Eugene, Oregon, 66 miles separate me from the great Pacific Ocean. If you inhale deep enough, you can actually feel saltiness scavenging through your lungs (not really but very imaginary).
So what happened between here and parting from love? A lot of pine trees, sagebrushes, rough-rocky landscapes and of course my friends, our steady gang since Kansas, colored the landscape.
Parting from Lander was easy and hard at the same time. I was very much looking forward to hit the pedal again and I would see him in another month or so, I can take that. At the same time I'd take off on my own again and though I'd been a worn out cyclist by now, cycling for over two months, that point where you leap into the unknown, by yourself, letting go of all securities, still gives me chills. But that did not last long. I guess I'm in a new comfort zone.
It was a beautiful day and I soon found myself in an impressing canyon filled with pines and cramped with deer. I rode into Pacific Time and I swear I could feel a salty breeze sweep through my hair. Ocean, await me!
Meanwhile eastbound season really took off. One day at least 15 bikers past me, some of them heavily light weighted. That's when I found out about the race (www.transambikerace.com). Apparently this year an unofficial TransAm bike race is on and rumor has it that the guy in lead will pedal my 3 months blood-sweat-and-tears-haul in 18 days (that's right, 18 days). No stopping and shooting pretty pics at state-line-signs for these guys I bet.
But I'm still in this gorgeous canyon, pretty much a 100 mile stretch of no service. And with no service, I really mean no service, not a store, not a cafe, not even a house nor a spicket. You're on your own. So no choice but to freestyle and pull off on the side of the road that night. The one thing I promised I wouldn't do is to randomly steltcamp without anyone knowing where I'm at but, big surprise, no phone service either in this rip in the earth. I choose a very inviting ghost-camping on the side of the road as my nights rest. Once for sure a picturesque place of pleasure and delight, these days rather long forgone glory. Jungly. I waited for the sun to set to set up camp, a little nervous I have to admit. And man does this wilderness turn into a freaky scene at night. I got teared out of my sleep (yes I actually fell asleep) by a howling or growling. Crap. Here I'm lying, surrounded by food (as I was, of course, too lazy to tie any of it in a tree), soaking oats, a muesli bar or two, some bread and cheese, cranberries, an apple and an orange. I'm like a yummy smelling lobster on a bed of greens with all that's separating me from a set of canine teeth is a flap of vinyl. Very reassuring. After listening to the howls for a little while, I think I was exhausted enough to fall back asleep. I'll never know what it was but it definitely sounded like a cross between a wolf and a deer, but it might as well 've been a combo, say a wolf eating a half-alive deer, who knows, I didn't step outside to join the party. In any way, I was happy to see that sun rise for yet another day. Survived incognito steltcamping. It's nice to know that after three months of road-life I'm still up for pushing some being-bold boundaries. I surprise myself.
More pine-canyon lay ahead of me that next day and it was beautiful, an endless series of deja-vu's. Every curve to the left or right looked like an exact copy of the one I just did before, and the one before that one and the one ... and so on, like cycling into a mirror reflecting a mirror. But I did not get tired of any of it. They did, for diversion/excitement's sake, throw in a bunch of (bathing) deer and the butterflies too asked for full focus. You do not, after all, want to catch its entire canyon-population in your front wheel.
Two days back in the game and I caught up with the others again (Jacob, Zach and Lauren), who lay low for one afternoon so I could catch up. I guess this team is meant to be ...
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