August 27th, 2007

The Record Stands

With over 3000 miles under their belts the seven riders tried their hand at breaking Sam Ward's touring bike speed record from 2005.  There were five long passes in the Cascades, each with an opportunity to bust through the 48.9mph barrier. However, after some valiant attempts....some actually pretty scary with 50+mph sheering winds, Sam's record stands....at least for a few more years.

And what an epic finish the Cascades tossed onto the trip.  After countless miles...we're talking in the 2000 range.... of flat corn, wheat and dirt the Cascades soar to over 6000 ft and for five straight days we climb those thousands of feet from the dusty desert floor to the sometimes snowcapped peaks.  It is rather strange to be battling 97 degree heat at the bottom of the valley, then later in the day to be taking a quick breather next to a huge chunk of snow.  As is standard with all trips I go on, you have to camp at the highest point on that trip, so we camped on top of both Sherman Pass as well as on Rainy Pass and cooked the customary pasta dinner.  For dessert we strolled to an overlook and watched the sun set over the many mountains left to climb that week and chatted about miles now passed and our impending return to the real world.

The town life in the last week was typical as well.  We stopped in Twisp, Washington after Loup Loup pass...the hardest of the five...and we were greeted by a classic old west town nestled in the valley.  A cold swimming hole ran through our campsite, there was a swimming pool so we could get our last few jumps off the board, and surprisingly a world class bakery called the Cinnamon Twisp with great fresh food and incredible baked goods.

Coming down Washington pass, the final one, we battled gale winds clocking in at 50+ mph with winding roads and long drop offs on either side.  This brought us to our last town of Concrete where we celebrated with a tasty and two-hour-long-typical-bike meal.  As we were leaving the restaurant, two guys left the bar across the street, one choking the other.  A great fight ensued ending with one man thrown through a quarter inch glass store front.  Later in the day a store owner said that was pretty common since the drug problem was rampant in town.  Needless to say we slept with mace at our sides that night.

One last gusting headwind led us to Anacortes and the Pacific Ocean, our ultimate destination.  A group of eager parents greeted us at the beach as we celebrated the moment we'd worked for the entire summer.  Not only did we dip our front tires in the Pacific, but everyone swam in the salty water fully clothed and shoed....just to make sure we were really there.  We made our way from Anacortes to Seattle and dropped off our bikes, which had been our home for the last 9 weeks, at the UPS shop along the way.  Now that we were restricted to transportation that could cover 70 miles in an hour and
not a day, we toured the sites of Seattle.  It of course rained, but since we weren't biking through it, we didn't really care that much.  All we thought about was the amazing amounts of chinese food we were eating in China Town and the hot dogs we were smashing at the Mariners game.

Now we're all back in the Thrill, Chapel Hill that is, and have returned to work or are getting ready for school.  On our first day back we all briefly chatted about how home life was treating us....there is definitely an adjustment period.  We'd spent everyday living within a few feet of each other for 70 days, each night we camped in the great wide open....that's right, no motels the whole way....and were there with each other first thing in the morning.  Everyone talked about the freedom that the open road offered that they would miss, and the stress free living that comes with only having to get to the next town and not even being able to stress about day-to-day worries even if you wanted to.  I returned to 1800 emails, haven‚t ridden my bike in 4 days, have slept in the same place for a number of nights, and haven‚t seen any fellow bikers in a few days.

Now that they're back, the bikers will tell their stories around school and will inspire the next generation of young cyclists.  The only thing the next class of riders needs to ask is do they want to ride the Transcontinental route or the Northern Tier.  As for me, my touring bike rolled its 14000th mile in the middle of Washington, so my roomies didn't even ask how the trip was, they just noted that am home and asked if I wanted a slice of pizza, hoping to grab me before I take off again somewhere.

I‚ll have the picture album up soon.

We biked it.  We loved it.

Brian

August 8, 2007

The final push is upon us, and promises to be quite grand. We're currently resting in Sandpoint Idaho; we got in yesterday at lunch and are taking today off. When we leave we begin five climbs in a row through the Cascades, of which the tallest is 5000 vertical feet of cranking. We're in pretty decent shape, and are well rested now as well so we're looking forward to it.

It's been great to get out of the heat and the bugs. Sorry to all of you stuck in the NC 100+ days, but its 68 degrees today and not a mosquitoe in sight....but we paid our dues a couple weeks back. The last week has been fantastic on all fronts. We took three days off in glacier......which was preceeded by the worst day on the trip (72 smokey miles, uphill into a blasting 25mph headwind). But once in the park we grabbed a rental car and spent three days off the bike and enjoying hikes on soaring alpine peaks with patches of snow and pieces of glacier. The next day was a 10 mile hike around two lakes in the valley and freezing cold waterfalls of melted glacial water and finally a nice stroll high on the continental divide with close encounters with wildlife and more lakes.

The road out of glacier took us within feet of the forst fires out here and brought us over the continental divide. From there we truly enetered the mountains and the previous days of hot flat and dusty have been replaced with meandering roads through mountains, almost always next to a body of water. We find it hard to get to camp before 6pm now since we feel obligated to stop at all the beckoning swimming holes.

We've also picked up two guest riders for the week, Darrin Fryer from Steamboat Springs and my old AT buddy Max Schoenberger from Tucson. Its great to add fresh faces, especially ones that are in great shape and have no problem keeping up with the 70 miles in the mountains day after day. We'll get to enjoy their company and freshness for a few more days before they head off back to work and we continue towards the Pacific.

With only a little over a week of riding left, the east coast seems like a far distant memory from some trip years past, and its hard to believe that we're only a little over a week from the end. We won't know what to do with all the zero's in a row we have coming up. A real bed might be at the top of the list though.

Side note: David Hare did the hardest belly flop I've ever witnessed. There was bruising....and lots of laughter and groans.

We're biikin' it....up some really big hills.

July 27, 2007

2615 miles later the epicness continues to grow on the biketrip.

The weather governs every day for us, and we are constantly checking how blazing hot it will be, when the storms are coming, and where the winds are gusting from. Last week, we left Minot ND to continue down the seemingly endless Rt 2. Upon our arrival in our targeted town of Stanley, the winds were heavily in our favor, so we made quick work of a gas station lunch, and cruised an extra 40 miles. The next day we were delayed by heavy storms in the morning, and ended up riding in the rolling exposed Montana hills with the sun blazing down at 107 for over two hours. More heat was on the way, so we were up at 4am the next morning and finished our day by 9:30 before the sun could pound us hard.

That day eventually climbed to 114, making it the hottest area in the US, and we sought shelter in an icecream shop in Poplar MT. Since we spent over 8 hours in there soaking up their AC, I'm sure they were very ready for us to move on. On our way into the town a local said that they used to stop cars on their way into town to search for guns and knives....and if they didn't have any they would give them some. Poplar had been dubbed 'stab city USA' due to its uncommonly high stabbing frequency. To avoid said stabbing we hunkered down at the local Lutheran church and on our way out of town the next morning we read that they had found a body in the river where we went swimming only one day earlier.

Out of Stab City USA and into the Mosquito Capital of the world. I'm always skeptical when someplace claims to be the biggest or best in the world, so I was skeptical of their mosquito count since we'd been through some pretty buggy areas already. My curiosity was satisfied when only a few miles before town we were swarmed while still on our bikes and riding at 18mph. They quickly covered our legs and arms, any exposed skin, and would bite through all clothing as well. It was all we could do to put on bug juice and ride while constantly swatting. Camp that night was Malta MT, and we were in our tents within 2 minutes of getting to the city park with our legs and arms streaming blood. When it was time for dinner, we dashed to the Dairy Queen, stayed there til it closed, then dashed back to the tent to read Harry Potter and write in the journal. The morning out of Malta was bad as well, but now that we're 70 miles past it, the bugs are at a reasonable and manageable level that actually allows us to remain outside and maintain sanity.

We've been on Route 2 now for almost a week and have a few more days to go. It makes navigation easy, and we're not worried about anybody getting lost. Our morning briefings consist of 'take a right out of the gas station....stop at the next gas station for lunch.... stop at the next gas station to camp.' But we will be happy for a bit of scenery adjustment that's coming up in the next few days. We hit Glacier National on the 30th where we'll take 3 full days off....wow.....and spend some time hiking through the park, hanging out, eating lots of food, and resting the body for the big climbs to come.

Sidenote: We did break the record for the fastest wreck on this trip or the 05 trip. This rider may or may not have a pierced ear and their identity will of course remain a mystery until we're home. They did escape with very little road rash, and didn't even come close to winning the award for most blood drawn during a wreck.

We're in Chinook right now, and rolled in at 1:30 after a 70 mile day. We're camped at the city park, right next to the pool...no better way to beat a hot afternoon.

We're bikin it and swimmin and about to be hikin it and of course likin it.

July 17, 2007

Through Illlinois and Indiana the winds were dominantly out of the east, and basically pushed us across the corn fields to the Mississippi. When we started heading north along the river banks, the winds shifted to be out of the south. Unheard of for a bike trip, and to avoid bad juju, I didn't mention it in previous emails.

As we left Dean Rice's palace of paradise, the winds shifted a bit out of favor. In fact the next day, we got to Royalton, MN and were met by gusting winds in our faces. Since our schedule is a bit relaxed we can play the time game with the winds a bit. So we pulled up at less than 40 miles, set camp and refused to battle the winds. We got up before 5 the next day to avoid the mid day winds. We avoided winds most of the next day as we made 70+ miles to Parker's Prairie. Baseball coach Greg Cain suggested that you could take the hex off with backflips and jumping jacks, so outside of the pavilllion we were pulling gymnastic stunts, brushing our teeth, and stepping over cracks, all to realign the juju and regain the favor of the wind karma gods. The next day we had no winds, and they've now shifted in our favor. So as we're making miles on the long rolling roads of ND, we're getting some nice help from the winds.

Since we spend most of our nights in towns of less than 250 people, our access to movie theaters is a bit limited. This became a serious problem upon the release of the latest Harry Potter movie. So we consulted the map, and decided that the most likely viewing would take place in Fargo, ND. So on the Fargo morning we woke early and busted it to Fargo. Some guys rode the 50+ miles without stopping for even a granola bar. We were not disappointed, and the whole crew enjoyed the 2+ hours of Potter in a great air conditioned movie theater. Fargo went down hill from there though. The bike shops were all closed that afternoon, so we weren't able to resupply our bikes as we'd hoped. The city campground was full of my favorite people, RVer's, and all other campgrounds were full, the police wouldn't let us stay anywhere in town, and we were eager to get out of the huge sprawl of Fargo, and also reinforced our dislike for biking through larger cities.

On our way out of Fargo, the storms rolled in, as always. We had 8 miles to go, and saw the lightning fire up in the distance. We hopped into a draft line and raced the storm to the next town. We kept the pace at about 20mph. The winds picked up, the lightning got closer, rain started a bit, and the grain silo in town got slightly bigger as we approached. We made it to town just as the skies opened, and stashed our bikes and selves under a small pavillion while nature let loose its fury. We made it to the gas station and heard reports of hail and tornados in the area. The next day when we arrived in Page, ND, the hail had wreaked havoc on the town. Softball sized hail led off the assault, followed by golf ball sizes. The crops were completely leveled, and looked like they'd been mowed. Power lines and trees were down everywhere, and there were some drifted of hail up to 18 inches deep. Good thing our tents weren't out in that.

Sidenote: In one of the funniest moments on the trip I watched as somehow Daniel dumped a full 32oz ice cold coke and ice on Chris' head. Right before I started laughing non stop for 5 minutes, I saw the look on Daniel's face that said maybe that was not such a good idea.

Off to the northern North Dakota sun flower fields, then the dry wastelands of Montana.

Gotta get to bikin' it.

July 9, 2007

This past week the heat really cranked up for us and would be about 100 day after day after day. Nights would droop to the mid 80's, and since the Minnesota mosquitoes are especially fierce, we were forced to our tents to sweat out some really hot nights. Biking 70+ miles a day does help you sleep through just about everthing though. We have been following the banks and bluffs of the Mississippi River for the last week, so the hills add to the ability to sleep at night too.

Through all of this we've had one goal in mind....make it to Minneapolis where we're meeting our friend Dean Rice and taking some time off. On July 8th, Dean met us in Stillwater and biked us the 40 miles to his house. 1.5 miles away from his house a midwest storm got in one last lick and pounded us before we could find refuge in his garage. But we rolled in none the less and for the past two days have been indulging in all that we have missed in our time on the road. We started with a huge home made lunch at 3:30, grabbed showers and laundry, then had a huge bbq dinner at 6pm. A true cyclist eating schedule. Movies theaters with popcorn, drinks, and AC can never again be as good as when you're out biking. And so we've been lounging this way for two days now and have shaken off the grime of 1500 road miles and are preparing for the second half of our journey. Dean's wife Carol buys lunch rolls, cuts them in half, butters them, and puts them back in the bag, so if we're not refreshed and spoiled after this treatment we'll never be ready.

The last week and a bit on the road continues to be classic biketrip style. We've been on a huge swimming pool run lately, and have been able to swim at a pool pretty much daily for as long as we can remember. Sometimes we hit a 4 hour mid day break and jump off the diving board for a majority of an afternoon....Chris can do a double flip now. Other times we camp at the city pools, swim, have dinner, and swim until dark again. Its the best way to beat the heat by far. Temps should be cooler this coming week as we head out into the remoteness of north dakota.

Sidenote: Kit and Angelo hit a baby deer on their bike the other day. We're not sure if it survived.

I always love to watch a good storm roll through at night while we're safely in the shelter of the pavilion. Its fun to watch the raw power of nature, and enjoy the fact that you got to the shelter before it could pound you. So in Colesburg Iowa, we rolled into town with dark clouds on the horizon, had dinner, and chilled out in the pavillion waiting for the approaching storm. Just as we went to sleep in this pavillion the storm hit. Constant lightning, and biblical rain. Within a minute, the pavillion had flooded, and as we scrambled to get everything off the ground, the wind picked up and we got rained on sideways for a couple hours. We wrapped up in our tents, but lots of our stuff was still soaked by the time the storm was done with us. Slow start for us the next morning as we packed our drenched belongings.

On our way to Dean's place we stopped for the night in Winona MN. It was our last night on the Mississippi, so we strolled downtown and took a dip at the beach. After dinner we heard some live music so we walked over and found a nice blue grass festival in the park. As I got closer, I noticed how young the band looked, and as they introduced themselves between songs, we found out they were 13 to 16 years old and were a group of blue grass proteges that got together and formed a band called Sawtooth Bluegrass.... and are on tour right now. As individuals, they compete in fingerpicking competitions, always with the youth division, and place high in the men's division each time. We sat on the grass for hours as these guys rocked it out song after song on the banjo and fiddle and full acompanyment. A few years from now when they're super famous and rich, we'll be able to say we saw them in Winona while we were biking across the US and they were just a bunch of kids. No telling what's next in the coming towns.

We're bikin it.

June 26, 2007

Now in Monon Indiana, pronounced Mooooonon Indiana, 900 miles into the journey. This last week has been pretty smooth sailing. The last 5 days since Cleveland we've logged between 60 and 70 miles a day. The heat is cranking up a bit, so we're up at 6 and riding shortly after. We've gotten to our destination town around 12 or 1 these last few days which gives us plenty of time to chill, nap, ball it up and play around town.

The road has been flat and I mean real flat. We got on route SR16 today, and it was straight and flat with no variation for over 30 miles. Corn tunnels are a staple now, and the scenery changes only with slight variation of house color, or the name of the gas station where we get our gatorades. The roads are basically empty of cars, and hills are in the past for a little while, so our major obstacle will be the elements for now. They challenged us today with a nice one, two, three combo. The heat cranked up near 100, and the winds picked up a bit in an effort to hold us away from town while it brewed up a nice midwest style storm. We prevailed today and made town only minutes before the skies opened up. We may not be so lucky down the road.

As is a staple on all bike trips, we've met some great people so far. People bring fresh fruit to the pavilions where we're staying, we've eaten at a number of family parties in town parks with all you can eat bbq, and people always stop their car to ask us where we're going and if we need water. Angelo has been asked a number of times if he's lost since.....he significantly increases the diversity level of these small towns by simply being here.

On a side note, someone did get their ear pierced, but their identity won't be revealed until the end of the trip.

Leon Godwin, his wife, and sister are out biking this summer and are about 100 miles in front of us. We plan on catching them in the next couple days and adding some guest riders....with guitars....to our crew. Josh DiMauro headed back to work in Cleveland, so its always nice to have some fresh faces riding along with us.

Onward to Illinois. We're bikin it.

June 21, 2007

Many years ago I was born in the great state of PA and lived for a few years in the town of Clarks Summit. So for the first few years I was raised on a variety of Tastycakes...it was a very happy life. But my family moved to NC and I swapped Tastycakes for Linda Long sweet tea, and overall it was a good trade. But now I'm back in PA and really enjoying pounding Tastycakes with the cranked metabolism.....no true sweet tea for the next two months though.

Overall PA was a great state. The roads were nice and wide with a great shouder, and the drivers were suprisingly nice. The hills were a bit more than expected though. Granted there were no huge passes like out west in 2005, but the hills were short, sweet, and steep with one after another after another.

It rained 4 of the first 8 days out. Enough said about that.

The crew has made amazing progress on the fitness front so far. They were exhausted on the first day after a short and flat 35 miles. Now only a week later, they crank out 40 miles without stopping and are finished with 70 miles by early afternoon. Already in the first week we've stayed in countless town parks, fire stations, and people's houses. We were also invited to a church to have an all you can eat lunch, and Angelo wowed the whole congregation with some incredible acapella that hushed the crowd.

Countless other stories and crashes by everybody except Chris and I have now gotten us to Cleveland where we're taking a day off. We've packed it in here with lots of food, a movie, an Indians game, a trip to the mall, an Omnimax movie, and now a cookout. Pretty good for one day.....plus we're picking up Josh DiMauro from the 2003 and 2005 ride for a couple days.

Overall the life on the road has been great, and it's great to be out here.....again again. I'm pretty surethe stars aligned to have Josh Ritter put on an iPod that went with me on a bike trip to the farm lands of Pennsylvania....makes for great riding. For now the hills are over and the challenge of sun exposure, wind and the monotony of corn begins. The next big goal is Minneapolis in the next couple weeks.

We're bikin it, we're likin it.

June 9, 2007

Over the last many years I've enjoyed countless days of climbing at the local crag Sauratown. The routes are all classic, the view is spectacular, and its an overall quality place to climb. The big kicker though is the approach trail. Its not toooo bad in the whole scheme of things, and in the end its way worth it, but you do have trudge up the steepness for a good bit.

Bike Trips are pretty much the same way, especially when you're taking out 7 high school students that have never been biking before. The approach can be fun, but it sure is a lot of work....and always has some steep sections to it....parts not coming in....laaaast minute changes. But as soon as you take that first pedal stroke out of the Atlantic and the road opens up to you for the summer, all that stress is already miles away and then you just have one job....pedal.

The mission this summer is to take seven high school students and Scouts aging from 14 to 17 from the waters of Aberdeen Maryland to Annacortes Washington, covering 3700 miles over 68 days. For the past nine months or so we've been planning and prepping for the journey. We've spent hours building our bikes, ridden them around town, down to the beach, and now have all of our stuff packed.

At 9 am tomorrow we pack up the cars and head off to Maryland. The approach trail is over, and now we'll be in the thick of it. I can see the anxiety on all the rider's faces at this point. But soon enough the rhythm of riding and the new confidence take care of that, and a suntan will take its place.

More to come from the roads of Pennsylvania.

We're bikin it.

May 2007

Well its springtime, weather is getting nice, and we're planning for an epic bike trip. For the last couple months we've been buying equipment, working on our bikes, and planning our summer. We're going on weekend rides, running when we can, and getting everything done around town to clear up a couple months on our schedule.

As part of our training the crew rode from our houses here in Chapel Hill to the beach at Wilmington. Over three days we cruised 200+ miles through the NC plains down to a friends beach house. Everything went perfectly. Our group got to ride together and hang out. Everyone knows how long 70 miles is, and more importantly how long 70 miles is on two or more consecutive days. So....if we can handle a ride to the beach, we just have to string a bunch of those together across the country and we'll be just fine. Three weeks to go, and I think we're right on track.

Check out the pics from the beach trip.

For More Information Contact Brian Burnham at Brian@CirqueVideo.com