Month: July 2011

dear gum chewers, please remember to use a trash can that is not the sidewalk. yours truly, clipless pedals

lunch

we’re finally made it to our last county in ca, siskiyou. turns out they replaced the 8000 foot climb over lassen with a pleasant nearly flat country road and the replaced the world’s grossest port a potty with a real bathroom at the subway lava tubes. ok, really we went around lassen because the road is still covered in snow. but the second part is true. took a day off at burney falls to recharge our knees. we’re on to oregon next and i’m keeping my fingers crossed that the remaining passes will be open. This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

view from our tent

had another mostly flat day, which has been a nice break from the constant climbing. i’ve been trying to stay hydrated but it’s difficult after getting baked by the sun in the afternoon. the ac map lists camping at the store in hornbrook, but it closed earlier this year. so we found the next best option, the field behind the first and last chance saloon. and yes, it really is.

i’d take a photo from outside the tent but there are just too many mosquitos

greg swimming in crater lake

cold!

we were very lucky the other day to get a campsite at mazama in crater lake. just as we were walking up, there was a cancellation. we’d already done close to thirty miles of climbing and were ready to call it a day. we spent a few hours in the park and greg even went swimming in the cold cold water, much to the shock of the other hikers. we are enjoying breakfast in beaver marsh where we did not take on the hotcake challenge. if you eat three in thirty minutes you get your picture on the wall. six have tried. there are no pictures on the wall.

The last few days through oregon have been great! After my cold plunge in Crater Lake and The Biggest Pancake in the World, we headed up the cascade lakes scenic highway, which was gorgeous. We camped at the headwaters of the deschutes river whilst armies of mosquitos tested our defenses. Megan had an amazing day of street-scoring; not only did she find a really nice cycling jacket on the side of the road, but also a working iphone! We did the right thing and gave it back to its very grateful forest ranger owner in Bend, and he sponsored our night of debauchery at the Deschutes brewery! I highly recommend the black butte porter xxiii limited. We ran into 7 other bike tourists yesterday, but noone doing our route. Now we’re camping on a beautiful lake – with no mosquitos!

we me up with Kristin yesterday. Somehow we got ahead of schedule, but had no trouble killing a day in Hood River. Microbrews + Harry Potter took care of most of that. Also I replaced my shifter, which was about to fall apart – I guess that’s to be expected after 17000 miles. Luckily the discovery bike shop gave me a killer deal on a slightly used one. We’re about to cross over into washington, so it’s back to pumping our own gas. It’s been a little cool anf gloomy, with bits of rain off and on, but I much prefer this to 106 degrees.

after getting a tip from another cyclist we rode over elk pass yesterday. we scoffed at the closed sign as we hopped the gate and spent the next 16 miles in car-free bliss. there’s no reason it should still be closed. we heard there was a mile of foot-deep snow, but it’s all melted now. we’re hiding out from the rain and waiting for waffles.

taking a nap on the yellow line