Today was a little humid for my taste, but mild by summer standards (please do not remind me it’s spring… My weather nerds taught me a cool term called meteorological summer). I rode from my campsite to Brunswick,MD and had a good encounter and two meh encounters.

Good – a gorgeous heron that didn’t mind a close up:

Bad… A flat rear tire (by far my least favorite to change)) and then my entire rear rack falling off the bike… 2 miles apart… 2.5 miles from Brunswick. Dude.

About 45 minutes delayed, I nabbed lunch at the spectacularly cool Beans in the Belfry:

I had a much easier 20 mile ride back to tonight’s campsite near White’s Ferry. My neighbor is a kayaker:

And I just saw a deer saunter by his tent. Very cool.

So, figure about 60ish muddy miles, maybe 5 on a slowly flattening tire (yes it was that muddy I didn’t notice!). Not bad. Tomorrow I cross the Potomac into Leesburg for breakfast, then take the W&OD back home. I’ll confess, with the muddy surface and occasional downed trees blocking today, I’ll happily take pavement tomorrow!

It’s amazing how fast you can get away from a city… DC in particular… by bike. After dropping off my dog Louis for a weekend with his number one fan (I’m not kidding – he has one) I was a 90 minute ride of 20ish miles to a gorgeous riverside campground. How often do we fritter away 90 minutes and it gets us no place interesting or rejuvenating?

Also nice here tonight, but sadly unphotographable – the fireflies.

After a week of solid work, I’m ready to get back on my bike to get in some miles and test some new gear. This past Sunday, I tried one of the more challenging rides in the region (“The Blueridge Challenge“) complete with an 8% grade hill. It compares favorably to some of the bigger hills I hit in Oregon and California, and while I wouldn’t say it was easy, it built my confidence up for the ride. I even rode it pretty fast considering.

This would make Leggett Hill easier… or it would set Northern California aflame. Maybe both.

I appreciate that it is both “unstable” and “mental” according to the (slightly mental and unstable) rider…

h/t to Wonkblog

UPDATE: I take it back… I want this bike instead.

Although I’ve been slogging away on details for the big fall adventure, I’m trying to keep my eyes on the bike touring adventure coming up in July as well. The problem has been actually getting on my frieking bike. The weather the last few weeks has been a bad combo of cold and wet, and neither of those two things gets me excited to get on a bike. Throw in the extra time planning the tour and the impending 6 week absence of Kimberly in France… well, biking has been more theoretical than actual.

That should change soon… we’re in a dry spell with highs in the 80s, meaning temps at dawn are more 50s than 30s. I’m hoping to do a 30 miler Friday and maybe an overnight this weekend.

The work/ride extravaganza is a kickoff for my new theory… I should be able to work and tour at the same time. I have the connectivity, the desire and the job(s) that (largely) can make this work. So, the grand experiment takes the form of a 21 day ride from Portland to San Francisco, with 16 riding days and 5 zero-mile work days. Here’s how it’s looking:

1. PDX – Keening Creek
2. Pacific City
3. – work day –
4. Bev Beach or bike shop hostel (Newport)
5. – work day –
6. Honeyman
7. Sunset Bay
8. Humbug Mountain
9. Harris Beach (Brookings)*
10. – work day –
11. Elk Prairie
12. Eel River RV Park (Fortuna)
13. – work day –
14. Ave of Giants
15. Standish-Hickey
16. MacKerricher Beach (Fort Bragg)
17. – work day –
18. Manchester Beach
19. Bodega Dunes
20. Samuel P Taylor
21. SF

* If I’m feeling good and the light is with me, day 9 could add another 25 miles (pretty flat ones too) across the state border and to campgrounds in Crescent City, CA. I can do the work day from there and tackle the big hills right out of town on a shorter day to Elk Prairie on Day 11.

This route follows the standard camping posts in “the book” (aka Bicycling the Pacific Coast Highway, the tome you see in a lot of panniers and handlebar bags on the ride). I’ve ridden every mile of this route… just not all at once. I intend to finally conquer this with the extra time I have, plus relax into it a bit with the off days.

Quick gear update… some readers had been asking about the brake converter for the Goblin. Well, it finally arrived. I hope to install it on my Marin (the never discussed black converted MTB that wallows at my cabin begging to be used from time to time) and see how it feels riding a 700c wheel on the front and a 26″ wheel on the back. My guess is I won’t notice. If that’s the case, come July I’ll fly out to Portland with my 700c dynohub wheel, the usb gizmo that takes the juice from the dynohub and makes it 5v/USB, a front fender and the brake converter. A little surgery on the Goblin, and we should be good to go… with green juice.

Ok, now I’m starting to get geeked up for the ride…