"Proof that there isn't a loving god: mosquitos" - Day 7

The alarm I had set for this morning was on vibrate only, so we didn't wake up until Travis' alarm went off at 7. We hurriedly packed the tent with few mosquitos pestering us and had Pop Tarts for breakfast. After refilling on water, we set off on the 70 miles towards Butte. Initially we were doing really well, averaging about 15 mph. With about 15 miles to go, we both tired considerably but still made it to Subway before our goal of 2 pm. We needed to restock on power bars and Gatorade powder, so we went to a Safeway in Butte. Butte was a depressing mining town and neither Travis or I were very impressed. I flatted again leaving Safeway, bringing my trip total to three flats.

We knew that we had the continental divide coming today, but it ended up being easier than expected, with only about 4 miles of climb out of Butte. We of course took a picture at the summit and rejoiced that it would be all downhill from here. Unfortunately, that is not the case, but it still feels good to have the divide behind us, even if 80% of the continent is still in front of us.

Crossing the continental divide

At mile marker 247, a peace loving, friendly and hospitable Montana driver opted to discard a full cup of Coke in my direction. Travis was a ways in front of me and I didn't get their license plate number, unfortunately. It as decidedly disheartening that somebody would do that and I was damn fortunate that it didn't hit me.

We stopped for ice cream at the A&W in Whitehall before pushing the 7 miles to Cardwell. On the approach, we saw the dreaded sign "Chain-up area ahead," meaning an arduous uphill in our future. Sure enough, as we rounded the curve there was a dauntingly large hill in front of us. But the sun was setting, so we stopped in Cardwell, leaving the hill for tomorrow.

We made a makeshift dinner at the bar/lounge/casino/convenience store/campground and were delighted to find that it was only $10 for camping, laundry, and showers for the both of us. We even got our first round of beers free, and had another before venturing outside to set up camp. There we were swarmed by mosquitos like I have never seen before. Travis bravely stayed outside attempting to set up the tent, while I ran back to the store to invest in some bug spray. Unfortunately, they were all out, but Dawn, the bartender/waitress/clerk/campground hostess let me use some of her own personal supply. With the mosquitos temporarily at bay, we got the tent up and inside of it with very few joining us. I opted not to take a shower in the hopes that the bug spray would last until morning when we would have to break camp, but Travis decided to do laundry and take a shower.

It wasn't very intelligent to come without bug spray and I am not looking forward to the mosquito feast tomorrow morning. Nonetheless, we got some solid miles in today and will hopefully stay with Travis' friend Kyle tomorrow in Big Timber.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
7:40:56	103.7	692	13.4	36.7

"Drummond just wants to have fun!" - Day 6

We got up late this morning at 8:20 and cooked some delicious scrambled eggs on the camp stove which dirtied the skillet significantly. We headed to a gas station to fill up on water and grab some pastries for a second breakfast. 2.3 miles outside of town, I rode through some glass and got my first flat of the trip. About 4 miles later my left pedal stopped clipping in. Travis tried valiantly to do a roadside repair, but ended up destroying the pedal. We were faced with continuing with a dysfunctional pedal or returning 6 miles to a Missoula bike shop to buy a new one. We decided to backtrack.

Travis destroying my pedal

We limped back to Missoula to a bike shop where I picked up $20 "take-off" pedals and a wrench to adjust my maladjusted brakes. Travis also got some tubes at 20% off because Chad took sympathy on us and hooked us up with a discount. On our way out of Missoula, it was getting pretty late in the day so we stopped at Subway. Since it was already 1 o'clock and we hadn't made it out of town yet, we decided that today would be a rest day. Of course, I got another flat tire from an unknown source. However, the flat was a blessing in disguise because there were bald eagles soaring above the place it happened that we surely would've missed had the flat tire not happened. Unfortunately, Travis also got a nasty bee sting while I was repairing my tire, but as he's not allergic, it was okay. Travis' knee started giving him trouble so we slowed down for the rest of the day. My left achilles tendon had been hurting the past couple of days, so I didn't mind the slower pace.

We were a little early for the party

A few miles after the second flat tire, I saw a bunch of cars on the side of the road and some people on a nearby cliff. Turns out they were cliff jumping so we decided to cross the interstate and join them. We were done after one jump but it was a nicely refreshing and hopefully removed some of the salt stains that had accumulated on our jerseys.

We had set a goal of Drummond, only 50 miles outside of Missoula, but it was getting late and we were exhausted. We grabbed some delicious ice cream at Frosty Freeze before heading to the convenience store to get some trail mix and water. The trail mix was 1,200 calories for $2, which was about the best we've found. A local kid, or pest according to the clerk, was impressed with our helmet mirrors and after trying them out "helped" us fill our water bottles. The clerk, who is planning to get married to the son of the owner of Swede's bar recommended that we go there, so that's what we did.

Drummond - "World famous bullshippers"

At the bar, Roger and Arnold bought a round of drinks for the entire bar, which was much appreciated. We chatted it up with Roger, a rancher/oil field worker from Canada who was in Drummond to participate in the senior rodeo with his brother, Gordy.

Roger and his wife Lynn

Roger and his Canadian friends were adept at playing the spoons, which was a foreign concept to Travis and me. However, after Travis requested some spoons from the bartender, Roger was eager to teach the stranger the ways of spooning.

We got the business card from the bar, as we have started collecting addresses to that we can send a post card to all of the wonderful people whom we have met along the way once we reach New York. Tomorrow we'll try to hit La Hood, about 105 miles from Durmmond. Hopefully we won't have to pay for the $10.50 camping tonight at the park in Drummond, so we've got an alarm set for early in the morning to duck out before the ranger comes.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
5:25:40	63.0	588	11.5	27.4

"You riding a Specialized tire? Oh, you're only going to get two flats the whole trip!" - Day 5

5 days in and still going strong. It was a tough 1,300 ft, 6 mile climb out of Mullan this morning, followed by downhill and flat all of the way to Missoula. We crossed into Montana at around 9, after leaving Mullan at 8. We also had our first time zone change into mountain time, losing an hour. We stopped for lunch at Subway in St. Regis, where they also don't give points on Subway cards. The information center there also had Montana maps as well as internet access, so I was able to get some things straightened out with my visa for China.

As usual, the afternoon was a struggle as the mile markers slowly creep up to whatever target we are looking for. It was made more of a struggle by Travis' tire going flat twice. The owner of his bike shop had said that he'd only get two flats the entire trip using the Armadillo tires, but his was defective and a loose wire was puncturing the tubes, causing three flats over as many days. So he switched to the spare tire.

While we were staying with Kate in Spokane, she had a friend who had ridden across the country e-mail us with suggestions. The subject of her e-mail was "ICE CREAM ICE CREAM ICE CREAM!!!" We hadn't really thought ice cream before, and set a goal of reaching Alberton to get some there. Drumsticks at the local market were only $0.65, so I got two plus a packet of lunch meat. The ice cream was exceedingly refreshing, and we weren't really concerned about what we were eating, figuring we'd burn whatever we stuffed our faces with. The market's bulletin board was a hot spot for local advertisers, including one entrepreneur who offered:

After our break in Alberton, we still had thirty miles to Missoula and it was getting a little late. We finally hit Missoula at around 7:30 after holding an average of about 16 mph through easy terrain. Our search for a place to camp took a while and through a number of false leads, which brought us to the boyhood home of the author of "A River Runs Through It," but sadly we couldn't stay there. Eventually we were directed to a Greek Orthodox church nearby. Just outside the church, I fell over twice within about 20 ft after being too tired to unclip from my pedals. It was decidedly embarrassing. The pastor of the church was playing chess with the next door neighbor and was fine with us pitching our tent in the church yard. Before setting up camp, we shared a delightfully satisfying pizza from Pizza Pipeline, and headed to the local market. I made Ramen with an egg, and saved a few eggs for scrambled eggs in the morning.

Travis has a friend in Big Timber, 263 miles from Missoula and we decided to try to get there in three days. So tomorrow will be short at 80-90 miles. The mosquitos here are annoying, but we probably won't be out of their territory for a while. It's also predicted to be a scorcher tomorrow, so I'll have to remember to ice my water bottles when we refill. America sure is a big country.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
7:48:59	114.3	525	14.6	38.7

"That'll be $2.50 please." - Day 4

Day 4. Boom. We had a late start today on account of how comfortable Kate's futon was. We woke up at 8, made bacon and eggs for breakfast and packed our stuff. We finally got on the road around 10. Kate had found the Centennial Trail, an alternative to I-90 that would take us from Spokane to Coeur D'Alene, ID. Riding out of Spokane we were a little worried because the water was still high on the river and the road had been closed a few weeks earlier, but it all turned out fine.

We hopped on the trail and were on it for about 10 miles when my front shifter became maladjusted. We happened to stop in front of a nice elderly lady's house, who offered us her tools as soon as we stopped. She even had a grinder that I was able to use to shorten the screw I needed to attach my cable guide. It was a pleasant switch to be on the trail instead of the interstate, and we reached our first milestone of a state border early in the morning.

Travis in Idaho and me in Washington

The trail dropped us into the rather pleasant town of Coeur D'Alene, where we grabbed some Subway. Apparently in Idaho they don't give points on the Subway cards, which was a big disappointment. After lunch, we continued cycling along I-90 up 4th of July Pass, which brought us to our highest elevation yet of 3,069 ft.

The pass dropped us down into Kellogg, where we were able to catch another bike trail that took us up to Mullan. Since it was Travis' 23rd birthday, we decided to celebrate at a bar there. We ended up at the Smoke Shop Tavern where we ordered a draught beer. The bartender, Leann, gave us our drinks and told us it'd be $2.50. I handed her $5, expecting it to be $2.50 each and was quite surprised when we got $2.50 back. That's right, $1.25 draughts. The only food they had were bags of Doritios, so we gorged ourselves on those and beer. We also learned one of the tricks of the trip by asking at the bar where a good place to pitch our tent would be. The locals recommended that we throw it up on the far side of the local football field, which we did. Before leaving, we played Queen's "Bicycle Race" on the jukebox.

Tomorrow we've got 6 miles to the top of Lookout pass, after which it should be smooth sailing to Missoula. Overall, today had nice scenery and plenty of friendly people, especially in Mullan. Also, Mullan is now our highest elevation yet at about 3,400 ft.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
7:45:45	96.8	411	12.4	40.5

"You don't by chance live anywhere near Spokane, do you?" - Day 3

Day 3 went well. The terrain from Moses Lake to Spokane was rolling with a moderate tailwind most of the way. This morning I remembered that Kate Quick, a friend from high school, lives in eastern Washington and I texted her to find out where. The expected chafing has been getting worse over the past few days, so I desperately wanted to get some Vaseline. We also picked up bananas and Gatorade powder.

Travis struggled a little today, making me feel better about lagging behind him during the previous two days. We stopped for lunch at Jake's diner in Ritzville, where I turned on my phone to see that Kate lives in Spokane and was more than willing to host two stinky and exhausted cyclists. So we have a dry place to stay tonight, a shower, laundry facilities and a place to boil some more potatoes!

We lost two items to the road today, Travis' rearview mirror and my tail light. Travis wanted to replace the mirror and also adjust the fit of his bike by getting a new stem, so we picked those items up at a bike shop in Spokane before heading to Kate's. Kate took us to REI where I picked up a bike pump so we wouldn't have to rely on expensive CO2 cartridges. I also invested in some rain pants, thinking that might be the best insurance against it actually raining on us. We dined on delicious sandwiches at Huckleberry's Natural Food Shop, before heading back to Kate's to check e-mail, do laundry, drink a few beers and boil some potatoes.

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
7:33:05	110.3	314	14.6	34.9

"We're never eating at Taco Bell again." - Day 2

Wow. Day 2 started off chilly in our camp, so we were anxious to get off of the summit of the pass. With our bellies full of cream of wheat, we broke camp, filled our water bottles at a convenience store and left. Though I woke up at 5:20, we weren't on the road until 7:30. The uphill from yesterday paid off, and we enjoyed a lot of bundled up and chilly downhill at first. We got nice tailwinds and made it to Ellensburg around 10:45.

I had a craving for Taco Bell and indulged heavily. I immediately regretted it as we climbed out of Ellensburg, where we were met with a long climb on what we later found out was called Whiskey Dick mountain. On the other side we had a nice long downhill, where Travis got the first flat tire of the trip going 40 mph.

Travis flats on Whiskey Dick

After a two-mile climb out of a riverbed, the road flattened out again. Having learned our lesson with Taco Bell, we stopped at Subway in George, WA. Thinking that we'd probably end up stopping at Subway a lot, I got a Subway Card so I could rack up points and get some free sandwiches. As we were eating, we met a man who had done some centuries, 200 mile rides, as well as an Ironman. He warned us of the various passes in the upcoming rockies and informed us that it would be flat for the thirty miles to Moses Lake, our goal for the day.

 

Even with decent tailwinds, it took us two hours to make it since we were pretty tired. We pulled in around 6 pm, looking for free camping. After asking at an RV park, we eventually found some at the First Presbyterian Church. As I finished the leftover Taco Bell and Subway for dinner, I fell asleep for almost two hours, without unpacking my sleeping bag. I woke up feeling a little rested, finished getting ready for bed and finally went to sleep around 9:45.

On the whole it was a pretty tiring day, but we made up for yesterday's short ride and brought our average up to our goal of 100 miles/day. Hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow as we ride to Spokane, where there should be a bike shop and laundromat.

 

Travis packs up the tent at the church

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
8:00:14	128.8	204	16.0	41.3

"It's saltwater and there are whales...it's an ocean." - Day 1

Our plan for today was to quickly pack and be on the road by 10, so that we could make it about 90 miles to Cle Elum along I-90. However, Travis hadn't begun packing, and in fact didn't even have his panniers yet. He ran off to buy those and get a map before packing, so we got off to a late start, leaving his house for Alki Beach at 12:45 pm. Originally, we had wanted to start at Ocean Shores, WA but our ride there fell through, so we ended up starting on Puget Sound. It felt like cheating to start with 100 miles of the country west of us, but as Travis pointed out "it's saltwater and there are whales." We did the traditional tire dip there, before starting on the bike route through Seattle to Interstate-90.

 

On the trail, we met Irv Latta, a Denver native living in Seattle. He led us on a nice route that avoided about 5 miles of interstate on a bike paths in the shade. Once on the interstate, however, it was brutal. Snoqualmie pass rises from near sea level to 3,022 feet, with only two down hill sections. Travis was keeping a grueling pace that I struggled with. The scenery, however, was spectacular with deep green forests and mountains reminiscent of the Rockies that I'm used to. But most of the time my eyes were down, looking for debris in the road.

One very nice Washington driver took the time to slow his truck down and inform me that I was a f*^$ing idiot who was going to get f*^$ing killed. Admittedly the interstate isn't the safest or best place to ride, but it was still sad that we hadn't made it 30 miles into the trip without being accosted.

After struggling up the hill for what seemed like an eternity, we saw a sign that said there was a Chevron Food Mart at the next exit, and as night was falling, decided to make that our stopping point. The miles continued to countdown painstakingly slowly and the pass was continuous uphill with a hefty grade for the final 5 miles to the summit. At last, there was a sign that indicated one mile to the exit. I'd never been so happy to see a convenience store.

I bought the nastiest chicken breast I've ever had, and that's saying something given my state of hunger. But with darkness approaching we quickly ate and looked for the first place off the road where we could pitch a tent. We found one in an abandoned parking lot, made some hot chocolate, checked text messages and went to bed at 11 pm. Tomorrow we get to reap the downhill benefits of our hard work from today!

Time	Trip	Odometer	Average	Max
6:40:12	75.2	75	11.2	32.6

"Travis, I think we need to buy or rent a tandem bike and ride across the country next summer." - 1:23 a.m. August 6, 2007 - Day 0

A while back I made a life to do list and on a whim put "bike from coast to coast" as one of the items, alongside "summit all of Colorado's 14ers" and "brew my own beer." I knew that biking 3,000 miles alone would be less fun, more dangerous and a lot more difficult than riding with a friend, but didn't know who else would be stupid enough to embark on such an endeavor. Then I remembered my good pal Travis, who had some experience with bicycles, and so with a drunken Facebook wall post at 1:23 on a Monday morning last August, our adventure began.

The whole year we bantered back and forth about doing training, which for me consisted of riding my bike around campus and for Travis riding his bike back and forth to work. But he bought a motorcycle and I went on a month-long vacation, so our strictly regimented training of up to 10 miles a day came to a halt, long before our agreed upon departure date of June 23.

Planning the trip had been on the back of my mind since we agreed to do it, and with time running short before my flight left for Seattle, I was starting to get worried about how we were going to do this. What route would we take? Where would we sleep? What would we need to take with us? I had no idea how to answer these questions, and after reading another cyclist's journal, decided that our plan would be to have no plan. That way everything would go according to plan!

The next question was which bike would I ride. I had toyed with the idea of using my $75 campus bike, fondly known as the "iron maiden" to my triathlon friends, but it wasn't in good condition before I bought it and with only 4 of the 10 speeds working and a good deal of rust having accumulated on it during its 3 years of outdoor life in Tulsa, I decided to look into a new bike. My sister met a guy in New York who was in urgent need to sell a bike that he claimed to have ridden across the country, and without seeing or knowing anything about the bike, I had her buy it for me. Travis, a professional bike mechanic, was not thrilled about the bike, but still agreed to take a look at it and upgrade anything that he didn't think would last the entire trip.  So I boxed up the bike and sent it to Seattle, before hopping on a plane there myself.

I arrived in Seattle carrying my two pannier bags as luggage, and wearing the only t-shirt and pair of shorts that I would have on the trip. We spent the entire day at Travis' bike shop outfitting my bike with a new wheelset, groupo, seat, bottom bracket, cranks, chain ring, and light. By nightfall, the bike was ready to go, even if we were still a little unprepared.

The night before we left we spent going over our bikes, verifying that it was legal to ride on Interstate 90 in Washington, boiling potatoes to snack on, and pondering what the next day, and the trip as a whole would bring.

Travis looking excited the night before departure

Equipment list:

• 1 bicycle
• 3 22 oz water bottles
• 1 2 liter Camelpak
• 1 sleeping pad
• 1 sleeping bag
• 2 camp fuel canisters
• 1 camp stove
• 1 set of camping pots
• 1 knife
• 1 fork
• 1 spoon
• 10 power bars
• 10 packets instant oatmeal
• 2 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of athletic shorts
• 1 paid of bike shorts
• toothpaste
• toothbrush
• deodorant
• credit cards
• driver license
• insurance card
• 2 bike jerseys
• 1 pair pajama pants
• 1 tshirt
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 1 beanie
• 1 camp towel
• 1 bar soap
• 3 spare tubes
• 1 spare tire
• 9 spare spokes
• 1 multi-tool
• 1 journal
• 2 pens
• 2 pannier packs
• 1 camera