Day 18 (Monday 11-7-2011): Route 26 rest stop to Riverton Motel 6

...and I'm back.  I feel bad for taking so long to post the rest of these blog entries but it wasn't really on the top of my list of things to do when I got back and without a reliable internet connection (I'm using a 'free' internet connection from a neighbor that cuts out quite frequently), it makes it a bit hard to view my routes on Strava and Google Maps online while cross-referencing to my photos to see exactly where I went that day and on what roads, through what towns, and passing by which notable locations.  I figured I'd take advantage of some free time (even though it's 55 degrees outside and I should be getting some riding in now instead of later this evening in the dark) to knock out a post or two.  I was discussing my trip with some friends last night at a birthday party so that sort of inspired me to get online and start writing the last nine days worth of posts chronicling my journey.  My recollections of the day's events might be somewhat hazy (another reason why I should have done this earlier and why relying on a laptop that could only be used for a few hours without an electrical socket on the trip wasn't exactly ideal for updating daily) but hopefully with pictures and a route I should be able to reconstruct the day's ride and activities pretty well.  I guess we will find out shortly...

I'm back!

Somewhere in Nebraska...

Sorry for the lack of updates, but let me give you a quick heads up for those of you that don't already know.  A week or two into the trip I realized I wasn't going to make it back to Philly by the 17th of November (a semi-arbitrary 'deadline' based on trying to be back before Thanksgiving, when I started up work again, and before the chance of snowstorms increased).  I decided instead of missing work, Thanksgiving, and facing an ever increasing chance of snow or bad weather, I'd make the date rather than the destination my final goal.  After doing some research (bus vs train vs plane all while taking into account getting 100+ pounds worth of bike and gear back as well), I booked a series of MegaBus rides back to Philadelphia leaving Tuesday, November 15 from Omaha, NE via Chicago, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh and arriving in Philadelphia Thursday around noontime.  My last week or so of riding through Wyoming and Nebraska were excellent with temperatures above freezing most nights and daytime highs mainly in the 50s and 60s - I even got a little sunburned!  An excellent bookend to my trip and I made it home safe and sound with little hassle.  Overall my trip was a success and was quite fun - I traveled through a bunch of states that I've never been in, saw some pretty neat things, and met some great people along the way.  I don't consider cutting out the eastern half of the US a 'failure' - it just provides another trip opportunity sometime in the future!

Anyways, I will get my my reports up for the rest of my trip but I'm not sure when exactly.  When I returned home my Internet connection no longer works (and still doesn't) and there aren't any other open wi-fi connections nearby that I can access from my home so I have to walk or drive someplace to get online.  Without a photographic memory, the only way I can really piece together each day of riding really well and write up a good blog post is if I can look at my Garmin GPS route online (to get the names of the start and end points, the towns I passed through, the lakes and rivers I passed over or next to, the highways I was on, etc) and compare it to the photos that I took.  This past weekend when I got home the weather was gorgeous so I was riding my road bike quite a bit and this week I've been quite busy so I haven't had the opportunity to spend several hours someplace with a reliable internet connection where I can sit down in peace and quiet and type them up and upload the photos.  Hopefully this weekend?  Stayed tuned - I haven't forgotten about my readers!  Plus the sooner I finish typing them up, the less details that I'll forget and that will allow for a better 'diary' of my travels to look back on later...

Corn dunes!

Day 17 (Sunday, 11-6-2011): Falls Campground to Route 26 rest stop

Mr. Freeze in a forest of Candy and Indian Corn.

Day 17 got off to a late start as I am still adjusting to the clock getting pushed back an hour. I didn't actually leave until close to 10AM and lo and behold, even after hearing snow plows go by several times that morning, the road still was not plowed all the way down to the pavement. I guess they don't use salt around here either. I was starting to dread a long day of biking on packed down, slick snow and ice without snow tires as well as 'wasting' a perfectly good day of mainly downhill riding when after about a mile and a half, the roads were miracously clear of any sort of snow or ice. Even the land to both sides of the road only had a dusting of snow.

Day 16 (Saturday, 11-5-2011): Falls Campground Snow/Rest Day

I did indeed decide to take the day off give the weather and the forecast of snow/rain. It was flurrying when I got up and flurried off and on throughout most of the day but never really snowed very hard – most of the two to three inches in the campground had come that night.
I walked back out to the road to check the condition of the plowing as I heard some snowplows come through and was disappointed to find that while plowed, it wasn't down to the blacktop and it wasn't salted either. The rest of the day I finished watching the TV shows that I had on my computer, read some, plotted out a general route to Nebraska on the map the park ranger who I had talked to the previous day gave me, and sorted through and edited photos from the previous week.

It was pretty cold the entire day (I don't think it broke 20 degrees according to my Garmin whenever I turned it on) and for some reason my feet wouldn't warm up, even inside a winter down sleeping bag.

Day 15 (Friday, 11-4-2011): Wyoming border to Falls Campground

Teton Pass looking down to Jackson

Wow – what a way to start the day. A good, hour and fifteen minute long climb to 8431' at the top of Teton Pass with a max gradient of 10%! These climbs keep getting higher and harder! The descents keep getting better too... I hit a max of 48.1mph in about as aero of a position as I could get on a full loaded touring bike. I descended down into Jackson Hole, the valley made famous by the yearly world economic forum that takes place here in a resort (I guess skiers would say it's made famous by it's world class ski slopes but I can't vouch for that having only been downhill skiing once). The city of Jackson itself was definitely a bit of a tourist and resort town and was pretty bustling.

Day 14 (Thursday 11-3-2011): St. Anthony to Wyoming border

Day 14 started off with an excellent homecooked breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. As I had run out of chain lube, I borrowed some of Jack's to fix my squeaky chain and also lubricated the rear derailleur cable housing that was causing my shifter cable to stick horribly, thus causing poor upshifting. Jack himself was getting ready to go mountain biking with some friends on some nearby trails later that morning.

Day 13 (Wednesday, 11-2-2011): Gilmore Summit to St. Anthony, ID

-0.3 degrees Fahrenheit

Gilmore Summit

Day 13 started out with some pretty cold temperatures – negative 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit was the lowest that my Garmin saw that morning as I was packing up. Both temperatures and elevation was getting more extreme as the trip progressed!  Good thing I picked up that better winter gear yesterday and brought the heavier, warmer down sleeping bag!

Day 12 (Tuesday 11-1-2011): North Bend, ID to Gilmore Summit, ID

Oh boy, another day of climbing after the brief evening descent into North Fork last night.  Luckily it was a gradual climb throughout the day, and for the first time, I had a tail wind most of the day so the going was pretty fast.  I had checked the weather the other day in Florence for where I thought I would be tonight and I saw overnight lows in the mid teens. Given how cold I was on the 30 degree descent down from Lost Pass I figured it would be a good idea to 'upgrade' both my gloves (5 finger, thick, non-wind and non-water proof full finger gloves) and balaclava (thin, and having an opening for my entire face).

Day 11 (Monday, 10-31-2011): Florence, MT to North Fork, ID

Even though it was dark out by the time I left, it wasn't a big deal as I was biking on a bike path for quite a ways that parallel highway 93.  After a ways the path ended when road construction began.  Unlike on the east coast where construction is usually done on one half of a road, shunting traffic into two narrow lanes of traffic on one 'normal' lane, out west they seem to like to work on the whole road at once.  For several miles the entire major highway was torn up and was just hard packed dirt and gravel.  Same thing with the bike path but worse so I ended up biking on the road for the most part.

Day 10 (Sunday, 10-30-2011): Route 12 to Florence, MT

The start of day 10 had me going over Lolo Pass over the Bitterroot Range. The steep part wasn't too bad and didn't require getting out of the saddle if you choose not to.  It was still a few miles long at a good 5% or more and took well over half an hour to get over the top. The elevation topped out at 5233' (the highest point I'd been so far) and there was snow along the sides of the road near the top – the first snow of the season that I have witnessed up close and personal.

Day 9 (Saturday, 10-29, 2011): Kooskia, ID to Route 12

Well I didn't get going until around 10 today, and repeatedly searching for my sunglasses throughout my stuff and the house did not speed things along any. After giving up looking for them, I headed out along Route 12. I knew I wasn't going to make it to Lolo or Missoula today given my start time, but that was okay as I hadn't contacted a Warmshowers host there. I was actually making pretty good time as it was a very gradual uphill with no 'kickers' what-so-ever.

Day 8 (Friday, 10-28-2011): Kooskia, ID

I slept in until nine something, and with seeing a forecast of rain tonight and having 130 miles to make it through the Rockies to civilization on the other side I figured I'd take the day off. After a week straight of long days in the saddle (not very impressive mileage if you look at it like a serious roadie, but some serious hours each day though) it's probably a good idea to rest up and hit tomorrow fresh for close to 75 miles and 7500 feet of climbing before a long gradual descent to either Lolo or Missoula, MT.

Day 7 (Thursday 10-27-2011): Colton, WA to Kooskia, ID

Lewiston, ID

Not too many pictures today, but I did get some awesome footage from one of the great elevations that I rode (two descents and one ascent). I got up around 6:30 and was on the road shortly before 7 (it was still a bit dark, but I didn't need my headlight on to see). I headed out onto 195 for a handful of miles before turning onto I-95. I was only on this for a mile or so until I turned off onto Old Spiral Highway which led down into Lewiston, ID, a fairly large city of around 30,000 residents. At the top was a magnificent scenic overlook of the city thousands of feet below and miles away.

Day 6 (Wednesday 10-26-2011): Benge to Colton, WA

Eastern Washington landscape

The next morning I woke up, packed my stuff and headed out. The T intersection that I entered town in went either north or south so I headed south. Five minutes or so in, I realized I had forgotten a water bottle back at the church so I went back to retrieve it. My 6:30AM wake up time turned into a close to 9:00AM actual departure time. Unfortunately, the road that I was on started heading south-west after some ways and it actually intersected with the highway that I chose to avoid last night at the farther away town! I did pass one or two dirt roads, but figured I'd skip them as I didn't want to get lost and I was holding out hope that the road would curve back east. There was another 'lost' ten or fifteen miles...

Day 5 (Tuesday 10-25-2011): Route 26 to Benge, WA

Early morning frost - the first of the season!

The start of day five was my first experience with sub-freezing temperatures and frost over my tent and bike gear. Actually, that's the first night camping ever that I think I've been in sub-freezing temperatures. My sleeping bag was quite warm though and moving around picking up camp I continued to stay warm in my cycling gear. Even though I woke pretty early, I didn't hit the road until a tad after 9AM. I started heading northeast to hit Spokane, my destination and launching point to get to Glacier National Park. However, about half way through the day I decided that probably wasn't the greatest idea already being several days behind schedule for riding and several days late in departure time so I headed back south east again.

Day 4 (Monday 10-24-2011): Ellensburg to Rte 26.

Day 4 began with a somewhat late start. I didn't leave Mel's house until around 9:45 or so (after some waffles with REAL maple syrup!) and I rode the five miles into town to look for a spare tire and perhaps search out a USB cord for my phone. I ended up picking up a Specialized Armadillo 35c wire bead tire from the local bike shop. That thing was so thick and non-pliable that you probably wouldn't even need to put an inner tube in it! It looked and felt pretty much flat-proof though which I guess is a good thing. Passing by a cell phone store I picked up a Micro-B USB cord so that I could charge my cell phone (I had forgotten my cord back in Philadelphia). Finally, I stopped at the infamous Jack-in-the-Box fast food join (remember the early/mid 90s when there was that e. coli outbreak at the chain?) to try out their burgers (not really any different or better than McD's or BK) before heading out on Vantage Highway. It was quite low traffic and ended it's run down to the Columbia River with a multi-mile, fast, flowing descent where I averaged 30+mph and hit 43mph at one point! Along the way I passed by the Gingko Petrified Forest.

Day 3 (Sunday, 10-23-2011): Snoqualmie Tunnel to Ellensburg, WA

Keechulus Lake

 Day 3 I finally figured I would make it out to Ellensburg and meet up with Mel, the host. I woke up around daybreak, packed up my gear (my tent didn't dry out in the tunnel which ended up being too damp) and hit the trail around 9. Things went well, and the weather was excellent – sunny and temperatures in the mid to high 50s. I passed some more spectacular views of the Cascades before having to make a detour onto the I-90 shoulder with 75mph traffic whizzing by to bypass some 'dangerous' railroad tunnels on the JWT.

Day 2 (Saturday 10-22-2011): Bike trail to Snoqualmie Tunnel

The John Wayne Trail

It rained pretty heavily the first night and I had to put the tent away wet as it was still raining in the morning. I was pretty concerned about the next night if I didn't make it to my Warmshowers destination in Ellensburg as I figured the inside of tent would be soaked. Thankfully, the temperature was pretty decent and the rain tapered off for most of the day. It lightly rained off and on, but nothing that required putting on rain gear, at least until the end of the day.

Day 1 (Friday 10-21-2011): Seattle to a bike trail

Departure at the I-90 bridge

My first post about my experience cycling across the country! I'm not typing most of these posts the day that they happen so I'm not sure how that changes the reading experience as events and experiences have a chance to mellow, sink in, and perhaps take on a different meaning or tone in my memory as compared to typing them day off. Without constant internet access and only a three to four hour battery life, I mainly just use my laptop when I'm at some place that has internet access, a power outlet, and I have time to kill (ie, not during daylight hours).

My bike and stuff...

Just a heads up before I get going with seven days of updates: my Internet connection is dreadfully slow so I'm just going to post up text for now - I'll add photos later to make things look pretty!  The first two days should already be up on Facebook.  Before I get going with 8 days of updates, here's a list of all the stuff that I brought with me.

Bike:

64cm Windsor Tourist

Front wheel swapped for a Shimano 2.4 watt dynamo hub laced to a 32 spoke wide Velocity rim

ReeCharge regulator/battery to transform (and store) the AC power from the hub into useable 5v power to charge electronics through USB cords

NxNW... MT to WA

The Cascades

Tuesday I finished off my journey by arriving in Seattle. Suprisingly, today featured what I thought was the most boring section of driving on the whole trip – the roughly 150 miles between Spokane and the Cascade Mountains. It was completly flat, and I don't think the highway turned once. Very few trees either, just miles upon miles of irrigated farmland and grassland. Pretty much the only interesting things I saw along this portion of the drive were giant house-shaped stacks of hay.

King of the Road - WI to MT

This would have been helpful
to know a few weeks ago...

The Black River Valley in WI

  Sunday I drove through the rest of Wisconsin to North Dakota. With an early start of around 7:30AM and 75mph speed limits the whole way, I figured today would be a good day to attempt a driving challenge: 1000 miles in one day! A rest stop in Wisconsin featured a scenic overlook of some pine barrens where I discovered the answer to a Quizzo question from a few weeks ago that our team didn't know regarding passenger pigeons.  Just a few weeks too late!

Driven - PA to WI

The Willis Tower in Chicago

After a multi-day delay from my originally planned departure date of Tuesday morning after I returned from New York, I finally headed out from Philly on Friday morning at around 11AM. Nothing really eventful happened on Friday and I made it out to Ohio before calling it a night. It did rain off and on during the day, quite heavily at some times and surprisingly that was the only rain that I drove through on my entire trip. I was a little worried about driving a manual as the only practice I had was half an hour or so of practice weeks ago when Goran first let me know about his request for someone to drive his car to Seattle.  I actually didn't stall at all during the first day until I was driving around that night in some town looking for an open wifi signal.

Sunset somewhere in Ohio

I happened to run across a Tim Horton's at my stopping place for the night so I compared one to a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts sold at a gas station (no, I did not eat them all in one sitting like I would normally).  The prepackaged Krispy Kremes won hands down.  So far they have knocked down Ambler Donuts, Tim Horton's, Little Debbies, supermarket bakeries, and Dunkin' Donuts with ease.  Can Krispy Kreme be overthrown?  I doubt it...  I also was finally able to find and eat at an elusive White Castle.  Quite greasy but not bad.

Empire State of Mind

Bear Mountain Oktoberfest

Better late than never, right? Anyways, over Columbus Day weekend my friends and I made our yearly bike trip up to NYC and beyond. Two familiar faces were missing although we did pick up two new travelers this year as Brett (Houser) and Chat joined in.  Chris, although in town from Oregon, was visiting with family and Jackie had school work to attend to.  Friday night was a flurry of activity as I worked on my bike, went bowling, then came back and continued working on my bike until around 3:45AM.  I woke up at 6:15, ate some breakfast and headed out with Chat and Cooper, both of whom had stayed the night at my place after coming down from Columbia University the previous night. We met Trevor, Matt, Brett, and Nick at the Walnut Lane Bridge traffic circle at 7:30 to begin our journey north bound.

AT hiking in Rocksylvania

The beginning.

This Saturday my dad, brother and I did our yearly section hike of a portion of the PA section of the Appalachian trail.  This is our 4th year and we traveled southbound from Smith Gap Road to Hwy 309 and stayed overnight at the George Outerbridge Shelter.

Shipping Up to Boston

This weekend I headed up to Boston with my teammates Kyle and Nick (our other teammate Todd drove up and stayed separately from us) to race in the final, end of season criterium, the TD Bank Mayor's Cup around Government Square in the downtown district.  With the cancellation of the Capital Crit in Washington, DC this upcoming weekend, Mayor's Cup served as a last minute replacement as the finale of the USACrits Series.  However, it was only 60 minutes long - roughly the length of a local amateur crit and no where close to the 50 miles that CapCrit was supposed to be.  Weak!

An Introduction...

So as some of you may have heard, I plan on biking across the country this October and November.  My route will take me from Seattle, Washington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania via some as yet to be determined route. Ever since I got into cycling a few years back, it has been something that I have wanted to do at some point in my lifetime. Further ambition was provided by my friend Doug who biked cross country earlier this summer to raise awareness for TBI - check out his travels here.  An awesome opportunity arose last week when my friend Goran was looking for someone to drive his car out to Seattle.  He is moving out there in the end of October when he finishes up his thesis at UPenn and he wasn't going to have enough time before his job starts to drive out there himself. That's when I realized this was the perfect opportunity for me to fulfill my dream and I stepped in and volunteered. It's a win-win situation for both of us for a somewhat 'big' and somewhat last minute request and trip!