An end of February State of the Bike Address, and plans for warmer bike adventures. (Plus: Snow in Portland)

From a snow ride in February 2018. We got much more snow this time. Even though selling the Raleigh Crested Butte was the right decision, as it was never, ever going to fit me correctly, I still miss it from time to time. I type this missive on Thursday evening, February 23rd. Portland has just...

Goals and plans for bicycling in 2023

Elderberry Trail on the "deep forest" side of Powell Butte. 28 Aug 2022. So deep I needed to use the flash! Olympus XA2/Fujicolor 200 Last year I decided to log every ride, something I had never done before. (Why no, I am not on Strava!) Inside a tiny Rhodia notebook (orange cover and grid pages,...

The Opulence of Time

North Beach, Orcas Island. 5 August 2022. Camera: Olympus XA2/Film: Fujicolor 100 Stasia over at Carfree Rambles finished up a coast-to-coast (and Portland-to-Portland!) tour with her partner a little while ago. Like many folks who go on a big adventure like this, she's found the readjustment to "real life" a bit tough. In her latest...

A look back at my 2022 touring season

The Bantam at Crown Point, during the Midweek Gorge group camping trip, 15 Oct 2022. Camera: Ricohflex Dia Film: Kodak Gold 200 As the first real rains of autumn hit the Northwest, and the chances of getting "one last camping trip in" diminish, now is a good time for me to look back and reflect...

San Juans Tour: Wrap-up and photos

Watching the ferry from Orcas Hotel. 5 August 2022 Olympus XA2/Fujicolor 200 Hello friends. It's been a few weeks since Emee and I got back from our week-long bike excursion to the San Juan Islands and the Skagit Valley. Overall, it was a great trip. We stayed at hotels/Airbnbs the whole time, meaning we could...

Another islands tour ahead, and how the rest of the touring season will pan out

Emee on the ferry, from our 2019 San Juans Trip After my first bike overnight trip to the cabins at Stub Stewart in February, I was getting the itch for more bike camping. I even wondered if 2022 could be similar to my 2012, where I had lots of overnights and tours. But besides a...

Summer 2022 Bike touring/status update

Camping at Ainsworth SP in the Gorge, 15 June 2022. Ricohflex Dia/Kodak Gold 200 We're just a couple days away from the start of July. If it's not too hot (or too smoky) July through September marks the best time to bike tour here in the Pacific Northwest--long, dry, warm days. Spring typically isn't a...

Champoeg post-report: A de-briefing on my first (tent) bike camping trip of 2022

St. Louis Church, 7 April 2022. Olympus 35 RD/Kodak TMAX 400 My first tent bike camping trip of 2022, to Champoeg State Park, happened just about two weeks ago. (My first bike overnight was in February with Emee to Stub.) Even after bike camping and touring for the better part of two decades, the first...