San Francisco: Game plan for Sunday!

Come welcome the 2006 Habitat for Humanity Bicycle Challenge as we pedal across the Golden Gate Bridge this Sunday!

This Sunday, July 30th, 28 college students on the 2006 Habitat for Humanity Bicycle Challenge will pedal across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, completing a 4,400 mile cross-country odyssey that began in New Haven on May 27th. Come help us celebrate!


WHAT: The 2006 Habitat for Humanity Bicycle Challenge arrives in San Francisco!
WHO: 28 college students, their friends and family, HBC alumni, and anyone else who cares about bicycles, Yale, or Habitat for Humanity
WHEN: This Sunday, July 30th, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
WHERE: Meet at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge at 2:00 pm to cheer the riders on as they cross into San Francisco. From there, we will walk to a group site at Crissy Field for food, drink, and jubilation.
BRING: Something tasty to share. We will provide pizza, libations, and a balloon arch--we're counting on you for fruit, salads, sides, and sweets.
CONTACT: HBC leader Daniel Weisfield (CC '07) at (650) 743-0637 or daniel.weisfield@yale.edu or Eric Bloom (MC ’08) at (781) 910-3503 or eric.bloom@yale.edu

California Knows How to Party!

After eight and a half weeks on the road, we have finally crossed our final state border into the glorious state of California. We're currently camped out by the edge of Lake Tahoe after a solid five days in Nevada.

One of Nevada's most distinctive features is a pleasant little creature called the Mormon cricket. Every year these little bundles of joy swarm Route 50 and cause a huge ruckus. We were warned of the crickets in Baker but had no idea of what to expect. As we passed Eureka and Austin, however, we encountered them on the road, first as two bands of run-over crickets on the roadway and then finally we biked through full patches of the crawling things.

One might even say that these swarms were of biblical proportions, which led me to consider how many of the original ten plagues our crowd has come across in our cross-country journey. Let's take a look at it:

1. Water into Blood. I can actually quote one Katie Dankovich as having said, unsolicited, at one point in Utah that "the water tastes like BLOOD."

2. Frogs. They're all over the place on the roads, along with turtles and jackrabbits galore.

3. Flies. Every time we camp.

4. Boils. We call it chamois rash or chiggers but it's all the same really.

5. Hail. It's happened to us in Kansas and Nevada.

6. Locusts. Or Mormon crickets.

7. Darkness. Indeed the sky darkens over us from time to time.

Seven for ten. Not bad, I'd say.

And a word from Jess: "I love CA!!!!!!11111"

Forward to San Francisco...

Eric

Nevahdah: The Silver State

No, I'm not referring to Nevada, Missouri (pronounced Nevaydah). We rolled into State #12 yesterday afternoon after a wonderful ending stretch in Utah. Biking out of Escalante, we had a thrilling ride on a bike path through Bryce Canyon and the equally remarkable Red Canyon and then a few fun nights in Panguitch and Milford to finish up Utah. We're in the Grand Basin now, which is basically a huge aquifer that stretches from the Sierra Nevada to western Utah; there are region-wide water wars which are essentially fights between Las Vegas and everyone else.

Now that we're in Nevada, the daily directions have become extremely straightforward: "Turn west on US 50. GO." This is the road that Times Magazine once referred to as "The Loneliest Highway in America." The LA Times published an article on the road just last week actually (http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-drives16jul16,1,354120.story?ctrack=1&cset=true). We had our first taste of the area's loneliness yesterday on Route 21 in Utah; there was nothing by the roadside except a few greasewood shrubs and sand. Well, except for a lone tree around mile 40, which is where we stopped for lunch. When we were talking with our hosts later on about the ride, this tree came up in conversation; they knew exactly which tree we were referring to.

Last night we had a great time in the little town of Baker, Nevada. It has a population in the mid 50s and a working force of 12. Still, it pulls its own weight, with no fewer than two Stanford PhDs and a strong presence in the local National Park Service.

Whenever we roll into a little town like Baker, we tend to overwhelm the local retail life. When we arrived in Baker, the first place we crashed was the Lectrolux Cafe at the Silver Jack Inn (http://silverjackinn.com/), which is run by the wonderful chef/inn manager/cyclist/nature photographer/the list goes on Terry Marasco. Dining on hummus platters and plates of olives and brie, it seemed like we were experiencing a premature arrival in Sonoma than staying in the high desert of eastern Nevada. If you ever find yourself in eastern Nevada, you've got to stop at the Lectrolux Cafe (don't worry, you won't miss it if you're on Route 50).

We also got a chance to visit the Lehman Caves, a network of limestone caves with beautiful stalagmites, stalactites, shields, and curtains. How to tell the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite: the stalaCtites are on the CEILING and the stalaGmites are on the GROUND. Jargon aside, the caves were beautiful and, yes, they do bar mitzvahs in the caves.

Tonight we're in the slightly larger town of Ely. We had a delicious dinner at the Baptist Church in town and now some of the riders have dispersed into the town for the evening. US 50 is sparkling under the lights of the Hotel Nevada and various casinos in town. We've got about 4 days to look forward to in this state! Signing off...

Eric

HBC South Summer Family Vacation Continues

So you thought we were done with the HBC South Summer Family Vacation, but it's only gotten deeper. It may have culminated last night when we were offered seven rooms at the Days Inn in Torrey, Utah free of charge from Pastor Wayne, which is very "family-vacation," second perhaps only to driving through the Grand Canyon in a big old mortorhome. Huge thanks to Pastor Wayne for his generosity. For once, we were showering in a legitimate shower...and we didn't have to press a button while rinsing out our hair.

In the last few days, we've biked through so many National and State Parks that it's hard to keep them apart. The biggest one, perhaps, was Capitol Reef National Park, a huge park replete with red rock canyons and formations that look like the Capitol building or a great cathedral. A few of us stopped off at a water hole with a huge waterfall to get out of the heat, which percolates all day and is regularly getting over 100 degrees in the late afternoon. During the rides, we're regularly biking down to, through, and up out of canyons.

Tonight we're in Escalante, doing homestays in the unusually domestic pattern we're generating here. Escalante is home to Grand Staircase National Park, which we biked through to get here. The red and white sandstone is really incredible; many put today's ride at the top of their list of favorite HBC rides. This is about as far south as we'll be going in Utah; tomorrow to Panguitch.

Until the next HBC South Family Adventure...

Eric

It's getting hot out here...

Yes folks, you get two posts today. We arrived really early today in Green River, UT so we have had lots of free time to surf the Net, watch movies (movie du jour = "Mighty Ducks"), clean bikes, hang at this town's only coffee shop, and even swim in the Motel 6 pool (an interesting story). It is HOT out here...when I walked down Main Street around 3 PM today, it registered at a whopping 109 degrees! Thank goodness we got a really early start and were all in town by noonish.

Tomorrow should prove to be a challenging day, about 90 miles to Capitol Reef National Park, where we will be camping. We all love camping, but the idea of not having an air-conditioned place to crash after biking is a bit intimidating. Have no fears though, HBC South is TOUGH.

It's hard to believe that we've been on the road for a total of 7 weeks now. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day details of the trip and lose sight of the larger picture, i.e. the fact that we have biked over 3,000 miles by now. Just 2 weeks from tomorrow, we will be triumphantly crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, hopefully to the cheering of many of you who are reading this blog entry. We'll be sure to have all the details of our arrival posted up here within the next week, so stay tuned...

It's gonna be an early night for me, so I'll sign off for now!

~Jess :)

HBC South Family Vacation!

It's hard to bike through the painted canyons of Utah without imagining a coyote chasing a roadrunner over the edge with a huge box of Acme dynamite. So far we've steered clear of any coyotes but the prairie dogs are out yipping and yapping at the side of the road as we bike by.

In the last few days, HBC South has, by most accounts, turned into a classic bonafide American family vacation. Colorado is basically one huge National Park, what with the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Since we entered Utah two days ago, the family vacation has taken us through the outdoor mecca of Moab and Arches National Park. We had a much needed day off in Moab, where riders dispersed on all sorts of adventures. As Jess suggested, most of the riders did end up trading in their road bikes for souped up mountain bikes, taking on the trails of Slickrock, Klondike, and other mountain biking parks in the area.

Those who wanted to get out of the saddle headed out on spelunking trips or whitewater rafting trips. I went on a full-day whitewater trip through the Westwater Canyon of the Colorado River with the Canyon Adventures Company with Sophie, Matt Schrimpf, and Jess. Not only did we hit some Class IV rapids, but we also saw a bald eagle, blue herons, canyon walls hundreds of feet tall, and we even got to do a bit of cliff jumping in the river.

Our hosts in Moab were incredible. We stayed at the St. Pius X Catholic Church in town both days, who provided us with a comfortable place to stay in town and many, many delicious meals. A big thanks to Moab's Mayor Dave, who helped us find a place to shower and swim across the street from the church and just generally helped us feel welcome in town.

After dinner on both nights in Moab, our family vacationeers traveled out to the famous Arches National Park. The first night we took a sunset hike down Park Avenue, a canyon named so because its sheer vertical walls make it feel almost like walking down the namesake in New York City. I don't think Park Ave. NYC has gnarly desert trees or rock vats carved out by thousands of years of water and wind. But we'll let that slide.

The second night we drove a bit farther into the park to the world-famous Delicate Arch. Definitely one of Utah's state symbols, it was one of the most awe-inspiring natural phenomena that many of us had ever seen. And this in the wake of the Rockies and the Black Canyon. It must be about 70 feet tall, a free-standing sandstone arch at the edge of a cliff hundreds of feet tall. Awesome? Awesome.

Tonight: Green River, Utah, in the town's Community Center, with no fewer than 5 computers and cable TV. Utah is treating us well. Signing off...

Eric

Southwestern style

I'm here in the public library in Naturita, CO, our last stop in Colorado before we hit the sweet town of Moab, UT. Last night we stayed over in Montrose, CO, a bustling metropolis (well, it's all relative out here...) conveniently located just 10 miles away from the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. After a gorgeous 65-mile ride into Montrose yesterday, we were able to shuttle 15 or so of us out to the Canyon for some trail running, hiking, etc. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the overlooks at the Canyon were some of the most beautiful and breathtaking that have seen thus far on our trip, and that is saying a lot.

Today's ride was a longer 85-miler into Naturita, including a climb up the 9,000-foot Dallas Divide. After lunch, the scenery turned very Southwestern, with dark red canyons and ridges surrounding us on all sides. Naturita is a quiet little town in the middle of pretty much nowhere, but as we have consistently found on this trip, the size of the town says nothing about the friendliness of the people. The nice folks at the middle school here agreed to let us stay in their facility, and the members of the Union Congregation Church of nearby Nucla, CO are coming together to serve us dinner tonight at 6:30.

Tomorrow's ride should be a challenging one as well, though it will be followed by a much-needed and much-anticipated day off in Moab. There have been rumors of mountain bike trips being planned for the day...I guess you have to be pretty crazy to bike across the country in the first place, but mountain biking on your day off? Let's just say we're a pretty hard core bunch.

Well, the van hadn't arrived in town by the time I did, but I'd better go now to see if it's here so I can get some of this bike grease off my legs. Just over two weeks remaining until the grand finale in San Fran...get excited!!!

~Jess

Mo' Mountains = Mo' fun

This will be a quick entry, as I am paying for Internet access from a coffee shop here in Gunnison, CO. Basically, the last couple days have been the most beautiful of the trip and probably of most of our lives. We've passed over the Continental Divide not once, not twice, but a total of three hard core times. Yesterday's journey from Dillon to Buena Vista included a fiercesome 11,000+ climb, which was rewarded by both a trip to a hot springs in Buena Vista as well as a delicious Mexican dinner provided by the Habitat chapter there. Today's trek from Buena Vista to Gunnison included another 11,000+ ascent, followed by yet another sweet dinner, this time provided free of charge at a local delicatessen (shout out to The Firebrand and Heidi!) We are currently staying at the Gunnison High School and are psyched to be able to sleep in 1.5 hours later tomorrow morning, courtesy of a shorter and less mountainous ride to Montrose, CO.

Before I sign off, I want to offer a big shout out to all the kind folks who sent us mail to the Gunnison maildrop. You can't imagine what getting a package from a loved one means to us after a long day of biking. A special shout-out to my mom's own homemade chocolate chip cookies: Most people would think that you would lose weight on a cross-country bike trip, but my mom has worked very hard to prevent that, and I just want to acknowledge those efforts :)

Still Rocking the Rockies,
~Jess