Fall in the Northwest

Fall in the northwest is so pretty. Our camper carried us back up from the Bay Area just fine. Even at it's slow 45 MPH on flats, we still felt like we jetted back up compared to our bike trip up the coast. We made some stops on the coast along the way, one being Cape Flattery, which neither of us had been to yet. Very rough and pretty, Northwest style. We now have a couple of weeks to find an apartment in Seattle, move belongings around, and get passports and visas ready for a couple trips overseas (China, India, Nepal, Sweden). Lots of new stuff coming, very exciting. Meanwhile, we are enjoying the turned Northwest leaves, driving a car with power steering again, and even the shorter days.

Last stretch

Just a little update to say we made it safely to Seattle. The 70 miles yesterday from Sequim were good, faster than usual because we were carrying a little less and were fueled by a nice pancake breakfast. We did a little detour just before Bainbridge Island to visit the home and grave of Chief Si'ahl ('Sealth'), the Suquamish and Duwamish Indian chief after whom our city was named. We posted a couple pictures in the bike photo album. It was super neat to take the last stretch across on the windy ferry, and fun to ride into downtown Seattle early in the evening. So, our bike trip is done and we're happy to be home safely. Thanks for following us along the way.

Petaluma, CA to Seattle, WA

A very good bike ride it has been following the white line from Petaluma, California, to the Olympic Peninsula on Highway 1, then 101. In all, we rode 1,010 miles on the trip and have just 70 more to get to our last stop in Seattle (I think my last stop is actually going to be Cherry Street Coffee). We made roughly 50 miles each day and took a couple days off visiting family and friends along the way. In all, we were on the road 25 days. We carried all our camp gear with us so we each had anywhere from 30-40 lbs in our panniers, depending mostly on how many groceries we were carrying at the time (meaning the nightly brew-to-share in camp). We had a little powerful stove that kept us going on oatmeal, coffee, beans, noddles, and even bacon one time. In between, we were never far from a pancake place, burrito stand, or some decent coffee.

I partly can't believe I actually rode my bike this far. And if I did it, I think it's something more people can do than who think they can. And, if you think about it even just 10 miles at a time, then 100 miles does happen sooner than you think. All you really need is a strong bike and a chunk of time. If you don't have the right gear, you can adjust from town to town. If you don't have biking muscles (like me), you will pick those up on the way, too. And you don't always have to do it gracefully (I didn't). Just getting on the road is probably a good thing. The best way to train for something is to just do it.

Josh and I had a great time together on the trip, and had and a ton of laughs too. We also came up with a few great road recipes (of course featuring peanut butter) and met some super cool people along the way. We crashed one night at a Tillamook dairy farm and got to feed calves with gigantic bottles, camped on the side of Highway 101 when we couldn't find a better camp, ate the best burger and garlic fries ever in Florence, Ore., and followed the beautiful coastline the whole way. In all, I'm so glad I/we did it.

Now, we are in Sequim at my mom's place for a week. We'll bike the last bit to Seattle this weekend and will then fly back down to the Bay Area to retrieve our camper out of its camper jail in Petaluma. Then we'll figure next steps for the last couple months of the year. Probably a couple last adventures to squeeze out of what's left of 2010.

Thanks again for visiting and tracking our adventures. I hope this finds you all happy and healthy. -- Robin & Josh

Riding bikes!

The photo above is a bad photo of a napkin on which Josh and I hatched a plan to ride bikes to Washington. I didn't train for one day for the darn trip and my legs let me know on the first hill. Boy! Fun stuff though, and tiring, and trying sometimes. But good. We are just putting a very brief update here from a friend's computer (we are on our first "down day") here in Arcata, CA. We have a ton of photos on the camera but none on this computer and probably won't until we reach our Washington destination--Sequim! We have put down 273 miles so far (about 40-50 miles a day). We will do a big update when we reach Sequim, hopefully by 2011, er, Halloween. Either way, at my speed, it'll be a while. Maybe check back by end of October and we should have something up. Thanks for visiting us!
Best, Robin

Yosemite

Hello, from the Bay Area! After spending a week hiking and camping in Yosemite, we are back in San Francisco and planning our next adventure. Our 30+ mile hiking trip took us to Tuolumne Meadows, Vogelsang Peak, Merced Lake, Half Dome and ultimately back down to Yosemite Valley over the course of six days. The weather there was great and the outing afforded us a peaceful contrast to the bright lights and loud sounds of Burning Man. We are enjoying a little down time in the city before heading out once again... We'll keep you posted. To see our pictures from Yosemite and to check out past photo albums, click on the picture above this post or the "click here for more pictures" button to the right.

: )

Best,

Josh and Robin