Conclusion

44 days

2156 miles (3450 km)

110,000 feet (33,330 m) of climbing

Unpaved roads: 73 miles (117 km)

Hiking: 39 miles (62 km)

35 nights camping

8 nights in motels

The first day's ride started at 6:25 PM and the last day's ride ended at 11:30 AM. If I count those two days as one, I averaged 50.1 miles (80.2 km) per day.

No flat tires! I tightened one spoke that pinged during steep climbs. Other than that, all I did to the bike was pump the tires and lube the chain.

The highlight of the tour was the day trip to the Mount St. Helens devastation zone.

The biggest disappointment was not being able to see Mount Rainier up close when I got to Paradise.

The biggest regret is that I didn't take a single day off to reduce the cumulative fatigue. A few days were intentionally short, but I biked 44 consecutive days.

I lost only 5 pounds, less than 1 pound per week.

My only physical ailment during the tour was swollen muscles just above my left ankle. The area was very swollen for several days, and I took Advil every 6 hours for about 10 days to keep the swelling and pain under control.

4 National Parks:

North Cascades
Mount Rainier (for the first time)
Crater Lake
Redwood

4 Hot Springs:

Goldmyer
Baker
Wind River
Umpqua

I carried new non-cycling clothes - a Madison River shirt and Eco-Mesh pants from a company called Railriders. They're both treated with "Insect Shield" (permethrin). I'm a mosquito magnet, so the clothes made camping a more pleasant experience. They are probably the most expensive shirt and pants I've ever owned, but hopefully they will last a long time. The Insect Shield supposedly lasts for 70 washings. I washed them only 4 times so far, so at that rate the cloth may wear out before the insect treatment.

During this tour I read the book Oregon's Greatest Natural Disasters, by noted local hiking guide author William Sullivan. The book gave me a good understanding of the long term historical impact of volcanoes, earthquakes/tsunamis, and ice age floods. This region has a reputation for being disaster-free because it doesn't have tornadoes and hurricanes. But that's only true if you take a short-term view. If you think in terms of thousands of years, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis are vastly more destructive than hurricanes and tornadoes, but much less frequent. I never gave much thought to this during previous tours, other than noticing the Tsunami Hazard Zone signs on the coast.

My solar charging equipment was largely successful despite long periods of forest canopy and overcast skies. The 7 watt GoalZero Nomad 7 solar panel kept 5 devices charged nearly all the time. I only used an AC outlet 3 times in 44 days.

I want to thank John Henry who runs the bikejournalbackup.com web site. He rescued this journal from oblivion after I failed to download it.

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