FALCON'S ODYSSEY

[FALCON]

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General Updates
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One awesome thing that has happened since quitting: I don’t have to spend any “decision energy” on work. I’ve made changes to other things much quicker – so far: diet and exercise. Even in the van with a very minimal kitchen, I’m eating as well as I ever have. I’ve also started exercising almost every day.


DIET IMPROVEMENTS
I hadn't been eating that great over the past two years. My job required a lot of travel, and it was much more difficult to eat well while traveling. Also, I let my diet go a bit over the last year while I was building the van, getting my house prepped for and selling it, spending time with a girlfriend, and getting ready to quit my job.

After quitting my job and that “last first day” (hitting the road for good) - it only took about a week to change my diet.

When I moved into the van in late March, I was eating food that I could prepare without cooking: mostly sandwiches and salads. I started cooking gradually. Now, I’m eating almost the same as I would with a full kitchen:
- Most meals are a sort of stir-fry, always including chicken*, bell peppers, rice, and 2-3 other types of vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, mushrooms, etc.). Then I add some type of sauce - these days it’s mostly green chili sauce. Using different sauces makes the meal seem very different. I also use some types of indian and asian sauces.
- Smaller meals are typically an apple, orange or banana, and either a can of sardines or a whey protein shake.
- When out on a long hike or bike ride (2-3 hours or more) I bring along peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - using some wonderful jelly and jam that my brother’s girlfriend makes.

The only other thing I eat is a bit of dark chocolate. mmmmm. And some tea occasionally. About 65% of the food I eat by volume is now vegetables and fruit. Then about 25% meat, and 10% bread or rice.

* Chicken — when I had a kitchen, most of my meat (including for sandwiches) came from buying and roasting whole fresh chickens. I don’t want to carry and clean a solar oven, so roasting meat is out of the question now. I’ve started buying the rotisserie chickens at grocery stores. I know these aren’t the greatest chickens, but they’ll work well enough for now.


EXERCISE IMPROVEMENTS
I’ve been exercising nearly every day. I’m doing a lot of hiking, some bike rides, and some strength-training calisthenics. I’m hiking about 5-10 hours per week, running 1, bike riding 1-2, and doing the strength training once or twice.

For the strength training, I’m currently doing:
- One-leg squats, while holding onto something static to give more resistance
- Sort of one-arm pushups (I put the other arm out further and keep that arm straight. If there is a way to do it with my feet up higher, I do)
- Pull ups (pronated grip, fairly wide. I switched to these from supinated grip which I I’ve used for years because it is easier on my tendons)

I do 4-5 sets of each. Sometimes the pull-ups are a challenge - it can be tough finding a tree with a good branch. In cities it’s easy - find a pull-up bar in a park, or use playground equipment. I imaging after some time I’ll need to add more resistance for all three of these. I can wear a backpack with stuff inside.

There are some things I want to add to this regimen:
- Replace overhead press - I’ll probably start trying handstand pushups
- Grip/hand strength. I have an Ivanko Super gripper. Need to start using it. Plus other things I can do without needing equipment.
- Stomach/core strength
- foot raises - for the muscles on the front of my lower leg.
- L-Flys
- Neck strength (I haven’t done them much, but I’m not a fan of bridges. I can figure something else out - I could use the weighted backpack)

I’ve gotten to be what I consider too fat over the last few years. When I use a caliper on a certain spot of my stomach (about 2” above the top/front of my pelvis) I’m at 18mm. I expect to get down below 10mm. In very ballpark conversions, that will be less than 10% body fat. I’m quite good at gaining and losing weight, but not having a scale makes it significantly harder. In lieu of that, I’m using the fat caliper, and body dimension measures.  I feel like I may be losing weight a little too quickly, but it’s hard to tell without a scale. I should check the caliper and measurements again soon.

I’ve ridden my bike exactly one time on Forest Service roads. It did not go well. One issue was washboarding on the road – when I went down some too fast, I got a flat tire and my saddleback attachment broke (it has a plastic part that was already cracked). The other problem is riding my road bike tires on gravel/dirt/sand that is too soft and too deep. I’m going to take a look at how wide of tires I can fit in my current bike, but I expect to be buying a different type of bike soon. I’m looking at cyclocross bikes right now, which will allow tires of at least 35mm, and in some cases up to 45mm. I want a bike that I will also be happy riding on roads.  I think a flat-bar bike will be harder to store than one with road/curved handlebars.


READING
I’ve started reading “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose. It’s about the Lewis and Clarke expedition. It’s incredibly interesting for me. There are some very specific details  - starting with how the trip originated and the relationship between Meriwether Lewis and Thomas Jefferson (I’ve been learning about Jefferson over the last year or so from listening to the “Thomas Jefferson Hour” podcast. If you like podcasts, you should check it out)

There are some interesting similarities between their expedition and Vandwelling. The beginning of the book has a lot of details about Lewis’ preparations - from building boats to use as their main means of transportation (at least for much of the trip), deciding what provisions to bring, and studying various subjects before leaving.

I’m in Bozeman now and today I went on a bike ride – on a road someone here recommended. It’s funny, I’d spoken to her last night about the Lewis and Clarke book, and she knew a LOT about them and their trip. What she didn’t tell me is that on the bike route she had already recommended, there is a sign noting that Clark and the other men camped right there on their return trip. Awesome!

 

[FALCON]

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CAMPING IN SHOSHONE
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While driving east on Beartooth, I’d seen a few roads going off the highway just before the mountain pass. They were in the area that has a lot of lakes. As I passed one, I thought I’d really like to go explore that road and camp out there. I resolved to check if I can dispersed camp on these roads.

Turns out I can.

So I went down FSR 149, and, I believe, 149.1a, to camp near Fantan lake. It’s a cool area, and a nice lake, and all that. I spent a couple days there.


Driving over Beartooth pass again:

Here’s the lake I camped near.

There are very few camping spots along the FS Roads I took to the lake (I only remember 1). There are a few spots at the lake. One, where I camped, is up a hill and about 100 feet or more from the lake. The other two are RIGHT ON the lake. Am I right in thinking that it’s not a very good idea to camp right next to the lake? (mainly to not disturb the animal and land too much)

Found a sweet beach! Of course I went for a swim. I didn’t see obvious snowmelt running into this lake, but it was cold.

I did some hiking around the lake

This was a small lake or pond I happened upon while hiking

I did a lot of reading up here.

 

[FALCON]

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NEW BIKE
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DRIVING TO SPOKANE
 
After camping in Shoshone, I drove back to West Yellowstone. 
 
Leaving my campsite:

 
 
I had some mail there. I had also ordered a new micro SD card for my GoPro. When recording, the GoPro was often pausing for a little bit and putting gaps in the video. Although I think the card I was using has a high enough transfer speed for HD video, after making sure it wasn’t due to overheating, that was the next thing to try. 
 
Once in West Yellowstone, I realized that the carrier for the SD card was UPS, and that they won’t/can’t deliver to the post office as General Delivery. (I assume now that the Post Office refuses since they would be rendering me service with no pay). So I drove up to Bozeman Friday evening to pick up the package before the UPS place closed for the weekend. Then I hung out in Bozeman a couple days. It’s a nice town. 
 
After a couple days in Bozeman, I northwest. I took the Interstate to Missoula, and then 200. 
 

 

 
200 was a nice drive. Next summer I definitely want to spend more time around here, and also along the area between West Yellowstone and Bozeman. I stopped for a night in Noxon
 

 

 
 
NEW BIKE
 
I brought a road bicycle along with me. I prefer riding outside of cities - out in rural areas on roads without a lot of traffic. This results in me wanting to ride more while I’m outside of cities - while i’m out in a camping spot. That means that I’m out on forest service roads. I went for a ride from a camping spot in Colorado once. It was a wonderful area. The forest service roads weren’t that bad, and there was a gravel road that I wanted to explore. I’m used to riding road tires on crushed stone paths - which are generally very hard packed and have just a little bit of loose rock and only a few sections of what I’d call normal gravel. Riding on real gravel roads is another thing. The road I went down had a LOT of washboarding, and had some pretty deep/soft gravel. I went too fast down some washboard sections which resulted in a flat tire and my saddlebag attachment breaking and the bag falling off. (The bag attachment part is plastic and it was already cracked, so I was worried it would break). 
 
I gathered that I need to use wider tires. My road frame could probably accept tires around 25mm or MAAYBE about 28. I want to be able to use wider. I started looking at Cyclocross and Gravel bikes. I don’t want a full-on Mountain bike because I will still ride on paved roads and I don’t want to be limited by the gearing. This also meant that about half of the cyclocross bikes (which have only one chainring) wouldn’t work either. I searched the Craigslist postings for Bozeman, Spokane, Seattle, and Vancouver, and found some good options. Vancouver was a very real possibility because of the favorable exchange rate. I’d saw a bike I liked in Spokane and made plans to meet the guy to check it out… 
 
The bike looked good, and I bought it. It is a Felt F65x Cyclocross bike. It’s a mid-level bike. I love buying things at prices that are nearly fully depreciated, and that’s what I did here. New, the bike costs $1,500 or more. The guy had a $1,000 price on his ad. We agreed on $700. The bike was practically new. He got it a year or less ago, and has a lot of bikes, and it appears he didn’t get around to riding this one much. 
 
 
 
Here I’ve started moving components over from my road bike. I moved the seat, handlebars, stem, pedals, and bottle cages. Because of the angle, my road bike looks like it’s smaller than the new bike. It’s actually not, other than a slight different in the wheelbase. 

 
My 23mm road tires vs the 33mm tires on the new bike. The next set of tires I get may be 38mm. 

 
With everything moved over (except bottle cages) and the bars taped up. 

 
This bike has a lot of modern bike features that I’ve never experienced before: 11 speed drivetrain, disc brakes, internal cable routing, tubeless comparable wheels (though they don’t have tubeless tires on them now).

 
The frame is definitely not as nice as the old bike (it doesn’t smooth out the bumps nearly as well), but the wider tires with less air pressure will make up for some of that.
 
The van was a total mess inside while I had the two bikes. I got a cardboard bike box from a shop,  packed up the road bike, and mailed it to a family member to store in their basement. 
 
I’ve wen’t for a few rides now on the new bike and it is working great. My knees are giving me a bit of trouble - hurting after the riding. I think some of it is due to small differences with the new bike (probably some slight difference in bottom bracket and crank arm widths - which cause the pedals to be slightly closer or further apart), and some of it is because I’m just using them a lot more and differently than I have been over the last couple years. So I need to make sure I work up my use and intensity gradually.

 

[WriterMs]

There is a LOT more you can do in Montana connected to "Undaunted Courage" when you swing back to the state. Ambrose lived in Helena part-time after his retirement from academia. He was a big supporter of the tourism his book brought to rural areas of the state. I got to meet him a few times at events.

Since his best-selling book on Lewis & Clark stayed on the NY Times bestseller list for something like 126 weeks, it sparked a whole new industry of float trips on the Missouri River in northeastern Montana, for example. You can canoe it yourself or take a guided trip. There are Lewis & Clark route signs throughout the state and state parks/national landmarks like Missouri Headwaters / Three Forks so you can drive, bike and hike a huge portion of the Corps of Discovery route. Lots of guidebooks on the trail exist though I don't have a specific one to recommend. (Montana used to have some excellent used book stores even in smaller towns back in my day).

 

[muddy]

I love reading this -- keep up the good writing!

 

[vsession]

Amazing pictures, keep them coming!

 

[Whitey]

Nice bikes. I switched from a touring bike with rim brakes to one with discs a few years ago and there's no going back. Fat, lower pressure tires are more comfortable but it's like permanently riding in sand. Have you considered adding a cross country bike to the quiver? A downhill bike would be a nice addition too. Soon you'll be pulling a small cargo trailer with a few bikes in it!

I too discovered Jacob's ERE (early retirement extreme) site and it's full of great information if you're young, educated and disciplined enough to apply it.

 

[FALCON]

Thanks Vsession, Muddy, and Whitey.

@Whitey - all my recent bikes had modern road brakes that worked really well. The disc brake are nice though. Yes, I've learned a ton from the ERE book, blog, and forums. Their forums have some incredibly smart, intuitive, and well-spoken regulars. Also many of them are INTJs or similar and write in a way that always makes sense for me. About the discipline part - another way to think about it is that it just takes considering your options and being intentional - deciding what you want. When I decide not to (or really, don't even consider) spendy options, like say, eating out, I don't ever feel like I'm making a sacrifice. I'm just doing what I want more. I don't need to reason with or convince any part of my mind, because I understand the different possibilities (and that I can make up new possibilities) and have considered them, and understand the impacts on my enjoyment and health, both right now and in the long run. I do suppose it takes some discipline to actually think through this stuff. And I think that's all the most financially irresponsible people are missing. They feel like it's hard to decide not to go out to eat or to "make sacrifices" because they are often only considering immediate outcomes of "have this fun" or "don't".

 

[FALCON]

There is a LOT more you can do in Montana connected to "Undaunted Courage" when you swing back to the state. Ambrose lived in Helena part-time after his retirement from academia. He was a big supporter of the tourism his book brought to rural areas of the state. I got to meet him a few times at events.

Since his best-selling book on Lewis & Clark stayed on the NY Times bestseller list.......

Thanks for sharing that. Yeah. I feel like I'm missing and skipping an incredible amount of things. I believe that will be one of the things that I will play around with and that might not ever feel entirely right: how long to stay in a single campsite, in a region, etc? At what point have you explored "enough" to be ready to move on? Trying to "see it all" vs. leaving more for the next time I'm back? Etc..

 

[FALCON]

DRIVING FROM SPOKANE TO  LEAVENWORTH WA

I’d decided to drive a lot and pass quickly through a lot of area in order to get to Seattle without stopping in a different place each night.


Here’s the route I took. The drive from Lakeview to Coulee City was the best part by far.

 

[FALCON]

CAMPING NEAR LAKE WENATCHEE

I drove into Leavenworth and stopped at the Ranger/Visitors station to ask about camping spots. Leavenworth is a very touristy town with an old German theme. In some parts of the town, every single building was build in the same style and follows a consistent design theme - even down to the exact same typeface being used on all the signs. It’s kind of cheesy, but it looks nice. I admire their ability to stick to that decision and get all occupants to follow the design theme.

The lady at the visitors center had told me about a few free improved campsites a bit past lake XXX, so I decided to check them out before going further into the National Forest. I found a spot in one of those sites right next to a river, so I parked there. The campsite, and the entire area has a lot of trees, but the spot I parked in has a clearing above, and with the river being west of the van, I’d get full sun for about 6 hours a day.

I stayed in this spot from Thursday to Sunday. I went bike riding most days, and hiking one. It felt great staying in the same place for a few days. The weather was nearly perfect. I spent a few afternoons sitting in the van reading a book with the doors open and a nice breeze flowing through.


Camping spot:

Tea, reading, and note-taking.

Had a pretty good view of the stars. I saw a few small meteors but didn’t connect that it being August, they were probably early parts of the Perseid shower.

This kind of shooting is about the only time I wish I had a newer camera - one that could shoot at higher ISO with less noise. My camera has a tough time capturing the stars well without the exposure being so long that the stars move too much.

Pen cleaning and re-inking

I went for a few bike rides but didn’t take any pictures of that. I do have some video from it, but I’m WAY behind in dealing with my video clips. The dirt roads out in this area are great for riding.

The vegetation near the banks of this river was very thick. I was wishing I had some shoes that I could use to walk the river in. (I ended up buying some sandals that will work for this once I got to Seattle)

I spent a couple afternoons like this

 

[FALCON]

On Sunday, my last day there, I went for a hike up the trailhead that starts right by the campsite.

It went up to this lake. Can’t remember the name.

 

[FALCON]

Next up: Seattle. I'll be there for two weeks to visit an old friend and his wife and bum around the city. Those two weeks have actually came and went and I've left Seattle. I'll get around to that post pretty soon.

 

[highdesertranger]

wow the night sky pictures are amazing. I love those amber waves of grain in eastern Washington. they are truly amazing to drive through. great pics. so I guess you use fountain pens and refill them yourself, that is cool. when I saw the wooden box with the vials I was trying to figure out what they where. at first I thought you were doing field assaying. I know one track mind. anyhoo keep it up I love your posts on this thread. highdesertranger

 

[FALCON]

Yep, fountain pens. I use the wooden box (that my dad made maybe 30 years ago) to carry my pen stuff

 

[FALCON]

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SEATTLE
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A WEEK WITH AN OLD FRIEND

An old friend of mine from college live in a suburb south of Seattle with his wife, toddler, and purse dog. I spent a week hanging out with them / at their house. It was great seeing my old friend, getting updates, new stories, old stories I hadn’t heard, etc.

We spent a day doing tourist stuff. This was at the locks - there was some live music and sort of a car show

Gasworks Park:

Near the Space Needle:

We stumbled upon this outdoor movie set up and ready to go. We had to wait a bit for it to get dark and start

 

[FALCON]

HANGING OUT IN SEATTLE

Then I spent a week on my own hanging out in various Seattle neighborhoods. I really like Seattle. It has some normal nice aspects cities can like being in good shape, relatively clean, feeling safe, having young people, etc. But one thing I really liked is that it doesn’t feel spread out. There is a lot of water that prevents this - the sound on the west side and lake Washington on the east. So all of Seattle that is ‘in the city of Seattle’ is between those bodies of water. Once I was in that area, there was very little reason to leave it. When I drove from one side of the city to the other, it took 15 minutes or less. Contrast this with a city like Denver that has no geographic boundaries. It has developed into a sprawl now covering hundreds of square miles. When I’m in Denver I end up with reasons to go from one side of the metro area to the other, and end up driving a lot.

After spending 10 days or so bumming around Seattle, I felt like I could spend an entire summer in the city without even leaving. The weather was nearly perfect while I was there. From what I hear, that perfection doesn’t last long.

Real estate prices are crazy there. I spent some time in a two million dollar house in Capital hill that was definitely nice, but that would cost $250k in the midwest. I also saw a basement studio apartment that was really small and not that nice, for which rent is about $1,000 per month. wow. So, I don’t think I’ll ever live in Seattle unless it’s under the following conditions:
- My net worth grows quicker than I expect and I have a lot of extra money to play with
- I find some kind of alternative living arrangement there

Given that I haven’t been there any time other than summer, I’m not even sure how much I’d want to actually live there.

Anyways, Seattle is awesome and I was very surprised how much I like it.


Volunteer Park

Parked by lake Washington


I spent three afternoons on Madison Beach.

Met a nice girl up here at Kerry Park

 

[FALCON]

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OLYMPIC NATIONAL FOREST
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I went out to Olympic National Forest for a weekend of camping and hiking with my friends from Seattle. I drove out there on a Friday morning, and they came out in the evening after work to join me. I had been planning to do some research and see if I could find what look like good spots for dispersed camping. My friends have a small car so I wanted to find a good spot up a forest service road their car could handle. Come Friday morning, I had failed to do any research. So I left town worrying that I wouldn’t find a good place.

I called a few different National Forest places hoping to connect with a person who could give me good advice, but didn’t have much luck. I’ve found that the National Forest folks I speak with either know EVERYTHING I’m looking for, or not much at all. There hasn’t been much middle ground. This time, I spoke to three different people and got three strikes in a row. So I picked a road that is paved well into the Forest and tried my luck. I ventured off on a Forest Service road. It was in good condition, but there were no good camping spots. There were only a few areas where you could pull off just barely to the side of the road. I encountered a couple sitting and relaxing next to their Vanagon parked in this manor and asked their advice. They informed me that I wouldn’t find what I was looking for on this road. I didn’t want to spend all day driving around FS roads, so I went back down to a pay campsite and got a spot.

Leftovers from dinner with a friend in Seattle:

Big trees near our campsite:

We went on a hike. I think it was called Lena Lake Trail. The trail goes up to Lower Lena Lake, and then Continues into the National Park to Upper Lena Lake. We just went to the Lower Lake. There were a lot of really cool campsites at the lake. There are also more at upper Lena. This would be a good place to hike up to and camp.

 

[FALCON]

We also went to another lake. The name escapes me. This one was just a few minute’s hike form the F.S. road. It’s a wonderful place to spend a day.

After my friends headed back, I explored a bit more. I went up another FS road and found more of the same - no good campsites. There were some good sites on the roads that did not go uphill. I stayed in those one more night and then drove back to Seattle.

 

[FALCON]

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Northern Oregon Coast
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Well, I’ve made it to the coast! I drove out west from Portland to go on a hike with a guy I know from the internet. He took me along a river he fishes regularly. We did quite a bit of wading through the river and got back to a waterfall that is only accessible by doing the wading. Then I continued west to the coast and stopped first at Cannon Beach. I did very little research and was heading down towards Oswald West State Park, but I saw the huge haystack rock from highway 101 so I stopped in Cannon Beach.

ASTORIA

I also went up to Astoria. These are near/from the Column in Astoria:

A Chinook canoe.

While in Astoria, I went to the place where Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery spent a winter. They built a fort here but the one in the picture is a recreation. There is a small museum there with info, movies, and some period or recreation objects similar to what the expedition team had with them. I suspect not a single thing is from their actual trip because they didn’t make any effort to save any of the gear and actually sold or gave much of it away.

A picture of one of their journals

They carried powder to make ink with