Day 3 - Tom

Picture was from a couple of days ago but included here because we used the last of the bread this am as our spoon to eat our yogurt. Need to remember those utensils next time.

Lots of drizzle today. A good day.

Day 2

I open my eyes at about five thirty in the morning and see tom sitting on the picnic bench watching me with a smile. I look over to his tent and I see it is gone. He is packed and ready to go. I look back at him and his smile is even wider.

There's a light fog with a few openings of blue this morning. The doves are still cooing when we depart camp at around 6. We follow the umpqua river west and before long we come across herd of elk grazing in a large meadow. John gets us a rest stop with a flat tire. Before long we are in reedsport and john discovers a bakery and we get another rest stop. 1 mile further down the road we stop at safeway for breakfast. One 5 dollar giant sub feed all three of us. Just before coos bay I flat.  A couple of good coastal climbs brings us to bandon where john finds a fudge shop. 15 miles and we are in Langlois for market deli dinner. 3 more mile and koa it is for the night.

90miles/162 total 163 total dollars for 2 days.

Keep rolling,
Pete

Day 2 - 10 miles N of Port Orford

Saw a small herd of elk this AM. they got spooked as we rode our bikes for a better view. One was old, limping badly and couldn't keep up with the rest. A metaphor for our older biker (Pete) possibly? I think I may have mentioned something about that to Pete. He sure seemed intent on punishing me.

A couple of flats during the day. A little rain a little sun. Eventually we seemed to make it a few miles down the road.

Day 1

The day starts off same as always the buzzing of the alarm at 4:20. I am out the door at 4:32 as always but this morning Corliss is with me and the bike is in the back of the pickup. We head for greenlake starbucks to meet john, tom and tim for our drive to Eugene. once in eugene we ready up our bikes and head south to cottage grove and then west to Drain. Elkton a few miles further was our planned camp for the night. We roll in at four thirty and tom decides we can go further. we make another of 25 or so miles before spotting a pub with 1 dollar tacos and tall beers. The rv park in back becomes our site for the night.

73 miles
Keep rolling,
Pete

Day 1 Wells Creek - Tom

20 miles West of Reedsport. Good first day.

Left Seattle early. Made good time to Eugene. On bikes by noon. Pretty uneventful. Looked like it was going to rain but never really did. Having dinner at the bar next to RV park where we're camping tonight. 72 miles. Smiles all around.

I guess we are ready to roll - we leave tomorrow morning.

Tom's email from yesterday describes our plan:
---------------------------------

Pete, John –

I just mapped our route – our route takes us 1020 miles to Santa Barbara – If we allow an extra 10 miles/day for errands, backtracking to camp sites, restaurants and/or site seeing along the way – then we’ll put in another 150 miles of riding on top of that.  Therefore, 1170 miles in 15 days = 78 miles/day.  Also, we should probably figure that we want to have a few days that are only 30-60 miles or so due to inclement weather or extra site seeing.  That means on good days we’ll want to try to do better than the average.  That’s basically what Pete and I did last time.  We saw “the beast” on many an occasion that trip.
---------------------------------

With luck there will be tailwinds, sunny weather and campgrounds available for each night.

John and I are both riding Bacchetta recumbents  His is a carbon 2.0 with 700 cm wheels and mine is a Titanium updated with 26" wheels. Tom rides an upright bike. Racks and fenders for all of us. Tom and I both use a rack mounted coroplast box for our gear while John prefers to use panniers - they are heavier and not as aero but he chides Tom and I for riding with "toilet tanks" on the back of our bikes. 

My equipment weights for the trip are as follows:

Sleeping bag, bivi sack, tarp and air mattress    -7.9 lbs

Clothes: 2 long slv and 2 short slv wool shirts,

    2 pair wool long johns, 2 wool and 2 light 

    weight socks, 3 pair underwear and 1 pair

    of shorts, 1 light jacket, and one vest. light, 

    and mid weight gloves, one pair crocs          -3.9 lbs

Tools, spare tire and 2 tubes, pump                   -2.7 lbs

camera, charger, cell phone, extra battery        -1.2 lbs

soap, towel, sunscreen, emergency meds          -1.3 lbs

                                                                          17.0 lbs total

Keep Rolling,

Pete

Ride starts a week from tomorrow

A week from tomorrow Tom Harrylock, John West, and I are headed down the coast to Orange County . Because of time constraints we're getting a ride with Tim Coleman to Eugene and will start peddling from there. I think we're ready even though our training schedule has been lacking lately. Oh well, we'll get fit on the ride. Our schedule brings us to Santa Barbara on the 31st. That day Tom flys home for his daughter Amy's graduation from med school. Congratulations to both. John and I will continue on thru Los Angeles to Costa Mesa where we will kick back, ride locally, and enjoy the Sun and sand at my brother-in-law Henry's place.  Our flight home tickets are booked for June 7th.

Keep rolling,
Pete