Blonde Bird On A Bike

As I write this I have The Proclaimers song “I’m Gonna Be 500 miles” in my head – 500 miles and hopefully quite a lot more.   I’ve also got a lot of Springsteen tunes in my head as well.

Route planning this week has taken me into 4 of America’s 50 States – Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana – and cost me a Bruce Springsteen ticket!!   I wasn’t going to go and see Bruce when he comes to Scotland this year – I was meant to be good and save my money for going to America – but every time I look at a map different place names jump out of me that remind me of Bruce songs –

• Appalachian Trail (Outlaw Pete)
• Badlands National Park (Badlands)
• Nebraska (Nebraska)
• Philadelphia (Streets of Philadelphia)
• USA (Born in the USA)
• Atlantic City (Atlantic City)

I’m sure there are many more but that was enough to prompt me to buy a ticket – yippee – can’t wait till the first of June!

So as well as taking me in into 4 of America’s States this section has taken me from Champoeg State Park in Oregon to Gardiner in Montana with a big dog leg so that I can cycle the “Going to the Sun Road” – according to google maps 1145 miles!   There is a much more direct route and I could knock off approx 280 miles and 3 to 4 days of cycling but I’m going for the long way round.  I’ve come across a trail walk up a hill called “Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain” – with a name like that it’s got to be done and it’s meant to have excellent view of the surrounding higher peaks.

My first ever bike tour was to Canada – I hoped to see bears and moose amongst other wildlife while I was there and I did – but was probably somewhat naive about what to expect – this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – knowing too much can make you worry unnecessarily!   As part of my trip to America I’ve been reading the Yellowstone National Park Trip Planner and have just got to “Bear Encounters” and I’m not sure I should have read it – here’s what it says:

• If you encounter a bear (most common) – Back away slowly.   Do not run.
• If a bear charges at you (rare) – stand your ground and use bear spray.
• If a bear charges and makes contact with you (very rare) – fall onto your stomach and “play dead”.
• If a bear attacks you in your tent (extremely rare) – fight back.

Still hoping I see some bears though.

No bears but saw lambs, primroses,  slow worms and a wee lizard while I was out on the bike this weekend,  and also encountered a sheep road block.

Well another weekend has come and gone far too quickly but never the less a good weekend.

I wanted to up the miles on the bike and get some hillier routes in as well.   So I had a mostly good 54.5 miles on the bike on Saturday – the furthest I’ve cycled this year – mostly good apart from the hills which I need to seriously work on!

The hilly section all happens in the first 10 miles – nothing particularly long or high but all wee bastards – I knew this in advance – I chose the route to see how I would fair – I’ve done them all many times before and knew that they would be hard work but perfectly doable with some practice – practice I need – I huffed and I puffed and didn’t have any energy to blow anyone’s house down far less get to the top of some of the hills – I had to get off the bike 3 times and push it!!   But there is an advantage to going up hill at snails pace pushing a bike – I was able to stop and watch the curlews and lapwings (peewit’s), spotted a hare and also watched either some Clydesdale or Shire horses playing in a field – I’m not very up on my horses but they were big and had very shaggy hairy feet – they were also having lots of fun running round their field.   I also saw lambs,  lots of daffodils,  some siskins and lots of gold finches.   There is also the reward of the downhill section as well – what goes up must come down and once I’d got past the very rutted and potholed section I had a nice long sweeping downhill section.

Sunday saw me on a mission – to do battle with the hills – just 16.5 miles but starting with the same route and hills as yesterday – there will be a few more battles over the coming weeks before I conquer these few hills without having to push the bike up the steeper bits.

Sunday also saw me stitching and patching up my panniers – they are about 12 years old now – I bought them for my very first cycle tour.   The left one is in pretty good nick – it doesn’t get used nearly as much as the right one – the only stitching it needed is where mice chewed a wee hole in it some years ago.   The right one is much more worn and needed some quite extensive stitching on 2 of the seams – I think I’ve made a pretty good job and they should last a good few years yet – other half says I should buy some new ones but I like the ones I’ve got and they have come on all my bike tours so far – maybe they are my lucky panniers??

For this trip to go ahead there is one crucially critical thing that needs to happen – I need to get the time off work!!   So today I have composed a letter to the Boss requesting 3 months leave – 5 weeks annual leave and 7 weeks unpaid. So fingers and toes all crossed – and anything else that comes to mind. Back-up plan is to hand in my notice but really hoping I don’t have to do this.

Since I last posted I’ve had a great weeks skiing in Val d’Isere,  fuelled on cooked breakfasts and croissants in the morning,  post ski vin chaud,  3 coursed evening meals and plenty of wine.   Back home the plan is to eat healthier and get back on my bicycle – which lasted for one day – a good 35miles on the bike,  followed with a wee walk up my local hill,  Dumyat – and then floored with a head cold for the next few days and the only exercise I had was getting to work and back!

But normality has resumed – 39 miles on the bike on Sunday,  another 46 miles yesterday and wee bike ride and hill walk today,  followed by some serious googling and America trip planning.

Planning is getting interesting – I’ve only covered about 200 miles so far – and I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow account of the planned route as it is quite likely to alter to some degree or another as I find more interesting places to visit  – but I’m currently trying to figure out if it is feasible to have a days skiing at Mount Hood,  Oregon – that would be a few firsts – cycling and skiing in the same holiday,  skiing in America and skiing in the summer – from what I can gather though I think it may only be the black runs that are open – so do I pass on this one or is 2017 the year I conquer black runs??

Potentially could have been major catastrophe for Berty B and me today but someone somewhere was looking out for us.

Nipped into town today to buy a couple of birthday cards,  parking Berty at one of the cycle racks close to the shopping centre.   My quick pop into town probably stretched to a couple of hours and birthday card shopping also became dress trying on, buying of makeup and a pair of jeans amongst other things.

I returned to collect Berty,  put on my helmet and then realised that I had never chained him up.   It didn’t matter whether it was 2 minutes or 2 hours I was incredibly lucky that nobody had half-inched Berty and that he was safe and well.