Coast to Coast

            This is a map of my biking route that I'm planning on taking come March of next year. There still exists a few flaws in my plan, but I am working through them and have so far come up with a strong concept of everything that will be involved on this trip. First off, the distance that I will be traveling I cannot set to the exact mile, to do so would be completely unrealistic due to the plethora of variables along the way. However, I've estimated that the trip will run around 8,000 miles. When I rode to Salt Lake City and back for a combined 84 miles (7 hours of combined riding time), I know that I will be able to at the very least make 60 miles per riding day with a loaded bike; meaning  I would need 133 days of riding. Though I'm sure I can ride 80 per day easily, I like to have a little leeway in case of the unexpected.   

This is the bike that I will be using on my trip.
It is a Trek FX 7.3 commuter bike I bought a
little over a year ago. (This picture was taken
a few weeks ago during my ride to SLC.)

I would like to head off by March and September will be the longest I plan to stay out, giving me seven months and 137 extra, non biking days if needed. I will most likely return home earlier than that, but like I said, I like to keep it open just in case. I also will be spending a day or two site seeing in most of the major cities I visit, if not more depending. Include into that a day or possibly two if needed of down time per week you'll probably find that most of that extra 137 days to be well used.

Like I said, there are still some variables I am working out before I can do this, but I'm really going to gun for it and try to be totally prepared by the end of February. I will also be starting up a new blog (which will hopefully include video of my prep and progress) that will be devoted solely to this journey. Meanwhile, I will keep this blog up to date on my progress until I find a good site for my new blog.

If anyone has any comments, ideas or even criticisms they'd like to share, please feel free. I could use all of the support, information and challenges I can get!  

West Coast Vacation- Part Two: Northern California

 So to start off this second and second portion of my vacation blog, here are some more thought worthy sea side pictures. Now I can't remember which of these were still in Oregon and which where California, so just picture these somewhere near the border.

- This one I know was in Oregon because I'd been there before when I was twelve. Unfortunately, we didn't get out and swim around there like we did before, but it was cool seeing those rocks again.




- This one I liked because it felt very Scottish; with the misty rocks and the wavy pale grass against the ocean.




- Once we got to Northern Cali, we had to take an in-depth look at the mighty redwoods. We found a nice trail through the woods which came out to the ocean.

 - The rest of my family walked the three miles, but I decided to be a little more adventurous and try riding my bike across it. (note: that is not a mountain bike.) It was a relatively nice ride except for wiping out on a downhill slope and scuffed up my arm. I didn't even get that good of a scar out of it so it's really not even worthy of mentioning.

- These flowers were covered all
over these giant boulders by the shore.













- My brother, Christopher goofing off with the flora.

My new friend, the banana slug

 - There was something on top on that isle out there. I'm guessing it was a lighthouse of some sort but I all of my zoomed in pics were too fuzzy to tell.






Well that concludes the coastal views and redwood forest. My next and last post will be a little closer to civilization, of sorts...San Francisco.

Games in the Desert

Oy vey. . .what a week. My family and I headed down to St. George last Wednesday to visit my grandparents who own a home there. As it goes, I had this huge plan to ride my bike all the way to Zion National Park and take some awesome pics of the red rock scenery and write this giant sized essay on my travels. Unfortunately, I have this little known problem called chronic laziness disorder that shuts my limbs down and turns my brain to mush at the most inopportune times.  

                Instead of a long ranged, grit and spit bike ride, I sat around at the house using my brother’s new 3DS system playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when he wasn’t using it. It is such an addictive game; you would have no idea unless you’ve played it before. It consumed me when I was ten years old on the Nintendo 64 and it has once again plunged me into the world of Hyrule with all of its crafty dungeons, memorable characters and foot-tapping music. The thing that reinvented the classic game for me was the clearer graphics (completely remade character models that look amazing!) and usage of the 3DS motion targeting system. Everything is pretty much the same with those exceptions but that’s all I needed!

                I did, however, get about five or so miles ridden while I was in the St. George area. The trails are fun, if not a little confusing at points, while the scenery evoked memories of Edger Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. On Friday, we took a cruise up to Grafton. A little known ghost town just a small ways from Zion N.P. where they filmed a portion of the old Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid movie. The real fun came when we visited the cemetery and I was able to hike up the path a ways and get some pretty nice pictures of the countryside. Those and a few I nabbed while on the road are displayed below.

                Well, that’s about it for my trip. Sorry it wasn’t as exciting and interesting as I aspired for it to be in my last post. One thing I can promise is an account this coming week as I ride my bike to Salt Lake City via Antelope Island and back. My brother, Christopher may decide to come along with me so it might have to wait until Saturday, but it will be happening this week guaranteed. 

O Brigham, Where Art Thou?

Ben Lomond covered in clouds outside my house in Plain City.

Today I took my bike out for a spin to see how it would handle on a quick journey. At first I was only going to ride to Willard Bay which would have been only a little less than seven miles, but when I came up on the turn that led to the bay park area, I just couldn’t call it quits yet and so rode on with my new goal being Brigham City.

With the exception of a saddle sore rear end, the trip was flawless. The hills of the fruit road, which runs at the base of the mountains, was arduous for someone from Plain City where the largest hill is more like a bump. I stopped twice on the way there and on the way back for no more than two or three minutes; just enough time to stretch out and drink some water.

The main stop I made in Brigham City was to see the newly erected LDS (Mormon) temple and took a couple of pictures there. Brigham City isn’t exactly ‘exotic’ for me so I didn’t take too many pictures while I was there. 

Here's my proof that I made it to Brigham.

On the return journey however, I had to snag a few of the road and scenery that I passed. I really need to get a more professional camera, I've been using my iphone’s camera for all these pics and want to upgrade to something with better focusing capabilities. If anyone knows about photography, I could really use a recommendation on an amateur camera.

This pic is my favorite. It was taken a small
ways from the I-15 overpass.  

My family’s taking a trip to St. George in southern Utah this   coming Wednesday to visit my grandparents, so I’ll try figuring out a good route somewhere around there with some awesome scenery of the Martianesque landscape!  So if not tomorrow or the next day, expect an account from me again by Thursday at the least.

This was the path I took from Plain City to
Brigham City. 

Country road.