South Bou' Nomads

2011-09-05T12:06:00.001-07:00

KAUAI

hanalei bay

kalalea

twin peaks

waimea canyon

unless!

2010-12-06T12:06:00.001-08:00

Run to the hillllllssss RUN FOR YOUR LIVESSSS!

2010-03-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

Just over a week ago now i road from Puerto Escondido the small famous surfing town in southern mexico where the waves are heavy and big, the palm trees blow gracefully in the breeze and the sun shines down as if its mission was to melt your brain, to the beautiful mountain city of Oaxaca. It was 240 or so kilometers that took 4 long hot very hilly days. It felt a little bit like trying to carve a grain of rice into a perfect replica of the Colloseum, which is by no means impossible but takes a ocean of patience and a mountain of endurance and a tsunami of persistance. The ride went up and down and up and down a few times until i finally crested the last mountain range and came into the mountain valley where Oaxaca sits. Along the way i was treated so kindly. One mountain family took me in for dinner where i enjoyed some soya and black beans and a drink of corn and milk, delicious. And to put the cherry on the cake the two young sons let me watch wwe wrestling with them. Never have i been more content watching men pretend to bash each over the heads with ladders and chairs.

Oaxaca is a beautiful very european city that is famous for its stringy mozzerella like cheese and its coffee served oaxaca style with cinnamon. They also have some incredible mole, a sauce that is a mix of bitter chocolate and chiles, oh and the salted roasted grasshoppers that are such a treat. I was also fortunate to drink a good amount of mezcal, tequillas evil twim which i guess is made from agave as well but, a different agave plant.

The Cathedrals in oaxaca are huge and covered in gold. As i spent a week or so in oaxaca i had some down time and it was a very nice thing to go sit in one of the many huge homes of the lord and read in the quiet solitude with no one around to bother or try and sell me anything.

Oaxaca is also famous for its ruins, monte alban. Oaxaca is at around 5000 feet and monte alban is somewhere closer to 6400. At the hostel i was staying at i challenged some friends there to a race up to the ruins, i would ride my bike and they would bus. Like a true champ i beat them to the top, granted my bike had no heavy gear on it but still, be impressed! It is a strange thing to walk around in ruins that are so old, so unconnected from this day and age. They are very impressive without a doubt but perhaps it is hard to grasp the true energy and time that were spent in building and living in this place so long ago. I mean, they leveled the entire top of a mountain and put in some pyramids and a cermonial ball court all without modern technology, this was a very impressive feat of engineering that surely broke many a soul and body. Why did they choose this spot when there was a huge flat valley below? To be closer to the gods maybe, to have a advantage over attacking enemies, who knows, maybe they simply liked the view. In any case it was very enjoyable to see and try and feel the energy that was stored in the scenery and stones here so long ago.

I also made it to the hierve el agua which translates to boiling water. This is a place that holds much natural beauty. It is up in the mountains to the east of oaxaca, a short drive strait up from Mitla there are natural springs that slowly trickly out of the mountains filling some man made pools with the spring water. These pools look straight out over a very large cliff so when you are in them it is hard to differentiate where the pool end and the sky begins. Naming this place boiling water was perhaps a small lie though as the water is fairly cold, however it does bubble here and there.

In oaxaca i met so many wonderful people from all over the world. It is amazing how people decide how to live there lives, there is no right way about this world. I am so thankful for all the kind people in this city and all over the path of my trip who have inspired me to live as fully as possible.

On the way up to oaxaca and in the past month of rideing alone there was alot of time to get inside of my own head and arrange the furniture, add some spiderwebs here, chase out some rats there and repaint the walls. On the way up the hills to oaxaca i especially got to thinking about why i was riding my bike. I ride for the adventure, for the feeling of freedom (I have found no feeling as free as cruising no hands down a huge hill with the sun shining on my back and the wind blowing threw my hair, i laugh and get goose bumps just thinking about it), to experience the world in a slower manor, in a way that i get to really really see a place carefully. When rideing you become more aware of your world, the smells the direction the wind is blowing, how the temperature changes as you climb up or down a hill, it is as if these senses that we have being animals like all the other creatures in this world flood back and all the sudden you are this hypersensitive antenna picking up the vibrations from everything. It feels so good. However there is a point in all adventures when you become full. This happened to me over the last hill coming down into the valley into Oaxaca. i realised that i had accomplished something amazing and it was enough, it fulfilled me for this moment in my life. continuing south would be like pouring water into a glass that is allready spilling over the top, it would be something to do but wouldnt be a vast improvement on something that was allready very good. So thats it thats all folks! I bought a plain ticket in Oaxaca and high tailed in back to the beautiful PNW to be with my family that i love so much. I really hope that all whom have read this along the way have enjoyed themselves as much as i and all my friends i made along the way did. Thank you, and remember you can live any way you please, honestly any way.
All the love in world
Jakota

to give and to recieve

2010-03-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

1 2 3 4 uno dos tres....

Been learning all about giving and recieving lately. A poet, khalil Gi Bran once said that it is more important to give then to recieve. This is a fine statement, however in the case of giving there is always someone on the recieving end so in the case of being given something i think one should also be very happy. To all who have me in their minds and hearts, i thank you. Your support is as important to me as gills are to fish.

With that said, i have now made my way to peurto escondido. The plan had been to ride to pinotepa nacional and then bounce on up the mountains to the city of oaxaca. However i must have been rideing in a trance because i missed the turn and well the rest is history and now i will ride from peurto escondido to oaxaca city.

Its hard for me to say what i have been up to since i last put up a blog, but i will try my best. So many days all blending together ya know? Ok so from Playa azul i road first to Zihuatanejo. This is a big city but i managed to find a nice small hostel and slept in a bed for a night. Also managed to wash my clothes by hand and get a nice cold shower. I met my first other cyclist here since leaving greg, henry, however he was done moving south and was hitching is way back north to his home town in seattle. Small world huh. from there i made my way to the famous acapulco, a town in which the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra would get down back in the nifty fifties. Now however as far as im concerend its lost its magic. I blazed threw the large hotels and mcdonalds and senor frogs in three lanes of crazy mexican traffic, then up a gigantic hill as fast as i could to get away from the crazyness. Let it be known though that riding in traffic on a bicycle is actually a very exciting and for me joyful experience. Then from Acapulco to Pinotepa and now in puerto escondido.

On the coast i usually try and sleep on the beach as i can have a nice swim to clean off the sweat from the day of which there is alot. Also it seems there are usually fewer mesquitos on the beach which is a bonus. After acapulco instead of beach there is the lagun which is also nice but also a bit more stressful. There are these very poor towns that i would ride into, where every one is a fisherman and there is trash scattered all along the beach. WHen i am in places like this whether i try to or not i become a spectacle as the people in these towns, usually the children are amazed at the big tall white guy. This is fun some of the time, ill juggle for em, they teach me some spanish., one time they went and got me some coconuts to drink. Its all very good. However often times when its past my bed time around 7 they still want to hang out. Hahah kids will come up to my tent at all hours of the night have a look, go grab there friends, bring them back laugh a bit, ahh its all very good really.

As ive mentioned before people are still so very generous. For example i was stopped eating some cookies and drinking some soda pop and the family whos store it was brought me some delicious eggs and tortillas hecho a mano. They were delicious.

Just last night i made it to a real beach where some fisherman were working. Being a fisherman as well i tried to step in and help them repair their nets. Im much slower then they at this type of thing but they let me try and had a laugh at my shody repair. I spent the rest of the afternoon with them helping them push their boats into the ocean and such, it was really really good.

One last observation. As i have been riding i have had the great fortune to witness all sorts of different road kill. In the US there were your racoons, possoms, the ocasional frog or snake and sometimes a dear. Here in mexico you get much more interesting creatures. There are all sorts of snakes, including the red touches yellow your a dead fellow type as well as its imposter. I have seen iguanas, entire horses, pigs, dogs, cats, butterflies, cows, snakes, and much much more. It will be a pleasure to continue and see the many different creatures who so diligently try and cross the road further south!

to all i send love mountains of it

jakota

is anybody still with me?

2010-03-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

welcome to the part of the trip where me and myself start going crazy

hours alone on the bike allows my sanity to become hazy

whoever thoughts that simply riding a bicycle could be so amazing

thank you family for the values on which you raised me

maleable, my mind is always changing

solo, it makes a difference. ive been riding from peurto vallarta to this place, playa azul for the past, hmmmm, seven days. Leaving greg on the highway and riding away with myself was emotional without a doubt. gregor love is not a good enough word for the way i feel about you. however my emotions were soon wrapped up in the very very large hill that must be climbed south of vallarta. It is amazing though because you ride into a pine forest. For a moment it smelled just like home. Since i have come into the area of mexico known as michoacan. this is a strange forgotten place where every beach is a paradise and you can ride for days without seeing any tourists. It has been wonderful, spending nights sleeping in hammocks on beautiful corona commercial esque beaches. I spent a day off on this beach where i did find two europeans, serge and dorota, however they were very much involved in the town. on the beach there were palapas and the family owned a small restaurant where the three of us were the only customers. I spent two wonderful nights there eating fresh seafood that the son of the family had caught that day and drinking beer. It was all very very relaxing. hmm there is so much more that has happened, i road threw banana and coconut trees for days around manzanillo. The highway here is alot like life, it goes up and down and up and down and never in a straigt line. As always there are problems with my bicycle.

and what do you do when your bicycle is really really owned? ill tell you what you do, you stop in a shady spot, and you pretend to be the thinking machine. And you sit there, and you think and you think. Then you grab the spare shifter cable that is too short for anything and you lash that baby together like you were a fisherman. Then? well then you get out some ductape and you tape her up real nice just because ductape always helps. then you drink some water and you mount that pony and you ride, oh you ride until you find a town. Then you know what you do? you go to the local mercado and you buy yourself a liter of milk and a box of frosted flakes. Then you sit there in the town square, where the kids will probably be having recess, running around flirting and laughing and doing crafts, and you kill that box of cerial. feeling pretty good now you go find a hardware store, buy yourself some hose clamps and clamp your bike together real tight and then you fly ohhhh you fly down the road on the wings that a box of frosted flakes will give you, and you ride the fastest 30 kilometers you have ridden in the last week and then you crash, ohhh you crash, because straight sugar will only get you so far. end of story

hey to anyone who does read this blog everynow and then! it is all good and wonderful for me to put up pictures and show you how great of a time i am having, but it is even more lovely when you all say something about it. Or even just leaving little bits of encouragement. the road is wonderful, but also sometimes it is a cold cold lady, so always wishing me luck helps!

yours truly

jakota

who are you montezuma and why are you so vengeful?

2010-02-22T14:07:00.000-08:00

We made it from Mazatlan to Tepic and then from Tepic to Sayulita in style. The up hills on the way to Tepic were as big as the downhill from there on. Leaving Tepic we came upon a 23 km down hill that lasted for probably half an hour or more. We flew down threw the cloud forests, threw viny jungles, past huge monuments to saints, the creatures wailing all around us, the semi trucks trying to keep up. It was pure bliss to say the lease. As gregs flight is not until the 24th and it is not far from sayulita we decided to camp out on the beach for a few nights. Least to say it was an eventful few nights. Sayulita is an epic beach, the kind you would see in a corona commercial. it became famous for its surf break. We went drank beer under palm trees, played in the waves with the surfers and had a really splendid time. That night we went to a more secluded beach and set up camp in the sand. Lesson one about sleeping on the beach, dont misjudge how high the tide will come. I being foolish did such and was rudely awoken to a mouth full of water as a wave completely covered me and all my stuff. Greg being perhaps a bit wiser, had posted up a mear few feet up the beach and remained dry... The next day dried everything out and life continued as normal, relaxing in the sun, drinking beer and eating ice cream. however something that i ate that day did not bode will with my internal balance and had me pukeing from both ends the entire next day. greg remained well. I guess being sick under palm trees on a white sandy beach is better then being sick elsewhere though. Anyways woke up the next day feeling weak but better, and we made our way south to bucerias. greg unfortunetally came down with the stomach bug as well and is now relaxing under a tree. other then these minor inconvienences life continues on as usual. soooo gooood love jokota

sarah thanks for the scarf, it looks great in the mexican sun

Sayulita, a paradise

our english friend matt, now off to central mexico

wear shoes when there are lots of bugs around!

¡(tepic)oil!

2010-02-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

we greet you all from the mainland. thats the crew: (left) matt, g-regulator, santa? naw, our new RV-buddy scott, kat, kokoro, jakota, (right). after a long hustle down to la paz, where we got some much-needed R&R, twas time to board one of these bad boys:

we listed and rocked throughout the night, and by morning--huzzah-- bienvenidos a mazatlan. our timing was brilliant for once; just in time for Carnival, a week of mardi-gras-esque debauchery to make giving up temptation for a lent a wee bit easier. all tuckered out from late nights out on the town, we said adios to kat and headed southbou´once again. it´s dramatically different out here on the mainland: as muggy & buggy as baja was dry & sunny. honey! i´m off looking for some to sweeten up my morning oats. more pictures below, some funny.

luxury bungalow!

the sun also rises, over the sea of cortez.

nothing cools off a days ride like a swim, right matt?

posterbird of tecate beer.

for momo.

mountains point the way to la paz.

i´m on a boat!

we keep parties crackin´!

first glimpse of mazatlan.

there´s something about mar- er, jakota...

at long last

2010-02-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

i write you now from istanbul.

i had meant to write a long and emotional post about how epic our bike journey had been and how sad i was to have split up with the guys and all that... just one of those things that somehow never happened. and although i may not be so south bou´ anymore, i reserve my right to post to this blog.

i woke up to snow on the ground this morning and i think i shall find some hot breakfast and perhaps endulge in a turkish bath, maybe i could sweat out this cold that ive been plagued with...
hopefully soon i can put up some pictures, although half the pictures i take end up blurry because the lens on my camera was damaged by the sand in florence, oregon. i was able to snap a couple pretty images of the blue mosque i do believe. otherwise, i am on my way to cyprus where i plan to meet ms. laura jones in about 9 days or so and if you want to see nice photos of this side of the world, then i send you to her flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurajonesupertramp/

gotta go for now!
thank you and goodbye
-ylee

2010-01-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

sooooo

The intrepid traveler the intrepid traveler..... Greg and I made it over the bridge! We camped by el rosario river for a day as the torrential current was far too much for us to handle, not to say we did not try. After a day of rest the sun rose and lo and behold the river was only around waist deep and moving at a clip that looked a bit more friendly. We pulled up our pants high and slowly carried our belongings to the other side of the river. Being so funny looking a bunch of canadians had been watching us and taking our pictures so i guess now we are famous, no doubt we were some of the first to cross the river as cars were not getting over at that point. Since then life has been much more calm. Baja is beautiful south of el rosario. You ride threw some small mountains and arrive in these vast open cactus forestes that go on for miles. The sky is huge and blue and the last few nights the moon has kept us up at night it is so bright. The Joshua trees are abundant down here in baja, or atleast a tree that looks exactly like them, so this was a happy sight to see. There are also these tall antenna like trees that spike towards the sky probably to aim aliens to proper landing sights. Speaking of aliens, we met a mastermind in catavina. This guy wrote most the songs for the beatles, the rolling stones and elvi, he named the fender guitar, had madonna help him choose a house in baja, also owns a home in hawaii, was in tarzan the movie when he was young and now has al his money tied up in swiss bank accounts. crazy world... according to him its all bullshit man... We are right now in Guerero Negro, so about halfway down the baja peninsula. The next half looks as if it will be very flat and straight so onwards to la paz!

The boys at the mexican border

jesus, hes huge around here

Raphael, saved us during a huge rainstorm

Greg crossing the river

our campsite before the flood

where our campsite was after the flood

no puente...

waiting by the river

great success getting across

still got my shorts wet, and look at those tanlines!

2010-01-23T08:44:00.000-08:00

gooday internet,
apologies for the posting vacation we have been taking. corlito & myself have been waiting for sir wilson to post via san diego, but alas we feel you are all starved for info, so we update, sans pictures, lo siento.

the three mustacheketeers have parted ways for the moment-- wilson remains in the US of A, josh & gregor have travelled south into baja california. we jetted through the border about a week ago, pedaling past TJ & ensenada. we were feeling great and making solid progress when BAM!

another rainstorm & headwind blew us to a stop in colonet. there was a sunbreak the next day so we hussed to san quintin, about a third of the way down the baja coast. we camped just outside of san quintin a few nights ago, and the next morning it was pouring down rain so we decided to post up in our tent for the day hoping it would pass over. right about dusk i was pondering a little excursion back into town, hit the bar and get some food and all that. but as i looked out of the tent i saw a SEA OF WATER approaching us-- the river had overflowed! too much rain. suddenly everything was underwater all around us, including our stuff, and it was rising fast so we sprung into action & started ferrying possessions to high ground. by the time i got my bicycle (barely), the water was up to our necks and we had to swim it to shore. we ended up heading back into the part of town not underwater, got taken into a church, and by the end of the night we were playing surf rock & drinking hot coffee. oh the insanity of life never ceases to amaze. yesterday we left san quintin for el rosario, but now here they are saying the next bridge is washed out and we can´t get through. not sure what this means for us, we are going to go check it out next & see what the story is. future postings when we learn more, perhaps we´ll make a zeppelin & float the rest of the journey south. cheers to sunshine, sir gregorio.

Oh the places you'll go when you jump on a bike

2009-12-29T13:10:00.000-08:00

Took a trip to Joshua Tree with the boys, blake wiley greg and OG Kenny. This is a much differet place then any i have every been. Dr. Suess surely went here first. It is a very very large open space and the Trees that are so very energetic bounce from the desert floor. They are a strange tree to say the least. Nobody knows how old they are as they do not have tree rings like normal trees but they are some where between 600 and thousands of years old when large. This land is old and has a strange geologic story. At one point water ran threw these valleys and carved away the land allowing stone from deep in the earth to jet up as you can see in these pictures. How fortunate we are for time and gravity and movement, for without them our landscape would not be as it is today. Our crew spent the day tripping over stones, watching the sun rise looking deeply with our eyes at lizards and rocks and trees and all of these natural things. I can say that my soul was able to be filled in this place. It is beautiful. please go yourself and see and feel and smell it. The bad news, the joshua trees are suffering with climate change, so go now, maybe ride your bike and give them some more time. The good news, they say they will survive but in smaller numbers. I think though that if you go here and see this forest you will know that they aught to stay and play with humans for many more days.

yours with love, Jakota

merry christmas to all & to all a good night

2009-12-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

happy holidays y'all.

try the pelican stance and then dance.

2009-12-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

we made it out of santa cruz with an amazing amount of energy and love. thank you lejf and all the compadres in the house. From there we headed south again as is our custom with a mission to get down to the LA area before all our friends who are still studying like mad scientists went home for the winter holidays. From Santa cruz to LA is about 380 miles and thus far they were some of the most vicious. We were so fortunate to have lejf with us for the first day of riding ( center of picture above), this was a great thing. In fact im gonna encourage any one who has the time to come ride with us at some point if you can, we have some pots and pans and lots of love. Spent a cold night in some baseball dugouts in a park that night, woke up to the most bitter frost. Turns out california is not all sun and palm trees all the time. Then we rode along a beautiful bike path, the george j takahashi path, into monterey. This route is beautiful. As you ride these small ground shrubs are all along the sides coating the ground in vibrant morphing reds and greens and yellows, not to mention the sand dunes that are also towering along the horizon. Met up with a biker on the outskirts of monterey who sent us on the long route threw town. This was a wonderful thing to do as it was a gorgeous coast line. We passed threw some very fancy golf resorts on pebble beach, something like 500 dollars a day to golf, and finally landed at the safeway in Carmel. Here we met a quad of girls who had just ridden from the east coast and were headed to san fran. as we sat in front of the safeway a nice man came and took the girls into his home for the night, however he over looked us boys and we were still homeless. Never fear though very soon wonderful Cheryl came by and took us into her house. Cheryl and Buzz are saints. Cheryl has run marathons and Buzz has ridden across the USA on a bike. We shared a wonderful night of stories and food and the next day they sent us on our way happy as could be. The next few days were spent battling Big Sur. Big sur is a rugged piece of coast line that is suppost to be breathtaking, and it was, however it was very rainy and windy the entire time. We made it threw looking like soaking sewer rats and coasted into cambria. Here again two phenomenal people, carmelle and chuck took us in and gave us a place to stay, food to eat and a wonderful game of cards. They also pointed out that in the last three days it had rained 4 inches, the average annual rainfall in cambria is 14. It is impossible to express our gratitude for their kindness. At this point we began to hustle. From cambria to LA the land flattens out again. We did a couple late late night rides, did something like 80 miles then 60 and 90 or something and landed in LA with more good friends from the home land. all is well and amazing in the world if you are still breathing. love and energy corlito

Thank you mr takahashi for the bike path

You can spend 500 dollars and golf on this coast all day

Buzz a teacher who never stopped learning

Big sur before the rain set in

turns our underpasses make great camps

this night was a rainy rainy rainy night

carmelle and chuck

A mountain of gold

Flying into pismo with a strange perspective

Hustling to LA

PHHHOOTTOOO DUUUMMPPP!!!!

2009-12-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

transcendence in santa cruz. frisco was all hustle/bustle. one night, we shot through downtown to the embarcadero & wound up on a pier, chatting with the local crabbers. charlie had read in the paper that day about the 5-0 all wounded up in sea-town (condolences). if we'd stayed longer they had plans to cook us up some of their catch, but we had to get to santa cruz to see the man himself, señor lejf. chill jams on fratmusic.com lulled us to stick around & dig the scene. somehow, with thrice fewer cameras than what we started with, we snapped more photos than ever before. the following 4 posts send them in your direction.

seis mustacheketeers farewell bush camp: meteor shower stars. left, carlo, mack, wilson, gregor, right.

sea ranch chapel: top church.

speaking of churches, the chaplain of consistency, preacher benhahmihn, esq.

wwaves.

golden gates guilded in sfmog.

'tpeakoil! the road is south & we are on it. cheers!

sculpture & graf park: berkeley, CA.

2009-12-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

this little knoll on the east side of the bay proved to be one of the most artistically rich spots on the trip so far. tons of sculptures fashioned from driftwood and scrap, plus lots of spray paint to boot.

tyranosaurus rex.

angel flight.

towering.

it's all the rage these days...

MAD magazine was here.

rendered in mid-pounce.

the wheel even spins! awesome.

old man takealookit my life, i'malot like you.

arrival.

departure. the beauty of graffiti.

reppin'.

southwest looks on at oakland.

rubble.

san fran by wagon train

2009-12-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

full with turkey, it was time to bird south.

b(ike)art

haightorade.

what love's left.

jam country.

pidgeon pt.

just cant wait to see lejf

2009-12-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

santa cruz, what a town.

carnival's every day.

'beneath the boardwalk

steamers

for surfing.

greek lunch.

seven samurai slice pizza.

tree9.

sellin' out

2009-12-03T19:01:00.000-08:00

fratmusic.com

rep it

lejf's roomate created the website and it is makin' him bank. i told him we'd plug it so here i am.

fratmusic.com

party playlists

santa cruz

Its getting more difficult to put words to this

2009-11-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

ate two or three too many donuts in arcata had to do some work so we took off on the lost coast route from ferndale cali up the wild cat to petrolia to honeydew then up wilder ridge road to kings peak road to chemise mountain road to usal creak to the highway one. its the lost coast route cedar bear style. imagine a river road combination plus the steepest switchbacks plus pouring rain then take six wacky compadres and put them there with heavy, heavy touring bikes. Makes for long days with short mileage and a couple of cuss words. were becoming men more quickly then i could have imagined. since then its been beautiful sunny days, ocean vistas along the highway one. Unbelievable hospitality from people all over. Oh and we are down to three again, mac and ben took off to a thanksgiving feast with a mayor and carter, well who knows where carter went but i guarantee he is having an awesome time. yeah i guess ill let the pictures talk for me.

In a sorta backwards order...

A wonkey "church"for anyone that wants to get spiritual

thats the golden gate

straight on to hawaii

wilson and mac getting up a hill on the one

greg doing the same

the one at last

the end of a two and a half day epic ride that was way more then 6 miles

i wish i could have captured how hectic this road was, more so then the picture above but it was hard in the wet and rain to get pics so heres a taste.

the man that first loved us with his home and bike shop then shaped us up by sending us on the cedar style lost coast route

a barn we stayed in for a couple days

greg chillin, he's a villian

ben mac carter, arcata

the redwoods

the purple tree biggest ive ever seen

coast line for days without any shade, add a tail wind and your most the way to nirvana

wilson

there once were giant lizards here

battle rock

way back in bandon when the entire team was still intact, plus a very generous jim

turns out you can bike naked in oregon, so we did

peas shua

EAST BAY

2009-11-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

So this has been our journey thus far. The red stripe should represent close to 1300 miles from Vashon Island to Berkeley. It is day number 37. We just ate a fantastically filling thanksgiving lunch with Greg's extended family and are excited to investigate the Frisco scene! Couldn't be happier.

hot,, like a biscuit

2009-11-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

rolled into cali with the sun blazing threw off our t shirts and soaked up some vitamin d. This however was short lived. Spent the night in a park near crescent city, woke up to some more rain and cold but were all still happy. Then there came the descent into the redwoods, these trees are so large they make their own gravity its hard to stand close to them without losing your breath. Managed to sit in on some other campers fire, there was guitar and singing and all sorts of goodness. The next day was spent mostly just resting cruising around the forest just soaking it all in. A couple of our band went to a small town called orick and got hyphy. Turned into a ruckus of a night around another different campers fire named david. fire hustling, its the way of the future. Now were in arcata, humboldt county, a great town. anyways theres some moments and i would put some pictures up but cant. next time

on dancer on prancer on donnor on blitzen

2009-11-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

check 1-2. oregon has almost flown us by. we trudged a goodly number of miles today through the rain & blustering winds, sometimes naked, sometimes in our billowing raingear, but always with some sort of smile on our faces. it's brookings tonight and california tomorrow, yeehaw. as is tending to happen, we've run into more biker friends, canadians this time, & continue to form an ever-growing international biker snowball as it rolls toward the promise of sunshine & the end of this relentless headwind. (apparently, the southbou' wind we heard so much about does a one-eighty this time of year. ah, well, it makes the legs stronger). we appreciate all the comments, they make us giddy in the libraries as we read them to know you are all following along. cheers! -gp,.

BANDON!

2009-11-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Pictures

2009-11-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

Catching up with summer

A desert oasis

The bridge into astoria from the oregon side

Our tent city

matt greg wiley ben carlo

A band of crazies

2009-11-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

We had another wonderful night in yurtville in newport oregon. We have since moved on and found many friends. Right now we are riding with matt and ben from out east and carlo from germany. For the first time we had to hitch hike! This was sort of lame but also really excellent. The stretch of road from newport to florence was impossible for us to bike on. We were able to ride the first 25 miles out of newport but then the gail force winds were so strong that we could not ride any further. i think we decided to stop when greg was blown into a flower bed. Yeah having to stand up and pedal to get down a hill was a new experience. So we stopped had some coffee made a sign and within a couple hours we all arrived in florence at honeyman state park. Here we met matt and ben. So we all decided on getting a yurt because between the six of us it was very cheap. The last couple days have been great. We road about fifty miles yesterday threw reedsport and onwards to northbend, stayed the night in a park there and were just leaving when the police decided to come heckle us. They were very nice though and just wanted to tell us you cannot camp in city limits. Today up until now the weather has been gorgeous and we have been following a road called seven devils road. It was Glorious. Gregs got a wind up radio so we spent the time riding in the sun listening to operah. We are now in bandon and the weather is turning and who knows what is next. Only a bit more to cali!

topeakoil!

2009-11-04T11:01:00.001-08:00

just arrived in newport oregon yesterday and boy what a ride we had. we probably did close to 70 miles yesterday with two hills that were climbs of just under 800 feet. It sure feels great to climb such a big hill and then still have energy to bike for miles and miles but its also funny to take 40 minutes to ride up a hill... haha we have had the best time since we got into oregon! the cycling community here is much better then in washington. I had heard that the oregon coast bike route is world renound and im beginning to understand why. On the daily we ride past beautiful ocean views, glorious sunsets and green cow pastures. It truly is an astonishling beautful places to ride, my words are not suitable. Also oregon camps are much more geared to bikers. There is a special hiker biker camp in every state park where it is only four dollars per person to camp. We have met up with more cycling friends, a german and austrian couple (oly and sabina) as well as a canadian named mark. The european couple had allready been cycling for 15000 miles over the last 20 months! and this is there second long cycle tour. Mark has been a great friend as well. He has lived a wild life and tells very exciting stories. I would put pictures up but i forgot my camera back at camp. never fear though there are more libraries to come. We are really becoming much better cyclers. The miles are melting away more quickly and camp goes up more smoothly and we are eating great. We had a great haloween as well. Upon entering oregon over a very long bridge across the columbia we decided to take a rest day and stay in astoria for haloween. It was a great night we all put on costumes and make up and went and drank and listened to a great live band. We also had a game of pool. Oh and got our laundry done so we smelled great for a moment. Dream of sunshine because it makes the days so much easier.

corlito

i got my license renewed!

2009-10-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

yaha, twas good news to have successfully visited the dmv and gotten business done in less than 20 minutes! and ive been having hard times uploading any pictures but one of these days there will be loads, i promise. aberdeen is pretty dreary and we all can't wait to get out of the rain!
peace

A little mo

2009-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Almost to Oregon! heres a couple more pictures for you to enjoy

howdy ho

2009-10-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

hi y'all, i'm de-luddite-ed & tuned in to cyberspace. first things first, a picture of my wheels....

so our socks are damp enough to make us impatient to leave the grand ol' state of washington, but here are a few picture highlights before we do so:

this was a great sign

this large cedar eats bicycles.

adios for now, much peace & love. gp.

with love from the team

2009-10-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

So we have been on the road for a certain number of days and it has been rainy some of them and less rainy on other occasions, but every day has been a great adventure. We have allready met up with some pro bike people and are learning very quickly what works and doesn't. So yeah not alot of wisdom yet but i can feel it bubbling up. That might be because we are in forks and there are all sorts of vampires around though. thanks for keeping up!

Let the great migration begin

2009-10-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

technical difficulties. no pictures. sweet.

farewell vashon!

2009-10-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

hey so as far as plans go there have not been that many when it comes to this trip, but that is probably the only reasonable way to find true adventure. I'm about to jump on my bike hopefully meet wiley at Bishops for a birthday beer and then make my way to the far north where we will camp out and await an early ferry to Southworth. From there its out to the one o one and up and around the peninsula. Hey pray for sun wish us luck.
who knows when the next blog will be but this is me saying good bye home and hello road.

wish us luck
josh

3 blind mice

2009-10-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

BIKES!!

2009-10-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

The Luddite Greg is the only one not cool enough to have posted pictures of his bike on le internet...
but these are Josh's and Wiley's respectively... pretty schweet right?? i think so.
anyway, we are approximately 2 days from departure. exciting!!!!
we went grocery shopping today and might try a test camp tonight, anyway, that's all for now.
hope all is well with all of ya'll!
sweet peas
-wwv