Great shots from "Going to the Sun Road" in Glacier National Park - these were taken at 6:30 am. Also, top shot includes two of the guys from the group that Michael rode with for a bit - Chris and Ky.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Montana - Going to the Sun Road, Glacier
Great shots from "Going to the Sun Road" in Glacier National Park - these were taken at 6:30 am. Also, top shot includes two of the guys from the group that Michael rode with for a bit - Chris and Ky.
Pictures from Montana #1
A beautiful river in Glacier National Park, Lake Katherine in Glacier, Tom and Ginnia Sullivan in Missoula (Michael stayed at their house for a bit)
Friday, July 18, 2008
Highlights from Minot, ND!
Michael has made it to North Dakota and just yesterday was in the town of Minot (northern half of North Dakota). In case you want to check out what is going on in Minot, here's a link to the local newspaper...
http://www.minotdailynews.com/
So, what's been going on since my last post: Michael left Missoula (not exactly sure when) headed to Glacier National Park. He posted a record-setting day of 114 miles from Missoula to Swan Lake!
Surprisingly, he's hooked up with some riding partners - 20-something guys on a tour from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. So far, there has been a lot of adventure...he first met some of the guys buying food in Missoula, they invited him to join them. Thinking that since they were traveling ultra-light (and looked like they were fast) he said "thanks, but no thanks". They left a day earlier from Missoula, and he caught up with them at Glacier! So, he decided to go ahead and join them. Since that time, they've lost a few of their group (started with 16, down to 7) and the biggest thing that happened is that one of the guys got into a very serious accident just outside of Glacier and had to be taken to the hospital. Michael was the first of the cyclist group on the scene (the guy's chain had come off and got all caught up, causing him to go down), and he was really cut up (hands, knees, etc.) Then, Michael asked him if he'd hit his head (these guys, being young and stupid, had decided not to wear helmets except on downhills...) he said yes, and Michael found a huge 2" gash on the back of his head. 40 stitches later, the guy and his best friend were on their way home and the rest of the group are wearing their helmets!
The group, as stated earlier, are traveling "ultra-light" and are camping too. So Michael, riding "loaded", is basically their sag wagon. Whether it is food, camping gear, or extra tubes, Michael is really helping them out. However, they have some cool connections for places to stay that he is taking advantage of - stayed with a friend of a friend and they loaded him up with deer sticks (he had 12 bags), and stayed behind a police station in Newtown, ND.
Michael loves ND - says that the agriculture is really beautiful, lots of Durham wheat, sunflower, safflower, and what he thinks may be peanuts (all dryland farmed) and big fields - 500 acres. The people are extremely friendly and outgoing, which is a big difference from Montana. ONce they left Glacier, they pretty much high-tailed it. He got told by one guy in Eastern Montana that ANYTHING from California is bullshit. Needless to say, they didn't come across much love in general in the whole state. However, the group did receive a "kick-ass tailwind" in Eastern Montana - helped them get out of there faster :-)
Other fun facts: Michael says he is "getting a lot stronger, and instead of ending the day totally wiped out", he is just really hungry. Speaking of which - 4,000 calories a day, with 5-6,000 every 3rd day, he says that he is "tired of eating". Wow.
Next stop - Twin Cities to meet up with Kristen, who's birthday is on the 25th. May the wind be with you!
http://www.minotdailynews.com/
So, what's been going on since my last post: Michael left Missoula (not exactly sure when) headed to Glacier National Park. He posted a record-setting day of 114 miles from Missoula to Swan Lake!
Surprisingly, he's hooked up with some riding partners - 20-something guys on a tour from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. So far, there has been a lot of adventure...he first met some of the guys buying food in Missoula, they invited him to join them. Thinking that since they were traveling ultra-light (and looked like they were fast) he said "thanks, but no thanks". They left a day earlier from Missoula, and he caught up with them at Glacier! So, he decided to go ahead and join them. Since that time, they've lost a few of their group (started with 16, down to 7) and the biggest thing that happened is that one of the guys got into a very serious accident just outside of Glacier and had to be taken to the hospital. Michael was the first of the cyclist group on the scene (the guy's chain had come off and got all caught up, causing him to go down), and he was really cut up (hands, knees, etc.) Then, Michael asked him if he'd hit his head (these guys, being young and stupid, had decided not to wear helmets except on downhills...) he said yes, and Michael found a huge 2" gash on the back of his head. 40 stitches later, the guy and his best friend were on their way home and the rest of the group are wearing their helmets!
The group, as stated earlier, are traveling "ultra-light" and are camping too. So Michael, riding "loaded", is basically their sag wagon. Whether it is food, camping gear, or extra tubes, Michael is really helping them out. However, they have some cool connections for places to stay that he is taking advantage of - stayed with a friend of a friend and they loaded him up with deer sticks (he had 12 bags), and stayed behind a police station in Newtown, ND.
Michael loves ND - says that the agriculture is really beautiful, lots of Durham wheat, sunflower, safflower, and what he thinks may be peanuts (all dryland farmed) and big fields - 500 acres. The people are extremely friendly and outgoing, which is a big difference from Montana. ONce they left Glacier, they pretty much high-tailed it. He got told by one guy in Eastern Montana that ANYTHING from California is bullshit. Needless to say, they didn't come across much love in general in the whole state. However, the group did receive a "kick-ass tailwind" in Eastern Montana - helped them get out of there faster :-)
Other fun facts: Michael says he is "getting a lot stronger, and instead of ending the day totally wiped out", he is just really hungry. Speaking of which - 4,000 calories a day, with 5-6,000 every 3rd day, he says that he is "tired of eating". Wow.
Next stop - Twin Cities to meet up with Kristen, who's birthday is on the 25th. May the wind be with you!
Monday, July 7, 2008
And now Washington!
Some more shots from Michael - Going into Washington, riding through the high desert, checking out agriculture in the west. He also noticed that they get a lot of snow...
As I stated earlier, Michael is in Missoula, MT right now. Here is his latest update;
I found a place to stay here in Missoula through the warm showers web site so I have been here foe a few days and may leave on Sunday. The couple I am staying with are very cool. They have three teenage children. The lady Ginne works for Adventure Cycling, probably the best known touring group in the country. The man is an engineer and teaches classes at MU as well as is working on his PHD in Geography. It is funny because I emailed the lady about staying at here house from the Adventure cycling head quarters not realizing that she was 40 feet away from me at the time. I went to a BBQ with them last night and every person there with rare exception was a triathalete or marathon runner or bad ass bike racer. Different crowd, cool people. I went montain biking on my touring bike today and had a blast and I may get to go hit more trails tomorrow.
2nd Set - Oregon!
Moving on into Oregon...
After Jedediah Smith State Park, Michael headed to Wonder, OR, where he stayed at a KOA campground (couldn't find a place to camp), where he hung out with the owners of campground who were new to the business after getting out of the short-haul trucking business. Michael is honing his excellent skills of just listening and learning (notice the picture above where he is chilling out - everything is cool, man!). He learned a lot about the realities of the short haul business and how much they love environmentalists. Not.
After Wonder, he headed to Richards State Park, which is north of Shady Cove (for those of you following along on a map). Went next to Diamond Lake (two shots - one of his campground and one of the lake), which was approximately 160 miles and mostly uphill for 3 days from Jedediah Smith. Took a much-needed rest day. After which he rode for ~ 100 miles to Bend. Was there for 2.5 days and looked everywhere, but could not find anyone that he knew!
After leaving Bend, he camped on a forest service road near Prineville. Kept on moving to the northeast, passed Pendleton and then Baker City, OR. For the most part, his path is pretty unorthadox (yeah, what a surprise), taking a diagonal across Oregon, using the smallest roads as possible. Averaging 65-80 miles/day, and has met quite a few interesting characters along the way. One was a woman (19 year-old) from Quebec, and a guy named Trevor who has been without a car for 14 years and was traveling from Missoula Montana to Northern CA for a music festival - hauling a trailer.
Most cyclists that he has met are NOT self-supported (that is, they are staying in hotels and eating out). Next to the Washington Boder via Enterprise, OR.
First in a series of pictures; Northern CA
OK - trying to get all of Michael's piks up in order. We are starting where I left off with the last pictures - in Arcata, CA. Michael spent some time with his friend Erin at her farm, working of course - what surprise! After Arcata he stayed on the coast (a few nice shots above show off the beauty of that area), then in to Jedediah Smith State Park. Michael enjoyed the big trees (several shots there for your viewing pleasure!), and the 10-mile dirt road in to Stout Grove. Michael reports cold, clear creeks!
Michael also reported finding Bigfoot, and in fact he was a riding partner for a day... :-)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Missoula Montana for the 4th!
Michael is having trouble sending photos, but he has let me know that he has reached Missoula, Montana, and is at the Aventure Cycling Headquarters! http://www.adventurecycling.org/visitmissoula.cfm
Some detaisl from his email: "It has been pretty fun since we last spoke - full of interesting people, competitive scrabble and a hell of a lot of hills. The rumor is it flattens out about 400 miles from here so that might change it up a bit. Hopefully it is not just boring as hell but I guess that is what talking to people is for. It is amazing how conservative this part of the country is. I mean really conservative. I will give you a call soon to give you more details as my time on this computer is running out."
Happy 4th of July Michael! The peaches at the Farm are absolutely delicious. My uncle and his friend (also on a cross-country bicycle trip) just reached St. Augustine, FL - Seattle to St. Augustine in 65 days! Enjoy those hills, at least it is not humid. Their reports of the humidity in the south sounded horrible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
