First Week on the Road

 Monday, August 24

Wanting us to have a smooth transition into life on the road, Steven (Brad's brother) booked us a night at the Sheraton Hotel in Portland so we could reunite as a family in a bit of luxury before hitting our new reality. Monday morning we woke up and met an old student of Brad's at the Voodoo Doughnut Shop.  The boys had a good laugh at me because just about every doughnut there was loaded with candy or died colored stuff with loads of frosting. 

 

 Onenota Gorge

On our first day in Oregon we met up with Kristen and Hannah Burdick (former Vermonters) for a hike through Oneonta Gorge. We had to hike through a river from Mt. Hood. The hike started off easy, walking in shallow water and river rocks, but then you had to climb over a “trap.” What happened was a rock fell down from the top of the tall mossy canyon walls and made a dam in the river, so a bunch of logs floated down and got stuck on the rock, which created the “trap.” There were also a lot of people so we had to wait to get over the dam. After we managed to scramble over the dam, we had to walk through knee deep freezing water. The reason the water was so cold was because all of the water in the river was straight from Mt. Hood's melting glacier. Even though walking through knee deep water was terribly cold it was nothing compared to what was up next. We had to walk through the super freezing water and now it was waist deep. I practically ran trough the water thinking that I would get hypothermia the whole time. After we got through all of the tough parts, we got to the end of the gorge. There was a beautiful waterfall tumbling down the mossy rocks and splashing into the river. At that point I thought that the hike had not been so bad and that we were finally out of the freezing cold water, I was ready to go back to the hotel we stayed at for the night and jump in the hot tub. I was all pretty happy until I realized that we had to go back through the freezing cold waist deep water and back over the “trap” before we got to change into warm clothes. :(

- Asa

"Trap"

A beautiful waterfall at the end of the gorge.

A hike with Kristen and Hannah Burdick.

The famous Burnside Skate Park under the bridge in Portland, OR.

 

Touring ON3P Skis

When we where in Portland I really wanted to go and visit ON3P skis. It was later in the day and we were supposed to be headed to the Burdick's house but because our phones said it was only 15 minutes from our hotel to the shop we decided to go. After a little over a half hour of sitting in traffic, we arrived at a street that was just concrete warehouses. As we drove down the street, we saw signs for printing places and warehouses for online shops. Right when we thought we might be in the wrong place we saw a car that was covered in ON3P ski stickers. We pulled around the corner and saw a door, the bottom half was covered in random stickers and the top half said “ON3P Skis Handmade in Portland, OR.” When we went in I was expecting a little shop with some clothing and skis on display, but when we walked in there was a small room with a couch and to the right there was an office where the founder/owner of the company worked. We were greeted by one of the workers there and we said we were from out of town and just wanted to check out where the skis were made. I didn’t know what to expect but I was not expecting a big tour of the factory. Thats what we got and it was awesome! We walked through all off the stations which were set up in a horseshoe around the shop. We saw all of the steps it took to produce a pair of skis. It started in a room where they cut the bamboo for the core of the ski, from there the cores are sorted into cubbies. There is a cubby for each size and model of ski. The next room is where they cut the top sheet and base material for the ski. After these are cut, they bend the edge for the ski and attached the edge to the sidewall. Then the ski gets layered from base to top sheet with multiple layers of fiberglass and carbon fiber before going into the press. After the ski comes out of the press, it has to sit for 8 hours to let the poxy cure. When it is cured  the ski is cut out. The ski then has to be grinded so there is a pattern on the base. The pattern helps the moisture from the snow run off of the base easier. Then the ski is cleaned and waxed. Finally the pair of skis gets wrapped in plastic and put in storage unit it gets shipped out to shops. I was hoping to get a pair of skis, but dad said there was not enough room in the car.

Tuesday, August 25th

Hanging out while Asa checks out the skate park near the Burdick's house.

We pulled into Windells on the way up to Mt. Hood to check it out.

Asa could hardly contain himself... the park was closed so he could not skate!

The skate park extended around the whole grounds.

Mount Hood

Wednesday, August 26th
On our way to Bend... fires were definitely present.  There had been a fire a few days earlier. The was very smoky.

The right side of the road

The left side of the road

Warm Springs Museum

Thursday, August 27th- Monday, August 31st

Brad and I started the day with a ride in the desert.  Some awesome riding!

Smith Rock

Smith Rock is an area near Bend, OR that encompasses 651acres in the high desert plateau. It rises up about
3000 feet in elevation. There are two different volcanic rock that makes up the area. The major rock faces on the right are composed of welded
tuff (compressed volcanic ash) reaching a height of up to 550 feet. The Left side where the picnic and campground areas sit are on top of the rimrock, which is made up of columnar basalt. 

Brad spent the day climbing with an old student of his Mike Rougeux.

 

Exploring Smith Rock

 

Eli made had a try on the first 5.4 climb. Handholds were big enough to hold with four fingers.

Asa working his way up the crack of the next 5.7 climb.

Hanging out at the bottom.

Scrambling up the top to head back down the other side.

Lavalands

Lava River Cave

Last Days in Vermont

Our final days in Vermont have been spent at the Thomsen's house. Thank you Lorne and Alex for opening your house to us!  The view doesn't get much better then this.  We fly out on Sunday, August 23rd.

Off to Maine

Well Eli wrecked himself biking, right before we were supposed to leave to drive across the country. We had to figure out a plan before our house got rented and we were homeless. We decided that dad will drive across the country by himself along with all of the bikes and camping gear. For mom, Eli and I, we decided to go to Maine and stay at the cottage for a week before flying out to Oregon to meet dad and continue our road trip from there. Since Eli was pretty much out of the “fun” business we decided to bring my friend to Maine to stay at the cottage with us. That friend was Hayden. At the cottage, Hayden and I did mostly everything we could there. We did everything from tubing to playing badminton for hours a day. The week went by pretty quickly, like always (although not for Eli.) When you're having fun, time flies. 

 

 

Crash at Highland

It was my second day of the one week camp at Highland Mountain Bike Park in Tilton, New Hampshire. I had been scoping out this drop on a trail called Tombstone for the past day and a half of camp. I decided that hitting the drop would be my first goal and my second goal was riding the A line on the trail N E Style. I don't remember the crash so everything about it is coming second hand from my coach for the week. I went off of the 18 foot drop and was looking good, I was level and in control. I had gone too fast into the drop so when I landed, I was a few feet down the landing. My left hand came off of the bar and my right hand went forward. My thumb got caught on the bar and that caused my thumb to break. Then I fell off to the left side breaking my collar bone and hitting my head. I also got pretty bad road burn on my hip, back and shoulder. I don't really remember anything from breakfast to the ambulance ride, just a few snippets.

Trip Preparations

The Cross Country Trip

The trip across the U.S. would primarily focus around climbing areas. We brainstormed five main areas.  These included Jackson Hole, Bend Oregon, Yosemite, red rocks, Joshua tree and Seneca rocks.  These places would be the places we spent extended time at. In between destinations we would search for mountain bike places and visit friends and family. Other planned stops included: Niagra falls, Washburn Wisconsin, CR Johnson Healing Center in Trukee California and Washington, DC. Gayle mapped out distances and time to get from place to place to get a rough idea of approximately when we would be in different places so Brad could begin to line up climbing partners
The initial planned looked like this:

Map of Trip


The next big decision was the vehicle. We thought about borrowing an RV, renting some sort of vehicle, using our Subaru Outback and buying a trailer (for cool gear trailers see Space trailers ), selling one of our cars and buying a used SUV or truck.  From these choices we pretty much narrowed it down to using our outback with a gear trailer or buying some sort of larger vehicle. Seeing our outback was only 4 cylinders and already struggled with four bikes on it, we decided adding a trailer might kill the car on the mountain passes. So the search began for a SUV or truck. We kept our eyes peeled for all the different possibilities on the road when we were out and about. We went back and forth about which SUV would be big enough. In the end, we decided that if we were going the route of an SUV, we might as well get the biggest one. We had camping gear, bikes and climbing gear along with the fact that we were planning to live out of it for over two months. So the search began... after days of car shopping this is what we ended up with:

Ecuador

Once we nailed down the the vehicle decision, our energy shifted to Ecuador. We needed to gather all the gear for a self contained bike tour. Needless to say, it was getting a bit overwhelming preparing for two totally different trips, but we just kept taking big breathes.... in the end things always work out, right?

Gayle had tentatively planned out a route (with no rhyme or reason- just a loop on what looked like passable roads from google maps) and had begun to gather some information from reading journals of cyclists on Crazy guy on a bike  to see if anyone else had taken the route sketched out. The thinking was we had a route that was doable in two months, but could definitely be reworked if recommendations were made. Now it was time to gather gear. To start off, we had one bike (which needed some work), a set of front and back racks for the one bike, one set of back panniers and a Bob trailer. We were about 1/4 of the way to gearing up four riders! With the help of friends, family, Craig's List, and various bike stores we accumulated two bikes and all the packs and racks we needed. The biggest missing link was we still needed two bikes. Since time had virtually run out, we resorted to adding an extra bike rack to the Sequoia leaving  us with two extra spots for bikes that we hope to find along the way.

At last, we were less then a week away from departure.... when....

Planning the Trip

It's hard to believe that it has been six years since we spent three months in Peru.  Asa was in kindergarten and Eli in second grade.  It's also hard to believe we are going on 16 years in Vermont. Although Vermont is a beautiful place and we have created a rich life here, the itch to travel and experience new things is always present. Fortunately, we have been lucky in our professions to have the opportunity to nourish that desire.  At Johnson State College, Brad can apply for a sabbatical every six years.  So, this past November he started the process.  In thinking about what would enrich the Outdoor Education Program, he landed on three main areas: a rock climbing certification, continuing to investigate how to embed an immersion semester into the degree program and continue to build relationships internationally in order to expose students to international experiences in the field.  From these goals, two different trips were born. Lots of the big rock climbing is out west and since Brad would need to spend time logging hours on the rock- a cross country trip with climbing areas for our destinations made sense. For the international piece, South America seemed most reasonable for JSC students: it is affordable, offers incredible outdoor adventure opportunities and provides immersion in very different cultures- Ecuador fit the bill for this.  In February, the proposal was accepted, I applied for a leave of absence and the planning began.  Since Eli would be entering his freshman year, we decided it was easier to pull them from school for a full semester and apply for home school status.  Also, we realized this would be the last time to do such an extended adventure with the boys, college awaits Eli in four short years! We divided the five months (August- December) into the two different trips.  August- mid October we would spend traveling to California and back and tickets for Ecuador were bought for October 26th- December 14th. Now we had to wrap our head around planning for two totally different trips. We took out a map of the US and pinpointed the major climbing areas around the country. Since the boys are not huge rock climbers, we would carry our mountain bikes and spend time riding while Brad logged the climbing hours. Originally I investigated spending the time in Ecuador volunteering, but it turns out volunteering is NOT a cheap endeavor for a family of four!  After reading a few journal entries from crazyguyonabike, I discovered two different families that bike toured in South America with their two boys about the same ages as Eli and Asa.  If they could do it, so could we! This is how we would spend our time in Ecuador! The ideas were there, we now just needed some details...