Introduction

ACROSS AMERICA NORTH, 2006
Astoria, OR to Portsmouth, NH  50 DAYS/ 3650 MILES

Across America North is America by Bicycle’s northern route across the United States. This 50-day moderately paced tour averages 80+ miles per day and crosses through 10 states and just a bit of the Canadian province of Ontario. The 3650-mile route begins with a wheel dip in the Pacific Ocean in Astoria, Oregon and ends with a wheel dip in the Atlantic Ocean near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In between, meet the challenge of the Cascades, the Rockies, and the Appalachian Mountains. Experience the vistas of the high deserts, the rolling high plains, and upper Midwestern farmlands. Across America North is 45 riding days that will treat you to stunning vistas, epic climbs, and return you to “reality” with a whole new appreciation of cycling.

[This blog is being created 10 years after the event described so that I may share it with family and friends . . . and read it in my old age. The photos on it a bit blurry as many of them were originally compressed for Mike Munk's website and then pulled from that website.

In 2004 I retired in May from Fire Protection Publications, a fire service publishing company on the campus of Oklahoma State University. The very next month I scrapped plans for cycling across Canada with the CCCTS, a group of retired Canadian cyclists, and began as staff for America by Bicycle, a bicycle touring company out of New Hampshire. How did this happen? Well, I had been told by my doctor that I needed hip replacement surgery and that there was no way I could cycle across Canada. (I did not get that surgery until July 2014, ten years later, BTW.) I was in a funk. Mike Munk read about my predicament in Wheel Issues, the Red Dirt Pedalers bike club newsletter I put together, and offered me a staff position with America by Bicycle, He successfully enticed me with the news that I could ride as little as I wanted if the hip acted up. He also wooed me with a note that read something like "Which would you prefer? Sleeping on the ground in a tent or sleeping in comfy a motel bed with a chocolate on your pillow?" 

Mike is a super photographer, mechanic, and ride leader and wanted to free himself of the nightly chore of keeping his ride website in which he showcased the riders and ride each day. My primary job was to keep this website, but I, like all the other support staff, drove the SAG van or luggage truck, set up SAG stops, and rode my bike either Float (free with and among the riders) or as Sweep behind the last rider. (This position might also be called border collie.)

The ride described here was my third year to staff America by Bicycle's Across America North ride, which starts in Astoria, OR, and finishes in Portsmouth, NH, 52 days and 3637 miles later. 

This year’s ride was a bit different for several reasons. First, because of my mother-in-law’s illness and subsequent death, I was unable to train properly for the ride and also needed to leave the ride in Fond du Lac, WI, a week short of its conclusion. Second, Mike & Barbara Munk, Karen Bauer, and Josh Stratton, my heretofore team, were staffing the Challenge or undergoing heart surgery this year, so with one exception, the staff on this ride was new to me and, more importantly, new to the route. Third, I developed a nasty viral cold that lasted nearly 10 days, and last, I was asked to keep the official ABB website, which is a pretty cut-and-dried, two or three paragraphs and two pix affair, not at all as much fun or as interesting to write (or read) as Mike Munk’s ride site. When comparing the two sites, one can see that I borrowed liberally from the text and some of the photos of the 2005 Across America North website, which in turn I borrowed liberally from the 2004 North website, both of which I had developed jointly with Mike.. 

Nonetheless, we had an interesting and diverse group of riders and the route, as always, was magnificently scenic and challenging. I was pleased to find an avid birder in the group, a college professor no less, and I also enjoyed all of the “kids” on the ride. We had a father and 13-year-old son duo and a mother riding a triple with her 13– and 15-year-olds. And, we also had a mix of nationalities, including two from Great Britain, one from Ireland, one from Scotland, one from Finland (years ago), two from Germany, and from Switzerland another delightful father with his 21-year old son. 

The mountains were not our biggest challenge this year. The HEAT was. But apart from heat-related problems, this was one of the safest rides I’ve staffed. Only one rider had to leave the ride because of a broken bone (collarbone). Ironically, the same rider left the ride on its very first day last year with his collarbone broken in six places. He has now vowed to complete the ride in 2007. Three’s a charm.]