The Oregon History Comics release is Sunday, PLUS Urban Adventure League workshoppy-presentationy type events for Spring!

First, I'd like to remind my eleven loyal readers that there is a release party for the Oregon History Comics box set written by Sarah Mirk, for which I illustrated the comic on Oregon Bicycle History. It will be happening this Sunday, March 4th, at 7:30pm at the main Powell's downtown. The full details can be found here.

As part of the promotion for this event, the Portland Mercury, one of the two local alt-weeklies (but the snarkier, better one) had a decent write-up. I'm not mentioned in it (cue The Replacements song "Left of the Dial",) but in the print edition of the piece there is an actual illustration of me. You see, not only did I illustrate a comic in this series, but there is also one about me. Well, it's about Portland's Dead Freeways, which is a ride I lead, so I'm featured. (If you actually pick up that comic, you'd think I lost 80 pounds before the ride I led. Seriously.) So I'm in two of the comics.

And the Dill Pickle Club (the publisher of the series) has an "interview" with me over here. Unfortunately they edited it down because I'm supposing they wanted a more "serious" tone than I was in the mood to provide. So they cut out what I felt were the two best questions/responses, the first and last. For your benefit, I will include them below:

Tell us a little bit about your process for illustrating the comic.
Step One: Get the sketchbook open. Two: Make some coffee. Three: Sharpen pencil. Four: Coffee is getting low, make more. Five: Look at script and reference art, scratch head. Six: Damn, that coffee went fast! Should I use the Moka Pot or the French Press this time? Seven: Is the pencil sharp enough? Eight: Isn’t it 10pm? “Get the Led Out” should be on KGON. Can’t have enough Zeppelin in your life. Nine: I don’t think I can drink any more coffee. Ten: Draw comic.

Anything else you'd like to add? 
“Get the Led out” normally consists of three Zeppelin songs.

*****
Anyways, there is some awesome Urban Adventure League happenings in the near future!

First up, I've been invited to "speak" at this month's Bicycle Brown Bag. The Brown Bag is a lunchtime series hosted by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) that occurs every third Thursday at noon at City Hall or the Portland Building. This month they are talking about the Oregon History Comic that I drew, so it will be myself and Sarah Mirk!

The details:
Thursday March 15th
noon-1 pm
City Hall,  1221 SW 4th Ave 
2nd Floor -Lovejoy Room
And as this is a "Brown Bag" you are encouraged to bring lunch, so long as you don't throw it at me. Bonus points if you bring me a veggie burrito.

And spring is coming, so that means a return of my ever-popular Bicycle Touring Workshop!

Bicycle Touring Workshop
Monday April 2nd
6:30pm
HI-Portland, Hawthorne Hostel
3031 SE Hawthorne Blvd (in the Mt. Tabor Room)
Are you itching to hit the open road and explore nature in a way you haven't yet? Are you a regular bicycle rider but have never taken a bicycle tour? Then join us to learn more about Self-Supported Bicycle Touring, We'll be discussing equipment, planning, and cost as well as day-to-day life on the road. We'll also have a few loaded touring bikes to check out. Touring can be easy as an overnight camping expedition close to home, and can be as complicated as a cross-country or around-the-world expedition! But it will be fun!


Note: I will have another Bike Touring Workshop during Pedalpalooza.

And did you want to hear about April and my adventures touring across the continent in person? Yes you do!

TRAVEL STORIES
Monday April 16th
7pm
HI-Portland, Hawthorne Hostel,
3031 SE Hawthorne Blvd (in the Mt. Tabor Room)
During the summer of 2011, intrepid travelers and Portland citizens April Wiza and Shawn Granton rode their bicycles nearly 4,000 miles from the Rose City to the Windy City. Riding through western mountains and central prairies, the couple explored pristine natural areas and bustling urban centers in the US and Canada. It was a journey of big cities and bear encounters, spectacular Rocky Mountain heights and Great Lakes lows, meeting many an interesting folk along the way. They'll share stories and photos and hopefully inspire you to take a two-wheeled adventure of your own!


And finally, for those who want to lead bicycle rides, especially during Pedalpalooza:

Bike Fun Workshop
Thursday May 10th
7pm
HI-Portland, Hawthorne Hostel, 
3031 SE Hawthorne Blvd (in the Mt. Tabor Room)
Pedalpalooza will soon be upon us. Will this be the year that you finally lead your own ride? But maybe you have some reservations, since you've never herded a group of bicyclists around before. What goes into the planning of a bicycle event? How can you make it not suck? Join bicycle event planning "experts" Carl Larson and Shawn Granton as they go over the process, step by step, of creating bicycle events from scratch. Planning, logistics, promotions, and more will be covered. By the end of this workshop, we will have posted a ride to the Pedalpalooza calendar!

Blasts from the Past: Touring Travelogues over the years

On a recent post, Prairie Voyageur asked if I there was an easy way to access my writings of bike tours past.  And I realized there wasn't, so spent a few hours poking around the back-end of the blorg cleaning and organizing, and adding some photos where appropriate.

To be bluntly honest, I was a pretty lazy blogger before a few months ago.  I didn't do a good job of writing posts, and if I started to document something like an tour, I would "fall off" after a while.  So reading these partial travelogues may not be that satisfying.  But it's all I got right now.  I'd love to say that someday I will finish up these writings, but with the new adventures that I intend to document extensively, I wouldn't expect much addition and refinement to these old posts.

The bike tour that I blogged about most extensively was my first, the Minneapolis-Madison-Milwaukee jaunt of September 2005.  And it ain't even on this blog! Check out one of my other blogs, Temporary Relocation Project for the scoop.  The entries from the TRP blog was the basis for the Temporary Relocation Project #1 zine that I published in summer of 2006 .  That right now is out of print.  I'm on the fence whether I'll reprint it, as I don't think it was executed that well (and wasn't received that well by some people, as evidenced by the comment here.)  But maybe I will reprint?  In any case, it won't happen until after the Cross-Continent Bike Tour if it does.

As for other posts, I created a Touring Travelogues that pulls together all my writings about bike touring on this blog.

You can check out my defunct flickr page for photos from my Pacific Coast Bike Tour of 2006.

I've also written about tours in some of the comics I've made over the years.  Unfortunately they are also out of print at the moment.  I don't have too much of it online yet, but due to this whole push of cataloging the old stuff, I've added a couple new comic posts on old tours here:
Wheely Fun Bike Tour, Summer 2008
New Haven-Montreal Bike Tour, Sept-Oct 2007
Route Verte Fall Tour 2007

And check out my art website for more comics goodness!

But don't worry, there's more to come!  Besides the inevitable blogging about the Big Trip, I do have a half-done Temporary Relocation Project #2 in the wings. It's all about my Trans-Oregon trip from last year.  Just need to rewrite some stuff.  I was hoping to have it done last summer, but you know how things go at the UAL HQ.  Soon, my friends, soon.

Route Verte: Fall Tour 2007

A comic originally for Momentum Magazine detailing my experiences with Quebec's La Route Verte bicycle route system.  Click to embiggen.

Wheely Fun Bike Tour, Summer 2008

Here's an account of my week-long bike tour with the Vancouver BC all-female bicycle dance troupe the B:C:Clettes that occurred in July of 2008.  This was originally published in Momentum Magazine.  Click images to "embiggen".

New Haven-Montreal Bike Tour, Sept-Oct 2007

These journal comics originally appeared in my mini-comic Trains, Bikes, and Automobiles which is currently out of print.  This happened during the Fall Tour of 2007.  Click on the images to "embiggen".

Rails To Snow Trails

Thursday turned to Friday at Stub Stewart State Park. The snow was still on the ground. We had an expansive view of the Coast Range from the cabin. April and I decided to take a little hike around the park waiting for everyone else to arrive. The trails were either snowy or iced over, and the ponds even had a thin sheet of ice. Winter! We wondered how long all this would last up here.

The Crüe started to roll in around 3. The usual revelry was had, as the spirits flowed and bad 80's movies got dragged out (American Flyer AND BMX Bandits, starring a VERY young Nicole Kidman). At midnight April and I went outside to look at the stars as 2011 rolled in.

New Years Day and the plan was hatched by eight of us to roll into Vernonia, 10 miles down the Banks-Vernonia trail. We took the back way, going down steep foot trails to avoid the main road. The Banks-Vernonia was covered with about an inch of snow for the first half of the way in. At first I was a bit worried about how the Long Haul Trucker would handle in the snow. The Trucker had on its "street" tires, though they were 32mm tires, wider than the standard road width. I shouldn't have worried, as the Trucker handled beautifully. There was a little fish-tailing on some rougher spots, but that was it. In fact, everyone did well, though some of the clipless crowd wished they brought regular shoes.

Of course, we were ALL jealous of the guy who was riding a Pugsley. That bike was pure magic in the snow!



The major tragedy of the trip was that the Chinese restaurant was closed. Actually every restaurant in town was closed except for one bar. I had my share of greasy food, including a grilled cheese, my standard fare in places where veggie options are scant. We rode back to camp, guts laden with greasiness, and returned right at dark.

Riding out to a snowy cabin in the woods

One of the beautiful things about Portland and west-of-the-Cascades Northwest is while it rarely snows on the valley floor during the winter, it's very easy to get to snow. Elevation plays a key role in all this. While in the Midwest latitude is the key player in who sees snow and who doesn't, here in the Northwest an increase of elevation of 500 feet can mean the difference between rain and snow.

On Thursday April and I departed later than we should have for our trip to Stub Stewart State Park, some 30 miles NW of Portland. It was the usual stuff- we wanted to enjoy a good breakfast, there were a few things to pick up, etc etc. In any case we should have gotten off at the Hillsboro MAX station around 1 pm, but it was more like 3 when we got there. It was 22 miles to the cabin, and there was NO WAY we'd get there before dark at this point. Nothing to do but press on.

At this point I should mention the temperature had been hovering around freezing. The couple of days before this were quite wet. Snow had been predicted, but besides a passing flurry that lasted five minutes, nothing had been seen on the valley floor.

April encounters the goats on the way to Banks

We passed our halfway point of Banks around 4. We did a quick supply up at the local Thriftway, and got on the Banks-Vernonia Trail, a rail-trail that would bring us all the way to Stub Stewart. The first few miles were flat, but then the trail rises at about a 4% grade to get to the park, which sits at about 1100 feet in elevation. When the trail started to rise, we noticed that the bridges were getting icy. Uh oh.

Thankfully the trail remained dry, though it wasn't long before we saw a dusting of snow on the sides of the trail. At this point it was pretty dark, so we were using our helmet-mounted headlights, pointed on the road ahead in steely determination, watching out for ice. We did hit some snowy patches, but nothing much. Until Stub Stewart.

The steep access road into the park was covered with either packed snow, loose snow, or frozen over slush. A couple inches lined the side. Nothing else to do but walk. It took about 45 minutes to walk up to the cabins. On the way up we marveled at the starry dome above us. We actually got to see the milky way. It's hard to see that many stars in the city, and to see ANY stars during the winter is a rare treat.

And finally- the cabins! No tent to set up, a rare treat for us seasoned bicycle tourists. Camping in winter- ha! Of course, since it was over 3 months since our last trip, we forgot some basics, and some luxuries as well. And some surprises- my little cartridge fueled stove doesn't really like sub-freezing temps. Nor does our radio, which needed to thaw out before it started working. Par for the course. All April and I know is that we'll wake up tomorrow to an actual winter wonderland, and we'll go for a little hike before the big crüe comes out for New Year's.

Astoria/Cape Disappointment Mini-Tour, Aug 22-25 2010

It's 7 pm on Wednesday, August 25 and April and I are on a Point bus departing Astoria, Oregon, on the way back to Portland. (They have wi-fi!) We just finished up a 3 1/2 day mini-tour.

Sunday night on me departing work, we MAXed to the end of the line in Hillsboro. Then ride 20 miles to Stub Stewart State Park, made food and set up camp in near dark, field mice scampering beneath.

Monday an epic day of riding. 75 miles riding along Routes 47 and 202 through Vernonia. A quiet and scenic back way, save for some clear cut action near the summit. The cresting of the Coast Range, elevation 1200 feet, not that bad. And the longest day April's ever ridden! We rolled into Astoria at dark, found a cheap and dingy hotel downtown, and walked to Fort George Brewey for much-needed beer and food.

After breakfast ar Blue Scorcher and a resupply at the co-op Tuesday morn, we ventured across the long (4 miles!), narrow, and sometimes high Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River, we were in Washington State. An 10 mile ride along a narrow and busy US 101 brought us to Cape Disappointment State Park for camping, hiking, interpretive center visiting, and beach walking. Oh yeah, we ran into other dudes bike touring!

This morn we took the bus back into Astoria. We met up with Debbie W. for lunch, then hiked up to the Astoria Column, and hiked down the Cathedral Trail. Oh yeah, we had more beer. And now we're on the bus, heading home.

A Summer of bike tours big and small

East Fork Lewis River, Clark County WA, at the old bridge near Heisson

April at Lucia Falls on East Fork Clark River

Moulton Falls

Train at Yacolt WA

Lake Merwin, North Fork Lewis River, Clark/Cowlitz County WA

lava caves near Ape Cave, south side of Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens above the clouds

So far this summer I've completed two larger tours, my Eastern Oregon odyssey in early June (650 miles), and the Olympic Peninsula in late July (350 miles). But the weather is still nice, and I got the touring itch. So I've been trying to have as many mini-touring adventures as my schedule can allow. And I usually get about 3 days a week off, so when the days off align themselves in a row, I have plenty of time to do some short tours.

So far I've managed to ride out and back to the Oregon Coast with Cycle Wild over the Fourth of July weekend. I was part of an "early crew" (Tomas, Ed, Jon, and myself) who rode the beautiful and quiet Nestucca River Road over the Coast Range and on to Cape Lookout. We came back with the main group via Wilson River Hwy/Route 6, which was quite nasty with all the holiday traffic.

Two weeks ago April and myself made an expedition to the south side of Mt. Saint Helens and explored Ape Cave. Along the way we camped at Battleground Lake and a few Pacific Power facilities along the North Fork Lewis River, and returned via Woodland and La Center.

What's in store next? Well tonight April and I will ride to the Coast! We'll head towards Astoria, using Banks-Vernonia Trail/OR 47/OR 202 to get there. We'll stop at Stub Stewart for the night and spend a couple days at Cape Disappointment, the first time for me.

Around Labor Day we're going to do a Clackamas River/Mt. Hood loop. And September into early October is still good camping weather, so I hope to at least get a Columbia River Gorge excursion in as well.

Fun! Get out there and do a mini-tour of your own before the rains return.

Trans-Oregon Tour: Friday June 4

Interpretive display on the long climb on US 26 out of Prairie City up to Dixie Pass

Clouds, rain, mountains, grass, sky

Friday was a good day, but a long and strenuous one. I started the day later than I cared to, taking down camp in the rain. And soon after leaving Prairie City I began the 9 mile climb to Dixie Summit. It wasn't as tough as Keyes Creek, but it was still a workout no matter which way you look at it. And the Summit elevation was 5277 feet, just shy of a mile high by three measely feet. The highest I've climbed on a bike! (i've biked in Denver, so I have biked at this elevation before.)

A thrilling descent down through beautiful Ponderosa forest and then the start of the second climb to Tipton Summit. Not as high or long as Dixie, but still tough. Then down again and a cruise along a gorgeous valley. I stopped to take a photo, trying to capture the postcard perfect image that just smacks of "The West." Stereotypical, yes. But what the hey? I thought to myself "It don't get better than this." Then I heard the rumble of thunder, and turned around to see an ominous cloud approaching. Uh oh.

Trans-Oregon Tour: Thursday June 3

Snack break on the climb to Ochoco Summit

Ochoco Mountain scenery

Unwelcome on the up, welcome on the down

Butte in the Bridge Creek Valley

Painted Hills Country

Mitchell

Climbing out of Mitchell on US 26 to Keyes Creek Summit

Some things you see on tour you just can't explain

C

Box Canyon near John Day River

Sheep Rock on John Day River

Makin' Pancakes at the Dayville Church

Awesome stained glass at Dayville Church

Strawberry Mountains

It's Thursday evening (6/3) as I type this on my ipawd. Since I last left y'all, I biked for 3 days eastward along US26. We left Ochoco Lake Tuesday morning but only 6 miles in Kiran's tendinitis was too much for him to bear (despite mainlining Advil). So Kiran and Sharad had to scrap the bike tour, leaving me to go on solo.

The rest of the day was spent going up a ridiculously gradual and easy climb up to Ochoco Pass, elevation 4800 feet. I was greeted by a Ponderosa Pine forest at the top, and a screaming descent into Bridge Creek Valley, and more desert. I took a 14 mile detour to the fabled Painted Hills, which are indeed beautiful.

The day ended in the tiny town of Mitchell, population 100 (or so), and the place where RevPhil went to high school. Camping in the town park was free, but I opted for the luxury of a $40 room at the Oregon Hotel, where I could spread all my crap all over the room and use the free wifi (this iPod touch thingy is going to be a problem!) I hung out a bit with Tom, the guy from the navy, at the town bar/restaurant/whathaveyou.

Wednesday brought on the 6.5 mile climb to Keyes Creek Summit, elevation 4300 feet. It wasn't a brutal climb, but it was relentless, not leveling out one bit. The descent down to the John Day River was long, gradual, and beautiful, as 26 followed a creek through a canyon most of the way. A quick side trip to the John Day Fossil Beds Interperative Center, and a couple miles through Picture Gorge, and I was in the tiny town of Dayville, population a few, where I ended my day.

In Dayville I stayed at the Presbyterian church that doubles as "hostel" for bicycle travellers on the TransAm. The hostel is byo bed, so I set my sleeping bag and pad on the stage in the sanctuary. But the church provides Internet, shower, washer/dryer, and kitchen, all for free! Also staying at the church was Tom, and Tess and Lauren, both from Portland and on a several week bike tour exploring the far reaches of Eastern Oregon-on a tandem! They've been to even sparser populated areas than I have!

After dark we all headed down to the town park to talk about touring experiences. Wild animals to watch out for came up, and it was noted that this was cougar country. No more than a few minutes go by when we noticed a rather large animal moving fast down the main road. Was it a deer? Too low to the ground, not bouncy enough. Local dog? Coyote? Maybe. Or could it be...Well, it was a bit scary of a walk back.

Today was a fairly easy and uneventful ride to Prairie City. More on that later.

Trans-Oregon Tour: Monday May 31

Getting the bikes ready in Redmond

Crooked River Valley, Black Butte in the distance

Crook County Courthouse, Prineville 

Ochoco Lake

Today was a short day, only 30 miles. After a total of 130 miles over the previous two, with probably 6,000 feet of TOTAL elevation gain, Team Bike Tour felt it was time for a little break.

Today's ride was good. Mostly level, a little rain,and the scenery of the Crooked River Gorge. Today was also the last of the "sizable" towns we'll be seeing for awhile. Sisters (cute but touristy, population 1800) was passed through yesterday, and today was Redmond (has a Fred Meyer and a brewpub, population 20,000) and Prineville (depressed, population 9,000). Now it's a few hundred miles to Baker City, the next sizeable population center. Just tiny towns, high desert, and mountain passes in between.

And we are camped just before the next climb, Ochoco Pass,elevation 4'700 feet. Team Bike Tour (plus Ron, one of our Redmond hosts, who joined us for today) decided to camp at Ochoco Lake County Park ($5 hiker/biker sites, hot showers), rather than 20 miles up the road at the summit due to Kiran's leg pains and it would be cold at the top. And we got company! Besides us 4, there's a couple on a tandem, two touring dudes we ran into yesterday, and yet another dude fresh out of the Navy. All of them are attempting to ride across the country. We're just trying to ride across the state.

Ochoco Lake is beautiful, and we're camped under juniper trees. Tomorrow promises to be interesting, no matter what.