August 2, 2011 Each decision we make when bike touring is meaningful and can have an impact that is more significant than it might be if we were traveling by automobile. I have developed a habit of stopping at produce stands, grocery stores and restaurants if they look decent whether or not I need to right at that moment. I don’t know when the next opportunity will come and backtracking on the bike is often not an option.
That habit pays off this morning when we stop at the Boatyard Coffee Shop in, you guessed it, the boatyard in Port Townsend. A small loaf of made in house raisin and nut bread, sliced in half and served with cream cheese and jelly would supply the glucose drip I needed for the next few hours.
I did not follow my own rule when on Whidbey Island we passed by the Red Apple Market. We did not see another store the rest of the day. Not a major problem because we had planned on eating our emergency ration of food tonight anyway since it was to be our last night, but it was an inconvenience because we had no beer. As we were explaining our predicament to the campground host in South Whidbey State Park a fellow camper (who had a car) overheard us and offered to buy us beer in the town 6 miles down the road when they went later this evening. I made the exchange with the beer fairy later in the parking lot and we both felt as though we were doing something illegal. Pretty funny. Thanks, beer fairy!
Another ride on a big boat over to Whidbey Island. The landscape is a little different over here and the traffic seems a little lighter. Really nice riding on Whidbey Island, probably my favorite so far. Apparently this is a popular place for Seattleites to come ride. There is a nice 80 mile or so loop around the island from the Clinton ferry terminal. For us this was about a 28 mile day on the bikes.
The campsites at Fay Bainbridge State Park, normally $21 are $5 apiece for bikes. Coin operated showers too.
August 1, 2011
It’s only about 46 miles from Fay Bainbridge State Park to Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. By the time we were finished riding on the day we had covered 58 miles.
After a few miles on the scenic pastoral backroads we were back to the treacherous 305. Crossing the Agate Pass Bridge on a bicycle is not for the timid. Sky King went first and did it exactly the way it should be done. Timing her entry in front of a big box van, she rode in the traffic lane, since there is no shoulder, and the truck slowed to follow her across, with traffic backing up behind. There is no choice but to hold up traffic in situations like this and most people are not psychopaths and they will not, usually, mow down a bicycler.
Immediately after crossing the bridge we took a right onto Suquamish Way up to Suquamish and to Port Gamble. Winding back roads with low traffic brought us to the town of Port Gamble where we stopped for lunch. Then we were on the ACA West Coast route up to Fort Townsend.
The hills are numerous and steep, but, thankfully, usually short.
We passed by Fort Townsend State Park south of town because it was our intention to stay at Fort Worden State Park. It is not evident on reaching Fort Worden that any camping is even offered. We rode around the barracks and other buildings and found a campsite but the sign said pre-registration was a requirement and that the campground was full anyway. I flagged down a passing vehicle and the driver told us the office was closed but directed us to the hiker-biker camping area. A network of trails connects primitive campsites for tent campers all of which were available except for one which contained a tent already pitched. We stopped at site adjacent to this one to leave our bikes and reconnoiter the area.
A man of normal build and maybe 40 years, wearing basketball shorts, a t-shirt, gym shoes, a short hair cut and a goatee walked passed us and said, “How’s it goin?” in a voice that was maybe a little too loud and forced, before he turned into the next campsite which apparently was his.
“Fine” I replied.
We could still hear him talking and as we continued past his site we saw him standing on the bench of his picnic table facing away from the trail towards the woods and reading aloud from the bible. We thought that was a little different and looked for a site as far away as possible. When we came back to retrieve our bikes he had changed his demeanor and was assuring some person who remained unseen that,
“They are all f****** liars. They’re all f******* liars and they aren’t going to get away with it.”
When our eyes met his words to me were,
“Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you”
We secured our bikes and gear and took them and exited out of the other end of the hiker-biker area. We rode down to the beach camp ground which was also full. I told a passing city cop about the incident in the hiker-biker area. We saw him again a few minutes later and he told us he had spoken to the park ranger who was going to have a talk to the individual, and who was not happy that we felt too threatened to stay in his park. Both the city cop and the park ranger took us seriously and they were concerned about keeping the area safe and so I’m sure this was an isolated incident.
As we were riding back towards Fort Townsend State Park I couldn’t help but feel sorry for this fellow. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live inside his scrambled head, but it must be terrifying. He might have been a high functioning schizophrenic but still he doesn’t have a lot of choice but to scuffle around and try to find someplace to stay until he gets run off. There are not really any social services for these poor people. I don’t know what can or should be done for them but it’s really sad.
Adjacent to the boatyard, through which runs the bike path, the Port Townsend Brewing Company is located just off Haines Place on 10th Street. This is just a tasting room with no food but the beer is good and there are nearby places to eat. After doing our due diligence here, we proceeded to the Safeway across the street and bought a baked, whole chicken and some broccoli to take back with us to Fort Townsend State Park, where we ate and collapsed into our sleeping bags.
The last section of the ACA route into Port Townsend is on this bike path. Slow down here because the brewpub is adjacent to the boatyard, and the Boatyard Coffee Shop is in the yard.You look purty to me boy. Where do you think yer goin'?I was taking pictures and the proprieter said everybody in the port rides it. So......"
On the 28th of July we drove to Bellevue, WA to attend a relative’s wedding. On the 4th we are going to Sky King’s family reunion on Snoqualmie Pass. In the intervening days we are bike touring. Originally I was going to post a journal on crazyguyonabike, but that site has been down today while I’m updating so I decided to post the tour journal here too.
Once we are in the bike touring mode and all our gear is readily accessible and we’re mentally and physically ready, it is easy to sandwich in a 3 or 4 day tour. It doesn’t take a huge amount of planning and we were going to be in Seattle anyway. It’s not as if a person has to quit their job or even take major time off in order to go touring.
On the 31st we rode to the Seattle ferry terminal and took the Bainbridge ferry. From there we started riding towards Port Townsend via Fay Bainbridge State Park where we spent the night. Getting to the ferry terminal from Bellevue was a piece of cake on the I90 Trail and the Mountains to Sound Trail. The 305 out of the town of Bainbridge Island has a beautiful, wide shoulder with a nice surface but the amount of automobile traffic is astounding. It was only about 4 miles to the turn off on Day Road but the relative silence was immediately apparent as soon as we got off 305. Then it was a couple more bucolic miles to the state park.
Fay Bainbridge State Park is a wedge of land opening to Puget Sound and holding back housing developments on both sides. Weathered, beam straight cedar logs are spread out on the black volcanic sand, but not in a jumble, rather aligned with the shoreline up to the high tide water’s edge. The view of the sound and Mt Rainier and the Seattle Skyline and the North/Canadian Cascades is nothing short of breathtaking.
While in Bainbridge Island we hit the Safeway and bought beer and vegetables so we were able to make past primavera for dinner. This park only charges $5.00 per bicycle because they want to encourage that type of behavior and the showers are 25 cents for a minute and a half. Good place to stay!
Preparing to leave Bellevue.One of the best things about bike touring is these short breaks with nothing to do but relax.Almost to the end of the first 18 mile day!
Every bicycle related, or outside related magazine or advertisement assures me I can improve on my personal best performance by closely following the training advice offered therein. Alright, I think, I want to do my best. Even if doing better than myself feels like a lot of pressure I decide I will have a go.
I’ve decided to train for the Java Man Triple Brew Pub Extreme Moderation Tour. My success in defeating my self will be judged loosely by these criteria:
– Moderation and balance.
– Being non-judgmental and humble.
– Living in the moment.
– Wattage, heart rate, miles and time don’t matter.
– Speed doesn’t matter either.
– People in automobiles waving at me in a friendly manner matters.
– Other people on bicycles and pedestrians acknowledging me in a friendly manner matters too.
Athletes generally attribute a large percentage of a successful performance to mental attitude. Actually, this could be one of my biggest challenges in this event. Smiling while riding(in moderation of course) moves me toward my goal, and saying hello to the faster rider who is overtaking me, whether they say hello or not, moves me toward my goal. Refraining from the urge to take that rider’s wheel to show that I can go faster too takes constant practice. Or is this just the recovering racer rationalizing the fact that he is now old and weak?
I give myself permission to go slow sometimes, but it feels good once in a while to breathe hard and feel the lungs working to bring air to the blood, and to feel the blood pumping and carrying that oxygen and some fuel to be consumed by my muscles in the magical process of making the pedals go around . And it’s neat to see my body get more efficient at doing those things, so that every ride seems a little easier. So I give myself permission to go fast sometimes too.
A baggedy shirt or a plain wool jersey keeps me cool and allows air to flow through the interstices of the brain, not constricting my thoughts and actions with the pretense of needing to be something I’m not. By the way, that person driving the car? They seem to be a little more agreeable to sharing the road when they see me dressed that way on a bike with fenders and lights and racks.
As Leo Woodland says “People talk to you if you’re on a bike and you give them time. You’re not threatening. You arrived by humble means and you have humble needs, like food and drink and a moment’s rest”
I am training myself to stop and, really, to look for reasons to stop.
I am training myself to ride a bicycle in a way that makes it look easy. No hammering, thank you.
Actually, now that I’ve created this event I realize that every time I go out on the bike I am a participant in it.
The current ride is all there is.
There was no ride before this and there will be no ride after it.
Today I found a link on the Bike Forums Touring site for an app for finding camping spots using the IPhone or Android. It’s called AllStays Camp and Tent. With it the bike tourist can find campgrounds near their current location and over 13,000 campgrounds in the US and Canada.
Camp and Tent app screenshot
Details Camp and Tent screenshot
It shows maps, directions and details about the campground like number and types of sites, amenities and phone numbers. This particular version only shows campgrounds with tent sites but there is an app for camping with RVs as well. It has a manual search feature with states and towns listed alphabetically with the number of listed campgrounds, and the searches can be filtered by Forest Service, KOA, National Park, etc.
The Bike Hermit is pretty excited to find this, but then he doesn’t get out much either.
In 2008 Dylan Kentch and Eric Parsons rode and carried and rafted with their singlespeed bicycles across 300 miles of wild Alaska coastline from Yakutat to Cordova. If one were to look at this on a map and/or Google Earth they might not think it possible. But these guys did it and lived to tell the story. What’s most impressive to me is that they never complain about the difficult conditions, they had fun, and they were sad when it was over. Epic.
Their blog is called Bike The Lost Coast
In 2010 some homies from Bozeman, Mt. did it too. Their blog is Biking the Lost Coast
Eric’s company is Revelate Designs LLC
He makes frame bags for expedition touring and for bikes which are rack challenged.
Bike Camping or Bikepacking
Revelate Designs LLC frame bags
Looking at these photos and reading the ride reports gets me to thinking about different ways to set up the bike, and it gets me thinking about an off road adventure touring bike. Of course, being a Surly groupie, the Troll or Karate Monkey come to mind. I’m sure Sky King will be happy to know I have a new obsession! Anybody else use these bags and have stories to tell of their expeditions?
Since this blog is ostensibly about bike touring news, here is a newsy sort of a post.
May 5, 2011
Due to the rising Mississippi River causing the closure of the New Roads/St. Francisville ferry, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has opened the John James Audubon Bridge. This emergency opening will accommodate traffic that has lost river-crossing access when the ferry closed. The ferry, which carried approximately 720 vehicles per day according to 2009-2010 DOTD statistics, is permanently closed with the opening of the Audubon Bridge.
The new bridge at New Roads/St. Francisville, LA
So the ferry from New Roads to St. Francisville is permanently closed. The new bridge has been under construction since 2006 and is still not 100% complete, but the Louisiana D.O.T. has determined it is safe to use…at least for cars, it doesn’t say anything about bike lanes. It used to be that if the ferry was not running, which apparently was not infrequently, it meant a 56 mile detour down to Baton Rouge, across a very dangerous bridge, and back up to New Roads or St. Francisville (depending on the travelers direction). So, in a way, the bridge may be a welcome update to the Southern Tier route, although taking the ferry was sort of funky and the dearth of traffic in St Francisville was pretty nice.
Taking the ferry from New Roads, LA to St. Francisville
The new bridge is south of the ferry crossing location and the bicycle tourist should take SR 10 south instead of north at the junction with SR 420 to the new approach road (eastbound) and they will want to take the Baton Rouge Spur south on US 61 to the new approach road just past the junction of SR 966 (westbound). I don’t know if the Adventure Cycling Association is in the process of revamping these maps, but I’m pretty sure they are on it.
I am quite content riding “Sky”, my Rivendell Bleriot .
Sky, after a successful trip to the Saturday Market
In fact my Voodoo, set up with a front shock for more aggressive trail riding is gathering dust in the garage because I have so much fun tooling around on Sky. I also have my fair share of shoes and love nothing more than being fashionable while pedaling efficiently when running errands or meeting friends for dinner and drinks. On the other hand, I like to wear my Shimano bike shoes with clipless pedals for longer rides, weekend rides and touring. What I hate is changing pedals. After breaking my finger, a helmet and giving myself a black eye riding my son’s bike (so I could wear shoes that matched my outfit) the Bike Hermit gave me a set of Shimano A530 Clipless SPD/Platform Road Pedals. One side is platform, the other works with my SPD clipless cleat on my bike shoe.
Problem solved with a SPD/platform pedal
Now it doesn’t matter what shoe I am wearing, I can ride Sky pretty much anywhere at anytime. The other nice feature on longer rides has been the ability to opt out of my clipless, flip the pedal over and still get a nice grip on my biking shoe. As I have been battling a tendon issue having the interchangeable option has been terrific. If we are bike camping or bike touring, at the end of the day, I can easily slip off my bike shoes and wear my sandals if we chose to go exploring once we have set up camp.
Great grip with my tennis shoe on the platform sideflip it over and my SPD cleat clips right in.Clipped in for A Sunday Afternoon Bike ride
We just received the Tour-It rack and the Travel-It front and Travel-It rear panniers from Racktime for the Bike Touring News Store. Ortlieb, Tubus and Racktime all come from the same company with the Racktime products intended for those who don’t want to pay Ortlieb and Tubus prices.
Racktime Tour-It rear rack
Naturally, as with any new gear, I had to fiddle around with it and I mounted the rack on Norm, my Surly Cross Check bike and installed one of the rear panniers. I wanted to see what the hardware was like and how well the bags mounted and also I was eager to see how the bags differ from the Ortieb back and front rollers.
The Racktime racks are made of aluminum as opposed to the tubular chrome moly or stainless steel of the Tubus offerings. This rack actually weighed a few ounces more than the Tubus Cosmo stainless steel rack even though the two have nearly identical configurations. Overall the mounting of the rack was simple and straight forward. Screws attach through a hole in the welded plate on the bottom of either side of the rack and into the dropout eyelets on the bike. The spacing was perfect for the 135mm rear blades on the Surly and I didn’t need any shims and there was no prying or spreading of the rack legs either.
The braces which secure the upper platform to the bike are meant to be attached to eyelets on the seat stays, but could be attached to clamps if no eyelets are provided. The other end of the braces then thread through an eyebolt which in turn is bolted to the rack platform. Even though this is a versatile setup, if I was going to make this a permanent attachment I would bend the struts in order to achieve a better alignment. Or else I would cut them shorter. As it was, the vertical sides of the rack interfered and I was unable to tighten things down completely.
All the hardware needed for the Racktime Tour-It rear rack. Standard bolts, eyebolts, and two stays.The stays or braces bolt to the seat stays and thread through the eyebolts. For a permanent installation, I would either cut them shorter of bend them so they didn't hit the vertical leg of the rack.
I like theminimal hardware on this rack since the fewer pieces and bolts to come loose the better when on the road. The top platform is wide enough to actually be used to carry a sleeping bag or tent and the lower set of rails allow for the attachment of panniers in such a way that they won’t interfere with a load on the top platform. The little pump pegs on the left leg of the rack are a cool idea, but I am unaware of any pumps that will fit on them. I was told that this rack is made as original equipment on some bikes for the European market, and they have their own proprietary pumps. The rack also will work with the Racktime SNAPit components. The rack is rated to carry up to 30 kilograms and the suggested retail is about $65.00.
If you ship your bike home from the end point of your tour, you will probably have removed you seat post and saddle in order to fit the bike into whatever case you used. When you get home and are putting the bike back together you will want to end up with the saddle at the same height relative to the pedals as it was when you took it off. A simple way to ensure that is, before you remove it, to wrap a piece of tape (electrical tape works best) around the seat post where it enters the frame. Then, when you put it back, just insert the post to the same spot. Mark the seat post before removing it.
An aluminum seat post inserted into a steel frame will result in galvanic corrosion between the two metals. If not removed and cleaned and re-lubed periodically the seat post will become well and truly stuck and may need to be cut out. Removing it for a period of time will also allow any moisture which might be in the frame tubes to evaporate. Applying grease to the inside of the seat tube rather than to the seat post results in less of the goop squished out onto exposed bits and ending up on your clothes. Applying grease inside the seat tube before inserting seat post.
Don’t use grease on a carbon post or with a carbon frame. Use a special paste made for this purpose. The paste won’t damage the carbon and it has a little bit of grit to it that will help hold the post in place without over tightening.
