Day 5: stats and highlights

Miles: 87
Elevation gain: 2000 ft
Weather: rainy and sunny
Motorcycles parked beside my tent: 8
Highlights: looking at the pretty buttes surrounding my route and thinking "Oregon is butte-iful."
Sitting around chatting with Jason about bikes, hikes, and climbs.


- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 5: pleasant surprises

So the climb up Ochoco Pass was not nearly as hard as it looked on the map. And now I am down here in Mitchell with a fellow biker named Jason who is moving to Denver via bicycle. His wife and daughter are already there, but he gets to make the trip from Portland to Denver by pedaling. We are hanging out with another group of bikers... the motorcyclists of the central Oregon motorcyclist association. They are in Mitchell, population 170, now 230 for some "music food and beer" tonight. One man said to me, "oh we love bicyclist!" and raised his eyebrows. He was just joking, they are all real nice and camping out in the same park as us.

Day 5: prineville farmer's market

Last stop before I head over Ochococoa Pass. The ride has been easy so far. This farmer's market is great and my body is thanking for this wholesome food after I ate two corn dogs in Powell Butte.

Day 5: the high desert

Scattered rain drizzles for the first 20 miles. Otherwise a lovely ride out of Sisters and I anticipate some more enjoyable landscape, rolling hills and a few grocery stores to stop at before Ocho Pass. There will be about a fifty mile stretch of no services, so I will enjoy them while I have them.


- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 4: stats and highlights

What a great day of ridding. I hope you enjoy climbing McKenzie Pass with me 1000 ft at a time (first video is 2000)



Miles: 95
Elevation gain: 4500 ft
Times I took my rain jacket off or put it back on: 17
Other bikers who did exactly what I did today: 1 (named Fred, great guy, biked across USA last year and PCT thru-hiker)
Clever bathroom graffiti: one


Highlight: listening to some country music in a grocery store

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

McKenzie Pass: 5325 ft

McKenzie Pass: 5000 ft

Sorry for the foggy shot. It was a little sweaty and humid in the iPocket.

McKenzie Pass: 4000 ft

McKenzie Pass: 3000 ft

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

McKenzie Pass: 2000 ft

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 4: up mckenzie pass

Just as it is starting to look like rain. Should be a fun climb. I will check back in on the other side of the mountain.

Day 4: goodbye eugenies

I had to say goodbye to Chris, Dave, and Devin this morning after an awesome waffle breakfast send off. Chris biked across the USA a few short years ago and was a great resource for advice like not pushing myself too hard too often. There will be days I will push, and days I should rest. Wise words from a wise lady.




I am back on the road and about 25 miles into my day. Whew, it is getting hot out! But it is nice to be out of the rain for now. My goal is to climb over McKenzie Pass today and wind up in Sisters, but we will see what happens. I am feeling good and am very optimistic for the road ahead.

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 3: 24 hours in portland

I arrived in Portland about this time yesterday, and here I sit, waiting for my bus back to Eugene where I will continue my adventure. My stomach is filled with aardvark sauce (a hot sauce from around here) and Thai food (from a food cart downtown). But my heart is bursting at the seams. What a special treat it was to spend one more day with Samara and her peeps. I even got to meet some of her hometown friends last night at trivia.



Some artwork on the streets of PDX. This one is called "the tripod inverted egg beater."


This picture turned out a little dark, but it's called "a pile of kid bikes with a golden bike at the top on a pole."



Here is Samara dropping me off at the bus station. :(

Day 3 stats and highlights:
Miles biked: 0
Blocks walked: over 20
Tears shed: a few
Highlight: watching a van drive by decorated with gold painted animal carvings, a back windshield wiper shaped like a hand so it could wave at you, and a dancing monkey puppet being manipulated by the driver

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 2 stats and highlights

Miles: 35
Elevation gain: around 200 at the very beginning
Elevation loss: about 500
Time on bike: 3 hrs 30 min
Time on bus: 2 hrs 20 min
Time with Samara in Portland: priceless
Highlight: doing laundry and getting all the sand out of my bilking shoe booties


- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 2 video

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Day 2: portland reride

I took a bus to Portland today so that I could visit Samara one more time. We ate some sushi, went for a walk in the park, did my laundry, and went to trivia night.



Here is me drinking from one of Portland's famous Benson Bubbler.

Day 2: a misty morning

I woke up to a cold morning but after ridding a few miles had a nice climb to warm up.

The day did not get any sunnier. Eugene was once again overcast and cold. My ride into Eugene marked the beginning of a section called "The Reride," where I will be ridding East on the same route that I rode coming West during what I will call " The Preride."

Here is a photo from each ride taken at the same spot in sunny Eugene.



Preride




Reride.

Day 1: stats and highlights

Miles: 44
Elevation gain: not much
Campground: excellent
Highlight: eating a few hot dogs while chatting with the ladies of the Mapleton Food and Fuel

Ladies, I thought of a few names for your future show: The Mapleton Fuel and Chat, A Mapleton State of Mind, Guess Who Came Through Mapleton!, Mapleton Food, Fuel, and Fellowship, Mapleton: Fuel For The Soul, The View From Mapleton, or Mapletalk

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

There is sand in my lock too

I forgot to mention that in my previous post. There was a big hill of sand I had to climb with Gladiator.

Day 1: the beginning

I rode about ten miles this morning then took a bus the rest of the way to Florence. The hardest part of the morning was waiting for the bus whilst I had to pee. Now that I dipped my tires though, my ride has officially began. However, I have only raised enough money for WBR to ride to Baker City, OR. So please donate to WBR by clicking the button on your right.

The plan is to get as close to Eugene as I can and camp out tonight. Tomorrow morning I will catch a bus from Eugene and go to Portland to see Samara one last time before my ride and before her family and she fly to Hawaii. Can you believe that? Hawaii, for some fun in the sun while I pedal and sweat my way across her state.




Gear that has sand in it:
Gloves
Shoes
Shoe covers
Yellow bag
Frontpack
Drivetrain
Both wheels
Frame
Handle bars
Socks
Jacket
Shorts

The Road to London...

Runs through Eugene. That's right folks, the track and field Olympic tryouts are going on right now in Eugene and I had a front row seat for the bigtron to watch the drama unfold in the men's 800 meter run.




Track town is pretty cool. Here is me at Victory Camp.



They even have human sized hamster wheels you can use to charge your cell phone.

The Hardy Kids of River Road Parks and Rec

Today I hung out with the kids of River Road Parks and Rec. In the morning, we all went on a bike ride in the cold morning rain. I don't think Oregonians even notice it's raining. These people never have umbrellas and I see rain coats only occasionally. Anyway, after the ride we practiced some bike maneuvering. The video is what you call a slow race. Last person to cross the finish line without touching the ground wins.

I also talked to them about World Bicycle Relief and showed a video (With My Own 2 Wheels). We had a great time and a big thanks to Ginger, Chris and all the kids for letting me tag along on such a fun day!

More Pics from Yesterday

A small town I rode through. I sat by this sign and ate a snack, jalapeño chex mix.



Leaburg Recreation area at Leaburg Dam. I went across the dam and checked out the fish hatchery.



I forget the name of this canal. But I rode alongside it for a couple of miles. Here I am standing on a wooden bridge.



Nice road, little traffic, few hills, great scenery... I will take 4,254 more miles of this please.



The tasty burrito place I ate at. Yum

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Eugene!

I am staying in West Eugene with Chris, Dave, and their daughter Devin. They hooked me up with their backyard cottage.

The ride in was wonderful and I met a biker named David. He showed up just as I was crawling up a hill. He said, "hop on," and I said, "ok." We rode together for a few miles and chatted. He was out for a Sunday afternoon 100-miler. Nice meeting you David.

I spent most of my ride fiddling with my bike computer. I would type in a wheel size and ride a mile according to the highway markers. Then I would adjust that size based on how close or far away it read from one mile. I think it is just about perfect, I will refine it as the days go by, but I should be able to start reporting accurate mileage now.

The Road to Eugene

Great weather and a scenic ride do lots to lift the spirits after a rainy night.

Videos!

If you want to see more videos check me out on YouTube. I am JTagliaferre


- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Pics from the Day

The road from Sisters to McKenzie Pass. Cool and partly cloudy.


Walls of snow and walls of old lava flows made for a gorgeous ride.



All that work to get up there and no bike rack.


The PCT still has snow. This is where I turned around.

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

rainy day Rainbow

Big shout out and thank you to the motorcyclist who gave me water on top McKenzie Pass. Also thank you to the lodge-owner who pointed me to this motel. It's the Harbick's Country Inn and they are super biker friendly, they even gave me an old sheet and some rags so Gladiator can stay in the room.

- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.

Sitting in Sisters

What lovely ride to Sisters this morning. It was a little chilly and I felt a few rain drops, but for the most part the weather is great.

I am very excited to be on my bike and ridding some miles. I think it was around twenty miles to get here and it will be another 16 to Lava Lake Campground. That is where I will stay tonight. I will be up pretty high, so think warm thoughts for me please.




- Jeremy Tagliaferre; hiker, biker, and general life liker.