Bears and Berries

A couple days ago, we entered Montana. While cruising up and down the hills in the Rocky Mountains, we came across a great sandwich shop in the middle of nowhere. We met two guys there while we were eating our sandwiches, who claimed that these were the best sandwiches in 250 miles. I've got to say that they were pretty great. I had pastrami with smoked swiss on 7-grain bread with all the fixin's!

After telling the two guys about our bike trip, the proceeded to warn us about the bears and indians. Yes, the indians. Apparently there's an indian reservation on the east side of Glacier National Park that belongs to the Blackfoot Nation. These guys said it's a really rough place and that we shouldn't even stop, not for anything, because the indians will mess with us. I understand that the reservation is probably very poor, but I find it very hard to believe that the people there are so terrible. I guess we'll see in a couple of days...

They also warned us about the bears and told us never to pick or eat any of the huckleberries, which are starting to ripen, which the bears love to eat. According to them, the bears are very protective of their fruit and might be attracted to you if you have eaten any.

Fast forwarding to 20 miles later, Eric and I were stopped in the middle of a nowhere surrounded by the mountains and trees. As walked around to loosen up my legs, I noticed some yummy looking berries on a bush beside the road. "Huckleberries!" I called out! As I was about to pick one, Eric reminded me of the warning not to pick or eat any. I reluctantly walked away.

Later in the day we took a short hike to cool waterfall outside of Libby, Montana. Eric had gotten ahead of me, and as I walked along the path, I noticed Huckleberries on all sides of me. I couldn't resist eating one! Oh they were so sweet, yet tart!!!

Then, out of the bushes, five bears jumped out and and I had to fight them - bare hands against bear claws... Just kidding, we've get to see any bears and I don't intend to tangle with them if I don't have to. I later read in a pamphlet for Glacier National Park, that it is permissible to pick huckleberries and that as long as there aren't any bears around, they probably won't eat you.

Idaho!

We're so close, I can see it! Idaho is pretty much right across the street. We're about half way through with a 90-mile day that will take us out of Washington State and deep into the Idaho panhandle.

We finally made it passed all the passes (doing one a day) and are out of the Cascades. Once over the first peak, we entered dude-ranch country, where there's a lot of scrub, dirt, and cattle. Every place we passed had "ranch" in the name and had big timber posts over the drive in.

Dude ranch country melted away into more farm land and eventually forests. We camped last night at a really nice spot along the Pend Oreille river with beautiful views of pine covered hills. We finished the day early getting a chance to jump in the river to cool down.

We're making really great time even considering the passes. In the last week we've averaged 67 miles per day, which is above our goal of 65 miles per day and really great considering this was the hardest segment of our trip.
Based on my last post, about climbing up Washington Pass, you probably all thought I was about to die. I'm feeling a lot better now, and pain levels are pretty low. My legs feel great, the palms of my hands don't hurt quite as much and the pain of my backside is sort of under control.

Again, I'm writing this from a public library and again the usb ports are disabled so I can't add photos!!! Arg! Oh well. In less than a week, we will be staying at house for the night and hopefully I can post photos then. I'm planning on posting a bit about our campsite culinary cuisine...

Breaking out of the gulag

There's a passage from the third book of the Gulag Archepelego, where two guys break out of a gulag in Kazakhstan, trek across the burning stepp for five days without food or water before reaching civilization. Right before the find a spring, the one guy says to the other - I cannot go on and am going to die, kill me and drink my blood so that you don't die here too.

We climbed the worst pass of the Cascades in near 100 degree heat yesterday and I think it was the closest I will ever come in my life to truly understand what that must have been like for those two guys. No worries though, both Eric and I are still alive. The pass we crossed was over 5,400 feet and it took us about 10 hours (with breaks) to acomplish. It helped greatly that we took a two hour break under a bridge by a mountain stream which we soaked our legs in and got a reprieve from the hot sun. The cold pure mountain water - necter from the gods - also helped greatly.

Since my last post, we left Eric's friend's parent's house and biked back toward the city. We ate a fish (smoked salmon) and chips lunch on the pier and after having spent more time eating and sleeping that biking, the bike trip was going great! That was all to change, once we ferried across the Puget Sound to the islands, where were quite hilly. I was still fresh and full of energy and burned myself out a bit on the hills, once we reached the mainland again, the land was more flat.

We road through some nice farm country up to the foothills of the Cascades were we camped at Sedro-Woolley. The next day we pushed on into the mountains and followed a beautiful winding road along a picturesque river. After a steep climb in the mountains, we camped in Diablo in a pine grove along a mountain river. We were so sore, we decided to take an ice bath in the river - it was the best thing I've ever done in my life! I cannot describe how great those numbing cold waters felt on my legs.

After our break from the 103F heat, we're going to keep going on to another, less intense pass. SOrry for the lack of photos - the library computer won't let me hook up the camara. I will add photos as soon as I can, so keep checking back!

Tag 2

Wir haben gestern Abend bei den Eltern von einem Freund Erics uebernachtet und alle schlafen noch. Die Menschen, mit dem wir uebernachtet haben, sind sehr nett und freundlich. Sie haben sich gefreut Beschucher zu haben und habne fuer uns gestern gegrillt. Heute morgen kochen sie einen grossen, dicken Fruehstueck mit Eier und Speck fuer uns. Ich hab solche Gastfreundlichkeit seit meiner Zeit in Deutschland nicht erlebt.

Die naechste ein paar Tage werden sehr schoen. Von hier, auf die Suedseite Seattle, Washingtons, gibt es wuenderschoene Blicke von Mt. Ranier, ein riesiges, schneegedecktes Vulkan! Heute und morgen fahren wir nordlich durch die Inseln im Puget Sound auf die Pazifische Kueste. Danach gibt es die Cascade Gebirge!

And we're off!

We flew into Seattle today, after barely making our 6:25 AM flight out of DCA due to TSA ineptitude, and commenced upon our bike trip across America! The most exhausting part of the day for me was spent trying to pump up my tires with a small hand pump - that was a chore! After filling the tires, reattaching the pedals, and making minor adjustments, we were off.

We biked about 20 miles south, the wrong way, to Eric's friend's, Brad's parent's house to stay over night. When we arrived, we were greeted by black and tans, crab dip, and the best ribs I've ever had in my life! I'm totally stuffed right now. As you can guess, the bike trip has been great, so far!

In addition to the wonderful hospitality of Brad's parents and their delicious food, we were awed by the view of Mt. Ranier just a couple of miles into our ride. Fortunately, we'll avoid the mountains for a couple days, as we first travel north for a couple days, island hoping in the Puget Sound. Then it's time for the Cascade Mountains! (oh no!!!)

Sei bereit, immer bereit!

Meine Lieblingsparole aus der DDR! "Bereit zu sein" erinnert mich auch auf einen tollen Song von Schleimkeim: "Es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, stellt euch zusammen, seid bereit!" Ostdeutschpunkmusik trifft mich in die Seele!

Ich bin so bereit wie möglich, glaube ich... Seit vier Wochen bin ich jedes Wochende eine lange Strecke mit Rad gefahren. Erstens 60 Km, naechstes Wochende 80 Km, naechstes mal 100 Km, usw. Inszwischen bin ich so oft wie möglich in der Arbeit hin und zurück gefahren, insgesamt 25 Km hin und zurück.

Mehr zu fahren war unmöglich, ausserhalb der Arbeit zu verlassen. Aber ich musste arbeiten und ich danke meiner Chefin sehr, dass ich beurlauben darf! Alles geht am 7. Juli los, als wir ab Seattle, Washington, am Westküste fliegen, daher wir nach Providence, Rhode Island, am Ostküste mit Fahrräder fahren. Der Weg ist ungefahr 7,000 Km lang und wird neun Wochen dauern. Ich traue mich immer noch nicht ganz, aber ich glaube, nee, ich hoffe, dass ich es leisten kann.

Manche fragen mich, warum ich was so blödes mache. Um zu sagen, dass ich so was "großes" oder "unvorstellbar" gemacht hab, lege ich nicht viel Wert darauf. Großer Wert lege ich auf die Erfahrungen zu erleben, neue, interessante Menschen kennen zu lernen, und einen der schönsten Stücken Amerikas mit eigenen Augen zu sehen. Ich weiß schon, dass es nicht immer leicht sein wird, aber ich weiß auch, dass ich irgendwas von jeder Erfahrung mitnehmen werde, und diese Eindrücke und Erfahrungen werde ich immer behalten.

Also, drei Tage weiter und gibt es keinen Rückweg mehr! Ich freue mich schon darauf!

Level of Preparedness

I'd put our level of preparedness for our bike trip somewhere near that of the Coalition Of The Willing before entering Iraq. Sure, we have lots of high-tech gear, tools, camping equipment. But no, we don't have an exit strategy - it's victory at all costs! Yes, we've trained a lot, but of course, more time and better preparation would have been helpful. You go to war with the army you have, though... and we're ready to go. What ever we lack in preparation we make up for in wishful thinking and optimism. And it's that optimism that will either make our success that much sweeter or our failure that much more bitterer...

For those of you interested in my training strategy, as of four weeks ago, I started biking one long ride every weekend, beginning with 40 miles. The next week followed with a 50 mile ride, then a 60 mile one, and so on... In between, during the work week, I biked to work as often as possible, about 14 miles there and back.

Is there any way you can prepare yourself to ride 65 miles every day? I'm not sure, but I think I'm about as prepared as I can possibly be without having quit my job to train more. And about my job - no, I'm not quitting. My boss was extremely kind and understanding, allowing me to take a two month leave of absence and promising me that I could come back once I return. I owe her a big thank you for enabling me to go!

As far as equipment goes, Eric has everything covered. He owns every tool we could possibly ever need to fix anything that could possibly go wrong with our bikes. We're bringing a three person tent, which should comfortably sleep the two of us. We have a nice compact camping stove and a matroshka-like set of pots and pans. Together with our sleeping bags, a first aid kit, a magnetic Go board, and a couple changes of high-tech clothes, that's about all we're bringing along.

As far as biking equipment goes, I started with my old GT mountain bike that I converted into a touring bike by substituting those bulky, thick mountain bike tires for thin, sleeker road bike tires, and adding handlebar extenders. I happened to find a Bob Yak trailer on craigslist that a friendly guy named Brian in Mississippi was selling. The trailer was nearly new and much cheaper than buying all the racks and bags. The trailer puts less weight and wear and tear on the bike too. I tried it out riding to and from work and I hardly notice that it's there.

You may be wondering how we're getting our bikes and gear out to Seattle. The airline we randomly picked, ATA, happens to have a really great bike policy. All we have to do is turn the handle bars side-ways and remove the pedals. I'm going to rap my bike trailer in bubble rap and toss the rest of my stuff in a dispensable cardboard box with the rest of Eric's stuff. Once we arrive in Seattle, we'll put everything back together and get rolling!

Besides gear and training, we've been working hard to organize some places to stay long the way. You, our friends, have been really helpful in identifying family and other friends who live all along our route, who we can stay with, and my pastor's wife from Trinity Lutheran Church in Willoughby, where my family still worships in Cleveland, and my pastor in DC, Pastor John at Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church, have both been really helpful in helping us find places to stay in Montana and North Dakota.

So, all in all, I think we're pretty well prepared. I'm (pretty) sure will make it!