Kruschel Fam Bike Trip

This is it, final post. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did. I left deception pass state park after a restless night interrupted by screaming jet fighters. Heading north, I found a great road moving along the coast. Lunch and on to Chuckanutt drive, stunning scenery.  In to Fairhaven/Bellingham for cofffee and onwards to the border. Uneventful day save for another flat tire. I was prepared for this one, but wouldn't you know it, two different people within 5 minutes stop, ask me if I have everything I need and if I need any help. Kudos Bellingham! A tailwind had me at the border around 5pm, at Rene and huegette's by 6pm. I contemplated carrying on to kelowna this am, but the threat of fire, dead legs, and more instant noodles has me staying put. A few lowlites, then highlites.  1. BROKEN GLASS!  Really Washington & Oregon?  Recycle.  2. RV drivers with no prior experience.  There should be a test.   3. Ellensburg 4. Wa...

It's been a few days, getting close to BC, and the miles are still coming slowly. I write today from Deception Pass State Park, quiet time 10pm, unless you're flying a fighter jet fifty feet above the campsite, in which case there are no quiet hours. Last update was from a Starbucks in Aberdeen, home of the muddy wishkah river and Kurt Cobain. I was hosted by jeff, a retired doctor and nature/ukulele enthusiast.  The next day I got my tyre replaced and was off.  The wind was at my back most of the day and I made good progress, calling it a day at Potlatch State Park.  The view of Hood Canal was quite something. The next day I followed the, and I might name wrong, the American adventure cycling association northwest route.  The scenery was great as always, spending most of the morning flying along Hood Canal.  At one point, the road veered away from the canal and climbed up, only to descend back to the canal a mile or so later.  I learned ...

It's been a few days since brent/ash/Ginette bikes to Nehalem. Here is the latest: We really enjoyed the day off, spending part of the day touring around cannon beach and part of the day swimming. Last part of the day enjoying another west coast IPA with bunny lebowski's toe. After a long goodbye on the 7th, brent turned his bike north, heading back towards Astoria.  Ginette and the kids joined rene and huegette for the drive back to Surrey, vacation winding down.  I arrived in ft Stevens state park and grabbed a hiker/biker camp spot for six dollars, free showers included! It was early so I rode into warrenton for dinner and some road essentials (soap, deodorant, instant coffee). Three cyclists had arrived and setting up next to me on return, nils and his two buddies from Olympia.  They were on day 3 of their trip to LA. Interesting guys, mid-twenties, all forced from their home town of Santa Cruz due to sky-rocketing housing prices and rentals.  Nils...

with guest blog writer Ashleigh! The emperor ordered me to write this blog, so here we go. As a group of only 3, we rode without Jonas from Fort Stevens to Nehalem bay. Jonas bailed on the family due to a "missing" helmet or some other lame excuse, but there was nothing we could do because it was his decision. Getting on our way, we wanted to stop in Seaside for a coffee, but the traffic was so insane that there was no way to get across to the coffee shop we wanted, so we tried Starbucks but the line was really long so we decided to just keep going. The After one long hill which we hoped was the last, we made it to Cannon Beach and stopped at a restaurant for lunch named Public Coast, where we shared some clam chowder, fish and chips, and "dirty" fries. I'm The temperature was actually fairly cool because of all the mist! There was so much fog and mist! As we climbed out of the cute town, we turned to see a massive rock in the water on t...

July 2nd began with more instant oatmeal. But for something different, I was riding with Miriam(Toronto) south to Astoria and more importantly, meeting up with the fam at fort stevens state park. The kilometres were fairly easy, with Miriam pace setting up each hill. Once again the scenery of Washington state did not disappoint.  Fried oysters for lunch, a coffee stop, and 5 hours in the saddle was enough to get us to astoria: Miriam told me about warm showers.com, a website that connects weary cyclists with host families all around the world.  What a great concept!  I'm definitely going to try it out on the ride home. Miriam is an epidemiologist working for the WHO (maybe indirectly?) on the Zika virus. I tried to explain my job.  Well it's administration, but not what you think, I'm building hospitals, no, not really building, more like, well, never mind. If ever you have a chance to ride or drive the Astoria bridge, it's absolutely amazing.  Scar...

Lots to cover here, I'll start with Canada Day ride from Chehalis to Bruceport.  Early start after a night disrupted by some of the shadier elements of chehalis (drug dealers, prostitution, and half-hearted law enforcement), I made my across the I5 towards the Willapa Valley Trail. Google maps suggested this route, I assumed it would be another 40 miles of broken shoulder and logging trucks.  Imagine my elation when: Too good to be true, 40 miles of paved path???!!!? Suddenly the saddle sores receded, my legs strengthened, my resolve steelededed. The trail was crowded with locals on account of it being a Saturday: The ashphalt turned to gravel after 5 miles but it was still smooth running.  An old railway line turned to muleti-use path, this had me thinking of the rails-to-trails effort back home. Sadly, and I'm looking at you Lake Country, the maintenance of the Willapa Trail deteriorated once I crossed countyu lines.  H The trail became unmana...