Home Sweet Home

Well, it's been a month since I arrived home and it's high time I admit the adventure's over.  The worst part about a trip like this is the end - going back to the routine of life.  I have to admit, I expected something dramatic at the end - to get to the ocean and feel a sudden sense of accomplishment, to know that I was done.  That didn't really happen.  It took a couple of weeks of reflection before I was really happy with coming home.  I think that feeling means this won't be my last adventure (sorry, Mom).

Anyhow, here's some pictures from California!  I'll be putting up all of my pictures on Facebook sometime this week, so you can look for me there to see the rest.  There's also a couple of PDF files of articles about the trip which newspapers sent to my folks along the way which I don't know how to post here... if anyone has an idea, let me know.

After heading through a tunnel and along some precarious mountain passes, I found myself close to the coast, heading through some of the most beautiful terrain in the world.  Yes, I'd found myself in the Redwoods:

Stout Grove, to be specific.  It's one of the most beautiful old growth forests in the world, and certainly one of the most amazing places I've ever seen.  For the past couple of months, ending in the Redwoods had been my goal - and I was finally here.  Just like at the Badlands, I was walking around with a big dumb grin on my face, eyes on the treetops.  All the other tourists were hopping in and out of cars to snap a couple of photos, while I spent hours wandering in the woods.

Ewoks?

There's lots of cool stuff about these trees - the roots mingle and hold each other to act as a wider brace for storms.  The bark can be over a foot thick, and is very fire-resistant, but even if the tree's heartwood gets burnt out it can survive and continue to grow.  These massive, 300+ ft tall trees from from pine cones this big:

And so on.  I just couldn't get enough.

Be sure to click on this one.  Because the trees are so tall, I had to take 3 pictures to see the top, middle, and bottom of the same tree, and then stitch them together.  I have some more pictures like this that'll get put up soon.

So then, one day, I came down out of the hills where the redwoods are found, and cruised right on down to the beautiful, sunny, California coast.  There were beach babes everywhere!

Not.

About this time I found out that the Illini 4000 (remember them?  from back in Wyoming?) were about a day north of me, and heading south.  I turned north from Crescent City and headed up to meet them at the CA/OR border.

I can't tell you how great it was to have some two-wheeled companionship.  Between the Oregon border and San Francisco, I tagged along with them and had a fantastic time.  It took me a while to get re-socialized.... For a while there my mouth couldn't keep up with my brain and I'd talk slower than my brain was pushing words out, so I sounded like I couldn't speak!  Fortunately, they're sorta friendly folks.

After a few days, they paid me the biggest respect I could ask for - they gave me an I4K jersey!  That's the jersey I wore into San Francisco, on our last day of riding.

Just on the other side of that bridge, in the Presidio of SF, is where I got off the bike.  Fortunately, I had a childhood friend and former neighboor in town, Andrea.

the Seals

Lombard St

Alcatraz

Rogue River, OR

Last night, I camped in "Valley of the Rogue State Park" - the most appropriately named park I've ever visited.  As soon as I rolled in and started to do my usual scoping out of the place, I went over to read a sign about the California Trail.  While I was standing there reading, a guy comes up to me and in a soft voice goes, "Heyyy buddy.... would you like some cans?" and gently offers me some empty plastic water bottles.  It took me jsut a second to realize that he thought I was legitimately homeless, and was offering me bottles so I could get the refund!  I politely declined but had a good laugh and headed down to the campgrounds.  The spot I found was next to what can only be called a family of rednecks.  Despite the signs warning against using anything that oould possibly injure smoeone, the kids had realistic-looking pellet guns that they were running around shooting each other with.  This went on for quite a while before the dad finally got fed up, and called them over. 

"BILLY!   Stop shooting at your brother like that!"  Finally, I thought, it's going to quiet down around here.
"You're way out of range!  He won't even feel it!  Stop wasting ammo."

Then there was the couple shaving each others' backs, and the preteen couples wrestling in the grass... it was quite a wild place.

BUT I was glad to be there!  I'm finally out of, done with, through the desert!  I hadn't realized how much of Oregon is just sagebrush and patchy grass until I was extremely bored in it!   There wasn't much to see out there, so I took pictures of every little thing I could find.

A coyote.

Look closely - there is a special window installed in the side of this semi's door for his little dog to see out of!

I met this couple in a rest stop.  15 years ago they met in this exact picnic shelter, and now they're married!

I must've been bored... but check out that salt!  This is the back of my shirt.

Finally I made it through the desert, turned south at Bend, and headed into the Cascades (sorta).  Climbing up to Crater Lake I began seeing lots more snow.

But eventually, found a great camping spot (though there was snow on the ground 15 ft away), and settled in for the evening.

\

This was my view from the tent window the next morning:

Exploring around the edge of the lake, the views didn't get any worse.

Look at how still the lake is - you can see the contrails from jets in the water from a viewpoint at least 1000 feet over the water level.

And then there was a gorge and some pretty rivers but my times almost out, see you in California!

Boise, ID

I've broken through - made tremendous progress - and crushed another personal record.  It's now been 11 days since I've showered, and the folks in the public library are all trying to discretely lean away from me.  The desert (!) out here in Idaho is very empty for long stretches, and I've been holed up in all sorts of places I don't belong - certainly not spots with showers... hopefully I can break the streak tonight.

Out of Jackson Hole, my first uninvited stayover was in a park in Idaho Falls.  I rolled into town a bit late, and trying to be discrete waited until dusk to lay down.  I didn't pitch a tent in a bid to avoid attention, curled up in a folded tarp right behind the bathhouse, and went to sleep.  About 10:30 pm the parks staff came by to lock the bathrooms, and passed within a couple of feet of me without seeing me!  I held my breath, and sure enough they left without saying a thing to/about me.  I was pretty proud of my camoflage.

Of course, we all know pride comes before a fall.  About 2:30 am, the sprinklers kicked in.  One was pointed directly into the tarp between folds.  Several others sprayed all about, and another was directed at the bike.  I jumped up and - thinking quickly - started putting waterbottles over the pop-up sprinklers to try to cap them.  By the time I realized I didnt' have enough bottles, I was fairly wet.  Being somewhat chilly outside (the desert really does get cold at night), I went to take shelter behind the privacy screen in front of the bathroom - but more sprinklers were directed in there!  Apparently, Idaho Falls is the most hobo-proof town around - I'm certain the arrangement of sprinklers was intended to scare off the likes of me!

Now that I'd given up on the park, I decided to head towards the church where I was going to services in the morning, and just wait for daylight on the front steps.  Of course, dressed in my all-black rain gear with my hobo-beard and miserable, wet expression, I was quite a sight for the police who picked me up immediately.  After they asked me 'Do you have permission to be here,' I decided to wander the city, and enjoy the nightlife (AKA 4 am burritos and 6 am at the laundromat).

Next day after church, I started into the real desert, out near Idaho National Labs.  There I found EBR-1, the world's first nuclear reactor.

These things on the right which were sitting in the parking lot are experimental NUCLEAR AIRPLANE ENGINES.  The U.S. was planning on putting nuclear reactors in airplanes for strategic bombing.  Can you imagine?  Apparently, they were progressed far enough that the next step was to actually strap one into an airplane!

Inside, you can tour around the reactor, and see some neat little bits of history, like the first plutonium-powered lightbulb (EBR = Experimental Breeder Reactor, for you nuclear engineers - it was producing more fuel than it used).

I wound up staying at EBR-1 for two nights - on trying to leave the first day, I was repeatedly knocked off the road by strong gusts of wind.  So instead of ruining my day and my bike, I stayed around and harassed the tour guides and made radioactivity jokes- their favorite thing.

When I finally escape, I headed on to Craters of the Moon national park.  From the surface, it's not much to see - it looks like a plowed field, as far as I could tell (the cloud over there is smoke from a crop fire).

The closer you get into it, the neater it is.  There's different varieties of rocks, but this one is called A'a (pronounced AH-AH), it's Hawaiian name, which means "rough on the feet."

I ran into some Canadians, a father and son exploring the U.S. by car.  They've been having quite the adventure, and apparently they'd heard of me from the EBR-1 tour guides.  I imagine it was something like "Watch out for that guy on the bike.  You won't be able to get rid of him."  The Canucks and I went spelunking, then had delicious "stoop" (stew/soup?).

Other than that, it's been pedal pedal pedal, trying to make up for lost time.  On the bright side, today is another 100 mile day, and tomorrow I should hit Oregon!  The coast is close enough I can smell it...

3000 miles!

Only 1000 to the coast?

Jackson Hole, WY

Don't worry, Wyoming taxpayers - your state's government is not wasting your money on excess public libraries.  Cody and here in Jackson are the only two I've seen, and Cody was closed for the 5th of July (and the 4th... and the 3rd).  I've been seeing a lot of interesting geography in Wyoming, and the scenery really is wild and varied.  So, I'm making all of the pictures big this time.

From Sturgis, I headed over a few more of the Black Hills to Devil's Tower (above) in Wyoming.  It's the core of an ancient volcano, where the magma pressed up from within, hardened into the cone you see, and the exterior of the volcano was eroded away.  At the time, headwinds were in the 25 mph range, and I was making 5mph over land.  I was less than impressed at the rock I'd detoured quite a way to see.

The next town on the list was Buffalo, where I happened to run into a large group of cross-country cyclists, the Illini 4000!  The 28 or so of them have raised well over $100,000 for cancer research so far.  Be sure to check out their blogs on the far bottom right of their web page.

The locals in Buffalo highly recommended the very scenic "Crazy Woman Canyon Road" up to the top of the Big Horn mountains.  Despite the obvious warnings of the name, I decided to accept the challenge.   Woops...  It was a dirt road, where I had a hard time getting enough traction to get up the mountain.  The crosswinds on the way into the canyon were at times high enough to literally slide the bicycle tires sideways through the gravel.  The views, though, were amazing.

The route took me so long to reach the mountain peaks that I had to spend the night at the top, elevation in the 9500' range.  It got quite chilly, and there's not a lot of air to chew on up there.  I just tried to convince myself that less air means less air resistance (unless it's windy (it's always windy)).

Can't complain about the scenery, though.

The next morning, about a mile after setting off, I pulled over to play in the snow, on the 3rd of July!

Heading down the mountains on the other side, I nearly froze - I had to put on long sleeves, and the wind in the face was almost unbearable. 







Of course, this being Wyoming, within a couple of hours I found myself in a desert.

Pronghorn antelope 'loping on the side of the road.

The 4th of July was spent in Cody, the rodeo capital of the world, where I ran into the Illini 4000 once again, and found that they were headed to Yellowstone about the same time as me.  Somehow I managed not to take pictures of the rodeo, but rest assured - it was ridiculous.  I thought it would be a tourist trap type of occasion, but there were locals absolutely into it, and the whole thing was on ESPN, since it was part of the rodeo world tour or some such thing.

Not long after Cody, the road starts winding into the mountains, following the Yellowstone River.

The going gets tough, and the air gets thin once again.  This is me trying to act casual about being halfway over the Rockies.

A day later, I was in Yellowstone. And what, to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature van and twenty-eight tiny bicycles... Once again, the Illini had caught up with me.  We camped out together (I bummer a camping spot from them) for a cold evening - that night, my water bottles froze outside the tent.  The next day, they headed out but I stuck around to take a tour of Yellowstone.

Steaming pools are a regular thing, and there's lots of these colorful pools - in most of the pools, the color is caused by bacteria rather than minerals.

Wouldn't be a trip to Yellowstone without watching Old Faithful do her thing:

Colorful mud?

And.... that's about the time my camera decided to stop working.  So, there might not be any photographic updates for a while.  I did visit the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which I found particularly beautiful, and yesterday went through the Grand Tetons.  These are pictures of those borrowed from the internet:

Also, while you're out there blogging, be sure to check out Jacob Joubert's current work.  He's making a 12 part series dedicated to servicemen/women who've lost their lives in American wars.

 

Sturgis, SD

I've made it throught the Badlands!  South Dakota's Badlands National Park was one of my primary goals - and boy, was it worth it.  You can't capture the idea of it from the photos - for 30 miles through the park, there isn't a view that isn't scenic.  I can't really add anything to the views, I'll just say that the grin didn't leave my face fromt he time I pedaled in to the park until the time I pedaled out.  It's beautiful.

The fact that this begins so suddenly after so much flatish area, only makes it more startling and dramatic.  You can see after the peaks here the long, flat plains in the distance.

Bad news, Sarah.  The prarie dog colonies are infested with the Sylvatic Plague or some such thing, I won't be strapping any on to my luggage.

Just before going into the Badlands, I heard that there was going to be a night blast on the Crazy Horse monument on the 26th, so I picked up the pace.

The Black Hills are nice... but they're a lot like North Carolina's mountains.  Except they have things carved into them.

I bet you recognize these guys...

I got to Rushmore in the late afternoon on the 26th.  I think I left the monument around 7:00, and needed to get to crazy horse before dark.  After having done almost 300 miles in the previous 3 days, I was wiped out, and still hadat least 15 miles to go through very mountainous country.   I was praying like a madman - PLEASE don't let me have come this far this fast and miss the blast!   Give me a tailwind!  How about some downhills?  A little more daylight?

And it worked.  Honestly, there's no way I should've made it to Crazy Horse that evening, but I arrived just in time for the festivities to start.

My video of the night blast is terrible, but fortunately someone better with a camera has already put it on YouTube!  There was an interesting laser show leading up to the explosions, and the fireballs all over the mountain.  It was quite the spectacle.

Afterwards, there was birthday cake in celebration of Ruth's (wife of the original sculptor, and the woman who's held the project together) birthday.

I'm off - since I'm out of time at the library, but I'll try to add to this soon!

And yes, for those of you familiar with South Dakota, I did get some Free Ice Water at Wall Drug!