Fullswing of CO Fall

Last week Alice and I made a a quick trip up to the Indian Peaks Wilderness to see the wonders of a Colorado Fall. Here are the pictures from the Middle St. Vrain Creek valley. All told it was about a 16 mile round trip hike.

Summer's Over!

Now that the summer is over and I am more or less settled in CO I have to post the remaining pictures from the ride.

But first here is the rest of the trip (in words) from Portland. We (Claire, Calum, & Trevor) left Portland after a couple days rest and headed for Lincoln City on the coast. But before we got there we ran into some incredibly yummy black berries, I got a ticket for running a stop sign on my bike, and we spent the night in McMinnville with a very nice family. The next day we made it to Lincoln City where I enjoyed the best peach ever. The following days were awesome riding down the Pacific Coast Highway. We took some short days and spent a night with Nathan and Michelle (remember them?) just north of Newport.

Several more days passed taking it easy, running into other cyclist along the way, and enjoying the seascapes. Particularly of note was the appropriately named Sunset Bay. Also, we happened to run into a hoard of what I'll call luxury cyclist between Sunset Bay and Bandon. The were several hundred cyclist riding really nice bikes and having all of their gear motored for them. They had all you could drink beer, warm showers on a truck, and massages in Bandon...what a life.

So on down the road we went. The last night I spent with them was on the beach just south of Golden Beach, OR. I still had 280 miles left to go in 3 days to get to Ft. Bragg so I knew I had to push it.

The first day I made it 90 miles across the CA/OR border and through the Redwood forests to the Elk Prarie campground. The next day I made it another 115 miles with a lovely last leg for the day along the Avenue of the Giants. The only crappy thing was that my rear wheel hub started to seize up on me so I really had to work to get anywhere. I was far enough out of town (Redway) that I need to to hitch-hike, so I did. I spent a good part of the night disassembling and overhauling my hub in the dark of an RV campground. The next morning I got a ride a few miles to the next town that had a small bike shop where the owner and I tried for several hours to fix the hub, but no success. I still had 75 miles and half a day to get to Ft. Bragg, so I rode down Hwy-101 some more hoping that the wheel would start behaving, but no success again. My only option really was to thumb it, so I did and I was pick up in short time.

In Ft. Bragg Alice and I visited the local Botanic Gardens where the Daliahs were in full bloom. We also spent a couple nights in the Bay area at the Exploratorium.

Anyway on to the pictures...

Ride Across North America

The Pacific

West Coast Ride

I realized that maybe I should have let everyone know what the crew is doing now that they made it to the West Coast, oops. They left Portland yesterday to head out to the coast, coast. I think that they're also hoping to reconnect with Nathan, Michelle, and maybe Stavros and Dan somewhere on the coast near Eugene, OR, but I'm not sure when and how this will happen.

They will be riding down beautiful highway 101 from Oregon to California. This way they should be able to ride through redwoods and along the pretty scenic coastline. I doubt there will be much swimming due to the cold California Current that runs south along the coast, but it brings nutrients to the area and supports all the seal, otter, fish, bird, and general ocean life along the coast.

I'm heading out to California soon for a backpacking trip with friends and then heading north to see my Aunt and Uncle and meet up with Michael (this is why I can't keep up with the trip anymore). He'll be returning to Oakland with me and then we'll have a day and a half in the Bay Area (staying with another of my Aunts) to explore. Michael, Trevor, Claire, and Calum are all flying out of the Bay Area on Aug. 20, so that is the ultimate destination for all, though I'm not sure if they'll end up taking the train some due to time crunches.

I've included a map with the general route below. I find it amusing that they are basically going to end at the same latitude of Denver, but they did a huge loop up north. I wonder if the final riding mileage of the trip will add up to going straight from Denver to San Francisco. I suppose we'll have to wait till the end to find out.

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Portland

Michael and Co. hitchiked into Portland last night and spent the night exploring. I guess this means they're officially at "The West Coast" and my time as a guest writer in this blog has ended. I think Michael will take up posting again at some future date. Thanks for reading!
~Alice

Glacial Lakes

First, Michael and co. are moving on again today. I'm not sure where they'll be dropped off from, but Claire's Aunt Inez will be taking them down the road a bit and they hope to be in Portland in less than a week. Almost to the last state they have to ride through! (Though they're all flying out of the San Francisco area on Aug.20, so they still have to get there.)

There was a request to discuss how glacial lakes were formed. A glacial lake is a place in rock where a glacier erodes rock. I believe this is most common as a glacier advances or recedes, because as the glacier moves it has to push rock out of the way. The reason they can be so deep is because glaciers are really powerful! Although they aren't moving particularly quickly (by our standards), they have tons mass and thus large momentum and kinetic energy. A glacial lake is exposed as a glacier retreats, the ice melts, the melt water fills in the depression gouged out, and voila, you have a glacial lake.

In the particular case of the Idaho lakes, I believe that the general latitude in Idaho/Montana that Michael was staying is roughly where the Cordilleran Ice Sheet ended. This ice sheet covered much of Canada during the last ice age. As a result, as the ice advanced or retreated these large lakes could have been created by the movement of these huge glaciers. Smaller glacial lakes are very common in mountains where there were only small, local glaciers. Lake Pend Orielle (near where Michael was staying)is the 13th deepest lake in the world, so there is more going on here than normal glaciation.

A particular geologic phenomenon was responsible for the depth of the lakes. At the end of the last ice age a glacial dam was created near Lake Pend Orielle when a glacier blocked the Clark River's path. As a result a huge lake was created: Lake Missoula. This lake was huge, but the intense pressure on the ice dam from the water eventually caused some ice to melt and the dam to fail. There were catastrophic floods all the way from the lake to the ocean and these created the Columbia River Gorge that Michael and co will be riding in to Portland. Lake Missoula would flood, eventually the ice dam would recover and the cycle would start again. Wikipedia tells me that these floods happened ~40 times in a 2,000 year period. Having a catastrophic flood every 50 years would certainly create the gorge and also help gouge out the lakes. If you want to follow up here are 1 and 2 good links.

Another interesting note here has to do with fluid dynamics, something Michael is particularly interested in. The river flow was immensely high during these floods. Some geologists have estimated it as equal to or exceeding the total flow of every river in existence today (that means the Amazon, Nile, etc etc). That is a lot of moving water! When water moves this quickly something called Cavitation occurs. Fast moving liquid has very low pressure and as a result air bubbles in the liquid collapse rapidly and create shockwaves that are particularly effective in eroding rock. I believe Michael watched a documentary about this process while he was staying with Claire's aunt, so it seems particularly pertinent to this situation. Repeated extremely fast moving water near the dam's breaking point would have created cavitation and gouged particularly deep in rock. It is in these eroded spots that the lakes now lie.

Michael wants me to show you a movie he found on an MIT website about cavitation and that he thinks is really cool. Follow this link and click on the 'Cavitation' movie, second one down.

Rathdrum

Over the last few days the crew has been spending time with Aunt Inez, Claire's Aunt. The first 2 days we took our time and drove to Coeur D'Alene, ID and Sand Point, ID. They seem be be touristy spots during the summer. Both of them lie on natural lakes that are quite large, formed from glaciers. Yesterday was consumed with sailing a Hobie 14 around Coeur D'Alene lake. Conditions were quite good with 10-15 MPH winds and gusts on top of that.

I would love to be more thorough in everything, but I am being hassled but the fellow riders and my time on the computer is running low. I was trying to get pictures up, but they are using funny computers here in Hayden, ID so no luck with that. Maybe Washington or Oregon will be more friendly towards that.

We will be riding down the Columbia river into Portland on the Lewis & Clark trail so that should be scenic.

Idaho

Michael and Co successfully made it to Missoula a few days ago where they were picked up by Claire's aunt and ferried across Idaho to Rathdrum. They are now very close to the border with Washington and are taking a few days off. I believe they are planning on riding the Lewis and Clark trail down the border of Washington and Oregon and end up in Portland. I believe Michael will get on here himself and say a bit more later, so I'll save that for him.

Subduction leads to Orogeny, or not?

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The group is slowly making their way up towards Missoula, MT and then they will continue almost directly south again so that they end in Oregon instead of Washington. The group wanted to go directly west, but if you look at the map above you'll see that there is a big mountain range right smack in the way. I believe these are the Bitterroot mountains, a part of the northern Rockies. Now the Rockies are a pretty unique mountain range (I know, you could say that about any mountain range), so I wanted to spend some time explaining why the Rockies are here.

First some terminology:
Subduction: This is where one tectonic plate is pushed below another during a collision.
Orogeny: The process of mountain creation.

The Rockies are very different geologically because they are not an active range yet they are still relatively large. Most mountains you can think of lie along tectonic boundaries. The Andes have active volcanism because the oceanic Nazca plate is subducting below the continental South American Plate and these mountains are actively growing. The Himalaya lie along the Indian and Eurasian Plate boundaries and are also active, but they don't have volcanoes because the plates are both continental so there is no subduction. The Alps exist because the African and Eurasian plate collision. The New Zealand mountains, the Californian mountains and Washington coast mountains are from plate collisions and subduction, the Appalachians are from a plate collision millions of years ago (see earlier posts). But the Rockies are right smack in the middle of the continent here and have never been on a plate boundary. So why the heck are they here?

The Rockies were created 70-80 million years ago (they're young!) during a period called the Laramide Orogeny. The cause of this process is still debated, but one of the main theories involves the current activity off the coast of Washington and Oregon. Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Baker, etc. are active because there is subduction off the coast: The Juan de Fuca plate is being subducted below the North American plate. This has a whole slew of present day hazards (too many for this post), but I think it's interesting because there is lots of history of this plate.

A long time ago, in the Jurassic (so imagine dinosaurs running all around) there was a huge plate roughly where the Pacific ocean is now. This plate was called the Farallon Plate. What remains now of this plate is the Juan De Fuca, the Cocos, and the Nazca Plates.


The rest of the plates has been subducted beneath the continent. So, now there is lots of this plate below the North American Continent.

Many geologists think that some unique sort of subduction led to the Laramide Orogeny. Somehow the Farallon plate subducted normally or at a shallow angle, but it is this plate mass that has pushed up the Rockies. Of course there is more geologic nuance than I can write here and much more than I am even acquainted with. But I think that it is really interesting how the Rockies were created. Of course there have been some changes from the last ice age and subsequent glaciation, but it is essentially the Farallon subduction that has created the mountains that are in the way of the cross country riders as I type.

PS The title is a geology joke. I just thought I'd clarify...

Short Day

Today the group made it to Dillon, MT after about 30 miles. I believe they are trying to get an early start tomorrow in order to cover more ground. They are staying at a friendly woman's house and there seems to be less of a threat from storms tonight.

Michael asked me to link information about an earthquake that happened Aug. 17, 1959 just outside Yellowstone. The group rode right through the area where the epicenter of the quake was, so apparently there were signs and information about it. The quake was a magnitude 7.5, which is very large, so there was lots of local damage.

Montana

Last night Michael was in Sheridan, Montana.


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The group wanted to get a bit further west, but they were caught by a big thunderstorm. Michael said the storm started with golf ball sized hail and then there was a lot more marble sized hail following that. I believe they all got to shelter in time not to be too injured, but the whole town had hail damage and the motel that they stayed at last night had broken windows and damaged siding from the hail. In addition, Michael's bicycle fell over during the storm and lots of his stuff got wet in the rain (somehow it was in a small flood or something), so he was hoping it would all dry in the night.

Hail the size that they experienced is relatively uncommon and suggests that the storm that passed over was very large with a strong updraft area. In order to bring the air and water droplets high enough to be frozen the cloud has to extend high into the troposphere where temperatures are very low.

Hail is created when a drop of water turns into an ice pellet. It gets caught in an updraft of the thunderstorm and collides with water droplets which then stick to it and make it grow. It eventually falls again and can either fall to the ground in this state or be caught by another updraft where it can accumulate more volume. The hail can be tossed around in the cloud for a long while and grow in size, thus leading to larger and more damaging hail. As a result the hail grows in layers and if you take a cross section of hail you can see these layers:


The larger the number of layers the larger the hail and more severe the storm. You can imagine that only a very strong storm with powerful updrafts could sustain large hail. As the hail grows in size it becomes more massive and the force of gravity on them increases. If it remains airborne long enough to grow to the large sizes then the updrafts must have been very powerful to prevent the hail from falling. However, at some point gravity always wins and the hail falls to earth.

Marble sized hail is the most common size and that hail is most often found near the borders of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. I also read (in my handy atmos handbook) that hail is more common over mountain ranges because the mountains force air upward, and this intensifies the updrafts in the storm. Since Michael is right in the middle of the Rockies up there I wouldn't be surprised if this played into the hail.

Yellowstone- hot springs

Michael called this afternoon to let me know that the group had moved on to West Yellowstone, just in the Montana border in order to do laundry and cook. They are moving north on highway 287 and are hoping to camp along there tonight. Yesterday was a laid back day at camp for Michael and Trevor, and Claire and Calum hitchhiked into the park and saw the northern part of the Loop: The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and such. According to his comrades Michael looks too much like "a scary man" to be successful in getting rides now. Oh well, he got to rest and read all day instead.

He sent me some photos of the past few days and I've posted them above. You can click on the slideshow and be taken to my photo account if you would like to see any of them particularly. I'm going to write a short bit about each one below. I have included two that I pulled out of one of my high school papers and have interesting and somewhat sad stories related to what Michael saw.

1. The Grand Tetons: I know very little about these mountains except that they are very pretty and were created during the Laramide Orogeny, the event that created the Rocky Mountains (I'll talk more about this later). If you'd like to know more about Teton geology specifically look here (thanks Wiki!).

2. and 3. Michael's picture of Morning Glory Pool contrasted with a picture from around the 1950's: Michael told me specifically that he was sad after reading a post near the spring. In short people have ruined Morning Glory pool irreparably. It used to be one of the most popular pools in Yellowstone due to its beauty and similarity in color to the beautiful morning glory flowers.

However, because people have thrown debris in there they have plugged the below ground plumbing and the spring is no longer fed with hot enough water to sustain the original color. Thermophillic microscopic life lives in thermal pools at Yellowstone and creates particular colors, which are indicators of the temperature of the pool: 164-145F- Blue, light green; 144-122F -Orange, bright yellow. The lower temperature allows new algae and fungi growth, and the color of the spring has changed to an orange (maybe Michael likes it this way better ;) that is less popular than the original blue color.

A cleaning of Morning Glory in 1950 produced many objects including socks, bath towels, 76 handkerchiefs (to be explained next!), tax tokens, logs, bottles, tin cans, $86.27 in pennies, and $8.10 in other coins. People continue to pollute Morning Glory and sadly coins currently line the walls of the spring.

4. Handkerchief Pool, early 1900's: I included this to elaborate on why the hot springs are so damaged. This photograph has, yes, a ranger holding up a handkerchief about to drop it in a pool.
Many hot springs are connected to others by the underground plumbing. In the past people would place debris into a feature to determine if the water could eject it, for more frequent eruptions, for good luck, for amusement, or for no apparent reason. Rocks, sticks, and other objects can completely block off an opening and stop all water flow. They can also cause a pressure buildup, so the next geyser eruption is sooner and more powerful. The plumbing system can be damaged, sometimes irreparably, because of the extra force in these eruptions.

Clothing was commonly laundered at hot springs and even Old Faithful was used for this chore in the 1880’s because when clothes were washed in Old Faithful, they came out “nice and clean as a …week’s scrubbing.” By doing laundry at springs, people discovered that adding soap, another foreign material, to certain springs would make them erupt (I don't know the chemistry or other particulars of the reaction here). The soaping induced an almost immediate eruption for impatient tourists and almost all geysers were soaped at some point. Soaping induced eruptions that were usually more powerful than normal and more likely to damage the plumbing due to too much force.

There were also handkerchief tricks that were even listed as amusements in tour guides. The most famous of these pools was Handkerchief Pool, though others were used too. Handkerchief pool had particular currents that would suck handkerchiefs in one vent and return them “nice and clean” in another vent soon after. Unfortunately some logs stuffed by careless tourists into the vent of Handkerchief Pool in 1929, plugged this spring. If the handkerchief trick were still allowed today (thank goodness it isn't!), it would not work because the plumbing that allowed for it was destroyed. Sad.

5. Dragonfly: Michael said that this morning there was a dragonfly flitting around. It was cold in the morning so the df was having trouble flying. He picked it up and held it on his hand. His skin's warmth helped it heat so it soon flew off. I think it might be a Black Meadowhawk, but whatever it is it has fantastic wing patterns!

6. Entering Montana: Just the requisite state sign.

Yellowstone-wildlife

Michael has not been able to call much in the past few days because there is little cell phone service outside a few centers within Yellowstone. He's camping at Madison, on the western side of the park, with the three he's riding with. He told me that he has been unable to see the Artist's Paint Pots because there is some kind of road work going on in that area, but I think he's been able to see some paint pots.

But he has been around the Upper geyser basin, the location of old faithful and other famous springs like Morning Glory Pool, Beehive geyser, etc. And of course the beautiful Old Faithful Inn built around 1900. The lodge used to give bear viewings from the roof when park staff used to feed bears for the tourist interest. The viewing platform was disturbed by earthquakes and is now no longer open to the public for safety reasons. When I was young my favorite thing to do when I got to the inn was in the main entrance hall to look up in the highest rafters for a stuffed bear that was placed there during construction and was somewhat of a mystery. It was very small and hard to see and a fun game to see if I could find it before my brother. But during an earthquake in the last 10 (or so) years it feel from the rafters and is now kept in a museum in Mammoth.

Anyway, back to the wildlife. Perhaps things have changed since last I spoke to him, but he told me that all the wildlife he'd seen was a bison (known as buffalo, but this is a misnomer, they are American Bison) or two. I was in shock. There are usually animal jams galore in Yellowtone, especially in the summer when all sorts of people who have never seen bison or elk or moose. I hope that they will see a bear or coyote before going, but alas I cannot direct the animals. Shrug.

Michael said they did come across a bison skeleton that had been eaten, and he said perhaps by a pack of wolves. I have no idea how he decided this since it could easily have been scavenging bears, coyotes, etc. But the reintroduction of the grey wolf into Yellowstone is something very interesting as a human attempt to help restore the ecosystem. The grey wolf is the top predator in the ecosystem and after they were all killed earlier in the century the ungulate population grew alarmingly. Now having hoards of moose, elk, deer, bison, etc might sound like a good thing, but in fact it is very damaging. When there are too many herbivores the vegetation gets overeaten and they also move outside park boundaries to get enough food. In addition, after the large fires in 1988 and the loss of old growth trees it is important to have new growth plants because without plants' roots there can be problems with erosion.

Anyway, the grey wolf reintroduction has gone well. Even though there have been some problems with huge legal battles and later poaching (Local ranchers have been particularly opposed to the reintroduction because they are afraid that the wolves will kill their stock). However, the population has grown from the original 66 wolves in 1995 to somewhere around 325 in 2006. In addition the packs have spread and now populate areas (see map below) and wolves have even been spotted as far south as Colorado and these have been traced to the Yellowstone packs. The park has definitely had benefits such as increased growth of forest and recovery of some species, like red fox, and I believe that there have been fewer problems with preying on farm animals than expected. So, at least in my opinion, this reintroduction has been a success. I doubt Michael will see the wolves on this trip, but if he did that would be a treat indeed!

Yellowstone

Michael called a few days ago to tell me that he, Claire, Calum, and Trevor had successfully hitchhiked to the Grand Tetons and were staying in the campground there that night. I have not heard from them since, but they were planning to ride on (yes, actually on their bicycles) to Yellowstone and I can only assume that they were there last night. They are probably riding their bicycles near very smelly hot springs as we speak. I know Michael said that he was excited to see the paint pots too. The weather there is supposed to be cooler and clear, so hopefully it is pleasant riding as they start up again.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about Yellowstone geology because it is near and dear to my heart (my dad wrote a book about Yellowstone, so when I was younger my family would go there yearly). Of course Yellowstone has wildlife (wolves, bears, and bison, oh my!- just a few), flowers, lots of mosquitoes, new growth forest following the fires, etc etc. I could talk a lot about all this stuff, but I'll stick to geology since without that Yellowstone would not be protected and instead probably hunted out and settled like most of the west. 

Yellowstone National Park is a geothermal hot spot area. This means there is an upwelling mantle plume that brings warmer temperatures near the surface and increases active volcanism. The mantle plume is relatively stationary as the crust moves around the Earth's surface, so in the case of Yellowstone it is easy to follow the caldera movement across Idaho and into Wyoming. The number is the date in millions of years ago that the caldera was active.

Now the lovely thing about being a hotspot is that there is increased volcanism in the region. In the case of Yellowstone, right now, this is manifest as hydrothermal activity. We get geysers like Old Faithful, hot springs like Grand Prismatic here, or paint pots. All lovely interesting things to see.



But by far the coolest part, in my opinion, is that Yellowstone is still an active volcano. I keep using the word caldera here. A caldera is just place where land has collapsed following a volcanic eruption. This is why there is a large lake in the middle of Yellowstone: it is the shallowest area in the caldera.  The particular volcano in the Yellowstone area erupts roughly every 600,000 years in a rather large explosions. Ash from some previous explosions has reached far into the midwest and even been as high as 10 feet in Kansas. That is  A LOT of ash. It makes explosions like the one that destroyed Pompeii look like little poofs of air. 

And guess how long it has been since the last eruption? Oh, approximately 600,000 years. That means, geologically speaking, we are due for an eruption any day. Fortunately the USGS (US Geological Survey) has tons of sensors all around Yellowstone to measure any volcanic activity and hopefully the park would be evacuated if there were serious threats. As for now, the park remains relatively placid and entertaining for the many tourists. Maybe the biggest threat to the park right now is global climate change, which has led to drought in many western states. As a result geysers have less water to draw from and their eruptions become less frequent and more unpredictable. I wonder if nature will destroy her own creation before or after we do it for her.

Rawlins Update

Hello from Rawlins, WY! Right now Trevor, Claire, Calum and I are in the Carbon County library trying to figure out a way to get from here to Yellowstone quickly and at a reasonable cost. Some may think that we aren't 'riding' across the country if we do that, but I don't really care because this will allow us to ride down the OR/CA coast, plus it's all part of the adventure. Rawlins isn't the place to find good public transportation, but we'll see what we can do.

I forgot to say in my post from Fort Collins that I need to send great thansk to Alice for keeping up with all of our adventures, and to her Mom and step-Dad for letting us crash at their house for a couple days. All of us appreciate the food, shelter and warm showers! A special thanks to Alice for her daily reports to the rest of the world. I know many people are watching our next move and really appreciate what you do. Thanks!

Saratoga, WY

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This morning Michael, Claire, Calum, and Trevor set out to cross Snowy Creek Pass at 10,847ft. near Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming. It was a twelve mile climb that took Michael two hours, C&C three hours, and Trevor 5 minutes by hitchhiking (I hear he's getting good at hobbling around and looking in desperate need of a ride). There was an 18 mile descent with lots of views of lakes, snowy mountains, and general pretty mountain scenery. At the summit they ran into a cyclist from Ft. Collins who'd built his bicycle and a motorcyclist from Vermont to whom they talked for a bit.

Michael said today was a relief after the difficulty of yesterday. Though the wind was at their fronts it seemed easier. The winds don't look to be helpful for the next couple of days, so I think it will be some battling to get through Wyoming. Tonight they are in Saratoga, WY. Apparently it has hot springs that C&C went to, but Michael thought they looked sufficiently sketchy to avoid them. Tomorrow it's on to Rawlins!

On a side note, Marsha (Michael's mom) is at a conference in Utah right now. She was hoping to meet up with the crew, but that looks like it might not work with their delays. But she DID get third place out of 350 in classical music trivia at the conference. I bet her husband and son might have helped with that ;)

A Layover in Colorado

I greeted Michael last Friday (the 4th) at about noon in Denver, CO. He'd ridden fast (the others arrived about 4.5 hours after he did) and was caked in salt and sweat. He promptly was ushered into the shower and then helped me make food for the rest of the group. We had black bean lasagna, watermelon, salad, and ice cream to celebrate. Then the group rode off to see fireworks at various places around Denver. From a building you could see all along the front range and the various shows going on in different towns.

On Sunday he and I drove up to Ft. Collins so I could go to work the next day and the rest of the crew headed to Boulder to hang out. Colorado is very bike friendly, so I think they all enjoyed the bicycle lanes in the cities and general outdoor culture. At one point riding around Ft. Collins Michael told me that he thought it was cool that there were so many people out riding to downtown, for commuting, and just for fun or to get around, but it made him feel less special for riding his bike. You sure don't stick out riding a bike here, but I think riding across the country is something to make you stick out!

After spending nearly a week in Colorado Michael has started the rest of his journey west. He left today from Fort Collins, CO and is spending the night with Claire, Calum, and Trevor in Laramie, WY in the backyard of a writer for Velo News. Those three had ridden through Ft. Collins a day before in order to get an earlier start and feel less rushed. Today was a hard day due to hills, wind, and some of the hottest weather we've had yet this summer. Plus he was starting a long day after many days' break. I'm sure he'll fall into the rhythm again soon enough. I could tell that he was throughly enjoying himself and by the last night he was itching to be back on the road and complete the trip. The rest of the crew hasn't found the willpower to leave Boulder yet, so hopefully they will follow tomorrow or the next day and they won't fall too far behind.

Yesterday Michael and I, along with the rest of my fellow summer interns, went to New Belgium Brewery here in Fort Collins. They do brewery tours and give free sampling of their beers and I think they give you around 1.5 pints of legitimately good beer in total (I'm not a huge beer fan and I liked them quite a lot). They are also a very sustainable company and have invested in renewable energy, very good recycling of their products and waste in processing, they build energy efficient buildings, and they encourage bicycling. Their emblem and most popular beer is Fat Tire (a bicycle theme) and each employee gets a free New Belgium cruiser bicycle on their first anniversary of working for the company. The company is employee owned and the employees all get a free case of beer each week. With that much beer I think they just end up bartering it with friends for other things. Anyway, Michael enjoyed it a lot and I've added a slide show of the few pictures from there below.

Dan's Nederland Carnage

So here is one tale to tell from the Boulder visit... hopefully details will come shortly from the man himself.

Update from the Front Range

Here is a slide show of the last round of pictures between Hutchinson, KS and Fort Collins, CO.

It's been a nice break from the ride for me and I think the others have also enjoyed the time too. They spent a couple days in Boulder after leaving Denver. Last night Claire, Calum, and Trevor rode into Fort Collins and are planning on heading out later today. While Stavros, Dan, and Nathan are still livin' it up in Boulder. I hear of some great happenings down there; maybe you can read about them from Claire.

That's all for now I guess. There will be more from the road.

Storms

I didn't want to worry anyone last night with a post (including myself), but the gang was sidelined in Wild Horses, CO for the night due to severe storms. As Michael was talking to me he said he could see the northern sky just filled with storms and lightning. They'd hoped to get to Hugo, CO but due to a late start in the morning, road construction delays, and a reported tornado in between them and the destination they decided to stay in Wild Horses.

All day they had nice tail winds which helped them along the way towards Denver. These tail winds from the south east were probably what helped contribute to the severe storms and copious moisture in this system. We had a big storm in Fort Collins and the streets literally turned into rivers for a short while. Of course, it being Colorado, within and hour they were back to normal. We did get continuous smaller showers all evening though, and that is not usual for CO.

Below is a radar image of last night from NCAR. Pueblo is the PUX station at center of the map and Wild Horses is north of the triangle shape on the far right of the map and near the intersection of the two red lines (highways). You can see that the most severe weather is purple and red and it is headed right toward them.



On a NOAA radar (that I was unable to capture) I saw something that looked remarkably like a hook echo. This radar pattern is indicative of tornadoes and would explain the warnings. Anyway, I just told Michael to make sure they had somewhere nearby that was underground, but the likelihood of any tornado actually reaching them was pretty low. They probably just got soaked with rain and possibly hail as well.

Today is a cooler day and they are making their way toward Denver. Tonight will hopefully be spent in Kiowa, just 40 miles south of my house in Denver. Then they'll either ride into the city and get to my house or stop at a reservoir in south Denver where I can go pick them up. They're staying in the backyard of my mom's house in Denver for a night or maybe two and will be able to enjoy the 4th where they are sure to see fireworks!

COLORADO

Michael is now officially in Mountain Time; do I need to say more? eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Maybe in a few days he'll actually write on this blog himself, gasp!

Kansas

The bicycling crew has had two ~90 mile days in a row now. Lots of straight Kansas roads. Last night was spent in Rush Center, a tiny town with only 170 people and no gas station to get food at. Dan had some wheel trouble and decided to take it apart, only to lose some ball bearings from it. He got in late last night after fixing it. Tonight the crew is in Scott City, KS. The town is bigger and pretty close to the Colorado border. They should get into Colorado tomorrow or the day after and hopefully arrive in Denver on the 4th, in time to stay at my mom's house and see some fireworks!

Today Michael saw a dust devil with birds riding the thermal above it. They had a pretty good crosswind so he could watch as the dust devil and birds moved relative to the earth's surface. Cool! They also had lots of trucks passing by today and one blew out a tyre right beside Michael. He was not hurt or anything, but I imagine it was quite a shock! Combines for harvesting also were a common sight and a bit scary to pass by on the road.

In Nickerson, KS, about three nights back, the group ran into a group of 5 other guys who are also going west on the TransAmerica route. They spent last night and tonight together as well and Michael rode 33 miles with them today. Different company and riding styles must have been an interesting spice.

Slideshow of Pictures

The third installment of pictures from Michael's trip! For good measure I've uploaded the other two picture installments in slideshow form as well. If you click on the pictures it should take you to the online album where you can read Michael's comments and any captions for the pictures.

Halfway!- changes

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As of Friday Michael was at ~1720 miles on his bicycle and about halfway across the country (as the fingers measure on a computer screen ;) . Tonight they are in Hutchinson, staying with Trevor's uncle. Today is a long day because they are riding a stretch where there are no towns or anywhere that the group can stop to sleep. I should be able to post more pictures soon too! Keep checking.

The crew took a half day and split up to go play around with the day off. Dan went and bought a backpacking guitar so he could play music for the rest of the trip; in fact, he was playing it as Michael and I talked. Claire and Calum decided to go play at a waterpark in Wichita. Trevor's uncle picked him up so they could have family time before the whole crew arrived. Stavros, Nathan, and Michael set out together from Wichita to ride to Hutchinson.

For lunch they stopped at Anne's Variety store in Mt. Hope, KS. The place was being renovated, so the owners didn't have their health inspection certificate yet. As a result, the food was pretty cheap and the boys had to cook their own food that they bought at the store. The owner (maybe Anne??) helped them out with this and regaled them with her opinions about goat breeding. The woman was a serious goat breeder for a hobby and even got out her magazines of goat stock (males?) to breed. They got to hear how she liked the coloring and size of this one or that one, but perhaps the ears were too long and reached the mouth, a serious no-no in goats! I wonder if they have a Westminster type show for goats or if they are just at the state fairs and perhaps other events like that.

Hutchinson is home to underground salt mines, one of a handful like this in the world and one of the 8 wonders of Kansas! Salt, along with wheat, other crops, and fossil fuels, was important in establishing the wealth of Kansas because when the mines were founded salt was still very difficult to obtain. In addition to tours of the salt mine, places that have already been mined are now used as storage facilities for things from Hollywood movies to business records so that there are backups of information stored there. These vaults are somewhere around 350 feet below ground.

Now, what I want to know is why there? The website was sort of helpful here, but not very detailed. Of course, underground storage will remain at pretty constant temperatures year round and if there are no rivers nearby then it wouldn't be too humid. Kansas is pretty much right between the New Madrid fault and the Rio Grande Rift valley, so I suppose it is not super tectonically active. (I don't think most people know there is a very active and potentially dangerous fault in the middle of the country.)

However, I wanted geologic information on how salt came to be in Kansas. I didn't find much online so I'm speculating here. If you read this before it has changed because I've consulted my mom (she's a geologist). During the Cretaceous (and various other geologic periods) there has been a large inland sea in the midwest US. See below:


As you can see, in the area where Kansas is it may have been quite shallow. As the continent closed up and the sea evaporated it could have left a lot of salt deposits behind. My mom suggested that another support for the sea theory was that the limestone in Kansas is not very pure and has lots of sandy bits. This suggests that the area was a transition area: somewhere shallow where salt could collect, but this isn't necessarily on the coast. In contrast, the limestone in Missouri and Kentucky is fairly pure meaning they were out farther and deeper in the sea. The limestone forms the famous caves in this area.

Wichita, KS

First on the agenda tonight, pictures from Kansas.

The requisite state entrance sign:




Crops next to one of the straight Kansas roads:


Moooo! Wow, look at that big sky!


Today the gang is in Wichita, KS for the evening. Tonight they are staying at a home found via couchsurfing. Michael reports that the residents are classical musicians and had a record collection of classical music that he really envied. He wished he could listen to it all, but that alone would take several days.

Today was another day of mostly long, straight roads. Michael said that the days of riding here go something like this: ride 30 miles west, turn right and ride 10 miles north, turn left and ride 15 miles west, turn north and ride 3 miles north, turn left, etc etc etc. The constant tempo without much gear changing has made them pretty tired because going at the same pace and in the same position all day leads to cramps and aches.

Michael had a dinner of falafel and cheese after which he took a walk and could see storms in the distance. Below is the radar for tonight in Wichita thanks to NCAR weather. Wichita is the point in the center of the light blue. The red, yellow, and green all around is a squall line of thunderstorms. Fortunately Michael and company are not in the serious rainfall areas, so Michael was just enjoying watching the clouds and lightning on his evening walk, but this storm is no joke. Much of Kansas is currently under flash flood warnings and these storms can produce the tornadoes that Kansas and the rest of "tornado alley" are famous for.



Fortunately tomorrow will be a half rest day, so hopefully they'll get to stretch some too! Michael hopes to visit an aviation museum tomorrow in the town they're riding to. But it seems that the planes are very present in Kansas; he told me "I was definitely on the sky all today." There were lots of general aviation planes and biplanes up and about as they rode into town, so he enjoyed that. I read online that Wichita is home to Boeing, Cessna, Learjet and Ratheon, so it is no surprise that the city has also been nicknamed the "Air Capital of the World." He also got really (and yes, I mean so excited it hurt my ear to listen on the phone) excited about a twin-rotor helicopter flew overhead at a really low altitude (thanks to Dr. Howard here!).

But there aren't just airplanes around Wichita. Michael and crew rode through El Dorado, KS, home to the state maximum security prison. At a gas station in town they ran into a guard who, along with many people, found it amazing and unbelievable that these kids are riding all the way across the country on bicycles. I find it pretty unbelievable that she can work with the serial killers in prison. To each their own, I suppose. I think I'll stick to the climate modeling though.

Random notes: Michael has apparently acquired a new riding nickname: M-bot (or variations of that ilk). The group has decided that he is THE authority for knowing how to fix bicycles, knowing about planes, knowing about the clouds and storms they always see, and also predicting the weather. So he'll go for a walk or to the grocery store and come back and be bombarded with requests to fix the chain on this bike, or maybe adjust the derailleur on another bike, etc etc. I think he likes being the group mechanic/bike authority and I certainly look forward to his help on tuning up my bicycles!

Michael is thinking about possibly taking the Western Express route from Colorado to San Francisco instead of riding north through Wyoming to Oregon. I think he's going to bring it up with some of the kids sometime soonish. Maybe they'll wait till they get to Colorado and take a bit of a longer break. They're hoping to get to CO by the 4 July so they can see fireworks and celebrate because there aren't many sizable towns between where they are and Denver. If they miss the 4th they can always make Bastille day though! ;)

That's all for tonight, but I'm wishing them good weather, good winds, and speedy travels.

Chanute- a brief history

Michael has reached Kansas and the long, flatish road that accompanies it. He rode about 60 miles today with a headwind that made the whole day a bit more of a slog than anything. But tonight will be spent in Chanute, KS. At Michael's request I'm writing about that.

He said he rode into the town and saw pictures of gliders and airplanes on the welcome board. I think he poked around and found out that the town was named after Octave Chanute, an aviation pioneer who helped the Wright brothers with their ideas and who graces our presence in the photo above. You can read more at this link, but he sounds like a cool guy.

Tomorrow holds more of the same in terms of riding. I will continue updating the map of where the group is, so it will be available for viewing as well!

Missouri

This picture is one that Michael took this evening of the clouds near Ash Grove, MO. The top of the cumulus cloud is lit up by the sun, but this one isn't a thunderstorm yet.

He said today wasn't that great a day and seemed pretty off his normal self on the phone. The hills were steeper than they expected, they took long breaks and didn't get in as many miles as they wanted. A pack of dogs ran after them at one point and one bit Claire's shoe. She was pretty shaken up about that and it took a bit to recover.

Highlights were that he saw a scissor tail out flying around. Also, while Michael was waiting for the rest of the crew to get to a rest stop some guys drove up to get some beer. They asked Mike where he was going and he said "Oregon" and they said "no way". They asked where he was from and he said "North Carolina" and they just told him that he must be bullshitting them. Then they insisted that they shake his hand if he was really doing that. To cap it all off, as they drove away one yelled out the window: "If that doesn't get you laid, I don't know what will." Interesting...

They're hoping to get to Colorado by the fourth of July. I did some calculations for them and that meant 70 mile days from tomorrow on. Well, in Kansas maybe it won't be such a problem. The maps for Kansas (you can see them on the Adventure Cycling association link, to the left) have very straight lines with none of the curviness we've seen so far. They're hoping to get out early, so tonight was an early to bed night as well.

Popeye

"The biking gang went through Chester, IL--- home of the creator of Popeye! The TV show Good Eats filmed there recently otherwise we wouldn't have known either. Michael said there were references to Popeye all over town. Hope they had some spinach while they were there!"

Thanks to Marsha!

Missouri Pictures

Michael sent some pictures this evening from Marshfield, MO (just east of Springfield). I believe more are on the way as well, but we'll have to wait to see in the morning!

The big surprise today was that they didn't all get rained on horribly. I checked the forecast and Doppler earlier today so they had an idea of weather and it didn't look good: severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings over Springfield. The crew was deciding what to do when a sheriff came into the subway where they were eating and told them the weather was looking bad. They prepared for the worst and got rain gear out, but no one actually took the precaution of putting it on except Claire. By doing so she saved the rest of them and scared away the weather. ;) There was tons of rain in the area, but it seemed to pass them all by and they didn't actually get rained on at all.

Michael's trouble had more to do with flat tires. Fortunately, while he changed the flat tires he was able to look at the fantastic storm clouds. He said that while he was watching he saw an updraft of a cloud shoot up until it started moving outward in the identifying anvil for thunderstorms. I'm going to add a little atmospheric science in here (hey, I'm not doing work on cloud modeling for nothing this summer! Actually this has nothing to do with my modeling...). The fact the Michael could see the top of the anvil means that this particular thunderstorm was really far away from him. The anvil only forms when the updrafting air hits the tropopause (a boundary layer in the atmosphere) and can't rise anymore and must move outwards. Since the tropopause is usually around 35000 feet high this is a really high cloud and you can only see it if you're far away. So, I guess I'm saying Michael had nothing to fear from that particular storm, at least as he watched it form. He said the the colors were really cool with the bottom being light pink and the top being lit up by the sun (this happens because of the extreme height too. Think of watching a sunset on a tall building vs. the ground. It sets sooner for the ground viewer than the higher up one).

Anyway, I think Michael has more cloud pictures for us maybe tomorrow. The group got into town and are staying at the fairgrounds. They were able to shower and then relax for the night. After dinner of falafel Michael called and said he was watching a family of foxes (two adults, two kits) playing near him. They were running around and barking! He finally went off to bed saying that they're aiming for getting near the Kansas border tomorrow and will hopefully be in Kansas in two days!

Some random things before we get to pictures:

Michael's road name is "Flattius". I think it might be a combination of his flat tire incidence rate and his flatulence. Not sure which made more of an impact on the nickname.

Apparently in VA, KY, IL, and most of MO the main type of roadkill was turtles. Now it is Armadillos. Neither of us really knew armadillos were that common in southern MO. Too bad they get hit by cars so often!

Michael learned how to pull on the upstroke of pedaling so maybe he can get a full leg workout now. When you have clipless pedals you can get power from the upstroke and downstroke and can get moving faster or use it to work different muscle groups.

Manners go out the windows when you're riding XC. I guess this is one of the main topics of conversation for the group when they're in a town and eating dinner or in a library/store/whatever. Maybe Michael will elaborate more on this for us when he can enter some stuff himself on the blog!

Pictures!

Missouri! I think that taking a picture of each sign is now a tradition.

Michael riding along. I've noticed he seems to have lots of side facial hair in this and pictures on the album of other pictures he sent me. I wonder if it's itchy?

Clouds at the base of a storm in Missouri. These often form below thunderstorms!

A few more things

I almost forgot: Michael has commented on many of the next batch of pictures that I have posted. I think the comments say they were made by me, but I guess he signed in as me to comment because he has done all the commenting. Check those out if you are interested.

Also, Claire has a livejournal blog that I have linked at left. There you can find more descriptions from the perspective of one of the riders.

Alley Spring

Hi again everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but I have been at a climate modeling conference in the mountains and didn't have my computer or internet. Michael has also been rather out of touch and unable to get reception in rural Missouri. I guess the Ozarks are not the most in demand place for cell service.

Michael and company are now about 1/3 of the way through Missouri. All I heard of the ride today was that it was arduous: hilly, hot, and lots of unfriendly cars. Too bad! All I have besides that is the map of their progress. Hopefully we'll get more of an update later this weekend!


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Bicycling for all ages!

Today was a rest day well earned for Michael and crew and it sounds like the name of the game was "Consume as Many Calories as Possible." They slept in, then when they woke up went out to eat at a coffee shop for breakfast. Immediately after the coffee shop they went to some markets to buy food for the trip and the potluck this afternoon. Michael said he got falafel mix. Then they made the food and went to the picnic where they ate some more, hung out, and experimented with slacklining, which I can attest is much harder than it might seem. When I talked to him they were thinking about heading out for a second dinner. I'm sure they need the food, so great! Plus, we get the second round of pictures and I believe Michael has commented on them and the first round so we can have an idea of what is going on in each. Hooray!

At Michael's request I'm going to write about what I did this afternoon: watch a local bike race. The picture above is from the races. A mere kilometre away from my summer home on the Colorado State University campus are the "Races at the Oval" and it was great fun to go watch.

The best part about the races is that they are totally family friendly. There are races for all ages and abilities, both men and women (or girls and boys depending on ages here): under 6, 7-12, 13-17, 18+ and then 50+. In the last two categories there are also the distinctions of "citizen" and "licensed" racers. I went to see a friend of mine and co-intern for the summer from Colorado College race (he was in the 18+ men, licensed). It was great to see the older groups race around the oval and to oogle their very beautiful (and pricey) bicycles. It was cool, but a rather big crash in the last citizen men's race required an ambulance transport and reminded me that bicycles are not just fun, games, and racing. Fortunately the races require helmets (not all races do) as a safety example for the kids who are racing.

However, I think the best part was the kids races. The above is a picture of the start of the under six race. The kids races were great because these kids still had training wheels. I mean their bicycles barely come up to my knee and they're racing them! Older kids had everything from mountain bicycles, to BMX bikes, to road bikes. And they all just had a jolly good time. It wasn't super competitive and everyone cheered as they came into the finish. And I mean cheered the whole time until the very last kid completed his last lap. Talk about community support!

I think the best part of these races, which I want to emphasize and I think Michael would agree with, is that bicycling can be for everyone and not just racing. This race series includes things like "messenger" bicycle races for the career messenger bicyclists who use very different bicycles than a typical road bike. There were also trackstand contests to see who could balance longest on the bike (I know Michael is very proud of his trackstanding ability, of which I have none). Families who don't compete ride their bicycles there to watch and play on the grass and have picnics and cheer on others. And on the other end of the spectrum, there were definitely families where the mom, dad, and kids would be racing in their respective categories. Loads o'fun and very family oriented. If you want to see a few more fun pictures check here. I also saw a photographer from the local paper, so perhaps there will be some in there tomorrow too!

Carbondale, IL

Michael has called to check in for the past two days. These past days the crew has ridden into and almost through Illinois and Michael's odometer clicked over the 1000 mile mark. He's currently at 1025 miles!


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Friday the 13th the crew had a very bad day for cycling. They started from Marion, KY but it was a rainy day. They were all packed and ready to go pretty early on but it was raining in the morning. They had to cross the Ohio river and past there into Illinois the road got pretty bad. Michael rode through ahead of the group through Elizabethtown but soon after some storms came up and he waited them out in an empty carport along the road. He waited about an hour and then suited up for rain and rode on a few more miles. At that point Claire called to say the rest of the crew was stuck due to storms in Elizabethtown and they weren't going on. All in all Michael did 35 miles.

She went to pick Michael up and brought him back there. They stayed in a church there and met two other cyclists from Boulder who were riding XC starting in San Francisco. They talked about routes through Colorado, Kansas, and Kentucky. Then Michael said that because his quads had been (and I quote) "screaming at me a lot" he made sure to eat a lot of food and stretch for a long time. He also started reading Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a good book that I would highly recommend and that I think was recommended to him. He got to sleep around 11, but he said it wasn't very good sleep because he was sleeping right above an air conditioner, cars kept rolling by, and dogs were barky all night.

He woke up at 4:45 and woke the rest of the crew. They were planning to get on the road by 6AM. Because Michael was ahead he decided to drive the car on up to where he'd last stopped. He also said the roads were bad in that section, so he didn't really feel like re-riding it. I guess the roads used to be gravel and then to "pave" the road they just tarred over the tar so it is very bumpy, sticky, and annoying. When Trevor caught up he took a turn driving the car (I wonder how big this car is...) and then Claire and Nathan took turns driving later on.

Mike said the day was a nice one of hills, minus the road quality. He did about 90 miles in total and arrived in Carbondale. When we talked they were waiting for Claire to pick up Trevor and Nathan who had broken down on the road. One had a broken spoke in his wheel and the other had a CO2 inflation capsule blow up as he tried to fix a flat and I guess neither had a hand pump. Then they were going to go out to dinner. Michael said he thought Carbondale was pretty nice, so it is a good stopping place.

Tomorrow they will be taking a much needed rest day. Because Michael's legs are screaming (After 1000 miles I would scream too!) and everyone else is tired too. Tonight they are staying with someone they found on couch surfer and the people happen to work with solar panels. Tomorrow they are getting some local publicity for the trip. I don't know if there will be sound, video, an article or what, but as I know I will post it here (if it is available via interweb). They will be having a potluck for them and I think Michael is also hoping to email a bunch more pictures and get some access to internet.

Two pictures

Some Kentucky countryside!

Illinois! Need I say more? I have no idea who is in front of Michael here.

Perhaps more of an update tonight or tomorrow AM.

song

Today Michael said that he had a pretty good day. It was a day of cruising over hills, but there wasn't anything particularly interesting to report. They are definitely out of the mountains with lots of trees and Michael said all the cicadas are gone now. I asked if he has music stuck in his head or anything and he said yeah, sometimes a concerto or symphony, but right now this particular song. Look under "songs" on the left and then on that page in the first paragraph there is a link called "bicycle". Click it!

He rode near on 70 miles, though he did 80 because he took a wrong turn at some point on the ride. His bike odometer is now at 835 miles, which means he's almost 1/4 of the way there!

The three other kids- Trevor, Nathan, and Michelle- who left the ride for various reasons (vacation, class, strained tendon) decided to drive to meet up and ride on with the crew. When I talked to Michael they were still a few miles away. What they'll do with the car when they arrive I didn't really understand, so that will still have to be worked out.

Tonight they are in Utica, KY where they are staying at the fire station. Tomorrow they're hoping to get to Marion, KY, which is very close to the border with Illinois. So within a few days they'll be changing states again.

Past Louisville

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Today the crew is staying at a free hostel for cyclists near the intersection of highways 84 and 920 in Kentucky. Michael said highway 902, but since I couldn't find any highway of that name intersecting 84 I'm going to assume he was mistaken. Today was a total of near 60 miles. The group decided that they were going to forsake the caves on the trip. It would have been about an ~80 mile detour and the group was behind because of the storms last night.

Though there was lightning throughout the night the storms never broke again except for a little bit of rain. The crew was up at 6:30 today, a nice change from the typically late starts they've been having. They hung out a bit in the morning because the nuns (??) brought them milk and coffee and also postcards if they wanted them. And then they were off! The pace was relaxed and on a "sortcut" they happened to get on they rode by a childhood home of Lincoln. I guess the group got a little split up over the day, so they did their own things. Lunch was a chicken sandwich and a tasty tasty chocolate milkshake for Michael. He said that the day was rolling hills, but definitely flatter than they had been. It was warm and less humid than it had been. At one point Michael rode alongside a horse and carriage that was along the road.

Holy Mackerel! That's a lot of pictures!

I woke up this morning to a whole slew of emailed photos from Michael. Since there are 100+ of them, I decided that the best option for getting them out there was just to upload them to my Picasa site and link it here. Michael is hoping to get online sometime and comment on the photos, but for now they stand alone. They are in chronological order so best of luck placing them on the timeline of the blog so far. Also, I will continue updating the map each night, so that should also show where the crew are nightly.

Tonight Michael and crew are staying in Loretto Motherhouse, a Catholic convent in Nerinx, KY. This is about halfway to where they intended to get tonight, but Michael said that they were very lucky to get shelter tonight as the storms are rolling through en masse. One already passed today with lots of hail and winds and as he talked he could see one approaching. The lightning in the approaching storm was apparently so good that several times in his message Michael stopped to gasp or just stopped talking because he was in awe. So, they will hold down in the convent tonight and hopefully by morning the storms will be mostly passed so the crew can get down to the caves. Today was 40-50 miles of steep rolling hills and tomorrow looks to be much of the same.

This morning the crew left Berea and headed north to Harrodsburg, KY. The ride in total was about 60 miles and Michael said that as of today his odometer reads 645 miles. So he's about 15% there! In addition, tomorrow the crew is set to officially cross from Eastern to Central time. It seems to soon for that, but I suppose they are moving pretty quickly.


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Michael woke up this morning and headed downstairs to eat a continental breakfast at the hotel. For him this included: three bowls of frosted flakes, three pieces of toast with corn (jam/jelly), several donuts, and some juice. He mentioned that his bike shorts are now loose in the thigh but he's not sure if they were stretched when washed or if his thighs are shrinking. I have to say though, two weeks burning near 4,000ish calories a day may have something to do with it. Anyway, after breakfast Michael headed upstairs to pack up and clean off his camelback, which had apparently gotten green goo on it from the hotel faucet (don't ask me, I am just the messenger. But to me that sounds like a sketchy motel... water-wise anyway)

Michael, C&C met up with Dan and Stavros in the main square of Berea. Then the whole group of 5 left together. Along the ride they could do some catching up from the time they were separated and it sounds like Dan and Stavros met some fun people and had interesting times (I will decline to comment further so as not to, uh, implicate anyone in any activity).

Michael said that it was VERY flat going out of Berea. Welcome to the plains! He also said that there were some 1960's style of weird 2000's style building that he took pictures of. I have no idea what he means, but perhaps in future days this will make more sense with a picture to go along with it. As they rode further they got into some rolling hills, but though there were some fairly steep climbs it was not like the mountains they had been in. Today the cicadas were very bad, not only loud but flying around so that the riders had to do lots of ducking and dodging. The day itself was drier, so Michael said that he was sweating less but going through water much faster than before. Again, welcome to the plains!

Before getting to Harrodsburg the group went by Herrington lake. Michael says it was cool because the walls were vertical rock for 8-10 ft, but there was also soil, vegetation growing in it. I looked it up online and apparently the lake was formed by damming a river which explains vertical type walls. After that they had a short climb up to Harrodsburg.

Upon arriving the group split up to find camping for the night. After consulting firefighters the group learned they could camp by the hostel, just outside of town. They're all staying together there over and went to get mexican take out for dinner and ate in a "arboretum" (just a nice grove of trees I suppose) near the restaurant. They ran into a group of Tennesseans there who were taking pictures by a fountain. They got talking and the Tennesseans thought what they were doing was cool so they bought the group dinner. It sounds like Michael and crew have run into some very generous and friendly people on the trip!

Tomorrow they are up to Cave City,KY. They hope to get into Mammoth Caves Park to camp and then they could tromp around the caves for a bit before heading out. Its a bit of a detour, but they're looking forward to the fun. They're also hoping to get to a library tomorrow AM and then maybe I can get more pictures! Thunderstorms may be a problem for the next couple days as it looks as though a front is moving across the country. With the plains come the thunderstorms over the plains. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

Lots of pictures!

Michael has checked in today where the group is now in Berea, KY. In addition, I guess the proximity to Lexington and a half day break means we get to see pictures! I'll write more about today's ride after the pictures. I've dated them so hopefully they are easier to place in context of the earlier blog entries:

3 June
This is specifically for Alan, it looks like Puta might have a long lost cousin or maybe a girlfriend. That's Claire on the left side during a stop to buy food.

3 June
Cicada. Michael says they're everywhere (crawling over roads and stuff) and very loud.

3 JuneMichael at the Grand Canyon of the South near the KY/VA border.

4 June
In the coal country. The darker lines in here are veins of coal running through what looks to me like it could be limestone.

5 June
Michael has picked up a hitchiker at Knott historical society bed and breakfast where he and C&C stayed the night. Apparently there were kittens everywhere and this kitty crawled up Michael's shoulder. He liked her (since she is calico) lots. Good thing he isn't allergic to cats!

6 June

Here is the exterior of the cathedral in Buckhorn, KY. As you can see, it is made of logs.

6 June
The interior of the cathedral at Buckhorn. There was a major flood in 1957. Michael says there is a flood line midway up the organ where there should be a major difference in color of the walls. I don't see it myself, but the fuzziness of the picture makes it harder to see.

6 June
Some hills just north of Vinson, KY. I think that the cloud sort of looks like a dragon!

6 June
Scenery from last night near where they camped.

7 June
This morning Michael woke up and grabbed his sunglasses and to his surprise found a spider had made its web in there. Apparently this is not prime real estate, however, because there were no flies or any other insects in the web. The campsite this morning was not lacking for bugs though. Michael reported that the campsite was buggy with ants and mayflies etc etc. Shucks! I don't think I'd want that spider as my roommate however...

The group rode toward Berea: 30-40 miles from last night's campsite. I'll just report the "interesting" things that Michael told me about. On the way they came across a snake that was hit by a car and still alive (very sad!), so they tossed it off the road. Then they filled up on water at local friendly guy's house. At one point 150 motorcycles passed them in one long line, most were nice but some revved their engines. Growl. Today there were only two small climbs, but it was mostly flat. A good preview for the Great Plains.

C&C and Michael arrived Berea at 3 and ran into Mike, a guy they met in Damascus who is also riding XC. The three of them are staying in a hotel for the night courtesy of Calum's mom. In addition, Michael got the location of a bike shop from Kent, so he rode up there and fixed his tire, got two tubes, but unfortunately Calum was unable to fix his cassette because the shop didn't have shimano parts.

On his way back into town, Michael ran into Stavros and Dan who were sitting in the main part of town. Apparently the trip to Asheville was a little nuts (no details here) and in the process Stavros lost his phone. So it was pure coincidence that Michael's little group ran back into those two today in this place. Nice luck considering they would have been unable to contact Stavros any other way. Dan and Stavros are staying somewhere else tonight and it is unclear whether or not they will continue with Michael, C&C tomorrow. Instead, those three went out to a Mexican dinner of beans, rice, and cheese. This was followed up with ice cream so that they can continue to get energy. They're planning to head out tomorrow, but to where is not yet planned.