It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog from a ferry. Over the months we’ve been away it’s on occasion been the ideal time to get ‘caught up’ with getting all of you… caught up. From the journey from Busan (South Korea) to Fukuoka (Japan), to the several ferries we caught between Japan’s main islands, to the Spirit of Tasmania connecting Tassie with the Australian mainland, to NZ’s interislander – we have enjoyed a few ferry journeys on this trip. (Let alone all of the many many ferries we caught in Europe!)
So, where am I writing from this time? We boarded the Clipper V about half an hour ago and have just left Seattle’s Eliot Bay, entering Puget Sound en route to… Vancouver Island, Canada! Yup, our time in America’s Pacific Northwest has come to an end and we are heading even more Northwest to British Columbia. This is a big day in many ways as it marks our entry into our very last country on this trip! Nearly a year ago we set off from the UK, and now here we are, about to arrive in our 25th country. For me, this feels like a big ‘wow’ moment. When we set off, I wasn’t expecting to go to Canada. At points, I wasn’t even expecting to get to Istanbul! It’s been the journey of a lifetime, for sure. And the best 12 months I’ve had on this beautiful planet so far. I think Matt would agree too (I hope so).
I guess I should save anymore reflection for when we are actually approaching the real ending – as we still have quite a bit of cycling and exploring to do before we finally arrive ‘home’. Plus, we last posted from California…
Exploring the Beaver State
This trip is always full of surprises and cycling from the bottom to the top of Oregon is a surprising thing that I didn’t expect to do in my lifetime. Not because it’s a particularly long way, or because it’s particularly hard (although it was at times) – but because Oregon is somewhere I hadn’t really paid much attention to before arriving there. No expectations = lots of surprises!
Our first surprise was that Oregon has some truly stunning coastline. We all think about Californian beaches when we think of America’s Pacific coastline – but Oregon’s was just as beautiful.
Our first couple of days were spent hugging the coast and with the volume of traffic feeling manageable, and the weather being kind(ish – the wind was not on our side, of course) we enjoyed some epic views.
Our second surprise was Oregon’s State Parks. We thought we had American State Parks sussed from our time in California. But oh no, Oregon is level up. They have invested in making these campgrounds really comfortable with heated bathrooms, ‘free’ showers and the option of a $7 hiker/biker spot… or, a yurt for under $50. As the weather became less kind and more continuously wet, we remembered that Jeremy and Jesus (from Vancouver, BC) had ‘discovered’ Oregon’s yurts and recommended that we stay in one. We were so glad they did. We had two nights in what felt like relatively luxurious comfort. Thank you Oregon!
Cycling from yurt to yurt, to hiker/biker spot, to the odd motel we made our way up to Florence, a town about halfway up the coastline. By this point the ‘charms’ of Hwy 101 were starting to wear thin for us both. The road was rarely hugging the coastline as it had earlier on our journey, and the traffic had become increasingly heavy.
We were starting to not enjoy the riding, with kilometre counting and shoulder hugging become the daily theme. So as we’ve learnt to do on this trip, we took a swerve and headed inland over the coastal range via a much quieter road, ultimately taking us to Eugene in the Willamette Valley.
The warmest of WarmShowers
Our arrival into Eugene was on a randomly very warm and sunny afternoon. The warmth continued with a wonderful welcome from our WarmShowers host Barb who welcomed us into her apartment very near the downtown. Aside from making sure we adjusted our pronunciation of Willamette (it’s WillAMette, damnit) and sharing her own travel stories with us, Barb also took us to the best patisserie in Oregon (possibly the best patisserie outside of Europe!) Thank you Barb 🙂
The warm and dry weather was definitely a blip as our next day of riding was spent getting intermittently wet as we cycled north up the valley. The landscape had changed completely from the coastal riding with lots of small farms dotting the countryside. Our destination was Corvallis – another university town and also home to Kim and Mark, our next WarmShowers hosts.
Having had quite the run of cycling days in a row (I think nearly two weeks) we took Kim up on her offer of staying two nights and had a really really lovely time in hers and Mark’s home. There are too many highlights to share but we are still talking about the college Women’s Basketball game Kim took us to (March Madness! Go Beavs!) as well as the delicious meals she cooked for us, the countless friends we met (the Farmer’s Market on the Saturday morning was the Who’s Who of Corvallis), the afternoon tea with Kim’s British friend Cath (who brought actual proper English Breakfast Tea over with her, and her teapot, and tea cosy) and the dinner party spent with Corvallis’ other WarmShowers hosts Sam and Beth. We were made to feel so at home – a really special two nights and a reminder of the generosity of strangers yet again.
Portland
Onwards and further north with another long wet day we stayed in our last Oregon State Park at Champoeg, the historic site of Oregon’s vote to join the Union back in 1843, before heading further North to Oregon’s biggest city, Portland.
Portland is somewhere I had heard of before coming here – mainly as being a super progressive city which welcomes everyone. We enjoyed a four night midweek stop here to let the rain pass through as well as taking my bike in to River City Cycles for them to replace my rear rim under warranty (finally – it cracked in NZ!)
Having an extended stay gave us the opportunity to enjoy four hotel buffet breakfasts, some wine tasting, a visit to the Oregon Historical Society and the Japanese American Museum (the story of the internment of Japanese American people in the Second World War was educational and harrowing), coffee drinking and most excitingly of all – about two hours spent in the biggest/best bookshop we’ve ever been to – Powell’s City of Books. Heaven (except for not being able to buy any books).
It’s worth noting that whilst we enjoyed our time in Portland, we also found the downtown eerily quiet, which along with a very visible street homeless population left us wondering if the city has hit hard times. We’re still not sure – but chatting to some locals, the consensus is that the impact of covid has been significant, with many people now working from home full time meaning that the vibrancy of the city centre is maybe not what it used to be.
Rail trailing
After a few weeks on the road in the US, the actual cycling on the road was starting to get a bit old. As I’ve mentioned a few times, there is a lot of traffic on American roads, making even back roads or roads which look like they might be quiet on the map, not always that enjoyable to ride on. To give us some respite – for our route out of Portland Matt managed to connect up the trails of the city’s Forest Park with a rail trail connecting the small town of Banks with Vernonia, further North which gave us a really enjoyable day of riding for our penultimate day in Oregon.
The next day was just as good, with the discovery of some quiet roads at last, some proper climbing and views of Mount St Helen’s and even riding with some real life American road cyclists! The sunshine was also very welcome, albeit it did make camping very very cold at night, and particularly in the mornings. Our first ice covered tent experience was not a lot of fun…
Sunshine in the Evergreen State
And just like that we were crossing the Columbia River into Washington, the northern most of America’s Pacific states. The next couple of days were spent winding our way roughly parallel to the Interstate 5 (not the most inspiring of routes, but the views of Mount St Helen’s and then latterly the absolutely ginormous Mount Rainier made it worthwhile), and then eastwards to a lovely night spent near Enumclaw, Southeast of Seattle.
After a longer than expected day of riding – combining some more rail trail riding, with some busier truck-heavy roads, we were very grateful to arrive at Christina and Peter’s house. Christina is the sister of another of Matt’s friends from Japan, Nick. Whilst our trip had surprisingly enough not included travelling through Bahrain where Nick and his family are currently based, it was super lovely to enjoy some Von Mertens hospitality all the same. Thank you Christina and Peter 🙂
Seattle!
Which brings us nearly up to date as we depart the big city of Seattle. Hands down our favourite city in the US from this trip – we’ve loved every minute! The cycle infrastructure bringing us into the city, and around for some cycle-seeing has been some of the best we’ve seen in any city in the world.
The coffee and beer has been delicious, the sun has shone quite a bit, Pike Place Market was buzzing, and we even managed to coincide our visit with the first Thursday of the month which means free museum entry – SAM (Seattle Art Museum) and the National Nordic Museum were both highlights, as well as the always free Klondike Goldrush Museum. We also enjoyed the public art dotted about the city and the views of the Olympic mountains to the west, the Cascades to the east and Puget Sound. What a place!
Canada here we come…
So that’s a wrap on the US. What a place… It’s hard to put into words everything we’ve learnt/seen/experienced here. And if I attempted to do so it might come across as a judgement on this enormous country, which I can’t claim to even begin to understand.
It’s definitely a place of extremes – we’ve had some amazing moments, but we’ve also wondered at the craziness of it all and what the future holds for America and Americans.
Will we feel more at home in Canada? Only one way to find out…
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