Epilogue

Statistics:

Jordan's bike computer logged 996.5 miles. Longest day was 95.6 miles. Shortest day was 36 miles. Jordan, age 13, biked the entire trip.

20 days on the road from Lynnwood to San Francisco. 14 days of riding and 6 days of resting.

8 days camping and 12 days in hotels. Note: we originally planned 11 days of camping and 9 days in hotels.

Martin, age 10, rode approximately 60 miles on the Trail-a-Bike attached to my mountain bike. About 12 miles each day.

We hauled the tandem bike but only used it one day. Jordan liked the freedom of riding his own bike. Plus, our tandem is not a tandem built for speed.

Planning Notes:

Prepare for cool weather riding along the coast in the summer.

Obtain reservations for campgrounds and hotels months in advance of trip (if you have a sag wagon). If you just have bikes, just wing it!

Make sure your training involves riding in traffic to desensitize yourself to traffic. Also, include hills in your training regimen. The west cost is nothing but hills.

Obtain Adventure Cycles plan and profile maps, very useful tool for planning and during the ride.

If you are biking with a family or you are not in the greatest shape, I highly recommend mixing in layover days to allow family to relax and your bones to recoup.

Save your money and don't buy expensive recovery drink powder. Chocolate milk is the ticket.

Favorite Things:

The scenery was amazing. You can really see things at the right pace on a bike. My favorite scene was descending a long steep hill through a forest near Sandhill, Oregon. I really was not expecting to pop out of the forest and see sand dunes with doug firs growing out of them. Seemed very surreal.

Hotel on the beach at Lincoln City and waking up the next morning to the Kite Festival that we were not expecting.

Soo's coffee shop discoveries.

No rain.

Lunch and dinner.

Interesting Stuff:


Lots of wildlife spotted along the coast. Bald eagles, seagulls, redtail hawks, pelicans, ravens, steller's bluejays, crows, seals, elk, deer, squirrels and chipmunks. We also saw many different colorful finch type birds. By far the most common animal we saw was the turkey vulture.


These things were in every state and seemed to get bigger the farther south we went. Perhaps we saw so many of them because they were expecting some large roadkill.

Speaking of roadkill, we saw lots of that crows, seagulls, deer, squirrels, dogs, cats, opossum, snakes, etc. Seemed to be more roadkill the further south we travelled.

The Tsunami warning signs were ridiculous. As we rode down a hill we would see the "Entering Tsunami Area" warning sign, then a "Leaving Tsunami Area" as we peddled up the next hill. We must have seen dozens of these signs.

Thanks:

Thank you to my wonderful wife Soo for partnering with me in this adventure. Without her help and encouragement, I could not have accomplished this dream.

I am very proud of my son Jordan for biking every mile of the trip with me. I would not have had the same satisfaction on biking alone or with anyone else for that matter. I pray that the lessons learned on this epic adventure will enrich his life for years to come.

Martin, thanks for taking care of Mom during all the driving. Also, I'm proud of all the biking you did with us. I'm looking forward to your adventure when you turn 13 in a couple of years.

Thanks to all our family and friends that prayed for us and hosted us during our trip.

Thanks to my partners at KPFF for giving me this gift of time.

Thanks above all to God for family, friends, provision and creation.