The Global ARC

Bicycle Log 3: Seattle to Portland

Posted by Keith Pezzoli on July 29, 2010 at 10:05 PM

Bicycle Log 3

: Upper Pacific Nothwest, inland

Route

:Seattle, WA to Portland, OR

Date

: July 22, 2010

Time

: 5:30am-9:30pm, 4hrs

Distance

: 200 miles

Weather

:interior of an Amtrack Train, local beer and clam chowder while railing it at 79 mph.

To highlight the value of multimodal transit, we decided to make a few swaths of Journey 2010 highlight alternatives other than the bicycle (rail, boat, biodiesel). In this case, its “higher speed” rail. Train advocates in this region characterize the Pacific Coastal (Cascades) route as higher speed, not high speed (since high speed trains often exceed 100 mph). Framing it as higher speed avoids many of the problems that have thwarted high speed rail in many places (high speed trains need expensive new infrastructure, where as higher speed trains can run on pre-existing track. The higher speed rail advocates see benefits in fast moving standard rail transit, as in Amtrack trains.

We were very fortunate to have great connections with Amtrack administrators, conductors, staff and even a train legend named Lloyd Flem. Lloyd agreed to give us an interview about train travel during the section from Seattle to Olympia. David Weisman introduced us to Lloyd who is a wonderful man full of joy, knowledge and enthuasm for train travel. We will soon have the better part of this interview posted on our YouTube channel.

Seattle Train Station

Signage above Seattle Train Station

posted in Journey of the Global ARC 2010 •

Bicycle Log 2: Bellingham, WA to Seattle, WA

Posted by Keith Pezzoli on July 28, 2010 at 08:52 AM

Bicycle log 2

: Upper Pacific Nothwest, inland

Route

: Bellingham, WA to Seattle, WA

Date

: July 20, 2010

Time

: 6:30am-5:30pm, 11hrs

Distance

: 103.5 miles

Weather

: low 50s in the morning foggy/damp and cold to the bone for first 2 hours, 70s around noon and later

Ann Mosness kindly gave me a push start by taking me to a safe departure point from her home in Bellingham (thanks Ann!) to the route I planned for a full day of riding. It wasn’t easy figuring out which way to go since this part of the trip departed from the Adventure Cycling coastal route I’ve been following. Google has a get there by bicycle feature, but this does not work so well for long distance. I ended up combining suggestions given to me from several locals, including one fellow who periodidally commutes from Bellingham to Seattle and knows the way well. Local knowledge is almost always the best knowledge. I traveled by bike, around 90 miles to Seattle. It took all day. The couple hours of the trip were bone numbing cold, foggy and damp. The others drove in the Vanogan.

On my way to Seattle I took the Centennial Trail—a 17 mile streach of bike trail that used to be a rail line (part of the rails to trails program). This is the way to travel. 17 miles of dedicated bike roadway with wonderful views and tree canopy. And I got to ride along side a local who told me all about the rail to trails program. The rail line, no longer in use, got pulled up to put a bike lane in its place. The state of Washington has big plans to extent the trail.

Overall the inland rounte I took to get to Seattle was pretty bad in terms of bike friendliness—the way into Seattle has a lot of traffic and many roads without good shoulders. There are exceptions much to the riders relief—for instance there is a designated urban bike route that is well marked and heavily used. We captured a very nice interveiw with Jemae Hoffman which is available on our YouTube channel. She talks about bike lanes and other broader issues (how bicycle friendleness ties in with health, climate change and other issues): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh0L3O-lVcw

posted in Journey of the Global ARC 2010 •

Bicycle Log 1: Vancouver, BC to Bellingham, WA

Posted by Keith Pezzoli on July 21, 2010 at 11:12 PM

Bicycle log 1

: First leg of the Journey 2010

Route

: Vancouver, BC to Bellingham, WA

Date

: July 17, 2010

Time

: 7:00am-6:20pm, 11hrs. 40min.

Distance

: 93.5 miles

Weather

: low 50s in the morning, 70s around noon and later.

After getting all my marbles in order, I finally shoved off on my bicycle for the very first leg of Journey 2010. It was 7:00am on Sat. July 17, 2010. I departed from an on-campus hostel at the University of British Columbia in the northwestern part of Vancouver. It was a crisp and chilly morning –perfect riding weather. The saddle bag on my bicycle (a hybrid Fuji road bike) is fully equipped with bike parts and tools, spare tire tubes, food, sunscreen, charting and camera gear. A ‘flip mini’ high definition video camera is attached to the handle bars to capture what it looks like from the rider’s perspective.

The first 20 miles were all a gentle downhill slope. Easy riding –about 20 miles per hour. Over the course of the entire day I average about 14 miles per hour, cruising speed on flat land is 17 mph, fastest I’m willing to go downhill is 35mph. The fastest flat land speed record for a bicycle is 150 mph; and some cyclist managed to peddle 50 miles in one hour. I’m not into speed or world records. What I do like are the climbs, people I meet on the go, and scenery (urban-industrial, agricultural, rivers, forests, mountains, sky).

The first 25 miles out of Vancouver are very interesting. Much of the ride follows the Fraser River. The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada; together with the Columbia River it drains the Pacific Nothwest. The river’s delta is a stopover location for migrating shorebirds. The banks of the river are lined with industrial uses, logging and pulp mills, farmland, and a few small tributary dams which provide hydroelectric power. Riding this route one sees thousands of cut trees stacked high on flat bed trucks, in lumber yard stock piles awaiting slicing and dicing for human consumption, and in holding bins in the river itself. It all gives you a clear view of the gigantic throughput of natural resources –especially when staring at a sawdust piles as large as the Galamis sand dunes in California.

From Vancouver on the way to Bellingham one has to get through the US-Canadian border. I got through in no time at all peddling past a log jam of cars on the Canadian side 2 hours long. I know it was 2 hours since this is how long the drivers (Jayne, Chris and David) had to wait while crossing the border in the Vanagon (they are my support vehicle till we pick up the SolTrekker in Portland, a biodiesel bus). In a remarkable feat of timing, I arrived at the border at the same time as the follow on vehicle. As I speed toward the border, moving past all the stopped cars, I spotted the Vanagon in line. I called out to David who slouched down in the passenger side front seat appeared to be in a border wait induced semi-coma. My voice stirred him to consciousness; and he, like me, expressed amazement that our paths crossed at the border. Keep in mind the border is about 45 miles from Vancouver. I left at 7am. They left several hours later. The way the follow on support vehicle works is they leave either before or after me and they go all the way to the day’s final destination. They don’t literally follow.

I crossed the border with the assist of a border guard who likes cycling. No other cyclers were around at the time. He speed me to the head of the line –which looked to have 100-200 people on it inside the customs building.

From the border one goes through Blaine and Ferndale, two towns. Since I had plenty of time and good weather I took advantage of my camera equipment –beginning my photo archive of street droppings (photos of metal debris alongside the road), and street food –either alive on the side of the road or fallen to the ground from a passing truck. More on this later.