brandon martin-anderson is a cool guy, with cool ideas. back in 2007 i painstakingly recorded a gmap-pedometer log of each of my non-trivial bike rides for the year and recorded the url in a google spreadsheet. using his mad skills, brandon has taken the gpx data pulled out from those 215 gps records and in about five minutes thrown them into the image above. he’s cropped off the long bits – the ben country ride out to hood canal, the trip to whidbey, and the trek out to fall city. but the rest is there, an impressive trace of my rides around the city two years ago. the full-size version is even cooler. maybe i should start this project up again.

as for brandon, he’s got some even cooler ideas. do you have a bunch of your bike ride data saved?

similarly, this evening i got around to measuring my bicycles. i’d had some conversations with alex about my swift folder and adjusting it to match the cockpit of my long haul trucker – a bike i knew fit me well for all types of riding. i set out with the measuring tape and lo and behold i was surprised to find that even though the swift folder is a 20″ wheeled aluminum fixed gear with bmx bars, it has the same bottom bracket-to-handlebar, bottom bracket-to-saddle, and saddle-to-handlebar measurements as the long haul trucker – down to a couple millimeters. the same held true for my trek. the pugsley was the outlier, primarily because it rocks (runs? rubs?) a lower saddle. across the board, without ever really consciously measuring out any of these bikes, i’d arrived at a very narrow range of comfortable lengths.

so, logically, i now feel an impetus to revisit my old workplace with a measuring tape and sort out the relevant distances that made me able to work there for many years without discomfort. and maybe i’ll take that old green chair, because for all it’s lack of adjustability, it sure never hurt my back.

i should probably weigh this configuration. this is my current “default pack” for trips and i’m trying to minimize it down. i can clearly save some weight in a few areas – i’m carrying some redundant tools, for example: gerber, swiss army knife, leatherman micra. if only they made a true camping/cycling multitool. the right bucket has tons of room leftover for more food or clothing as necessary. for true “camping” trips i’d also bring a stove and water purifier. now to get a few hours of racktime before the big ride!

the slow progression of sunlight deeper into the evening combined with the noticeable change in the texture of the rain has started to stir in me a longing to load up my bike with camping supplies and head out into the wilderness. the showers over the weekend were just the right kind that, had i actually been out adventuring, i’d not have minded a bit of a misting.

instead of actually riding my bike, however, i went over to alex’s to finish brazing a new porteur rack for the long haul trucker. i broke the $8 nashbar rack i’d been using sometime last year and over the winter i’ve been using a bulky, heavy jandd extreme front rack. it’s hard to imagine any amount of weight making the lht feel more sluggish, but somehow that beast accomplished it.

the new rack uses a platform scavenged from alex’s first build, and since he no longer likes the look of 3/8″ tubing i took advantage of it and built myself a beefy design. it’s got an integrated 6mm mount for screwing on a bit of handlebar to hold my headlight and a cable stop on the rear for my cantilever brakes. after shopping today i put 35 pounds of groceries on it and it didn’t really flex at all, so that bodes well. i think i’m kind of getting the hang of this whole brazing thing. who knows what my next project will be?

of course, hopefully that project will be in the fall, when the weather again turns to the dark, cold, wetness. in the meantime i’ve got a new porteur rack, a new (dumpstered) downmat 9 deluxe, and my trusty bike, hammock, sleeping bag and bucket panniers that need to see the stars.

regardless, we’re currently at ainsworth state park on the oregon side of the columbia gorge. yesterday we woke up stupidly early at jace’s house in portland, loaded up our bicycles with gear, and headed out. we took the max blue line out to gresham – damn light rail is such a good mas transit experience. from there we headed west, dropped down to cross the sandy river, and then started our climb up the historic columbia river highway. the fog and clouds broke somewhere after crown point, and suddenly we were basking in the clear sunny skies of centralish oregon. we ended up going all the way to cascade locks, which included riding on the shoulder if the interstate and traversing some steep stairs as well as a six mile section of abandoned highway, restored for bicycles alone. once there we deservedly and lazily laid about in the grass and watched barges go by. and then ate the most delicious food (as it always is) from a little hamburger and ice cream stand. bacon cheeseburger and chocolate peanut butter shake for the win!

with an eye to our schedule, we came back downriver to ainsworth, once again traversing the freeway and stairs. we showed up just in time to get the already paid for site of some folks leaving early, in a full campground. win!

today we ride back over highway 30 into portland, harass jace further, clean up and ride downtown to see spamalot. i’m excited!

last weekend was intended to be a whirlwind adventure, sadly it opened with a whimper rather than a bang. instead of being able to take the train down and attend the “copious drinking” portion of my 10 year high school reunion, i instead found myself standing incredulous at the train station discovering that the amtrak cascades had all just been cancelled. with that portion of the plan removed, i went straightahead onto preparations for the 2007 black bbq, and joyously biked down to big time brewery to pick up a pair of pony kegs in my trailer. that is always good for some positive attention, and as i piled ice atop the kegs at the ghetto safeway even passing fratboys looked on in awe. the bbq was executed flawlessly, and this year i didn’t even have to learn any new lessons about mixing of intoxicants, and the resultant unmixing of stomach contents.

i did get a ride down to portland with the crew as they left, however. my mother, bless her heart, made me a delicious birthday cake in anticipation of my arrival that weekend, and i fortunately arrived before it had gone to waste. i took advantage of the weekend to show off my shiny new camping gear, pick up a shiny new macbook for the carolines and take a whirlwind visit to the fairgrounds with big jon and rosie. in less than two hours i consumed a peach milkshake, an elephant ear, kettle korn, and a corndog. and that on top of my birthday cake lunch!

the extremely brief visit to the fair was excellent, the sights and smells and tastes all at once restoring neurons that dwindle ever-so-slightly more with each passing year. i can still remember the old fairground layout, with our trailer down the dusty gravel road from the cow barns, and the smell of dried grass and fresh chipseal as i played gijoes and filled out voltron and gobot coloring books. visiting this place each year brings those memories back to the surface, firing tiny charges of electricity through the neurons and hopefully keeping them active and close at hand for when i want a fond memory to reminisce on.

this past weekend i went with .83 up to monte cristo for some bicycle camping and general outdoor hooligannery. we hiked to poodle dog pass and silver lake. i met some interesting folks, slept under the stars in my hammock, and took some photos that you might enjoy. as for now, my legs are tired, and this blog post has gotten long.

games night in the woods was pretty fun. basically a smorgasborg of food, drinking, and games with a couple 3-4 mile hikes up into the woods and down to the beach intermingled. the bicycle and bucket panniers got alot of interest, as did the hennessy hammock. several folks took naps in the hammock and everyone was quite envious of the comfort. i didn’t have the best options for where to setup, but it worked out alright. state parks are probably the worst environment for hammock camping, because they thin out most of the medium-sized trees and the natural clearings with thin underbrush of the forest give way to trails and manicured campsites.

on the way home on sunday i added a little american flag to my rear rack. i theorized that it might get me some more respect from the drivers of whidbey island, and while i didn’t do any serious data collection, i did have a pretty pleasant ride back to the ferry. riding on highway 99 through lynnwood however, was a different story. i was reminded of the peculiar patriotism of the places nobody cares about. a young gentleman in a lowered honda civic yelled at me as i rolled up to a stopsign: “america don’t want you!” doubly interesting was that this america, the america laid out as an endless line of strip malls, tobacco and gun stores, car dealerships and minimarts with giant parking lots wasn’t an america i wanted either. so in a sense we were in perfect agreement.

fire, food, friends, hiking, biking, and great weather? yeah i’m super excited to to a ton more s24o-type rides this summer.

i even almost made it all the way there and back without any kind of mechanical failure. almost.