Wander Around Washington -- 7-28-07

I'm awake at 5:00 AM and rolling again at 5:15 AM. My good timing continues and I roll right onto the 5:30 AM ferry headed to the Fauntleroy terminal in west Seattle.



Rather than take the hilly route across West Seattle, I take the longer, prettier route that includes the waterfront trails and Beach Drive.


I notice hand-drawn sharrows on the street. At first I think these might be some direct action from local riders but as I see more of these and some thin white lane markers, I suspect these are place-holders indicating where the city will lay down official markings.




I see the very familiar Seattle skyline, ride over the west Seattle bridge and ride north to my Pioneer Square work neighborhood. I stop for coffee and a maple bar at Zeitgeist and then head for home via my usual commute route.


As I'm rolling across the floating bridge which connects Seattle to Mercer Island, I cross paths with my pal Mark Vande Kamp. Mark is out for a morning ride and he reverses course to accompany me across the island. I give him the super-condensed version of my tour story. "We'll have to go riding," he says. "Yeah," I agree, "but maybe not right away. I think I'm going to take a few days off!"

On the east end of Mercer Island, Mark turns back toward Seattle and I continue on to Issaquah.

I'm home at 9:40 AM. Over the past 15 days, I've ridden 1341 miles, taken hundreds of pictures, and chatted with dozens of people about cycling in their parts of the world. I have lots to think about, and a lot of work to do.

I want to thank everybody who helped make this trip happen, the folks who offered their hospitality and time, the people who covered for me back at the office, the people who work in mini-marts and run ferries and build roads. And all the people everywhere who work hard to remind folks that a bike can be a good way to get around in this world.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

Wander Around Washington -- 7-27-07 (Vashon Island)

My dad believes in the concept of Karma, although he never refers to it that way. Instead I remember him saying to me over the years, "Son, clean living pays off."

I'm thinking of my dad this evening. As I work my way north toward the ferry terminal, I realize I'm low on cash so I'm looking for a cash machine. The gas station has a cash machine, but it's out of order. The lady at the cash register sees me looking at the machine and says "I can give you up to forty bucks in change off your card."

"Great," I say grabbing a Gatorade.

"Oh, you don't need to buy anything," she says.

"No," I insist, "I'm thirsty."

I get my quart of Gatorade and a bunch of change, thank the clerk and roll down the hill to the ferry terminal. "Just in time," the fare-taker tells me. I roll on the boat and it pulls away from the dock ten seconds later.

Clean living pays off.

I've never been a fan of cell phones, but my boss strongly suggested one would prove to be handy on this trip and he was right. I'd used the phone a lot to set up meetings, connect with folks and even do a couple of interviews but my favorite use of the thing has been to call my lovely wife. I call her now from the ferry, tell her how much I miss her, how close I am to home, how lovely Mount Rainier is off to starboard at this moment. I'll be home tomorrow. I'll camp somewhere on Vashon Island.

It's a short ferry ride to Vashon. The light is fading and the warm day is becoming a cool, clear night. I pull on my yellow rain jacket both for warmth and visibility. I turn on the lights on both my bike and my helmet.





Vashon is always lovely but there is something wondrous about the island at night. Only a few miles from the big cities of Seattle and Tacoma, Vashon remains a world apart. While the cities blaze and hum and click and whir with the business of men every hour of each day and night, Vashon remembers the rhythms of the sun and moon, the tides and the trees. The island sleeps. Here and there a dog barks at my passage, remarking on the unusual break in the natural order.

I could ride through the night, catch a late ferry to the mainland and perhaps be home by midnight. I have the legs and the lights to do it. But tomorrow will come soon enough and as the poet Bill Holm has noted "the heart can be filled anywhere on earth". My home is not just Issaquah or in the arms of my beautiful wife. It is not even just Washington state, this lovely state I've gotten to see know a tiny bit better over these past weeks. Willie Nelson said "home is where you're happy." I'm happy to be right here, right now.

I find a quiet clearing, not far from the road, dark and quiet and I roll out my bivy sack. By the light of my helmet, I see a small slug about an inch and half long. This slug is more active than most slugs I've seen. The creature is waving all four of its tentacles, it knows I'm here.

I don't know much about slugs, but tonight I learn something new. I'm settling in, drinking the last of my Gatorade and eating the last of a bag of chocolate chip cookies. I don't think there are bears on Vashon but as is my custom, I stash the food somewhere away from where I sleep. But before I do, I shake a few cookie crumbs out near the slug.

A tiny crumb is a big cookie to a slug. By the light of my helmet I watch the slug reach for a crumb with its lower tentacles. It seems to like the crumb, it grabs it up, stuffs the crumb in its mouth and chews. Then it reaches for another.

I settle in for the night. In the morning, all the crumbs and the slug are gone.

Today's stats: Dst 77.56 miles Ave 11.8 mph Max 29.0 mph

Wander Around Washington -- 7-27-07 (Trail and Tacoma)

I roll out of Olympia around noon. My destination is Tacoma but as I often tell new bike commuters, "the most direct route for driving isn't necessarily the best route for bicycling." This is very much the case when attempting to ride from Olympia to Tacoma (or vice-versa). The direct route is Interstate 5 and a combination of marsh land to the west and McChord Air Force Base to the east effectively eliminate the possibilities for side roads. It's legal to ride the freeway here and I rode the freeway last February when Brad, Michael and I came down for Lobby Day, but today I figure I'll take a longer, but more pleasant route.

I basically go what seems like the wrong direction. I go east to Lacey, catch the Chehalis Western Trail south to Rainier and then follow the Yelm to Tenino Trail
north and west to SR507. This big loop takes me around the Air Force Base and even though it adds miles to the day, the route is on pleasant, shaded corridors where the trains used to run.





At 2:00 PM, somewhere north of Rainier, I catch up with a couple of riders whose loads indicate that they are out for something more than just a day ride.

Mel Roberts and Dennis Neusel are headed to Centralia for a couple day trip and once I convince them that I'm headed to Tacoma and yeah, I know it seems like I'm headed the wrong way, we have a great chat. Mel and Dave are both not just cyclists, they are cycle activists. I would've thought I was the only person taking pictures of things like roads and shoulders and trail surfaces and gates, but I would be wrong. Mel excitedly shows me pictures he's been taking of the trail. Dennis and Mel are both active in the Kent WA Bicycle Club and the Kent Bicycle Advisory Board. Our both being on this trail at the same time is completely serendipitous, but these two guys are yet another example of the kind of person I've met every day on this trip. Good roads and quiet paths in the forest don't just happen, they happen because people who care, people like Dennis and Mel and Larry and Carley and Emily and Todd and Beth and John and Liz and all the rest, make them happen.


At 2:30 Mel and Dennis roll off southwest toward Tenino while I turn northeast toward Yelm where I catch SR507 heading north.


Mount Rainier dominates the horizon, reminding me that I'll be home tomorrow.


SR-507 features something rare and wonderful, rumble strips that seem to have been designed with some consideration given to bicyclists. A few days ago I took pictures of bad rumble strips on Hwy 12, strips that take up most of the shoulder. In contrast, the rumble strips on SR-507 are built into the fog and center lines, effectively leaving the full width of the shoulder available to the cyclist. In addition, every dozen feet or so there are gaps in the rumble strips enabling cyclists to move from the shoulder to the traffic lane. Much of the time on a country road like this the shoulder is the best place to ride, but of course a cyclist might have to merge into the traffic lane to get ready to make a left turn or to avoid some debris and it's good to see a road design that recognizes the legitimate needs of non-motorized road users.

The relatively quiet SR-507 merges with SR-7 which becomes Pacific Avenue as it rolls north to Tacoma. For a while there is shoulder and a bike lane but there is also road construction, the urban franchised "everybody knows this is nowhere" sprawl and the five o'clock rush hour. The road and traffic get worse and even though I'm an experienced urban cyclist, I wouldn't recommend this route at this time to most cyclists. For the first time in several weeks and over 1200 miles, I'm advised by one of my fellow road user to "get the f**k off the road!" I'm sure that it's easier to yell at one cyclist going 12 miles per hour instead of the hundreds of other drivers stuck in traffic going 12 miles per hour but I'm guessing this fellow, who looks like he answered a casting call for "red-neck pick-up driver", isn't saving all his rage for me. I've always been a "choose your battles" kind of guy and I figure this fellow really isn't in the mood to really discuss traffic, transportation and the rules of the road. I stop for a yellow light that mister truck blasts through and the last I see of him he's raising his blood pressure over some woman in a minivan who happens to have committed the sin of being ahead of him on his road.

At 5:25 PM, I'm in downtown Tacoma. I haven't scheduled any big meetings here but Gene Smith is a local cyclist whose offered to buy me dinner and show me around.

Gene is a great guy. We'd met a earlier this year at a commute seminar I gave at the Tacoma health department and we'd also ridden together on an SIR training ride. Over burgers we talk about the city, riding and roads. Tacoma still has some cobbled roads and steep hills, it's a place where local knowledge pays off. When I tell Gene that I came in on Hwy7/Pacific he says something like "Wow, that's...uhh...brave." I think the word he was searching for was "stupid" but I appreciate the substitution. The next time I visit, I'll map things out a bit more carefully.

After dinner we ride around town for a bit. Gene has to get home and I too am anxious to get going. I roll down to the waterfront and take a few pictures in the fading light. It's been a good day's work, but I'm thinking I can get a little closer to home. I head north to see if I can catch a ferry to Vashon Island.

Wander Around Washington -- 7-27-07 (Olympia)

This morning I do touristy bike-geeky things. I take pictures of the capitol. I take pictures of bike lockers and bike racks by the transit center. I take pictures of my bike by a big war statue.





At 9:00 AM, I meet up with Larry Leveen at his house. Larry is one of those great guys who just plain gets things done. Larry literally wrote the book on bike commuting and then put it up as a free PDF here:

http://www.olybikes.com/resources/commute.pdf

He has a bunch of other great stuff including printable summaries of the Washington State bicycle laws on his website here:

http://www.olybikes.com/resources.html



Larry and I chat for several hours. Larry has a good sense of what works in terms of growing a community that fosters cycling. "It's not just facilities and infrastructure, it's education." But jurisdictional issues make it hard to do programs and it's relatively easy to put a stripe of paint on the road. But a bad bike lane, something that encourages cyclists to ride in the door zone or dumps them into the path of right turning cars, often does more harm than good.

We talk about the Effective Cycling people. "The problem is a lot of people will never even consider riding in traffic and a lot of EC folks spend way too much time and effort railing against facilities." I tell Larry about a site I tend to point people to, Michael Bluejay's How Not To Get Hit By Cars. "I like it because it's more pragmatic and less dogmatic."

Larry and I agree that one of the things that makes us safer as cyclists is if there are more of us out there. And that's where facilities can help. But it's not all one thing or the other. Bike trails, bike lanes, vehicular cycling, sharrows, helmets can all be part of the mix but each of those things can also be a point of controversy that absorbs huge amounts of time and energy.

Larry has good advice on how not to get bogged down in the "you're wrong!" discussions. "Keep the ego out of it. Work on what you can and if folks wind up using it, that's great." He points to his commute guide. "We just made it." Larry left space on it where folks can put their own logos and stuff and he encourages folks to print it out and use it. "It's been used by a variety of other states and towns." He's found it pirated in some cases but usually people ask. "I don't have a problem with people making copies, that's why we made it, but it's better if they ask. I can keep track and keep people up-to-date with revisions." As with many things, there is more to do than time to do it. I tell Larry I'll be happy to help with the next round of revisions.

Larry is getting ready to head off on a camping trip, so I thank him for his time and all his great work. It's 11:00 AM now and his shop is open so I swing down to Oly Bikes to snap a few pictures, get a local bike map and advice on the best route out of town.

Oly Bikes is a tiny shop, but they make great use of their small space. They sell a lot of basic transportation bikes and Larry told me that business is up 20% this year and 40% for the last month. Since coming to Olympia, I've seen more bike trailers in use than I've noticed anywhere else. Larry attributes the popularity of the trailers to the presence of Evergreen College and it's environmentally minded students. There are a lot of folks in this town riding bikes instead of driving to do errands, get groceries and do other practical things.

Wander Around Washington -- 7-26-07

7-26-07 Portland OR to Olympia WA

Even though I'd told her that I in no way expected her to be awake when I left, Beth got up very early this morning to make sure I had everything I needed before taking off. I take her up on her kind offer of breakfast and we have a wonderful quiet chat over coffee, cereal and toast before I take off at 5:20 AM. Beth's notes of that chat are here:

http://bikelovejones.livejournal.com/44576.html

I work my way north and west through the streets of Portland, past the college and out of town via the St. John's bridge. I stay on the Oregon side of the Columbia, stopping briefly at a minimart in the little town of Deer Island for some coffee and a candy bar.



At 10:10 AM I cross back into Washington via the Longview Bridge. The traffic is heavy on the bridge and the narrow shoulder is strewn with bark debris from the passing logging trucks. As has been the case earlier on this trip, I'm glad to be riding a bike with fat, tough, two-inch wide tires instead of some faster, skinny-tired machine. My green bike might not win and beauty or speed contests but it's proven itself to be a great bike when the road conditions are less than perfect. The Schwalbe Marathon tires let me hold a straight line and roll over a lot of road junk that would puncture more fragile treads.



I work my way through the Longview traffic and head north on the relative quiet of route 411. I'm basically following the Seattle-To-Portland (STP) route backwards and I stop for snacks at Castle Rock and Winlock, where I take a picture of the World's Largest Egg.


It's been years since I've ridden the STP and my state map doesn't have the detail to list all the small local roads but my navigation seems to be going OK. I see a few other riders out enjoying the day and as I get closer to Centralia, I start following some local Dan Henry marks.



Like hobos of bygone days, some cyclists leave marks for their fellow travelers in the form of a visual code. On this trip I have relied on the State Bike Map and various local bike maps for navigation, but often I've found the knowledge of local riders is my best guide. In this case, the Dan Henry marks get me close to Chehalis via some lovely local farm roads. In Chehalis I cross I-5 and then roll north to Centralia.

I'd arranged to meet Phil Meany in Centralia. Phil is a very nice retired fellow who'd been the Centralia College librarian for nearly 40 years. He is also an avid cyclist who has served on the Washington State Bicycling Advisory Committee. Phil and I meet up at Santa Lucia Coffee Roasters in downtown Centralia. We have a wide-ranging chat over coffee and Phil tells me about the local cycling and history. He hands me some local ride sheets he's produced and tells me about work he's done to promote the area as a cycling destination. Since the Centralia area features many quiet country roads, is equidistant from Portland and Seattle and right on the Amtrak line, it is be a good get-away destination for riders from either of those cities. One of the sheets Phil hands me is for the Historical Lewis County Bicycle Ride. I suspect that the Dan Henry marks I was following earlier mark out one of the loops of this ride.

Phil also advises me on my route to Olympia. "The shoulder will disappear right at the Thurston county line, but it the road widens a bit further on and then the shoulder returns." I still have some miles to cover today, so I thank Phil for his time and the great information and head north at 5:30 PM.


I roll into Olympia at 7:45 PM, snap a picture and know why I've been lugging a spare camera around. One of the weaknesses of my cheap pen-cam is that the shutter button is fragile. As I snap the photo below, the shutter button jams inside the camera. The shutter directly on a micro-switch which is soldered to the camera's circuit board. I should say "was soldered to the circuit board" because it just sheared off. I guess I'll be taking pictures with my other camera for the rest of the trip.
I explore a bit of Olympia, grab a burger and some onion rings for supper. As darkness falls I find a quiet place to roll out my bivy. (This trip has taught me that I would make an excellent hobo!)

Today's Stats: Dst 135.62 miles Ave 11.5 mph Max 29.0 mph

Wander Around Washington -- 7-25-07 (Portland)

After lunch Todd and I ride back over the I-5 bridge into Portland. Todd explains that Vancouver really doesn't have much in terms of bike shops. The tax situation works against Vancouver shops, Oregon doesn't have a sales tax and Washington does and given a choice most consumers want to avoid the tax. While Vancouver is bike shop poor, Portland is bike shop rich.

We stop by a shop called Revolver Bikes. Todd's looking for a solution to keep the grips from wiggling around on his bike and I chat with Mark Pickett about his business. Lots of practical bikes here but the one that catches my eye is a Redline Monocog 29er. I've always been very happy with my 26" wheeled Monocog and while I've been intrigued by the big-wheeled bikes, I've never been sure how they'd work for someone of my relatively small stature. Mark happens to be about the same height as me (5'6") and he says it's not a problem. Then he adds what I've heard so many times from the 29er folks, "those big wheels just roll over lots of stuff that would bog down a smaller wheeled bike." Mark also tells me what I've heard in every shop, "business is up, more folks are riding."

Todd and I split up here. I've got the address of my internet friend Beth Hamon and I've got her instructions and the Portland bike map and Todd's advice on how to get to Beth's place. Everything works and at 2:00 PM, I'm at Beth's house.

This is the first time I've met Beth in real life, but we've traded a lot of emails, we know a lot of the same people and we're on the same wavelength on a whole bunch of issues. Beth is a wonderful person and she's just a delight to be around. She's taken the day off from work and she and her sweetie opened their home to me and Beth made it clear that I could do as much or as little as I wanted to in terms of seeing Portland. If I wanted to veg out, that was fine, if I wanted to go places, she could guide me or I could check things out on my own. If I needed to work on my bike, her home shop was at my disposal.


Beth is super knowledgeable about bikes and Portland and a bunch of other stuff. I took her up on her offer to play tour guide. I'd arranged to meet Jonathan Maus, the man behind the wonderful Bike Portland Blog, at Clever Cycles at 4:30. Clever Cycles was another place that I really wanted to see when I was in town. I knew that Jonathan's office wasn't to far from Clever Cycles and I figured I could make the best use of my time by meeting him there.

After spending a bit of time at Beth's we rolled south. Beth filled me in on local history while we rode and showed me the big "hill" in the neighborhood. I had to put "hill" in quotes because it highlights a difference between Portland and Seattle. Portland is a heck of a lot flatter than Seattle. They label things as hills things we wouldn't bother to mention. Portland's Mount Tabor would wind up in the "hill" category back home.


Beth rode her wonderfully practical city bike which sports a handy Citybikes Bike Bucket. The bucket pannier is made locally at Citybikes, the worker-owned co-op where Beth works as a bike mechanic.

On the way to Clever Cycles we stop by another great Portland bike resource, the Community Cycling Center. The Center is huge and since Beth used to work here, she knows everybody. She introduces me and proceeds to give me a tour of every nook and cranny of the place. To quote from their website:

The Community Cycling Center, founded in 1994, helps build skills and foster personal development of youth and adults through community-oriented educational and recreational bicycle programs and services.

We refurbish donated bicycles and redirect them for use in programs and our neighborhood bike shop.

I chat a bit with Alison Hill about where they get their bike donations and if they get any off the bikes forgotten off TriMet buses.

"Some of the drivers will donate bikes that are forgotten and unclaimed," I'm told.

I then tell Alison and Beth a bit about one aspect of my job up in the Seattle area. "The Bike Alliance has a contract with Metro and Sound Transit to handle the bikes forgotten on King County buses."

"Do you get a lot of bikes left on buses?"

"Over 700 last year."

Beth and Alison are amazed, "What happens to them?"

"51% are claimed by their owners, another 5% get claimed by drivers (it's in their contract, they get dibs!) and the remaining 44% get donated to local charities." I realize that I sound like a total bike wonk but I guess I am a bike wonk, so it's OK. Plus I'd happened to have run the 2006 numbers for the lost bike program just before I'd left on this trip, so the stats are fresh in my mind.

"I don't think that many bikes get left in Portland," Alison ventures.

"Maybe not," I say, "but you should check into it. Of course there are a lot of Magnas and Verticals and other, uh... bike-shaped objects, but some of it is decent, usable stuff. We've recovered stolen bikes from bus racks and then there are just some genuine spaced-out dudes. I talk to lots of people who've forgotten their bikes on the buses and I talk to a lot of spaced-out dudes."

I go on, "We always see get the most bikes after a weekend and then there are some events that generate a bunch of lost bikes. You know what our biggest single day is?"

"Folklife?" Beth guesses.

"Close," I reply, "it's the Monday after Hempfest."



We're starting to run low on time so Beth and I pedal off to Clever Cycles. Todd Farhner opened Clever Cycles a few months ago and it's a really cool shop. Here's Todd's fifty word description of the place:

Clever Cycles serves families and businesses seeking to avoid dependence on cars with stylish, practical bicycles and accessories for everyday use. Dutch bakfietsen and city bikes, folding bikes, and our Stokemonkey electric assist for Xtracycles feature passenger and cargo capacity, plain-clothes comfort, all-weather readiness, and low maintenance.

The shop has an open, airy feel, almost like an art gallery and the bakfietsen and the bikes are all very stylish and practical. In the accessory department, Todd proudly shows me that they carry Rainlegs. I really like the looks of some of the practical grocery hauling panniers and it's super neat to have a shop where you could do something like test ride both a Bike Friday Tikit and a Brompton.


The bakfietsen are incredibly cool machines but I've worked my car-free life in such a way that I really don't have to haul big loads, so I think I'm immune to their charms. But they are amazing machines and for many folks, they really are the sporty utility vehicle that makes sense. Todd is well on his way to selling out is second batch of these machines.


Of all the folding bikes I've seen, the Brompton is the one that always strikes me as the cleanest folding. My wife often points out that I have too many bikes (she often says crazy things like that and things like "bikes don't belong in the kitchen," but she puts up with me and I think maybe someday a Brompton may find it's way into the Peterson household.





Both Beth and I get to test ride the bakfietsen but the real treat is when Todd takes each of us out for a spin as cargo. Todd has some pretty decent power in his legs (and for those of you who want an added boost, talk to him about a Stokemonkey electric assist) and he can make these machines just zoom. I felt like I was in a low-flying plane as we zipped around the Clever Cycle neighborhood.

I was quite impressed with the degree of walk-in traffic in the shop. The bakfietsen are their own best advertisements and they really draw people in. And of course, Portland is a very bikish town. A fellow whose name I didn't catch stopped by with his tall bike. One of the overwhelming things about Portland is just how darn many bikes and shops and riders you see. Cyclists really are a significant part of the transportation mix and there are lots of riders. Because there are more cyclists, drivers by and large expect to see cyclists and basically I saw drivers and cyclist coexisting quite nicely.

Jonathan Maus stopped by the shop and we chatted. Jonathan's blog is amazing. There is so much bike related stuff going on in Portland and it seems like Jonathan manages to cover all of it. Jonathan's take on our conversation is here:

http://bikeportland.org/2007/07/26/wandering-advocate-stops-in-portland/

As is often the case on this trip, I wish that I had more time to stay in one place, but Beth and I have to get rolling. We stop at her current place of employment, the the Citybikes Sales Annex. Citybikes is a worker owned and operated shop and on this Wednesday afternoon the place looks busy, although Beth tells me this is actually kind of slow. "The other day," she tells me, "we had a dozen people waiting for us when we opened up."



Our next stop is the grocery store where I get supplies for the road, and Beth picks up food for our final stop of the day: a potluck dinner over at Joel Metz and Ira Ryan's place.

The potluck is great fun. I first met Ira and Joel a few years ago when we all raced the Raid Californie-Oregon and Ira happens to be wearing the very sporty shirt from that very sporty event. Joel is a partner in the Magpie Messenger Collective and Ira builds beautiful bike frames in his business, Ira Ryan Cycles.

A few days ago I'd said to Laura Stone "I know people, urban chicken people, bike co-op people, foodies...I know lots of people." This was not just some smooth line to impress the chicks (pun intended!) but it's true. To illustrate the point, let me point out these facts:

Joel has a chicken coop and a garden behind his house. Michael Rasmussen (the commuter, not the guy who just got thrown out of the Tour de France), who organized this potluck, raises chickens in his back yard. And Patrick and Holly, who brought this wonderful chickpea, lentil and smoked wheat-berry dish, founded the Eastside Egg Cooperative. So yeah, I know chicken people!


Other folks at this little shindig include Beth's sweetie Liz, David Rowe and Sara Stout. David is a fellow randonneur and blogger and Sara is an interviewer for the local KBOO Bike Show. Sara is creating a small piece on randonneuring for KBOO so she interviews those of us who have ridden rando events. She says the show will probably air in the next month or two.



Michal brought the legendary pound cake, which his sweetie made because the recipe called for so many eggs. When you raise chickens, you tend to have a surplus of eggs. I do my bit for the cause by having three (or was it four?) slices of pound cake.

It's a great time with great people but I have to get up early to pedal to Olympia tomorrow, so as it starts to get dark, Beth and I head back to her place.

Stats: Dst 21.39 miles Ave 9.6 mph Max 22 mph

Wander Around Washington -- 7-25-07 (Vancouver)

If you can only talk to one person about bicycling in Vancouver Washington, Todd Boulanger is the person you should talk to. And if you are very lucky, like I happen to be today, you will get to spend a few hours with Todd and get to see a bicycle advocacy dynamo in action.

Todd's official title is Senior Transportation Planner for the City of Vancouver but pretty much everybody just thinks of Todd as "The Vancouver Bike Guy".

I check out of my motel at 8:30 AM and call Todd. "Where are you?" he asks. "Under a clock tower in a park by the convention center downtown," I tell him. "Great, I'll be there in three minutes. I'm doing some bridge timings and then I'm off to a meeting. You want to come along?"





Our schedules couldn't have meshed more perfectly. I have a few hours to find out a bit about cycling in Vancouver and one of the things I need to know about is how to get across the I-5 Bridge to Oregon. Todd happens to be doing timings of the existing bridge crossing and is then heading into a meeting with the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC).

We meet up and Todd and I head over the bridge. He stops at the base of the bridge, explains what we are doing, clicks his stop-watch and off we go. On the other side, he clicks the watch, jots numbers in his notebook and we repeat the process in the other direction. I'm busy snapping pictures and Todd's busy explaining the existing bridge crossing. He knows how many people go across the bridge, when they do it and why. Today he's getting some baseline numbers he'll use for comparison against some of the new designs.


He points out a bike pump bolted to a concrete pad at the base of the bridge. "Got air?" he asks. Later I'll find out (not from Todd) that he was the one who placed these pumps at various locations around the city.

We head over to the meeting. "You can stash your bike in a locker," he says and pulls out his wallet. He takes out a smart-card. "You can order these online," he says, showing me the card. "You can reserve a locker or use the card in any unreserved locker." The system is amazingly quick, clever and secure and I'm thinking that we have to get these things in Seattle. We stow our bikes and head into the meeting.


The meeting is three hours long and there are a lot of smart people in the room. I'm really just there to observe but this is just one meeting in a long series of discussions on the new I-5 bridge. People from both states and both cities are here, transportation folks, engineering folks, smart folks working on hard problems. There are engineering drawings and mock-ups and maps. There are grades calculated, ADA issues considered, budget projections, bullet points and outlines. It's an interesting three hours but it takes a special kind of person to keep going working on these big issues over the years it takes to make a project like this happen. I feel lucky to get a glimpse into this process and frankly glad that I'm not going to be going to every one of the meetings on this bridge project.


I mostly stay focused on bridge issues but I have to admit that I am a bit distracted by Carley Francis' legs. Well, one leg in particular, the one with the bike tattoo. Carley is the SW Region Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the Washington State Department of Transportation and I guess you could say her commitment to bicycles is more that skin deep.


After the meeting I chat briefly with Carley and some of the other folks. Joe Greulich introduces himself. Joe is a long time member of both the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and the Oregon Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Joe is very active in advocacy issues, doing things like attending our lobby days for the past several years. As Joe points out to me "I'm retired and I'm the only person in this room who isn't being paid to be here!" I thank Joe for all his efforts and say "it's guys like you, going to meetings like this, that make things happen. Thanks so much!"


It's lunch time now and Todd and I wind up going to lunch with another meeting attendee, Emily Gardner of Oregon's Bicycle Transportation Alliance. We talk about various bike geek things over some great Hawaiian food and when the check comes Todd insists on paying. Emily hands me a super nifty pocket size bike map of Portland and we use it to plot out my afternoon.

After lunch Todd and I get our bikes out of the lockers and roll back over the bridge to Portland.

Wander Around Washington -- 7-24-07

7-24-07 Iron Creek Campground to Vancouver

While I am a fan of living in the moment, one of the things that makes us human is our ability to plan, to anticipate, to understand cause and effect and use our human skills in the present to make our future better. As they say, "today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday."

My meager planning skills pay off this morning. The day dawns cool and grey and I get to wake up feeling like a genius because last night I heated water in the Kelley Kettle and I have lugged a small stainless steel thermos all over this great state and I brought along some General Foods International Cafe Vienna instant coffee.

So this morning I am drinking hot coffee about ten seconds after thinking that I would sure enjoy a cup of coffee and then I breakfast on Clif Bars and pack up my camp. At 6:20 AM I'm rolling up the road.


The sky clears as the day brightens and I ride up Elk Pass. There is no sign at the summit of the 4,075' pass, which seems like something of a shame, but I know and the bike knows when we've come across the crest. It's blue and clear on the south side and the road swoops and turns and before too long there is a gap in the trees and Mount St. Helens looms into view.



At 10:15 AM I take the slight detour to the east to stock up on food and drink at the Eagle Cliff General Store before rolling west along 90 on the north side of the Swift Reservoir.


Cougar really is a blink-and-you-miss-it town and while I don't blink, I do think "well, I stop someplace in town" as I roll by the trading post on what I think is the outskirts of Cougar. Nope, that was the whole damn town. Oh, well. I keep going.

I stop at a place called Jack's where 503 turns south and where all the folks sign in if they are going to go climbing on Mount St. Helens. It's 1:00 PM now and I have an ice cream bar and a pint of milk and grab some M&Ms and caramels for the road.

503 rolls up and down and up and down, south past farms that look like farms and not like the big agri-businesses I'd seen further east. As the road heads south, traffic gets heavier and the road gets bigger. Amboy is still a little town but Battle Ground is big and has strip malls and all the things we build when we want to make one place look like every other place. The old town is still there, but it seems to be loosing its battle with the future.


I'd been planning on stopping in Battle Ground, but when I couldn't find the bike shop listed in a quick scan of the phone book, I decided to keep rolling south.

The road is busy rolling out of town, but there is bike path along east side of the road. I work my way south and things become more urban.


The back side of the Washington State Bicycle Map features small detailed maps of selected cities, including Vancouver. I use this information to plot my approach into the city. At the Padden Parkway I follow another cyclist onto the bike trail and then I follow a series of bike trails and roads marked with bike lanes downtown.




I do a bit of solo exploring in Vancouver and I'm pleased to find that it's pretty easy to get around this town by bicycle. I think I know the names of a few of the people responsible for this nice state of affairs and I'm hoping to meet with some of them tomorrow. For now, it's 6:30 PM and I decide that I've exercised my hobo skills enough over the past few days. I check into the Econo Lodge, have a nice shower and call home.

Stats Dst 107.58 Ave 10.4 mph Max 31.5 mph

Wander Around Washington -- 7-23-07

7-23-07 Yakima to Iron Creek Campground

I'm awake at 6:00 AM. I pack up quickly and ride over the the Yakima Greenway Trail. I have a lot of miles to cover today, including a long climb up to the 4,500' summit of White Pass, so I don't have time to see a lot of Yakima. While I can't wait around for the local bike shops to open, I do get to follow this lovely trail along the river. One neat thing I notice on the trail is the garbage cans. They use bicycle inner tubes to keep the plastic garbage liners in place. I always enjoy seeing creative reuse of materials.



Before I leave town and get on Hwy 12, I stop at a minimart for some coffee, a sandwich, an orange-mango drink and some cashews. I always have to make certain I have fuel for the journey.

Hwy 12 features some examples of bicycle unfriendly shoulder design and I compromise my safety a bit by working the pencam to get shots of the rumble-stripped shoulder that completely disappears on the bridge and the narrow shoulder with incredibly stupid rumble-strip placement. I think a lot of folks would be amazed at how much time we spend at the Alliance trying to keep bad road design like this from happening and how much work it is to get these badly designed roads fixed.


At Naches I stop at the ranger station to make sure the roads I'm planning on riding are open. The rains last fall and this spring washed out many roads near Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens and while I'm pretty sure the route I've chosen is clear, it's always best to be certain. I also call the office to check in and get a few phone numbers of people I'll be seeing later in the trip.


I have coffee, juice, eggs and sausage for second breakfast at the Drift Inn Cafe here in Naches. Remarkably, the cafe/store here in this tiny town has a wifi connection so I post a quick update to the blog before I roll out at 9:55 AM.

It's a long slog up to White Pass. I've been over White several times before, but always riding from west to east. This is the first time I've done it from this direction. The grade is never very steep, maybe 6% or so, but it goes for miles. And in places the shoulder pretty much doesn't exist. Fortunately, there isn't much traffic here on a Monday. I have a rear view mirror on my helmet and while I don't find the climb too troublesome, this isn't a route I'd recommend to nervous or novice cyclists.



The scenery is spectacular and it's great to climb into cooler weather and be back into country with trees. At 12:35 PM I stop at the Rim Rock Grocery Store for an ice cream bar, a pint of milk, a bag of Cheetos and 2 20 ounce bottles of Gatorade. Even though it's not as warm here as it had been lower down, I'm careful to keep replenished with both fluid and salt.

At 3:15 PM I'm at the White Pass Summit. It's cooler here and cloudy and I layer my wool top and wind vest on for the descent.




I roll through Packwood a bit before 5:00 PM. The sky is kind of cold and spitting now and the wind fights me from Packwood to Randle. It's sections of road like this that make me glad I've got my cyclecomputer mounted on the downtube of my bike, out of my line of sight. At the end of the day I can see how far I rode and learn how fast I went on the descent. But right now, I don't need numbers telling me exactly how slow I'm going. I use the flat part of the Ergon grips as arm rests, stretch out with my back as flat as I can get it and turtle into the wind.

An elk watches from the roadside and I manage to take a picture before he bounds off.


At 6:45 PM I stop at the Mount Adams Cafe in Randle. For a couple of years, ever since I missed the open hours of the pie shops in Pie Town, I've been dreaming of a certain slice of coconut creme pie. Tonight, I got that slice of pie. The thing about that pie is that it is big and creamy and it is there at the end of more hard miles than most folks would prefer to ride. So in this small town, in this small cafe I got my slice of pie along with two big glasses of milk and a grilled cheese sandwich.

The skies are grey and the sky is still spitting but there is no doubt that life is good. The cafe has a great give-away map of the area produced by the Destination Packwood Association and it provides great detail of the roads I'll follow from here to Vancouver. I finish my pie, pay the check and head out to my bike. The waitress says "enjoy your ride." "I always do," I assure her, "I always do."

I follow FR25 south and up towards Mount St. Helens. It's 8:30 PM when I pull into the Iron Creek Campground. I pitch my tarp over the bivy and for the first time this trip, I use my Kelly Kettle to heat water. I make a cup of hot tea and pour the rest of the water in my thermos for morning coffee. Early in my planning it had looked like I might meet up with some friends here, but our schedules hadn't quite synchronized. But there is something very nice about being in the woods with the silence. I have everything I need.

Stats: Dst 113.00 miles Ave 10.0 mph Max 32.0 mph

Wander Around Washington -- 7-22-07

7-22-07 Richland to Yakima.

Paul made great lentil tacos last night and we're up early this morning to go riding. We get some coffee at a local Starbucks and at 7:00 AM we meet up with Paul's friends Nat Beasley and Jason Fuller.

We aren't riding very quickly but it doesn't take us long to roll out of town and onto some beautiful quiet roads. We follow the Keene Road to 224. I manage to get a few shots with my pencam and also chat a bit with Nat and Jason. Both of the guys brag about the great riding in the area and I can't disagree. We do talk about tackweed, the local thorn that makes Paul tend to favor Armadillo tires and thick tubes over something skinnier and faster. Once again, I'm glad I opted to take a tough-but-not-fast approach to this tour. My heavy Schwalbe Marathon tires are if anything even tougher than Armadillos.

We stop at the Conoco station in Benton City where I snap a few more pictures. Jason and Nat will turn back here, making the morning loop about 25 miles for them. Paul will ride further with me, but he's a randonneur and randonneurs are used to riding long distances.

The Benton City Conoco has a few unique features including a little fountain and a miniature model of the station itself. It would have been really cool if the model of the station included a tiny model of the station and so on to infinity but I guess the artist had to draw the line somewhere. The station also has a couple of peacocks who hang out on the roof that shades the picnic tables.

Paul and I ride from Benton City to Prosser along the old Inland Empire Hwy. As I've often found, there is great cycling along these old roads. All the busy folks take the newer main highway and these lesser roads are really only used by local residents and local cyclists.

At Prosser we connect up with a bike path that runs all the way up to Sunnyside. Paul is turning back here and I thank him for his excellent hospitality.

The old road here is called the Yakima Valley Hwy and I'm pretty sure it's headed where I need to go. It's hot (of course) so before I leave Sunnyside I stop at a minimart for a frozen Klondike Choco Taco and a pint of milk.

This is warm, dry country but the Yakima River provides the water to maintain a narrow strip where green things can grow. I see a llama cooling off under a sprinkler and goats resting in the shade.

At 2:20 PM, I know I'm getting close to Yakima and I stop at the Peppermint Stick Drive In in Union Gap for a wonderful cheeseburger, a very big lemonade and the best cherry milkshake I've ever had.

It's 94 degrees when I roll into Yakima. If I was more organized I'd have people to meet here but my planning for Yakima was sketchy even by my own loose standards. So I fell back on one of my favorite techniques, I followed the signs to the local visitor center. I was taking a bit of a gamble, since this was a Sunday and I had no idea if the visitor's center would be open. But Yakima takes pride in it's city, even on the weekends and the visitor center was open and staffed by a couple of friendly women.

Yakima has a good bike map that shows not only what is in town now in terms of cycling, but what is planned. I ask about camping options and I'm directed to both the state park and told about the KOA in case the state park is full.

Sportsman State Park is wonderful and not overly crowded. A find a nice shady camp site by a creek and settle in. It's really too late to check out any local bike shops and I realize that I've pretty much been going non-stop for a week. I roll out my bivy, write up some notes and relax in the shade. My little Nokia N800 portable computer can do a variety of things besides let me review the day's photos and type up notes. It has a built-in FM radio, so I scan the local radio stations. I find the public radio station, the country station and the rock station but nothing is quite matching my mood. But the Nokia also is an MP3 player and one tiny SD can hold the equivalent of a whole bunch of CDs. I didn't get to see Bob Dylan at Budokan but I've got the recording. And like a rolling stone, with no direction home, Bob and I, a couple of Minnesota boys who wandered onto the road a while back and just kept going, well each of us, in our own ways, we're here in Yakima tonight.

And don't think twice, it's alright.

Stats: Dst 88.30 miles Ave 11.5 mph Mx 25.5 mph