Category: 2024

Mike here, it’s been a while. I flew into Eugene, unpacked the bike, and ride straight to Mago Gilson’s lovely AirBnb where she taught me to play La Bamba on the Jarana into the wee hours of the night.

The next morning I wandered around Eugene until the other bums arrived.

Nick’s knee was bothering him, so we decided to take the rest of the day to let him recover, which culminated in a late night hot tub rental.

The next day Nick was feeling better enough to ride. We rode 67 miles, which was longer than we intended, but the McKenzie forest fires of 2000 destroyed several of the campgrounds we were looking for.

We camped at McKenzie bridge campground, 26 miles from the peak of McKenzie Pass. Today we climb!

• Yesterday, I pushed my bike over a sand dune to do the requisite ‘wheel dip’ in the Pacific Ocean
• Had a lovely ride out of Florence with a pretty nice tail wind most of the day
• The campground we were aiming for was closed, but we ended up finding a decent spot tucked in behind the volunteer fire department at triangle lake.
• This morning, we hit up the father’s day pancake breakfast at the local Grange – 5 stars, would eat again
• Pretty gentle ride to Eugene to meet up with Michael
• Decided to stay in Eugene whilst Nick reconsidered his relationship with his knee

Another journey begins! Nick and I made the drive from Oakland to Florence without incident. It turns out that the wages of 10 weeks on a bicycle is 9 hours on I-5 in an oversized SUV.
I’m now on a bus heading back to Florence after dropping off our car in Eugene. Almost finished with the logistical acrobatics so that we can finally start riding bikes!