Backpacking, Hunkering Down, & Bookreading

I've always wanted to backpack somewhere beautiful to hunker down and read a book.

Backpacking to somewhere beautiful and hunkering down...

...to read a book.

That's what I've wanted to do, and so that's what I did.

Mechanic Dan's Bike Race

When I visited Portland for the second time on my Roadtrip Through California and Oregon, I had the opportunity to attend one of Mechanic Dan's bike races. I had never watched a bike race before. I was excited to see Mechanic Dan strut his stuff!

Dear readers, meet Team Gentle Lovers.

Team Gentle Lovers consists of Mechanic Dan and Andrew the Utzmeister.

These two guys radiate hotness: beards, tats, the ability to rock the pink, and oh my god, look at the cute little bunnies on these punks' jerseys!

A Roadtrip Through California and Oregon

As you may recall, I became homeless starting in early June (see I'm Officially Homeless). My calendar had been booked back-to-back with busyness: a three-day guide training tour on the San Juan Islands for Bicycle Adventures, a tour around the Olympic Peninsula with Craig, and the Adventure Cycling tour along the Columbia River Gorge. I now had two and a half weeks to fill before my first guiding gig started with Bicycle Adventures.

There are many parts of Oregon that I have yet to explore by bicycle. As such, I had brought my bike to Oregon with me, fully anticipating that I would tour around the state during the two and a half weeks. However, by the time the Columbia River Gorge trip had ended, the Pacific Northwest had been overcome by an unusually wicked outbreak of record heat. Portland's forecast, for example, was seeing multiple days of 100+ temperatures. Yuck! Touring didn't exactly seem so appealing anymore.

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.

The Blonde Builds a Wheel

I had a "blonde moment." Yeah, I know, it's hard to believe. But it happened.

Let me back-up a bit, so as to provide context... A few years ago, I wore through my first bike part. It was a chain. I had no idea you could wear through bike parts. After all, bike parts are made of metal! They are strong! They will last forever! My bad; I was wrong. Metal eventually breaks down. Especially after miles of Sarah-abuse.

Over the last few years, as I've added more-and-more miles to my bike, I've worn through more-and-more bike parts. Case in point: the rim on my back wheel is starting to dish, fairly significantly. Rather than suffer a blow-out, I wanted to replace the rim. Entirely focused on replacing the rim, I recently placed an order for a new rim. This was, unbeknownst-to-me-at-the-time, a blonde moment.

This is what a rim looks like...

I didn't realize my blonde-ism until earlier today, when I went to pick up the rim. My plan was to pick up the rim, quickly swap over the cassette from the old wheel to the new, and then throw the new wheel on my bicycle. Ta da! I'd be able to cross "replace rim" off my to-do list.