San Francisco, CA

Once I arrived back in Portland I retrieved my car and started heading back south. I was thinking of camping in Oregon for the night and trying to make it to Oakridge, OR the next morning for some mountain biking, but the forecast was even worse now than the week before when I passed by, so I bypassed that and made it back to the Shasta Lake area where I had camped on my way north. As I passed through the mountains in Oregon I could see that there was a decent covering of snow on the ground up above 4000’ meaning mountain bike season in the area was pretty much done for the year. I had resevations for the night in Pescadero at a hostel that is in the former lightkeepers quarters of an old lighthouse, and since Oakridge was out I had some time to kill. Originally, I left San Francisco out of my plans since I had been there a few times before and thought that I should spend my time exploring other areas, but with no where better to go I decided to spend the afternoon by the bay. I drove in and parked at the Marin Headlands where I ditched the car and unloaded my bike. Being the birthplace of mountain biking, I figured I had to do some riding around there and took off on a fireroad that led me down to the beach below the Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the history in the area, mountain biking has been pretty much eliminated from the headlands with bikes not allowed on any trails, but the fireroads were good enough for the casual ride that I had in mind. After cruising around the headlands for a short while, I rode across the Golden Gate and headed for Chinatown for dinner. Once fed I headed back to the car, and remembered that I no longer had my tailight, which was either stolen in Portland or lost on the train to Seattle. Fortunately, the streets were lit well enough that I was visible to cars and didn’t have to worry much, especially considering that I only had a short ride until I reached the Presidio where there was virtually no traffic. I made my way back across the Golden Gate and found an attendant waiting at the other side to close the gate for the night as soon as I got off. Fortunately I wasn’t any later than I was, or I would have been in trouble. After loading everything back into the car, I headed to Pescadero for the night so I could tell everyone that I spent the night in a lighthouse.

Vancouver, BC

I arrived in Canada via train and promptly received a grilling from the customs official. Apparently, anyone with long hair is a drug smuggler because the border patrol seemed very suspicious of me. Regardless, they let me in and I rode Mikey over to the hostel where I was staying. Once settled in I grabbed some lunch and set out for Stanley Park to take on the 10 mile Seawall greenway ride. This ride follows the boundary of Stanley Park, Vancouvers version of NY’s Central Park, which is mostly along the waterfront with excellent views of downtown as well as the surrounding mountains. The next day, I had plans to take on the Grouse Grind and see the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge (the lesser known and much cheaper sibling of the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge), but unfortunately I was too late in the year to take on the Grind, which was recently shut down due to winter conditions. The weather that day was pretty chilly, with highs only in the 40’s and rainy during the morning, making the 10 mile bike ride to Lynn Canyon pretty unappealing. I checked the bus routes only to find that I would need to take three different routes to get there, taking a little over an hour each way, so I decided to scrap that idea. Instead, I went over to the Granville Island Public Market to check things out there. Once done, I went to Chinatown and then back to Stanley Park, this time to do some hiking through the old growth forest. As it turns out, there are a lot of unmarked trails in the park that are not shown on the map, so I just picked one and wondered around for a couple of hours until I crossed one of the marked paths, which I followed back to my bike. By this time, it was beginning to get dark so I headed back to get ready for my return to the US.

Seattle, WA

The next morning, I woke up and immediately put on my backpack and rode my bike down to the Amtrak station. Since I was planning on staying in hostels that were downtown in both Seattle and Vancouver, BC, parking a car was going to be a headache, so I left my car parked for free in Portland and took the train up north, which turned out great. The train was no where near full, so I could use the empty seat next to me to stretch out, there was an abundance of power outlets so I could use my laptop for entertainment, and I was able to roll my bike right up to the baggage cart where it was put in a bike rack for the trip. Once in Seattle, I went and dumped my things at the hostel, which was just across the street from the famous Pike Place Marketplace. I went down to the waterfront and walked around the parks there, then went by the Space Needle and strolled through downtown on the way back to the hostel. The weather was exactly what you would expect from Seattle; dreary, chilly, and light rain. Walking along the Puget Sound in those conditions made it tough to keep Death Cab songs out of my head. The next morning was still cold, but surprisingly sunny. I picked up a morning coffee from the first ever Starbucks store and spent some more time strolling along the waterfront. I had plans to go to two museums that day, The Experience Music Project and The Museum of Flight. I decided to see EMP first and went there in the late morning. The museum was excellent with good exhibits about the Seattle music scene and a little about the evolution of some musical instruments. At the end of the museum, you even get a chance to play some music yourself with the interactive exhibits. When I finished there, I got on my bike and headed for a restaurant that I had in mind for lunch to grab a bite to eat before catching the bus for the Museum of Flight. Shortly after leaving EMP I stopped at a red light, and when I went to pedal away my chain came off of the gears, causing me to lose my balance and fall over the handlebars, landing on my chin. A very nice lady that was returning to work helped me to assess the damage and let me come back to her office building to find the nearest Urgent Care center. Once I knew where to go, I put my chain back on and pedaled away, only to find when I arrived that there was an hour or more wait at Urgent Care. I waited in line and when I saw the doctor, received five stitches on my chin. By this time it was late afternoon and far too late to make it to the Museum of Flight, so I called it a day and got ready to head to Canada the next morning.

Portland, OR

I left California first thing in the morning heading to Oregon. I was hoping to stop in mountain biking hotspot Oakridge, OR to enjoy some of the trails, but the weather was cold and threatening to rain, so I opted to save some time and stay on the freeway. I made it to Portland sometime in the late afternoon, with enough time to check into the hostel I was staying at and explore the downtown area a little bit before dark. I made it downtown in time to check out a few stores and pick out somewhere to get dinner. One of the most prominent downtown businesses is Powell's City of Books, which claims to be the worlds largest bookstore, which takes up an entire city block and is four stories high. I went inside and promptly got lost wandering around the giant store. I did eventually find my bearings and was able to pick up a good used copy of Keroauc's "On The Road," which is any road trippers bible. The next morning I was up bright and early, ready to hit the town. The weather was pretty wet and rainy, but I thought of that as being a part of the Pacific NW experience so I hopped on my bike to go. It did not take very long to realize that this was a mistake as my jeans got soaking wet and I started to freeze. Fortunately, Portland is the kind of town where you can pull over pretty much any time and walk into a store to buy a new pair of Gore-tex pants for half off, which is exactly what I did. I went back to the hostel to change into dry clothes and set off again. I went down to the waterfront to hang out around the waterfront park, and see Mill Ends park, the worlds smallest park, which is right next door. While I was in the area, I went to grab some lunch at an all veg chinese restaurant in Chinatown and continued exploring downtown, this time in the area of Portland State University, and made sure to scout out a good route to the Amtrak station where I would be heading first thing the next morning.

Waterfront Park

Yosemite National Park

I woke up in California and made sure that the Sierra mountain pass roads were still open, then headed towards Yosemite. I came in the eastern entrance, which goes over the highest pass in the Sierras, just shy of 10,000ft. I underestimated the length it would take to drive from the entrance to the visitor center, which ended up taking a couple of hours, and put me at mid morning before I could check out the trail maps and decide where I would be going in the afternoon.


I decided to get out of the valley and hike to the summit of Sentinel Dome, a easy day hike that I had plenty of time for, and would take me away from the crowds of the valley trails. To get to the trailhead, I had to drive for several miles of constant up hill where I would turn off onto Glacier Point Rd. to park. Unfortunately, Glacier Point Rd. is currently under construction and shut down to one lane, meaning that I would have to wait for about 20 mins before it was my turn to go. I put the car in park and started changing into my hiking gear and making sure I had plenty of water to take with me. Just a minute or two before we were allowed to go on the road I noticed that some steam was starting to come from the hood of my car. I pulled over and watched as everyone else headed on to their destination and waited for my overheating engine to cool down. After moving the car, I saw a pool of antifreeze beneath where I was waiting and popped the hood to find that I was nearly out of coolant at this point. One of the construction workers was kind enough to donate a jug of water so that I wouldn't have to dip into my drinking water supply, and I coasted back into the valley to by some antifreeze. Once that was taken care of, I decided that it was too late in the day to attempt to start my hike and that I should take the car for a test ride to make sure there were no bigger problems with the engine. I remembered that just south of the park is Sierra National Forest, so I headed that direction into the town of Oakhurst, CA to resupply and plan out where to go from there. Once done there, I made my way back towards the park and found a road to camp on within about 100 yards of the park entrance. Once the sun came back up, I headed into the park to get on the trails while they were still quiet and the hike went off without a hitch this time. This also left me with some time to hike down and see a few giant Sequoias on my way out of the park that afternoon. Once out of the park, I headed to Stockton, CA for some dinner on my up north. I ended up camping that night in Northern CA, near Shasta lake, with Oregon in my sights for the morning.

Lake Tahoe

I got to Tahoe with plans to spend the afternoon riding the Flume Trail neat Incline Village, NV. I took a little time when I first arrived to walk around the beach that belongs to some country club and then went to find some lunch to fuel up for my ride. Once fed, I drove and parked at the end of the trail. Most people opt to shuttle this ride and eliminate that 10 miles of road riding to the start of the trail, but I decided to save my money and ride it out. Once to the end of the road, I went into the state park that leads to the trail head and climbed up to Marlette Lake, which fed the flume that the trail is named after. Years ago, this lake and flume were used to get water down to the lower elevation mining towns in Nevada, but in the 1980's the flume was removed and a trail is left on the side of the mountain in its place. Almost the entire trail is perched on the side of a steep dropoff with great views of the lake at all times from a few hundred feet above.


I originally planned to spend the night somewhere along the Tahoe Rim Trail and spend a little more time at the lake in the morning, but the weather forecast wasn't looking too great, so I started making my way south after dinner in South Tahoe. I made it down into California before stopping for the night in Stanislaus National Forest. Fortunately, the border stop at the NV/CA state line didn't stop me for too long, but I wonder why such a thing is even necessary. Regardless, I made in and was in striking distance of Yosemite for the following day.

Back on the Road

I finally got my car back last Tuesday, 11/3/09, only 6.5 weeks after taking it to the shop. I loaded up on Wednesday morning headed towards the west coast. On the way out of Colorado, I stopped by Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, which was just off of the highway that I was on. I spent around an hour and a half there, driving around to the various overlooks, but not taking the time to do any real hiking.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Once finished there, I got back on the road and made it to Salt Lake City where I stopped for an oil change, per the engine manufacturers recommendations. While there, the mechanics found a defect in one of my front tires and warned me not to go any further with it in that condition. They referred me to a tire shop where I got a new set of front tires and was back to driving. After being without a car for so long, I was actually slightly enjoying being back behind the wheel, and considered driving straight through to Tahoe, although I would only have a couple of hours before sunrise by the time I got there. I pulled over at a coffee shop in Elko, NV to weigh my options. Fortunately they had an exterior outlet and free wifi that I could use since they had long since closed. I spotted a plot of BLM land near Winnemucca and set my sights there for the night. This turned out to be a great spot, since the interstate exited off directly onto the dirt road where I was planning to camp, meaning I never got more than five minutes away from the freeway. The next morning, I packed up camp and was on schedule to be at Tahoe by mid morning.

Moab, UT

So far, my side trip from Crested Butte is right on schedule. I left Thursday morning heading west, stopped for a short, and somewhat underwhelming, bike ride in Fruita before continuing on to Moab where I set up camp for the night. Moab is surrounded by Bureau of Land Management land, which allows free dispersed camping similar to National Forests, which made finding a campsite easy. When I went to pitch my tent I realized my first (and so far, only) big mistake. Apparently, when transferring my gear from my car to the rental car, my tent stakes fell out of the tent bag, leaving me with no real way to anchor the tent down. Fortunately, there was no wind at all and perfectly clear skies, so I pitched the tent anyways and headed for bed.

Friday, I woke up, packed up my campsite to be sure my tent did not blow away during the day, and went to Arches National Park. I was there early enough to beat the rush and allowed me to start hiking the trails while it was still cool and uncrowded. The first few trails were very easy, a wide level gravel path that took you from your car to the destination with little excitement in between. Then, I went to hike the only trail on the map listed as "primitive," a 7.2 mile loop that passes eight arches on the way. This trail was an absolute blast, with everything from steep slickrock scrambling to narrow rocky ledges to 360 degree panoramic as you hike along the top of rock fins. After hiking this, I was pretty much spent, and headed back to find a new campsite for the night.

Saturday, I got out the mountain bike and headed for the famous Slickrock Trail, which people in Moab claim is the most famous MTB trail in the world. Even with all of the hype around this trail, it definitely delivers as it is one of the most fun trails I have ever ridden. Riding on slickrock definately took some getting used to, but once acclimated it was a blast. Constant ups and downs, and much steeper than I expected, but the traction that the rock provides is amazing. You can really fly through corners, ride off camber sections, and hammer out of the saddle without having to worry about your tires slipping or washing out from under you. The trail here is very loosely defined, since there is nothing to distinguish the trail other than a dotted white line on the rock, so you can pick and choose all kinds of different lines to ride. Despite all of the fun I had riding the trail, there is one thing in Moab that really grinds my gears, which is sand. In more than a few places, the trail would pass through sand pits, which usually ends with me walking through. At the beginning of the ride, I tried to enter one of these sand pits coming out of a steep descent, despite realizing beforehand that it would not end well. As soon as my front wheel hit the sand, it dug in a few inches, my fork bottomed out, and I went toppling head first over my handlebars into the sand. Although this was a very soft landing, it left myself and my bike covered in sand, and for the rest of the ride I had to listen to my drivetrain beg for mercy with every turn of the pedals. After 10.5 miles of trail riding, I was ready to head in and got a chance to watch the NCSU game while eating some lunch back in town.

Sunday brought me back to my hiking boots, this time in Canyonlands National Park. With sore legs and blistered feet left over from my previous two days, I was not looking for anything too hardcore in Canyonlands, and decided to string together a number of short 1-2 mile trails instead of one of the longer more strenuous hikes. The weather also played into this decision, with scattered showers and a good number of clouds in the area, I didn't want to stray to far from home. I spent the entire time in the Island in the Sky district of CNP, since that is the northernmost section and I wanted to avoid the longer driving times to the other districts. Despite not straying from the beaten path, the hiking in CNP was superb, with excellent trails and spectacular views at the tops of climbs. Spending the day in CNP was nice, but this is an area that would be great for a longer, multiday backpacking trip. I do not think that this will be my last visit to Moab, so maybe I can work that in sometime in the future.

Moving Along

I talked to the mechanic at the shop earlier this week and found out that the estimate on the car is done, but he is waiting to get approval from the insurance company to order the parts and do the repairs, meaning that it will be at least another week until the car is ready to go. Instead of hanging around in Crested Butte, I decided to rent a car in Gunnison for the next week until I leave to head back to North Carolina for the weekend. I am picking up the car tomorrow and was planning on heading north to South Dakota for a few days before going west to Yellowstone. After checking the weather, it appears that it is turning cold both places with overnight lows in the low 30's in SD and down into the low teens in Wyoming. After seeing this, I decided to head west instead of north, and take a chance on the weather not being any worse up north when I get back from NC in a couple of weeks. While I have the rental car I am hoping to hit Fruita, CO for an afternoon to ride the Zippity-Do-Dah trail (video here) before heading to Moab, UT and hiking Arches National Park and Canyonland National Park, as well as ride the legendary Slickrock Trail in Moab. After that, the plan is to head up to Salt Lake City and take a dip in the great salt lake before stopping for a quick hike in Dinosaur National Monument. After that, it will be back to Gunnison to turn in the car and hop on a bus for Denver, where I will fly back east. This all looks good on paper, but my plans so far haven't exactly gone as scheduled, so who knows what will actually happen.

The Anti-Midas Touch

Before this trip started, I had some trouble with my phone not working correctly, so I had to go to Wadesboro while waiting for a new one. Once that was fixed, both of my parents got sick and needed medical attention. Once they were better, I drove to Colorado where my car broke down. Finally, while waiting for my car, the computer that I was using crashed and apparently has a failing hard drive. It seems that wherever I go, I leave a trail of wreckage along the way. Pretty much all I have left to break is my bike and my health, feel free to place bets on which goes first. I am going to go with health, because I am not sure that I could break that Surly if I tried.

Where's Summer, B.?

The weather here in CO has gotten very cold. The high yesterday was 40 oF and the low last night was 23 oF. Yesterday afternoon brought on a really heavy snowstorm, accumulation almost an inch in a little over an hour. Tonight and tomorrow are supposed to be more of the same, cold and snowy. Wasn't yesterday technically still summer? If it snows here in the summer, I need to be far away when winter finally gets here.


Although it could be interesting to test the 20 oF rating of my sleeping bag, I decided that I was tired of camping for the time being, so I went back into town and got a bed at the local hostel. It is definitely nice to have a warm bed to sleep in when it is this cold out, but I am the only one here so I feel like I might be missing out on the real hostel experience.

Crested Butte, CO

I made it to Crested Butte Tuesday morning after spending Monday night in Pike National Forest, just west of Colorado Springs. Crested Butte is a small resort town, surrounded by Gunnison National Forest on the western slope of the Rockies. It is a true mountain bike mecca. There are high quality trails everywhere you look and was one of the birthplaces of mountain biking. On Tuesday, I got to town and found a good camp spot, then set out to ride the 401 Trail, which has a long fireroad climb followed by an amazing singletrack descent back to the valley. There are definately no trails like this back east. A good bit of the descent was on the side of the mountain with no tree cover, with amazing views of the surrounding scenery.

401 Trail

On Wednesday, I went and visited the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in town, then returned to the forest to ride the 403 Trail. 403 was similar to 401, but a good bit more technical, with more rocks and waterbars to navigate on the way to the bottom.

403 Trail

I was planning to leave town Wednesday night and start heading north, but things didn't quite work out as planned. I was driving on one of the dirt forest roads near where I was camped when my car kicked up a rock and put a hole in my oil pan. There wasn't much of a shoulder where I was so I had to either leave the car where it was, blocking the road for other cars, or try to drive to a parking area that I saw up ahead, maybe a 1/4 mile or a little more ahead. I decided to go for the parking area, but before I made it there, the engine seized up from lack of oil. I pulled out my cell phone to call for a tow truck and was not surprised to see that I had no reception. I was about 10 miles from town, so I got my bike out and got ready to ride back for help. Fortunately, another car came along and the driver helped push my car down to a better part of the road where it would be out of the way and I took off for town on my bike. I kept my phone in my jacket pocket so I would have easy access to it and I could check along the way to see if I was getting reception. I never did get a signal in the forest, but when I made it back to the edge of town I reached in my pocket to start making calls and found that my phone was no longer there. I turned around, turned all of my lights on, and tried a quick search for my phone. I rode back a couple of miles with no luck, and decided to abandon the search because it was getting darker and colder by the minute. As I was riding back to town for the second time, thinking about my stupid mistakes, in the dark and cold, I hear a wolf start howling from behind me and think that this has to be one of the most miserable nights I have ever had. Fortunately, I was able to find a hotel with decent rates and a good hot meal when I finally made it back to town.

Thursday went a little better for me. I had my car towed back in and called my insurance company and I was told that they are going to pay for all of the repairs and the tow bill, I just have to cover the deductible. Later that afternoon, I was trying to find the nearest store where I could get a new phone and make this ordeal a little easier when I got an email from my brother Steve saying someone had found my phone. After a few more emails and phone calls, an all around awesome guy named George stops by the hotel and drops my phone off for me. He had been walking his dog as I was riding into town and saw my phone on the road, then took the trouble to track me down and return it. Many thanks go out to George.

I do not know how long the car repairs will take, but for now I am playing the waiting game. If I have to be stranded somewhere, Crested Butte has to be one of the better places (at least until it starts getting snowy) but the longer the repairs take, the more places I am going to have to cut from my trip. I have been thinking that I should try to get the northern portion of the trip done by the first of October, because after that snow becomes a serious threat in those places. I have already given up on Rocky Mountain National Park, and will almost definitely have to shorten or cancel my visits to South Dakota, Yellowstone, and Glacier National Park. There is also a chance that Geico will refuse to pay the repairs for the seized engine, saying that I shouldn't have driven with low oil, but given the situation and lack of area to pull the car over, I stand by my decision to try and drive to the parking area, and for what it is worth, the tow truck driver agreed. But, if I have to pay the repair bill myself, I will probably not have the funds to continue on and have to head back home much earlier than anticipated. Nothing to do now but wait.

It Begins

After a long series of short delays, I have finally escaped NC and headed west. I am currently in Lawrence, KS at a local coffee shop called Java Break. I left Wadesboro yesterday morning and made it into Missouri last night, stopping near Columbia and sleeping in Mark Twain National Forest. Despite the name, there isn't much of a forest there, but I found a gravel road in the middle of some farmland and a small parking area where I pitched my tent. I am not sure if camping is allowed there, but I came and went before anyone else came down the road, so it worked out fine for me. I am hoping to make it to Crested Butte, Co tonight, which is my first real stop of the trip. Hopefully I can make it to the Rockies before dark so I can enjoy the scenery. I may need to get a new jacket though, the low for tonight in Crested Butte is 39oF.

The View from Java Break

The Plan

Here is a working list of places I hope to hit on my road trip:

Crested Butte, CO
Rocky Mountain National Park
Badlands National Park
Black Hills National Forest
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Tetons National Park
Glacier National Park
Seattle, WA
Vancouver
Portland, OR
Bend, OR
Crater Lake National Park
Lake Tahoe
Yosemite National Park
San Francisco/Bay Area, CA
Big Sur, CA
Los Angeles, CA
San Diego, CA
Sequoia National Park
Death Valley National Park
Las Vegas, NV
Grand Canyon
Sedona, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Zion National Park
Moab, UT
Arches National PArk
Fruita, CO
Salt Lake City, UT
Dinosaur National Monument