Hello, friends! It’s the end of the year, so it’s the customary time to look back and review what had happened. Overall, 2018 was a decent year for me, with lots of fun adventures. I didn’t get anywhere near as much bike camping or touring in as I would have liked, but to make up for it I went out of town a bunch.
January: Emee and I traveled up to Vancouver, BC for the new year. I always get out of town for the holiday. Though I’d been up to Vancouver many times for the holiday, this was my first time with Emee!
March: This was a big month for travel, with a trip every weekend:
- March 3-5: Emee and I headed south to Chiloquin (30 miles north of Klamath Falls) and Crater Lake.
- March 9-12: I headed solo to Seattle to ride Seattle Randonneurs 100 km Spring Populaire.
- March 16-19: Emee and I travelled north to La Conner, WA for the Dandy Daffodil Tweed Ride. We then headed via ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for a little r ‘n’ r.
- March 26-28: Despite thinking three weekends in a row was enough, Emee and I decamped to Eastern Oregon, staying in the lovely Balch Hotel in tiny Dufur (15 miles south of The Dalles), and doing a ride on the Deschutes River Trail.
May: This was the month of the big train trip to the Midwest! Emee and I rode in luxury in a sleeping car on the Empire Builder to and from Minneapolis, where we took part in the annual Lake Pepin Three Speed Tour!
June: It’s a hard time to get out of town, since Pedalpalooza occupies the entire month. Still, I managed to snag a Three Speed Camping trip at the beginning of the month! And yes, this was the first bike camping trip of the year, ending a half-year drought.
July: Summer in full effect. Emee and I drove out to the Long Beach Peninsula in SW Washington right before Independence Day for some beach-themed r & r. In the middle of the month Emee and I bike-camped out at Battle Ground Lake, our first bike camping together trip. Then I took the train up to the Puget Sound for a mini-tour that turned out to be a comedy of errors (getting on the wrong ferry leading to having to find an alternate camping destination the first night, then a blowout the next day requiring a repair with judicious Gorilla tape.)
August: This was the month of my big tour of the year, a week-plus jaunt on the Oregon Coast. Emee joined me for the first half, making it the first time we bike toured together. It was grand!
September: Due to heat and smoke, a planned Three Speed Willamette Valley Tour did not happen. Instead Steve, Todd, and myself did a “regular bike” overnight trip to Champoeg State Park. At the end of the month Emee and myself snuck up to Snohomish, Washington (a far northside Seattle suburb) to participate in their Tweed Ride.
October: I got in my last bike camping trip with my friend Stasia to Oxbow Regional Park (without realizing I was coming down with the flu.) Emee and I rounded out the month with yet another trip to the Long Beach Peninsula.
November: I got on a plane with Emee and her kids (Oliver and Maire) and we headed to Texas for a week around the Thanksgiving holiday, visiting family in the Houston area and friends in Austin. We (Emee and I ) capped off the month with a quick work-related train trip to Seattle.
December: No travel (yet) this month, but Emee and I will be spending New Years in Bend!
So you can see it was a busy overall year for travel, but not so much for bike travel in particular. Okay, I travelled with bikes on a number of trips, like the times in Seattle and Vancouver and the Minnesota excursion. And that’s always cool. But trips relying (mostly) on a bike for travel was much more sparse: I didn’t even bike camp before June, for instance. I got two tours in (one a four day, one a week plus) then only four bike overnights. This is a pretty low number for me. While I’m not discounting the other trips I did in 2018, I really wish I did more bike camping or touring. I know I always say this, but I want to do more in 2019. Hopefully my loose schedule will open opportunities up a bit.
And you may have also noticed a lack of overnight hiking trips for 2018. After my Indian Heaven trip in 2017, I was gung-ho to do another one. I did have something in the works for September, but unfortunately it fell through. I’d really like to do something in 2019, at the very least one trip. If you’re in the area and going somewhere, hit me up!
In any case, I’m looking forward to an exciting 2019.
Urban Adventure League 
Hmm I wouldn’t call Snohomish a suburb of Seattle. It’s not even in King County! A suburb of Everett maybe, though they’d probably bristle at that characterization. A bedroom community of Everett perhaps, but I’d hazard most of the residents don’t work in Everett (or Seattle).
Nah, I still stick by my conviction that Snohomish is a suburb on the very edge of the Seattle megalopolis.