330: PDX-SF2x Tour Preview

The wait is over, it's time to talk about the big 2023 summer bike tour... and it's an established route, but with a brand new twist! Normally, cycling the Oregon and California coasts between Tillamook and San Francisco takes about 16 days. What if we leveraged the fantastic (and sometimes surprising) transit opportunities and made this tour like listening to some of your favorite podcasts... at 2x speed? PDX-SF2x Tour Preview The route   My classic favorite... PDX-SF via the Oregon coast   The twist   Heavy. transit. help.   I'm able to get this ride done in half the time with the help of a series of transit agencies starting in Portland and ending in Santa Rosa, CA. What normall takes 16 days is going to take me 8. Assuming it all works.   The gear   We're going fully loaded Going to try to minimize the weight within that load Going to fly the big bike, so that means a measurable portion of a pannier will hold my Dogsbody Ground Effects bike bag. Flying back and forth on Alaska Airlines, which means the bike is free to fly (I'm MVP and get two free checked bags) Big duffel handles the rest of the gear and will be critical for the transit fast forwards I have to figure out when the last time I had the Safari out west... it's been more than a few years, so this is exciting.   The weather   Likely a bit of a chill in the air, except for one notable portion Rain is possible, but reasonably unikely this time of year   The basics on schedule   Fly into Portland on a Saturday night Bus out to Tillamook Sunday late AM Bike and camp at Cape Lookout SP Combination of bike and bus to Newport day 2 to North Bend day 3 to Brookings day 4 to Avenue of the Giants day 5 to Fort Bragg day 6 to Samuel P Taylor SP day 7 All bike to SF day 8   Transit agencies - 8 different ones! Contiguous opportunities all the way to Benbow, CA and then you need to bike Technically only about 66 miles of this route is completely uncovered by transit - and it's up and over Leggett Hill The timing of this is critical because many agencies don't run on some or all of the weekend... to avoid a forced zero, this has to go as is.     The compromises   Some stellar parts of OR coast South Crescent City Hills + Elk Prairie CG Major chunk of Mendocino coast   What I still get Much of the best of OR coast Favorite 2 campsites in OR Brewers on the Bay Seven Devils Bandon Harris Beach - maybe 3rd fave campsite? Eel River Brewing Burlington FF past Garberville Leggett Hotel in Fort Bragg - North Coast Brewing Samuel P Taylor Golden Gate Bridge SF   So much fun, looking forward to sharing this with you! Programming reminder - next week we're slotting in the August best of a few days early The following week... we'll start the tour journal!