getting there is more than half the fun (83.6% in fact!)
After a very short, flat bike ride, we arrived at the Avis counter at the airport to obtain our rental car. We retraced our route south through town to visit a bakery that was closed when we were in Crescent City about a month ago. We drove through all the towns from the CA portion …
Continue reading “Day #-4: Crescent City to Del Norte County Regional Airport (5 mi)”
We did it! We made it back to Crescent City, where several weeks ago we changed course and rented a car to drive up to Seattle. But, before we got here, we enjoyed some final Oregon coastal views. Our first stop was the southernmost city in Oregon on our route, Brookings. We unsuccessfully sought out …
Continue reading “Day #-5: Whaleshead Beach, OR to Crescent City, CA (34 mi)”
Before getting on our bikes, we spent a moment enjoying the view from our lodging. Loaded up with food for the entire day, we set out and were quickly greeted by a significant climb. After conquering the hill, we spent the rest of the day in the Scenic Corridor. The corridor did not disappoint! We’ll …
Continue reading “Day #-6: Gold Beach to Whaleshead Beach (20 mi)”
Today we alternated between being right along the coast and veering slightly inland into the forest. So, lots of gorgeous views. About 15 miles into our day’s ride, we slipped back in time, much to our dismay. Turned out, it was just a roadside attraction: Prehistoric Gardens. We wanted a brief break, so paid the …
Continue reading “Day #-7: Port Orford to Gold Beach (29 mi)”
We hadn’t been riding for half a mile when we spied an unassuming sign on the side of the road. In reality, the sign should have said We watched a pickup truck drive through the water and it was at least a foot deep. So, we turned around and got out to 101 a different …
Another day of cycling through gorgeous trees, but no spectacular coast vistas. We first encountered Charleston, where we saw Charlie the Tuna! The best part of our ride was that we were off 101 for all but 4 miles, so mostly had the road to ourselves. Before joining 101, we reached this very helpful intersection. …
Continue reading “Day #-9: Winchester Bay to Bandon (32 mi)”
The route out of town took us by the Umpqua River Lighthouse. We were as disappointed as these folks that we wouldn’t get to see gray whales. Like yesterday, no coast on today’s ride, but again many, many trees. This lovely map on the side of our road listed all the fun things we could …
Continue reading “Day #-10: Winchester Bay to North Bend (22 mi with cheating)”
Just as Punxsutawney has numerous colorful groundhog statues throughout the town, Florence is filled with decorated seals. So, as we were leaving, we passed one near the bridge across the Siuslaw River. We soon entered the Oregon Dunes. Miles and miles and miles of REALLY HIGH sandy hills that looked strikingly odd next to the …
Continue reading “Day #-11: Florence to Winchester Bay (26 mi)”
A short ride today because we had a mission we chose to accept: attending a 12:15 pm showing of Mission Impossible. But before we get to the highlights of the morning’s trip, we first have to wish a very happy 4th birthday to Hobie the wonder dog! Now back to the cycling. It was a …
As we were leaving our home for the night, we ran into a family that we met a few days ago at one of the vista point lookouts! We encouraged them to have a donut from the nearby coffee shop, which we had taste-tested (and gave 4 thumbs-up to) yesterday. To depart Newport, the first …
Happy World Bicycle Day! Despite the theme, we didn’t actually spend much time on our bikes today. Instead, we explored Newport. We started with the obligatory visit to the local bike shop, Bike Newport. Then we went to the tide pools in the Outstanding Natural Area (yes, that’s really what it’s called!) by the lighthouse. …
Unfortunately, we didn’t see any Northern Lights last night. But, according to posts online, it sounds like no-one else in Oregon saw anything either. We took a picture with long exposure just to check and this is what we got. We were less than half a mile into our journey today when we encountered the …
Continue reading “Day #-14: Lincoln City to Newport (26 mi)”
True to the pattern, no rain to start the day. So we took off and our first stop was the Grateful Bread Bakery where we got….sconed. We had one last glimpse of the ocean before heading inland. We then spent lots of time on Old Scenic Highway 101, which was great since we only saw …
Continue reading “Day #-15: Tierra del Mar to Lincoln City (33 mi)”
It seems we’re on an every-other-day schedule for sun and clouds. Today was cloudy and sprinkly again. We set out and passed a bay that is a significant source of Dungeness crab. A few miles later, we got a flat tire, which Glen awesomely fixed. Two miles later, we arrived at the cheese mothership. Their …
Continue reading “Day #-16: Rockaway Beach to Tierra del Mar (33 mi)”
Within a couple of miles from our amazing new home (the current owners have yet to be informed) we encountered the Arch Cape Tunnel. Fortunately there was a button to push to alert everyone that we were inside and there was a sidewalk. After an uneventful journey through the tunnel, we were met with amazing …
Continue reading “Day #-17: Arch Cape to Rockaway Beach (26 mi)”
Today was Alissa’s favorite day of the trip so far! So much ocean and such cute beachy towns! We woke up to gray skies and rain. We expected to have rain on this trip and were surprised it took this long to have a wet day. But, the Internet told us the rain would stop …
We knew we had some serious climbing to do today so we set out early. Good thing, since the wind was incredibly strong and directly in our faces. Fortunately 1/4 of the way into our trip, we came to the Berry Patch Restaurant, where slices of pie were available 24/7! Here we learned how various …
The day began with a speedy 10 miles down to Longview, WA where we got lunches to go. Then, as we did in Leggett during the Southern Half ™, we happily accepted some help with our journey. Brian (a Lyft driver) took each of us and our bikes separately across the Lewis and Clark Bridge. …
Continue reading “Day #-20: Castle Rock, WA to Clatskanie, OR (37 mi with cheating)”
After sleeping in, George (via Uber) drove us an hour to the Hummocks trailhead. When he dropped us off, we made him cross his heart and triple pinky swear that he would return to pick us up a few hours later. Very quickly, we joined up with the Boundary Trail, which leads up to the …
Fairly soon after leaving our home for the night, we had a Seinfeld moment. Not much later, we saw this sign so had to stop. The owner of the donut shop asked if we were training for the StP ride. Having never heard of it, we said no, then looked it up. Apparently there are …
Continue reading “Day #-21: Chehalis to Castle Rock (32 mi)”
Still no baby yet! But man do Mark and Jaclyn have quite the collection of antique knick-knacks. We got a late start this morning because we waited around to check out the Yelm Farmer’s Market. Then we had 13 car-free miles filled with gorgeous trees and more of the lovely yellow Scotch broom all the …
Our short rides the past two days were intentional to synchronize our schedule with our good friend Tom, who is moving from Tacoma to Colorado. While we were having breakfast, our other friend Jenny happened by! After breakfast we embarked on our longest ride of the Northern Half ™ thus far. We rode right by …
Who knew this area was train central? We passed this mural leaving Auburn and headed south to Tacoma. Along the way, we found ourselves derailed (ha, ha, see what we did there?) by…you guessed it! A train! Alissa claims she saw more trains today than over the course of her entire life. (Glen can’t believe …
Wait! What’s going on with our numbering system? Well, since we’re going south again, the numbers need to increase. So, we warped forward in time using the magic of the Internet and found out how long it will take for us to get back to Crescent City where we’ll call it a wrap (and rent …
In preparation for our trip, rather than in celebration for having finished it, we decided to eat our way through the city. At the Pike Place Market, we got some delicious cherries (turned out they were from CA) and apple cider. We encountered a block’s worth of people waiting for…something. Turned out to be Starbucks! …
No, we didn’t attach jet packs to our bikes! So, back in 2019 we bought “Cycling the Pacific Coast: The Complete Guide from Canada to Mexico” to inform us what to expect. In the intervening six years, we forgot one of its central lessons: We were, however, reminded of this dictum the previous day when …
Continue reading “Day #-3.5: Crescent City, CA to Roseburg, OR (150 mi)”
Today offered the first real test of our hill training (Mandeville Canyon and The Country in Diamond Bar). Turns out we’re doing this ride at precisely the right time! After arriving in Crescent City, we naturally tried this place for lunch: It was striking to take in both the beach and the redwoods in a …
Continue reading “Day #-3: Klamath to Crescent City (17 mi)”
Today we rode through 10 miles of redwoods. And we also rode through 10 feet of a redwood. Because of the short mileage today, we had time to visit a place from the 1940s roadside attraction era, the Trees of MYSTERY! (Alissa notes that she didn’t find anything particularly mysterious about them.) We got up …
As mathematicians we could not in good conscience use the same numbers over again from the first half of the trip. Moreover, we’re traveling in the opposite geographic direction, so we figured we should also travel in the opposite numerical direction. The day began on a lovely trail right along the coast, but sections were …
They say “well begun is half done,” but in our case, it seems the question is whether half done is well begun! After six years we decided to find out. So, here we are. Look familiar? After grabbing our bikes from the (still) friendly and (extremely) helpful folks at Revolution Bicycles, we headed north, embarking …
40 miles, 5 bridges, and 0 cars! That’s what the 5 Boro Bike Ride, held on Glen’s 50th birthday, promised. Since we’d spent the past couple of months riding in the rain, we figured we knew the drill and set out in the drizzle, along with 20,000+ other cyclists.
Alissa: What’s the next entry in this sequence? 306, Hideaway Suite, 2, 222, 230, Fishman’s Cabin, 6, 17, D33, 50, 2, 2, 306, 540, 512, 7, 688, 23, 53, 1, 12, 303, 107, 349, 18102, 4207, 513, 6331E, 316, 4046,… Oh you thought this post was going to be about our next adventure? 😉 These …
Alissa: After 1,000 miles, 14 counties, roughly 45,000 feet of elevation gained and lost, a min elevation of -7 feet, max elevation of 1930 feet, and one flat tire, we MADE IT! =) =) [Note: these numbers include our extra help from Day #5.] Our final day began with a giant wide road just for …
Continue reading “Day #27: La Jolla to US-Mexico Border (46 mi)”
Alissa: Our day began with delightful signage in the breakfast room! Hmph. We were NOT planning to ride 57 miles today. But thanks to the few, the proud at Camp Pendleton who decided to close the bike path for their training exercises, we got to ride on “the 5” for thirteen miles instead of six …
Continue reading “Day #26: San Clemente to La Jolla (57 mi)”
Alissa: It was a strange feeling yesterday being in civilization the entire day and knowing that this would be the case for the remainder of the trip. Even the ride along PCH in Malibu had unpopulated spots, so yesterday was really the first time the whole trip. Our ride today took us through all the …
Continue reading “Day #25: Newport Beach to San Clemente (27 mi)”
Alissa: And we’re back! I finished up my civic service for the good folk of Los Angeles County at the Pomona Superior Courthouse, so we loaded up our packs and set off for the border. The day started like many bike rides Glen and I have taken: southbound along the beach path going through Marina …
Alissa: My good friend Robert texted me a couple of days ago about the “millions” of butterflies in Los Angeles. Today we woke up to be greeted by all of them! It really was delightful to see so many of them at once, and fairly consistently down to Malibu. I’ve ridden this exact route a …
Alissa: It was only a matter of time… We’ve been lucky and this is our first flat. (And in a super convenient place–the hotel!) I have absolutely no clue how Glen’s tire and tube came to be in the state shown above, so perhaps he can explain what happened. Fortunately, he’s very good at fixing …
Alissa: Leaving Lompoc was awesome for a few reasons: it was a gorgeous day, we were heading back toward the coast, we left behind an incredible windy city, we rode through lush green hills, we had an enormous shoulder (basically as wide as an entire lane), and perhaps the awesome-est reason was the gleaming, shiny, …
Alissa: Getting to Goleta (the home of UCSB) from Santa Maria involves gaining well over 3,000 feet in elevation. So, we decided to polish off a third of that and stop in the city of art and flowers, Lompoc, CA. Our day started and ended with a long, continuous series of strip malls. CVS, Walgreens, …