pictures

I just uploaded some pictures from the trip!
photobucket.com/cycletourwhalewatch

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!

Thursday evening Ev and I rolled into Portland proper!

I must mention here that we stayed with our new friends Noreen and Bob two nights ago.  They took us into their home, fed us, gave us showers, and a place to sleep the night. We had a wonderful time getting to know them! Thank you!  I'd also like to say thank you to Randy and Edwina for showing us the same beautiful hospitality while in Michigan.  Edwina kept us running on home made cookies for the next couple days!

It was a long 90 mile day worth of riding and those last miles seemed to take just a bit longer.  It feels a little strange, not having to ride 75 miles today. What will I do with my time? Where's Evan? This is the longest we've been apart in a couple months!

Ev and I need to go through our pictures and put some up on the internet, we'll post a link to the photo page.  It's been really fun to be able to keep everyone in the loop as to what's going on and where we are on the trip. Thanks for following us!

Is that really the Pacific Ocean???

Well we made it through the mountains! The last two climbs, Washington Pass in particular, were a bit of a chug! Throughout the climb we were distracted by the beautiful mountains; rivaling those of Glaciar NP. The ride down the other side was nice because we didn't need to pedal much, but pretty cold. We bundled up and enjoyed the ride! We should see the ocean today! 
UPDATE: we made it to Anacoras!   Tomorrow we start heading down the coast to Portland!

Mountain!

Hello from Washington. We are on the home stretch now but still have a few more mountains to climb. The nights are getting very cold and our campsites seldom have showers. Last night we had showers so now we are not quite as stinky! Today we are climbing Wauconda Pass, yesterday we climbed Sherman pass! In the next couple days, we will climb Loup Loup pass, Washington pass and Rainy pass! After that, it should be all downhill from there! I wonder if we will be able to see the Pacific Ocean from Washington Pass?

Huge mountains!

Montana is big. Today we rode through Glacier national Park. Logan pass was our goal for the day, it rises 6647' above sea level! The ride was not very challenging, not to brag or anything, but that's also what most other people said too. The scenery from the road was beyond what I am able to describe! The rock faces reach from the valley lake seemingly straight up to the clouds. From the top, it's hard to tell if you are looking at pine trees or moss. The scale is just really difficult to grasp. We did not see any grossly bears on the park after hearing all kinds of bear stories and warning, but we were ready for them. We were equip with bear spray, a pepper spray on grizzly near scale. This stuff shoots a ultra-potent fog for 30 feet and claims to stop the attacker in it's track! Glad we didn't need to use it! It is now just the two of us traveling :( Erik opted to take a more southerly route through the Sierra Cascades. We both miss him but look forward to seeing him in Portland! 

Big skies!

We are now smack-dab in the middle of Montana! So far, we have seen many huge fields and huge skies! The train ride here ( from Fargo ND to havre MT) was a very long ride, but now we have an extra week or more to explore more exciting terrain! We hear that we will have one more day of flat riding out to Cutbank MT then the mountains start to rise above us again. Mornings have been cold these past few days but the days warm up to around 80-90 degrees! Time to get on the road again!

Fun stuff

Here we sit, each sipping a beer and working on a basket of onion rings. We are about 10 miles from our campsite for the night and today has been a day of small excitements. I was chased by a very friendly dog for a full 2 miles! It was having a ball! Once I figured out that it just wanted to chase me, I had fun watching it run, it's tongue flapping wildly out the side of it's mouth! I finally came to a stop and soon after, it's owner pulled up in his pickup truck to retrieve his dog. He seems to like his dog but offered to let me take him! I would have had we been a bit closer to home. He was an awesome dog. Both Evan and I saved turtles today! We are going to make it in the local newspaper in Long Prairie Mi. !!! We have also made the decision to take the train from Fargo, ND to Havre, MT. we have decided this because North Dakota is a bit of a mess right now with the oil boom and the flooding. We also heard that it is a boring state. With the 2 weeks we will save of travel, we will cycle more extensively through Glacier National Park and out to Puget Sound in Washington state, continuing down the coast and back inland to Portland. We are both excited about this plan and are continuing our travels with Erik!