Huh?

To answer all of your questions (and to put something, anything, on this blog), here's a quick summary of what this thing is going to be about.

What are you doing?
I'm bicycling up the Pacific Coast from Santa Cruz, CA (actually Los Gatos/San Jose initially) to Vancouver, BC.  And maybe further, I don't really know at this point.

That's really far!  How long will that take?
It's somewhere around 1300 miles, which at a pace of around 50 miles a day (very doable on a bike) should take three weeks to a month.

What route are you taking?
It's not completely finalized at this point, but I'll primarily be on California Highway 1 most of the way from Santa Cruz until it ends in northern Mendocino County, and then mostly US 101 from there until Astoria, OR.  After that, I can either go around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington or cut inland for a bit and bike through the islands of Puget Sound.  From there, I'll be heading to Vancouver either directly or via Victoria, BC and Vancouver Island (and a few ferry rides).

Where are you staying?
My tent, most nights.  There might be occasional hostel/motel stops, but those will probably be few and far between.

How are you carrying everything?
My bike has both front and rear racks mounted to it, from which I'll be hanging panniers (that's cyclist for "bags") and strapping down larger items that don't really fit.  I'll get a picture of my bike up here soon that will make that seem a lot less weird than it sounds.

What kind of bike are you riding?
I have a Novara Randonee touring bike, which is basically a steel road bike.  I've pretty much kept the stock configuration (more for reasons of cost than anything else) other than adding fenders and a front rack.  Without getting into too much technical talk, it's a 30 speed bike with 700C wheels and 32mm tires.  It has a longer wheelbase than your average road bike to accommodate the extra weight - the bike itself weighs around 30 pounds, and fully loaded there will be another 40 pounds or so on top of that.  The steel frame makes the bike heavier, but it's much more stable under load than an aluminum bike would be, and plus it absorbs shock better, which is important because the bike has no suspension (racks and suspension don't go together).

Who are you going with?
I'm going with a friend of mine from Kirkwood, Kevin Cage.  He's the cycling mind - I frequently have no idea what I'm doing when I'm working on my bike, while he's been able to solve pretty much all of the issues I've had with my bike so far.

Day 1 of the tour is Tuesday, May 8.  That will be a relatively short ~24 mile ride over the Coast Range to Santa Cruz.  From there, we'll ride about 100 miles over the next two days to get through San Francisco and into Marin County.  We'll hit Point Reyes by the weekend, and then it's up into Sonoma and Mendocino Counties from there.