Symmetry

As I was riding my bike on Labor Day morning, I started to think about symmetry. It was not in a cyclist's way of thinking though. No, it was not about equal leg length which is apparently not too common or about whether my right and left legs have equal power. It was about my upcoming bike tour.

We are starting this ride in Seaside, Oregon and will finish in Seaside, California. Well, at least the last hotel is in Seaside. We actually finish in Carmel, a few miles south and will shuttle back to the hotel. There are other examples of symmetry. I have started a previous West Coast ride in Portland. I started an East Coast ride in Portland, Maine.

More about the next tour. We start the 950 mile ride on September 10. This ride was conceived last winter when three of us were riding and taking a break on the top of Chatfield Dam to look at the snow covered foothills and catch a breath from the climb up the dam road. Jim Olsson asked about a West Coast ride. I said I would do it again (I have done it twice, self supported in 1974 fresh out of college and again in 2007 on an organized tour). Tracy, owner of CrossRoads Cycling, said that she would go.

We put out feelers to several former CrossRoads riders to see if they would join us on this adventure. Jim Heller from 2005 who was my main riding partner thought it over and said he was in. Other invitees could not come for various reasons. Ron Allum, a fellow Denverite and COBRAS club member and great training partner with Jim O., said that he would join us.

I drove the route in June with my wife and took copious notes to form cue sheets. Tracy did all the hotel planning and saved us $500 in hotel costs from the advertised Internet rates. Jim O. is contributing the use of his SUV for the trip. I will drive half of each day to give the others the maximum ride time because I have done the trip twice before.

I think that the scenery on this ride is unsurpassed for a long bike tour in the US. I am looking forward to it again and will blog about our adventure as we proceed. Stay tuned.