FRATERNITY OF TOURING CYCLISTS

You meet a lot of people when you travel by bike. Many are people interested in what you’re doing. People who would never do such a thing themselves, but who are intrigued. And of course you also meet a lot of other touring cyclists. People who choose to do this kind of thing tend to be pretty sympathetic types – not hard to like. Travelling by bike requires patience, stamina and a sense of humour to get you through the worst of times – like driving rain, headwinds, and steep hills.

And because cyclsts doing the Pacific Coast are all on the same route and travelling at roughly the same speed, you tend to bump into the same people time and again – usually at the campgrounds. Sophie and I have recently been travelling in synch with Martin from Iowa. I don’t know much about Martin, but we’ve bumped into him at grocery stores, campgrounds and once rode together with him for 40 miles.

Some of the other people we’ve met so far on our journey include:
Lucy. Originally from Chicago, Lucy spent ten years working in Alaska, This trip down the coast by bike is part of her transition back to the “Lower 48” and follows a previous adventure last spring – hiking the Pacific Coast Trail with her brother. Lucy travels slowly because she carries a lot of gear, including an inflatable boat. Bringing a boat on a bike trip makes no sense to me, but I admire the audacity of it.

Henry & Linda. A retired married couple from Vernon, with six grown kids.Turns out Sophie knows one of them from university in Victoria. Henry is ex-RCMP and does a lot of bike touring. LInda is a road cyclist and seems up for the challenge, but Henry’s pretty hard core. He did a ride last year to Southern California but on a route through the mountains. He says he finally tired of that self abuse in Bakersfield and headed to the coast to complete his trip.

Allan. We met Allan at a campground in Northern Oregon. He lives on Lopez Island in Washington on a 22 foot cutter sailboat and rides a collapsible bike (Brompton) because it has to fit onto his boat. At one time Allan lived large. He worked for a bank, owned seven luxury vacation properties – which he rented out, had a fleet of cars and, so he says, had money to burn. But when he hit 40 he looked over his life and didn’t like what he saw. He sold everything and says he gave most of his money to charity. He now lives as a minimalist, which is self-evident from how he travels. He carries a tent on the back of his bike, a bag with a change of clothes on the front, and lives on beef jerky, avocado and other simple stuff. He has no cooking utensils. Allan is a man of extremes. He’s also very likeable. On one of my trips to town for groceries I brought him back a bottle of beer. He was ecstatic. In return he gave me his one-inch high bottle of Tabasco Sauce. What else from a minimalist?