On the Road from Eugene 1/24/10

Friend (Joe) - Hey Peace Rider how goes it from Eugene?

PR - It's been great! I spoke at Wellspring High School yesterday. It's a small private alternative school a friend suggested I contact. This contact led to others and the Warm Showers, Atkins host family I've been staying with.

Paul is very active in the cycling community, on the Board of GEARS (Greater Eugene Area Riders). He works at one of Paul's three bike shops in Eugene. He and Roman Dial traversed the Alaska Range from east west by bicycle and pack raft among other past adventures.

Monica is a stay at home mom with four young children to ride herd on, no small feat with two, four year old twins. Jose is a lovable lab, mostly maintenance free, bark worse than bite.

Two years go they gave up their car. The whole family goes everywhere by bicycle, two of which are tandems with cargo carrying capacity besides. In this bicycle friendly town it's fairly easy to do with good main road bike lanes and many off road trails.

F - How's your body and bike holding up?

PR - I feel rested and ready to hit the road again. I traded in my Giant mountain bike for a Norco Kwest touring bike. It's a Canadian brand. "Kwest" or quest seems somehow appropriate for what I'm trying to do. It's lighter with higher pressure tires. I relied on Paul's expertise in bikes to get quality components on a bicycle at a reasonable price. This model was on sale. I needed something that would travel a bit easier with less effort and save some wear and tear on this aging shell. At the same time I've pared down things I won't need for the next segment into a warmer climate. (accompanying photo of Don and his new bike courtesy of Paul Atkins)

F - Have you settled on a route south yet?

PR - Yeah, at least to San Francisco. I'll leave Eugene tomorrow heading for Grants Pass then the Oregon and California coasts. I really want to spend a few moments in the midst of giant redwood trees again. I visited them once before traveling this route. They're awesome. I love these ancient sentinels that just watch and wait. Maybe they're hoping we'll one day come to our senses and appreciate things of great beauty, like old tress, that enrich our lives and make life worth living.

F - That reminds me, what do you say to people who think the idea of Oneness is just so much mumbo jumbo?

PR - It really isn't, of course, but it is a big leap in perception and understanding especially when we've been conditioned to think of ourselves as separate from on another, from creation and that which is Greater than Self. And yet it is this very perception of separation that is at the root of all our problems, the madness that gives rise to the dysfunction in our world.

I can try building a ramp to help bridge the gap between the old and the new but in the end it is up to each to take a leap of faith to the other side, to think again with an open mind. Many have already done that. But many are not ready to take the leap so entrenched are ways of believing and thinking. There is however nothing to fear in the new.

I'll leave you with this. None of the major religions or philosophies have brought peace to this planet have they? In fact just the opposite has often been true hasn't it? Oneness is not a philosophy or religion it is a way of being and acting, experiential by its very nature. It comes with an understanding that what we give to another we give to ourselves because we are part of a greater unity. There is only one source of Universal life energy and we are a part of it. It is a change in understanding to what is true, from what is illusion, separation, a paradigm shift or change in consciousness.

When we really understand it and act accordingly we'll stop abusing ourselves and creation. To repeat a famous quote, "when the power of love exceeds the love of power there will be peace in our world." True power comes from togetherness or unity not separation.

On the Willamette Valley Senic Bikeway 1/20/2010

Portland was just great! A bicycle friendly, progressive city doing a lot of the right things to make their city more livable for everyone.

Again I met the people I needed to meet to help create a movement for change and a Ride for the Planet Day; Janelle Sorenson on Al Gore's climate change team and with 350.org, John Brown, Department of Peace, Carl Larson, Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Aaron Tarfman bicycle organization Shift.

Jefferson Kincaid met me crossing the St. Johns Bridge coming into town with a video camera mounted on the back of his bicycle. He was making a video documentary of my time in Portland.

I also met Satya briefly, living simply off the grid collecting food that would otherwise get tossed, giving it away to those in need. Doing good works and good things, an example for all.

I left Portland and Donna Richards home on Sunday, 1/17/10. Donna was my gracious host. Her small dog Toto never did get over having me in the house. He left dogma to show his displeasure. Makes one humble in the face of it.

At Tiny's coffee house on MLK Boulevard I briefly joined a group doing a once a year bicycle tour of the palm trees and other flora in the city. It was a Palm Sunday of sorts.

Aaron Tarfman joined me later and guided me out of the city just after noon. We stopped for a photo op at the Peace Memorial along the Willamette River. It must be stunning in the summer with an array of flowers in bloom. One segment of the trail floats on the river alongside a busy overhead freeway. Remarkable! In another place Aaron pointed out a traffic signal for bicyclists, with a bicycle symbol red light to keep turning traffic from hitting cyclists. It shows what is possible when the money and will is there.

I set up camp in the rain south of Oregon City after Aaron left in the fading light. He returned to Oregon City and caught the bus home. He left me with a set of maps to Eugene which he had stayed up late to graciously copy for me the evening before.

I presume he took the only municipal elevator with operator still running to the lower city. as we had on the outbound leg. Vertical detours are allowed. It is 90 feet lower than the adjacent hill. It was built in 1954.

A big thank you to Aaron for all his help showing me Portland and getting me safely out of the big city, mostly on bike trails.

A weather front passed in the night with rain and high winds. The rain fell and the tent shook but the stakes held. By morning it had passed. The rain ended, the sun was out.

I was greeted by the boss dog of the horse ranch where I camped, an amiable golden retriever that stayed while I packed up to leave in the morning. He made sure a less friendly dog didn't get in my way when I left.

Lauren had given me permission to stay there the evening before. The other places nearby were mud holes.

Monday got me by Canby and Champoeg. Bob gave me directions to get back on the WIllamette Valley Scenic Bikeway Trail (WV). I missed a turn passing Champoeg.

On my way out of Fred Meyers after grocery shopping I met Doug Parrow. This gets interesting. I saw him try to leave the store as I was getting ready to leave. The alarm went off when he tried to leave with a package. Something to do with the code not being deactivated after he paid for it. He returned to the cash register.

On his way out I asked him if he knew how to get to a park near the store. Turns out after some conversation that he is a Board Member for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and was involved in planning of the WV trail. There are no coincidences. Doug said he didn't think you could camp in the place I was looking at. I told him what I was doing. In that time he thought of a better place I could try six miles south, the Minto-Brown Isle Park where he thought I could find a place off their trail system.

It was on the WV trail. I went there and found a great spot in a dense copse of pine trees. It was hidden from view. It was out of the wind which again raged in the night along with rain. In the morning the birds were singing in the blackberry bushes, geese were flying, calling. The rain stayed away most of the day.

One of my best camp sites with old "friends." A jug of water from White Oak Construction on the way in got me through the evening "banquet" and into the oatmeal gruel of the new day.

So much for brevity!

A fifty mile plus day followed, winding through scenic byways. I passed the huge Brayman farm of blueberries and filberts. The Ankeny vineyard where I stopped briefly was closed to wine tasting, alas. Just beyond was the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, a wintering pasture for waterfowl. A huge flock of geese took to the air, swirling, landing in another place while I watched.

It feels at times like traveling through an alien land. Where are all the people? A few walk the roads but most travel at high speed in colored boxes on wheels. Where are they going and what are they all doing rushing to and fro I wondered? A few walk but most seem to ride. They live in square boxes each separate from one another. It must be very lonely living this way apart from community. Some of these boxes are quite elaborate, huge in fact. How can so few people use so many precious resources to meet their own needs when so many others do not have their needs met across the planet?

Late in the day I stopped for water at a home close to the road that had a Realty sign in the window. And that's how I met Margaret and Dan Hershberger. It's also why I'm on the computer this morning which they graciously let me use. After I left their place with water, Margaret tracked me down and invited me to stay with them for the night.

It is wonderful to be cared and provided for.

Margaret works in a nearby nursery and Bob runs their realty business. He worked on the Alaska pipeline in the '70's. Margaret introduced me to their three horses behind the house, animals old or rescued in need of TLC.

She understands all things are connected and we are One. It is good to hear that from others on my travels. People are waking up all over.

She left early after fixing me breakfast and Dan is just up.

Kindness is power. And I have to get going and use leg power to reach Eugene, 45 miles down the road on the WV trail..


Peace Rider

On the road from Portland 1/15/10

PR Stopped for a tamale and burrito break at a taqaria outside Centralia, WA.

F - Where's that?

PR - It's on the Cascade Bicycle Club, Seattle to Portland Trail (STP) about 100 miles south. Went through there last Sat.

I'm in Portland now since Tuesday late, 1/12/10. Everything going okay here, great contacts, good folk. Connected with 350. org and Bicycle Transportation Authority.

What follows came to me passing all those rural methane "pies" or was it the tamale burrito combo?

F - (Joe) There are those that know him well,

That would have this to tell,

He is prone to put his thoughts in verse,

Just hope and pray he keeps them terse.

PR - As I was saying,

While you were praying,

Some things just need defining,

A perception worth refining.

About the "tube,"

And the gazer, grazer some have called a "boob,"

In this important matter,

Let us ponder well the latter,

The one distracted,

With mind redacted.

This moment's grace,

Heaven's only space,

Lost to the eternal Now.

F - (Joe) Holy cow!!

You mean me?

Pray that I may clearly see.

What I must do?

Yes, YES!!

A clue? A clue???

EUREKA, CSI

More GLUE!!!

F - American TV, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), must have been the "combo." Any more words of "wisdom" from the STP?

PR - Did I tell you I met Chairman Meow? He's the owner and boss of Paul and Sheila Johnson. A wild tabby that came in from the cold with a hungry yowl. The Chairman rules. He let me stay a night after Paul graciously went out of his way to picked me up in Tenino on the STP south of Centralia/Chehelis.

F - Where'd you bed down after that?

PR - I crossed into Oregon over the busy Lewis and Clark bridge after a long day. Stopped at a mini-mart to call ahead just short of Ranier town on Highway 30.

Where to camp afterward the big question? I looked over toward this high arching bridge, Golden Gate like, spotted a clump of evergreens near the base. Check it out I thought. So I did. But behind the trees was an Oregon DOT waste debris site. Yuck!

F - So what'd you do?

PR - I pedaled back from where I came looking. I passed a vacant lot with two big evergreens growing pretty close together, the rest was open space, unoccupied. One was a Douglas fir with wide spreading boughs, open underneath. Hmm, level, dry and unoccupied. I went next door and asked about it. Got permission to camp a night. Great place on a bed of needles. Loved it.

Stormed through the night with wind and rain. It ended sometime late. The tent partially dried in the lingering breeze. The needles sopped up a lot of the rain, didn't come in under the tent. I was happy, no morning swim inside the tent.

A lot of traffic noise from the bridge though. A train rumbled by in the wee hours on nearby tracks. You can't be too picky when it comes camp time, you're tired and eager to get prone for awhile.

F- So you're in Portland now?

PR - Yeah! I hope I have time to write a bit more about it. But it's already late and I was up early. Time to hit the rack, meditate and get prone for awhile. I did finally get a cell phone. That should be a relief to many friends. Later!

F - Later!

Viajero por la Paz.

Quick Update 1/9/2010

After being down by the riverside in the rain yesterday it was sunny and darn near balmy today.

Made good miles ended 14 north of Centralia the halfway point to Portland. Last 13 or so miles on Yelm to Tenino bike train, appeared to be old road grade.

Earlier in day stopped to rest by a small farmstead. A lone bull in the yard had the most humongous set of horns I've ever seen, maybe Texas long horn, quien sabe. Weathervane on barn had similar bull on it. They are proud of their bull.

Picked up by Paul Johnson, a friend of a friend. Tonight camped in a hard roof shelter with a bed and Chairman Meow an in-charge curious cat.

I'm being well taken care of. Clean clothes and a shower make a new man.

Resume tomorrow from where I left off in Tenino. More rain in forecast.

Peace Rider

Travel Update 1/8/2010

I left Michael Boyd's place on Mercer Island in light rain. Made it as far as Sumner about 38 miles and a lot of traffic south.

In Seward Park stopped and had a lovely impromptu meeting with a class of home school kids at the Environmental Center.

As it turned out their teacher Anne, had flown to the Arctic Refuge with Roger Dowding a dear friend, in the early '90s.

Camp by the Puyallup River, down by the river side behind the Sumner Library, as it happens, in pouring rain.

Hang or hung, as it were, at Library on computer until closing then to tent, food and time in the prone position 'til dawn's break.

Don Peace Rider

On the Road from Seattle, WA 1/3/10

PR - Hey, Joe you still with me?

Friend (Joe) - Yeah, didn't you recognize me when I joined you on the Burke-Gillman trail yesterday?

PR - Was that you?

F - You just never know when I'm going to show up.

PR - Well, it's nice to have help wherever it shows up. Going through the U of W parking lot and then around the back side of the stadium to the Mont Lake bridge was brilliant . We avoided the crowds heading to a Husky basketball game.

Speaking of help I had plenty after leaving Bellingham.

F - How so?

PR - After the ups and downs of by the water's edge Chuckanut Drive it started to rain rolling onto the flats nearing Mt. Vernon. You know I would have sworn there was a pair of peregrine falcons perched on a power line pedaling through this open farm land. The swans feeding or resting in passing fields were unmistakable, of course.

Nearing Burlington off I - 5, I was looking for a place out of the rain to take a break. I found it under the entrance to the State Highway Patrol office. I decided to go inside and ask for directions through Burlington and Mt. Vernon to reach my cousin's place south of there. My nephew, Craig Barta had told me a shorter way to go but I didn't have a map that connected all the dots. The office person made copies of maps with directions through the two intervening towns. It was very nice of her.

F - So you got to your cousin's place okay?

PR - Yeah, there was probably a route with fewer intervening hills to climb but I made it just before dark.

F - How was the weather after that?

PR - It wasn't raining when I left early the next day but it started not long afterward. It continued into the afternoon. I was also pedaling into a headwind which didn't help. Early on I stopped and changed into rain gear.

In spite of breathable claims biking in rain gear is sticky business. Still the new rain gear is far superior to what I was using. At least I was dry if not altogether comfortable.

F - Where did you camp?

PR - At a friend's place as it turned out. I called Luke Irons a newly hired nurse graduate working at the hospital in Everett. He's the son of Tom Irons and Jean Aspen whose house I looked after in Homer last summer while they were away. They suggested I call him if I was in the area, I was.

He bailed me out with a place to stay. I had called him from Mathias Station on the Centennial Trail which I joined south of the town of Arlington. This is a rails to trails bicycle path. It was very pleasant biking through woodlands on a paved over railroad grade.

Fatigue and clarity of thought don't go well together, at least for me. I thought I could make it to Seattle the same day but it was much too far. A lost glove and backtracking up the trail to retrieve it put an end to this notion. That's when I called Luke. But there was a complication.

F - Oh yeah?

PR - Luke had a Honda Civic with limited capacity to tote my stuff back to his place. Still, he was willing to meet me and try. We arranged a rendezvous just outside the town of Snohomish not far from trail's end. It was too far to bike to Luke's place given the time of day and distance.

F - So did you manage to get everything crammed into Luke's car?

PR - We didn't have to as it turned out. I 'm not sure we could have either. He didn't have a hatchback model. Trunk space was pretty limited. Then help arrived.

F - How so?

PR - I was just turning onto Snohomish River Rd. paralleling the river when a green crew cab pickup stops in front of me. Of course, he was curious what I was doing and why. He was also a long distance cyclist. He lived in the area.

I knew of Luke's small car situation so I asked the driver if he knew of a place I could leave my bike and gear overnight. He was a bit puzzled by the request until I explained the situation.

F - So you asked some pretty leading questions hoping he could help?

PR - I suppose. But I really didn't expect him to offer to take all my stuff to Luke's place.

F - Is that what he did?

PR - Yes, he did. And it was a real help.

That's how I ended up meeting Don Stanfield and his daughters. I rode with him to Luke's apartment in Everett, not far away by car. On the way he showed me where I could take the Interurban Trail into Seattle. It was an alternate route.

Don was getting ready to leave for Dutch Harbor where he works as fisherman in the pollock Bering Sea fishery. He thought that it's being over fished. He wasn't certain how his season would turn out. If what he suspects is true, it isn't encouraging news given the state of other fisheries suffering the same fate or collapsed entirely.

F - Isn't that fishery regulated?

PR - It is but I don't know enough about it to say how well the regulations are enforced or match the science. I do know by catch is a huge problem.

F - What's that?

PR - That's the tons of fish and other sea life scooped up in huge trawl nets and discarded as waste. A lot of the dead fish are salmon destined for interior rivers one of which is the Yukon. And the king salmon run in the Yukon is in decline and no one knows the reason with any certainty.

F - The by catch can't be very helpful?

PR - You wouldn't think so. The by catch limit has been reduced but the wastage continues.

F - This is a renewable resource that if properly managed should last forever, right?

PR - Right! The problems of overfishing or collapse of ocean fisheries, dying trees, contamination of the atmosphere are just the "tip of the iceberg." The ability of our planet to support life is slipping away before our eyes.

Add to that wars and other social injustices. It really is a form of collective insanity. It all comes from a misperception of relationships.

F - Haven't we talked about this before?

PR - We have but you know it doesn't hurt to repeat something especially for those just joining the conversation. We are all One. More people I run into in my travels have this understanding. But many more do not. This is a change of perception a paradigm shift.

F - What do you mean by One? Isn't that a New Age idea?

PR - You wouldn't consider Jesus New Age who said "I and the Father are One?"

F - That's different..

PR - Is it? Or is it a failure of understanding, to accept a lesser truth about the nature of our relationship with the Great Mystery many call God rather than the greater which is that of unity or Oneness, not separation? At a level beneath the physical which is to say at the level of the spiritual or energetics there is no separation between ourselves, the created world or that which is Greater than self. All the dysfunction, the "madness," in our world comes from this misperception.

Because everything is connected. What we give to the other individually or collectively comes back to the self or group eventually. Yet we live out the illusion of separation and keep repeating mistakes of the past.

It's no ones fault really. But if we don't wake up and stop doing what we are doing to the life support system of the planet we'll all be in big trouble.

That's why I'm riding. Adopting effective solutions to stop contamination of our atmosphere from fossil fuel burning is an urgent matter. If we're lucky we have a decade, no one knows for sure, of course.

If you were handed a stick of dynamite with a slow burning fuse a prudent person would do everything in their power to defuse it quickly before it goes off. That's what we face with climate change.

We dare not drag this out in a decades long process that does not reduce CO2 emissions to safe levels (350 ppm scientists tell us). It's our children that will suffer the worst consequences of climate change if we don't get it right the first time. We are literally playing with dynamite, not yet fully awake to the danger we face.

We cannot continue to put human needs above the needs of other living things. It is life supporting life that makes ours possible.

With the new understanding comes an appreciation of the interconnectedness of all life on the planet and with the Giver of Life. There are consequences for everything we do. Many more understand and know this and are being from a place of Oneness.

F - I don't get what you mean connected at the level of energetics?

PR - You've probably experienced someone coming into a room and sensing a change in energy, either positively or negatively, right?

F - Yeah.

PR - We radiate energy, you could call it soul or life energy. There is no place where one energy field stops and another begins, they overlap. They change color with a person's mood. Some people can see these auras. I'm not one of them.

There is a real energy connection between all of us. And yet we are part of one Universal, life energy, reflected in physical form, unique unto itself.

You could liken it to one huge mansion. We are the rooms in it, connected yet part of something far larger, greater, incomprehensible to our finite minds, awesome.

F - But how does this bring an end to the madness?

PR - There is great power in a collective consciousness that seeks to create a far different future. We will create a ship wreck if we don't heed the warning signs all around us.

The way to peace on Earth and peace with the Earth is the Way of Love. Love is misunderstood. It knows the inherent connection of all things with itself. It is why we have been repeatedly advised to overcome evil with good. Yet we have chosen to largely ignore the advice. It is the only thing that works that understands the linkage.

F- So you haven't given up hope?

PR - Not at all. We are the dreamer awakening from a nightmare. There is too much fear based reaction to events already. But the situation is urgent. We don't have decades to halt the increase in greenhouse gases (CO2) let alone reverse dangerous trends. The safe standard we need to reach is 350 ppm CO2. We're over that already and increasing at 2ppm a year.

It is our moral obligation to create a future in which our children and theirs can flourish free of concern about the health of their life support system. We won't get there until we kick our addiction to burning of fossil fuels and create a clean energy future.

F - Wow, it just seems like such a daunting challenge?

PR - No doubt, but we have come together before and it can happen again. This is no time to jump ship and give up, it's time to bail water and make sure our politicians are in the line up.

F - Whew, from pollock to Oneness and global warming!

I'm left wondering how you got back on the road the next day given Luke's tiny Honda Civic.

PR - Well, Luke took good care of me. He treated me to dinner at his favorite restaurant the evening I arrived. The next morning he had to work but arranged for a prepaid taxi van to pick me up and take me to where I stopped cycling the day before.

F - Why didn't you just take off from his place and take the Interurban trail?

PR - I had decided early on that if I left my route of travel by some other means than bicycle I would resume again from the same place to preserve the integrity of my ride.

F - So you started again from where you met Luke and Don the day before?

PR - Right! But it was kind of amusing getting there.

F - How so?

PR - The cab driver was Destat, Ethopian. He took Luke and me to the Alligator restaurant the evening before. He asked me where I wanted to go? I told him Snohomish River Rd. "Do you know where that is," I asked. No he didn't. "I've got GPS you don't have an address?" "No I don't." Some more calling and conversation in Ethopian. The person he talked to didn't know either. He knew how to get to the town of Snohomish. The rest was easy. I remembered the way.

F - How was the ride into Seattle?

PR - Hilly and tiring but I really enjoyed biking in over the Samish and Burke-Gilman Trails. These are also old converted railroad grades away from car traffic for the most part.

After crossing the Mont Lake bridge I followed the green Washington Loop trail signs. It was up and down through quiet residential areas but eventually, after asking directions from other cyclists, I found the bike path approach to I - 90. I crossed the floating bridge to Mercer Island where my friend lives but I was whupped.

F - What are your plans now?

PR - I hope to link up with the Cascade Cycle Club for help with some media events and the next segment of the ride south.

F - Good luck!

PR - Thanks, I need the break and rest.

F - Wait a minute, what's your route leaving Seattle?

PR - From Seattle, I'll follow the Cascade bicycle trail to Portland then south to Eugene. From there I will likely cut over to the coast and continue south along the coast.

F - Safe travels!

Don - Peace Rider