#ThingsIHaveComeToIgnore #HashtagGames #SublimeBicycleTouring
Bugs in my teeth while cycling

@nazgul The first year I kept a large garden a friend recommended a pie tin of beer for the slugs, and it worked! Disposal was nasty, though.

I hadn’t even heard of slugs until I crossed the North Cascades. #SublimeBicycleTouring

#SublimeBicycleTouring

I hope you’ve enjoyed these faded glimpses of my travels as much as I’ve enjoyed recalling them. There seems to be more to each moment than I’ve ever told anyone verbally — finally writing them down has brought to the surface how I felt at the time.

Thank you fellow tourists who have held off thus far from adding your own sublime moments. I don’t own this hashtag so please feel free to contribute now.

I’ll wrap this up by reblogging the first 2 posts, the germination.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1985 CA 1 Ft. Bragg, CA

Fighting coastal headwinds, I was exhausted. I rode over a mound in the asphalt and my front pannier came loose, jamming into the front spokes and side-flipping my bike.

Nothing broken, but my knee needed stitches at the local hospital. I was not to bend my knee for 10 days.

I realized the message I had first discerned a year ago when I accepted the ride across Nebraska: touring was becoming a grind. I packed up my bike and boarded a bus home.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1981 US 2 Spokane, WA

My first summer ended prematurely.

After camping in High Bridge Park, I rode to the Safeway in Browne’s Addition to buy some breakfast. I don’t know why I leaned my bike against the side of the store rather than the front, but it was gone when I returned. I shuddered the rest of that day.

No sign of bike nor gear, not even the flute I never practiced nor the Bible I never opened. 2 summers later I would replace all but the flute and Bible.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1984 US 385 SD Black Hills

What can I say? The Black Hills of the Lakota people are magnificent and majestic.

My 39-year-old memory of cycling through pales against my older memories of visiting relatives there as a child.

Many summers, as soon as the family station wagon stopped at the end of the long, dirt driveway several of us kids would run past the house and up into the Hills to explore. “Let’s go this way!” “No, the cave is this way!”

photo Runner1928

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 US 101 Oregon dunes, Oregon coast

Somewhere in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, I shared a picnic table with a young couple of tourists from West Germany. They wondered why anyone would want to learn such an ugly (their word) language, and I assured them I was genuinely interested. They indulged me for a few minutes of practicing my halting German.

We soon switched to English so we could conduct the serious business of a friendly game of Tri-ominos.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 Bridges

Bridges seem to always be windy, even on a calm day. But the views are breathtaking.

Long bridges which seem to go on forever: Alex Fraser Bridge over the Fraser River east of Vancouver, BC; Astoria-Megler Bridge near the mouth of the Columbia River; Golden Gate Bridge at the mouth of San Francisco Bay; and Gerald Desmond Bridge, Long Beach, CA.

High bridges, very scenic: Deception Pass Bridge, Deception Pass, WA; and Bixby Creek Bridge, Big Sur, CA.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1984 BC 4 Long Beach

Long Beach is 10 miles of unbroken sand beach in Canada’s Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The beach seems to go on forever.

All kinds of campers there: families, groups of young people, and other cyclists.

At dusk, campfires spring up all along the beach. A First Nations man pushes a wheelbarrow among us, selling today’s fresh catch of salmon to those happy to alter their dinner plans.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 US 101 Oregon Coast

So many blackberries growing wild along the highway. And along stretches where cars can’t stop they’re not picked over at all, within easy reach, so ripe and juicy!

I imagine a fantasy world where blackberry canes bear fruit year round and provide complete nutrition. I would never work for hire another day, just ride up and down the coast feasting on blackberries.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1984 SK 39 - US 52

Entering the U.S. at Portal, ND was an ordeal. I was something novel for the customs officers.

They searched all my panniers then stood around, thinking. “Unroll your sleeping bag.” More standing around. “Unpack your tent.” “Unfold each article of clothing.”

It was as though they wanted to leave no room for reprimand in their report, or they actually thought I was smuggling. I sincerely thought they may cut apart my bike to check inside the frame.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1984 WA 28 Soap Lake

I ride through downtown Soap Lake, WA, to check out the storied buoyancy and healing properties of the lake.

It’s hard to be objective when I’ve never noted my personal waterline in freshwater, but yes, I may be almost perceptibly more buoyant in this mineral water.

Of course I don’t notice any immediate health benefits from a single dip, so I purchase a bag of lake salts to try again next time I have access to a bathtub.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1984 WA 28 Soap Lake

I ride through downtown Soap Lake, WA, to check out the storied buoyancy and healing properties of the lake.

It’s hard to be objective when I’ve never noted my personal waterline in freshwater, but yes, I may be almost perceptibly more buoyant in this mineral water.

Of course I don’t notice any immediate health benefits from a single dip, so I purchase a bag of salts from the lake to try again next time I have access to a bathtub.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 WA 174, WA 17 Grand Coulee - Bridgeport

Leaving Grand Coulee, WA, the highway sign read NO SERVICES FOR 37 MILES. Today’s high temperature would be in the low 90s but dry and not uncomfortable. And I generate my own breeze. Both my pint water bottles are full, so I psych myself to ration my water and go for it.

I arrive in Bridgeport that afternoon comfortable, with half a bottle left. I enjoy a good, long drink of water at the first gas station.

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 CA 1 Carmel-By-The-Sea

Whoa, this place was unreal! For several blocks in Carmel-By-The-Sea it seemed every other parked car was a Ferrari or a Maserati. Though I was downtown, I half expected to be chased away with a brisk, “Get off my lawn!”

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 CA 1 Big Sur coast

Big Sur was every bit as scenic as the photos and watercolors we’ve all seen. I had kept an image in my mind’s eye much like the one below. Around every curve I would try to line up the points of land receding into the mist to match my mental image.

photo credit Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1981 I-94 Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

I love the green, flat tops of the North Dakota badlands. I also love the jagged moonscapes of the South Dakota badlands. (There are similar moonscapes in both.)

I love the ND badlands more, and I’d like to think it’s not only because I’m a Bison 🦬.

photos credit Ryan & Monica Hoffman

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1981 I-94 Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

I love the green, flat tops of the North Dakota badlands. I also love the jagged moonscapes of the South Dakota badlands. (There are similar moonscapes in both.)

I love the ND badlands more, and I’d like to think it’s not only because I’m a Bison 🦬.

photos credit Ryan & Monica Hoffman

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1981 I-90 Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND

I love the green, flat tops of the North Dakota badlands. I also love the jagged moonscapes of the South Dakota badlands. (There are similar moonscapes in both.)

I love the ND badlands more, and I’d like to think it’s not only because I’m a Bison 🦬.

photos credit Ryan & Monica Hoffman

#SublimeBicycleTouring

1983 Lake Whatcom Blvd, Bellingham, WA

Leaving WA 9, heading west along the south shore of Lake Whatcom I round a curve to see a parked police cruiser. The officer is resting his arm on the cruiser door, holding out his radar gun. He shouts “fifteen!” as I pass by and I really can’t tell whether he’s being friendly, or warning 👀 he’s got his eyes on me.

One way or another, it’s my Welcome to Bellingham.