Stump Town Stompin'

Hey Gang,

So much has happened since I last wrote, but the anticipation has built to a fever pitch and BLAM...here's the deal.  So, on Monday we got all geared up and headed east from Plymouth to the St. Paul train station.  Our friend Jesse was super awesome and drove us and all our gear to the station, he also brought our Bon Voyage caravan of Mark and Sarah to send us off in style.  My parents and brother also decided they wanted to send me off at the station so basically for about an hour we took over the train station with our antics and tomfoolery.  Admittedly, nerves were getting the best of me and I was feeling sick ALL day.  Nausea and headache and "other things" were plaguing my poor body so I was feeling out of sorts to say the least.  BUT I was determined to suck it up and have a good time.

Just keepin' it real

Lollygagin' around in the Amtrak station

Faking it with my brother, Ryan.

Bro's gettin' emotional, Oh Sarah.

"Help me Lani"

Yes we took turns boarding the train

LAAAAANI

After some tearful goodbyes (ahem SARAH ahem) we boarded the train and hunkered down for a long haul. We should have realized that an 11:15pm departure time translated to "quiet time" once we boarded, but the excitement of the trip was getting to us and we were quickly told to shut up or move to the lounge car if we wanted to chat.  Erring on the side of caution we dove into our books and then quickly fell asleep for the next 10 to 12 hours (i.e. we slept through the Dakota's...THANK GOD)  Lani and her lanky physique found it difficult to find a comfy position on the train seats, so she hatched a devious plan to spread out on the floor for maximum sprawling.  BUT HOW?? Well we were seated in the last set of seats before the stairwell meaning there was a little slice of real estate just behind our chairs and she was able to lay diagonally, with her legs just under our seats, and not create a safety hazard for people walking by:  See picture:

Nesting

You all might be thinking, but what about you Maggie?  Well, with Lani on the ground I was free to flop around the 2 seats, any which way I desired without a care...pretty ideal, cuz I'm a flopper.  All in all it was a pretty sweet train ride, despite the 3 year old ginger boy with the duck tail who was just finding his voice, but not his volume control...I mean...he was at least cute and not TRYING to be annoying, I don't think, and his mom tried to take him to the lounge car whenever he got too crazy.  Oh and someone threw a bottle at Lani's head while she was on the floor, mistaking her for a trashcan I suppose.

Shhhhhh....

From the train we saw some pretty amazing sights and managed to capture some of them on camera, sadly it was just starting to be dusk when we were going through Glacier National Park in western Montana.  We met some hippie guys from Missoula, fresh (or not so fresh) off the festival, jam band, "I haven't showered in weeks" circuit who proclaimed that eastern Montana should just be called "West Dakota, cuz I'm not claimin' that shit, hell no".  Sadly, I'd have to agree,  there isn't much to be said for the prairie portion of Montana, at least not the parts we saw, which isn't saying much because anything off an Amtrak line isn't all that rosy. 

Woke up to this site somewhere in Washington

This is my life now

Are we in Oregon?

GORGE-ous 

Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park again

"Wait, I think I see a mountain lion!"

Gearing up after we got off the train

Look who made it to Portland, OR....THESE GUYS!!

We were surprised to be greeted by Portland's sunnier sun, until about an hour later and then it rained

That's right gang, we actually did it. We are currently seeking refuge from the start of the rainy season here in Portland in our former classmate, Kyle Drake's, home on the northeast side of Portland.  So far he's been a more than gracious host and his roommates are quite delightful.  Kyle met us at the train station only moments after our arrival on his break from work, so kind that gentleman.  After giving us a run down of where he lived we rolled through the city and managed to find his house and set up our tent in the backyard.  After a few moments of organizing and screwing our heads on straight we were introduced to Kyle's roommate, David, who offered to make us breakfast.  Now...if this situation were reversed, I would probably not just be coming home from yoga on my morning off and offer to make a salmon, kale and egg scrambler for some strangers who pitched a tent in my backyard claiming to be "friends" with my roommate. I would be still be sleeping and if I happened to be awake it would be coco puffs for all in breakfast department.  Fortunately I am NOT the host in this scenario and salmon and kale egg scrambler it was.  David also made a very detailed set of directions to various spots in Portland that might be of interest to ladies such as us.  On a full tummy and with directions in hand we unloaded our bikes and set off, only to be bombarded with rain.  Fortunately we packed our rain gear and were relatively ready for the wetness. After some exploratory hours on Hawthrone street and me realizing I was on the brink of exhaustion (I lost Lani in a book store and almost called 911) we headed back to Casa Drake, just in time for Kyle to come home from work and whisk us off to dinner at one of the local food cart spots in Portland.  Apparently there is a BUSTLING food cart community in Portland and we feasted thanks to that.  Some crazy french fries with gravy and cheese curds and REALLY amazing pizza with homemade cane sugar soda and salted caramel shakes and baby we was ALRIGHT.  Since it was raining and Kyle is very gracious we took advantage of the indoor sleeping arrangements and managed to stay nice and dry. 

That's the adventure thus far.  Today should be a nice relaxing day, with perhaps some exploring depending on the weather and our energy level.  We've heard good things about taking the lightrail up to the zoo and then riding the giant hill down...could be fun...or this could be my last entry.  I guess you'll find out.  

Lani and Kyle and FOOD CART MAGIC

I'm sure Lani is glad she opted for the Marmot rain gear vs. the bag she was planning on taking with

Check the Flickr photostream to get the full picture experience.  Until we have an internet connection again!!

-Maggie and Lani (mostly Maggie though :o)

Reader Support TIME!!

Hey Gang,
With only a few short days until we launch we have been scrambling to find contacts and firm up some spots to potentially stay along the way.  We plan on camping as much as possible, but with uncertainty of weather and availability of camping site we want to have all the bases covered.

We are hooked up with some organic farms to work and stay on in southern Oregon and even a micro farm in northern Cali WITH GOATS!!! We just want to put out an A.P.B. for anyone who is willing to toss out some contact info for people from Portland all the way down to San Diego who might be up for some cool, but potentially smelly ladies to sleep in their yard or  maybe on a pull out couch.  We have a profile on Couch Surfers under my name (Maggie McDonald) and are getting decent responses.

STILL...we like the warm fuzzy feeling we get from being with friends of friends or whatever cuz being murdered or violated by strangers isn't a part of our plan...EVER.

ALSO...if you have some points of interest you think we NEED to check out then CHIME IN!

Send all the feedback and tidbits you've got to oldshoesnewfeet@gmail.com or leave a comment to this posting.

5 more days!!!!!!

Best,
Maggie and Lani

T-minus 1 week and I'm lookin' real good.

Konichiwa internet pals,

We are just a WEEK AWAY from launching this here thang.  In preparation I have been doing a lot of sleeping in and indulging in food I find in my parents pantry.  Yes, I'm living at home now, in this last week before the trip.  Two weeks with no job or apartment leaves one a bit limited in the options department.  My friend, Pete, who also cut my hair, was gracious enough to hook me up with an air mattress last week in his guest room.  I'm trying to spread the Marge love around and have now decided to spend the remainder with the folks.  I think mom's real happy about that, love you too mom.

It's coming down to the wire and I know my heart is a flutter with anticipation and anxiety.  We've had some last minute changes, additions, subtractions and substitutions to the gear roster.  Most notably, the sleeping bag I was borrowing from my dad was discovered to have a bum zipper, so out it went and I'm awaiting a new Slumberjack Tourlite, it's rated for 40 degrees, but I tend to run a bit hot when it comes to sleeping bags so less is more in my book, plus I'll have lots of layers should it get a bit frosty out, which we are realizing it probably will be.  The sudden drop in temp in the last week from the mid 80's to the low 60's, really had me racing around looking for all the long johns and fleece jackets I could muster up.  If there is one thing worse than being over heated, it's being under heated with no recourse.  Suddenly the spandex shorts and cut off t-shirts aren't looking so appealing and instead I'm contemplating strapping a radiator to my bike, but...where would I plug it in?

Comfy

Lani ended up getting a different sleeping pad since they were on sale at REI and she felt like the extra support would be nice.  She went from a stingy half inch pad to a plush 1.5 inch pad.  Well done my friend.

Since Lani decided against the bivy tent she initially bought for herself, that left us with 2 bivy tents and a rather tough decision for me...which bivy do I take?   The coleman bivy I had been rocking worked great and handled itself well on our overnight trips, but with one flaw.  It built up a lot of condensation INSIDE the tent toward my feet and that's never fun to wake up to, a cold layer of dew on your feet.  Blah.  So I'm opting to take her Eureka Bivy tent that is ALL mesh on top and then has a rainfly that covers the whole tent, leaving a BIT more airflow.  

Something like this

What else?  Alright, full disclosure time again.  Initially starting out Lani and I had all these convictions about retaining our own identities and no succumbing to the lycra and spandex and flourecent gear that most people take on an endevour such as this. So...we would wear our own clothes, rock some janky bikes, ditch the dayglow, and the hell with helmet mirrors.  Slowly, as more research was done and fears of unpreparedness crept in we abandoned our youthful ideals and bought some goddamn Teva sandals. 

Everyone is doing it apparently

Sure it was fine when we both bought cycling shorts, with padded crotches, and yeah, so what, I bought a flashy colored REFLECTIVE rain jacket, and OF COURSE we need helmet mirrors, it's just the SAFE thing to do.  We did all this and still maintained that we were being true to our original mission statement.  Gritty, hardened, stylish, urban biker types....and then...well....we sacrificed a huge slice of street cred when we bought these little GEMS.

Lani's version...oy.

I mean, if there was one threshold I was NOT willing to cross it was the Keen/Teva sandal threshold, but then I tried on a pair and....well....they are just so functional.  Lani bought hers before I got mine.  I was at my last day of work when I received a text from her throwing herself on the mercy of the Maggie court and divulging her (then) treasonous act.

We went on that ride to Baker and the onslaught of insults and snickers directed at her footwear were as abundant as the mosquitoes.  Then I got to thinking about how functional these shoes could be...I mean they could serve so many purposes, they could act as a flip flop, like for showering in questionable rest stops, or like a hiking shoe when we venture off the bikes to explore a bit.  We're about to be in Oregon and if my childhood taught me anything, at some point I'm gonna need to ford a river or fight off bandits or retrieve some of my lost oxen...and I'm ashamed to admit it, but these are the shoes I need with me during such an event. 

I guess the only consolation I can make to you, my dearest readers, is that you won't EVER see a picture with me wearing these abominations with socks.  I will try my damnedest to keep this promise, but...times are rough out there and you never know what can happen when faced with the cold, hard facts of life.

5...

4....

3...

2...

1....

FAILURE...

AND VALOUR PANTS???

 Until the next embarrassing thing I do,

Maggie

P.S. New videos from the Baker trip and my life without a job are up on our YouTube channel (linked on the right side there, and also more Flickr pics added to the photostream)

Insomnia + No Job + obscure thoughts = Garbage blog entry

*Beep*Boop*Bop* HELLO ROBOT FRIENDS!
Merely documenting the time folks....4:20am.  I've spent the better part of 6 hours just fine tuning this here site to my meticulous design standards...which, surprisingly, are extremely detailed and picky.  Who knew?  I guess this "not having a job" thing is really throwing my schedule off, but for the last 2 years I'd say I've been more than "out of whack" when it came to my natural sleep rhythm.  See, I'm naturally a late to bed, late to rise sort of creature, but having a "regular job" with "regular hours" makes life extra special for people like me.  I eventually taught myself to go to bed early, but it didn't matter, I still woke up at 7:30am feeling like I was hit by a semi, scanning my perpetual list of "get out of work" excuses and looking like this.

WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT?

"We're here for the MS 150!"

It was very rare when I did miss work, ALMOST always for a valid reason too.  The weekend would come and I would be up until the wee hours of the morning and then BAM! it's back to work fool.

Welp, not anymore, not for a while at least! I'm hoping that something inside of me changes as my natural rhythm, or as they say in the big book of the internet circadian rhythm, allows for an early to bed, early to rise scenario.  I know from experience that biking at night and ESPECIALLY setting up camp at night, is NOT what I want to be doing.  If we bike at night we have to wear headlamps and have every conceivable stitch of clothing be reflective, fluorescent and blinking like a goddamn rave and while that seems like fun, what you end up with is a ridiculous outfit and potentially a bat in the face.  

Turn on's: Dive bombing.  Turn off's: Non-rabid creatures of the day

By bat I mean the small, fuzzy, winged mammal, not the Louisville Slugger variety (although that amount of flash and razzle dazzle could incite some rage, I digress).  I know this whole bat-in-the-face deal because it happened to me, well nearly happened, on our first overnight ride to Stillwater.  We took off a little late due to the fact that it was a Friday night after I got off work and despite REALLY wanting to do the ride I needed some time to decompress after work, ya know, kick off the socks, walk around with my pants off for a few hours and then lackadaisically throw my gear together after several joyful, pant-less hours.  So fast forward to me and Lani biking down the gateway trail from Minneapolis to Stillwater, MN in the pitch dark blackness of night in rural MN.  Thankfully I had procured my headlamp as a birthday present from my step-dad, Paul, a few weeks earlier, otherwise we would have been ass over tea kettle. 

Your headlamp is backwards asshole

 Our bike lights, despite our best efforts to get the best, just wouldn't cut through the dense blackness of the moonless night.  A few clicks later and we are lighting up the path ahead a good 20 to 30 feet, money...so money. BUT with great light comes great risk...and out of NOWHERE a bat dive bombs at my head like a fucking Kamikaze pilot.  I'm not saying it was my most graceful evasive maneuvering, but the bat didn't hit my head and for the rest of the ride all I could say was "DID YOU SEE HOW CLOSE THAT FUCKER GOT?! DID YOU?!" Even now I can't believe I didn't pull a Fabio and get destroyed by that bat. 


In case you don't know what Fabio reference I'm talking about:





Anyways...this has almost nothing to do with the pending bike trip and a lot to do with not sleeping, little food in take, and WAY too much time on my hands.


Gonna go shove a dart gun full of tranquilizer in my neck, see you in roughly 36 to 72 hours.


-Maggie

Everything went well until it didn't, typical

Hello Special friends,

We decided to actually do a long ride coupled with some "stealth" camping (you'll find out why the stealth is in quotes later) this past Tuesday.  We went fully loaded and with the overall plan of "heading west".  We realized this last trip our plans should be comprised of more than just a general direction and we should probably plan out a campsite PRE ride...more on that later.  We were sad to find out that our original 3rd for the ride, Brent of Recovery Bikes, was not going to be able to join us due to unforseen dealins in MAKIN' BANK, that just how it is sometimes when you run a sick bike shop out yo crib.  

Lani settin' up the burley 

In his stead Sarah Aune slid into the number 3 spot for the trip, sporting her mid-80's Peogeut with a milk crate zip tied to her back rack.  It was a last minute fix for someone who lacks a trailer or panniers.  WELL DONE if I may say so myself.

Sarah rolls deep

Lani and myself, being that we both had the means to, carried the majority of the gear which was an added challenge since we were packing for 3, but only 2 of us were carrying it.  TRAINING...no pain no gain.

Various things needing compressing and stuffing and strapping. HANDLED.

Lani attaching her trailer, no shoes, Burley takes presidence.

Managed to cargo net my larger items to the back rack.  

After some finagling and and arranging we donned our gear and we were off......to the suburbs.

The cockpit of my bike. Notice the new handlebar bag thanks for REI's clearance sale.  It's really nice going on a trip at the end of the summer, because everything we need is suddenly 50% off.  BAM! We'll see how smart we feel once we're in Oregon at the end of Oct.  SHEEESH.

We bombed through North Minneapolis, without incident, and then careened through Theodore Wirth Park to link up with the Luce Line Trail

Lani catchin' some breath at Wirth Park

OOOOOH HEY!

We are here...the start of the Luce Line in Wirth Park

G'd up from the feet up

Luce Line con amigos

Hitting the rolling hills of Medina en route to Baker Park

Hydrating myself

For being rural MN they had some decently named roads

Lani and Sarah fell victim the the psychological warfare of the woodland mosquito, hence the photo from the inside their tent.

"I slave over this camp stove all night and you give me attitude"

Oh yes we DID make a fire with the hopes of curbing the mosquitos...hopes were dashed.

Despite appearances it was about 80 degrees.  Sarah's wardrobe was  to fend off the bloodsuckers 

YOU BET I WILL!

"I was about the give up on this fire business, but it just kept going"
Lani Hanson

Lani used spit water to wash her face...I'm not so sure that was a good idea.

Sarah, not so sure she didn't hear footsteps

Nothing could ruin this for me.....nothing except.....

Ok...so that's all well and good.  Everything went according to plan.  We hunkered down for the night, Lani and Sarah in thier 2 person tent, me in my bivy tent, then at about 12 midnight we were accosted with a flood of truck lights and Johnny Law telling us to VACATE the area.  Turns out the area we chose to camp in turned out to not be campsite approved, despite being the actual park, it just wasn't the RIGHT part of the park.  He checked out various ID's and then directed us to the actual campgrounds and few miles away.  

Gut check time: do we go set up camp all over again in the dark OR do we bike 8 miles back to my parents house in Plymouth?

Umm.....

We biked to my parents in defeat.  It's not really the "survivor man", screw modern comforts, take on the world we'd been planning for this trip, BUT this will probably be the one and only time we have a safety net such at this, with a full pantry of food and toilets REALLY near by and plush couches draped in fleece blankets.  If that tarnishes our street cred, well then, fine... Sarah summed up our sentiments on the sudden and unexpected eviction quite nicely with "anything at this point feels like torture".  

We all ran the gambit of emotions upon entering the guest bedroom at my parents house

"Yes we would like a snack"

We woke up and rode home debating about whether or not the "full disclosure" policy about this episode applied, I think you know how we ended the discussion.  

THERE, WE SAID IT!