Teaming up with Gerry

Riding this last week with Gerry has really been great. First as from a biking prospective, roads in California are rough and it felt safer riding them together. We also managed to alternate riding in front to get us going into the South wind that blew quite a bit along our way south in California.

But most importantly because I had a great time with Gerry, his friends and family: Donna & Dan in Sacramento, Julio & Tracy in Discovery Bay, John here in San Francisco. Many thanks to Gerry and all of his relatives.

And yesterday, we crossed the bridge we had been riding towards for exactly 9 weeks (63 days for me / 62 days for Gerry).



What a nice way for a bearded hermit to get back in touch with civilization!

Here is an overview on the map of this last week and overall trip:

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In summary and few figures:
- 9 weeks exactly to go from New York City to San Francisco (e.g. 63 days including rest days)
- exactly 6,500 km ridden, e.g. 4,040 miles
- 334 hours and 29 minutes on the bike
- average day stage: 103 km
- 25 flat tires
- 3 new tires
- over than 2,300 pictures taken
- population of the smallest town in which I stayed: 2
- number of States in which I rode: 12
- countless memories

The bike, the trailer and the biker feel great and they will have to carry on riding a little in the next days or weeks as it is very important not to stop at once. That's a good opportunity to visit San Francisco and its surroundings.

Thank you to everyone who supported me along this trip and indirectly supported Theophile along his other path. He still has some steps to get through but we all wish 'beaucoup de courage'.

Gros bisous à ma mascotte, Théophile.

Make a left

Remember the way? It's straight to the west and when you get to Oregon, you make a left to head south to San Francisco. That was this week in Riley. Don't miss the crossroad: there's just a store and a little post office across.



Even though I still have 329 mi / 530 km to go, it looks like I am getting closer:

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The bike, the trailer and the rider are doing well; and we have friends now riding with us:

'Born and raised on the Oregon trail'

The Oregon trail splits in multiple trails. One of the them is the so called "Goodale's cutoff" that I have been following these past days.



And there I am tonight in Oregon, at Vale, where the Oregon trail is almost a way of life.



Yet the destination of these emigrants was rather the north west of Oregon, in the area of Portland; which meant that they were not yet done. Nor I am. Here is the progress on the map:

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For this weekly review, the bike and the biker seem to be doing well.

Rodeo & jetset

Jackson WY was my target for this week: from what I was told by other bikers on my way, this town is some kind of a 'St Tropez' in the country of cowboys and rodeo. Stars and politicians fly into the airport just a few miles away. The national parks and outdoor activities make it attractive to many. The town is nice, well put, with plenty art galleries and outing opportunities; and quite touristy of course.



I end up this afternoon in Wilson, just a few miles further on the way to Idaho. Here it is on the map at the end of this 6th week:

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On the biker side, it's been the toughest week since the beginning, especially with the stage from Riverton to Dubois that worn me out. The bike & trailer seem to be doing well.

More info:
* Jackson WY
* To attend a rodeo show in Jackson: apparently, it's on Wednesday and Saturday... I missed it.

A step into the Frontier

Do you remember in "Dances with Wolfes" this dialog between Kevin Costner and his superior?

Major Fambrough: You wish to see the frontier?
Lieutenant Dunbar: Yes sir, before it's gone.

As I got yesterday to Wyoming, I spotted the apparition of the 'Frontier'; not so much "the zone of land beyond the region of existing European occupation" as it does not exist anymore, rather what is left of the myth: a supermarket?



Anyhow it felt good entering the Great West this week and ride thru these new hilly and rocky landscapes that look somewhat like a movie.



Here we are now on the map, more than halfway thru now:

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On the bike side, 8 flat tires this week... I'm getting pretty good at changing a tube in the sun on the side of the road. I try to avoid riding in the grass or rough shoulders. I also found the spare tires I was looking for at Sonny's in Scottsbluff; and took advantage to buy 2 extra tubes and three repair kits. Be on the safe side!

More info:
* The Frontier

On the California trail

Past Omaha, I came across with this sign that reminds us that gold-seekers migrated along part of the path that I am taking. The greatest migration in American history started at various points along the Missouri river, and among them, Omaha.



So this confirms that, if I am not yet there, I should be heading in the right direction:

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My estimate despite a slight change of methodology ;-) tells me that I should be 42% thru (all details day by day).

On the bike side, I was quite happy to find a spare tire in Lincoln that could well help me in case I get rough roads like gravels.

On the biker side, I need to manage more and more the trip in the long time: I had a painful muscle strain in my left calf on Wednesday that I managed by pedaling slower, with the tip of my foot pointing towards the ground. I believe that was partly the result of a bad night at a noisy campground next to Interstate 80; partly some enthusiasm as I rode a bike trail out of Des Moines.

More info:
* The legend of the California trail

Nico is back on the bike

Lance, are you really?



Hey Lance! It's my third week on the bike and I did not see you so far. In several bike shops, I saw this little sign though. I guess you are getting ready for this ride in that little remote country whereas the real adventure is here!

Lesson #4: don't push too hard, take your time
After three weeks biking, I start to build some experience on a longer distance ride. Over a few days, it is fairly easy to push yourself a little harder; but at the beginning of this week, I started to feel concerned with a pain I had behind my right knee. By adapting my way to pedal (softer, spinning more), drinking a lot, I think I managed it so far. Although I have ridden along 6 states ans more than 1,200 mi (2,000 km), I am just 32% done and still have to ride thru 6 states.

Tonight I stay in Amana, an Amish colony just west from Iowa City in Iowa. This ends my progression for this week:

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A milestone on Lincoln highway

As I rode towards downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, I came across several times with memorial signs of the Lincoln Highway. On the Harrison Street Bridge, a milestone invited me to my weekly status on the way to San Francisco:



Let's look at it a little closer: the Lincoln Highway is the first coast-to-coast highway originally established in 1913 and it would link New York City (Time Square) to San Francisco (Lincoln Park). In Fort Wayne, the milestones shows that New York is 724 mi (1,165 km) away whereas San Francisco is 2,660 mi (4,280 km) away.

But of the I do not plan to ride on the steps of the Lincoln Highway as it runs thru southern states such as Colorado, Utah, Nevada that are not on my projected itinary.

Nevertheless and according to this milestone, San Francisco is 3,384 mi (5,445 km) away from New York City. As a comparaision, my estimate with GoogleMaps on my projected itinary makes San Francisco 3,100 mi (5,000 km) away from New York City; still a little shorter.

The original Lincoln Highway had to wind quite a bit around the country and it had been realigned in many places to shorten it.

Nevertheless, tonight I stay in South Whitley, a little west from Fort Wayne, which ends my progression for this second week:

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So eventually, according to my definite benchmark Googlemaps, I should have ridden 1,080 km (671 mi) and I would still have 4,000 km (2,486 mi) to go; that's roughly 20% done.

Yesterday I had to take care of the bike (realign some breaking pads, look foor tires I still haven't found). Today, I started to take care of the biker as I feel a little pain behind my right knee.

"Qui veut aller loin ménage sa monture"
(if you have an equivalent in English for that, Claire?)

More info:
* My detailed mileage day after day
* Everything about the Lincoln
Highway
* The Official Lincoln Highway Association

Scary figures along the road

Last Wednesday, that one almost scared me...



Yet today I've been looking at other figures: this is exactly the 7th days that my ride towards San Francisco has started and I took this Sunday off (biking) to reconcile some facts (and to rest).

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I have ridden more than 700 km (440 mi) in a week; yet when I compare it to the distance I should have ridden according to Google Maps (544 km / 340 mi / option: 'walking'), it looks like I have ridden roughly 150 km (90 mi) that are not "west efficient". Hum, scary figures?

In other words, I estimated to 5,100 km my trip from NYC to San Francisco. If I apply this first experience, it would rather take me 6,700 km. Hum, hum...?

Let's think of that while I do my laundry.



Of course, I got lost a few times. And there's the distance to go and get back from the place where I camp (15 km today, one way!).

Yet a closer analysis day by day outlines that the back roads prove to be inefficient in my progression towards the west.

Hum... I guess you're right Jim:
"There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees"
(from 'The Trees', The Rush)

More info:
* BicyclePA: roads nice to ride and indicated along the way. I took road V but I can't manage to get hold of this PDF map (their ftp thing seems weird...)