The Back Story: My '84 "Almost" Cross Country Bike Trip

Some background...

In 1984, I wanted to bike cross country to arrive in time for the Opening Ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles, CA. I had met a guy while doing research at a marine lab in Eilat, Israel who had biked thru Europe. Dan & I had stayed in touch and in the spring of 1984 he was living in Seattle, WA. I proposed to him that we bike together from Seattle to LA and see the Olympics that summer. Since I had already bought tickets a year or more in advance (and by the summer of 1984 tickets were near impossible to get), he was game!

So, I dipped my foot in the Atlantic Ocean on 25 April 1984 and... promptly biked to my parent's house in Norfolk, VA some 24 miles away!! Day 1. One of my easiest days of that summer!

Below, my mom holding up my touring bike (a Trek 520) outfitted with rear pannier bags & front handle-bar bag. Missing from on top the pannier bags are my tent, sleeping bag, and mattress. I never actually weighed all the stuff in my bags (including clothes, food, bike tools, food, spare tubes, food, gas stove, food, cooking gear, did I mention food??), but I estimated that it was close to 40 pound, not including the ~32 pound mangalloy framed touring bike.

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The Trip Out West

I headed up the East Coast via Williamsburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, Falls Church (all in VA); Philadelphia, PA; Parsippany, NJ; New York, up the Hudson River Valley, Ithica, Rochester (all in NY), into Ontario, Canada to Toronto; back into the US at Buffalo, NY, south to Columbus, OH; and finishing the first leg to Chicago, IL after 51 days and 2,226 miles.

The start of my trip was at the Virginia Beach, VA boardwalk on 25 April 1984 (see below). I don't think I really knew how challenging, but also how incredibly rewarding, my trip would ultimately be.

Niagara Falls, from the American side. The orange triangle on the back of my bike with VA Beach, VA printed on it had greater meaning the further away I got from Virginia!

At the Indiana State line, two thousand miles done, and many, many more to go!

In Chicago, I needed to make a hard call. Dan let me know he had miscalculated how much time it would take us to cycle to LA from Seattle and I would not have the 3+ weeks necessary to bike from Chicago to Seattle. It was a traumatic realization. I had fantasized many times about crossing the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. But it was not to be... at least not back in 1984.

I guess in many ways, the seed for my 2016 Chicago to Seattle bike trip was planted years ago!

So... I flew out to Seattle. Dan met me at the airport with a bag of food. Long distance cyclists understand what is really important!! The silver lining was that it gave me a few weeks to bike around the northeast.

I headed north toward Canada. The scenery was very different than what I had experienced on the East Coast and into the Mid-west. On occasion, I needed to take ferries. You can just make out my bike & gear leaning against the ferry on the right. I also got a lot of advice about routes on those ferry rides.

I entered Canada and headed north to Vancouver, British Columbia. I spent a few days there visiting a woman that I had lived with in Israel. Dora had since married. Dora & Doug were very hospitable & generous showing me the town. And Vancouver is a beautiful city! Dora & I had stayed in touch all these years. Sadly, she lost her battle with cancer in 2015.

Below is Dora, Doug, and me at the famous steam clock in the Gastown district of Vancouver.

I took a ferry to Vancouver Island and travelled in that area for a few days. I was enchanted with Victoria, BC. I would return there several times in the future and got to stay at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in the Inner Harbor many years later... when I had more money!! That is the Empress Hotel over my shoulder below behind the double-decker bus.

I returned to Seattle from Victoria via ferry and Dan & I headed out together on the morning of 1 July 1984 (see below). It was strange to suddenly have a cycling partner. In the ~2,500 miles & 65 days that I had biked up until that time, I had picked up some short term (a few days at most) cycling partners, but Dan & I were looking at almost a month of cycling together.

The trip from Seattle to LA ended up by far the most enjoyable part of my bike trip. First, to have someone to bike with was great. There was not only company, companionship and support, but safety in numbers. And the West Coast... every day was a feast for the eyes. We lucked out and had incredibly wonderful weather, little if any rain all the way down to LA.

A few days outside of Seattle we met up with a solo cyclist heading south. Bob had started out with his girlfriend, but she decided this trip on a bike to San Francisco was not for her. But Bob had all the gear for two (larger tent, bigger stove & cookwear, etc.) and was probably hauling 60+ pounds of gear!

We soon found our travel order. Dan was our leader and took point, I was sandwiched in between, and Bob brought up the rear with all that gear. Except on downhills... With all that weight Bob was carrying, he would shoot past us to the front of our group. We hit some 50+ mile per hour descents!!

Below, Dan & Bob taking a break with our loaded bikes seemingly holding up the railing!

We rolled south. The West Coast is a very popular cycling (and hiking) route. We would daily meet up with numerous long distance cyclists. In the evenings, we would all camp together in the "Hiker/Biker" sites and exchange "war" stories. Mostly about the best places to eat for the least amount of money! It is all about getting in those calories.

Lewis and Clark's Expedition ended in Seaside, Oregon (see below). For them, it was an 18 month, 4,000 journey from Saint Louis to the Oregon Coast. I got there quicker by bike... and an airplane ride!

Typical Pacific coast fog along the northern California coast.

And the Redwoods... made you feel like an ant. Like I said, cycling the West Coast was a different beast altogether!

Bob was only going as far as San Francisco, so when we got to the Bay area, we parted ways. For 14 days & close to 850 miles, we were a team of three! I never heard from Bob again. Hope he has had many more happy cycling trails!

Dan had friends in Tiburon, CA (north of San Francisco) and we rested there for a few days and played tourists before the final push to LA. We only had about 500 miles and one week of cycling to get to the Games. Below, yours truly, cycling south across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dan overlooks the vista somewhere between Hearst Castle near San Simeon, CA and the quaint Danish style town of Solvang. Sorry, no GPS back then!

On Day 90, one day outside LA, I hit my 4,000 mile mark at San Marcos Pass (el. 2,224 ft) at the monument to John C. Frémont. I'll let you Google that one if you are interested!!

And on 27 July 1984, on Day 91, after a 100.8 mile day, and after a total of 4,132.1 miles of cycling... the Pacific Ocean. Or the Santa Monica Pier!

Dan & I arrived in LA the same day the Olympic torch arrived! We stumbled upon the procession as we entered the city on our bikes. A fitting end to our West Coast adventure!

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The 1984 Summer Olympic Games in LA

This section deals with the Games. I have posted a few of my pictures below in an attempt to capture what it was like to be at the 1984 Olympics. These were actually my second Olympics. My first was the Summer Games in Montreal in 1976. But trust me, nothing I can show you or write can begin to capture the excitement of actually being there! If you want to get the best view of the Olympics, stay at home and watch it on TV. But if you want to feel what it is like to be at such an international sporting event, you gotta be there!!

But go and skip ahead if this ain't your thing!

I spent the next few weeks staying with friends in Hollywood enjoying the Summer Games. Dan was staying with his friends in the LA area as well.

The first events we saw were Women's & Men's Individual Cycling Road Races. The races were held in Mission Viejo, outside LA. It was quite strange after months on my bike to watch other people ride their bikes!!

Below, Connie Carpenter-Phinney became the first woman to win an Olympic cycling event when she won the Women's Individual Road Race. That is her second from the right in the Stars & Stripes kit. The other American far left is Rebecca Twigg who took Silver.

And then it was the men's race. It came down to a sprint between Canada's Steve Bauer (below in the lead with less than 500 m to go) and the USA's Alexi Grewal (in the yellow helmet). Alexi soon after I snapped this pic went to the front and captured the Gold.

1984. LA. This was the Olympics of such legions as Daley Thompson (decathlon), Sebastian Coe (1500 m), Carlos Lopes (marathon), Edwin Moses (400 m hurdles), and, of course, Carl Lewis. It was at these same Summer Games that Carl Lewis won four events matching the achievement of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Games in Berlin.

I was there for almost every Athletics (Track & Field) session. Below, medals ceremony for Men's 100 M sprint. Gold - Carl Lewis in 9.99, Silver - Sam Graddy in 10.19, Bronze - Ben Johnson in 10.22. Yes, that Ben Johnson!

Even with Lewis' historic wins, IMHO, one of the most inspirational moments was the Gold Medal performance by Joan Benoit in the inaugural women's Olympic marathon. And she did this after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery just 3 months before the Olympics! That was one tough woman! Below, Joan taking her victory lap.

After the Games, Dan & I said our goodbyes. He needed to get back to Seattle and I needed to move on as well. Unfortunately, I also lost touch with Dan. I have thought about him many times over the years. Especially those times when I traveled on some of those same West Coast roads when I was out West on vacations with my wife. But since that eventful trip back in 1984, I have been covering them by car. The roads and vistas are just not as special by car.

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The Trip Back East

On 16 August 1984, I flew from Los Angeles, CA to Houston, TX and biked the ~100 miles from Intercontinental Airport to College Station, TX where I had completed my Masters of Science degree at Texas A&M University the previous year. After visiting with friends and colleagues for a week or so, it was time to get back "home" to Virginia.

On 2 September 1984, I flew back to Virginia and arrived back in Norfolk. I surprised my parents by biking to their house on my trusty Trek bike without any prior notice. Surprise!

So after 128 days and 4,340.7 miles, I was essentially back where I started my journey. My fantastic voyage had come to an end.

But... something was missing. To this day (yes, even in 2016), it has always bothered me that I had in fact not biked "cross country"!

So 32 years later, I am hoping to finish my "cross country" bike trip by cycling from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA.

And you are invited to follow along!