A Photo Journal: The Inaugural Pacific Northwest & Gulf Islands Tour

As you may recall, Don and I spent A Month Pedaling the Long Way from Montana to Washington. From Bellingham, our final destination, we would both be leading Adventure Cycling's inaugural Pacific Northwest & Gulf Islands tour.

The Pacific Northwest & Gulf Islands tour is a challenging 13-day, 595-mile route that traverses some of the most beautiful riding in the Pacific Northwest. The route includes many of my favorite places, both above and below the 49th parallel. I had waited for more than a year and a half to lead this trip. Suffice it to say that I was quite excited to get the show on the road!

This was our group of cyclists.
Front row (l to r): Greg, Barry, Cathy, me (Sarah), and Kitty.
Back row (l to r): Trina, Chris, Paul, Ron, Victor, Brielle, Don, Peter, John, and Ted.
Not pictured: Van. 

Bless the dear souls of these cyclists; these folks had no idea what they were in for when they signed up for this trip. With endless climbs, miles of hike-a-bike, and early morning ferries galore, this route is not for the faint-of-heart. Luck would have it, as there couldn't possibly have been a better combination of riders for the inaugural ride. Each and every cyclist was strong, adventurous, and impressively good-spirited.

A Photo Journal: A Month Pedaling the Long Way

When you have a whole month to get from Point A to Point B, it clearly makes sense to go the long way, especially when doubling your mileage means quadrupling the gorgeous vistas.

Me and Don, doubling our mileage to quadruple our views.

My buddy, Donald, and I staffed an Adventure Cycling trip together in Whitefish in early July. A month later, we were leading another trip together out of Bellingham. As we both share an interest in hitting the open road (albeit dirt road) on two wheels, and as we both had a month of free time between trips, we decided to cycle together from the ending point of our first trip to the starting point of our next trip -- the long way. 

This is a photo journal of the month we spent pedaling from Whitefish, Montana to Bellingham, Washington...via Jasper, Alberta.

Happy 7th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 7th Re-Birthday to Me! 

Seven years ago today, I fully embraced that this is it. This is the real deal. This is life. It's happening right now, and I need to fully accept responsibility for how I live that life. Seven years ago, I resolved to accept responsibility for living my own life. No longer would I trudge through the days wishing I could be someone else, doing something else, somewhere else. I was going to be that person, doing my thing, right here, right now.

Happy 6th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 6th Re-Birthday to Me!

Six years ago today, I held my breath, crossed my fingers, and mixed together the ingredients of the early retirement elixir -- a dash of hope, a dash of crazy, and a whole lot of courage. Voila! All of the sudden, I found myself free of a job, free of the tedium of normalcy, and free of the confines of time.

Calendar Boys

Remember that bike trip to Patagonia with El Mecánico and Tío Ramón in 2016? Well, I just learned that my two handsome bike partners are CALENDAR BOYS!

(Photo: Adventure Cycling Association.)

But, wait, it gets even better...it's not only the boys who are famous; Shirley is famous, too! Shirley, my Surly Long Haul Trucker, is a CALENDAR GIRL! That's Shirley there, leaning smugly up against the barbed wire fence, parked just behind Tío Ramón's steed. Maybe I'm biased, but I think she looks just as stunning as the two boys.

You may recognize this photo from my Crossing Tierra del Fuego post. I'm tickled pink that my photo was chosen for Adventure Cycling Association's 2018 calendar! Order your copy of the cycle touring-themed calendar here.

Happy 5th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 5th Re-Birthday to Me!

Gee willikers! Has it been five years already? As Gretchen Rubin said, "The days are long, but the years are short." 

Cycling the Great Parks North & Great Divide Loop

Sandwiched between staffing two Montana-based Adventure Cycling trips, I spent ten days cycling a loop through British Columbia and Alberta. I departed from Eureka, MT (just south of the Canadian border) and travelled north to Banff, AB along the paved Great Parks North route. I then looped back to Eureka via the unpaved Great Divide route. All in all, the trip was just over 500 miles in length.

My loop.
(Red = the Great Parks North route and
Blue = the Great Divide route)

I really enjoyed the route. It provided a great mix of pavement and off-road riding as well as a great mix of nature and rural and urban settings. I had plenty of opportunities to bathe in the forest and to relish in the beauty of snow-capped peaks, pristine lakes, and colorful wildflowers. Below is a photo journal of my trip. For those interested in the details on my ride, my trip takeaways, route beta, and itinerary are provided at the bottom of this post.

Adventure Cyclist: Brompton M6R Road Test

An article I wrote about my Brompton was recently published in the July 2017 issue of Adventure Cyclist!

Adventure Cycling thru the Black Hills

The Adventure Cycling season is about to kick off for me. I'm thrilled to be staffing three trips this summer. In honor of the season kick-off, I am sharing a post about my August 2016 Adventure Cycling trip through the Black Hills. This post is ten months belated; I had written this post last fall, but apparently neglected to publish it.

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Anyone hungry for some pie?

Holly, awesome rider extraordinare,
is excited to dig into a bull pie.

In August 2016, I staffed a fully-supported event for Adventure Cycling through the Black Hills of South Dakota. I had never been to the Black Hills before, and so the territory was all new to me.

Happy 4th Re-Birthday to Me!

Happy 4th Re-Birthday to Me!

Four years ago today, I quit my job and was thereby born again into a new life. Since my re-birth, I have luxuriated in the freedoms afforded by unstructured time and financial independence. Wow, what a joy ride it has been!

Riding the Tetons-Yellowstone Route: A Photo Journal

As mentioned in my previous post, Getting to the Start of the Reconnaissance Ride, I did a solo, self-contained "reconnaissance ride" around the Tetons-Yellowstone loop. Immediately following my Reconnaissance Ride, I co-lead two separate week-long tours around the same route for Adventure Cycling. All in all, the trip included about 800 miles of pedaling. This is a photo journal of my trips.

I picked up Adventure Cycling's Tetons-Yellowstone loop in the town of West Yellowstone, at the far north end of the route. A few miles outside of West Yellowstone, I crossed the Continental Divide and entered Idaho.

Getting to the Start of the Reconnaissance Ride

In just a few days, I will be leading two Tetons/Yellowstone trips for Adventure Cycling. Each trip will be van-supported and will last for eight days. Having been to neither the Tetons nor Yellowstone before, I decided to do a "reconnaissance ride" on my own along the route. The reconnaissance ride would enable me to scout out the area so that I could provide a better trip experience for my riders.

My adventure began at the Greyhound bus station in Seattle. At 11:45pm, I boarded a bus for a 16-hour ride to Bozeman, Montana. Riding straight south from Bozeman would get me to West Yellowstone, at the far northern tip of the Tetons/Yellowstone loop. Note that Bozeman is 120 miles away from West Yellowstone. Though I could have taken a bus to Jackson, Wyoming, which is the official starting and ending point of the Adventure Cycling route, doing so would have meant arriving into an unfamiliar town in the middle of the night. Instead, I opted to ride an extra 240 miles roundtrip in order to arrive in the daytime.

This was my first long-distance bus trip in the United States. I had heard from numerous people that the scum of all scum took Greyhound. I was sorta looking forward to experiencing the scummy experience for myself...but sorta not.

Shortly after arriving at the Seattle Greyhound Station, a man named Reginold Smiley put my mind at ease. Sitting just a few seats away from me, we started chatting as he opened up his sketchbook to draw Greyhound's greyhound.

Meet Reginold Smiley, hobby artist extraordinaire.

It didn't take long for Reginold to draw the greyhound. We hadn't even left the bus station, and we still had many hours ahead of us. Reginold asked if he could make a drawing for me. Really? For me? I'd be flattered! Reginold asked what I wanted him to draw. I hemmed and hawed for a bit, and then I requested that he draw something related to my favorite quote: "Roots hold me close, wings set me free." (See Sailors, Whores, & Ink for more information about this quote.) Reginold started the drawing, saying that he likely wouldn't finish it until mid-bus ride.

Adventure Cycling Along the Columbia Gorge - 2016

In mid-June, I staffed Adventure Cycling's Columbia River Gorge Tour. This eight-day, fully-supported bicycle ride covered more than 325 miles of spectacular scenery in both Washington and Oregon. There were twenty riders and five staff members.

"Wait a second, Sarah, haven't you already shared this post?," you ask.

You may be remembering the post I wrote last year, Adventure Cycling Along the Columbia Gorge. This is the second year I've staffed this event...but this is the first year I donned a climbing helmet with my new bestie.

Me and my new bestie.

While I expect you'll recognize the goofy face on the left (it's mine!), there's a chance you may also recognize the lovely face on the right. The face belongs to a woman named Elle Steele. More about her in a little bit.

My Plans for the Summer

Many of you have asked what I'm up to this summer.

You: What are you up to this summer, Sarah?

Me: I have a jam-packed summer full of housesitting, bike touring, and trip leading. My summer plans are as follows:

• Housesit in Seattle (6 weeks)

My summer plans include housesitting for this lovebug, Ricki, for six weeks!

• Staff Adventure Cycling's Fully-Supported Columbia River Gorge Tour (1 week)
• Do reconnaissance ride around Tetons/Yellowstone (1.5 weeks)
• Lead Adventure Cycling's Van-Supported Tetons/Yellowstone I Tour (1 week)
• Lead Adventure Cycling's Van-Supported Tetons/Yellowstone II Tour (1 week)
• Visit my cousin in Denver (2 days)
• Housesit in Florida (3 weeks)
• Staff Adventure Cycling's Fully-Supported Black Hills - South Dakota Tour (1 week)
• TBD in Pacific Northwest (maybe housesit, maybe bike tour) (1.5 weeks)
• Lead Adventure Cycling's Pacific Coast Epic Tour (6 weeks)

The summer is already well under way, and I'm having a blast. My summer plans sure as heck beat sitting at a desk!

 

Sharing Adventure Cycling Love in NY...and Around the Globe

If everything had gone as originally planned, I'd be biking in South America right now. I'd be pedaling through the far northern reaches of Tierra del Fuego, about to enter the pristine wilderness of Patagonia. Instead, I spent this last weekend in the steel jungle that is New York City.

My original plans went astray all because of a phone call from Arlen Hall, Tours Director at Adventure Cycling Association. During this call, Arlen asked if I would be interested in helping to represent Adventure Cycling at The New York Times Travel Show the second weekend in January. If I didn't already have plans to be cycling in South America in early January, I would have given Arlen an exuberant "YES!" Instead, I hemmed and I hawed. I wanted to help at the Travel Show. But I also really wanted to get my long-awaited South America trip under way. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

The grand entrance, welcoming visitors to The New York Times Travel Show.

To make my decision, I needed to learn more about The New York Times Travel Show. This is what I learned: Held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, the Travel Show boasts more than 500 exhibitor booths from around the globe, 150 travel industry speakers and events, 100 cultural presentations, and 28,000 travelers and industry professional attendees. In a nutshell, The New York Times Travel Show is sorta a big deal.

Sampling the Sierras with Adventure Cycling

As I wrote in my post Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart, I anticipated that my "failure" earlier this summer would lead to better places. At the time I wrote the post, I wasn't sure what those "better places" would be. But the passage of time has started to reveal some of the better places. And those better places have been opening doors to even better'n'better places. Excitement abounds, friends!

One of the "better places" was the opportunity to staff another trip with Adventure Cycling Association this summer. And so it was that I participated in last month's Sierra Sampler, an eight-day, fully-supported ride that started in Lake Tahoe and ended 350 miles to the south. There were 54 awesome riders and 8 awesome staff on the trip, which meant many opportunities for creating infinitely awesome networks and friendships. Plus, as the majority of the ride overlapped the same route that I biked during last year's 2,300 mile tour through the Sierra-Cascade mountains, I had great fun reliving memories from the prior summer. Suffice it to say that I had an absolute blast!

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Me, not too terribly excited to be at Luther Pass. (JK)
(Photo: Brian)

Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart

As you may recall from I'm Officially Homeless, I had been waiting since October of last year to guide tours with Bicycle Adventures. My first two tours, which occurred in July, took me Bicycle Adventuring through Glacier, Banff, & Jasper National Parks.

Sadly, after leading my first two trips, I came to the conclusion that guiding for Bicycle Adventures was not a good fit for me. With all due respect to Bicycle Adventures and the guests on my trips, I'll simply say that the company had some business practices that I wasn't comfortable with. And so after returning from the trips to Glacier, Banff, & Jasper National Parks, I informed Bicycle Adventures that I would no longer guide for them.

As you can imagine, coming to this realization was quite a disappointment. After all, I had waited nine months to lead my first tours with Bicycle Adventures. Furthermore, I had made a handful of sacrifices during this time, keeping my calendar open so that I could lead as many trips as possible with Bicycle Adventures. The most notable of these sacrifices include:

Adventure Cycling Along the Columbia Gorge

In mid-June, after the 10-day bicycle ride around the Olympic Peninsula with Craig, I headed down to Oregon to assist with Adventure Cycling's Columbia River Gorge tour.

The evening before the tour began, I stayed with my friend, Robin, who lives in Portland. To keep with the Adventure Cycling theme of today's post, I should mention that I met Robin at my Adventure Cycling Leadership Training Class in Missoula in June 2013. As it turned out, Robin lived on a floating house on Hayden Island -- just across the street from the marina where Jake and I lived! What a small world!

Robin and I spent a few hours in the early evening sailing Robin's boat, Vela. The weather was splendid, and the company was grand. I really enjoyed sailing along the Columbia River, where I had spent so much time a few summers prior.

Vela's sails, against a perfect sky.

Robin.

I loved sailing Vela, a Ranger 20. She was easy to rig, easy to launch, and easy to single-hand. I could totally see myself owning this boat. I just wish she were a bit more accommodating for a liveaboard arrangement. Although I consider myself to be a minimalist, a Ranger 20 would be extremely tight quarters for more than a night or two on the water.

Days #10-13: Adventure Cycling Leadership Training Class

Day #10 - Thursday

I spent the morning at Toole Park, along the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula. My tent was still wet from the prior morning's dew, and so I took advantage of the sun and laid out the tent to dry in the grass. I then got comfortable in the shade of a tree, completed paperwork for the class, and spent a few hours reading some more short stories from my book of anthologies.

I was absolutely flattered to have a nicely bearded Montana man, named Bradford, approach me to offer his phone number in case I needed anything or wanted to hang out while I was in town. He had just come down from a bike ride in the mountains. After completing his very early morning shift. At the local donut shop.

Um, yeah. Welcome to Missoula.

Awhile later I rode over to the hotel to check in before class began at 4pm.

Thursday evening's class was primarily introductions. We took turns introducing ourselves, stating our intentions for the class, and providing some background about our touring experience. To assist in learning each other's names, we had to state all of the names of the people who had previously introduced themselves.

I did my introduction and then stated everyone's name. When I got around to Darryl (remember him from the prior post?), I said, "And this is Darryl. He and I did Warm Showers together last night." This statement seemed entirely harmless to me, but it elicited a loud chuckle from everyone else. Without familiarity with Warm Showers, I suppose it does sound rather funny.

Days #11 and 12 - Friday and Saturday

Both Friday and Saturday were jam-packed with learning and role playing. In modeling the experience of a typical day on tour, we took turns practicing meal planning, shopping, and cooking for 12 people.

Me, Adam, and Jody, making a very tasty African Peanut Stew.

One of the advisors, Joyce, gave a presentation about her beautiful custom-built touring bike and the gear she takes on her tours. I always thought I was an organized packer. But, my golly, it's comforting to know there's someone way more anal than me.

Joyce has color-coded stuff sacks for everything!

We had a fun no-obligation talent show.

Darryl sings some original songs.

Andrew rides his bike backwards.

Day #13 - Sunday

Today's Route: Missoula, MT to Greenbough, MT (31 miles)
Total Trip Miles: 521

'Twas the last day of training! And what a great couple of days it has been!
All in all, the training was quite good - far better than I had expected. I've done a number of leadership courses in the past, and they were always frou-frou. But this one was good. Well organized. Excellent advisors. And a fantastic group of fellow students.

Back (L to R): Adam, Andrew, Sarah, Alex, Christy, Josh, Darryl, Joyce, Art, Scott; Front (L to R): Mimi, Jody, Sue

Like me, Robin, the blonde chick in the back row of the below photo (second from the right), is from Portland. As it turns out, she lives on a houseboat on the same island where Jake and I live. It'll be great to have a new biking friend who lives less than a quarter of a mile away!

Back (L to R): Jerry, Steve J, Ann, Steve G, Danna, Tyler, Robin, Wally; Front (L to R): Neill, Joe

The class is now complete. I look forward to leading some tours with Adventure Cycling next summer! Woohoo!

Mission accomplished!

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Update 12/10/2013: For any individuals who are interested in taking Adventure Cycling's Leadership Training Class, please know that taking the course does not guarantee that you will receive a tour leader position.

For one, at the completion of the class, you must be recommended as an eligible tour leader; not all class attendees are "tour guide worthy." Secondly, many eligible leaders graduate from the LTC each year. The pool of eligible leaders grows at a much faster pace than is needed to fill ACA's guide positions. Thus, it can take many years to obtain a tour leader position with ACA.

An email sent on 12/6/2013 by Arlen Hall (ACA Tours Director) with the subject "2014 Tour Leader Assignments" reads:

… If you were not selected for a tour, do not give up waiting for an opportunity. I would like to briefly share my story of success. I took the Leadership Training Course in 2004 in Littleton, Massachusetts. Once I was identified as a potential leader the waiting time began. I hoped to have an assignment in 2004 but was not offered one. I completed the Leadership Preference Survey in 2005 and I waited throughout 2005 as well. I completed it again in 2006 and had to wait again.  In the spring of 2006, I received an email and a phone call. Before the Tours Director could ask if I could... I said "YES I can" and then figured out how to make it work. Between then and 2011, I received more and more assignments until I had to start saying no to few. So... hang in there. …

Suffice it to say, although I was recommended as an eligible tour guide, I did not obtain a tour leader position for the 2014 year. I look forward to an opportunity arising in the coming years.

Update 8/9/2015: I helped staff the Columbia River Gorge event in June. It was great fun! (See Adventure Cycling Along the Columbia Gorge.)

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After the class ended, I hopped back on the bike to continue the next leg of my journey.

Some folks playing bike polo in Missoula.

I had planned on riding only 30 miles today, as our course evaluations lasted through the middle of the afternoon. It's a good thing I had a short day of riding, as last night Adam and I went to hear Hey Marseilles, a Seattle band that was playing in Missoula. Wowsers! They were fantastic! (My favorite was the cello player. He was quite dreamy to watch, as he was practically making love with his cello. Hubba, hubba!) It was totally worth the 2am bed time and less than four hours of sleep.

Montana definitely has different scenery from Idaho. Big, blue skies. Wide open fields. Lovely tree-covered mountains in the background.

Ah, beautiful Montana.

Tonight I'm staying at The Lubrecht Experimental Forest, a 20,000 acre outdoor classroom and laboratory for the University of Montana's School of Forestry. There is supposed to be a campground here, but I can't find it. (And in all honesty, I haven't tried that hard.) I haven't seen anyone around, so I've decided to make a lovely picnic pavilion my home for the night. The pavilion offers both running water and electricity. I'll take it!

I have the whole pavilion (and perhaps the whole forest) to myself.

It's absolutely gorgeous here. Totally quiet and peaceful. Just me, the birds, and the trees.

I'm going to try Eric's method of sleeping on the picnic table tonight. This will be a first for me.