Fun in Eugene! June 25th to July 10th

Will, Brian and Brandon chowing down under Jefferson Bridge

Eugene is totally cool.

Let me count the ways. . . In almost no order. . .
1) Big city feel. Sizable downtown area with lots of people. Happening night life with lots of performances etc.
2) Small city feel. Heavy in community. I found myself bumping into the same people over and over if I went to the right places.
3) Pretty bike-able. I was really impressed with the bike signs describing routes and the bicycle trails. Everything is fairly close and most places are not too hilly. This made Eugene a great place to bike around slowly in. For faster biking some smoother roads and bike routes with less stop signs would be awesome..
4) Plenty of parks for circus action.
5) FUN PEOPLE

Next, a little story.

Eugene hosted the US Olympic Track & Field trials. It was kinda crazy. Every hotel room was booked. Everyone was out to make a quick buck. Frat boys sold their driveway parking spots at $35 a day. People rented their house on Craig's list and left town.

My plan: a magic-floating-hoop & harmonica routine at the farmers markets.
The story went like this. I have this crazy dream where I sneak out of the house with a shovel and walk down to the stadium. I dig, dig, dig at the 5 ring olympic emblem which adorns the center of the field. From the earth I pull THE RED RING (represented by, you guess it, my red ring). I awake in the morning sleeping on the ring. Oh no! I am so busted when the olympics find out about this! I must return it at once! So I try, but (thanks to my mime skills) the ring is stuck in the air! Drats. My harmonica music informs me that something lies on the other side of the ring. I climb through and discover the true magic of the ring -- floating, etc -- to save the olympics!
Next, everyone throws money in my hat because they enjoyed it so much.
This worked pretty well and was a lot of fun.

Thanks to everyone who I boogied with! Everyone who hosted me! Everyone who fed me! You all made my Eugene.

Relaxing on Spencers Butte

See more photos here!

Leg 2, Day 6, Tuesday June 24th

Today I biked 60+ miles from the Honeyman dunes in Florence along the 126 to Eugene, OR.

I started the day very strong. But, about 20 miles in I realized how fatigued my body was from a week of cycling. This would be a long day.

I fixed my first roadside flat. I stayed calm and everything went according to plan.

About 30 miles out I met a cyclist who was finishing the last leg of his cross country tour from Virginia. I should have been more excited for him, but I was pretty tired from my own ride. What do you say to someone who is 30 miles shy of biking across the country?

In Eugene my easy-going, plan-as-you-go, it-will-all-work-out, approach to planning almost got me in trouble.

My three Eugene leads were Mr. Gibbons, Lady LeeAnna, and Mrs. Lia.
A phone call from a pay phone confirmed that Mr. Gibbons lives out of his car and sleeps in his office. There is only room for him in his office. He has to find a place soon.

Mrs. Lia lives in her dads office where there is, of course, only room for her.

Unknown to both parties, a pre-bicycle-trip email addressed to Lady LeeAnna was lost in cyberspace. My only way of contacting LeeAnna: her street address she gave me in the winter. The address took me a few miles outside of town up one of the more wicked hills in Eugene. I used the last drop of fuel from my reserve tank to climb the hill and find no one home. The next day I learned that she had moved to a place much better situated for biking.

While the bike-tour-elves in Davis worked busily to find numbers of friendly people to host me, I aimlessly cycled about soaking in this new Eugene place. Next to the campus I find a pile of bicycles in statue, behind that a garden, behind that a funky 3 story dwelling, and beside that dwelling I see a man juggling 3 machetes. What luck! I have found the Campbell Club and the Lorax, two student co-ops at U of O.

Inside, the Campbell Club was art-covered and maze-like. They agreed to put me up for one night in the attic. Whew. Before going to bed I played my harmonica for the stars on their roof.
Thanks Fritz & Campbell Club!

I am in! (Eugene that is).
See below how I colonized the Campbell Club.

Cleaning up at "the club"

Climbing up to my attic abode.

Relaxn' on the Roof.

Leg 2, Day 5, Monday June 23rd

"Morning at Sunset Beach" or "The Last Photo Before My Batteries Died"

I biked another 50 miles today to Honeyman Dunes. This seems to be a good number when combined with wind, hills, and fun.

I took a morning walk to check out the tide pools. Lots of little crabs. Awesome. The batteries in my camera died. I didn't get any more photos until I recharged in Eugene.

The ride was nice. The dunes are amazing! There are miles and miles of huge rolling dunes. I wished my camera worked. I felt like an ant crawling across a huge desert. I practiced poi, hoop, harmonica, and clubs in the middle of it all.

I went back to camp with cold hands and feet, cashed in my free shower (go Oregon state parks!) and slept for 10 hours.

As always, click here, for more photos :)

Leg 2, Day 4, Sunday June 22nd

Relaxn' at Jim and Jim's "Art Palace"

(Almost) Sunset at Sunset Beach

Broccoli = Power

Today I rode about 50 mi from Humbug Mountain to Sunset Beach.

Along the 101 I stopped for a snack at a funky, colorful, open art studio. Here I met the funky, colorful, father & son creators, Jim and Jim. They gave me tea and let me sign their bathroom wall. Funny place.

The Oregon Coast bike map and route signs includes many scenic diversions from the busy hwy 101. These routes are clearly marked for Southbound riders, but many signs are often lacking for Northbound riders. This, in combination with a mis-named road and my own cycling stubbornness led me on a twisty, windy, up & down, 4 miles of gravel road! This was probably the hardest 4 miles of the trip. I thought of Jonathan Wooley on his California "lost coast" backroads adventure.

Sunset State Park is beautiful. I met some other hiker bikers then walked around. On my way back to camp I met two friendly car campers from Ventura who invited me over for tea and fire. I had a protein packed meal of refried beans and quinoa in a pita.

For more Arcata-->Eugene photos, click here!

Leg 2, Day 3, Saturday June 21st

Today I biked ~50 mi from the beach to Humbug Mountain. The ride was flat & and scenic with the wind at my back for the first time! I'm guessing the wind changed directions with the storm and this will be a very short-lived sensation.

My knee feels great. The rest in Arcata (plus the tail wind..) make me feel like a strong super-cyclist of sorts. Somehow, my wrist has healed on the road and is no longer threatening my rides. I think the extra weight (= inertia) on my bicycle dampen the wrist-irritating vibrations that were slowing down the healing before.

At camp I met a group of 7 south-bound cyclists. They were all whining about their one day of headwinds. Ugh. They told me stories about other days when the strong North winds would "push them up" the steeper hills.

In the group of 7 were Alex and Tofer -- two fixie riding kids from Phoenix, AZ who pack all of their stuff in one of those kid trailers. To make it fair, the kid trailer is attached to the nicer of their bikes and they switch who hauls it each day. In true single-speed style, their bikes lack such luxuries as rear brakes, front deraileurs (they manually switch before the big hills), and handlebar tape! See their photo below.

I think they were out to prove that just about anyone can bike the coast with any sort of bicycle. Sort of inspiring, in a way.

Alex, Tofer, and their sweet rides

To see all Arcata-->Eugene photos, click here!

Leg 2, Day 2, Friday June 20th

I went for a morning stroll through the Redwoods and consequently started a little late today.

I was going to stop just short of Oregon but stuff got kind of strange. The bicycle route diverged from the 101 and twisted around off of my maps. My target campground did not have a hike & bike option and looked pretty lame. So I pushed on towards another campground which I did not find. Instead I found myself in Oregon at Harris Beach (just North of Brookings) with 60+ miles of riding behind me!

At Harrison beach hike& bike ($4) I met 5 fun and exciting south-bound cyclists. The day wound down with a very photogenic and calming sunset. We were in a pocket of good weather while lightning struck both North and South.

In the morning, I showed a cyclist how to adjust his fancy 9 speed dérailleur and received a much needed back massage.

I had some tourists snap this photo for me. They laughed.

I did this one with my self timer.

For all the Leg 2 photos, go here.

Leg 2 (Arcata to Eugene), Day 1, Thursday, June 19th

Not a deer.

After a quick transformation to my second identity (spandex bicycle geek with robot sunglasses), I said goodbye to my circus buddies and away I went! Arcata at my back, Eugene at my front!

I started small with a ~40 mi ride up hwy 101 to Elk Prarie in the Redwoods. As the name would suggest, Elk Prarie is home to roaming herds of wild elk. I didn't know that there was such a thing before today.

At the hike & bike camp ($3!) I met Amos, a hip Seattle-ite biking south with, among other things, an mp3 player with Jason Webley and four juggling balls! Needless to say, we got a long real well.

Also biking South was a German couple struggling to understand the world. They quit their office & engineering jobs in Germany and have been traveling the world via bicycle for OVER A YEAR covering Europe, Australia, and the States. They were riding two identical and awesome steel frames built in Holland. They shared some German music with us then delighted in the US experience with Budwieser, Wonderbread, and Jason Webley.

Sweet ride.