The true Adequate Riders, Adequate Speed

I never have a computer on my bike, I have no way of knowing how far, fast, altitude, cadence and all those other details about a ride that sometimes can be nice to know and sometimes those are the details that can take all the fun out of riding. I have no intelligent device with Stravia or Garmin gps to measure and record routes.
A few years ago when I was riding alot with Gabe and my brother used to come out every so often, he was always asking about speed, mileage. I used to just laugh and say it didn't matter, none of us were left behind, we chatted and chuckled and never felt dead at the end therefore it was always an adequate amout of miles at an adequate speed. Eventually I gave into his requests for a speed and just said 17mph just seemed like an adequate cruise speed.

Somewhere on the road between Seattle to San Fransico a roadside speed monitor captured our speed and it really was the true Adequate speed.

Arcata to Gaberville

We set off from Rob's pretty late. Me and Sandy spent a bufty night in the comfy bed and woke up late. Rob got his stuff ready to pick up his goats to take them to a kids beach party. We nipped into town, had breakfast, went to Revolution Bikes and bought brake blocks and new tyres and set off at the late time of 1pm. We rode a non eventful day until we got to the Avenue of The Giants. This was a section of the ride that I had been looking forward to. I called all the Trees we saw 'sticks' that is what they are in their rawest, most natural form and these sticks are fucking huge and beautiful. They just tower over you and the lush green canopy that they create. Breathe taking, awe inspiring, humbling the adjectives are endless. The trails through the woods would be an incredible walk to take but sadly we only skirt along edges of the roadway. Flickers of masked sunshine create atmosphere, which is randomly broken up by bright, shards of light. We coasted through the quiet road, enjoying the splendour of nature. I got my first puncture but it was no hardship to have to stop and fix it in this area. Sandy and Taj both took plenty of photos as we rolled on the visual, tarmac conveyer belt. My camera had long ranout of battery life and i had no disposible camera at the time.  An excellent casual ride brought us back into the urban setting of Gaberville.

Texting, sexting, shitting

This is the ascent out of Crescent City, it wasn't anywere as near as scary as we'd been lead to believe. Sandy thought he'd send an illegal text saying he was, 'pure shitting it'. I was cruising on the other side of the carriageway and Taj2k was calmly monstering up the climb wondering what all the fuss was about.

We ain't scared of no goats

Kalmoth to Arcada

We set off without breakfast and rode to meet Rob Jenson at a gas station on the highway. Rob had been following the trip on Faceblaster or Fairdale or somewhere on the interweb and got in touch to join us for a day on the trip. Sure enough Rob was on the roadside and after some coffee and snacks he lead us off into secluded forest roads. Apart from being a BMXer for Solid Bikes, Rob has been a park ranger for this area so, as we casually rolled down through the roads on what can best be described as a bicycle conveyer belt, Rob was dropping tree knowledge bombs on us. Star Wars, Jurassic Park were filmed in the area. He was spotting birds and wildlife for us. He escorted us to a herd of Elk, knew where a rescue helicopter was going to land. Rob was a great riding escort, Rob was a great BMXer. Sandy had a bunch of coverage once doing inverted x-up wall plants and admitted that the first person he saw doing that trick.
We rode along for a bit with a solo girl called Cleo, or Cloe or something beginning with C. She was riding to LA and was travelling on a super limited budget with a tarp and a hammock as her accommodation. She was the Queen of Adventure, Seth would have been proud of her. Rob was such a dude that without any prompting he instantly handed her his details and welcomed her to hang the hammock in his garden. What an accommodating dude. All I could think was, Sandy and Taj know some epic dudes.

We arrived into Rob hometown, Arcada and we went and hung out with his pals at Revolution Bikes. This was one cool shop. We got food, beers, various chemical sets and hung out in the sun on the pump track in the back of the shop. Taj did some art on the tree stump. I was determined to do a lap on the 16inch bike only to end up in a heap, in the dirt with the bike wrapped around my body.
As the sun set down, we followed Rob to get food, next thing we know is we are at a huge allotment garden. He took us to meet his goats and next thing he is inviting us to milk one of them. So funny, so bizarre. This had been one day of lolz, experiences and sights.
We stayed at Rob's that night. We did laundry, he cooked an epic meal with his home produce. He was the hostess with the mostess. Me and Sandy snuggled down into the most comfy bed ever. Cloe had settled into her hammock in the garden. We'd had such an epic day I forgotten that we been riding all day. Rob is a pure Solid dude. Amazing.

Le Tour

Adequate Ride, Adequate winning speech.
Sir Bradley of Wiggins.

Random shots

Gold Beach to Kalmouth

The day had started with Sandy in the cradle and it wasn't long till he followed it up with a clocked 50mph descent. The rad-o-meter was high, the chemical set had made an appearence, the lol-o-meter was high, the sun was high, everything was high. It was appropriate that we now crossed the border into California.
We thought that we'd take advantage of the good weather and try and get on the beach at Brookings and have a picnic. We took a paddle in the Ocean, Sandy made like a goat and climbed the rock and I drew a Fairdale bunny with a dobber. Good times.

The miles and towns passed by and we reached the part that Taj had feared since we set off from Portland, the climb out of Crescent City. His fear was spawned from talking to a guy who has a blog. (I know everyone who has a blog is a prick). The same guy advised and gave him some pedal straps which might work for enabling fixie skids, but for riding miles they are almost useless and Taj found this out to his own, uncomfortable, cost after about three days. It was strange to think that after all the climbing we'd done that any of us would be daunted by any terrain. To calm himself, Taj went to check out the fishing boats before tackling the climb. We let Taj2k ride off and he just made it effortless, so much so that we were joking while going up, rolling back down in sections to take photos of road signs and fallen trees. The climb out of Crescent City was a major let down on the fear factor. A week later I met someone who knows the blog guy and descrided him as, 'The Robbo' of the fixie world. When I got home, I planned to look on the interweb to see what this dude was all about but realised I probably couldn't be bothered.
We sped into Kalmoth to be greeted, much to Sandy's delight, by a huge lumberjack and his blue bull with only 1 bollock.

Gold Beach. Sandy Carson and a Bullfrog Cradle

The night before we'd spotted this skatepark, as it's literally on the side of the road. It was called The Bullfrog and was by far the tightest and gnarly park any of us had seen for a while. After seeing Taj carve about at Reedsport Sandy was chuckling that he'd take a shot at the cradle. Baring in mind we'd just eaten breakfast 10 minutes earlier, he wasted no time in stripping his pannier bags off and rolled into the bowl.
The bowl was so tight that the wheelbase of his bike actually touched each transtition. Nah worries to the ginger beard, it took three rolls in till he was over 9 o'clock. The lols were happening and after a few more goes he had nailed the cradle, even getting down in the drops for more style points.

Sandy was the photographer on the trip so it was up to my instant camera and Taj's i-phone to attempt to capture the radness. Unfortunatley, I did a shit job of that, oh well, honestly, Sandy went way higher than we caught on camera.
If he'd have done it on a fixie, blogs around the world would, probably, 'blow dat shit up'.

Random Shots

Coos Bay to Gold Beach

We set off pretty late this morning and cruised through town until the road opened up to more epic coastline, more shaded, forest greenery. I know, I know epic scenery, blah, blah, blah. One of the reasons you'd do and enjoy a trip like this is to get a different perspective on your sorroundings as you travel along, and at no point has it been disappointing.
As we cruised at a good pace me and Sandy stopped to take some shoots with the coastline as a backdrop. Taj was wacking out a good cadence and disappeared off into the distance, there was no point in us chasing down the new road riding Taj. At some point we caught up with him, ate and got coffee. The weather was bright and clear but not hot and it was the first time we had caught a tail wind which pushed us along with ease. It was a pleasure and without any effort we were eating up the miles, flying along the cliffs of the coastline.

Taj had gone on way ahead of us, Humbug Mountain, roadside dinosaurs more photos and lols delayed us but it didn't matter too much. We'd knocked out the 87 miles at speed with such little effort. Taj had made friends with an elderly couple in the Pizza parlour at Gold Beach and was in good spirits. We checked into the Motel 6 to find that there was a hot tub. Mega. Sandy and I rode back down town, went and got a brilliant Chinese meal, beers and headed back with food to find Taj loving the hot tub. Taj went back to the room and after doing laundry we snuck the beers into the hot tub. Glory. We're living like kings of the road, laughing and stoked. Sandy found a saber-tooth necklace in there and wore it for the rest of the trip as his, 'hot tub throphy'.

Random shots

Newport to Coos Bay

So we continued our journey minus a King of Adventure, the weather was dull and cold enough for us to stay wrapped up in our clothing. In honour of Seth, we took any detour off the main highways. Perhaps it was a habit we'd picked up from him? The usual, incredible coastline remains a constant delight in our visions. We maintained a casual but constant pace. Climbs were just part of the road and something none of us seemed to give a second thought about now. We joked with Taj that he was now a climber and even though he was cold, he'd realised it was part of what riding is sometimes. He actively sort to cure his coldness by stopping to buy some trackie bottoms, we hadn't killed Taj but he'd reinvented himself as scally Taj2k. Me and Sandy were happy to sit behind Taj and watch him cruise up anything now. After ditching some ill-advised pedal straps he could stay out the saddle for as long as he wanted, he knew his cassette selection and he just got on with a good rhythm. Taj 2k was finding his stoke!
We stopped off at Florence for lunch. We chatted to a really interesting old dude. Taj went and got a Chinese meal to warm himself up and me and Sandy went off into a super strong headwind looking for a surf beach. Armed with a load of picnic snacks and the chemical set, it wasn't long until I was on a deserted beach drawing huge Sano knobs in the sand. After that it wasn't long till we found ourselves staring at some huge sand dunes, in a huge empty car park, attempting to draw massive Strava Sano dicks. The lolz were flowing, jibber, jabber, crinkle, crinkle. All the stupid phrases and jokes of the trip so far were flowing out of us. In what could be described as, 'a lost hour' we went back to Taj with nothing more than a few Strava lines that resembled strange potatoes to show for our efforts.

The miles rolled by, we had a good pace, Sandy stopped for some photos and we eventually hit Reedsport skatepark which sits on the side of the road. No one was ever in the skateparks that we saw, so Taj took a few carving runs through the fullpipe. Taj 2k was loving road bikes, his bike control was translating into any situation. To our surprise, it was getting late if we wanted to make it to our potential stop at Coos Bay, roughly 29 miles away. We decided that we'd take it steady up the hills but mash it the rest of the way and before you know it Sandy is on the front banging out a speedy pace and so began a well worked chain-gang session that saw us get to Coos Bay in about an hour and 15mins.
Good effort and one that we all managed and enjoyed. None of us flinched at clocking another century+ (117 miles) and we headed off to find pizza and beers. We'd all found our stoke!

Day 6. Newport. Seth Holton, totally adequate (reprise)

Day six of our ride and it has come to the point were Seth is leaving us to catch a lift back to Seattle.
I have known Seth for a number of years as a sidekick to Ryan Worcester. To me they are, 'The Kings of Adventure'. The tales of wild adventures and them pushing their boundaries to what could perhaps be described as a life threatening situations are as stupid as they are inspiring.
From the very start of the trip Seth's only agenda was for fun. He is laid back and not in your face but he certainly doesn't need any encouragement for laughter. At any opportunity he was having a 'lolcano eruption'. He brought a backpack that he stacked with all kinds of things, food, clothes, survival shelters and his own chemical set which was used on our departure, only yards away from his front door.
I have already mentioned that Seth has incredible riding skills and his route choice was brilliant. He knew when to steer clear of highways and he was a great motivator to help you ride any condition or terrain but it was all the useful and fun knowledge bombs he kept dropping that made it for me.

Always helpful, he'd push broken down cars, lift beer kegs onto pick up trucks, whatever needed doing he was there to assist. After I left my waterproof jacket in a bar he gave me his saying, 'Don't worry, you'll need it and I got it out of a dumpster anyway'. I expected nothing less from him and would have felt slightly disappointed if he hadn't have got the jacket from a bin. He was constantly pointing out the wildlife that we saw, he knew about the 22degree sun flare, he was predicting weather conditions, bike maintenance tips, the best way to dry wet clothing, telling tales of his friends, who are real life adventurers of beyond epic proportions and he proved the existence of the gnarliest creature alive, The Wolverine. He was our experienced roadie and our riding pillar of wisdom.
After handing over the batten of the chemical set, he was ready to leave and decided to drop his biggest knowledge bombs. I wish I'd have been able to record these 'Seth-phonics' because it was amazing. He was just telling us to relax, cruise the downhills smoothly, never fight the hills, stay calm cos he knew we could get up anything, just find a comfortable cadence, get your rhythm, don't force it and 'you'll find your stoke'.
Seth, you are half the King of Adventure. We did find our stoke. Thanks.