Welcome to this new blog, which is meant to document my cycling exploits, particularly my planned mega-adventure of cycling from Portland, Oregon to Park City, Utah. There’s much to tell here — who I am, why I’m doing this particular ride, and what I’ve done before that would make me think this is a good idea, as well as a great deal of minutiae that I plan to include here for those who might be contemplating a similarly foolish but wonderful feat. But to start with, here’s the one-minute version:
- I work for a great company called Automattic (yes, the same one that runs this blogging platform.) Each year, the entire company gather together somewhere in the world. This year (and last) our gathering will happen in the middle part of October in Park City, Utah. Instead of flying (yawn) I’ve decided to bicycle to the meeting this year. I live in Seattle, Washington, but I’ll be starting the ride from down the road in Portland, Oregon.
- I have a history of this sort of thing, having (for example) cycled down the west coast of the United States with my brother Seth a number of years ago.
- Cycling long distances is awesome. I think it could be something that far more people could do than do now.
- My job is completely virtual — meaning I can do it from wherever I happen to be, given a suitable internet connection and my laptop. Therefore, my plan is to do a certain amount of work from the road.
I’ve done a reasonable amount of thinking about the route I will take on this trip (more on that later of course — much more.) But I plan to cross the entire state of Oregon and the southern (thick) part of Idaho, on my way down into the Salt Lake area and then up to Park City. In the course of doing this, I will climb four mountain ranges (for the curious, that’s the Cascade, Ochoco, Blue and Wasatch ranges) and I will descend from three (all but the Wasatch.) Though I have yet to count precisely, this ride should extend over more than 800 miles and involve well over 30,000 vertical feet of climbing.
So there you have it … welcome — and much much more to come.