Traveling this high mountain trail, delighted by violets -Bashō thunder on the mountain When the weather gods displeasure falls on you the clouds roll in on the descents and are whisked away to reveal the hot sun on the climbs. Today was one of those days where while it dawned clear and warm clouds rolled in during the initial part of the ascent. The first dozen miles or so were gently up hill, in the…
mountain wind descending -Hōsai Ozaki butterfly way The best riding on this tour has been on the forest roads right in the trees: Old Blewett Pass, the roads around Mt. St. Helens and today on the edge of the Mt. Hood wilderness. Things started slowly with a near five mile climb but this was followed by near dozen mile decent. The forest road was never wide but a certain point, deep in green trees, it…
sunset sweeps the sky with a single stroke -Hōsai Ozaki mountains and rivers This was a day of many crossings: four passes, three times over the Pacific Crest Trail, the Oregon Trail even. The primary activity was climbing back into the mountains proper. The day before on the Columbia Rover I was near sea level. Today I would climb up Bennett Pass at 4674 feet. This was more akin to my initial ascent into the…
a world of dew, and within every dewdrop a world of struggle -Issa between the gods Today would be split between riding along the Columbia and riding up the Hood River Valley back into the Cascades. The morning was clear and cool and my route back to Cascade Locks was in the woods on the isolated HCRH. But things were to take a turn after the locks. The route used frontage roads along the highway…
Sokei-an met an old man on the banks of the Columbia growing potatoes & living all alone, Sokei-an asked him the reason why he lived there he said Boy, no one every asked me the reason why, I like to be alone I am an old man I have forgotten how to speak human words. -Gary Snyder, from Night Highway 99 rolling on the Columbia After my down time in PDX I returned to…
I always felt terrible on the trail the first day after a break. Katz, on the other hand, just always felt terrible. Whatever restorative effects a town visit offered always vanished with astounding swiftness on the trail. Within two minutes it was as if we had never been away—actually worse, because on a normal day I would not be laboring up a steep hill with a greasy, leaden Hardees breakfast threatening at every moment to…
A long hard journey, rain beating down the clover like a wanderer’s feet -Buson riding the PCT to OR It began to sprinkle as I retired to my tent last night and by morning was a full on downpour. Listening to the tapping of rain on the tent as I lie enveloped in warmth is always a pleasure. Less so is packing up and heading out in the rain. I was riding on hwy 14…
This is my basic Itinerary for the tour. This will also serve as an index of sorts, as I’ll turn all these pages into links after the tour. This basic route is from Kirkendall and Spring’s Bicycling The Pacific Coast, with my own route for the first couple of days and ending in San Francisco. From San Franciso I’m taking the Coast Starlight Amtrak home which I’m also looking forward to – I haven’t done…