Meandering

The town of Northampton, MA lies along something called The Oxbow, where a section of the Connecticut River flowed in a loopy course that eventually became so convoluted it cut itself off from the rest of the river. Janis Totty explained this to me and said, "Old rivers meander... they tend to go around obstacles instead of cutting through them."

I think this says a lot about the 50-year-old brain. Well, and the rest of me. I don't mean this in a bad way - I've been having a lot of fun & adventure making my way across the continent in a slightly ziggy-zaggy pattern, going over a lot of challenging terrain but usually in the most do-able locations. I learned a lot, laughed out loud and cursed out loud too, and found myself open to all kinds of possibilities that I couldn't have imagined as I was packing up to leave San Francisco.

Over the past few days I've been thinking about how to organize summaries or descriptions of some of my experiences from this nutty adventure. Like most organizing projects, I started out trying to keep it simple, but I keep adding to the categories. Now that I sit down to put them on here, I have an impulse to change the order completely. I'm going with that - it's part of the meandering process, and I've decided to embrace it.

So I'm starting off with Statistics (instead of putting these at the end):

Started riding: Sunday, June 20, out of Everett, WA (a bit north of Seattle)
Ended up: Friday, Sept. 3, in Hull, MA (on the Boston Harbor)

Mileage: 4,383

Days riding (as opposed to rest/layover days): 60

States/provinces I crossed: 11
Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan - UP and downstate, Ontario Canada, New York, Massachusetts

Especially fantastic days of riding:
*Coming down from Stevens Pass and riding along the roiling Wenatchee River
*Out of Spokane, WA to Kellogg, ID
*Almost all of Montana, but especially Kellogg, ID to Thompson Falls, the morning ride out of Thompson Falls towards Missoula, and out of Missoula to Lincoln
*Ashton, ID to Jackson, WY
*Dubois to Riverton, WY
*Newcastle, WY to Custer, SD
*Crystal Falls to Escanaba, MI; Escanaba to Manistique; the afternoon from Manistique to St. Ignace
*Port Dover to Fort Erie, Ontario
*Albany, NY to Northampton, MA
*Waltham to Hull, MA (and not just because it was the last day!)

Really crappy days of riding (generally because of head-winds):
*Afternoon riding to Grand Coulee Dam, WA
*Afternoon riding to Spokane, WA
*Afternoon riding into West Yellowstone, MT
*Afternoon riding from Miller to DeSmet, SD (the plagues of South Dakota...)
*Afternoon riding from Mackinaw City to East Jordan, MI

Mildly crappy days of riding:
*Gillette to Newcastle, WY
*Afternoon riding to Edgewater, WI
*Holley to Newark, NY
*Getting the hell out of Utica, NY (the afternoon was great, though)

Mountain passes crossed & their elevation:
*Stevens Pass, WA: 4,061
*Thompson Pass, MT: 4,852
*Flesher Pass, MT: 6,131

*Targhee Pass (MT/ID): 7,072
*Teton Pass, WY: 8,431
*Togwotee Pass, WY: 9,658
*Powder River Pass, WY: 9,666

Flat tires: 4 - but only 2 while riding on the road! (One was in camp, and the other while in a bike shop!)

Things I had to fix or replace:
*New tires in Rapid City, SD, and new rear tire in Herkimer, NY
*Adjusted derailleur in Pierre, SD
*Duct tape repairs to toe clips until could get new ones, Coleman, MI
*New chain & cassette in Ann Arbor, MI (preventative rather than urgent)
*New bell in Escanaba, MI

Things I did *not* have to replace: the brake pads! (I don't like to brake)

Things I carried and never used:
*Baling wire
*Rope
*Brake pads

Number of different shower configurations I had to master: 60 (they are all remarkably different!)