Welcome to the West Coast bike trip blog

Hey everybody,
So the last couple weeks have seemed like six years — or something like that — but finally I am just hours away from hopping on three planes (that's right: first to Newark, then Seattle and finally Vancouver) and starting off my West Coast bike trip.

I will arrive in the beautiful Canadian outpost of Vancouver Monday afternoon around 2 PST, giving me an afternoon to hopefully pick up my bike from the store I shipped it to and do some exploring in the city. It's possible, however, that my ride will not be put together by the time I touch down. It's looking like it'll get to the store tomorrow, and I don't know how long it'll take the friendly staff there to put it back together (and, c'mon, I might be a biker, but I have no idea how to correctly assemble one).

So we'll see. Either way, I plan on staying in the city tomorrow night. I haven't made any concrete plans, but I think at this point I'll just find a cheap hostel and shack up there. I had considered using the Web site http://www.couchsurfing.com/ — a sweet site, which Mom pointed out to me — to find someone to stay with, but at this point it's probably too late. No worries. I'll be sure to utilize the site in other cities, such as Seattle.

As far as the grand plan is concerned, I am flying back from San Diego on the night of June 15, so that gives me nearly two months to bike the approximately 1,900 miles. Of course, I want to get to SD prior to that, giving myself a few days to hang out in the city — where I have a place to stay also.

So I'm banking on arriving there around June 10. Also, in mid-May Dad is coming out to Arcata in Northern California for three days of hiking. And, I'm sure, I'll spend some other days hanging out in different locations — for instance, I have a friend in the San Francisco area.

So I'm figuring on about 42 days of riding. Doing the math, side trips aside, that means averaging 45 miles a day. That shouldn't be a problem. There are some days, I'm sure, when I'll ride close to 100 miles in easy conditions. And, of course, there will be some days, especially in Northern Cali, when pumping out 30 miles over hundreds of hills will be quite the task. Everything will average out.

But overall, I like the timetable I'm giving myself. I think it'll be just right, not rushing me at all and at the same time not making me think that I'm going too fast — not that spending two weeks in SD would be a bad thing.

Anyway, that's about it. I've got to make a few final preparations here today, completely empty my room in the apartment, drop my bike and this laptop over at my aunt and uncle's house, and then I'll crash and prepare for the bevy of flights tomorrow.

If anyone is going to be out on the West Coast or wants to meet up during the trip, here are approximate dates:

April 25-26: Seattle
May 1: Astoria, OR
May 14: Crescent City, CA
May 16-20: Arcata, CA area (with Dad)
May 27-28: San Francisco
June 3: Santa Barbara
June 5-7: Los Angeles area
June 10-15: San Diego area

One final note: I'll post all my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jakeblloyd. As far as this blog, I won't have computer access every night — I'll do my share of camping — but I'd say that I'll probably post on this at least a couple times a week. So keep coming back

Peace,
Jake
PS — Besides commenting on this blog, you can reach me intermittently by e-mail at jakeblloyd@gmail.com