Day 152/3, 10/11 Dec 2008: The Avenue of the Giants

One of the greatest places we have seen on this trip, was dark and cold… Views were very limited, but that was exactly the main attraction as we were cycling on the Avenue of the Giants, a 50 km (31mile) long road through the Humboldt Redwood State Park in Northern California.

Only about 4-5% of the original giant trees (Redwoods and Giant Sequoias) are left after the logging activities, and this place is one of the best to enjoy the grandeur of the trees.

After cycling through thousands of kilometres of forests and nature, we had not expected to be so impressed anymore, but just cycling and walking between these Giants, some over 100 meter high and thousands of years old, made us feel humble and small. It also gave hope that maybe nature can be saved if humans try to do their best as well…

Soon more stories about Northern California, for now I just wanted to share some images of the road, the trees, the villages and the odd tourist attractions. It is hard to put the Giants into perspective, the light is always wrong (or absent) and no photo will ever do justice to the feeling of being there.

Day 147-150, 5-8 December 2008: Entering California: From Brookings via Trinidad to Eureka: fog, trees, waves & people…

5 December: Brookings, Oregon to Klamath, California, 73km

Entering California is like entering another country: there is a checkpoint signs. This is to prevent ‘strange’ fruits entering the State, but when we arrived in the early morning, nobody was on duty in our lane, so we could enter without delay. It was a pleasant day, even getting hot at some point.

Only at the end of the day, just when were about to climb up a large (360m/1200ft) hill, the infamous sea fog came rolling in. We climbed slowly and soon we were above the clouds where it was still nice and sunny. But what goes up must go down, and so we downhilled towards the thick blanket.

Ivana really hated it and panicked when the vision limited to just a few meters. My point of view was that if we were to go the maximum speed (30MPH or about 48km/h), then no car should touch us, but she was too afraid and went down slowly.

We went back to sea level, but could hardly see the water through the thick fog and so we ended up stopping in Klamath. We asked a friendly passing woman if she knew a place to camp and she invited us to her trailer, where we saw the biggest mess we both had ever seen in any place that’s supposed to be fit for living…

Clothes everywhere (both inside and outside), kids sleeping in the livingroom, a sleeping/grumbling man, kids playing Xbox games and foodremains from Thanksgiving (8 days before) were everywhere. A bunch of semi-wild cats made the perfect picture complete and we were happy we had our tent to stay in and our pasta to cook.

Ivana had never heard of the politically incorrect description TrailerTrash, but here it was. What surprised her most that these apparently poor and likely uneducated people still had so much luxury: a huge trailer to live in with electricity and water, heaps of clothes, a big truck, Xbox and other gadgets. When comparing this to all those people we had witnessed in Africa and Asia and even Argentina, the contrast was sharp.

6th December: Klamath to Trinidad, 76km (+800m up and down)

We quickly made our way out and up another few big hills entering the first of several Redwood parks, famous for their big Redwood and Giant Sequoia trees. We had gotten off busy Highway 101 and were cycling on the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway, surrounded with green giants.

We stopped to admire the Corkscrew Tree and ‘Big Tree’, a coast redwood tree, 304 feet (91m) tall and 21 feet (6.3m) in diameter. The sheer size of these age-old trees made us feel humble and forget the steep climbing though the cool forest.

7th/8th December: Trinidad to Eureka via McKinleyville (18+30km)

[/caption]

We had arrived in Trinidad just before dark, where we got hosted by Carol. When we rode through the nice little town the next day, we understood why it was her favorite place to be. Just before we entered the small but busy coffeeshop a cyclist came up to us, asked a few questions about our trip and then stuffed a $20 bill in my hand before cycling away.

We were a bit flabbergasted, but had head from other cyclists that this is not uncommon in California and we celebrated with some hot chocolate and pastries in the wonderfully alternative coffeeshop.

We had already arranged the next place to stay, which was CouchCycler Louise’s house, only 16km away. It was a great sunny day and she came our way to pick us up, reaching us when we were just outside Trinidad. We had a relaxed and pleasant ride towards McKinleyville, where we helped her finish off a huge crab, tasty!

She drove us to the Hmong Celebration of Happy New Year, in nearby Samoa (see some people and read some backgrounders about the Hmong here on 1000 Americans) and cycled with us to Arcata the next day, through flat fields and over quiet country roads.

While Ivana roamed the numerous small shops I opened Lenny on a park bench and used one of the open networks to answer some emails. It is so nice to be able to quickly slide the laptop out of the Ortliebs and work anywhere, anytime…

It was only an hour to get to Eureka, where we were awaited by yet another great Couchsurfing host: Beth and her cat Dub. Eureka contains some classic Victorian mansions including the Ingomar Club, formerly known as the Carson Mansion, named after the first of many logging millionaires, responsible for leaving less than 5% of the original redwoods & Sequoias… Many of these are along the famous ‘Avenue of the Giants’, which was our destination for the next few days…

Day 141-146, 29-Nov – 4 Dec 2008: The Oregon Coast in photos

It took only a few days of cycling to get down the Oregon Coast from Otis, with an average of 72km (45 Mi) we covered it in 6 days. The area is very impressive, even though it was quite rainy and windy, we enjoyed it a lot. Below is a picture overview of some of the scenery we saw along the way.

We also saw some less pretty things, as explained in my previous ‘trash rant’, but overall it was another highlight.

We camped a few days in the rain but also stayed with some wonderful people: Linda & Gilbert, Terry & Lily, Nicole & ‘Jim-Bob’ Brian on Couchsurfing and Ken Neeley, who celebrated our last night in Oregon with us in the local Pizza Place…

Next stop: California!

(click on the images and a larger version will appear automagically!).

Kowalski! Status report!

After 6300km (almost 4000 miles), our Santos Travelmaster bikes are great as ever. Ivana got another flat tire (her 3rd I think), I am still at one!

My back hurts at times and some of the steeper hills I could feel my knees, but so far, so good…

Next stop: California!

Mile 207, Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area: a Trash Rant…

I am about to post several wonderful images of Oregon State, USA. A truly beautiful place. But first I have to get something else off my chest:

<rant> Imagine cycling along one of the most beautiful stretches of coastal nature in the US, maybe even in America. Dunes, forests, cliffs and rough waves. So nice they declared it a ‘National Recreation Area’!

I enjoyed the scenery, but got more and more annoyed with the trash that was on the side of the road. It got so bad that I could not focus on the nature or even on the traffic, but just on the next piece of plastic that had been thrown out of a car window, or maybe I should say truck window?

Besides the ugliness of the trash, the chemicals that are slowly released into nature (by decomposing and by getting eaten by animals), it also creates dangerous situations for cyclists, as many times we have to go around heaps of glass or large pieces of trash, forcing me onto the car lane (assuming there is a shoulder to begin with).

At one point, at the bottom of a steep hill, I decided to take some photographs.

About one mile later, I had about 75 pictures of discarded trash, all taken within 45 minutes of uphill cycling (some more were shot after lunch, one hour later). Please take the following facts in account:

• I only started shooting after I got really annoyed by all the trash, so there were hundreds pieces more, just before this series.
• All first 75 shots were taken within 45 minutes; this includes cycling uphill, getting off the bike, releasing the flap of my handlebar-bag, getting the camera ready, taking a picture and getting moving again. Mostly I could do only a few pedal strokes before stopping again.
• Many pieces are missing. Only halfway up I started to shoot ‘doubles’, before, I passed items if I already had shot them. Missed Doubles (or triples) include red Bull, Coca Cola, Camel cigarettes, all Beers Of Idiots (see below) and more
• I did not shoot most unrecognizable and/or unbranded pieces of trash, such as random car parts, plastic wrappers of all kinds and sizes, unrecognizable glass items and much, much, much more…
• The road was steep on my side, the side of this trash, so likely a multitude of trash was to be found lower down the slope
• It was busy and there was no good shoulder, so I could not stop for every piece.
• Image #27 is the one in the middle: Scenic Byway… Besides this sign, there had also been a ‘Adopt-A-Highway sign before I started shooting.
• I only shot one side of the road.

Here is it: all the glory of Mile 207, Oregon (click image for larger version)

Conclusions:

Not all of the below are scientifically proven or valid, but it after cycling several thousand kilometers along the US highways, it is reasonable safe to assume that:

• There are hundreds pieces of trash per mile of US Highway, even though it is in a ‘National Recreation Area’
• Coors & Bud (especially light) are the choice of beer for trash-throwing idiots
• There is just as much ‘healthy’ trash (waters such as Dasani, Aquafina, ArrowHead (with ‘Eco-Shape bottle’!), V8, VitaminWater etc) as there is stuff that was already trash to begin with (KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, BurgerKing etc etc)
• Drive-thru coffee creates throw-away empty coffee trash.
• Adopt-a-Highway seems nothing more than a scam where local businesses get some advertising and never look at ‘their’ road again. There were some exceptions in the US (especially notably when the Adopter was a Bikeshop or Eco-market etc), but generally those signs only seemed to attract trash as the idiots throwing things out of their car, seem to need something to aim for..

I assume that the crazy fools that throw these things out of their car window (trust me, they are NOT cyclists…) have zero respect for nature also have no respect for others or even themselves, as they are messing up their own planet. Is is just education? lack of proper values taught by their parents? Or just plain stupidity? I really wonder what goes on in their minds if anything at all.

Some places have a sign that says: ‘$1000 fine for littering’. This means that if one person was stationed here, he could have raised at least $80,000 in fines (likely a multitude) on this one mile alone. I think that will cover his salary? How’s that for job creation?

< / rant>

Day 135–140, 23-28 Nov 2008: Metal Cowboys, cycling in Portland, giving thanks with an old friend and to the beach…

Before we headed over to Portland, we had to visit an old friend we had never met! I had known MC & Dave since years by email & via the 7summits.com forum, but we had never met in person. It was great to finally meet them and we stayed longer than planned as they took us on a nice sightseeing trip through the Columbia River Canyon, with its gorgeous waterfalls and hosted us for the night in their great house. It was hard to say goodbye the next day, but we had another interesting date to get to that evening…

After arriving late at night in Portland, we ended up in the house of a well-known cyclist: Joe Kurmaskie, aka ‘The Metal Cowboy’. It was much fun to talk about his and our tours and meet and having dinner with his wonderful family in person, after having read about them in their books. It is great that even a well-known person like Joe gives back by offering ‘Warm Shower’ to biketravellers.

After adjusting our bikes we managed to catch his escaped cat the next morning, and we headed off to see Portland. It is known to be pretty and one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US and our hopes were high. We got quite disappointed; even though there were many people cycling and there were some nice streets with alternative shops and interesting architecture, it was still another noisy big city, mainly because of endless streams of large cars.

I realized that we had gotten spoilt in Amsterdam and the Netherlands: everything is focused around cycling: almost all roads have separate bike lanes, with their own traffic lights and distance markers. Nobody wears helmets because it is safe to cycle and because bicycles have the right of way in many situations. Here in Portland it was already nearly impossible to get into the city from the North as there are no clear signs and the big I5 highway has no easy way for bikes to cross the river.

25th November: Portland – McMinnville 63km: meeting an old friend!

After staying one more night with Couchsurfer Adam (one of the few Portlanders without a car?), we pushed our bikes up the steep hills and continued along the Pacific Highway 99. The rain came down nonstop and we had to adjust our brakes, in order to safely stop for the many traffic lights on the wet hills.

Once out of the city we stopped at a SafeWay to get some lunch and got into a bizarre conversation with some teenage kids. It deserves its own post which I will try to write up soon…

Back on the rainy road, I was passed by a car who pulled over to the shoulder. Thinking it was somebody who wanted to encourage us in some way, I stopped and waited for the driver to step out into the rain. It took about half a second before I recognized the smiling face that appeared on the asphalt: Ben! Our cycling buddy from the Dalton Highway! It had been 4 months since we had said goodbye in Fairbanks after riding down one of the hardest roads in the world together with Ben and his friends. Even though it was pouring rain, he thought he recognized Ivana’s Santos Bike and when he passed me as well, he was sure it was us!

It is a small planet after all, especially as we had no idea that his family lived so close. He was on his way to a place called McMinnville, to spend Thanksgiving there. He jotted down the name and number and promised to email their street address.

We had already arranged to spend the night in the house of Gary Schultz, an active traveller, who showed us pictures from all his great trips, but the next day we went to see Ben’s family: Carol & Mike. They are amazingly warm people and immediately invited us to stay the next days, so we could celebrate thanksgiving with them. It was nice to catch up with Ben as well, so we gladly accepted the invitation. We spend all day preparing the huge meal and had a great time together. Though we had so different backgrounds and beliefs, we were all thankful for life and for the opportunity to meet warm people like them.

28 November: McMinnville – Otis, 82 km, back to the coast

It was a fast ride to the coast, we zoomed across misty fields and empty hazelnut trees and had only one small pass to conquer before we could follow the Salmon River down to the coast. We had some trouble finding the place of our Couchsurfing host Alan, but when we got to his place it was worth the extra meters of uphill.

Alan lives close to the coast and he took us across the estuary for a walk on the beach, just in time before the night fell. While Ivana made some more of her famous pies, we finished the night watching some movies, getting ready for yet another famous part of our journey: The Oregon Coast!

Day 124 –133, 12 –21 Nov 2008: Washington State: Couchsurfing with friendly people from Seattle to …Vancouver?!?

We suddenly received an email.

Hello Harry,
Read your profile. Would love to meet if possible.
How much longer are you in the Seattle area?
Samir

We called him and found out that Samir, his wife Madalyn & daughter Danielle were living in Bellevue, 25km east of Seattle. We had actually planned to leave Seattle on the west side, but as many times before, we let chance determine our route. So on a dark & rainy afternoon we said goodbye to Andy and off we went, across the Lake Washington Bridge and ended up atop of a very steep hill, where we were welcomed by Samir and his family. He actually had 2 other guests, 2 puppeteers that would be performing in the area the next morning. It was nice to be together, Maddie cooked up a great meal and we enjoyed the fact that the Internet made it possible to meet new friends like these.

For those new to Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club & Warm Showers, they are networks of people opening their house and/or local knowledge up to other travellers, supplying them with free lodging (a ‘couch’, though it can be a spare room, a sofa or just a spot on the floor or in the garden). Currently there are more than a million members inviting strangers into their homes, following the mission of Couchsurfing:

“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”

Read more about CouchSurfing, WarmShowers.org & Hospitality Club in this post here.

Samir invited us to come to his Cabin at Snoqualmie pass with him, which was perfect: fresh air, mountains, a warm cabin and a nice hike to Snow Lake nearby. It was a perfect place to relax before hitting the road again. We stayed one more night in Bellevue, did a slideshow presentation for his friends, got my iPod replaced and off we went 🙂

17 November 2008: Seattle – Tacoma, 79km

It is basically all city, all the way to Tacoma, but still there are some nice biketrails you can follow; first the lake Washington trail, then the curvy Green River trail, leading to the Interurban Trail.

I even managed to get a speeding ticket from a cop on a bike, see the image to the left! (Just kidding, officer Kyle Bear was nice and interested in our trip, see his picture here on 1000 Americans)

Ivana & I managed to lose eachother for the first time since starting the trip. I was waiting at the bottom of a long downhill, and she had left the main road somewhere halfway down, thinking it continued straight. After 20 minutes I made my way back up the steep slope and fortunately found her.

At least she had the address of the destination for tonight, so likely she would have ended up at Gerrit’s place somehow, but it is very discomforting to suddenly be apart when you send 24/7 together! Gerrit (see his picture on 100 Americans here) had prepared a wonderful meal for us, likely the tastiest we had eaten on our trip!

18 November 2008: Tacoma – Olympia, 73km

We left Tacoma on another drizzly day, but it cleared up soon and we enjoyed the ride throughSteilacoom and the forests of the Fort Lewis military zone. Unfortunately due to the zone there is no real other way out of there than to ride part of the I5, the largest highway in Washington, but that was actually better than it appeared. It is not only legal to cycle parts of it, but as the shoulders are almost 2m wide (6-7ft), it was quite safe. Still we were happy to be out of the noise and on the downhill towards Olympia.

Olympia looked like a nice town, but we had to rush to make it to Dan & Nancy’s place before dark, so we continued South right away. Dan & Nancy are inspirational in many ways, they cycle across the USA in stages (3 parts down, one to go!), spend their winters in Costa Rica and play in the sessions in the Irish pub! See more about their plans in 1000 Americans here.

We ended up staying another night with them and their cats as we felt right at home, listening to their stories and plans and of course to see them play in the pub. Ivana made more apple pies, she still finds apples everywhere, season is not over yet, and many apple trees have lost their leaves, but not their fruit and most of it is going to waste as nobody is picking them!

20/21 November 2008: Olympia – Vancouver, WA, via Castle Rock, 100 + 84km!

It was a dark and somber day. It never really cleared up and it was either raining or threatening to rain and the wind was not very helpful to get us up the steep (‘rolling’) hills… We missed our exit and again ended up at the I5, which was not so bad at all as in the dark, it is probably safe to ride the 7ft shoulder on the highway than the non-existent shoulder on a narrow and winding country road to Castle Rock.

We were welcomed by Cindy & Larry, an elderly couple who have raised 15 kids! They have 28 grandkids and 3 great grandkids. All but one of their children, in all colours and sizes, are either step or adopted.

They live in a great place with lots of farm animals around and we had the honour to be their first Couchsurfers.

We took a ‘scenic route’, which 99% of the times translates as ‘very steep hills’ and this was no exception… But the weather was nice, it was fresh and sunny and the hills green, so life was good.

Cycling relaxes your mind and you start enjoying the ‘little’ things again like smells, sounds and colours…

We were still moving South with Fall and though this meant the days were getting shorter and shorter, the colours next to the mighty Columbia River were beautiful.

.

.

Besides the Glaciated spike of Mt Hood, we also noticed the remain sof Mount St Helens, and impressive mountain, that had erupted (exploded) in 1980.

From WikiPedia:

Mount St. Helens is most famous for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, at 8:32am PDT^[1] which was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways, and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed. The eruption caused a massive debris avalanche, reducing the elevation of the mountain’s summit from 9,677 feet (2,950 m) to 8,365 feet (2,550 m) and replacing it with a 1 mile (1.6 km) wide horseshoe-shaped crater.^[2] The debris avalanche was up to 0.7 cubic miles (2.9 km³) in volume. The Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was created to preserve the volcano and allow for its aftermath to be scientifically studied.

So after leaving Vancouver, Canada a month ago, we arrived in Vancouver, Washington! Or, as Ivana’s mum said, when we told her we were in Vancouver: ‘Again?’.

We got confused by some of the very busy streets but made it to the home of Photography Professional Tom Hubbard & his wife Sandy (see them and their great websites here on 1000 Americans), who took us out for a great meal.

We almost made it out of Washington State, but it felt like we were about to enter yet another country: Oregon!

Kowalski, Status report!

Days go fast on a bike. Before you know it, you are one week ahead, which means that the memory of our cycle computers is overwriting itself. So one day is missing here (from Olympia to Castle Rock), which was about 100km and an estimated 750m up and down..

Our Santos bikes behaved perfectly as always, no problems whatsoever, my back was a little painful at times, but not too bad. Total distance covered so far 5700km, including 51,000 meters (167,000ft) of climbing!

Tips from the road: Couchsurfing, WarmShowers & Hospitality Club

This post is a thank you to all the wonderful people that have hosted us on the way and offers advice for travelers as well as hosts.

For those new to Couchsurfing, WarmShowers.org and the Hospitality Club, these are networks of people opening their house and/or local knowledge up to other travellers, supplying them with free lodging (a ‘couch’, though it can be a spare room, a sofa or just a spot on the floor or in the garden).

Couchsurfing is the largest , currently there are almost a million members inviting strangers into their homes, following the mission of Couchsurfing:

“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”

WarmShowers.org is an older, but much smaller organisation (less than 10,000 members), but it is especially focused on BikeTravellers.

“The Warm Showers List is a list of Internet cyclists who have offered their hospitality towards touring cyclists. The extent of the hospitality depends on the host and may range from simply a spot to pitch a tent to meals, a warm (hot!) shower, and a bed.”

This has some advantages:

• the hosts generally have cycled themselves, so you do not have to explain why or how you do it 🙂
• They usually have storage space for your bike
• They might have spare parts, but at least useful tools
• They know all the local cycle routes and the best way to get out of cities etc
• They are very friendly 🙂 and almost always will answer positively to any requests

The disadvantage is of course that there are fewer members, but usually the ‘quality’ is more important here than the ‘quantity’.

The Hospitality Club is the second largest organisation, with currently about 330.000 members. Their mission is similar:

Our aim is to bring people together – hosts and guests, travelers and locals. Thousands of Hospitality Club members around the world help each other when they are traveling – be it with a roof for the night or a guided tour through town.
The club is supported by volunteers who believe in one idea: by bringing travelers in touch with people in the place they visit, and by giving “locals” a chance to meet people from other cultures we can increase intercultural understanding and strengthen the peace on our planet.

Joining any of these 3 organisations is free, takes just a minute and everyone is welcome. Members can look at each other’s profiles, send messages and post comments about their experience on the website. Of course you can become a member of all of them, it will increase your chance of finding a host and to meeting new travellers. You can be very clear about what you can offer and what you request: if you only want to meet up for a drink, that is ok. If you have a backyard where people can pitch a tent, that is perfect as well. if you want to offer a spare room and serve dinner that is wonderful, but not required. if you need a week’s notice, that’s no problem (though many travelers, especially BikeTravellers, cannot tell exactly when they arrive as it is dependent on wind..)

We had only ‘Couchsurfed’ a few times so far, but Samir was a professional. Even though they had surfed only a few times themselves, he gave us all kind of tips about how to find hosts and how to use Couchsurfing more effectively, though these are mostly true for the others as well:

Samir’s CS tips:

• Sign up for local CS groups (the ‘Amsterdam’ or ‘California’ group etc, any group of the place you are travelling in), so you can easily get in contact with members and post message in the group.
• Check for people who are online in your area (CS shows where you recently logged in from). This is actually how Samir found us, he just checked which CS-ers where near him and checked our profile!
• Of course, if you want to be hosted, you will need a complete profile, so add much information about yourself.
• Try to meet other CS-ers locally if you are new. This way they can see you face to face, and vouch for you.

Why would you sign up with any of these organisations?

To give

• You can help travellers finding a safe place to stay, or even just help them out with useful information or just a cup of tea or a warm shower & a washing machine. Travellers do not need fancy places, just a roof can be great.
• You can save travellers a lot of money, they otherwise had to spend on expensive hotel rooms. This money is much better spent on travelling more, food, a museum etc!
• You meet many different people: travellers with great stories about their hometown/-country, travelling tips and much more. It is a free way to get a good bite of ‘strange’ culture!
• You can show the world, that not all strangers are bad people and that it is easy to help a fellow human being; even though the media will try to convince you to believe the ‘fear culture’ (don’t trust anybody, axis of evil, discrimination etc). Fear is big business, with the weapons industry leading the way…
• To show that the Internet is a great thing. Our generation is empowered by it and can use it to make the world a better place.

To receive

• To find hospitality in unexpected places by unexpected people and restore faith in humanity.
• To get first-hand knowledge about the place and area you are staying in.
• To save a lot of money which is much better spent otherwise 🙂
• To see how people are really living in the place/country you are staying in. No Hotel can teach you about local breakfasts, the way people talk to their kids etc in foreign countries!
• If you are a cyclist, it is a great way to have a day ‘off’: when you know your gear is in a safe place, you can go for a ride, without luggage, or walk into town, without a bike for a change. If you do not have to watch your bike, you can visit museums, shops, a swimming pool, library, or simply have a siesta in the park. You would see cities, you would otherwise have to pass.
• You might be able to freshen up (a Warm Shower) or even do some laundry and generally load up your energy levels.
• If you like pets, you will love the chance to play with the dog or cat (hosts generally have pets, unless they travel a lot themselves :))

We already met so many wonderful people, many of them are mentioned in the ‘1000 Americans’ Category. Most of them we would never have met, if it was not for the 3 initiatives mentioned here, and without them we would have camped more, but also learned and seen a lot less…

Of course you must always use your own mind when deciding to stay with somebody as in culture, both online as well as offline, there are a few less good people trying to spoil it for the rest. Whatever you do, in the end it is always your own responsibility/choice, but do not let this stop you from travelling and meeting new people.

Unaware hosts 🙂

We have stayed at several people, who either had no internet connection, and/or no idea about the organisations above. Still they invited us into their homes, becase they wanted to help us out, dry us, feed us, listen to our stories or share theirs.

They found  us on the street, in front of a library, looking for a place to camp, or stumbled upon our website and invited us: spontaneous Warm Showers!

They are great hosts, who offer help from their hearts without even thinking about the huge internet resources. As one host said: ‘You know, they should make a website to connect travelers!’. When we told them about the 3 mentioned above he was pleasantly surprised 🙂

Day 106–123, 25 Oct–12 Nov 2008: Hikes, Halloween & Hope in Seattle

First of all: did you know that if you click on the images in the posts, that a larger version will appear on top of the page, all automagically? try it, it is quite cool (pictures need some time to load as they are now 1000pixels wide!).

We had planned to stay maybe a week in Seattle, but it turned out we would stay for 2.5 weeks… Seattle is mostly known for Grunge, Microsoft, Boeing & coffee and it generally considered a nice place to live. I hade been working for a small company in Bothell, close to Seattle, about 8 years ago and had been in the area a few times. The great thing is that the city is huge, but spread out over several peninsulas and islands and that the mountains and nature are never far away…

It was great to see Andy again, after meeting in Uganda and Amsterdam before. He was very busy filming a documentary, connected to the upcoming elections, but still he took us out to see some live music and we went for a great hike up Mt Pilchuk. Not a difficult climb -though it was quite icy & slippery near the top-, but very rewarding, with nice views over the  Cascade mountains. It is wonderful to live so close to the nature and especially snow-capped mountains, something I miss in Amsterdam.

On our way out we stopped for a beer in a typical loggers bar. Neither the beer, nor the people and especially the decoration wasn’t very tasteful 🙂

Time flies when you’re having pain..

The days went passed quickly. We had a lot of rain, but also some nicer days. We walked around the neighbourhoods and went for some short rides. Only once we went out for a real ride; even though there are some biketrails, you really have to look for them and most are not so scenic, mostly just designated parts of the road.

We had been travelling in fall colours since the Yukon, 3000km north, and Seattle was no different. The shots that make up this image were shot in just one street, close to Andy’s place.

My back was starting to hurt again and as my diclophenac pills were finished and I could not get more without a prescription, I switched to an Ibuprofen-rich diet… Read more

Day 98-105: 17-24 Oct 2008: ferries & friendly people, from Vancouver, CA, to Seattle, USA via Victoria

17 October 2008: Vancouver to Victoria, 75 km

The weather gods did not want us to leave Vancouver, maybe they thought I should rest more. Wind and rain pounded on us when we made our way to the ferries in the Southwestern point of the mainland of Canada. we had taken the monorail East first as the direct route would have led us through the George Massey Tunnel, off limits for cyclists. The shuttle for cyclist had stopped for the season and we did not think that any bus could take our heavy bikes on their frontloading rack. we could not lift them up there anyways 🙂

After about 30km through mainly flat and wet land we ended up at the ferry, just in time for a 14.00 departure. It takes about 90 minutes to cross the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver Island, the largest island on the West side of North America.

The Lochside Trail, turning into the Galloping Goose trail later on, starts right outside the ferry terminal and is a great way to see a bit of the island. It is an old rail track, sometimes unpaved, sometimes crossing roads and even wooden trestles but always very scenic for all its 35km. We saw deer along the car-free trail, many flocks of geese and fields full of pumpkins. we enjoyed it so much that we ended up entering in Victoria in the dark…

We stayed 2 nights with our great Warm Showers list hosts, Mark & Cathy. They took us to a nice little Farmer’s market, one of the last of the season. It is nice to see that more young people are supporting the local farmers and eating healthy produce, even though it costs more than the preprocessed and mass-produced ‘food’ from the larger supermarket chains. I feel that our generation (at least a part of it) realizes that we should value fuel for our own system more than that for our cars… Read more

Day 91- 97, 10-17 Oct 2008: Totems, servers, sushi & parks in Vancouver

Vancouver is a nice city. Even though we had to get used to being in a large place again, we enjoyed the neighbourhoods, the bicycle lanes, the beaches, Chinatown, Sushi. I will keep this report short and just show you some images.

We were surprised by the large number of homeless people in the streets downtown and the lack of a real ‘tourist’ area. A lot is going on in Vancouver as the Olympic Wintergames will be here in less than 16 months: new buildings, houses and more.

We spend many days resting at Kristen’s place. I had to transfer many websites from one host to another, which is the electronic version of emigrating an entire family, but all went well and now www.BikeTravellers.com, www.ExposedPlanet.com and some others are finally reachable and fast again.

We went into some big outdoor and bicycle shops but did not really need anything. I commented about this on Bikeradar, a well-known website that had reviewed our Santos Travelmaster Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »