"...Driving down the 101, California here we come..."

Since I crossed into California a couple of days back I've not been able to stop singing the OC soundtrack. It's repetitive as I can only remember one line from it, but I still think that'll keep me going for the next thousand miles or so to the border. I love this place already and I've only been here a couple of days.

About a week back I started bumping into more cyclists heading down the coast and have been riding as part of a growing posse since. At one point we even had a dog and a herd of cows running with us. Five of us rolled into the small college town of Arcata last night and while waiting at a set of traffic lights we were offered a garden to pitch our tents in and in the morning fed with the best pancakes I've had this trip (and I've had a lot of pancakes this trip!). Jo and Mike - thanks for the awesome hospitality!

The riding has been a mix of rugged coast, sandy beaches, grassland and through redwood forests. Biking through these giants is truly incredible!

The Pacific Proper

I left Portland midday Tuesday to make the short hop down to the coast. Turned out though that the short hop wasn't short by any means and included a big mountain range to cross. Oops! Added to this the headwind and showers were back with a vengeance so I rolled into the quiet little town of Tillamook that evening after 100 odd km. Tillamook had all the facilities I needed. Would have been great if any of them were still open! Perhaps I've just got too used to big city living, but it was a little odd to find every restaurant and cafe in the town closed at 8pm. The Tillamook area is very big on dairy farms and produce and it's known for the production of that bright orange plastic cheese the Americans know as cheddar. Strangely they seem proud of this.

I set off the next blustery morning with the distinct impression that the weather gods had it in for me and clearly favoured Kris "Kannonball" Kumar who rode with me from Seattle to Portland and was treated to beautiful conditions. The self-importance of this was happily dispelled when the sun burst through and the wind switched to the north making for fantastic riding conditions. It's been this way since. I got down to the coast and had my first sight of the uninterrupted Pacific Ocean, stretching blue to the horizon without any islands or headlands between me and Asia. Since then I've had this every time I look to the right.

This is a fantastic place to be riding. Check out some of the pictures to see just how stunning the Oregon coastline is, with it's mix of rocky headlands and vast stretching golden sand beaches. All along here are state campsites, just moments from the beach and charging four or five dollars to stay the night. The people of Oregon have also continued the friendly gregariousness I came to expect in Washington with many drivers even pulling over at the side of the road just to find out what I'm doing and where I'm going.

From here my route continues straight down the coast. In about 250 miles it goes from being the Oregon coast to the California coast, but not until San Francisco is there another big city so plenty of time to make the most of it.

On The Road

I reached Portland, Oregon, yesterday evening and today I'm taking a well earned rest day and chilling out in the city.

I'm super pleased with the last week. I've been running to a tight schedule, but managed to cover the 320km from Vancouver to Seattle in 3 days and the 340km from Seattle to Portland in another 3 days.

Seattle proved to be a mid-point for the week in many ways, not least of which was the weather. I spent the first three days slugging into a strong headwind, which makes it feel like your constantly going uphill as the bike just doesn't freewheel and you have to work to keep the momentum even on small downhills. It also rained! A hell of lot! I made a fortuitous last minute packing decision to throw in some waterproof trousers as they got an outing every day and saved me from the worst of it. For all those who complain about how much it rains in London, it rains much more here - probably about on par with Wales. The difference is though, that in Wales it drizzles a lot, here it just sheets down and it was sheeting down big time when I reached Seattle. What's surprising is despite the rain, there's a big bike culture in Seattle. There's also big hippy culture. There's loads of them. Nobody could give me a definitive answer why that is, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact you can legally grow weed in your back garden there.

Leaving Seattle, the weather was the complete opposite with a gentle tail wind and temperatures in the mid twenties. The road is also ridiculously flat once you get out of the centre and so the first days riding was great. That set the tone for the next couple of days, with glorious sunshine and beautiful countryside. So I cruised on down to Portland, posting my biggest day of 150km to get here on Sunday evening. The main things to note about Portland are:

1) It has even more bikes than Seattle.

2) It has the biggest bookshop in the world

3) For every person in Portland there are three tramps. This is because Oregon treats the homeless better than many other states so it's a bit of a tramp magnet.

Hmmmmmm....

Guess I should add to the below that this assumes I can go through Mexico. A lot of people have asked me what I'm going to do about the whole swine flu thing. The answer is, I'll wait and see. It'll be a couple of months before I'm at the Mexico border and I figure by that stage the picture will be clearer. Also, if I'm honest, I'm not too worried by the swine flu - I'd be pretty pissed to get clobbered by something as soft sounding as bird flu, but I figgure if this one's good enough for a swine, it's probably good enough for me :)

Approx Timeline:

10th May - Vancouver
14th May - Seattle, Washington
18th May - Portland, Oregon
Mid June - Crescent City, Californina
End June - San Francisco
Mid July - Santa Barbara and LA
End July - San Diego
End Aug - La Paz, Baja California, Mexico
Oct - Guatamala and El Salvadore
Nov - Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica
Dec - Panama. Huzzah!

Got to stick a massive disclaimer on this - Ant accepts he's not done nearly enough planning to create as acurate a looking timeline as this and takes no responsibility for any shit that arrises from people putting too much trust in it ;)