere to regulations. I thought that was pretty cool. Ted and Lina just got engaged on the trip and it was wonderful to see two folks so happy (they were both all smiles when they shared the news). </div>
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Harris Beach was another spot I had been planning to surf. There was (again, given injuries, probably fortunately) no swell, just a weak shore break. There is a rock offshore where puffins nest (this was the main reason for buying the monocular), but no puffins were visible that afternoon. It was overcast and cold so I went to set up camp. </div>
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As camp, it was good to see Isbee (he had also camped at Cape Blanco). We swapped some more stories and I heard about how he teaches construction (he worked construction for many years) and lives partially in Alaska and partially in Oregon. This trip was him heading to Ashland for the summer. There was a nice crew of folks in camp - so I enjoyed talking to everyone. It was cold and damp though, so everyone turned in early.</div>
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Overnight, we had a drenching rain. In the morning, there were big puddles of water in the campground. Fortunately, I had set up my bivvy sac on a slightly higher patch, so I was not lying in water. However, one bummer to a bivvy sac is when you get out of it in the morning, if it’s raining hard enough then your sleeping bad gets wet just from you climbing out. The bivvy sac also tends to have condensation inside when you have to close the flap a bit more at night, as I had to do due to the rain, so I realized my sleeping gear was all wet. </div>
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The morning had some bad news as well - overnight, someone had stolen Isbee’s wallet. It was in the handlebar bag of his bike and someone used the cover of the rain/dark to go through the campsite. That was a real downer. We were discussing it and realized that it was likely due to the fact that the campground is so close (~1.5 miles) from a city (Brookings). After a search of the campsite, Isbee found his wallet - the cash had been removed but the thief had just tossed the wallet in the bushes nearby. This was fortunate for him to recover the wallet as it had his ID, so I was feeling better that he would at least have his ID which would allow him to get everything else set up (I checked and he also did have enough cash on him that he had put in another spot).<br />
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I went to try to see the puffins again at Goat Rock in the morning - apparently they had been feeding in the mornings recently. After standing in the cold rain for 1 hour+, I decided that puffins can’t be interesting enough for this. I was still hurting physically and given that all my stuff was wet, I decided to head in to Brookings. I loaded my bivvy sac on top of my bike and walked the 1.5 miles in to town and found a place to stay and dry out my gear.<br />
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Environmental Campmates:</div>
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Hannah and Rachel (pictured in jackets). Hannah and Rachel are sisters and were on their first bicycle trip. They were doing a very challenging trip - 80 miles on their first day (of their first ever bike tour) and no rain gear. Rachel is an environmental engineer PhD student - so it was neat to talk about environmental engineering (I miss environmental engineering and have ideas on using supercomputing to help work on some of the environmental engineering models). Hannah recently graduated with a degree in geology - which is also an awesome field and it was fun to hear about some of her plans.</div>
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Alice and Marc-Antoine (pictured at the camp). Alice and Marc-Antoine are also environmental engineers. So, that night we had four environmental engineers out of six people at the campsite! Cheers for environmental bicyclists! They are from Quebec and we laughed at our shared passion for visiting wastewater treatment plants. I was debating on staying in camp or going in to town and Alice gave me good advice that it might be nice to head in to town.<br />
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-31057910760612277632014-08-09T17:19:00.000-07:002014-08-16T13:01:39.710-07:00Port Orford to Gold Beach. People: Sue.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I had a nice stopover at the B&B - let my back get some rest, washed some clothes in the sink, and let my camping gear dry out a bit. It was in a quiet area with a nearby beach full of neat pebbles/rocks. There was also a wicked shorebreak at the beach as well. I might be lucky that my back was hurting, otherwise I probably would've have had a go at the shorebreak and then ended up injured in some other way. Bodysurfing shorebreak is one of those things that I know isn't good for you but is somewhat hard to resist (a barrel is a barrel, even if it is a closeout barrel).<br />
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After staying at the B&B, I set off on my bike on a cold, overcast morning. I was headed for my friend's mom's place (see Sue's profile below), as she had kindly offered to let me stay there. I passed by some of the surf spots I had really wanted to surf (and I'm pretty sure they had good conditions the day before based on the swell size). It was glassy but really small so I decided not to go in. Again, probably a blessing in disguise as my back wasn't feeling 100%).<br />
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The rain then started to come down mid-morning. It was a steady, cold rain. The ride was made much more challenging by the fact that this stretch of 101 was fairly wide open and the cars and trucks were taking advantage of that to speed down the road. The vehicle and water combination made for a sound explosion plus a big gust of wind each time a truck would pass. It was so loud and powerful that I a few times I let out a whoop at the comedy/craziness/exhiliration of having me and my bike suddenly shoved to the side by the blast of wind and water spray. The hairiest moments were when oncoming cars would pass. I would then see two sets of headlights baring down on me at 60+ miles per hour. There was a thin sheet of water on the road, so I am so lucky that none of the passing cars ended up hydroplaning. It made for an exhausting and nerve-wracking ride. <br />
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At about 3pm I checked my phone and Sue had sent a message letting me know that she could get off work early and asking if I wanted to get a ride. Boy was I happy to see that message. I was fortunately in an area with mobile phone service and called Sue and she offered to drive out to pick me up - I was about 10 miles from her house. Aside from getting me out of the rain, it was incredibly fortunate that Sue offered to pick me up as she lives in a small community and her address is listed for the larger town further south. I hadn't checked things carefully so I would have rode quite far past her house and then been stuck with backtracking if I had ridden there myself.<br />
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People:<br />
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Sue (pictured with the amazing casserole) and Sunny (on the lower right hand side of the photo, you can just see Sunny's head and front shoulder).<br />
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Sue is super awesome. She's Cyndi's mom (Cyndi is a friend from Santa Cruz who is an environmental scientist, surfer, world adventurer, etc.) and let Cyndi know I could stay at her place after hearing about the trip. Sue runs the Gold's Beach visitor's centers - I can't think of a better person to do that as she is so warm, fun, and knowledgeable. She's made the Gold's Beach visitor's center completely people- and bicycle-friendly. I stayed with Sue and her dog, Sunny, who is a really sweet lab (we went for two nice walks on the beach). Sue made a fantastic vegetarian casserole and had lots of other food (blueberries, cranberry bread, etc.) - so the warm food and wonderful company made me forget the hard day of cycling. <br />
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The next morning, Sue took me to the outdoor store where I was finally able to purchase a monocular (pictured below - yay!), to the visitor center, gave me hiking/surf maps and a bumper sticker and a really nice agate rock, and then drove me over the big hill that was south of town. Pretty amazing, huh? It was such a nice visit with Sue and Sunny that I was sad to leave, but I was feeling grateful to be well-fed and well-rested.<br />
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-20979956528698767762014-08-05T21:22:00.001-07:002014-08-12T16:14:36.567-07:00Bandon to Cape Blanco. People: Isbee, Marie, Mathieu, Magalie, Kirby, and Sammie.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Magic + Reality.</div>
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In this section the trip became magical and it seemed like everything just came together beautifully. Immediately after that, the trip also provided a nice dose of reality.</div>
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After spending so much time looking for a monocular and checking out the rocks at Bandon, it was quite late by the time I started cycling out of Bandon (I think it was about 5pm). I had already told some other cyclists I met at the market (spent an incredible amount of time in the market, was hungry and trying to decide what to cook that night as well) that I'd see them at Cape Blanco that night, so I felt obligated to get there. Otherwise I would have stopped at one of the earlier camps or just pulled in to the forest to camp somewhere.</div>
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I was hustling a bit to get there and reached the turnoff around 7:15pm only to realize that the campground was still several more miles (~5 miles) off the road. Cape Blanco is the westernmost point of Oregon and the wind blows consistently and powerfully. So the ride for the last few miles was against a strong headwind. Near the end of the road thete is a steep climb to get up on the cape. As I hit the steepest bit of road, a big gust stopped me in my tracks. I had to walk my bike for a few feet before riding again against the wind. </div>
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Getting to the campground made it evident that it was a good choice to have done the ride there. The hiker biker site is in a secluded and pretty spot in the woods. Though I was cold the entire evening due to a drop in temperature and the constant wind, it was a really great crew of folks at the site (profiles below) and I had a great evening. Everyone was very mellow and I really enjoyed everyone's company there. I made red beans and rice with veggies and it came out even better than when I make it at home. With good food and good company, it made for a nice night.</div>
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The next morning was just beautiful (still cold, but beautiful). The sun was out, and Isbee (one of the other bicyclists) mentioned a little grassy knoll in the sun overlooking the ocean. I walked over there and was blown away by the beauty of the place. The cape juts dramatically into the Pacific Ocean and you can feel it. The view from the knoll was amazing and I watched as a mother whale and calf swam by just outside the breaking waves. It was the ideal spot for Tai Chi Chuan and meditation. I was enjoying the meditation so much I meditated for an hour and a half (that's longer than I normally do in the AM before cycling). Gradually the other bicyclists made their way to the knoll and everyone enjoyed it in their own quiet way. The morning was the 'magic' of the trip I was referring to. The beauty and peace of the morning evoked warm feelings of joy and calm.</div>
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I didn't want to leave and considered staying another night but realized I had only brought one days' worth of staple food (grains) as I was experimenting with bringing less after carrying about for days' worth pretty consistently in the earlier part of the trip. I mentioned this and Marie offered to give me some quinoa - I really tempted but then also realized that it would mean a long ride the following day and I didn't want to arrive too late the following day as I would be staying at my friend's mom's house. </div>
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So, I bid adieu to our wonderful Cape Blanco bicycle crew and started cycling. Shortly after I got down from the cape, my lower back started to hurt. It then proceeded to hurt progressively more until pedaling was causing sharp pain. I ended up pulling over on the site of the road and lying on my back. It wasn't subsiding, so I stayed there about 30 min. and took a nap. I was stretching out and a guy on a scooter stopped to see if I needed help. It turns out he was a massage therapist (and former streetfighter, he mentioned later) and tried to help identify where the worst knots in my back were. He headed out, I stretched for a while more and decided to head in to town and find a hotel. I cycled ever so slowly and eventually reached Port Orford (very close by, I was just moving slowly). The motels were all booked, but fortunately there was a room at the bed and breakfast in town, which turned out to be a great place to rest. </div>
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The injury is a good reminder that I am getting older and need to take better care of myself. I feel that Life gets stricter with me as I get older - I can't get away with pushing my body in the same way. In the previous days, if I didn't get to surf, I'd try to keep my upper body in shape by doing pullups, dips, and other exercises in outdoor playgrounds when I saw them - even if I was cold and my muscles weren't warmed up. I'm pretty sure that wasn't smart. When I surfed, it was a bit crazy as I had a 2mm wetsuit (most people use a 5mm in Oregon/WA with a hood, booties, and sometimes gloves... I was of course sans hood or gloves and using some fin socks) - I would surf until I was too cold to deal with it. It would then be an awkward change out of my wetsuit - sometimes followed by me immediately jumping on my bicycle. I think this was a bit hard on my body. Overall, I need to adapt my self-image from the idea of myself as an athletic and fit person who is up for anything to an older person who is fortunate enough to still be able to be very active. Ah, 'reality....'</div>
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People:</div>
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Interestingly, we didn't talk that much at the camp, so I don't know as many details about everyone as I usually do. However, I felt a strong affinity for the group. As Marie put it, the group had 'a good energy.'</div>
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Isbee (group photo, far left) - Isbee has loads of touring experience and has done this particular route before, so he had already planned to stay an extra night there as he knew it was a choice spot. He is in his 60s and cycles hard (cool, huh?), but he also had an appreciation for the slow pace I was taking and planned to show his place down as he was near the end of his trip. </div>
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Marie (group photo, middle) - Marie is from Quebec and was very generous to offer me quinoa to allow me to stay an extra night. She was also the one that shared the insight that the campsites that are listed on the route in the 'Bicycling the Pacific Coast' book tend to be more crowded with cyclists. I didn't bring the book so I hadn't made that connection and had been wondering why some were so much more crowded than others. Additionally, the campgrounds in the book tended to attract a higher percentage of folks who seemed to like to focus conversation around how many miles they did that day, how many cumulative miles so far on their trip, and how many miles they will be doing the next day. I liked that no one in this group seemed to have that fixation.</div>
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Mathieu and Magalie (group photo with helmets) - Matt and Mag are also from Quebec (there seem to be lots of real-deal cyclists in Quebec). They both practice yoga and were practicing in the morning while I practiced tai Chi. I thought they were very cool and invited them to stay at my house if they needed a place to stay when they got further south, but after talking it was quite clear that they would likely get there far ahead of me given their schedule (they had a flight back home scheduled).</div>
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Kirby and Sammie (with books). I feel that Kirby and Sammie (both CalTech students) brought the coolest indulgence items of anyone: serious, heavy textbooks (and other books). It's more impressive to me than the extras that most people brought (cameras, tablets) and even neater than the other cool things other people brought ( hula hoop, surfboard, etc.). I mean, they brought a book on stochastic processes to read at camp after a long day cycling. That's super hardcore, I think. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-91469123683930209092014-07-31T23:02:00.001-07:002014-08-02T22:34:36.062-07:00Sunset Bay to Bandon, including Bullards Beach<p dir="ltr">Another mellow part of the trip, but with a monocular search and a stay at the hiker biker camp with the nicest amenities (of all camps, I suspect).<br>
</p><p dir="ltr">It was a beautiful ride in this section on some hilly (small hills) roads with cool names (7 Devils Road, Whiskey Run). A UPS driver saw me looking at my maps and stopped his truck in the middle of an intersection to give me directions and suggest a side visit to a beach along the way. </p><p dir="ltr">The beach turned out to have a surf break and was full of kiteboarders. The surf was extremely consistent (no lulls at all that I can see...nice beach break) and around head high. It would have been great except for the howling onshore wind - hence the kiteboarders. I debated going in for a while, but the wind was making it not quite work for surfing, so I sat down and had some lunch with the kiteboarders. There was a crew of nice folks visiting from CA who drove up in about four vans. Interesting that it didn't cause a problem within the kiteboarding spots (four vanloads of CA surfers in an OR surf spot would likely have some issues :). ).</p><p dir="ltr">That evening I stayed at Bullards Beach - an Oregon state park with a campground. They have made the hiker biker site with by far the nicest amenities I have seen. It has a solar station with lockers and inside the lockers there are USB receptacles to charge electronics (see photos) plus a bike stand for repairs - full on luxury! There are also many individual bike racks to make it easy to lock your bike. It was a pleasure to stay there.</p><p dir="ltr">Interestingly, there was only one other bicyclist there who kept to himself for the most part (we chatted briefly and it seemed this was his living situation potentially and he was moving to another spot the next day due to hitting the limit of his stay there). It isn't one of the campgrounds that many bicyclists go to apparently, but it is super posh.</p><p dir="ltr">The next day I scoured the stores in Bandon to try to buy a monocular (single eyepiece instead of binoculars - to save weight). I heard that puffins nest on the rocks just offshore at Bandon. Unfortunately, none of the stores sold monoculars or binoculars. This included the guns and ammo store - where it was interesting to see all the gear being sold for bug out kits.</p><p dir="ltr">So, no luck with the monocular, but the rocks at Bandon are spectacular, so I spent lots of time walking along the cliffs and the beach enjoying them. The wind was blowing hard and I was glad to have my rain gear to help block the wind while walking around with sand whipping down the beach. Then continued on - which I'll take up in the next post.</p>
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text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAxkRYCw7yMPGA_oEWRsS8rlIPpJgdmOoMppiiXSwV0Nt21NjX0fF-1LZceA1uEp-o95aSnrWTm6_ctAuZ99nGJiF-UDJfkolf7_5tN-ktbhJTwdku0dOxZSTiqWsQbboD_-xbUuwcUE/s1600/IMG_20140718_161115010_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAxkRYCw7yMPGA_oEWRsS8rlIPpJgdmOoMppiiXSwV0Nt21NjX0fF-1LZceA1uEp-o95aSnrWTm6_ctAuZ99nGJiF-UDJfkolf7_5tN-ktbhJTwdku0dOxZSTiqWsQbboD_-xbUuwcUE/s640/IMG_20140718_161115010_HDR.jpg"> </a> </div>Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-4488366679739092402014-07-29T21:15:00.001-07:002014-07-31T09:55:36.268-07:00Umpqa Lighthouse to Sunset Bay<p dir="ltr">A quiet day on the trip.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">As usual, I started the day with Tai Chi Chuan and meditation, then set out on my bicycle.  It was cold and foggy cycling all day.  In the morning, I saw what looked like it might be surf quite far off the road, and given the cold morning fog (and my aversion to cycling with a heavy, wet wetsuit all day), decided to wait until later in the day to check out if there would be surf. There was not but I didn't mind so much as it was still cold even after cycling.  I then reached Sunset Bay, which is gorgeous - the street goes right by the water (making it less 'natural' looking), but is still stunning.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">I arrived at the hiker biker site and there was standing water in part of the site ( the site is right at the level of the water table with a swamp immediately adjacent).  There were already three tents there and the remaining spot wasn't looking particularly dry (and seemed to have low probability for sun the next morning as well), so I upgraded to a normal campsite which looked much drier.  </p>
<p dir="ltr">It was quite striking to see how much empty space there was in the normal campsite - it is a pretty big difference between a bicycle and a car. It made me think about how I definitely still have too many possessions in my life (given that I live <u>in</u> a house and have a car).  My friends often make jokes about how empty my house is as I don't like to have too many things, but this trip is giving me ideas on how to reduce things even further.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Given I was in a campsite myself, I had a pretty quiet night - it was nice to have a mellow, quiet evening.  By the time I finished cooking and eating, it was already time for bed (and the mist was getting heavy as well).  The next morning was dry, thankfully - and the campsite indeed did get the morning sun so I was glad to get to dry out my gear before heading out for the next day.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">The dunes of Oregon are pretty impressive. It's surprising how extensive the dunes are and it's pretty cool to see the and whipping across the dunes. </p><p dir="ltr">Those are elk in the animal photo. I couldn't get any closer - they were already on alert seeing me. I think people in bright clothing make them concerned, given hunters often wear orange. :)<br></p>
<p dir="ltr">Stayed at Honeyman Memorial State Park which is a nice park, but it felt crowded at the hiker biker camp - I think there were about 15 bicyclists camping there that night. It's neat that everyone is friendly at the camps and there are often folks doing funny things (like Shane who moved out of his trailer and is bicycling with his cat for a year and a half or something). But it also is a bit weird to talk to all these folks at the campsites for an evening/morning and then never see them again (particularly since they are almost all cycling more miles than I am each day, I generally don't see folks again). Though overall it's pretty great that all the bicyclists are friendly and social at the hiker biker sites.</p><p dir="ltr">People:</p><p dir="ltr">Mike (pictured with his bike and surfboard) - Mike is bicycling and surfing down the coast as well. He has done the full setup with a board and trailer that I was considering. It is pretty impressive that he is doing the ride with all that gear (and he's putting in pretty heavy mileage each day as well). He's a sponsored surfer from Huntington Beach and started at the top of WA, so he is really going for it.</p><p dir="ltr">After talking with Mike about our respective setups, I'm feeling glad I went with the surfmat. The bike is much more nimble without a trailer and so far I've been getting in the water much more often - I think I've been a bit luckier with timing but also the surfmat is pretty versatile in a variety of wave conditions. I'm sure it's going to work out well for Mike as well where he'll score a perfect session and be really glad to have his board. It was cool to meet another person on the same mission.</p>
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margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHwFxl7Ox-dGj4KpfMDDnNslGN1PpJkL0U047umQeAuYv9_NXMAT-pDUafLHq-xK0qZv-MNlJzLlfmUIf1hD70A9B7GrqJvaGjQzOmKUUI72xWTBtdSbeeDmrWxFK60ckEa4hGoxqdlHU/s640/IMG_20140715_082805163_HDR.jpg"> </a> </div>Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-28027088481135553352014-07-20T22:13:00.001-07:002014-08-09T16:06:28.351-07:00Oregon surf photos <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I had some fun sessions - it was mostly smaller surf but it was just nice to get in the water after bicycling. The surfmat has been super fun at every spot (plus the longboarding session but no water photos from that). </div>
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My water camera stopped working in my last two sessions. Maybe the water was too cold (the water temperature dropped a lot and made for some chilly sessions).</div>
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The wind and tide didn't work well for me as I cycled further down the coast... This is largely due to me not optimizing for surf. I try to surf at the end of a day rather than in the morning. In the AM I practice Tai Chi, Chuan, meditate, and pack up. So I miss the morning surf session when the wind is usually lower. However lugging around a wet wetsuit all day on a bicycle is pretty laborious - so end of the day is preferable though it means a greater chance of blown out conditions. :). </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-13098383017125345352014-07-20T21:00:00.001-07:002014-08-10T17:46:05.406-07:00Heceta Head to Florence. People: Emma. Paul. Luke.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dancing = Joy.</div>
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That's the conclusion I reached after this leg. In my hierarchy of activities, surfing has traditionally sat at the top of the ranking in terms of creating the most stoke. However, it was so much fun dancing in Florence that I was stoked for the entire next day about it and it made me question if surfing is rightfully at the top. Now, this is an unfair comparison as the dancing had a top notch band, fun crowd, and a great partner, where the surf has not been perfect. Maybe I should try to do this comparison after a big winter swell, but anyways it was an incredibly fun night dancing.</div>
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I decided a week before this leg that I should try to stay on a hotel at least once a week. For quite a few years, my father, sister and I (and more recently my nephew) have held a weekly family video call to catch up - so a hotel would allow me to have an internet connection to keep joining the call. It also is helpful to dry out gear (I'm a bit fanatical about trying to keep my gear dry and as clean as possible - it lasts longer that way and keeps you warmer... I like to extend the life of my gear as much as possible).</div>
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I had stayed at Washburne state park the night before in a beautiful setting but with an interesting dynamic. Randy, who highlighted that he had been homeless for 16 years, was camping there as well (with his tricked out tricycle and all sorts of things like two phones, IPad, canopy chair, guitar, etc) and kind of 'owned' camp - he did the intros to the hiker biker site, where things were, etc. He seemed like a good guy, extremely loquacious - though he was also surprisingly aware of others' reactions. At one point, while I was packing, he had brought out the weapons he used to protect himself and his things (large Bowie knife and a small aluminum bat). After about 20 min of talking, he suddenly said he was taking them back to his tent because he noticed that I was looking at them every 5-10 minutes. I was impressed with his awareness of that as I had not even noticed I was looking at the weapons periodically. </div>
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David was the only other person camping there that night - he was Polish/Georgian and had *walked* from Brooklyn and was planning to kind of do a loop around to many of the national parks in the West. [Forgot to take pictures of Randy and David and it seemed to fit better here versus separately in the people entries].</div>
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I left the camp and realized I didn't plan my food well (made a pasta dish the night before that I enjoyed but didn't pack breakfast or lunch). Earlier in the trip I was carrying enough food for a few days, but the route has lots of grocery stores so I cut it down - a bit too much in this case. There were no stores after the park, so i bought food from a tourist attraction on the ride the next day - breakfast was an ice cream cone, lunch a chocolate chip cookie... Not very healthy or even that enjoyable (to be having those things for meals). I was glad to get to Florence and decided to spend the night there - went right to the farm stand and bought some fruit. Leads me to the people section.</div>
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People:</div>
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Emma (pictured in the group photo and dancing photos) - Emma is real-deal tough and does really cool things. She picks blueberries (as a laborer at a commercial blueberry farm, not as a vacation volunteer or anything) plus works at a farm stand. She's about to work at an under-privileged school in Chicago with CityYear (a program I had found out about many years ago when it first started and I was sadly no longer qualified to participate). We went to a place in Old Town Florence because we heard the music - once inside it was surprising how good the band was (more on that below). Emma learned how to swing dance pretty much right away and then we had an amazing time dancing. People in the bar kept coming up and letting us know how much they enjoyed our dancing. It was such a good vibe in the place. It was neat hearing about Emma's plans as well - I predict lots of cool adventures for her given all of her interests, toughness, and outgoing personality.</div>
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Paul J. Biondi (pictured in the group photo, with goatee) - Paul is an accomplished professional musician who currently lives in Eugene but he lived in Florence for a bit and stood by Florence regularly to perform while visiting family. He played with the Blues Brothers (after James replaced John) and many other big musicians. He pulled together the band that was playing in Florence from his contacts - so that helped explain how a small bar in the small town of Florence would have such a super pro band. They could really swing! Their music just made one want to dance and I think everyone in the place was jazzed to hear such good music.</div>
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Luke (pictured in the group photo) - Luke is a jovial fellow from Eugene and it was his anniversary that night with his wife, Veronica (who was also really friendly and nice). He came over to tell Emma and me how just watching us dance from across the room made him happy. </div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-54574210613103410622014-07-16T11:15:00.001-07:002015-01-09T18:38:49.652-08:00Wakonda to Heceta Head. People: Kari. Yana. Jim + Bonnie. Jean. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I'm still taking my time as I go down the coast - keeping the mileage down to have time to check things out (and surf, of course). I had a fun surf session (see below - Kari) despite the colder weather and clouds that came in and an amazing coincidence occurred (below - Yana). </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCF2xYtwBhj8RBOZQtMZnM79U52SPIu_EjWWp5oyxVsbtis-1KR23IR8n1uQYbtyzPJOzQWbhoOcXf8UJYtqk0uWcnxgNvo5tluCYajiGMOVBzEhh-KLbxbdla4HH6wWaLlch4UMYPlCk/s1600/IMG_20140711_145532296_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCF2xYtwBhj8RBOZQtMZnM79U52SPIu_EjWWp5oyxVsbtis-1KR23IR8n1uQYbtyzPJOzQWbhoOcXf8UJYtqk0uWcnxgNvo5tluCYajiGMOVBzEhh-KLbxbdla4HH6wWaLlch4UMYPlCk/s640/IMG_20140711_145532296_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1Fh9OfLk0gz1upF2xBX3GvMifTD35zok_jcxz3MZYSJpjSqtLI6YUUe1K1RtKxhy4SSzhJAYjZ_XOgCfBPXGKAm6O3rbxFsImM1CIqjE6SvQqv5mXr1I3L8q2gd31rXBLzYS2D2zGyQ/s1600/IMG_20140711_151916632_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1Fh9OfLk0gz1upF2xBX3GvMifTD35zok_jcxz3MZYSJpjSqtLI6YUUe1K1RtKxhy4SSzhJAYjZ_XOgCfBPXGKAm6O3rbxFsImM1CIqjE6SvQqv5mXr1I3L8q2gd31rXBLzYS2D2zGyQ/s640/IMG_20140711_151916632_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW-69QwtdKK_4WAo8ld1X_q6Kv0qIEx-x0s4h_Yb0PPtAeuSPMopkAab8qvfk6yUy88r21gPDdvjZlggAR0AQjdwcmUSih74_J6SVMewOvELl_c71CP-KcU4gPpDpkWOAKcfOmxmJGki8/s1600/IMG_20140711_153615987_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW-69QwtdKK_4WAo8ld1X_q6Kv0qIEx-x0s4h_Yb0PPtAeuSPMopkAab8qvfk6yUy88r21gPDdvjZlggAR0AQjdwcmUSih74_J6SVMewOvELl_c71CP-KcU4gPpDpkWOAKcfOmxmJGki8/s640/IMG_20140711_153615987_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjAJ_hD5lzAaom3YKm0QyLrY3nNMgzK8uGpiZ1VNgTZSPrYlVKKbocJOTq7fIRR0KNS4igeQpFKWNCHl1RuS3EeAh0HdSEuORBQ1-mUCMlKf9u7HWcwEo6WXwzdSdxZVA5bUhoDxvrIA/s1600/IMG_20140712_090252760_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjAJ_hD5lzAaom3YKm0QyLrY3nNMgzK8uGpiZ1VNgTZSPrYlVKKbocJOTq7fIRR0KNS4igeQpFKWNCHl1RuS3EeAh0HdSEuORBQ1-mUCMlKf9u7HWcwEo6WXwzdSdxZVA5bUhoDxvrIA/s640/IMG_20140712_090252760_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVqdQB95ex-nj4l7xBnrI5ZA4FeJ4Mosjb2Rd1UxlHNbmZ8PUcNrbeQIcsa6tccskNr-tumZiMc1qIPhYL9BpfIpXun4_8E00aaipUEP-jnVhHMSqec6IGF4PvQx1ly_ITiANZU4OZxU/s1600/IMG_20140714_005605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVqdQB95ex-nj4l7xBnrI5ZA4FeJ4Mosjb2Rd1UxlHNbmZ8PUcNrbeQIcsa6tccskNr-tumZiMc1qIPhYL9BpfIpXun4_8E00aaipUEP-jnVhHMSqec6IGF4PvQx1ly_ITiANZU4OZxU/s640/IMG_20140714_005605.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyoJgxI-53Wef2kPMfVmFcfNpIWxuqpxetT7WrMZ7n0GdGfMBKxpykDmzx1KrfOCQKK4i-RdaHud9cWnRjanDfdvfFM3kzCnIvt6Rg0WhdOhLdLjHDTF-YWipXTOIvXzCCInAxO5EReFQ/s1600/IMG_20140712_113806877_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyoJgxI-53Wef2kPMfVmFcfNpIWxuqpxetT7WrMZ7n0GdGfMBKxpykDmzx1KrfOCQKK4i-RdaHud9cWnRjanDfdvfFM3kzCnIvt6Rg0WhdOhLdLjHDTF-YWipXTOIvXzCCInAxO5EReFQ/s640/IMG_20140712_113806877_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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I wanted to call out the log as it was an extremely comfortable meditation bench. It's pretty awesome to start the day with Tai Chi Chuan and meditation on the beach.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwI7d-R5lAiK4CAgjgtR9A376iDpaBCigL4AEb8pQ-v0HQIrXsV2GM-amPrdPE1JUH85upy9Lf7EEYCB1lodpL3L1LYC-zc4_iXoku3-zhuiedXkuybTqfgAYWlhoWBVxLWuuXq79aW4/s1600/IMG_20140712_114329397_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpwI7d-R5lAiK4CAgjgtR9A376iDpaBCigL4AEb8pQ-v0HQIrXsV2GM-amPrdPE1JUH85upy9Lf7EEYCB1lodpL3L1LYC-zc4_iXoku3-zhuiedXkuybTqfgAYWlhoWBVxLWuuXq79aW4/s640/IMG_20140712_114329397_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOayzoHostuA7MiWA5zt1KZjbiZG3Anm_zatIhICRYBtreHuV4ymhpX66uHTkQEw0RF1Bnd1o38FzFfXKI2G5VhxlGyNxZhBoxVZYW7jhBVKG6pbSSJreWap3OvGk3qnUK52RtsF-Njo/s1600/IMG_20140712_180443542_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAOayzoHostuA7MiWA5zt1KZjbiZG3Anm_zatIhICRYBtreHuV4ymhpX66uHTkQEw0RF1Bnd1o38FzFfXKI2G5VhxlGyNxZhBoxVZYW7jhBVKG6pbSSJreWap3OvGk3qnUK52RtsF-Njo/s640/IMG_20140712_180443542_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihk97pVUljgLG7rkzI4azBDETS2hnekTLINkMoTvcv27sT8UK7D86i83quYirnybwqj9s5cmnWZJ3KbazOCus9Oqx2utnYju_oStQ2dTlHaA4zT-oLAojG9a5xwrdgxDz8Lv428MSg6po/s1600/IMG_20140712_180452809_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihk97pVUljgLG7rkzI4azBDETS2hnekTLINkMoTvcv27sT8UK7D86i83quYirnybwqj9s5cmnWZJ3KbazOCus9Oqx2utnYju_oStQ2dTlHaA4zT-oLAojG9a5xwrdgxDz8Lv428MSg6po/s640/IMG_20140712_180452809_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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People:</div>
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Kari</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnTO8_ZDp5s8AFak7JvMb0X5BAWV94d2gP8VvKMtMTyFery9emVl1YPfDvGzXehCiC3aRm-rmj_bBgVXJo1MJWp-0MPyiRNSJmgat81mnS_G5M_4Z48V-pj5nqxQZouriLU7Ildusjmhg/s640/IMG_20140714_004515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnTO8_ZDp5s8AFak7JvMb0X5BAWV94d2gP8VvKMtMTyFery9emVl1YPfDvGzXehCiC3aRm-rmj_bBgVXJo1MJWp-0MPyiRNSJmgat81mnS_G5M_4Z48V-pj5nqxQZouriLU7Ildusjmhg/s640/IMG_20140714_004515.jpg" /></a></div>
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Kari is ultra-mellow and cool. She works in a local bakery and is one of the few surfers in the area (she mentioned that she is often the only person out where she surfs). Kari leaves her boards out by her car after a session to go skate and doesn't worry about it.... She has big 'ole holes in her wetsuit and doesn't worry about it.... She lends her surfboard to a random cyclist who happen to be passing through and doesn't worry about it. I borrowed the pelican board in the photo (she also had another longboard with her and she rode that). It was a toss up between using the longboard or my surfmat since I've been having so much fun with the surfmat, but the waves looked mushy so opted for the board. I didn't think it looked good enough to surf but Kari convinced me it'd be rideable and it indeed was. After the session, she went off on her skateboard to warm up a bit (leaving her boards by her car) and I headed south....</div>
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Yana</div>
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Yana was 'just walking' (along the freeway) when I asked. We started talking briefly and then I noticed that she was wearing the hat I lost earlier in my trip (about a week ago, at the north end of the state!). I mentioned it to her as I thought it was so neat (it was a sailing cap that I don't think they sell up in OR so that's why I noticed it). Yana tried to give it back to me but I showed her how I already bought a new hat and I couldn't wear two, so I insisted she keep it and was just glad it was being put to good use. We chatted a bit more and jusr before I left she reached in to her purse and gave me the neat heart pendant she made from wire. I thought it was super nice as I don't think Yana has much - she recently ditched her car and then ditched her bike and also lost all of her teeth. It reminded me of a conversation in Ashland about how folks with the least are often the most generous. It's making me think about how I can be more generous in my life.</div>
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Jim + Bonnie</div>
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I was speaking with them as I was writing in my journal at a campsite. I really liked how they figured out how to get community support for local environmental issues. There was a river damming project that was quite far along (enough that influential people thought it was a done deal). Jim organized a concert to rally the community around stopping the dam - which was so effective that they were able to kill the dam project. Jim and Bonnie organized these concerts around the country for similar issues. I think it's a great example of getting people together in a positive way to drive positive results.</div>
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Jean (not pictured) - was talking to me as I was packing up (she was using her metal detector). I enjoyed hearing about her retirement community and she was very energetic in manner and expression, which was fun. She did relay a very scary viewpoint on why her Christianity allows her to not be that concerned about the impact we are having on the environment though (because it will all be renewed at the second coming). This trip has highlighted again many of the concerns I have held for years about our environment (I studied environmental engineering in undergrad and grad school due to these concerns), but I had never heard this view before and it kind of floored me.</div>
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<p dir="ltr">People: Zac<br>
Zac has life wired. He is married with two kids, charges big waves, is an ER doctor, and also has a house + land directly adjacent to whitewater kayak runs and a mountain biking trail... and is a heckuva nice guy. Zac and I were talking after a surf session and he was super cool and offered to let me stay at his house. I got to meet some of his other friends who also are pretty crazy big wave surfers (two folks with torn meniscus injuries from surfing... one of the guys is in all the big contests) and we had a little 'ukulele + guitar jam session. Zac showed me a bunch of the local surf breaks the next day (which unfortunately weren't happening) and then dropped me off in Newport where he was buying a motocross bike. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I feel like many folks seem to be only able to be 'family' people, or alternatively, they have 'adventures' without any responsibility. Zac seems to have been able to balance both - it's pretty awesome.</p>
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People: James. Wally. Drea. Dennis. Biking family.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two surf sessions in small surf, but fun talking to folks in the water (Kelly, Tom, and a crew from BC driving a biofuel bus down the coast).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU7TSJK81xerpc8pclEFfIrXBqkEmPHMHTwh2fPbs8o8XhRGMvLOr7lRjqXeqnJ-lPYWEN3ETM9LwC6Lr5dFh8uNKSERFVfHdxRGpV4lgGafZ65yWQypI8vDNcmV9xtHvqWgpka6oRBDo/s1600/IMG_20140707_165518721_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU7TSJK81xerpc8pclEFfIrXBqkEmPHMHTwh2fPbs8o8XhRGMvLOr7lRjqXeqnJ-lPYWEN3ETM9LwC6Lr5dFh8uNKSERFVfHdxRGpV4lgGafZ65yWQypI8vDNcmV9xtHvqWgpka6oRBDo/s640/IMG_20140707_165518721_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzkfFm7euCZiyvIHiJ27tee-V68C9hch6V9BiJo1SDMJfMSvCj_PtBlFJmV8uA32vkhqx1sgwXkN-rJ_17jZAZVLlKuDHgwDV9VzUpRgfBcv9ZRwxWOC1ZdXLNo0yEnOmGIJRQmzvNn8/s1600/IMG_20140709_114624945.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzkfFm7euCZiyvIHiJ27tee-V68C9hch6V9BiJo1SDMJfMSvCj_PtBlFJmV8uA32vkhqx1sgwXkN-rJ_17jZAZVLlKuDHgwDV9VzUpRgfBcv9ZRwxWOC1ZdXLNo0yEnOmGIJRQmzvNn8/s640/IMG_20140709_114624945.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngX_xB_o3D-fxeC0HxaRmv55h3proaclTorCT3qSUtV-4Ioe3rEdsObY95qH1dcm9bRpfvC7R4dBr7Lu0qFvyR5JHMfTe_ZMVvykWRbYXRUe98H55Os3ZuzEB04HQz00KzuXjE1Ixayg/s1600/IMG_20140708_201122828_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngX_xB_o3D-fxeC0HxaRmv55h3proaclTorCT3qSUtV-4Ioe3rEdsObY95qH1dcm9bRpfvC7R4dBr7Lu0qFvyR5JHMfTe_ZMVvykWRbYXRUe98H55Os3ZuzEB04HQz00KzuXjE1Ixayg/s640/IMG_20140708_201122828_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6bOON616Kggv_AvgRetABJfxx0h7hzIsDsi3jF3ocCbsi5HPWkOvOeS4KXXh0ODq2ICf8D18WfsKgkUt-Umz4hA6GpaivPCl27xLA1BNp4qZsvZllVSnEu931nanQJoVt_uRBLWEJyrc/s1600/IMG_20140707_214511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6bOON616Kggv_AvgRetABJfxx0h7hzIsDsi3jF3ocCbsi5HPWkOvOeS4KXXh0ODq2ICf8D18WfsKgkUt-Umz4hA6GpaivPCl27xLA1BNp4qZsvZllVSnEu931nanQJoVt_uRBLWEJyrc/s640/IMG_20140707_214511.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoeBHtr0HQO-sIrA7gUcYUIs8nAZsLsx9X2xuoi7k0D95_3IBhzMS-AhSC0KiF7bvJGL_38RvqLWtpZFvF0EbIV6IP0YcGZYOzPxIS5k1lzBYyWM8RcUuBrwEwMhMG_2sw0nRbciOdEBo/s1600/IMG_20140708_171257868_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoeBHtr0HQO-sIrA7gUcYUIs8nAZsLsx9X2xuoi7k0D95_3IBhzMS-AhSC0KiF7bvJGL_38RvqLWtpZFvF0EbIV6IP0YcGZYOzPxIS5k1lzBYyWM8RcUuBrwEwMhMG_2sw0nRbciOdEBo/s640/IMG_20140708_171257868_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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Biking family - Veronique, Alain, Noah, and their friend Louis. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG8_YUTZtV3sUyEDnS58VdaZerHK-hsWB5NjoObG9o6pBUBEtPht-qNl-KHF_fO76ARaxmwon9VAZxxhyphenhyphen3YR0-aO0I0Fp0zeyzO4z3FQ4e3HS5ahnsJYIo3aWwIgE8CbC-8J20CCpmo0/s1600/IMG_20140708_105428898_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIG8_YUTZtV3sUyEDnS58VdaZerHK-hsWB5NjoObG9o6pBUBEtPht-qNl-KHF_fO76ARaxmwon9VAZxxhyphenhyphen3YR0-aO0I0Fp0zeyzO4z3FQ4e3HS5ahnsJYIo3aWwIgE8CbC-8J20CCpmo0/s640/IMG_20140708_105428898_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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Veronique and Alain are serious biking parents, super cool. They brought Noah on his first bike tour at 11 months (in a bike seat). At 5, he was on a ride-behind trailer on tour. At 6, they added wooden blocks to the pedals of a tandem bike (do he could reach) and toured that way. Noah is now 15 and they're cycling down the coast, logging pretty heavy miles every day.</div>
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It was fun talking to them. I ended up giving my chamois butter to Alain as I have found I'm not riding hard enough to need it, but they certainly are. Cool family, yea?</div>
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Wally</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgbIugp-gvwGlw5WWOCVPU5ZCsD-qKHxjpNYb-k8eoUaUjOLmgj-EK6YhaLfPZOK3C2wuTwyOZ_FIm43vk-scfBKsvWioohL2FFd80v1ZXcBBbqFxEyGnA8ceYemMje90Qe4Twrd4Tp8/s1600/IMG_20140706_151742154_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgbIugp-gvwGlw5WWOCVPU5ZCsD-qKHxjpNYb-k8eoUaUjOLmgj-EK6YhaLfPZOK3C2wuTwyOZ_FIm43vk-scfBKsvWioohL2FFd80v1ZXcBBbqFxEyGnA8ceYemMje90Qe4Twrd4Tp8/s640/IMG_20140706_151742154_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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Wally and I were chatting as I was getting some parts at the bike shop in Seaside. He's 77 and still cycles. He is a physician in Portland and still practices. He was explaining how when he was younger they didn't even have locks on their doors in Portland - ao pretty big change from now. He also has an awesome schedule... from age 65 he started taking 18 weeks of vacation a year and offers that to people who work in his (large) family practice.</div>
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Dennis, Drea (pictured in shark jaws) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNGqAV3B8o5-glAywa5KX8W5A_XdK_hgAaVDcfsvx1BTWNOVVUQWbRAPXLFRxyYP-lREBb1cgLL0E5cb8k1T6EcSsgcay7dCSkUZ5mpgdcLzDDtjvNyOUkPJXxfJHTkedUFGHpWzJxMM/s1600/IMG_20140706_163633229_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNGqAV3B8o5-glAywa5KX8W5A_XdK_hgAaVDcfsvx1BTWNOVVUQWbRAPXLFRxyYP-lREBb1cgLL0E5cb8k1T6EcSsgcay7dCSkUZ5mpgdcLzDDtjvNyOUkPJXxfJHTkedUFGHpWzJxMM/s640/IMG_20140706_163633229_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8Ls2Vm8uiYR6OIXg1oobqKA_71mH5urFFNiSvOr_cCD6xoHMsGY9kSqRiKkzfPLPEeMq5DQZcBgPQjkiBObDUripmI0jO5MfCp2G1bJG0UAs20vq96H9rTTNlapy_3-fCw9GQX1H42Q/s1600/IMG_20140706_163651657_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy8Ls2Vm8uiYR6OIXg1oobqKA_71mH5urFFNiSvOr_cCD6xoHMsGY9kSqRiKkzfPLPEeMq5DQZcBgPQjkiBObDUripmI0jO5MfCp2G1bJG0UAs20vq96H9rTTNlapy_3-fCw9GQX1H42Q/s640/IMG_20140706_163651657_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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Dennis is the owner of Seaside Surf Shop where I went to buy a hat to replace the one I lost somewhere between Clatskanie and Astoria. We ended up having a fun conversation about surfmats and stuff. Dennis was then helping me out with advice on where to surf (really cool) and shared some photos of great waves from the winter. Good surf shop, for sure.</div>
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I ended up buying a green hat with their logo that I really like - and only remembered later that in China (was working there for five years) a green hat means that your spouse/partner is cheating on you. But given that I'm back in the US, single, and the fact that this website is blocked in China (the government censors blocks most foreign social media - you never know if a bicycle-surf blog might foment unrest!) I guess it's OK that I'll be sporting my new green hat throughout this blog. :)</div>
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James</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8d7sYUou68QgiOXf2d8iA_qaPl4sEx1XCUMb3jq8uhJvWd7_WkA0OQ5AR5-qjoC6o7PslZiA18J1uELWkC3-KrSZ8ORtQ4YFU80yZzPNiEeUHW_A5ZWiGxQXPH3Ozj06HdZOw_io-UY/s1600/IMG_20140706_140728029_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8d7sYUou68QgiOXf2d8iA_qaPl4sEx1XCUMb3jq8uhJvWd7_WkA0OQ5AR5-qjoC6o7PslZiA18J1uELWkC3-KrSZ8ORtQ4YFU80yZzPNiEeUHW_A5ZWiGxQXPH3Ozj06HdZOw_io-UY/s640/IMG_20140706_140728029_HDR.jpg" /></a></div>
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James lives in Seaside and works at the fish cannery (which I think is in Astoria) and also sells firewood. He was helping me with figuring out the best route from Astoria/Warrenton heading southward. Later in the day I passed by him on the road halfway to Seaside. He had gone with a friend to a July 4th BBQ in Longview for a few hours and put all the cash he had in to chip in for gas. His friend didn't want to leave however so they ended up staying there two days. He finally got fed up and took a bus ride part way and was hitching the rest so he could get home (he didn't feel like waiting the few hours needed for the next bus). Thought that was pretty nuts for a BBQ outing to turn in to a two day stay.</div>
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Peter Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12141831969207134433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-623655126820505181.post-66698492149138439952014-07-10T10:38:00.001-07:002014-07-10T11:06:00.674-07:00Zen Monastery visit. People: Kisei. Louise.<p dir="ltr">I am very grateful to have been able to stay at the monastery. One of the teachers at Insight Santa Cruz suggested it and it was perfect to visit near the start of my trip.<br></p>
<p dir="ltr">For my visit, I accidentally showed up a day early (got ahead of my schedule without realizing) and arrived on a day off. After some confusion, I ended up getting to join in on a jam session and then an outing to check out the fireworks for the 4th - all unexpected but fun.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It was also great to then get to participate in the normal schedule of meditation and work practice (though I was a bit over-zealous when gardening and did not do my back any favors). We had a great talk from one of the visiting teachers and I was impressed with how self-aware and articulate people were in discussions. I was happy to get to sit with the group and overall really appreciated the visit.</p><p dir="ltr">People:</p><p dir="ltr">Kisei (pictured in front of the evening sky) - Kisei is training to be a monastic. She's 29 and has lived at the monastery for four-and-a-half years. Kisei recently made a commitment to be at the monastery for another five years. She seemed stoked and positive every time I saw her. Kisei is also a fantastic dancer (see jam session photos).</p><p dir="ltr">Louise (pictured in front of her camper van, holding the neat peace rock that she gave me) - Louise teaches qi gong exercises and healthy eating on cruise ships. She was visiting the monastery for a week and has traveled all over. She is coming on 15 years living out of a camper van(15!). Louise had planned to do so for about 2-3 years and enjoyed it so much that she has continued to do so. We had fun discussions about camper van living (her van is set up really well - way better than my VW camper) and adventures.</p>
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