Bringing it Together (Salem Or. to Olympia Wa.)

Going to the college corridor was a terrible idea. Ever since I have come here I haven't been able to ween myself from eating hot dogs, going to good wills, and sleeping on couches. I mean seriously it is the best, I honestly don't know a better way to spend some of the most worry free days of life. I have camped for two nights in a row since I have gotten to Eugene. It was only 45 miles to Corvallis, and then 50 or so to Salem, then another 50 to Portland and from there I met my mom and she drove me all the way to Astoria so it was pretty easy to make all the way to Olympia in a few days. There is a large part of me that is screaming at myself. Not letting me forget how much of a pussy I have been for not braving the wet cold ass nights that April in Washington promises. I have been in the weather for so long and it has gotten to the point where if a slightly comfortable opportunity presents itself than it is worth taking. Although I am missing out on the Native Americans, the Rain Forest, and the home town of Bella, it is totally worth it to get out of the rain and the constant feeling of loneliness. I guess to me at this point in my very short life, eating apple tarts with my friends is better than biting the Carlisle Cullen obsessed girl that I was sure to seduce. I definitely wouldn't give up that opportunity if it came across my path, but seeking it out at the expense of my body and missing out on Carson Ball the best friend my smelly asshole could ever have (Written by Carson) was just not worth it me. That is what I am starting to realize, it is way better hanging out with the devil than being alone. It isn't worth punishing myself anymore, I like myself I think that I have gained all of the character that I can possibly squeeze out of this trip. If I was way more hardcore and didn't like people as much as I do, it wouldn't have been a big deal to go around the country like a badass mother fucker, but since I am a normal human being I'm pretty much over it. I want to see people that are my age, I don't want to ride my bike in the rain everyday with no hope of any comfort. I am just ready go home sit in my pool and eat the absolutely delicious food that Prudy is bound to make me. Even though I'm getting to the point of being over what I am doing I am not over the way that this trip made me. Being able to go anywhere talking to anyone and riding my bike to get there is a great way to live. Even living really cheaply is a new habit that I don't think I will be able to shake. I am just starting to learn what is important in life, it is worth squandering all of my money on having incredible experiences rather than buying all of the gear that I would need to decorate my room the same way that they do on Extreme Home Make Over. I love coming home to a nice space, but how can I ever give up for the gratitude of a little kid in a skate park by giving him the exact thing that he is always looking for in exchange for it. I have started to grow back into my college self but now with a totally different attitude. It is really hard for me to not appreciate what I have, it is hard for me to not look at the college world and see how nice it is, going to school and learning some pretty awesome stuff compared to the alternative of sleeping under bridges and begging for food and alcohol for the rest of my life. I am ready to think and grow in a way that can only be done by being forced by teachers. I can't go through my entire life acting like I am an intelligent productive member of society when I am actually a bum that is so jaded I feel as though the world kind of gives a shit about me. Carson told me a quote "That the world only cares about you as much as you care about yourself." and he's completely right. Eventually my luck is going to run out, sooner or later everyone is going to be disillusioned with my mission and me to the realization of what I really am, which is a traveling homeless person that uses and breaks all of their stuff at the very worst, and eats all of their food at the very best. The thing is that I do care about myself now. I completely love myself so I guess it is worth putting a little bit of effort into something that will eventually be worth something rather than continuing to sleep outside and being semi miserable. This experience has been life changing I believe that I am a better person than when I started but it's really hard to say. On a moral level I feel as though I have been living a fairly successful life but at a legality level I feel as though I may be doing subpar. This is the question that is hard for me to decide on. Is something that everyone thinks is wrong necessarily wrong?

College Enterance Essay for Willimette University (Same Place, I can't believe I haven't left yet.)

An Epiphany to Leave.

It is not very often when something hits you so hard that it is a completely overwhelming experience. The onset of the experience is so emotionally vast that it becomes a very strange thing, something that is deeply complex, but if taken at face value the emotion seems to be very obvious. I felt this way when I first came on to the Willamette University. Imagine coming in as an outsider, being instantly accepted to the point of popularity, and being able to perfectly fill the role that the fame is based on? To me this was a life time fantasying, but when it finally happened I was stunted by my fame. It's overruling presence restricted me, disallowing me from growing on a personal level.

By living a lifestyle that is based on fulfilling a preconceived notion of a person, that person deceiving himself or herself. If constantly worried about what other people think, and acting upon the way that they are expected to be, the individual is more controlled by their surroundings than any sense of self. I am at least. I came to Willimete University in the middle of a bike trip starting in Santa Barbara Ca. and ending in Bellingham Wa, when people learned this they instantly liked me for it. As I began to enter deeper into the community my reputation began to spread. The more people that knew of me, the more that I wasn’t so sure that what they thought of me was an actual manifestation of self. I would deceive them, acting the way that I thought they wanted me to be. After awhile of this I became caught up in it, I would act a certain way to fill the role that I was supposed to be. By doing this well I became incredibly liked. I became more of a symbol, or a model human being, rather than the person that I have been trying so hard to become. I would compromise personal expression so I could fit the role that was pressed on me.

Character can only be derived when a person is being purely themselves. People try so hard to obtain character by copying market schemes. The problem is that when everyone tries to copy the same character the traits that symbol represents become generic. I was creating a similar type situation in myself. I would live up to character traits that everyone expected me to have. They would corrupt me. I was so good at living up to the image of myself I would act on the intention of my idyllic self. It was like living in a scene, walking through cherry blossoms, having everybody I met deeply connect with me, it gave me a state of being that I have secretly always wanted. I could have been consumed by this, enrolling into Willamette staying this role during my college and then going out into the world to become I’m sure fairly successful. This could have been a very happy life, actually a life that a ton of people strive for, but that is not what I want. It would have been giving up my soul in exchange for a seemingly idyllic life.

In all honesty I don’t know if this is where I want to go to school anymore. I still have so much world to see, so many more experiences to be had and it is a huge decision finding a place to base my life’s journey out of. A big reason I’m writing this essay is to back up what I have started; to make sure that my true character has not been tarnished by the distorted reality that I found myself stumble into. In falling into this alternate from of self I have learned myself, grown vastly as a person. It is just very emotionally taxing. I'm not if the taxation is worth the glory that it promises.

Like Minded People (Eugene to Salem)

In knowing that I have moved less than 80 mile in the somewhat wrong direction since last week makes me feel pretty shitty about the progress of my bike trip. I have started to accept the fact that I am becoming fat, lazy, and would rather find away into the Goudi dining hall to eat a hot fresh meal rather than eat peanut butter, apples, cheese, and the occasional treat of kind semi moist beef jerky. Yes, I am in the process of taking another week off of my trip to bum around the Willamette College campus, and also yes, I have been wasting the last of my very limited resources to buy party supplies, but in the end is it not worth me finding a place staying to see if I like it and than moving onto the next. I have started to evolve out of my old, constantly moving, continually scared self into realizing that I can literally do whatever I want. There really is no reason (accept making it to Pete's Graduation on time) for me to not spend as much time as I possibly can figuring a place out. I have come to realize (and I am so glad that I did) this is the great lesson to teach myself. After spending sometime on the Willamette campus I have realized that I have found a hidden gem. Something that in my entire life I would have for sure looked over, dismissing it as another private school, that is full of a bunch of elitist rich kids that were way more worried about grades for their future careers as CEO's than anything else in the world. When I came onto this campus this preconceived notion blinded me. I was so wrapped up in my own ideas of doubt that I missed what was standing right in front of me for the first few nights. In all honesty I was only staying because there was a massive storm raging outside, and I felt as though getting soaking wet for a couple more days would be way less fun than staying in a superbly decorated, warm dorm room. It took me being left by all of my friends from Boise to really begin to understand what the campus was all about. When waking up on Saturday morning I felt pretty bad about myself, I felt kind of lonely, and knew that I was failing hard at assimilating into the Willamette community. Instead of acting like myself I was putting on a front of something that I felt people wanted to see, I was acting the exact way that made me feel so terrible about my self when living in Bozeman. I knew that I would either have to stop doing this to myself or leave. It would have been a bash on the whole spirit of this trip if that was the way that I acted for an extended period of time, so I knew that I was going to have to hightail it out of Willamette if this pressing feeling of shittiness persisted. On Saturday morning though all of this changed. I was walking around Terra hall and happened to bum into Megan and Cross... Actually I just kind of walked into their room to see what they were up to. After sitting, letting my guard down and really engaging with them my eyes were opened to what at least Terra house really was. They made me understand that everyone at this campus, no matter what they are into is extremely smart. This opened my mind to the fact that the people here are very real, they understand the world, and although a lot of them were brought up in privileged circumstances they at least understand and appreciate the circumstances that led them to thins point of their lives. Also this was the first time it hit me that I was living in a girls dorm room, using the women's bathroom completely unattended by her your anyone else. Even in my state of reclusion I was seen as a part of the community, people trusted me enough to live with them without really knowing me at all. This is a special thing that I have not found on any other college campus that I was visited. I am always greeted with some justifiable anticipation. (like your cool man and I guess you can stay, but don't steal my fucking sunglasses you bastard.) I am a transient bum, and having a healthy sense of respect when dealing with people this way, is probably a good idea if you don't want to get totally ripped off. So entering into a community that started out trusting me, based on someone else word that kind of knew me, was a pretty telling sign of how awesome this college community actually was. From here I was able to start acting like myself again I began to branch out and meet more and more people and them more that I have done this the more I realize that this is a place filled with kids that are like me. As I continued on my journey for the day a ran into Eli who kind of knowing me asked if I was still coming to plateau by Detroit lake so I could come and party with them. After making it to the top of the plateau, realizing it was too wet to camp, going to a hot springs, taking a wrong turn and getting stuck in the snow, trying to get unstuck for a hour (with all of our car member not ready for snow at all.) running to a hot springs to meet up with some other kids whose car we could use, driving out to call a tow truck, getting towed out, bringing the keys back down to the hot spring, deciding that it was too cold and wet to camp, convincing kids to leave the womb like hot springs to enter the harsh world, starting to drive back, passing a closed gas station on empty, running out of gas 20 miles down the road, waiting an extremely long time for the other crew to get gas, learning they got pulled over, stressing out for a while, deciding when they got back that the only two suitable drivers were Eli, and Jillian who had never driven a clutch, having Jillian step up to the plate and driving a manual as well as I do, and making it home safely just so we could partying our brains out at 3:30 am, I began to realize this is an incredible place. We were in a string of really terrible situation and no one complained, actually I think that people were secretly happy about it. (I was having a great time personally) I have never met this big of a group of people that have gamed this hard in a completely outrageous string of events and having everyone at the end talking about how awesome it was. This event (realizing the potential of the kids that go here), the best campus music scene ever, the best, most relaxed dining hall on the west coast, and the fact the my mind is on fire with it constantly being fed by the community around me I have come to fall in love with this place. So yes, I am still here, wasting my life away waiting until April 20th and the massive campus wide celebrations that the school has been kind enough to give everyone the day off for, but I have come to the conclusion that this is not a terrible thing. Alex Blake was completely right in telling me that I need to steel my mind so I don't end up on the couches of my friends... I have ended up on my friends couches. I guess this has proven the pink squishiness of my mind, but at least I don't have a steel trap that won't let any new ideas in or out.
Tim
P.s. Thank you so much Lauren for being my temporary roommate. I honestly think that you have allowed me to fall onto the best spot on campus.
P.s.s. Thank you Terra house for accepting me into the community, you guys rule.

Getting Fat (Eugene Or. to Eugene Or.)

As can be seen from the title of this blog I have become extremely lazy. Ever since I have hit Eugene I have decided fuck going on an epic adventure, fuck being in the cold ass rain, and fuck being so dirty and hungry that eating a peanut butter covered apple, and jumping in the freezing river is such an improvement from the status quo that sometimes I will fiend for those things. The problem is, I'm not done. I still have half of Oregon, and all of Washington to ride before I can even consider myself to be somewhat accomplished. There are still so many more people to meet, so much more territory to see (this is only a very small portion of the world) that giving up is not an option. It would go against everything that I have began to cherish in myself. With quite a bit more riding to do, and tons more adventures to be had, there is no way that I could throw this away, but It took me a while to get a hold of this mental attitude. Upon first getting into Eugene I was pretty ravished from long days of biking and really having no comfort since I was in Arcata. Arcata to Eugene was so difficult because I stretched myself out so thin. I went days and days without any real rest, without a real sense of safety so getting to Eugene was such a great treat. As soon as I got here though I became so lazy and uninspired it was almost unbearable. It took me from Wednesday to Sunday to write the first blog that I posted here. On Thursday I cleaned the most disgusting kitchen I have ever seen, but those are about the only productive thing that I have done in a week... It has been a great time. Being in Eugene and hanging out with my friends has been so amazing that I really haven't had this much fun (I mean real fun doing things that are not fun afterwards but are fun right then.) since I was in Santa Barbara. This has been a much needed week of recuperation. Although I could have taken better advantage of it by sleeping, and planning my next step; I feel like the excessive partying and eating of ice cream and cookies has been one of the best vacations I could have taken away from my vacation. To do this and not feel like a total mooch I had to give something back. I did that by cleaning the kitchen of the house that I stayed in on 23rd and Onyx, it was seriously filthy. In cleaning the kitchen I dumped out at least 4 pots of standing water with a mold layer on them. Cleaned out a sink filled with fungus covered dishes and washed almost every dish that they had in a six person house. When cleaning the sink I would get wafts of a fungi like microbe decomposing the Kraft macaroni and cheese grit in a month old dirty dish. On top of this there were old party remnants everywhere which had to be cleaned. It was a pretty big job, but I'm really glad that I did it. While living in that house I have mooched off everyone so hard I probably should, in all honesty have to do something like that again. Everyone that lives there has been incredibly good to me, and I hope that they come back to Boise this summer so that i can repay them a little bit more. In this week I have lost all of my physical and mental endurance, letting myself slip so hard that I probably won't be able to make it the 40 miles to Corvallis tomorrow. Even if I couldn't do this (Which is an absurd thought I can't believe I typed it in the first place.) it would have been worth it, going back and hanging out at a college has been a great time. If I didn't appreciate it with all of the value that it really has I have obviously have learned nothing on my trip. Thank you to everyone at Eugene that has made my stay about as perfect as it could have possibly been. I am sad to leave but I know the time has come, with a inspired second half to come I am ready once again to step back into the world.
Tim
P.s. I want to give a special thanks to Alex Unger for letting me stay in his room with him, giving me a lot of cookies and such and teaching me about doing you.
p.s.s. I have way too many shout outs to give on this blog so thank you guys all a lot. Especially Coop, Stroob, Kerry, Joe, and Nick. It has been awesome thank you guys
p.s.s.s. Good job keeping the kitchen clean

Biting Off more than I Can Chew (Brookings to Eugene)

The beach at Brookings Or.

In the tree hole I couldn't make the flash work well enough to show its proper depth but it was probably two feet above my head
I finally made it
The tree hole I jumped into

When I said going to get through the southern part of Oregon pretty quickly I was kind of joking, but upon realized how close I was to Eugene, there was no way I was going to mess around and wait for the ensuing storm to come and hit me. This part of the country is beautiful, but the idea of a nice bed to sleep in, the ability to feel safe, and seeing some old friends was so close I couldn't handle the thought of camping through more nights of rain, and the cold front that was beginning to press down upon me. My drive to get up the coast line was so great it forced me to do the two longest days yet, one 85 from Gold beach to Coos Bay and the next day of 95-100 going from Coos Bay all the way into Eugene. I was supposed to meet my friends in Florance Oregon today (Friday the 8th), but there was no way that I was willing to wait in some terrible storm felling like a pussy when I could just (what I thought) easily ride it in myself. In the morning at Coos Bay I thought that I would be able to (if I didn't camp) make it the full 100 miles and ride it into Eugene. This was, flat out, a total over estimation on my own riding ability. It is (I promise) extremely hard to ride 100 miles over the coastal range after riding 85 miles the day before. After getting up at 6 am so I could get up and out as early as possible (to avoid the camp ranger that I didn't pay) I rode the first 25 miles from Coos Bay to Reedsport, I felt good and it was still about 10 am. I figured that turning up the Smith river road and riding the last 75 miles to Eugene would be a breeze. I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce in Reedsport before taking this side rode, to just to make sure it would be safe for me to go up it, and if it was even possible to make it over it in one day. The only response that was given was how desolate the road was, and that it was 75 miles long. In my gusto to get to Eugene I decided that this was totally worth it. I mean I would have forgotten about later that night when I was sitting around. I figured prolonged pain for one day was worth all of the prolonged happiness I would get from the unlimited sitting around I had the opportunity to finally do. I started to ride, after 30 miles down this fire road (it was paved but not very well kept with no people anywhere.) I started to think to myself that this was maybe going to be a little bit harder than saying "fuck it I'm going to do this." It had rained, hailed, and sleeted on me all day, and after feeling damp and cold for such a long time I started to realize that I was get drained. Another ten miles down the road I began to hit the wall. I could barley turn my crank, barley had enough energy to keep my steady momentum going forward. As I started to bonk, very, very, hard I hit the real mountains! I had to climb the the coastal range to make it to Eugene, and in the state that I was in this seemed impossible. I stopped to eat, that was the only possible way I could even consider the idea of making it. In stopping I became extremely cold, I was soaking wet all day, and it was only 9 degrees C, so stopping my body was not only a waste of very limited daylight, but it also broke the endorphin train that I was on breaking much of the will power that I had left. In stopping I began to shake uncontrollably, I was hitting the wall so hard that I didn't know what to do. I started panic very badly, this is the first time I have really lost all of my inner drive and the hope that help would come. The idea of camping kept flashing through my head and that was worst case scenario from the beginning. The ground was so mucky that it would have been really unsuitable to pitch my tent on anything except for the blacktop road, and the temperature was starting to fall fast. This was shaping but to be the worst night of my entire life, and I could not shake that thought, it consumed me, forcing me going deeper and deeper into my panic state. The idea of getting defeated by this road and suffering the consequences for it was a very daunting way to end my day, it would have shaken me for the entire rest of the trip. In all honesty I would have road into Eugene the next day, (having no other choice) but it would have been in very bad shape. As I sat at the bottom of the hill so panic stricken I thought I was going to puke (I was very very shaken and tired and cold.) One out of the five cars I saw on the entire stretch drove by me. It happened to be a truck, and I knew that was the only way I was going to make it to anywhere that help would be available. I flagged him, forced him to stop, this is the first time I have ever stood in the road, showing that I was in extreme distress. Upon explaining my situation he didn't really want to give him a ride at all. He was an old logger named Brian, and thought that I was like all the other dumb ass kids he worked with. He kept telling me that I really deserved to suffer my consequences, to make sure that the lesson became ingrained. No one in the entire world is that heartless though. He in the end, of course, he gave me a ride telling about how I should tell all of the girls that I meet about how far I rode, and how no one helped me. He was very into the idea of me picking up chicks with that type of tactic, supposedly it was what he would always do to his wife. I was given a fifteen mile ride to the top of the coastal range, being dropped off in Crow Oregon. From there it was another 30 miles to Eugene but it was all down hill and flat. By that time, I was so ready to make it that it was pretty easy to muster enough strength to ride it all the way in. This was the heaviest experience i have had on this trip. It has really shaken me. The fact that when I needed to keep myself together the most, I lost it. This can not happen to me again, it is really just too dangerous. Keeping a calm collective mental attitude is really important for me to do at all times. It is really scary to know that I still have a lot of capability of reverting back to my old notorious self of constantly making massive mistakes induced because of being too panicky self. I cant let this happen again!
Over all I have been doing well. I have hit new bike riding abilities, and now I'm in Eugene where I can laugh on what I have done, and prepare myself for the future. I so incredibly excited to spend some time with Stroob, Unger, Cooper, Nick, Joe, and Kerry I can't even relate the feelings into words. So I hope that I can make some money and heal my body for a little bit before I take off on the the second half of the trip.
Tim
P.s. I don't have much to say about southern Oregon I rode straight through it without looking around... IT was stormy and shitty and I wanted to go, I think that the Sand Dunes are pretty awesome but I didn't spend anytime in them.

Jumping into Holes (Arcata Ca. to Brookings Or.)

Yes! I finally made it to Oregon. I am now done, with what I think will be, the first and hardest state. It is the longest, hilliest, and sketchiest area I am going through. (I honestly can't believe that I still have not gotten my bike stolen!) Upon getting into Oregon I have been given some new hope, a new drive to get the trip done, and am finally starting to believe that I will be able to finish. I have gotten used to bagging for food, and campsites. Ever since going to the pastor of a Methodist church asking if I could sleep in the church, and eat the canned food that was supposed to go to hungry women and children I have lost all of my shame. This is great news, it really allows me to get into wild situations without my conscious interfering at all. In being shameless as I have kind of become, I thought that I could get a free dinner from this gay couple last night, and that was not a good idea. Last night I pulled into the Harris beach state park next to Brooking Oregon. (This is were I told the cop he couldn't search my car with Henry Ross, George Gundlach, and Pete Ronan.) I set up my camp at the hiker biker sight and this weird guy riding a red scooter thing comes up to my stuff and informed me that he was just looking around. The instant that I first met him I knew that there was something extremely weird about him. After every thing that I said we would do this strange, high pitch, very effeminate, laugh making it known that he was appreciating what I was saying. I'm not really one to give up an opportunities of meeting someone anymore, so I try and ignore quirks like this. After a while he told me that I should come over to his trailer so I could meet his dog and his his partner. I kind of thought it was a bad idea the entire time, but after being by myself for a while, and the driving, constant, motivator that is extreme hunger I figured that I should go over to there. If nothing else I was going to warm up my hands and get a free dinner. As soon as I went over, and walked in it hit me this was a terrible idea. The contents of the trailer were, two 55-70 year old very gay men, a long haired weiner dog and a Pomeranian. Like it was normal conversation one of the first things they asked me was if I was bi. I was really confused at first, I thought they were asking if I buy drugs or something, but no, they were definitely asking me if I was bi-sexual. When I understood the context of the question I told them that there was no way that I was bi, and that there was no way that i would do anything or witness anything that they had to offer. This offended both of them, saying that "We don't normally see people with such beautiful, long, hair like yours that don't swing both ways." This was almost too much, but the conversation dropped, and I was cold as shit, so I wasn't really ready to go back to my tent, and they had cookies so of course I stayed in the trailer a little longer. After sitting there, talking about how exciting it was that Britney Spears was going on a come back tour, I figured I was high time I got back to my camping area. When I said I was going , the guy in the red scooter asked me if he could walk me back to my tent, trying to convince me that it was good for his sciatica. I didn't want to be a total dick head, and they did let me stay in their trailer so i let him do it. As we were walking back he kept getting closer and closer to me (the exact same thing that I try to do when I'm trying to get together with some girl, even though I know she thinks I'm a disgusting pig, and that she is definitely going to deny me.) As we got back to my campsite, the guy told me that I shouldn't take this to be offensive, but that I have a great body. This was way over the line. I made him leave after that, telling him that I reserve the right to beat the shit out of him if he tried making any sort of strange sexual move on me. This did the trick, forcing him to walk back across the campsite to his trailer in shame. Probably going back to his gay lover,crying telling him that the moves he put on this lovely little boy did not quite work. This to me has still been bothering me, for a couple of reasons. Mainly all of my stuff (except for my bike.) Is still at that camp site unattended and I'm slightly worried that this guy may go there and fuck with it... this instant as I'm writing this blog. Also I don't really like giving off a negative vibe towards anyone but this guy forced it upon himself. I'm very conflicted with the lesson I'm supposed to learn here, which should be don't hang out with super weird people. The problem is that hanging out with super weird people has done me good in the past, giving me gifts and advice. So maybe it should be I shouldn't hang out with super weird people that want to hook up with me... Once again this is proven wrong because the one legged chick that I spent some time with in Myers Flat definitely wanted to get together with me, and she gave me so many presents I can't even believe it. So, this is the lesson, don't hang out with super weird gay guys that want to get together with you. It never turns out to be a good situation. I sometime don't know if they even realize that they are crossing the line, but yes, if you are homosexual consent, and rape laws still do apply to you. I think its always good to have some sort of bail out plan no matter what type of situation you get into, which is something that I did not have earlier this week. The area between Arcata and Crescent City is absolutely amazing. The old growth red wood groves, in which there are the largest trees in the world is one of the more spectacular places that I have ever been. I spent a lot of time hiking around and checking out these groves, (Part of the reason it took me so long to get from Arcata to Oregon.) but to get to the really old big trees I would have to hike deep into the woods, through reeds and on paths that may or may not have been marked. One of the days I hiked really deep into the the Lady Brigam Old growth grove which is in Peirce state park close to where all of the Roosevelt elk live. I stashed my bike, took this back trail for about 4 miles up a massive hill, through a pretty big swampy area, and got to a place were I was the only person for about a square mile. Upon getting to this area I was climbing around the trunks of the tress, taking pictures, jumping from one tree to the next when my camera slipped out of my hand. Out of all the place that it could have bounced, it happened to fall down this 8 foot deep hole created by a fire in the roots of the tree. This devastated me, and the longer I stood there and thought the more I knew I had to jump into the hole. I knew the consequences, jumping into a massive hole, not being able to get out, no one even close, or having any idea where I was in the world. My bike and gear was all hidden so that it probably wouldn't have been found for a couple of months. My body would have not been found until I would have slowly died, turning into a skeleton, sitting for a couple hundred years, and only being found because we decided that the need for natural resources is far more important than natural splendor making it so the clear cutting of the forest would have led to the discovery of my remains. All of this going through my mind i wedged myself into the hole and slowly lowered myself down, looking for foot holds the entire way. I got to the bottom grabbed my camera and chimneyed my way back out without a problem. If I had an arm spand of a couple inches shorter, or didn't have an extreme determination to escape my pit of death, I maybe wouldn't have been able to do this but it all turned out fine and I got my camera back. It has really motivated me to start to take more picture, which once again I have messed up on on placing on my blog because I forgot to grab my usb cable before coming to the library this morning. (Next post I promise I'll put on like ten pics or something to make up for it.) I am now in Oregon and am feeling ready to make some miles, I am strong, happy (it's been sunny for a while.) and ready to see some friends. I have made a goal to make it to Eugene by this weekend. I hope that Oregon is ready for me because I am for the first time ready to ride my bike. Tim P.S. I have had three sexual moves made towards me on this trip. Two of them were by gay dudes (one in Merin and this one I talked about. and one of them was by a one legged in bred girl in Myers Flat... For some reason I feel like I'm doing something terribly wrong.