The Flow

The flow can't be adequately described but I'll try. The flow is what we (Ted, Chris, and I) call the eternal and unexpected hospitality we have already experienced on the road. Within our first two days we had moments where we looked at each other as if to assure ourselves we were living in reality and not just dreaming. The first of these moments was on the day one, after 38 miles in a miserable hard rain. I was soaked head to toe, and had lakes in my shoes. We stopped in Orick, not wanting to start the nasty climb up Bald Hills. I made a lifeline call early on in the game for some waterproof pants. What we thought was going to be a generous pants delivery turned into being three guys stumbling upon their own version of the secret garden, in Orick, CA of all places. After eating chimichangas (oh yes let the junk food eating begin) and a beer at Hawg Wild, we headed up to Dan's house, who not only was going to drive me up some pants from Adventure's Edge but also put us up. Soon after we were greeted by his neighbor's Neil and Carla, and Jim who we met at the bar (and turned out to be the uncle of a friend of mine from Santa Rosa) we were in the hot tub, and then drinking beers and playing ping pong, foos ball and air hockey and eating fresh fish (welcome to our secret garden). Dan proved to be an amazing host, for instance he busted out a boot drier so we wouldn't have to start our next days ride in wet bike shoes. We were well fed and felt like we could have spent a couple days there, who knew only 40 miles from our home in Arcata we woulbd be content on calling it good!

Day 2 - A wet and rather burly climb up Bald Hills road, which is supposedly beautiful, we couldn't tell because of the rain and fog. Nonetheless it was a screaming descent to the Klamath River which we rode along for the next few days. That night we were looking at a Church awning for shelter when Mark, a guy I met working at the shop almost a year ago pulls up to offer us a place to crash on his Farm in Orleans. Long story we short, we knew the flow was strong in these parts and met some cool interns at the farm and dried out sleeping inside next to the fire.

Day 3 - found us in Happy Camp where we got to see where Tessa will be for the summer. We met some interesting locals and went to a cool art opening where we started to experience the enthusiasm our trip can invoke from strangers. After catching a pint at Saloon (just called Saloon because there's only one in Happy Camp) we headed back for some blueberry pie Tessa made.

Day 4 - With Tessa accompanying us, we followed the Klamath on Highway 96 and met up with a group of cyclists from Southern Oregon who were doing a bi-annual 90 + mile group ride. We camped with them and they fed us well and gave us a million connections which made us realized we could do this for a long long time and still not exhaust the social patchwork we are stitching together.

Day 5 Despite the fact that every night we say "lets get an early start tomorrow" today we got our earliest start, 10 am. I think this goes to show that we've been having loads of fun and have been in good company. Wanting to see our family in Ashland/Medford we pushed hard up the Siskyou summit and took I-5 all the way into Ashland and then pedaled to my aunt (Mary Anne) and uncle (Tom) 's house. Tessa who has a job, ha to leave (she will be missed) and we proceeded to have a great time with my family and Ted's parents. Soo good to see everyone and share our excitement but hard to wake up and leave the next day. speaking of I am due for some sleep. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking. To all reading this, thank you and I love you. Hopefully it will inspire you to do something you've always wanted to do. Until the next time,
dbo