From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

It’s strange weather here on the coast of Oregon. In September, high pressure systems mean that clouds collect over the ocean but the land itself often stays sunny. It’s a constant battle between the land and sea – played out in the skies above us. After having several sunny days, it seems that the ocean is winning this one: the fog right now is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Every day we meet more and more bicyclists. Everyone’s got their own story, and we’re all happy to share our experiences. We’ve made friends with Ben and Nathan (in their thirties), two brothers from California, who hadn’t sat in the saddle since they were teenagers and who are now travelling down the West coast from the Canadian border to the Mexican one. We’ve been running into them at night, at the camping sites, for about a week now – although we never made plans to meet up! Yesterday we also met a Dutch/Australian couple, Aaldrik and Sonya, who were two years into a five year trip around the world. After doing Europe and Asia, they landed in Vancouver, and are taking the same route as us for the next year and a half.

Even though the coast of Oregon is known for all the cyclists, it’s not like the other vehicles on the road really give us any room. We’ve had several close encounters with large flat-bed semis, who not only don’t leave us any room, but they spatter us with sawdust and bits of bark as they pass. But what, you might ask, are all these big trucks doing transporting full load after full load back and forth along the coast? It would seem that the people in the South much prefer the wood that grows in the North, and the people in the North like the wood that grows in the South. Does that seem logical? We’re entirely lost – at any rate, it doesn’t resemble anything like sustainable development.

Scrounnnnnnthch! It was an incongruous noise that interrupted the regular morning sounds of hikers and bikers at the Sunset Bay camp where we were yesterday morning. Everyone was getting ready to go, but the strange noise stopped the preparations in their tracks. The noise came from our own tent as we were trying to take it apart. One of the aluminum supports just gave way entirely. Super annoyed, we continued to pack up and our neighbour Aaldrik (who had the same tent as ours) told us that all of his supports had broken. So he knew what the problem was and had the tools to fix it – if we could meet him that night at the next hiker/biker camp 100km down the road!

So what is a hiker/biker camp? The state of Oregon runs camping sites that are open to everyone – from the huge camping cars, to single hikers and bikers. Hiker/biker camps are just special sites that are reserved and have been fitted for people just like us – no motor vehicles allowed!

PS. Don’t worry – Aaldrik helped us to fix our tent… I just hope it stays that way!

Sara & Sébastien