My Activity Tracking
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kms
Introduction
I plan to bike across the country from Washington DC to Seattle, mostly following the 3,700-mile Great American Rail Trail route.
https://gis.railstotrails.org/grtamerican/
I am doing this because I love adventure, I have the opportunity, and because I've ridden a bike enough that I feel I have the ability to do this. There's no guarantee that I will reach Seattle, but I'm going to attempt it. I estimate it will take 3 months.
I want to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief because they give bikes to people in poor, rural regions around the world. It's been shown that owning a bike in these communities can help lift people out of poverty, as the bike can save immense amounts of time and physical energy.
Riding a bike as your main method of transportation creates a pleasant cycle (like the opposite of a vicious cycle) where the rider is propelled to live a healthy life. Exercise, healthy food to best enable the exercise, spending zero money on gas or insurance, emitting essentially zero pollution -- all these things contribute to a better type of world.
Also, bicycling is the most intimate way to explore the land. No other mode of transportation allows a person to travel substantial distances while actually feeling the air, smelling the world and seeing everything immediately while using your own bodily strength to move. You are also free to stop at any moment and explore on foot without worrying about finding a parking space or scheduling anything. I understand the joys of this, as I used a bike for year-round transportation for 12 years in Minneapolis and Green Bay, WI. If my current efforts to bike across the country can prompt people to donate money to this charity, then I would feel happy to know that other people born in less easy circumstances could be given a chance to experience these beautiful aspects of life with a bicycle.
P.S. It's totally fine if you don't donate money (but very cool if you do). It makes me happy just to share these pics and writings and maps with people I know. Peace and one love basically.
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WBR's pitch: Please consider supporting my personal fundraising efforts to help mobilize individuals in rural developing countries. Just $165 helps put a brand new bike in the field and forever changes the trajectory of an individual's life.
Spread the word by sharing this page with others who may want to donate to help individuals challenged by distance.
Thank you for your support!
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World Bicycle Relief also trains and equips people to be bike mechanics, so the bikes given to these communities will be functional for many years.
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A note on the dates: Some of my early entries have mismatching dates. The WBR site automatically dates my entries for the day I post them, regardless of what I'm writing about. The day I'm actually writing about will be in the title in bold. I'll try to post the day-of as often as I can, to avoid this confusion.
My Updates
Final stats
Tuesday 9th JulBy my calculations. So apparently I lopped off about 400 miles of the suggested Rail Trail route. Most of the route out west is completely unfinished and you must find your own way. Other times I skipped suggested sections in order to cover ground more directly. And I stopped at Seattle without continuing to the Olympic Peninsula. Here are stats for my route:
Total days: 71
Rest days: 15
Biking days: 56
Average mileage for all 71 days: 46 miles per day
Average mileage for 56 days spent actually biking: 59 miles per day
Longest mileage day: 125 miles, Day 11 (Ohio)
Shortest mileage day: 25 miles, Day 71 (Seattle, final day)
Hardest days:
Day 30, horrific Iowa winds and hills
Day 56, climbing Badger Pass and Big Hole Pass, accumulation of climbing fatigue
Day 68, crossing a desert on very rough trail
Easiest days:
Day 17, cruising along in the light air of Indiana, on deserted but paved country roads
Day 48, hanging out with Tim and Philepp in Shoshoni, WY
Best views:
Day 50, Highway 26 between Crowheart and Dubois, Wyoming
Day 54, Highway 287 in Montana
Day 70, the Cascades on the Palouse to Cascades Trail
Hardest climbs:
Virginia City, MT
Badger, MT
Big Hole, MT
Most absurd descent:
North on Highway 93 toward Sula, MT
Also, I never once biked through a straight up rainy day, never one moment biking in heavy rain. It's pretty crazy.
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Day 71, July 7th, Final day
Tuesday 9th Jul Day 71, July 7th25 miles, from Preston to the ocean in Seattle
A difficult final 25 miles. Seattle is very hilly, and I had to stop and check my phone map very regularly since I was now navigating through the meandering, intersecting bike paths of a new metropolis.
I love that I currently have excellent climbing strength from this journey. Several times in Seattle I was passed by other cyclists who had relatively fresh legs, wearing clean and aerodynamic cycling suits, and without any weight on their bikes--and several times I passed those same people a bit later while going up big hills. Extremely sick.
My bike chain kept falling off whenever I shifted between the two main chain rings today. It's good timing; the bike is at its limit for now I guess. Interesting, literally the final day, and now my chain and gears are so beat up that they can barely function.
I made it to the Pacific Ocean. I'm done.
Thank you everyone for donating money to help other people. Like I say in my intro, the people who receive a bike will be able to explore the land and visit other towns and meet new people and so on. And thank you for reading my writing. I love writing.
I'm going to add another note in a day or two--a summary of stats and mileages and averages, and highs and lows, etc.
Awesome, thanks, bye!
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Day 70, July 6th
Monday 8th Jul Day 70, July 6th72 miles, from Cle Elum to Preston
Hot day. Palouse to Cascades Trail mostly descends gradually for like 30 miles heading toward Seattle, a really nice reward for going west.
The Snoqualmie Tunnel is really interesting. It's two miles long, completely straight, and unlit. As I rounded a curve toward the tunnel's entrance I could feel cold swaths of air emanating. It was like the Savage Tunnel in the Appalachians but this tunnel was much longer, so I could feel the cold air pouring out before I even saw the tunnel's mouth. Going through the tunnel it was probably just above freezing--like 60 degrees colder than the outside air. It was damp, and totally dark. At the beginning, I couldn't see the light at the other end of the tunnel--two miles is enough to eat up that light.
People were riding toward me with their lights, and I didn't realize how much their oncoming lights assisted my vision until they were gone and my own light suddenly seemed so dim. I passed like 60 people coming and going through the tunnel--a very popular spot.
When I emerged on the other side, my eyes were burning, like after a good cry. It was the abrupt change of temperature. Abrupt changes of light are experienced often throughout life, but such sharp changes of temperature are rarely experienced. And the air, being those temperatures, was whooshing upon my eyeballs the whole time. So apparently it was hard on the little wet eyeballs.
Lots of beautiful mountain sights in this stretch of trail.
I got a $3 bowl of white cherries from a roadside vendor near the town of Fall City. The penultimate day. My last camp was just outside the town of Preston.
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Day 69, July 5th
Saturday 6th Jul Day 69, July 5thDecided on a short day today. Yesterday was very tough, and I'll have just two days to go after this--about 90 miles from Seattle right now. I went 28 miles today, from Ellensburg to Cle Elum. In Ellensburg I got a really tasty smoked salmon and egg toast breakfast, with capers and such, and melon slices on the side. It was just incredible.
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Washington
Saturday 6th Jul
Day 68, July 4th
Saturday 6th Jul Day 68, July 4thFirst leg of the day, I went on frontage roads from Moses Lake to George.
When I was sitting on the side of the road, eating a meal after a couple hours, a guy who stopped at the crossroads came out and gave me a water bottle, a bag of cheetohs and a clementine, and said, "Hot today!" It was very nice.
Near the town of George I saw a golden eagle fly between some thick power lines and suddenly seize up midair and plummet to the ground with a thud. It laid there on its back, looking around, seemingly paralyzed from the neck down. It never touched the power lines, but passing between them apparently sent a jolt of electricity to its body. It was very sad and upsetting. I wonder how often that happens to birds around the world when no human is there to see it.
I refilled my waters in a gas station in George, Washington-- the last water opportunity till my destination of Kittitas. Just beyond George, I climbed over this ridge of hills at a steep grade. It was a purely anaerobic exercise. The slope was steeper and much shorter than all the previous mountain passes, but longer than just a quick burst up a steep slope. But not so long that it was insane and I had to pause. So it was just one go of purely intense work over like 6 minutes or so, probably just under a mile.
Got onto the John Wayne Trail again. This section was the hardest part of my entire journey. It was a rough gravel trail through the desert for 24 miles, without a soul in sight, or any bit of help or civilization. So it was stressful to know that if I had any serious mechanical failure while deep in the middle of those 24 miles, it would be like a serious actual problem. It was in the 90s and purely sunny, and no wind at all. I was rationing my water, and I was very thirsty the whole time. When I say the town of George was the last opportunity for water, I just mean the last gas station or public building; I could always knock on farmhouse doors if I was in dire need of anything. But on this stretch of the John Wayne Trail that is no option, there is no one and nothing around you for miles. It would have been wise to restock water before getting onto that 24-mile stretch. But I made it, it's cool.
I felt some heat-and-dehydration effects: the rare stomach ache, and sometimes a slight sensation of nausea when I would stop and lean on my handlebars for a moment. Also, there was literally no shade at all for miles. As the hours wore on, some shade would be present on the trail in these rocky gorges cut through hillsides. I sat in that shade on a steep sand slope and ate an apple--the sweet juice of the gods. The water in my bottles was hot. But my thermos kept water cool, so every now and then I would have a special gulp of that.
I was really tired, it was really hard. It's slow going on that rocky and sandy trail. Eventually I got out. At the trailhead near I-90 there were jugs of water. I chugged a ton of very hot water from a crumpled plastic jug.
I pushed beyond Kittitas (after getting good cold water and other treats from a corner market), and stealth camped by a creek in the town of Ellensburg. I ate black beans, bagels, cheetohs and jerky for dinner in my tent.
87 miles, from Moses Lake, WA to Ellensburg, WA
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Day 67, July 3rd
Wednesday 3rd Jul Day 67, July 3rdTo be real, it was just a miserable day; another day of grinding into the wind in totally desolate environs. A period of mobile stagnation. Just chipping away at these slow miles until I get into the cool of the mountains, just ahead. And then I'll be done. Another 50-mile chunk down. No town along the way during those 50ish miles. I had no idea Washington had regions like this. It looks like Oklahoma: wide open desert fields, riddled with dust devils, the distant freeway traffic stretching silently toward the heat-wobbled horizon. For large segments there are no settlements or structures, just arid, open wilderness stretching all around you, and the westerly winds coursing unaffected upon the openness.
The dust devils are amazing. They can be really huge, like little tornadoes under a blazing blue sky. And they really were popping off at all times, all around, in those fallow dirt fields.
48 miles, Ritzville, WA to Moses Lake, WA
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Day 66, July 2nd
Wednesday 3rd Jul Day 66, July 2ndRest day in Ritzville, WA.
Got a more expensive hotel because it had an outdoor pool that was not under maintenance--the rarest thing in this country. And it turns out this hotel had an extremely good breakfast, so I stocked up on food. Worth the price.
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The colors in this plant were astonishing, but they're lost in photograph
Tuesday 2nd Jul
Day 65, July 1st
Tuesday 2nd Jul Day 65, July 1stA bland day of pushing through wind on desolate frontage roads. Back in high plains desert, for the first time since east of Togwotee Pass. It's a good route for cycling, miles and miles of paved road, pretty flat, with almost no traffic. But the wind made it very rough today. Just covering distance, that's all it is. It felt surprisingly difficult for most of the day.
I saw some more of these bespoke "no trespassing" signs, with cartoon silhouettes of guns and cute little phrases about how they will murder you if you ever step on their land. Despicable.
Another thing, the eastern part of the Palouse to Cascades Trail is what everyone says is the problem. Everyone says it gets better as you near Seattle, so I plan to get back on it in a day or two.
51 miles, Cheney to Ritzville, using frontage roads
Day 64, June 30th
Monday 1st Jul Day 64, June 30thI stealth camped behind a church in Plummer. There was a drunken screaming argument going on down the hill, and fireworks popping off for a little while. But then it started raining softly and shut all that noise up, and the pitter patter on my tent brought me beyond the wall of sleep as they say.
I had set my alarm for 5am to avoid having a curse put upon me by the morning churchgoers. I was packed up and biking away by 5:15, and stopped for a meager breakfast at a gas station before leaving town. I passed into Washington state early on--some beautiful rolling farmlands and verdant forested hillsides.
After the town of Tekoa (TEE-ko), I got on the Palouse to Cascades Trail. I had heard from Tim that the reviews are terrible; it's known as the John Wayne Trail for being so rugged. But I had read similar things about the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska, and I had little issue with it. So I wanted to try this trail to see. Alas, the Palouse to Cascades Trail is a complete joke, a waste of time. No one should count on using it for a bicycle tour. The gravel is so loose and large that I can't see any non-motorized mode of transportation doing well on it. It's so foolishly made. Like, why don't they just compact the gravel like any other trail? I know it's a big operation, but that's what it takes to be a bike trail, if that's what you want it to be.
Anywho, I got back onto roads after about 8 miles or so on the "trail." These roads were gravel farm roads that went up and down hills. Bit of a frying pan to fire situation. These rolling farm hills, as small as they are, compared to mountains, were just torturing me this morning. After a while of dismal and hungry grinding I stopped on the side of the road, at the crest of a hill, to eat. It had clouded over and was a bit cool. I saw no car pass anywhere while I sat and ate. In a dreamy state of protracted fatigue and isolation, I thought the land seemed like an alien farm-world quietly breeze-whispering, the placid huge rolling green fields, and the strangely lavender-gray particular light of a freshly-morning overcast rolling above.
For my next available reprieve, I stopped for coffee and third breakfast in Rosalia, WA. I really wanted to pass out on the couch where I sat and ate.
At this point--Rosalia--I worked, by examining maps, to determine which way I should go. I was looking to avoid rolling hills, and thought maybe cutting north toward Spokane would be better in the long run. Luckily, the lady running the coffee shop had a cartographic mind, and she helped me work through my route plan. She explained in exact detail what I would encounter for each of my proposed routes. She knew exactly where I was coming from and what I was looking for. I told her my legs, and my whole body really, were shot, and the thought of contending with any large hills today was unbearable. She set me on a course toward Cheney, to avoid any significant climbs.
64 miles, Plummer, ID --> Tekoa, WA --> Rosalia, WA --> Cheney, WA
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Initiate these miniscule gnats
Sunday 30th Jun
Day 63, June 29th
Sunday 30th Jun Day 63, June 29thI had strategized where to get off the Olympian trail and get onto a frontage road, then when to get off the frontage road and get on 90, to cover the distance most efficiently. It worked well, a good plan. I climbed the Lookout Pass on 90, a relatively easy climb. I noticed the humidity which had been absent for a few weeks previously. I became drenched in sweat. The descent on the other side of the Lookout Pass was wild. I passed into Idaho and Pacific Time at the top, then, still on the freeway, I descended some winding S curves with those stone highway barriers to my right and a huge steep mountainside just beyond those barriers. Woooooweeeee! Some nightmare shit. Just fuck my shit up. It was about 5 miles of that, not bad, I braked a lot and didn't stress about it, and it was over soon enough.
Then in the town of Mullan, ID I got on the Coeur d'Alene trail, a paved 72 mile trail. It's an extremely good trail, highly recommend. I saw two moose on the trail at different times. One big one with small antlers, and a few miles later I saw a youth. Moose like to be in the marshy waters, like duck-bill dinosaurs. I completed the Coeur d'Alene in a day, so that's cool. It rises for a few miles at 3% grade toward the end as you approach Plummer, ID.
I got a burger and a huckleberry shake at some restaurant in Plummer and the kid taking my order said I looked like I "survived a tornado."
94 miles, from Haugen, MT to Plummer, ID
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Day 62, June 28th
Saturday 29th Jun Day 62, June 28thA quick day. I rode gently, casually, along frontage roads and the Path of the Olympian--a gravel bike path. I rode with shoes unclipped all day, because it felt right to just be loosey goosey. Very beautiful region here. Huge pine forests and mountain slopes and cold rocky creeks. Some of the frontage roads I was on become gravel as well, and go winding off through the forested slopes. Some really dense and majestic forests, and the roads cut right through them so they're close all around you. I thought to myself: it's giving Pacific Northwest, it's giving sasquatch. So that's chill I guess.
I stopped after three hours, at another hotel, because I just wanted to take it easy. The 50,000 Silver Dollar Hotel it's called. It's this huge travel plaza type place just standing alone along the mountain highway. There's a gas station and a bar and casino as well, all under the same name and same esthetics, all spread out throughout a huge rambling semi parking lot.
34 miles, from Superior, MT to Haugen, MT
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Day 61, June 27
Saturday 29th JunDay 61, June 27
I slept weird the night before, and I had a strong neck pain that intensified through the day. My lower spine hurts badly lately as well. It hurt real bad to turn my head all day. I think the rest days after so many consecutive days of intense riding can cause my body to revolt within itself. The joints and muscles can get this weird exasperated aching when they kick back into work. I think more activity during rest days would help a lot; like an actual little workout--not just stretching--to keep the tissues from tightening up. Also, once again I didn't feel like eating all day while riding so I did not. My neck pain got somewhat better in the evening after I ate precious nutrients.
Rode through this flat mountain valley, on frontage roads along I-90. Then rode some miles on 90. Had to backtrack a few miles because I believed Google, and followed a gravel road until it reached private property. I debated continuing into private land, and did go forward a bit until I saw a house overlooking the road. I turned around. Backtracking is the worst thing.
It rained on and off. Some brief but very windy squalls. I was continually "layering up and layering down," to minimize wetness from rain and sweat.
I got onto some old rocky trail and lifted my bike over a couple barbed wire fences to continue. Some really beautiful scenery there.
I got to Superior, MT, and stayed in a hotel so I could watch the debate. Cringetopia!
62 miles, from Missoula, MT to Superior, MT
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A note about bear spray
Wednesday 26th Jun I was thinking about buying bear spray before getting into the Rocky Mountains. In Casper, I asked a couple different locals if that would be a good idea. They both responded in the same fashion: they were surprised I was even asking. They were like, "Oh, yes, of course you should, you'd be a fool not to." So yes, bicycling through grizzly country you should bring bear spray and know how to use it.Another tip: this dude Steven in Casper (an old-timer and Vietnam vet who's been cycling all over the West) advised me never to test spray the bear spray. After one spray, the mechanism can become less reliable days later. (Something about the little mechanisms in the sprayer.) So it's just a one-time use, to save your life. If you ever have to use it, then throw it away and get a new one.
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Day 59
Tuesday 25th Jun Rest day in MissouleeI've gone swimming in the icy cold river three times in 24 hours. A nice alternation between cold water and hot sun-baked stones.
I did laundry for the third time this trip.
My motel is so awesome, it's feet away from a laundromat, bike shop, grocery store, Five Guys and the swimmin' river. Seriously such a superb location. I had no idea.
I like Missoula a lot! A very nice city.
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This retired rail line, between Darby and Hamilton, will be a bike trail someday
Tuesday 25th Jun
Day 58, June 24th
Tuesday 25th Jun Day 58, June 24thI feel an acute soreness in my shin muscles from walking my bike down that steep mountain highway for a few miles yesterday. It's interesting: the only exercise I've been getting is cycling, for almost two months. So just that bit of downhill marching really rattled my shin muscles--not shin splints, mind you, just muscle soreness (tibialis anterior). It's not insignificant to note that I was holding back my bike from rolling downhill the whole time. You need to brace the handlebars at one side of your body, flexing your back upright, to restrain the 40-50 lb bicycle that constantly pulls forward as you walk. Not an easy stroll.
The bike trail from Hamilton to Missoula sucks. I was envisioning a nice bike trail through the woods and river area, but it's just a sidewalk next to the busy highway for the entire 50 miles. It was nice to get a little distance between me and the highway traffic, so I didn't need to keep the traffic in mind at all. But other than that, I still had to hear the roaring noise of the traffic the whole time, and bake in the wide open sunny expanse. It was about 90 degrees and sunny today and yesterday. Still, it was a chill day. After all those mountain passes, this flat trail felt like a sweet dream.
65 miles, from Darby to my motel in Missoula
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Rocky river gorge, heading north toward Missoula
Tuesday 25th Jun
Day 57, June 23rd
Tuesday 25th Jun Day 57, June 23rdStrong headwinds, through the last bit of Big Hole Valley, or The Land of 10,000 Haystacks as it said on a historical sign. Stopped in Wisdom, MT for second breakfast at Fetty's--very well made breakfast burrito and pancakes. Climbed up into the Beaverhead/Deerlodge National Forest, then climbed the Chief Joseph Pass. Near the peak of Chief Joseph Pass, I phrased to myself that these last few days constitute the hardest physical challenge of my life. Then, turning north onto 93, I encountered the most extreme descent of my life. About 7.5 miles of 6% grade virtually uninterrupted. The highway went snaking around the various mountainsides. I was braking regularly because I can't stand those speeds, the unending acceleration. I stopped to check my brakes and I squirted some water onto the braking discs--the water popped and sizzled into steam upon contact. Fed up with the unpleasantness of the descent, I walked for a time, probably a couple miles total. Now and then I hopped back on the bike for a bit, to eat up some distance.
Once the descent was finally over I felt pretty happy, riding down the last massive straightaway to where I could see it level out in the valley. I believe the next 75 miles or so to Missoula are essentially flat, following a river through a valley, and the last 50 of those miles, from Hamilton to Missoula, is a paved bike path--the first bike path I'll use since the Cowboy Trail in Nebraska a couple weeks ago. A flat trail sounds very nice now. I felt mentally rejuvenated, having completed the last of a series of mountain passes (six consecutive days of mountain passes) for a few days.
I camped in Darby, MT, and met this dude Bill (also camping there) cycling the other way: Astoria, OR to his home in Wilmington, NC. We talked about Asheville, NC, and about the "majestic monotony" of the West, as Bill put it. A few days ago, Bill called 911 on himself. He had been feeling ill, had stopped to use the bathroom, then passed out. When he awoke he could not lift himself to stand. Then he called 911. Turns out his body was weakened from fighting pneumonia. He's on the antibiotics now and should be good. He has a long way to go across the country.
75 miles, from Jackson, MT to Darby, MT
Day 56, June 22nd
Saturday 22nd Jun Day 56, June 22ndOne of the harder days of the trip, maybe the hardest. More mountain passes, strong headwinds, thirst. Climbing for hours. Mentally and physically checked out.
48 miles, Dillon to Jackson, just under 6 hours on the road.
Day 55, June 21st
Saturday 22nd Jun Day 55, June 21stFirst thing in the morning the 13 miles into Ennis, the highway shoulder evaporates. Rode a 10-inch wide strip of pavement with rumble strips on my left and drop-off to sandy gravel on my right. Far from chill.
I stopped in Ennis to fuel up before the Virginia City Pass. I got a delicious grilled pastrami sandwich with tomatoes, onions and stone-ground mustard, and a cappuccino. I parked my bike upon a hidden ant colony, and they came feverishly surging up my socks.
Early into the climb, as I was whirling my legs just to move slowly, an antelope near the road was stoically walking down the hill, looking at me with its tall, black-eyed face; cool and balanced in a reserved gait, with the ambient caution of an herbivore; so much power and speed stored within its straight-backed form. I was thinking at that moment how the mind is the most important tool for getting up these climbs. Physical exertion, like most other things, depends greatly on attitude. If you don't genuinely want to engage with what you're doing, then your lack of passion will be revealed through your actions.
The first climb in actual hot weather. Sweat dripping down my brow over my sunglasses, and down my arms onto the handlebars.
Getting up this pass was hard, a long winding climb, and the descent was wholly unpleasant as always. It was wonderful stopping in Virginia City at the base of the far side. I got an ice cream dish which tasted extraordinarily good, then went across the street and got a maple donut and a cappuccino which was free thanks to the cool woman working there.
A long day, I made it to Dillon to stay at this absolutely amazing hiker/cyclist camp area. It had multiple buildings and indoor plumbing and all sorts of resources, bike repair stuff, ice cream in freezers, maps, shower, etc. I slept inside the main building on a cot. I met Jim and Tony who each drove down from Missoula to ride in this organized ride tomorrow. Jim was the director of Adventure Cycling for 15 years. Tony just moved to Missoula last November from New York. They were both very cool and we were each going around doing our own things but also hanging out and shooting the shit. They slept in other structures, so I had my own space.
85 miles today: Cameron to Ennis, then over the Virginia City Pass, northwest to Twin Bridges, then southwest to Dillon, going around the Ruby Mountains.
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Day 54, June 20th
Friday 21st Jun Day 54, June 20thA rough, unhappy day today. I was really looking forward to a rest day after Yellowstone--seven days of camping and cycling, over many mountain passes, and a lot of time in the cold. But this town of West Yellowstone is extremely overpriced, so I must continue onward. North through Montana on 191 and 287. Some of the most picturesque scenery I've seen, but my mind was unable to be wowed by it. I just did not feel like biking.
A few tough climbs and some major descents, and then it levels out to this wide valley running north-south for like 100 miles.
I barely ate anything today because I didn't feel like stopping. Years ago I used to do more eating while riding when touring, because that's what the pros do. But I don't breathe through the nose so well, and I would always be gasping for breath while chewing, just a dumb situation. So I like to stop and eat now. But I never felt like stopping today, so I just sneaked along on minimal calories. Sort of feels good actually, a healthy draining of the body, like a juice cleanse. I never refilled my water either, about 76 oz of water consumed during 57 miles of biking; I think I normally drink a lot more. Just a conscious effort to drive along without any frills, just cover some miles now that the tourism vibe of Yellowstone is in the past.
I stopped at a fly fishing hotel in the middle of nowhere. There's a convenience store connected to the hotel, since we're miles from anything. I got a room with a kitchen, it was all that was left. I asked if I could get a discount or anything and he said no because it's in-season and the room will go. But he said to take a frozen pizza for free. Very chill of him. Then I browsed a bit and got a few more items--Zatarain's, tuna, seltzies, coffee cake--and I took them to the counter and the guy just put them in a bag and gave them for free.
57 miles, from West Yellowstone to somewhere in Montana
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Working on them dang Yellowstone mountains
Thursday 20th Jun
Day 53, June 19th
Thursday 20th Jun Day 53, June 19thAnother night in the 20s, all frosty in the morning. Terri made me coffee and a breakfast burrito. Tim was long gone, having left at dawn.
The first section of Yellowstone today, about 9 miles from Lewis Lake to Grant Village, is essentially just a pine forest with a road through it. I went to the geysers and mud bubblers at West Thumb, took a little walk around the area. I met these two people who are friends with Kamran On Bike, who apparently is somewhat famous from cycling around different countries and documenting it. The lady who knew him said his writing has improved over time, and it's "very Sufi."
Going northwest from Left Thumb is intense mountain climbing. This section was harder than Togwotee Pass. I tell you, I hate them descents. I always just cannot wait for it to be over. I did a ton of hard climbing this day, but definitely more descending. Some of the descents just go on and on and on, winding back and forth down a mountain. Awful!
Went to Old Faithful, or Old Boring as I call it. I sat in the enormous wooden lodge and listened to this person playing a violin. "Appalachia Waltz" was played, and I became very emotional hearing it. So sick.
After Old Faithful the route is pretty flat. I saw a herd of buffalo, a big coyote that came loping after me for a few seconds with that coyote grin on its face, some enormous elk off in the distance which I first thought were wild horses, and a young grizzly bear chewing up a log as a dog does a stick.
I cruised past several miles of gridlocked traffic, affected by the buffalo herd crossing the road. I had to be attentive cruising past the buffalo.
I pressed on out of the Park, to the town of West Yellowstone, MT. Stayed in a very overpriced hotel, and met my hotel room neighbor Ming, a very outgoing guy from China. I asked him how he likes China. He said he likes it, and it's "very peace, very peace," and that the food over there is really good. He added with a wincing smile that the food here is not so good. I agreed and said it's hard to find food in America that isn't unhealthy trash.
58 miles, from Lewis Lake to West Yellowstone, MT
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Day 52, June 18th
Thursday 20th Jun Day 52, June 18thBelow freezing last night and this morning, snowed a bit in the night. I clambered out of my tent and went to this Hatchet Diner. I ordered two eggy meals and began to stuff face as usual, but then I felt sick and took like half of it as leftovers. I eat too much sometimes. This trip is hard on the body.
Went into the Tetons national park. Easy to ride, good shoulders.
I was very cold and tired. Around noon I stopped at the Jackson Lake Lodge, a massive structure containing many shops, bustling with tourists. In the corner of the huge main atrium is a large fireplace. The fire in it was small and contained in the extreme corner. A quarter-circle of chain curtain hung between the corner's two walls, with a good six feet of empty space between the curtain and the fire. An additional three feet of stone bench separated the floor from the chain curtain. Multiple plaques adorned the walls around the stone bench, explaining how surfaces may be hot, and that only employees are allowed to maintain the fire. All of this prohibits any meaningful warmth from ever reaching a human body. So there's a lodge up in the forbidding mountains; there's a fireplace in this lodge--might a human being expect to use this fireplace to warm himself after coming in from the cold wilderness? Of course not! Never! Gone are the days when humans in public could allow a fireplace to be a fireplace.
Tim caught up to me at this lodge--came sauntering over with a, "Well well well"--and we planned to wait for each other at the gates to Yellowstone so Tim could get me in for free (he has the lifetime senior pass).
The coldness continued. Heading north through Yellowstone's south entrance, the highway has no shoulder. The road starts climbing and winding up these crazy steep canyons and shit, with minimal safety rails. Wild stuff. I really don't mind the tight traffic though. I just don't imagine being hit, and it doesn't happen. It's chill!
I camped at Lewis Lake Campground. It was full, but, as I'd heard, Yellowstone campgrounds will never turn away a hiker/biker. They keep a site in each campground for such people--because where else could they go? Tim arrived a bit later and we shared the site. The camp hosts, Neil and Terri, brought us reheated meatballs and brussels sprouts for dinner, and strawberries for desert. Sooooo sick.
Lying in my tent at night, there was a bird making this crazy call for hours. It had the exact same musical pattern as these crescendoing highway screams at 1:33 of the song "Kick Out the Pus" by Black Pus. Like exactly the same. I wondered in my dream-nearing state if Black Pus had once heard that same bird and was inspired to make the sound in his song.
47 miles, from Hatchet to Lewis Lake
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Day 51, June 17th
Thursday 20th Jun Day 51, June 17thWent up Togwotee Pass today. Heading up the mountain out of Dubois, it felt like my legs couldn't respond for a while; every motion I asked them to do just felt drooping and impossible, like they couldn't put out any effort. Aside from the obvious physical fatigue building through preceding weeks, I think the mental stress of anticipation was wearing me out; also maybe the elevation, and the cold. It got colder as I climbed.
West of Dubois is when you enter grizzly country. Electronic highway signs along the Pass read, "STAY IN VEHICLE -- DO NOT APPROACH BEARS ON ROADWAY." I kept an eye on the forests as I moved along, and wore bear spray on my hip.
After some time climbing I rounded a curve and saw a sign that looked like the sign at the peak of the Pass. I couldn't believe it. I was done climbing. It was easier and shorter than I imagined. It was still quite difficult of course, but I was anticipating the worst thing ever. There were no ungodly new grades to deal with, just regular grinding on up.
I was cold and sweaty the entire time, a very unpleasant day. It was snowing at the top, and it turned to rain as I descended. I was very cold--all that wind blows through you as you descend. I pulled over at a vista and did a rapid change of clothes to get out of my sweaty shirt, change to my warmer socks, and add more layers generally.
I never had to walk up or down. The descent was never more than 6% grade (labeled so with signs, and corroborated with Tim's GPS thing), so it was manageable.
I was so thrilled to get to Hatchet Campground at the western base of the Pass. Tim was there and we split a site. I had a bowl of chili at the fancy Hatchet Lodge a few yards down the road from the campground.
48 miles, from Dubois to Hatchet Campground
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Day 50, June 16th
Monday 17th Jun Day 50, June 16thOver the past few days, Tim and Philepp and I have been planning and discussing our upcoming climbs into the Rockies. Philepp is going west through a pass after Cody, WY, and Tim and I are going northwest after Dubois, WY, up the Togwotee Pass (TOE-ga-dee). Anxious excitement is building as we talk about the climb, and as we, day after day, draw nearer to it. There are two things about the Pass that cause genuine dread: the mortifying cardiovascular torment of the climb, and the deadly speed of the descent on my rickety, weighted craft in mountain winds which can abruptly alter my steering at any speed. I will likely walk down the steepest parts. Descending is my least favorite part of cycling.
A half-mile into the day's ride I encountered two other cyclists, Augustin and Martin, heading west on highway 26, out for a serious day-ride--from Lander to Dubois and back, about 150 miles. The four of us biked as a pack for like 10-15 minutes chatting before they took off. They recommended the Cowboy Cafe in Dubois, and we would either see them there or else on their way back to Lander on the highway. They were really really chill and friendly.
Ten miles into the day I stopped at a convenience store in Crowheart. I was planning to buy some supplies (peanut butter, sunscreen, trail mix) in the larger town of Dubois, but I had an earnest change of heart and bought them there in Crowheart. Tim and I had been talking yesterday about how many small businesses and cafes are closed across this country. Lovely little unique establishments on the side of these auxiliary highways--"Roadhouse Saloon" overgrown; "Coffeeshop" in a mobile home all boarded up. What a nicer experience this journey would be if a cup of coffee could be had at a random little home-business along these desolate highways. And so I decided to act on my love for the idiosyncratic establishments and bought the more expensive supplies from this odd little shop in the wilderness. It feels relatively beautiful to be in an establishment designed and operated by the random opinions and tastes of a human being, when contrasted with the warehouse-stores designed through carefully-planned strategies for distilling human beings into vessels of commerce. How could our society not be better if the businesses we frequented were unique and cared for by their unique human owners? Unique human businesses constitute an extension of a human being's personality into a physical structure of commerce, allowing for as much individuality as the shop owner desires. Without question they are more "human" than corporate super-structures.
I got a small loaf of locally made rhubarb bread at that store, ate half of it, then went back in and got another small loaf for later because it was amazingly delicious.
The thing about the West is that the landscapes are all spectacularly beautiful in every direction at every moment. When I stop to take a picture of something that seems especially marvelous, I will in the next moment come upon an even more stunning angle or grouping of features.
As I near the Rocky Mountains, the higher, more distant snowy peaks become obscured by the smaller mountains and foothills rising up before me. These smaller mountains on the eaves of the range look about the height of the Whites in New Hampshire. But these shorter first rows of Rockies take their time more than the Whites, so to speak: these mountains are so enormous and far-reaching that their foothills simply ease into being. The proportions of this mountain range are so grand that they seem to rise into existence with uncaring surety, while the Whites in comparison seem to insist upon themselves. These foothills in front of me lay out comfortably in smooth rolling undulations of velvety green, of a massive horizon-scale; they calmly address the unmountained lands before them, with no need to rise suddenly and be forced to represent themselves in their final form of a grand standing peak, so replete is their kin rising behind them.
As time continues on this journey, and as I continually surrender myself, so to speak, to increasingly wild and unfamiliar earth, I feel a healthy obliteration of concerns, my self-hollowing mind and pitiable soul being exculpated by the incomprehensible magnificence of the landscape where I now find myself.
I went 41 miles from that rest stop to Dubois, WY, into a rising wind as the land slowly rises.
The multicolored striations
Sunday 16th Jun
Day 49, June 15th
Sunday 16th Jun Day 49, June 15thSadly Philepp was set on going north toward Cody before turning west into Yellowstone. Tim and I are continuing west on 26 toward Moran and then north to Yellowstone. That's another reason why we didn't bike further after Shoshoni the previous day: because it was the last time the three of us would hang out until, hopefully and probably, we converge in Yellowstone.
Another early start to avoid winds. But we still met one of these small but brutally windy Wyoming storms that passed over us for about the first hour of the day. After that it was another pretty simple day. I was feeling good and well-fueled. I biked four hours before stopping or eating anything. The winds set in at 11am, and I reached my destination of another rest stop at noon. Tim arrived there at 3. The winds were extremely strong all afternoon, like 30mph sustained. Tim said he was going about 4mph the last few hours. I was hunkered down under a stone pavilion, napping and reading Moby Dick.
Tim and I talked about books and such, and he said he loves old ghost stories from the 1900s and late 1800s. I asked about them, and then he just straight up told me the story of "The Phantom Coach," about a traveler on the lonesome moors of Britain on a spooky night. I was just lying on the ground listening while Tim spun the yarn. It was so awesome.
About 56 miles today, from Shoshoni to some rest stop about 10 miles east of Crowheart.
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Day 48, June 14th
Sunday 16th Jun Day 48, June 14thFollowing Tim's method, we got up super early, "quarter past five," as Tim said, and started biking by 6:30, to avoid the winds which tend to set in around midday. Tim is from Bournemouth, England, but he's been living in the US for the past 30 years. He has a smooth, soft-spoken British voice, and he's very calm and rational and pleasant to be around.
We biked the 43 miles from the rest stop to Shoshoni, WY. The roughly 90 miles from Casper to Shoshoni comprise the most desolate stretch of this cross-country route. There is no gas station or town with resources of any kind through this stretch. There's a post office in Powder River, and I remember I noted some other establishment somewhere that would have had water and such, but that's it.
This day, from Waltman to Shoshoni was very easy. The land descends gradually that entire way, and there was almost no wind because it was early morning. I covered the last 16 miles into Shoshoni in 45 minutes.
I biked off ahead of Tim and Philepp because I go faster. I saw my first glimpse of the actual snowy-peaked Rockies this morning, about 8 miles west of Waltman, listening to "Points of View" by Country Teasers. It took a moment to confirm that they were in fact distant snowy mountains and not clouds. The east-facing white of the snow was bathed in pinkish-gold morning haze.
I arrived at Shoshoni at 9:30am, and that was all the biking I would do that day. Tim and Philepp arrived at 11, and we all decided to stay and hang out all day in this city park where camping was free. We took a couple trips to a big gas station a few blocks away to get food and coffee, just hanging out. Tim tried to go to this "House of Wonders" but it was closed. It was a very nice day, and a nice change.
Day 47, June 13th
Saturday 15th JunDay 47, June 13th
I stopped at Hell's Half Acre, where 'Starship Troopers' was filmed, and ran into Tim, whom I met in Iowa, and Philepp, whom I'd heard about from Tim and Naresh, whom I met in Nebraska. I think "whom" works there. Tim and Philepp and I joined forces and rode to a rest stop in Waltman to camp for the night. The rest stop was closed but they had a bunch of portajohns, and we asked people in RVs for water and they helped us out. I met a Dutch couple who gave me over a gallon of water, and apple juice and ice cream and apples and granola bars. Philepp kept hunting for more and more water to make sure we had enough. Philepp is from Germany, it's his first time in the US. He's on a 6-month visa and he's biking across the country.
There was a very powerful but brief storm before sunset. It was cool, a little event, like some evening entertainment. We hung out under a stone pavillion with two solid walls and a picnic table.
49 miles, from Casper to Waltman
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Day 41, June 7th
Wednesday 12th Jun Day 41, June 7thAbout 50 miles from Douglas to Casper. I went on the freeway for half the day. It's legal to bike on the freeway in these western states, mostly due to the lack of alternate routes. Went up some huge hills on the freeway, felt a pump in the low back from the climb, pretty sweet. It was honestly pretty chill on the freeway. The shoulders are uniformly very wide and well-maintained, which is pretty much all you can ask for when ranking roads for biking. I put tissues in my ears for the noise.
Taking several consecutive days of rest in Casper and getting my bike tuned up. Then onward to Yellowstone and the mountains.
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Day 40, June 6th
Saturday 8th Jun Day 40, June 6thUp a few slopes out of Lusk, then an easy day of smooth riding. Descended about 500 feet over 30 miles or something, super gradual descent. For one stretch of about 15-20 miles the shoulder was only about 2 feet wide, and the highway had regular traffic with semis. It was the least safe stretch of the trip, I felt. But it widened out eventually and then it was smooth and easy again.
I pulled over by a railroad structure to eat lunch when a lady pulled over and offered me cold sodas which I declined, then grapes which I accepted, then ice which I declined. The grapes were cold and clean and perfectly ripe, in a little zip lock bag. Then she drove away in the other direction and gave me the peace sign. I wonder where she came from and where she was going that she could turn around and go the opposite direction on this desolate highway after interacting with me. She was chill.
I've seen many antelope now, with a lot of white in their coats, and straight black antlers. I hear they're the fastest land animal in North America.
I camped in this riverside park in the city of Douglas, WY. My sister informed me that there is free camping there. There's a sign at the park entrance that says: due to the drought, no tent camping on Monday Tuesday Wednesday or Friday because the sprinklers will turn on. It was Thursday, so I was good! I doused myself in the cold river before setting up my camp.
55 miles, from Lusk to Douglas
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Day 39, June 5th
Thursday 6th Jun Day 39, June 5thFirst thing this morning I climbed up into some higher rolling plains. I always feel anxious to climb, but this was not bad at all. Difficult, to be sure, but relatively short-lived and nothing much in the grand scheme of upcoming mountains.
Very remote region. I met Gerald, this wizened shoe repairer and leather worker in his big old shop in Harrison, NE, wearing the thick apron stained with boot grease and such, and suspenders over his high shoulders, holding a small square-bottomed pot with a small, round opening at the top where he conversationally stirred the clearish viscous goop inside with a stout brush. I went in there because there were signs of "FOOD" and "LOUNGE" and such outside, but those were outdated. It was a leather shop now. I stayed for a bit because I said I love the smell. Gerald said he can't smell it anymore. He told me a horse walking goes 4mph, and at a trot or canter it would go a bit faster, but I'm going faster than a horse could. Gerald gave me info of where to get food and other places to stay down the road.
I passed into Wyoming in the afternoon.
Route 20 has been better about those awful perpendicular cracks. Some stretches will be like that for miles, and other stretches not. The last couple days it's mostly been good.
I went 58 miles, from Crawford, NE to Lusk, WY.
Day 38, June 4th
Thursday 6th Jun Day 38, June 4thI liked the guy running the Western Sands Motel. He was Native and had that Native accent that sounds very Midwestern. We talked for a while when I got coffee in the office that morning. His family was working doing Pow Wow events down the road. This region is where Crazy Horse lived, "back in the old days," the guy said. We also discussed my upcoming route and the wildness of the Rocky Mountains. When we parted, he said kindly and thoughtfully, "Good luck getting over those Rockies."
I felt distinctly refreshed today. I took a nap yesterday afternoon in the motel, and then a good night's sleep. But I also ate a good amount of food, not too much or too little, and appropriate types of food. I had a breakfast burrito and a chicken strip basket in this cafe in Gordon, then a footlong Subway chicken sub with my usual "tons of spinach," chips, and a bowl of cereal with 2% milk. I think the dairy milk was a key. I drank a half gallon in those 18 hours. It was so refreshing and cold, and it has all these vitamins and minerals, fat, protein and calcium. I think getting all those nutrients in a cold, rich, thirst-quenching form is really helpful when I'm burning this many calories everyday.
The Cowboy Trail is revived between Gordon and Rushville. The motel guy alerted me to that fact, so I took the trail for a comfortable 15 miles before returning to Route 20. At some point in the future that trail will connect Valentine to Chadron. Along that way, on Route 20, I could often see the old path running parallel, and the old rail bridges for it, but it was unmaintained and unbikeable. They'll complete it all someday.
A much nicer day today, much cooler (low 70s), and the wind was mostly very agreeable. I passed through these somewhat forested hills. It was weird to see clusters of trees after many days without. I saw my first glimpse of extremely distant mountains, pale blue knobs on the horizon, while on the northern edge of those hills before descending toward Chadron.
I stopped in Chadron for lunch and then to use the library for computer work. Leaving the library, one of the library employees left and went to his car as I began biking away. I thought how nice it seemed to have a car and a home and a routine. I have those things waiting for me. Getting back to regular days sometimes seems unimaginably luscious.
From there I went 24 more miles to Crawford, NE, and camped in a city park.
I went 70 miles, from Gordon to Crawford.
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Day 37, June 3rd
Tuesday 4th Jun Day 37, June 3rd54 miles from Cody to Gordon.
On Route 20. Another hot and sunny western day. Rolling hills today, for the first time in a while. And strong head- and crosswinds. A deceptively grueling day.
The shoulders on Route 20 are not great for biking. They're very wide, so they seem excellent, but literally every ten yards there's a perpendicular crack that bangs your tires. It's maddening. But I guess some of that stress is misplaced, as the tires have withstood many many miles of it.
From Cody it's 23 miles to Merriman, and then Merriman to Gordon is 30 miles, with nothing in between those stretches. I was looking forward to being done with the day. Atop a high hill near Gordon, I looked down the road at a distant cluster of huge granaries that must be Gordon, and I thought, "Oh sweet I'm practically there." But then I checked my phone and it's like, "Oh that's like seven miles away still."
I got a room in the Western Sands Motel in Gordon at 2pm, Mountain Time. Much needed.
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Day 36, June 2nd
Tuesday 4th Jun Day 36, June 2ndI went 76 miles, from east of Johnstown to Cody. In the small crossroads town of Johnstown there was an aid station for the BRAN, Bike Ride Across Nebraska. They bike west-to-east across Nebraska. The people running the aid station were super nice and said I could help myself. I ate several homemade muffins and some clementine oranges, and talked with them and the BRAN riders.
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Sustained tailwinds yesterday and this morning, a real blessing. All the BRAN riders had the headwinds this morning.
Today was the first day I was indisputably in the West. The dry rolling grasslands of the Sandhills look unlike anything to the east. Since west of Norfolk I've been in cowboy country, to be sure, and there were touches of Western distinction in the land-- a different look to the prairies, the look of the trees, etc; but there were always scenes here and there that could be easily placed within the Midwest without looking off. Now it's all distinctly Western.
Cowboy Trail ends in Valentine, and from there it's onto the wide shoulders of Route 20. I ate at The Bunkhouse in Valentine. I walked in expecting a normal restaurant, but it was a breakfast buffet. I freaked out, ate a lot. Ate too much, all very salty.
I met Naresh on Route 20 late in the day. He was coming from the west. He's going Astoria, OR to Washington DC. He was on his 15th day, and said he averages 100-120 miles a day. That's crazy. He was on a tandem bike, and he said he meets up with friends and people who pedal with him for a while. Maybe a second rider helps with the mileage. I've never ridden a tandem bike.
I camped in the city park of Cody, NE. I met Bryan and Lori who were in an RV there, grilling outside. Bryan invited me to eat dinner. We had grilled sausages and homegrown asparagus, and a salad of broccoli, cauliflower, sausage and cheese, and more homegrown asparagus, and orange vanilla Waterloo seltzies. They were so friendly. And their two dogs. It was nice to hang out with some dogs too. Bryan said this is some of the most rural country in the US. We talked about antelopes and the Ogallala Aquifer and such.
Day 35
Saturday 1st Jun There were hardly any mosquitoes where I camped last night, in this thicket off the side of the trail, just outside the town of Stuart. The thicket was full of purple flowers and other fragrant silverish-green leaves. It was a really lovely sweet smell. Lying in my tent, gazing out through the screened ceiling at the evening sun through the gently stirring tree leaves with the sound of the breeze in the fragrant plants all around, the moment caught me, as it were--made me acknowledge, in sudden realization, how simple and completely benevolent it all was.I'm very excited to begin seeing mountains someday soon. I haven't seen the Rockies since I was seventeen, driving west with my dad. I remember how the first signs of the mountains were visible from 400 miles away: a rising wall of dark smoky clouds on the horizon. The clouds looked unusual, because they were unusual. They were extremely high in the atmosphere, driven up over the mountains by the westerly winds. And the mountains themselves began to be visible from 200 miles away, their peaks slowly hovering up through the horizon's corona. I was fascinated to see things from such a distance.
My front tire sprang a sudden leak today, as I went over one of the many short wooden bridges on the Cowboy Trail which pass over the many irrigation canals throughout the abutting pastures. It started fizzing immediately, so I followed the advice of the mechanic in Antioch, IL, and kept the wheel stationary with the leak pinned against the ground for like 40 minutes. An agonizing wait. And then, following the advice, I flipped the tire 180 degrees to let that area dry out, for just 20 minutes. And it worked. More time on both stages could be beneficial, but I really wanted to move. I was careful for the first hour after that, checking on the leak now and then. There are lots of enormous gopher holes in this trail. Very hazardous. You have to keep your eyes on the trail. The worst areas are in dappled shade, where it's harder to read the ground. I encountered a hole in the dappled shade today. I swerved just enough to miss the worst of it, but my tire still took a bang. This was just after fixing my leak, so I stopped to listen for the fizzing. Sure enough, it was leaking again. I was worried I would have to repeat the whole time-wasting process, or worse: take off the tire and try to patch it internally. But it fixed itself right away this time. I guess the previous procedure covered the leak well, and the bang from that gopher hole just gave it a little scare, but it's good.
I ate my first real meal today since Norfolk, in a restaurant in this old historically designated hotel (which is still a hotel). I had a hamburger steak with corn and mashed potatoes and gravy, a side salad (which was ample), and sweet potato tots.
I saw several little lizards darting across the trail today. A western thing. And cacti growing in this juniper grove where I'm currently camping.
I went like 43 miles, from Stuart to about 5 miles west of Ainsworth.
Skychange
Friday 31st May
Day 34
Friday 31st May Mosquitoes were extremely bad where I camped last night, in the long grasses beside the trail. I was frantically unpacking my bike and setting up my tent as they swarmed me, and my air pump flipped up off my bike in the frenzy and conked the bridge of my nose. This morning in the mirror of a gas station bathroom I saw a little blue bruise there.Another mellow day today, not trying to do too much, and enjoying little coffee breaks whenever I want. The Cowboy Trail was less usable this morning, probably just because it was soaked with rain. My wheels sank and slipped a fraction as they rolled, wasting a portion of my effort with every revolution of the cranks. For the first hour of the morning I chose this path, rather than the noise and gusting wake of the highway traffic. But soon I switched to the highway, to cover more ground with less effort rather than remain on the relaxed but inefficient trail.
It was gray and chilly for most of the day. Locals in a gas station said it's been like this a lot this year. When it's gray it's usually not windy, they said. I said that's good for my purposes. I was sitting at a table eating my own food in the gas station with coffee I bought there. I thought about asking the attendants if they would mind if I ate my own food there, but then I thought of my friend Will Pettirossi's words: "That's a do it first and ask forgiveness situation." Because yeah I could totally see them saying no and I would go eat on the sidewalk, but if you just do it without asking then they won't bother confronting you about it because it's so trivial. And the attendants totally did give me these panicked looks when I sat down with my bread and peanut butter.
This stretch of Nebraska is not isolating like those eastern hills. There is a town every 10 miles or less along the Cowboy Trail so far. Very easy to ration food and water. Though, like always, it is difficult to find actually nutritious food.
I went about 54 miles today, from east of Ewing to west of Stuart.
A bit about my bike
Friday 31st May My bike is a Jamis Renegade with hybrid wheels and tubeless tires. Hybrid (between road and mountain) means it's good for all terrains--gravel, grass, dirt, pavement, etc. I bought this bike eight years ago for $900 from a bike shop in the West Bank of Minneapolis. The guy who sold it to me made sure the frame fit my body correctly.I bought the rear pannier rack from Flanders Bros. Bike Shop for like $50. It has a 35 or 40 pound weight limit, but these things can always be pushed beyond. The panniers themselves were given to me by my old neighbor Fred in downtown Minneapolis. He's an avid cyclist too.
A few years ago I replaced my pedals with clip-in pedals, and bought clip-in bike shoes. Clipping in attaches your feet to the pedals, so you can apply more of the pulling muscles (hamstrings and calves) to each revolution of the cranks. The pedals I bought are clip-in on one side, and broad normal pedal on the other, so they're also good for biking around town when I don't want to be clipped in. I highly recommend getting clip-in pedals and clip-in shoes if you want to bike long distance.
That's essentially everything I know about my bike.
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Day 33, May 30th
Friday 31st May Day 33, May 30thStarted in the rain, onto the Cowboy Trail. I wasn't planning to use the Cowboy Trail, because I'd read many bad reviews on Trail Link. People said the gravel was loose and large, and the adjacent farmers drive their vehicles on the trail and tear it up. But this 50-mile stretch was fine for me. In some spots the gravel was loose and treacherous, but 99% was fine. Maybe it gets worse further west. But in several spots the trail is closed and totally unmaintained, and missing bridges. I had to backtrack a few miles once when there was simply no bridge. Not recently damaged, or under construction, just no bridge. Pretty irritating.
I liked that old weird gas station. I got a coffee and went to pay, and the guy said, "Don't worry about it." I sat at this little round table with two chairs right next to the counter and talked with the old raspy-voiced man working there. He talked about how stores out east have cages over products to defend against thieves, and how credit cards can be stolen if they're on your phone.
A mellow day. About 50 miles, from Norfolk to just east of Ewing. Thunderstorms all evening while in my tent.
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Extremely sick gas station in Nebraska
Thursday 30th May
Day 32, May 29th
Thursday 30th May Day 32, May 29thRest day in Norfolk, the last large town until Casper, WY, I reckon.
I ate tons and tons of food. Perkins right next door to hotel. The best was Valentino's pizza: the Deluxe Pepperoni with cream cheese. Seriously so unbelievably good.
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Day 31, May 28th
Thursday 30th May Day 31, May 28thSlept soundly last night, on the flat soft grass of an actual campsite in Lewis and Clark State Park just west of Onawa, IA. I think I was profoundly exhausted from biking in those explosive winds all day. To lie down in the thick grass and hear a calm quiet after all those roaring hours brought on a nurturing, healing sleep.
A few miles down the road I passed over the Missouri River into Nebraska over a narrow metal grate floored bridge. Decatur, NE is the first town on the other side. It felt exciting to move into the West.
I saw a huge roadkill tortoise, probably 2.5 feet from head to tail. I also saw a weasel every day for four straight days. 34 years, no weasels. Now 4 weasels in 4 days? This is weasel country.
I set out with the goal of reaching Norfolk, NE, where the Cowboy Trail begins.
Windy again, but less windy than yesterday. Some stretches of hills again, especially on Highway 51. Google directed me to take country roads over the hills, but when I got out to these roads they were soft loose gravel, really untenable on a bike. So I cut north to a main highway; about 5 extra miles, but definitely the right decision. At the town of Wisner Highway 51 finally descends out of the rolling hills into another broad ongoing river flat. At that point Highway 51 ends, so I got onto gravel country roads. These gravel roads were navigable because they were on totally flat land; hills and gravel don't mix well.
Towns here in Nebraska are even fewer and farther between than in Iowa. I kept hoping there would be a diner at some point, but there never was. I ate my cold bland rations (which were getting low) and terrible convenience store sandwiches all day. I felt at least slightly hungry for most of the day. Another rough day. When I stopped at a gas station in Pilger, NE, I was just groaning and staggering around and shit. I was pretty well worn, and still about 20 miles to go at that point.
But I did make it to Norfolk, NE--about 85 miles. At the end of the day I noticed some cyclist's carpal tunnel or something in my left hand. I couldn't pinch my fingers and thumb together with strength enough to peel a wrapper. First time I've experienced that, as far as I remember. I don't believe in wearing gloves for labor. The hand skin can withstand almost anything you want to do if you allow it to be conditioned. But for the internal ligaments, I'll probably tie some cloth around my handlebar sometimes to soften, widen and vary the grip. I did that once before on a week-long bike trip, a good option.
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Day 30
Monday 27th May The worst day so far. Absolutely decimating headwinds. Just crawling through the wind. Combined with more long, steep hills. Often pedaling in the lowest gear and barely moving. Sometimes while going downhill, a large hill, the wind would have slowed me to a stop and tipped me over if I had stopped pedaling. It's just really astounding to me, how insane the wind is. It's absolutely screaming in your face all day, pushing and pulling and beating you around, and constantly stripping away your power to move. Honestly, it is a horrible, horrible thing. It's hard to explain. It's like a mocking sensation. Like the wind is mocking you. Sometimes I would cry out in cynical, furious laughter when a gust would suddenly slap me across the face and ears, and rough down my forward movement which is essentially my very being in these times.On 141 West again for most of the day, then turned left onto 175 West after descending finally from the Iowan hills into this enormous floodplain area leading to the Missouri River and the border with Nebraska. It's a really beautiful area, like this vast plain from a primordial super-river, completely flat. If it hadn't been murderously windy then I could have really cruised along on 175.
I went about 47 miles, from Denison to Onawa.
Also: I'm not taking the Rail Trail route down to Omaha and back up, I've been heading straight west from Jamaica, IA to Norfolk, NE. I did the same from Cedar Rapids, IA straight west to Marshalltown, IA--didn't take the curve up to Waterloo. Once the rail trails are completed and linked throughout those cities, then it would make sense to go there. Today, much of those stretches are just more highways, and I don't desire to extend my time that way.
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Western Iowa
Monday 27th May
Day 29, May 26th
Monday 27th May Day 29, May 26thI was hoarse and nose-stuffed last night, worn out from working in the wind day after day, and the whole unique set of conditions. It's not a cold or anything, just meandering bits of illness within the body, allowed to propagate at times from the body's continuous all-around taxation. I feel sleep-deprived, haven't slept well the past three nights.
Highway 141: for a while the shoulder has rumble strips IN it, so you can't use the shoulder for biking. Even so, there's usually about a foot width of concrete on the outer edge, between the rumble strips and the couple-inch dropoff into gravel. Sometimes I would ride on that narrow strip for ultimate safety, but it would usually feel too tedious and nerve-wracking to remain so narrow, so I mostly rode in the lane hugging the white line on the outer edge, and everyone would just pass me in the opposite-bound lane like I was a slow car.
It is very hilly here in western Iowa. Long steep hills, over and over. It's interesting how time goes by on a day like that. The hills are so daunting and unpleasant, but I just keep moving forward, and they eat up the hours. I'm conditioned enough to where the unpleasantness evaporates immediately upon reaching the top of a hill, and so it's like it never happened. Like a little time warp, sort of an out-of-body type thing. But that wore out after some hours, and by mid afternoon the unpleasantness of the hills became stronger and stronger.
I ended the day on Donna Reed Rd, birthplace of Donna Reed, and stayed in a hotel in Denison, IA. I went about 53 miles.
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Des Moines River
Monday 27th May
Day 28, May 25th
Monday 27th May Day 28, May 25thI went about 70 miles of Iowa, from just west of Maxwell to just west of Bayard.
I've been remarkably lucky with weather. I haven't had to bike through any real storms or heavy rain. Every time it's stormed I've happened to be in a hotel-- and even that time in Pennsylvania where it temporarily downpoured I was sitting in a gas station. The locals here in Iowa have talked about the tornadoes they've had recently.
Early in the day, I rode on some gravel country roads to get around a section of trail that I couldn't get through due to massive downed trees. Along the road I saw more mangled sheets of shed roofing and sawed up trees. Descending into a wide valley, where strips of forest border the distant edges of the fields, I saw the pale innards of broken trees catching the morning light. The whole line of trunks was cracked and split with bark torn off around their open wounds.
The Heart of Iowa Trail becomes very nice west of Cambridge. An easy 10-foot-wide limestone sidewalk that went on for dozens of miles. There were lots of cyclists on the trails there-- beautiful summery Saturday, and Memorial weekend I guess. That stretch of Trail has all sorts of linkages going to Des Moines and elsewhere. It would be nice to bike all over it someday. The section west of Bouton looked brand new--with the grass seed alongside--and it wasn't on Google maps yet.
The town of Perry had huge solar panels that doubled as sun-blocking structures along a city park walkway and as a pavilion in another park. It was very nice.
Camping under a highway bridge for the first time. I thought the cars hurtling overhead would be very loud, but they're surprisingly muffled.
I saw the first wild weasel of my life, darting between the stones here under the bridge. It was very close to me as I ate my dinner of oats and cream of wheat and fruit and protein powder.
There are pigeons under the bridge, cooing as they do, but also making these lilting conversational flourishes, watery purring, little patterns of up-and-down notes, always smooth and gentle; every sound they make can only be soothing, incapable of producing harshness. And the acoustics down here are unique. These long empty corridors made by huge stone rafters running parallel, with flanges along the rafters' bottoms, forming a cupping effect on each stone corridor, with the stone underbridge roof above, and below a porous spread of artificial retaining rocks leading to the clopping muddy banks and mellow river. The pigeons' voices are amplified and softened simultaneously. It reminds me of the opera phantom in his cloistered sewer chambers writing heavenly-colored music. Calming alien murmurs, dovish muffled chortling. Their weirdly complex sounds in these surroundings sometimes sound like human voices. I thought there really were people nearby a few times, but I think now that it was always the pigeons.
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Tar runoff on the highway
Friday 24th May
Day 27
Friday 24th May I woke up regularly throughout the night, due to highway noise and the ground beneath me being hard, rough and unflat. It was a somewhat hectic morning. A very powerful wind gust woke me up at sunrise, as a thunderstorm arrived. It reminded me of how the sun rising can produce a puff of wind, as the fresh solar energy flows through the atmosphere. I seem to have been at a spot where the eastward moving thunderstorm met the westward moving sunrise, and the air slapped into sudden movement. I slept in to avoid being rained on, was on the road by 9am.Gray and windy. Straight onto the busy Highway 30-- two lanes for each direction and a grassy median between, speed limit of 65mph. There's ample shoulder room except for one section with almost no shoulder that passes the big Meskwaki Casino. I got into that section early in the day and I was very stressed not knowing if the shoulder would return. I was saying to myself how this is a bad spot, very dangerous. I pulled over across from the casino and considered my options. At that moment a three-legged German shephard started hobbling across the eastbound lanes toward me, from the casino. It's tongue was out as it looked around to make sure it didn't get hit by a car, but it was clearly focused on getting to me. I kept going and didn't interact with the dog. It felt very portentous in that moment.
The shoulder did return soon after that. I wear a high quality reflective vest that I found on the road years ago, and I've never had a close call. The most stressful moments biking on a highway come when, on a windy day like today, a semi passes me closely and the wake of its wind suddenly rips me from side to side, and I need to quickly and firmly handle the steering.
There's something to be said about biking on a noisy and unwelcoming high-speed highway. The direness and bleakness of the surroundings, and the very limited range of movement, necessitate a very rigid focus. I still think and daydream like always, but it puts me in a sort of capsule of the mind, being in this alienating tunnel-world with a hurtling pressure bearing down upon you. The narrow, singular operation of the body in that howling and treacherous inhuman environment forces a certain mood of mind. The high-strung adrenaline slow-drip, the mortal necessity of minimalism, and the acceptance of roaring velocity all around you, give clarity and satisfaction to one's thoughts--the human drive to create meaning out of intensity. It's a time that can produce rich thoughts.
I rode over a million tiny red worms on the shoulder of the highway, over a stretch of about a mile. They were small and thin like inch worms, but they were brownish red and had the bodies of dirt worms. I've never seen that before. Do common dirt worms hatch in huge masses?
I met Tim on the Heart of Iowa trail west of Collins, the first person I've met also doing the entire Great American Rail Trail. He's going to Seattle from near DC as well. We'll keep in touch as we head west. A pleasure! We talked about how everyone we've met on our trips has been wonderfully kind, and interested in our journeys.
I stopped at Mom's Maxwell in Maxwell, IA, looking for some food and coffee. They said they don't open the kitchen until 4 (it was 3:20) but they started up a frier for me. Without looking at a menu, the lady in charge suggested they could throw together a chicken bacon sandwich and I said absolutely. I got coffee and fries as well. I talked to the bartender and he asked about my trip after I said I was biking. He and the lady in charge (who turned out to be "Mom") were very nice and engaging. The bartender "took care" of my meal for me-- incredibly kind. And as I was leaving "Mom" gave me a $50 bill for my charity or to "help keep [me] safe" on my trip. I donated it to the charity, from Mom's Maxwell.
I went about 55 miles today, from Toledo, IA to west of Maxwell, IA.
Day 26
Thursday 23rd MayAbout 55 miles today, from Cedar Rapids to just west of Toledo, IA. I don't use Strava much lately on this trip, to conserve phone battery for navigation. Some rough roads today, using country roads paralleling Highway 30--the Lincoln Highway I used back near Joliet, IL. The roads were often gravel or dirt. The dirt roads were nice, because it's dry today and it's pretty compacted--a smooth and easy ride. But the gravel was horrible--large, loose aggregate that jostled me around, and made me worry for my tires.
I saw some recent downed trees from the storms. I also saw several huge warped chunks of metal roofing strewn in a long line across a field, and a few people and vehicles working to collect them. It was over a large area, many acres. It was like a UFO crash. All the pieces were blown in one direction, and the line of large debris eventually crossed the road I was on and I rode right past the obliterated shed that they came from. It reminded me of Blood Meridian when he describes cinders from the campfire blowing out in a long line through the desert brambles on a windy night.
I'm camping now in a little wedge of trees between two highways. There's a natural flowline of water near my tent, running along this relatively narrow strip of vegetation. It's supposed to storm tonight, so maybe water and mud will flow past. Hopefully it doesn't flood me out. I don't really think it will, otherwise I wouldn't be here.
Days 24 and 25, May 21-22
Thursday 23rd May Rest in Cedar Rapids. We went to Czech Village and a petting zoo and such! Share
Day 23, May 20th
Thursday 23rd May Day 23, May 20thI went 38 miles from Tipton, IA to Cedar Rapids, IA. Rolling hills. Started off in light rain and strong crosswinds, and I thought how it was to be a day of misery. But then it became sunny and pleasant. I need to tie down the sleeves of my rain jacket to eliminate the battering drag in the wind.
I knew I was meeting up with my mom and sister Karen and her boyfriend Numi in Cedar Rapids, so I was happy to mosey along at a mellow pace toward the city, knowing it was a short day with fun and relaxation ahead. I got a coffee from the Bluebird Cafe in Solon (one of countless "Bluebird Cafe"s throughout this country), and it was extremely tasty. Whatever roast they were brewing that day--spot on. Heading west after Solon I used the Hoover Trail for a while which leads into Cedar Rapids.
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Geneseo, IL
Monday 20th May
Day 22, May 19th
Monday 20th May Day 22, May 19thRiding through East Moline, IL, a huge bulldog leapt off its porch and charged at me with this huge full-sized chain around its neck. The chain violently stopped the bulldog from reaching me, but it was quite the scare. I had a whoosh of unpleasant adrenaline afterward. I also felt a warm liquid running down my leg immediately afterward, but I'm not sure what it was or where it came from.
Stopped at a bike shop in Bettendorf, IA. My rear tire had a couple slow leaks out of the side of the tire. This mechanic said that would happen because of the weight I'm carrying, and the tire I have on there is relatively thin. I ought to have a relatively thick tire, for the weight and distances I'm moving. He added a double dose of sealant and it's good for now, but I should order a super thick tire soon.
I headed out across Iowa on 130 West. At one point, near the end of the day, I was listening to the album 'The Celtic Harp' by The Chieftains, out loud (not in earbuds). I was feeling very sore and sun-plastered, and I was biking west toward an immense darkening cloud structure building upon the horizon that was shielding me from the sun now; it was nothing like a distinct thunderhead, but a whole sheet of dark cloud spreading and rising evenly, with its vast shadows all over the land ahead of me. That Iowa countryside was rolling hills and plains, all farmland as far as you can see in all directions. There was a single pillar of black smoke rising on the horizon. Riding west toward that darkening sky was a wondrous and peaceful experience. That Chieftains music is so lovely and profound, and it helped saturate that experience. The earth is immense, and moving across it physically is very challenging. I was apparently moving toward thunderstorms, but I felt unworried knowing that my day was almost done as I neared Tipton. I felt a wild and complex exhaustion, but that exhaustion contributed to the peace and accomplishment.
I went about 76 miles.
Day 21, May 18th
Monday 20th May Day 21, May 18thPacked up as fast as possible and sped off to the nearby town of Ottawa for breakfast. I passed a couple biking west as well. Miles later in the town of North Utica I was sitting and eating outside, and that couple arrived. I waved and they came and sat with me and we talked and had refreshments. They were really awesome, nice to hang out for a bit. They said the problem of dogs chasing you on a bike is much more prevalent in the South--Texas, Mississippi etc. They used to live in Texas and they said it's a big difference compared to elsewhere in the US. They said so many of the dogs down there are outdoors all year, and just run wild. I had one dog chase me in Ohio this trip, but I outpaced it.
Later, along the canal, I saw an old timey barge with tourists on it. The barge was being pulled by ropes toward a dock by three men and a horse.
After the conclusion of the I&M Trail, I took Highway 29 to Beauford Junction to get onto the Hennepin Canal Trail. This canal trail is better than the I&M--wider and more uniform--but still no C&O. At some point I sat under an old rusty railroad bridge and ate some cheerios with water, dates, granola bar and a seltzie. I dangled my feet over the edge of the canal wall and watched the water. I saw a beautiful slender fish with leopard spots and a long thin straw nose, and a 20-inch water moccasin slinking along the water surface.
I went 78 miles, camped along the Hennepin Canal Trail in the bushes.
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Day 20, May 17th
Monday 20th May Day 20, May 17thMy dad dropped me off back in Joliet. My $20 handlebar basket from Walmart that I carry my food in was breaking apart again. Luckily my dad had some zip ties in his car (leftover from his participation in January 6th), so I patched it up.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail is a gravel trail paralleling an old canal, like the C&O Canal Towpath in the eastern US. The I&M is much rougher than the C&O, sometimes going through boggy sections of wet mud, and sometimes the trail is no more than a 6-inch dirt strip threading through tall plants for miles. I saw a historical marker that said the I&M is the "canal that built Chicago." Interesting to know, to imagine all the timber and quarried stone and whatnot being sent back from the west to keep building the megalopolis.
A hot and dusty day, I felt thirsty a lot. Clouds of benign gnats all over that trail; they would get in my eyes and nose and throat, and stick to my sun screened skin.
That night I camped in a boggy section of trail and the mosquitoes were absolutely atrocious. Clouds like gnats but these were mosquitoes. I got into my tent as fast as possible and ate in there.
I went 44 miles.
Another note about tubeless tires and flats
Thursday 16th MaySprung a leak in my front tire while riding yesterday, and I saw and heard the sealant fizz out and seal it as it's supposed to. However, I continued to hear it fizz now and then as I rode on, indicating that air was still moving through the leak sometimes. The tire didn't deflate noticeably for hours, but it apparently was not sealing completely.
A lot of sealant had come out over the course of the day, so I took it to a shop today to check on it. The mechanic said the sealant was almost gone. That's the tire that was refilled with sealant just two weeks ago in Hancock, MD. A shame.This mechanic today said sometimes it can take many hours for the sealant to do its job.
What I could have done to save the sealant and let it do its job is: stop riding and leave the bike wheel stationary with the leak touching the ground, so it's plugged by the ground, and gravity will bring the sealant onto the leak. After some time, then reverse the wheel so the plugged leak is at the top, allowing gravity to remove the internal excess and thus dry the area.
I guess that leak yesterday was a bit too big for the sealant to seal while moving. Tubeless tire sealant is so ingenious because it utilizes the centrifugal force of the rolling tire to perpetually spread the sealant around the tire's inner skin, continuously plugging all small leaks.
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Bandana designed by my friend Anna
Thursday 16th May
Days 18 and 19
Thursday 16th May Day 19Rest
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Day 18
Went 35 miles from Schererville IN to Joliet IL along the Lincoln Highway (30) and Old Plank Bike Trail. My dad drove down to Joliet to bring me to his house in Trevor WI for two nights, one rest day. That bike ride though: the thing happened where I knew it was a quick and simple day, but then it felt like it went on and on, a little under three hours of work in the sun and wind and highway traffic, while looking forward to food and rest and cleanliness.
A note on the stretch of Cardinal Greenway in Marion, IN
Tuesday 14th May For a few miles of the Cardinal Greenway trail near the center of Marion, there are tons of perpendicular root cracks and root bulges. It's like every couple feet for a few miles. That stretch is almost unusable with a loaded bike. I was worried my pannier rack would break from the added force of jostling, as it's already perpetually near its load limit. They should repave that whole stretch. Share
Day 17
Tuesday 14th May Some pain at the top of the knee where it meets the quad, should go away over time. Stayed in lower gears all morning, a higher cadence, to let the leg joints be loose and light, easier on the knees. Little variations are important when doing something all day every day.I stopped at this JK Deli, just down the road from Tippecanoe. A little crossroads convenience store and deli in the middle of nowhere. Inside there were about eight old-timers, and one guy my age, sitting around tables as one group, drinking coffee and passing time, with plaid and suspenders and such, swearing loudly while telling stories, and observing periods of silence. I had some of the hot weak black coffee. The deli was run by eastern Europeans, and there were lots of good food choices like various casserole-type dishes and fresh pastries and meats. I got cheese/potato pierogis and chicken/corn pasta salad for breakfast, and a big dense carrot poundcake for later. A really nice place.
This was the first day that was neither sunny and hot, nor humid and threatening rain, nor exceptionally windy. It was overcast, but a high overcast, with a coolness and freshness in the air. My days in eastern Ohio were marked by a constant low, heavy overcast; very close and muggy; dark and low and heavy-feeling, with drizzle spilling out now and then. This high and light Indiana overcast was excellent weather, and the rain I could see falling at times was far away on the enormous lavender horizon. The going felt easy, not oppressed by sun or heat or wind.
But as the day went on, and as I moved northwest toward Chicago, it became cooler and much windier. I became cold while biking for the first time on this trip, and had to put on a jacket, but I was too lazy to get my gloves out, and my hands were a bit cold. At that point it was in the 50s, with a strong north wind, so like 40s windchill I bet.
I went about 70 miles, and it felt like a regular, chill day. This is good.
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Day 16, May 13th
Tuesday 14th MayDay 16
At the end of Day 15, on the Nickel Plate Trail, I stopped biking at sundown and camped in a little spot in a thin stretch of brambles between the trail and a country road. I got up at sunrise, packed up camp immediately and got biking, to avoid any potential hassle for camping right there. I had some cold instant coffee on a bench, and then breakfast just down the road in Rochester IN where the Nickel Plate Trail ends. A lady at the breakfast bagel shop said they get a lot of bicycle travelers going through town. This town had the thing where they pipe in peppy music through loudspeakers all over the downtown area, a shameful feature.
From there I took roads to Tippecanoe River State Park. The park employees said I can spend one free night there in the campground since I'm bicycling. Very awesome. They keep Site 30 for bike-campers/hikers only. The site had electricity, and hot showers nearby. The mosquitoes were horrible. But it was a nice long afternoon of resting and recuperating in my tent. I went just 38 miles that day, set up camp at Tippecanoe around noon. I was feeling pretty mentally and physically drained, and felt a short day was needed.
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A note on flat tires
Monday 13th May Tubeless tires will essentially never get a flat. My tubeless tire did on Day 2 because I didn't refill the sealant. With sealant, the only way a tubeless tire would get a flat is from a large gash. In my life I've had dozens of flats with tubed tires, and not one was from a large gash. Every single one was a variation of a pin hole. Therefore, on this trip I'm not bringing any tubes or spare tire for my tubeless tires. If I do suffer the exceedingly rare (once in a lifetime apparently) large gash on a tire, and I'm somewhere very far from aid out West, then I will call AAA. Share
SE Indiana, from Day 14
Monday 13th May
Days 12-15, May 9th-12th
Sunday 12th MayDay 15
Much less windy today. Locals say it always seems to be windy here, especially in the spring. I am in wind turbine country afterall. 50 miles down, having lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Marion, IN, I'll go a few more hours in a bit. I got a chocolate milk here, and they brought me this huge glass flagon of milk mixed with chocolate syrup and a ton of whipped cream. Quite the treat.
I tend to feel extremely tired in the mornings and early afternoons, then often enough I start to feel renewed in the late afternoons and evenings. Very tired right now, I wonder if more energy will be found later. I really want to lie down on the concrete outside this Mexican restaurant but they wouldn't want that.
End of day: I went 99 miles today, just north of Denver, IN.
Day 14
I went 68 miles, from east Dayton to Losantville, IN, utilizing the Wolf Creek Trail and Cardinal Greenway, and highways in between. Intense headwinds all day, an awful day. It slowed me down considerably, going just over 10 miles an hour average. One gust out in the countryside almost made me crash. The wind is like getting slapped in the eardrums constantly, all day.
Had some nice moments though, that pedestrian walkway sign comes to mind immediately. Also I saw several dollars of quarters scattered in the street. I coasted past, mouth gaping, little cash registers chinging in my eyes like Scrooge McDuck, debating if I should gather them up. But they were in a lane, of an urban sprawl highway that was pretty busy at the moment, so I passed them by.
I camped right next to the trail, at one of the spots with a drinking fountain and portapotty. I guess it's totally legal to camp like that, so it's really easy for traveling like this. For dinner I had 11 oz of tuna, with crackers and a Lacroix.
Just my favorite thing
Saturday 11th May
Lewisburg, OH
Saturday 11th May
Ohio
Thursday 9th May
Day 11, yesterday, 125 miles
Thursday 9th May Going along the Ohio to Erie trail, southwest from Vernon Center, in nice warm sunlight.Pull over to eat this cookie from Vernon Center: an oatmeal M&M cookie sandwich with peanut butter frosting, basically the greatest thing in the history of THE NINE GALAXIES.
I believe I experienced an intense sugar high after this. I was thinking about Focus and how I must eat the Focus and become the Focus, like the Jormungandr, consuming and thereby becoming the Focus over and over and over and over, while biking quickly.
A friend had just told me it won't be the miles, but the sheer focus that will be the hardest thing to overcome. "The more you focus, the faster you go."
I biked 125 miles yesterday, thanks to the Ohio to Erie trail-- not having to think about any navigation for a really long way, very little elevation gain, and a good smooth asphalt track for hundreds of miles. It's really an amazing resource; Ohio is a good biking state. The section through Columbus, however, needs improved signage. These trails that course through large cities always devolve into weird little zig-zags through urban sprawl with nonsensical connectors and weird routing decisions, and they're often not extremely obvious like a road should be. That aspect is somewhat unavoidable though, as the bike route needs to glom onto the infrastructure built for cars. But the way it could be immediately improved is with signage. Most of the bike signs through Columbus (an area of some 20 miles I bet) point you to things like "3rd Ave - 1.5 miles". So the info is meaningless to a non-local. I was stopping to check my phone map very frequently. I wish the Rail Trail conservancy would add signs like "Ohio to Erie continues South >>" at these trail intersections where one way continues for hundreds of miles and the other way is a city trail that ends in like 4 miles. Seems like an obvious issue for Rail Trail users.
I used highway 3 for maybe 10 miles instead of the trail as I went SSW into downtown Columbus, because the trail in that area was hard to find and, if it was like the rest of the urban trail before it, it was clunkier and slower-going than just using the road. Highway 3 in Columbus reminded me of 2nd St in Minneapolis, one of my favorite biking chutes, the old industrial avenue with all these metal recycling businesses and scrappers and old architecture of warehouses and truck docks and machine entities, old-seeming, a long straight industrial thoroughfare with bike room, good for bombing along.
Days 10 and 11
Wednesday 8th May Day 10:New Philadelphia to Howard, 58 miles, via highway 39 (at times 62), then a section of Holmes County Trail from Millersburg to Killbuck, then roads with easy bike signs guiding you the 8 miles to Glenmont to get on the massive Ohio to Erie trail system. The time on highway 39 was a bit difficult going up and down these Ohio hills, but the grade on this thoroughfare is so much more manageable than smaller roads. Dealing with the noise and danger of a busy highway for more manageable grades is soooo worth it.
There are tons of Amish people in this region, by far the biggest Amish population I've ever seen over such a wide area. The shoulder of highway 39 has a depressed groove in the concrete running parallel with the road for miles and miles. I had never seen anything quite like it, and was wondering why and how it was there. Then an Amish buggy pulled onto the highway ahead of me and I saw the left wheel rolling along on the shoulder, right through the groove. So the Amish buggies' left wheels have eroded down the concrete of the highway shoulders over the years.
Camped in Howard in this little park around an old beautiful stone arch bridge.
Day 11:
Coffee in Vernon Center, 11 miles down the trail from Howard. Today on to Columbus and beyond. Feeling quite tired. I anticipated some Week 2 fatigue, as my body gets conditioned to doing this every day for a while. I was thinking by Week 3 I might be smoothly conditioned to it. I plan to take one or two rest days soon. I keep fantasizing about the horizon-flatness of Indiana and how sweet and streamlined it might be.
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Rugby!
Tuesday 7th May
Beautiful Steubenville
Tuesday 7th May
More about Day 9
Tuesday 7th May Post day: Yes, it was an extremely difficult day, steep hill intervals with weighted bike, a certain type of hell. The Conotton Bike Trail between Jewett and Bowerston was a nice 11 mile reprieve. It felt so wonderful to get on that trail, knowing it would be smooth and easy for a bit, a whoosh of happy relief in my mind mirroring the swimming in my legs as I pedal fluidly on flat ground after all those gnashing hills. It was a very nice feeling.I had lunch on a bench on the trail. An elderly man in a golf cart was going around doing maintenance. We talked cheerily as the drizzle started falling. It turns out he was instrumental in proposing this trail about 20 years ago when it was an unused train track. Such wonderful use of this resource-- a long line of pre-flattened land.
From Bowerston heading west to New Philadelphia, I would not advise taking the highway 44 route. It was nauseatingly steep and up-and-down, and turned into gravel for many miles up in the hills. Other routes on busier highways couldn't possibly be as up-and-down.
I decided to get a motel in New Philadelphia. The town reminds me of Easthampton, MA, with its summery winding residential roads leading into the town, and the old angled intersecting streets downtown and such. A feeling of absolute elation as I get into that town, down out of the awful hills that feel isolating and forbidding, now in a larger town full of resources where I'm safe from all the vagaries of solo travel.
~55 miles today
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Day 9
Monday 6th May Had to cross the Ohio River into Steubenville, Ohio via the freeway. Nerve-wracking, because of safety and because I didn't want to encounter a cop. Being a pedestrian on a freeway, you feel how it's all monstrously oversized for a human, designed for bodily-impossible speeds; and the oversizing is reflected in the garbage accumulating on the shoulders: larger debris is removed to keep the road open, but all these other scraps of machine dandruff become relatively small, and thus acceptable to remain riddling the path. In this state of heightened anxiety I misjudged how far I had gone and what I had crossed over as I took an exit for "Downtown" and then realized it was a different town still on the east side of the river. Whoopsie daisy. Back onto the freeway to actually cross the river. On the actual bridge there was road construction and only one lane with absolutely no shoulder room. I stood there at the mouth of the single lane for a moment, cars rattling past, contemplating how this could possibly work, or if I would need to turn around and go miles away to another bridge. I looked back over my shoulder and saw no approaching cars, so I immediately launched forward as fast as I could. And it all worked out.Sat at Leonardo's Coffeehouse in Steubenville. It has a huge second floor with all this weird furniture and art. Shannon, a local, introduced herself because she saw I was biking long-distance, and she talked about biking and the importance of bike access for people doing the Great American Rail Trail, and the absurdity of the only available bridge right now being that freeway bridge. She and her husband are big advocates for this whole scene, and I was very excited to talk all about it.
Now I'm going to go eat at The Soulful Spoon because the librarian recommended it. Then I'll have a very difficult day of going up and down these Ohio hills on roads instead of trails.
'pede
Sunday 5th May
Day 8
Sunday 5th May Slow going today. The tread of the trail is soaking wet. It improves after West Newton however, a different type of gravel and/or it's compacted better.I wanted to stay at my little lean-to cabin. That day there, where I had a fire going all day and night, was so awesome, a really wonderful day. I wish I could live there for a week, but only if it was like that one day--rainy and cool. But there's a 2-night limit that is checked on, and I want to keep moving.
My bike chain and cassette are squealing and grinding with sand. I need to clean it more thoroughly soon.
Turning west now, south of Pittsburgh; leaving the Great Allegheny Passage trail and heading for the Montour Trail. Montour is one of these trails where it's just a trail because they say it is; it's just a route through various turns of streets and backroads where you need to look out for the signs that tell you where to go. Eventually it gets onto a more long-lasting gravel pedestrian trail though. Lots of subtle inclines throughout this trail, taxing me, feeling like it's a weary grind as my bike groans and creaks with the sand-dust. I felt irritable at times today, like the machine I'm riding would have felt. We will mirror each other now.
I stop at a gas station to get some cheap fuel, some weird pita sandwich and a pretzel with cheese. The gas station has a little cafe area inside so I sit and charge my phones and eat. Very lucky to have stopped then, because it starts absolutely dumping outside. I get a coffee and enjoy being inside.
Now I'm stealth camping in West Virginia, along the Panhandle Trail, and it's thunderstorming. Nice inside my little tent. I went about 75 miles today. It felt quite good -- draining for the first several hours, but then I reached a feeling of easy routine -- probably mostly because it was mostly flat or slightly declining toward the end of the day.
I saw a large beautiful fox today. It softly pressed its body down against the grass when it noticed me approaching, as a cat would. But then it wasn't very nervous as I did get near it, and it chewed on something playfully and lolled its head around. Very cute, like a mix between a cat and a dog.
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Some thoughts on physical exertion
Saturday 4th May Listening to Earth (the band) on my day off. I do this a lot: where I listen to music and imagine giving out my purest, tireless physical exertion, to the universe from my being so to speak, and I sometimes become teary-eyed, with goosebumps and deep breathing, as I look forward to the next opportunity for exerting the unending physical will that seeks to expand my being as far as it can. Looking forward to tomorrow, and unleashing the day's energy with passion, after resting an entire day, all of it stored up, and urging to become itself. It's the only thing I've ever felt that could best be described as "spiritual" -- to feel the unending urge of my body's strength and energy to bring itself to further and further points of exertion where it can connect to the socially uninhibited dementia of physical determination, of prowess and actualization, insisting that it will exist there, and how it swirls in the mind and body and soul and connects you to the imagined same experiences of countless ancestors who might have felt these same heart-wrenching passions for physical exertion. A feeling that might have made someone in ancient times spread their arms at the top of a ziggurat and ceremoniously scream with the wind. It's a feeling that is apparently incorruptible, meaning it is never defeated by, and is indeed a cure to, the crushing obligations of society. And it is important, and "heart-wrenching," because of what it means in life -- what it means to be able to move, to use one's body, to connect movement with meaning, like unending dancing, where at any moment life can remind you that this is everything there is, to enact fully one's cardiovascular longing, to be able to reach difficult and thus profound moments.Listening to Earth, I was rehearsing these fabricated odes and prayers to exertion that I go over regularly throughout life -- and these prayers can be felt synonymously with this music; the music is not pretending, it is completely real, and it's trying to tell the listener all about the intensities of life. It is honestly trying to speak to this realness, and not focusing on its ego, so to speak. It is capable of delivering intense beauty and power. The point is: private moments of transcendence have a place in life, and I believe it's beneficial to describe them, to better direct life toward these moments.
It's important to not waste time; it's important to give energy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iFnE1zgcCo4&pp=ygUSc2NhbHBodW50ZXJzIGJsdWVz
The path
Saturday 4th May
Day 7, 5/4
Saturday 4th May First day of rest. I decided to stay another day here last night after I realized I had something to boil water in -- this seltzie can that I brought from Ohiopyle and drank last night! I have just enough food to eat for today, now that I can heat water -- quinoa, with tuna added for lunch; my one freeze-dried meal for dinner; and HOT oatmeal and HOT coffee for breakfast for a change. It's like that book Hatchet where the guy realizes he can do everything he needs to live with a hatchet. My story is... Seltzie! Hot meals and hot drinks all day, thanks to the seltzie can!Train tracks on the other side of the river, about 80 yards from my lean-to. The trains are incredibly loud rumbling and screeching along this steep river valley. Talk about habitat disturbance, this goddamn train noise. And some of them trains is LONG. It'll be SEVERAL MINUTES of me lying there with my ears plugged. Unimaginable cruelty! I saw one of the trains last night was a passenger train. Seems very cozy: riding a train through this narrow wooded riverway on a rainy night.
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Day 6, 5/3
Saturday 4th May Morning in Confluence PA, the dewiest morning so far, but almost no mosquitoes. I'm craving better food now, feeling a bit depleted after yesterday's climb (my trail food has consisted of salmon packets, nuts, oats w/seeds and other grains (with cold water), chocolatey sweets). This was the first morning it was a bit cold when I began riding, wore my hoodie. The first day I felt pretty generally fatigued as well.I went the 11 quick miles to Ohiopyle for a monster breakfast from this general trail outlet I went to last year: sausage egg and cheese on biscuit (good sized sandwich too, not all small and shit), hashbrowns, and a chicken salad hoagie. Ohiopyle is built for the trail, a very small town where seemingly all buildings and establishments are either food or inns or vehicle rentals all appealing to trail-users.
I got to this hiker-biker campsite with log lean-to's and ended the day early to rest -- just under 50 miles today, stopped around 3pm. It felt so good to have a whole afternoon to just lie around and eat, read, swim in the river, and dry out my sleeping bag and tent from all that morning dew.
There were rat droppings (bigger than mouse droppings) on the wood floor of my lean-to, but it'll be ok. Among all the graffiti on the walls and ceiling of the lean-to there was a drawing of a rat, as an acknowledgement and warning, like a cave painting above me as I lie there. And it occurs to me: I hear people were hunters and gatherers for a pretty long time before they decided to settle in one place and stay inside buildings for their entire lives. Why would I assume I want to do that with my life? It feels so good to be moving and adventuring and seeing new things and new people. Why should I think that choosing one city and one abode would fulfill me?
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5/2
Saturday 4th May
Day 5, 5/2
Saturday 4th May Passed through Cumberland, passed through a farmer's market, but there were no fruits or baked goods to be found! I passed through, knowing I would eat a proper meal for the day at Donges Drive-in in Meyersdale PA.I head up the first actual climb so far on this trip -- 1.5% grade for about 22 miles uninterrupted. A nice introduction to pain; nothing crazy, just a long few hours, good training. 1.5% sounds slight, but you can definitely tell you're going uphill for 22 miles straight, especially on gravel. Talked to a local on his bike, said this was the prettiest section of the trail, up in the mountains with valley vistas and such. This was the section I missed last year, because the Savage Tunnel was closed for the winter.
Had a nice reprieve at Frostburg, with benches in the shade and a drinking fountain. Five other cyclists were there doing the same, it's about two thirds up the climb, a good pit stop.
Approaching the peak of what I guess must be Savage Mountain, I round a curve and I'm greeted by a blast of icy wind as I see the great mouth of the Savage Tunnel, like Aragorn's halls of the dead basically. I think the tunnel is over a mile long, so it stays icy cold in there. It cuts through the mountain just beneath the peak. A wonderful cooling ride through, and knowing now the climb is over.
I stop at an Amish stand and get some sweet homemade dessert things, pretzel/caramel/chocolate sandwich bites etc.
Donges Drive-in in Meyersdale, my favorite diner. I was extremely hungry after the climb. I got the steak and eggs with home fries, wheat toast, english muffin, raspberry milkshake and a BLT w/extra tomato and lettuce. I rested there for a bit after I ate, and it was very tempting to stay there (Donges is also a motel). But I continued for another ~30 miles to Confluence, ~75 miles today.
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Day 4, May 1
Saturday 4th May Felt good to be rolling again, tires fixed. Went about 78 miles from Williamsport to outside of Cumberland. Rode with Theresa for about 10 miles, talking. She grew up around horses, in the area--western Maryland. She loved playing polo. She said she spent a lot of time in Maine during "the virus scam."Saw several large snakes today, and many yurtles as always. Also a great blue heron that took off and flew alongside me for a moment, so beautiful.
Shared a campsite with Ben "Slowhand." He was cowboy camping in the grass, on his way walking to Indiana to see a friend. Over 500 miles to go! He works seasonally in the winter and travels in the summer. We were vibing. We talked about life's hardships and wonders, as people do. He told me how he saw a dead squirrel on the trail today, sprawled out prostrate facing east, and he thought about the symbolism of facing east upon death, beseeching the sun, facing the creator etc, and he said how he saw a lady sitting on a bench later and he told her about the dead squirrel facing east and all the symbolism, and he said her vibe was like, uhhh ok get away from me please, and then he laughed super hard telling me about that. It was funny.
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C&O Bicycle, Hancock MD
Saturday 4th May
Days 2 and 3; 4/29-4/30
Friday 3rd May Got a flat tire on my tubeless tire, on the Towpath, halfway through day 2, after 32 miles of good riding. Met many nice people who offered to help, but there was no solution out there. I walked with my loaded bike for a few miles, then just rode on the flat because I had like 15 miles to get to the nearest open shop. High 80s and sunny both days. Had to determine which shop was the most efficient use of my travel time, and where I would sleep if I had to leave the trail, a whole ordeal. Very grueling moving the bike with a flat, plus the stress of knowing I was wrecking my tire and possibly my wheel. Some trying times early on! But I would soon learn why the flat happened and it makes sense now.Got the flat fixed in Hagerstown MD by a triathlete, Jamie. My wheel was fine after biking on the flat with around 230 lbs of weight for maybe 20 miles. Good to know it can withstand that. It destroyed the tire though.
I learned from a different mechanic on Day 4 that my tire went flat because the sealant in tubeless tires dries up after about 6 months or after a freeze, and needs to be refilled. So I was essentially biking on non-tubeless tires. Now they're refilled and should be good.
5/1 The Canal Towpath
Friday 3rd May
4/29 The C&O Canal Towpath
Friday 3rd May
Thank you to my supporters
$342.22
Anonymous
$26.10
William Stoltz
An amazing accomplishment!
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Rick Stoltz
$52.20
Edgar Leon Rodriguez
I heard about your travels and your mission from a very smart & attractive redhead lady that originates from Wisconsin. And I'm glad I checked it out. I believe that your cause is very noble and commendable because to many in need those bicycles will also bring hope and/or happiness. The World needs more Thomas Bockenhauers, more selfless people that both care and go on to make our planet, our home a better place. Thank you and much respect brother, bike on!
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Kate Brey
Great job finishing and kicking ass all throughout the country - this ride is amazing and also the most awful thing I could think of doing! Yay!
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Mary Bockenhauer
Congratulations Thomas!! You did it and I’m so proud of you. I enjoyed reading about your journey. I can tell you love to write, you are a great writer. Come & visit when your back around here. I love you!
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Anonymous
Way to go Thomas! Don't ever forget how amazing you are!!
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Karen And Numi
Yayyyy Tom Bom, almost done!!!
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Deirdre Flynn
How awesome! I admire your spirit and perseverance.
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Dianne And Mark
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Dkp
“There is no machine known that is more efficient than a human on a bicycle. A bowl of oatmeal, 30 miles, you can’t come close to that.” - Bill Nye. I admire you and your sense of adventure, Thomas!
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Tam-tam Bonks
I bet now that you're at you mountain pass, you wish you had gone through the mines of Moria ohohohohohohohoho!
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Marcie Goodale
You go, Thomas!
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Mary Anderson
Thinking of you!!! Soldier on Thomas. All I can is you are so amazing, and you’re prevailing on your journey! I love you
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Anonymous
Give it your all Thomas! Have fun!!
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Nancy Simpson Ignacio
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Dan And Linda Saugstad
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Wendy
“May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields." ~ Irish Blessing
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Ryan Reed
The atoms that your body is made out of are the same atoms that the sun, moon, every planet and every star are made out of. You embody the strength of worlds beyond planet Earth. You are gravity itself, you are light itself, you are the god that they claim is up in the heavens pulling the strings. That god is you. That god is all of us. I’m rooting for you, Thomas. Sorry I could not donate sooner. I miss you and I want all of your needs to be met in life. I’m sending vibrations of good health, good tidings, and of course STRENGTH in your direction. Ride on, my dear friend!
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Mom's Maxwell In Maxwell, Ia
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John Eeing
Unbearably chill
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Lewis Pullen
Good Luck. Your Dad is a dear friend of mine!
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Omobolade Dealno-oriaran
Kudos to you. Blessings to you.
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Danica Mooney-jones
Woohoo, so cool!! Crush it out there, Thomas!!
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Julie Kruse
Way to go Thomas! I really enjoy following along with your updates.
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Matthew Moye
You got this, dude. Get after it.
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Mom
Happy Birthday Thomas! So proud of you!!!
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Mitchell
Good luck on the adventure
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Sarah Bednarz
I am enjoying your geographic descriptions.
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Ted Bockenhauer
An amazing trip , but not surprised, we are all proud of you !!
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Will Pettirossi
Get after it spoon feed exited to see your pics from the trip!!
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Mary Bockenhauer
I’m proud of you Thomas, you are an amazing force…I love your spirit & I love you! Aunt Mary
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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A Dime a Mile for WBR. Way to Ride, Thomas!