bikes shoorams

Day 1: What a Nice Trail, Except for the Pokies! I’ve been wanting to try bikepacking with Sly, my gravel adventure bike. I wanted to do the Willapa Hills Trail (the whole thing, not just the parts I’ve done on my road bike, and my Bike Friday touring bike...aka, the easy parts). My friend, Bethany, did the WHT last April (a day ride, unloaded). She has also wanted to do a bikepacking trip with her gravel bike. The planets aligned, and we were able to schedule a short trip this weekend.  Bethany and our driver (aka her husband) picked me up Saturday morning at 7:00. We arrived at the WHT Trailhead in Chehalis (take the Hwy 6 exit from I-5 South, turn right, then turn left, following the signs to the Willapa Hills Trailhead), and loaded the bags onto the bikes. Here’s Sly, ready to go. Here we are, two bikepackers ready to go!  We had to stop a few times to make some adjustments (mostly just tightening straps), but then we were on the trail! The first part of the trail is paved...

28 hours. That’s how long it took me to get from Perth to Seattle. Cathie and Marlene took me to the airport the night of July 10th. Jared had joined us for dinner and dessert, but wasn’t feeling so great afterward, so we dropped him back at home first. In Australia, people can go to the gate even without a ticket, so Cathie and Marlene sat with me at the gate until it was almost time for me to board. We said our goodbyes with hugs all around. I boarded shortly after they left. Bag packed Dessert at San Churros Goodbye Perth  I tried to watch a movie, but I kept nodding off. In the whole trip (Perth to Sydney and Sydney to LA—there were no movies for LA to Seattle), I think I slept through parts of about 5 movies.  The good part about the flight from Sydney was that the plane was not very full.  Those seats were empty. People later moved into the aisle ones, but the seat next to me remained empty. Sydney in the distance Because I learned my lesson about layover times when...

As always, all good things must come to an end so one can appreciate how good it was...and so is the case for our trip to the Margaret River Region of Western Australia. We had one last hurrah at the Goose Cafe in Busselton for coffee (hot chocolate) before getting on the road north. Okay, I might have had a cherry ripe slice too... Cathie’s friend, Lisa, who we had met up with briefly in Harvey, and lives in Australind, was available for us to drop in on our way back. To get to her place, we went on the same road I had ridden from Bunbury. We even went by where I camped in Bunbury.  We had a nice visit and lunch with Lisa and her daughter, Billie. Billie’s twin sister, Poppy, came out and said hello to us. Afterward, we went to the Bunbury Farmers’ Market. It’s kind of like the IKEA of farmer’s markets. You work your way through in one direction. It was very busy. There were some interesting items. This looks like the squid face guy in Pirates of the Caribbean. Really, it is calle...