Waldport and Portland, 9/25 to 9/27

9/25

Last night's weather was a doozy. A storm rolled in a with very high winds, so much so that our tents were struggling to stay grounded. Luckily heavy rain didn't come with the storm so we stayed dry. We headed out at 8am and warmed up on a big 2.5 mile hill. Coming down the hill was rather interesting to say the least. With the wind howling in our faces combined with rain our faces were stinging coming down the hill. I for one was laughing the whole way down at the situation.





The objective of the day was to get to Lincoln City and take a combination of buses to get to Waldport. In Waldport lives some of our family from my Dad's side, more specifically my Dad's mom's sister's son Stede and his wife Amy. We've never met them but have heard about them over the years from our Gramma Betty.
Anyway our ride today was incredible today. We went through a winding country road with old growth forest and also saw some great coastline on 101.










When arriving in Lincoln city we ate lunch at a safeway As we waited for the bus. Luckily we got a bus schedule in the safeway to make sure on the times of the bus because the bus doesn't run on Sundays, so we didn't waste time on waiting and got right on the road. We ended up riding in the night for an hour to get to Stede and Amy's house which was not desirable but we arrived safely.
We got to their house at 8:45pm and were greeted by Amy who was very energetic and welcoming into their home. Stede was at work at the hospital until 12am so we did not meet him until the following morning. About 11pm Hutton their son came in and we enjoyed meeting and talking to him.
After a long night of conversation we hit the sack and set our alarms for 9am for the next morning.
-JS

9/26

Today was a very eventful day as we embarked on our trip to Portland. In the morning we gathered in the kitchen and were able to meet Stede and talk to him for a good hour. Stede left for Portland where they have a second house which they rent. They offered us their Portland house to stay in for the night since their is not currently a tenant their.
After planning our day Amy drove us to Newport to pick up our rental car from Enterprise.


We rented a little compact car and drove 2.5 hours to portland and started our day at a bar called Mint to try their avocado daiquiri.



Logan, Stede and Amy's daughter, met us there. We were very fortunate to be able to meet the whole family! And having Logan as our tour guide for the night was a real plus! We hopped around a handful of different spots in the city with Logan's help, including Amnesia Brewing, Liberty Bell, Barbar, and the McMenamins Kennedy School.


-AN

9/27

The day started at Amy and Stede's Portland house as we all woke up, talked with Stede for a bit, and headed to the stepping stone for breakfast. The breakfast was awesome with huge larger-than-the-plate pancakes and good food and atmosphere all around. The drive home was quick as we rushed to get the car back by 1:00 to avoid late charges. After we got back enterprise dropped us off at the Rogue brewery in Newport. The food was good and we sampled a wide range of their beers. The sampling inspired us to buy some of the chocolate stout to take back to Amy's for use in beer floats that night.


Amy picked us up from the brewery at 3 pm, and we decided to just spend another night there relaxing and enjoying the scenery and company. A walk down to the beach brought us through hidden lake and onto a much larger beach than expected.










We cooked a dinner for us and Amy which included Chicken Parmesan and beer floats for desert. We all really enjoyed the relaxing day. Thank you Amy and Stede!


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Aberdeen to Cape Lookout, 9/22 to 9/24

9/22
Woke up to a rainy morning. With all the good weather we had all but forgot the difficulties of waking up and packing up camp in the rain. With Aberdeen 2 bus rides away and, the rain showing no signs of letting up, and already behind on mileage we decided to hop on some busses to Aberdeen. We made the first bus by only a minute or two, which took us from Kalaloch to Amanda Park, where we caught another bus to Aberdeen. We arrived in Aberdeen around 10 am, got a late breakfast and again did some trip planning. With the rain lightening to a mist we started on our scenic route to Raymond, OR at 12:30. The ride was nice, with lots of forest and coastal views, though the fog and clouds hid the distant views.








After 50 miles we arrived in Raymond and checked into the Golden lion, where we hung all our wet gear throughout our large hotel room. The day ended with a nice dinner at McDonalds followed by a stop at the grocery store. Nice to sleep inside after a rainy night last night.

9/23
A much nicer day, with some light clouds in the morning which cleared towards the afternoon. The road was fairly flat in the morning with small rolling hills.


As we crossed into Oregon we rode on a four mile bridge, intimidating at time with the traffic, and surprisingly high in one section.





The ride in Oregon was sunny at first, but as we approached the coast the sea mist formed a layer of cool fog for us to ride through. We cut through one beachside neighborhood, and to our surprise we spotted a few elk just off the road.





We arrived in Seaside at 6 pm, where we met Neil (who we had contacted via warm showers) at the high school. He was running a cross country meet that weekend so he treated us to the school spaghetti dinner that the runners also ate. Needless to say it was pretty interesting eating dinner in a high school cafeteria with a ton of cross country runners. Although Neil was staying with the runners that night, he was extremely nice and trusting and allowed us to stay at his house. Seaside was a pretty cool Beachside town, and we definitely appreciated having a house to stay in. Thanks Neil!

9/24
Woke up, ate a light breakfast at Neils, and were riding by 9. The day started with a light headwind and a surprising amount of hills. The coastal scenery was beautiful as we rode through cannon beach (first pic) on down to Tillamook and up to Cape Mears.








Although the headwind was ridiculously strong (30 mph) at times the sun was out and it was a very pretty day. The strong headwind did allow for us to dry the tents easily and quickly though.


After a dinner rich in grains we went to bed around 10, with the wind picking up and a light rain starting. A 67 mile day.

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Location:Aberdeen, WA to Cape Lookout, OR

Olympic peninsula, 9/19 to 9/21

9/19

With Katherine and I getting only a few hours of sleep the night before and John, Arne, Kelsey, and Wes getting in late the night before we ended up sleeping in til 8:30 or so. To our surprise Wes and Kelsey made a big breakfast of pancakes, oatmeal, and eggs, a great way to start the day. It wasn't until 11:40 that we left Wes and Kelsey's place, so we had to rush down to the ferry. We literally arrived at the ferry 2 minutes before it left, after biking a 7.6 miles in 38 minutes through the stop and go streets of Seattle. The ferry ride was short, but beautiful as we arrived at Bainbridge island around 1:00 pm.



The day was nice as the sun came out and we enjoyed a more relaxed pace with decent scenery. For lunch we stopped by the ocean at a spot with tons of blackberries.


After 10 minutes of eating blackberries we ate our packed lunches and continued onto the Olympic peninsula. A nice ride brought us to Sequim state park where we made some dinner and camped for the night. A 61 mile day with a late start and a ferry ride.


9/20

Not surprisingly, we all overslept a bit until 8:30, ate our peanut butter rich breakfast and were on our way. Four miles in we stopped at a bike shop followed by a grocery store. We got sucked into the grocery store and ended up eating a second breakfast of donuts, bananas, and chocolate milk. Finally we were on our way down a nice winding bike trail around noon. The pines, mountains, streams, and even some agriculture made for great scenery through the morning.





Wes' back tire was out of true so we stopped at another bike shop in Port Angeles. With the bike shop needing an hour we got some Chinese food for lunch and continued on. Unfortunately, we continued on in the wrong direction, and after some confusing directions which contained no road names from the locals we continued to get turned around for the next hour before finally getting back on the correct road. The road took us through lake crescent.








We all enjoyed the 10 mile ride alongside the lake. We also met up with another touring cyclist, Jordan from St. Petersburg, FL, who continued with us to our campground. With the delays of the day and stopping to enjoy the sites we stopped to camp at the end of Lake Crescent as the sun disappeared with only 58 miles behind us, 6 to 8 of which weren't even in the right direction. Dinner was nice as Wes brought out some smoked salmon and we all shared some laughs.

9/22
An interesting day to say the least. Since we were short on our mileage the previous two days and Wes needed to get within striking distance of Seattle for Kelsey to pick him up, we decided to launch early. We were on our bikes and moving by 7 a.m., our best start of the whole trip. About 15 miles in we stopped at the Hungry Bear Cafe for coffee and delicious breakfast sandwiches. By 10 a.m. we had made it 30 miles to Forks, the setting for the Twilight series - there were a number of stores wholly dedicated to memorabilia and local tours. After a long, difficult deliberation we decided against the Twilight tours.

In Forks Wes hopped a bus to get him a little bit closer to Aberdeen, his pickup destination. It was sad to say goodbye-it was awesome getting to spend some time with he and Kelsey.

After parting with Wes we posted up in the library and did some overall trip planning which ended up taking a few hours. After advice from a ranger and consideration of our mileage to get to San Fran, we hopped a bus ourselves and headed 20 miles to the coastline. We pedaled along the coast for just a few miles and had a late lunch at Kalaloch beach.









When it started to pour, we decided to set up shop in Kalaloch for the night at a really cool campground. As the rain pooled on or site we frantically moved our tents around to avoid sleeping in standing water. Our night consisted of standing and having a light dinner under the slight overhang at the bathrooms. Needless to say, we were all happy to get into our sleeping bags and call it a night by 9:45.

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Location:Olympic peninsula, WA

Montana to Seattle, J and A go to the sun, 9/13 to 9/18

9/13
We woke up at Johnson Campground outside of Glacier National Park and
Said our goodbyes. Ken and Katherine were heading to the train station to catch their train to Seattle and then back to NC for a wedding and Arne and John headed into the park to do the famous Road to the Sun.
Our ride


















9/14

We slept in at Joe's house in Whitefish and had a leisurely breakfast, then Joe drove us to Amtrak. It was a good thing that we went early, because the counter clerk told us that there was a baggage embargo at the station due to some construction on the platform. Thankfully, it didn't take us long to convince him that was unacceptable, since we had just booked our tickets the day before and had been told bikes were fine. We boxed up the bikes and ended up helping carry them on the train later.

After that we went to an awesome BBQ joint within walking distance and had awesome pulled pork sandwiches, mac and cheese, and beans-everything was delicious and seemed really cheap compared to Canada. After lunch John. Worked on med school applications while Arne and Joe headed down to Whitefish lake to hang out on the dock and jump in the water for a bit (a bit chilly but not too bad).


After a relaxing day we grabbed a burger in downtown Whitefish - a really cool area. We grabbed a few snacks and drinks and walked to the AMTRAK station to part ways with Joe and hop on the train for our overnight ride to Seattle.


Much thanks to Joe for showing us a good time in Whitefish and putting us up at his place, we really enjoyed hanging out.

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Montana to Seattle, K and K, 9/13 to 9/15

9/13/11
Today was our last morning with John and Arne for awhile because Ken and I had a train to catch to Seattle. However, John and Arne would enjoy their day riding through the "Road to the Sun" in Glacier National Park. Even though Ken and I only had 30 miles to do, we had several uphill climbs that were 3-6 miles long.


We had some nice outer views of the park and met another neat couple that had been cycling for the past 1.5 years. As much as we have enjoyed our trip, we decided we couldn't ever bike that long because we'd miss our families and friends and regular life too much.





After a quick tour of East Glacier, and finally getting to use our cell phones for the first time in a month (so glad to finally get to hear Chelseas full amazing engagement story!) our train arrived. Crazy how after living in the woods for so long can make an Amtrak train feel like pure luxury!


-KSG

9/14

Katherine and I arrived in Seattle after a decently restful night on the Amtrak at 10:30 am, where we were greeted by Wes. We spent the day exploring Seattle with Wes and Kelsey, which included a good lunch at jai tai, a stop at a coffee shop, and Pikes place.





Wes and Kelsey made a delicious dinner of barbecue pork tacos and Jessica came over for tacos and drinks as well. The meal was completed with a desert of beer floats. The day ended with a stop at a local pub for some regional beers.

9/15 to 9/18

The trip back to David and Lizzy's wedding was awesome, Congratulations David and Lizzy Liu!
We even caught a view of Mt. Rainier on the plane.


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Lake Louise to Montana, 9/9 to 9/12

9/9

Woke up at 7 and hopped in our bikes to head a few miles to Lake Louise, a picturesque lake in banff national park. Again, no cloud in the sky today. We had some fun taking pictures, then sat down on some rocks by the lake for breakfast.









After eating we hiked a few miles up a steep mountainside to a 100 year old tea house nestled against a small lake.





After hiking back down the mountain we biked back to the campsite (a fun, fast ride where we were outpacing cars) to retrieve our gear and head towards banff. The ride to banff was nice as it was about a 40 mile ride mainly downhill, and about halfway there we stopped at Johnson canyon for some nice views.





We got into banff to find a mile long hill up to our campsite.


After setting up camp we went out for a dinner, $7 fish and chips, some drinks, and for Arne a chocolate stout with a slice of chocolate cake.


-AN and KRG

9/10
Our morning in Banff was a little hectic as we were trying to get our errands done in time to get to Calgary at a decent hour. After an hour of waiting Arne and John finally got their prescriptions filled for their infections and could head out of town. Our stay in Banff was pleasant and the town was quaint, although very touristy. The beginning of the ride was nice but the headwind we had was not ideal. The overall ride much easier than expected because of the flat, prairie-like terrain.


We got into Calgary much earlier than expected and took a nice Biking trail along the river to Paul and Donna's house. Paul and Donna are the couple we met at the hot springs from Calgary and offered for us to stay with them when we get to Calgary. Their house was very nice as it was right on the river and nicely decorated. The evening was full of stories and conversation over beer on their back deck. After we all showered and cleaned up we headed over to a pub for more beers and dinner with them and their friends. After a fun dinner we headed back to their house and slept on their couches and japanese tatamis.
Overall our impression of Calgary is that is a very nice city and well planned. Interestingly enough it is the largest city by area in North America because of it's sprawling nature.


-JS

9/11
A touring cyclists dream...

Woke up around 9 am on the comfortable sleeping mats and couches in Paul, Donna, and Mac's place. Katherine, Mac, and I walked down to the grocery and picked up the necessary ingredients for French toast, including some cinnamon rolls at Mac's urging. Donna made some delicious coffee and we made a couple loaves of bread and 6 cinnamon buns into French toast. The breakfast was awesome, with the fresh from the farm butter and the french toast cinnamon rolls really taking it up a notch.


After breakfast we all (Paul, Donna, and Mac included) biked to a couple different bike shops while Arne fixed a flat tire at one.


The bike shop riding included a nice tour of downtown Calgary including the area where the medals were presented during the olympics. With Paul's suggestion of taking the metro train out of the city to avoid the traffic, we hopped on a train, and with a few detours and train hopping we made our way about 15 miles south of downtown where we hopped off the train.

It wasn't until 3:15 that we started riding, but we had a howling 20-30 mile per hour near direct tailwind. This was awesome as it bumped our pace from probably 12 mph to 20 mph. The road was pretty flat through lots of farmland, a nice change in riding conditions and scenery after a long time in the mountains.


After about 30 miles of riding we stopped for a quick dinner at Tim Hortons, and we all appreciated being in populated areas again where these places exist. With the tailwind howling we took advantage of it and ended up riding 98 miles, not bad for a 3:15 start. We set up camp at old man river campground near Fort Macloud around 9:30 pm. A great day with a good breakfast, good company, good weather, and a huge tailwind.

9/12
Following an 8:15 wake up we had some oatmeal and bagels for breakfast and were on our way to Fort Maccloud. We stopped for a water fill up at the a and w and rode on towards the USA. As with most things, our tailwind from yesterday had turned into a headwind today. The pace was slow at first as we traveled through flat farmlands, but as the wind died down the pace picked up.


After a lunch at extra foods with the sun beating down on us we crossed back into the US around 6.


Nice to be back.



We began getting into the hills and mountains which make up glacier national park, and after a beautiful sunset we set up camp at johnson's campground in st. Mary lake.


A 76 mile day.

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Location:Banff NP, Calgary, Montana