Since acquiring my first bike in over a decade last year, I’ve fallen in love with cycling (and more out of favor with driving a car). I put about 20,000 miles on my Mazdaspeed from August 2007 to May 2008 commuting back and forth from Salem to PDX… from May to November I put about 800 miles on it, which was coincidentally about how much I had ridden my bike during that same time. Living near where you work and play – imagine that!

So I like riding my bike… so much that I decided that this summer I’d like to go on a bike tour for my vacation. My original plan was to head over to Astoria and ride down the Oregon coast, make it just enough into California to camp in the redwoods, and then head back through Crater Lake and Bend. The plan was for about three weeks to accomplish it all… and then plans changed.

We have had a team offsite scheduled at work for months, but they ended up having to reschedule at the last minute. Now it was taking up the first week of my vacation that I’d originally planned around the offsite. I thought about postponing the trip for a week, but then I heard WhereCampPDX might be happening during that time. I wanted to present some of the geo stuff I’ll be doing on the trip (more on that in a sec) during the camp. The thought of going through Crater Lake later in the year was not so great either. So, after some deliberation, I decided to take the trip earlier instead of later, which means I’ll be leaving two weeks from today on August 5th.

With the change in schedule I reevaluated my route, and made some changes there as well. Instead of heading back up through Crater Lake, I will be riding south until I hit the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, which is where our team offsite is. Beats flying (in enjoyment factor, not speed :)

The challenge will be making it through the 1300+ miles in three weeks, which works out to an average of 60-something miles a day. I will be a beast by the time I get there, or I will be roadkill. Keep an eye on this web site to see how it turns out, as I will be blogging and tracking the journey as I go.

WIth a minimum of gadgetry (I have to carry everything I need with me on the bike, so weight is a factor), I plan on doing live GPS tracking where possible and geotagging everything I post, whether it be Twitter, photos, blog posts, you name it. Stay tuned for more info about the tech behind the tracking and progress on the trip!