April 2022 Update

Wow, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, but don’t worry we’re still here! After finishing our bike tour down the Pacific Coast last year it feels like Andrew and I have been going nonstop! (just not on the bike).

A Quick Recap of the Coast Tour

The tour itself was fabulous. We are so glad we did it, and anxious to go on another, maybe not quite as big, adventure. We decided around 20-30 days would be a good sweet spot on the time frame for a future ride: long enough to get a routine, but not so long that you are a little tired of the road (at least that’s what we’re guessing based on our San Francisco mental slump).

From a technical perspective, there isn’t really anything I would change about how we did the trip or what gear we brought. Sure we may have brought too many clothes, and I don’t know if we ever pulled out our deck of cards? But other than a camera we sent home with Andrew’s mom after she met up with us, we didn’t feel the need to send anything else home part way through the trip – so I’d say that’s a win!

Bike setup, the tandem rear bags were a little wide making the already cumbersome tandem a little more unwieldy, but a trailer would have been worse, so we’ll mark that down as an “eh, it worked”.

We definitely got better at meals as we went along, we started the tour carrying way too much food, and realized we could just restock more often. I do wish we had kept track of our meals a little better, just to know and share what we actually made, but I guess that’ll be a mission for next time! In case you are wondering, we have enjoyed our standard “room” temperature bean burritos plus hot sauce since the bike tour, those will probably forever remain to be our go to easy on the run meal.

All in all, I’d say we did pretty darn well for our first big tour, and to think we had only been camping a handful of times prior to that trip!

Getting to the Present

Our first task after finishing our tour was finding an apartment. In October we settled down into a nice 850sq ft ADU in inner Northeast Portland. After a couple weeks spent furnishing the place, we took a 10 day cruise down the Columbia River with my [Angela’s] family to celebrate my parents’ 40th anniversary. The trip went from Astoria, OR to Lewiston, WA and then bussed us up to Spokane where we could catch a flight home. It was really neat seeing the Columbia River from a new perspective (even if we were the youngest guests on the boat by about 30 years haha)!

On the last day of that trip we took a guided city tour around Spokane, WA. It was then that I decided I would try out being a tour guide! You see, up to that point I had always been too intimidated to try guiding, I just didn’t know if I would be good enough. And when I thought back on all the amazing guides we’ve had in the past, like Sölvi in Iceland, how could I compete!? However, that particular tour in Spokane was soooo bad, like comically bad. So bad in fact that I felt that I owed it to the world to become a tour guide. If guides like that one in Spokane existed, then clearly the tourism world needed me! So even though I’d only been in Portland for less than a year I jumped in feet first, and have fallen in love with guiding and sharing all the gems that Portland and the surrounding area has to offer!

With my new job I’ve been spending a lot of time studying, learning, exploring, and well guiding around the Portland area, so I haven’t found the time to write a post. (I also spent a fair amount of time creating a personal memento book of our Pacific Coast bike tour – we’re really pleased with how that turned out!) It seems a little weird to write about the places I now take people for work, since I obviously want you to come take a tour with me so that I can just show you the area myself! But who knows, maybe I’ll get over that feeling and write something about the area someday; but that day is not today. But, you can always check out my instagram for teaser pics of what Oregon has to offer!

Andrew has also been busy, he took a new job (same type of work, different company) and so far so good! He also spent a lot of time building up a bike from parts! And just because he likes an extra challenge (and saving money), almost all of his bike parts were actually bought used! He bought the Polyvalent frame new, and bought new wheels and a couple other hard to find things, but most of the other bits that make up his bike came out of the “misc used bike parts” tubs at our local bike co-op! (he’s so cool!) One of his shifters was actually rescued way back in Kansas City where someone had put old handlebars on the curb to be thrown away which was instead found and picked up by us.

Back to the now and into the future

After completing our big tandem bike tour, Andrew and I have gotten a lot of questions about what’s next. Well right now we’re focusing on adventuring around our new home. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is just so spectacular, and diverse, and well… different from the other places we’ve lived before. We don’t have any “big” tours planned, and we have decided that at least for now we are going to hang the tandem up on the wall (figuratively AND literally) and instead try out bike camping on our individual bikes! (To think I learned how to ride a bike just over 5 years ago – look at me go!)

We’ve spent the winter months kitting out our bikes with gear and doodads. After having gone on such a long adventure we’ve learned a thing or two about what’s important to us on the road. We’re hoping that in May it’ll FINALLY be warm enough that we will actually want to go camping again. So, soon we’ll have a chance to test out our bike set ups and see what needs adjusting. We plan to do several small overnight adventures just to explore the area better and dial down our new single bike set ups. As well as those small adventures, we have one “big” bike trip planned for 2022 (but don’t get too excited it’s not that big since it’ll still only take a couple days – but ya know, a couple days of awesomeness jam packed with natural goodies and delights so it’ll still be a “big” adventure, and with plenty of excitement for you to enjoy your virtual trip through us.)

To sum up, sorry for my winter silence, but there’s definitely more adventures to come!

New Single Bike set up:

Angela’s Bike:
Salsa Vaya [named Pablo] in the lovely teal color – because how could I pass up that color!? And Pablo just started sporting some excellent patterned bright pink chevron bar tape! He sure knows how to accessorize!

Bags: (2) 10L front panniers we found used (Swift Jr Ranger Panniers), 12L tail bag (Swift Zeitgeist Pack) with a cute path less pedaled patch, 11L handlebar bag (Ortlieb Handlebar-pack QR) and maybe a frame bag taken from the tandem setup if I need more carrying capacity. Oh and my super fun water bottle cage from Portland Design Works “lucky cat”

Andrew’s Bike:
Polyvalent that he built up himself!
– Andrew decided more colors = more fun! (He is currently doubting this decision)

Bags: super cute 28L (max capacity) basket bag (ReLoad Bags -Deluxe Waldo Basket Bag) with a PCH patch from our trip! , the two 15L front red panniers from the tandem set up (Ortlieb sport packer classic), and our old dry bag we used on the tandem tour strapped on as a makeshift “stuff tail bag” that will probably get replaced after our first overnighter, but we wanted to try it out as well as our other bags before spending any more money!