Ray Atkinson started this blog in 2014 when he moved from his childhood home in Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA (Walk Score of 0) to get his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University (Walk Score of 100). He has a sustainable transportation lifestyle in Key West, Florida, USA. His email is gismap1@gmail.com. The postings on this site are of my own and don't reflect or represent the opinions of the City of Key West, for which I work. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayplans
I was hoping that planning my June 24 – July 2 car-free Redwood National Park vacation would be as easy as renting an e-bike in Eureka and then biking to Redwood National Park. I normally have Fridays off work, so I wanted to clarify that my vacation starts on Saturday and not Friday because I will be attending the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the US Conference in San Francisco on June 22-23. I enjoy catching up with colleagues and meeting new people at conferences. Will you be attending this conference, or do you live in San Francisco?
Since I do not feel safe or comfortable enough to bike on Highway 101, which only has “bike share the road” signs, I am not willing to bike on Highway 101. I briefly wrote about bike signage in this 2015 post. I was excited when I found Hammond Truck Road, which is shown in the below Google Maps screenshot, because I thought I found a route to avoid biking on Highway 101. Redwood National Park is the dark green area in the top right corner. Eureka is located south of Crannell. Due to Google Maps showing “This route has restricted usage or private roads,” I contacted Humboldt County staff to clarify whether I could bike on Hammond Tuck Road. As Bob’s reply shows, I would be trespassing if I biked on this road.
The route that you are considering is through private property. These roads have locked gates and are posted with signs indicating no trespassing.
Bob Bronkall, Humboldt County Surveyor
I do not want to embarrass Humboldt County too much. They are at least trying to plan for people who do not drive by providing the Hammond Trail, which I plan to bike on during my vacation. I just wish this trail went all the way to Redwood National Park. Hopefully, this trail will be extended further north someday!
Ray’s Backup Plan
It appears I will be biking less than I wanted during my June vacation. Thankfully, transit services exist between Eureka and Redwood National Park. Redwood Coast Transit operates Route 20 along the below route. While Route 20 does not provide frequent service and only operates on Monday-Saturday, I do not have any safe alternatives to consider. Due to Route 20 ending in Arcata, I may stay in Arcata to avoid having to transfer to another bus to reach Eureka. I wish there was one regional transit provider in this rural area so I could avoid having to transfer!
As this 2022 post shows, I am also concerned about whether the e-bike that I plan to rent will fit on Redwood Coast Transit’s buses. I have not found a transit system in the US that has an entire fleet that can fit e-bikes. While I am waiting for Redwood Coast Transit to confirm that my e-bike rental will not fit on their buses, I assume that I will have no e-bike when I reach Redwood National Park. Despite being used to riding an e-bike, I may rent a non-electric bike so I can take a bike on the bus to Redwood National Park.
My next barrier after reaching Redwood National Park is finding a group tour. Redwood National Park has limited or no cell and internet services, which is great for disconnecting from social media and emails. I will be traveling alone, so I would prefer to find a group tour to prevent anything bad from happening when traveling alone in an isolated place. While I was excited to find Redwood Adventures, they only offer private tours to groups of at least two people. I emailed them to ask if I can join a larger group or schedule my tour on a less busy weekday. I realize they make more money by preventing single people from scheduling a private tour. I wish I had a girlfriend to go on the tour with me!
I may not blog much during my June vacation because I want to enjoy exploring Eureka, Arcata, and Redwood National Park. I also may not have reliable internet access, which I think will be great to help me disconnect from social media and emails. I hope to have time in July to publish posts on how my vacation went. What do you want to read about?
My Tucson vacation has ended. I miss wearing shorts and seeing constant sunshine. While I accomplished the main activities that attracted me to vacation in Tucson, I did not feel comfortable biking to additional activities that I tried to plan after arriving in Tucson. Yes, I could have rented a car or used Uber or Lyft to access these additional activities. I have not driven a car for several years because driving is too stressful for me. I may have been too frugal but I wanted to avoid spending money to use Uber or Lyft. Since I am passionate about making the additional activities comfortable in the future, I want to share what happened.
Please improve The Loop!
The main reason why I wanted to vacation in Tucson was to bike along 131-mile The Loop. The trail is 131 miles as expected, but I quickly lost interest to bike much of it. As someone who is used to seeing water flowing in rivers, I was surprised to see dry rivers when biking along The Loop. Yes, this was my first time outside the airport in Arizona. Several people who grew up in the Southwest told me that dry rivers are common throughout the Southwest. They also taught me about washes, which I saw throughout Tucson and in the eastern Saguaro National Park. While there is no trash shown in the below photo, I was disgusted to see trash in many locations along the dry rivers.
I was also looking forward to chatting with people as we biked along The Loop. Unfortunately, all of the people I saw biking were fast cyclists that quickly passed me as I slowly biked. No one slowed down to talk with me! I talked with a few people in the parks that are located along the trail, but most of the people were too busy to talk for a long time. Due to how boring and depressing biking along the dry rivers was, I ended up not biking much of The Loop.
Even when I wanted to use The Loop to bike for short distances between places, I quickly learned that there are few trailheads. As the below photo shows, trail users are fenced in with few trailheads. I did not bike all 131 miles of the trail, so other sections of The Loop may have felt more welcoming and safer. Due to the lack of restaurants in the below section, I started to panic about where to eat. I should have researched this section more before biking it. I would have packed lunch in my bag or avoided the section. While I was fortunate that restaurants were only a few miles away and no one tried to hurt or steal from me, I honestly felt trapped by the fence with no way to escape!
The Loop north of W Grant Road in Tucson
The W Grant Road trailhead was the nearest trailhead. I had lunch at a nearby restaurant. As the person in black clothes walking their bike in the below photo shows, I was not the only person biking that stayed on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, most of the trailheads that I encountered had horrible routes immediately next to the trailheads. It appears The Loop was designed for training or recreational biking and not for transportation biking. I hope Tucson becomes more serious about designing the routes immediately next to the trailheads for people to safely and comfortably bike. In case you are familiar with The Loop’s trailheads, do any of the trailheads have safe and comfortable bike routes immediately next to the trailheads?
The Loop trailhead at W Grant Road
Biking to Saguaro National Park (East)
While I did not want to return to The Loop, I missed biking on a trail when biking to the eastern Saguaro National Park. In order to avoid biking on Tucson’s official “Bike Route”, which is just a sign as the below street view shows, I used Google Maps to create a safer bike route. I desperately wanted to use the official “Bike Route” signs to decide where to bike, but Tucson installed these signs on almost every road. Yes, I saw fast cyclists riding on the roads with “Bike Route” signs but I am not a fast cyclist. As I wrote about in this post, I feel many American cities use “Bike Route” signs and their bike map to show off. How many roads would be signed as a “Bike Route” in Tucson if the sign could only be used where it is actually safe and comfortable for children to bike?
Tucson defines this as a Bike Route?!
The below street view shows the safer and more comfortable bike route that I used to bike between the bus stop and the eastern Saguaro National Park. Since I encountered no cars on this route, I enjoyed being able to use the whole lane to comfortably bike. I even saw kids biking along this route. We waved and smiled at each other. I doubt any of the motorists on the official “Bike Route” would have waved and smiled at me. Since I could not even see the motorists inside their vehicles because they were driving fast and their windows are tinted dark, the entire human interaction experience that I crave does not even exist on the official “Bike Route”!
Bike route that Ray planned in Tucson
The above street view shows E Discovery Drive. I used E Old Spanish Trail to bike to the eastern Saguaro National Park. The closest bus stop is at the Houghton Meat Market. I felt much safer and more comfortable biking on E Discovery Drive than on S Houghton Road. While I realize E Discovery Drive ends at E 22nd Street, I recommend showing E Discovery Drive as a bike route instead of S Houghton Road for people biking between the bus stop at the Houghton Meat Market and E Old Spanish Trail.
Map of bike route that Ray planned in Tucson
Since I do not want to give the impression that I did not enjoy the eastern Saguaro National Park, the below photo shows me hiking with my rental bike in the eastern Saguaro National Park. Yes, Stephan, the cactus looks like it is giving me the finger. While I considered biking to the western Saguaro National Park, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, I could not figure out a safe and comfortable route to bike from Tucson. I even research transit options but there is no bus service to any of these places!
This post is getting long. While I have plenty of other things to share about my Tucson vacation, I realize that I need to keep the post short. I want to end my post on a positive note, so the below photo shows me catching up with Tucson friends, who I met in Portland during grad school at PSU. Thanks to Britt and Dylan for helping me plan my Tucson vacation!
I honestly am not sure what my next post should be about. I could continue writing about how settling down could impact my car-free lifestyle. Since I no longer need to study for the AICP Certification Exam, I could continue writing about where I want to go for my next car-free vacation. Due to how frustrated I have become with local and regional transportation projects, I could write about the local and regional transportation projects that I am working on. While I am mostly writing this blog to document my car-free lifestyle and share this blog with my potential future wife and children (trying not to lose hope that I will get married and have children someday), I also welcome your thoughts on what you want to read. What do you think my next post should be about?
Today is the last day of 2021. I am trying to be hopeful about what will happen in 2022. I never thought I would experience what happened in March 2020. While some of the COVID restrictions have been lifted, I cannot believe we are still living through COVID restrictions almost two years later. Due to how political the issue of keeping or lifting the COVID restrictions has been, I need to be clear that I am focusing this post on how these restrictions are impacting my life and work. I am not advocating for the restrictions to be lifted. Yes, I would love for the restrictions to be lifted but I recognize that the pandemic is not over. I have close friends who have tested positive for COVID and they are currently fighting for their lives. I am thankful that I have not caught COVID. Hopefully, the vaccine and booster shots will prevent me from dying if I test positive someday.
Please do not replace in-person meetings with Zoom meetings in the new normal
I am disheartened by this thread. Five student teams pushed forward on capstone plans this quarter. They had to push all engagement online. They lost almost all communities of colors. It sounds more like ppl aren’t empowered to manage public mtgs. https://t.co/QWj1vS1wz1
— Some Woke PSU Professor (@DrMarisaZapata1) June 11, 2020
I wrote two blog posts (this 2020 post and this 2021 post) regarding how I am concerned about how many planning processes during COVID have depended solely on Zoom meetings to conduct public engagement. Before I share my thoughts about discussions during meetings, I want to be clear that the meetings were open to the public so I am not sharing information from sensitive internal discussions. I have been involved with many new normal planning meetings over the past several months. Despite the organizations (purposefully not naming the organizations) having an adopted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan, they have not changed their plans when I urge them to consider the harmful impact of depending solely on Zoom meetings to conduct public engagement. They keep saying that Zoom meetings will allow more people to participate, especially because people will not need to travel a far distance to participate in an in-person meeting. What about the people who do not have a reliable computer or internet access?
As an extrovert and someone who feels dehumanized by Zoom meetings and events, I miss spending time with friends and coworkers during in-person meetings and events. I also miss walking and biking to and during meetings and events. This has hurt my mental and physical health. Since I am usually in shape from walking and biking, it feels weird to create a new year’s resolution to get back in shape. The easiest way for me to achieve this is by walking and biking to and during in-person meetings and events. Will in-person meetings and events restart again in 2022?
Opportunity to encourage healthy travel behavior in the new normal
I am also thinking about big-picture changes in the new normal. I have found it fascinating how people are stumped when I ask them what they think the new normal means. The basic answer has been a hybrid work future where they can continue working from home and only commute to their office when they need to do in-person work. I have been trying to encourage people to think about big-picture changes. Pandemic-induced travel behavior may only happen one time in our lifetime. I see this as an opportunity to encourage healthy travel behavior before many in-person workers, who are currently still working from home, return to driving alone to work. What do people really mean when they get excited about the new normal?
I may have finally decided how to celebrate passing the AICP exam! I learned about Tucson’s 131-mile The Loop when researching the longest urban trails in the US. I still have to decide when, how long to visit, and where to stay in Tucson. Since I have never been to Arizona before besides having a layover in Phoenix, which does not count as visiting Arizona, I have been asking friends for help with planning my vacation. While I am still nervous about whether I will enjoy biking in Tucson more than doing an international vacation, my friends are excited to help me plan my Tucson vacation. I have been texting with a University of Arizona MD-PhD student, who I met when we were both students and bike advocates at Portland State University. I have also been texting with a University of Arizona MPH alum and Tucson high school graduate, who I met when we were both students at UNC Charlotte.
I am excited to share that I passed the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam on November 21! The exam has multiple versions. I was surprised that my version had many topics that I did not study much and excluded many topics that I studied for months. I started freaking out during the exam when I did not see topics that I had studied for months. I freaked out because I was concerned that I would not pass again. In order to prepare for the math questions, I memorized that there are 43,560 square feet in an acre and 640 acres in a section. While I did have a floor area ratio (FAR) question, I did not need to use 43,560 square feet in an acre to answer this question. This article from Minnesota shows why FAR is important for real-world planning.
I also studied how to use 640 acres in a section to answer Public Land Survey System (aka Township and Range System) questions but ended up not having any questions on this topic. I think the biggest change in how I studied between my first and second attempts was focusing less on memorizing Supreme Court cases. I received only a few questions about Supreme Court cases on both attempts, so I probably could have passed my first attempt if I had focused less on memorizing Supreme Court cases. While I may never encounter most of the Supreme Court decisions that I studied, I expect to someday encounter what happened in the Dolan v. City of Tigard, Oregon case because I do trail planning. As you may remember, my PSU master’s planning workshop project team actually consulted for the City of Tigard.
It feels weird to have plenty of free time again! I started studying for the exam during summer 2019. I failed the November 2019 exam by two points. Since I wanted to take the exam again while my study strategies were fresh, I was planning to take the May 2020 exam. Unfortunately, Oregon’s COVID restrictions canceled my May 2020 exam. The restrictions also canceled my November 2020 and May 2021 exams. Due to Oregon still having COVID restrictions, I was concerned my November 2021 exam would also get canceled. Thankfully, I was finally able to take the exam on November 21. In case you are wondering, I could have taken the exam remotely. I decided to take the exam at Prometric’s in-person testing site because I read several horror stories from people who took the exam remotely.
While I am still debating whether to pursue more certifications because I am a lifelong learner and feel the need to have a transportation-specific certification, I want to take time to celebrate passing the AICP Certification Exam. Since I pride myself on being able to plan vacations and my parents have told me stories about how I would plan real and imaginary vacations for fun as a kid, I feel embarrassed to admit that I have been struggling to plan a complicated vacation to celebrate passing the exam. I spent over two years studying for the exam, so I feel the need to take a long, complicated vacation that matches the level of effort I put into studying for the exam. Do I need to read my 100th post again and focus on creating a simple vacation plan?
Why Am I Struggling to Plan Car-Free Vacation?
I am going to split my thought processes into international and domestic vacation ideas.
Costa Rica
I first need to decide whether I want to relax or do something active during vacation. I could relax at another all-inclusive resort. I stayed 11 days at RIU’s all-inclusive resort in Mexico last winter. While the resort was relaxing and the food and drinks were tasty, I did not enjoy feeling isolated from downtown Cabo San Lucas. If I am willing to feel isolated again in order to relax and have tasty meals, RIU has all-inclusive resorts in Costa Rica that are not within walking or biking distance of a city. Yes, shuttle companies provide transportation to and from the resorts. I just do not enjoy having to depend on a shuttle company to provide transportation. I want to be able to explore the nearby city without having to depend on a shuttle company to provide transportation. Since I have been told that I focus too much on the bad parts of a plan and need to focus on the positive parts, I am excited about how the shuttle companies provide adventure trips from the resorts so I can experience more of Costa Rica.
Colombia
As I wrote in this 2020 post, I have been wanting to visit Colombia because it is famous for walking, biking, and transit. I want to experience and watch other people using Bogotá’s Ciclovía and TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit. This 2013 video, which is also below, is one of the ways that Bogotá caught my attention. I actually watched Enrique’s brother, Gil, present a keynote at the 2014 Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place Conference in Pittsburgh. I also want to experience and watch other people using Medellín’s outdoor escalators, Metrocable, and Tranvía streetcar.
The main reason why I am struggling to decide whether to visit Colombia is my Spanish skills are weak. I struggled to talk with locals in Spanish when I visited Mexico last winter. I would likely need a translator to interview the locals about their experience walking, biking, and riding transit in Colombia. Yes, I get excited about using my vacation to interview people about how they experience transportation. I probably need to lower my expectations. One way to lower my expectations is through doing this two-week Colombia trip, which would provide an English-speaking Colombian host and local experts. While I am concerned that the trip’s very structured itinerary would not provide enough flexibility to fully experience the transportation systems, I can always plan another trip to Colombia.
United States
I want to do my first long-distance, overnight bike tour. I usually just bike in cities during vacations but I want to do something bigger to celebrate passing the exam. Since most of my in-person meetings have been converted to Zoom meetings over the past nearly two years due to the COVID restrictions, I have been in Zoom meetings throughout the COVID restrictions. This means I need to get back in shape before doing a long-distance, overnight bike tour. I now have extra free time to do bike rides in order to get back in shape.
I am learning about bike tour companies, so feel free to give me recommendations. The Adventure Cycling Association appears to have the largest variety of tour formats, which I appreciate. Exploring Washington’s San Juan Islands looks awesome, but the route is very hilly. I have an extreme fear of heights, so I would be overwhelmed by a hilly route. REI and OneSeed Expeditions have kayak trips in Washington’s San Juan Islands. This would allow me to enjoy the San Juan Islands without being overwhelmed by a hilly bike route. I have to wait until next summer to do a kayak trip. I want to do a vacation this winter!
DuVine organizes international bike tours. DuVine’s singular focus is bike travel. They do one thing and do it perfectly, dedicating all their resources to offering the most updated, industry-leading bikes and gear. DuVine is proud to be the first and only 100% carbon-neutral bike tour company. I like how DuVine intends to continue inspiring change among their travel industry peers. Since I wish DuVine’s website showed slow, step-thru bikes, I need to ask them if they offer this type of bike.
In case you are struggling to visualize the important differences between fast and slow biking, I found the Slow Bicycle Movement‘s graphic helpful. The Slow Bicycle Movement is all about the journey, not the destination. I am focused on finding or planning a bike tour that is focused on slowly enjoying the journey, not the destination. Yes, I plan to also enjoy the destination but I do not want to bike quickly to arrive at the destination. As my 2016 post shows, I have been focused on enjoying the journey for several years.
While I used to ride a men’s bike, I have been riding a low-step unisex bike (US companies call it a women’s bike) for several years. I think riding low-step unisex bikes in Denmark and the Netherlands got me hooked on these bikes. I found the below low-step e-bike on Sojourn’s website. I have never heard of Sojourn before, so I am nervous to proceed with them. Sojourn also provides spandex jerseys for everyone on their tours. Can I not find a US-based bike tour company that does not provide spandex jerseys?!
I still have not decided how to celebrate passing the exam! Hopefully, I will be able to share in a future post about what I decided to do. Should I keep trying to plan a long, complicated vacation that matches the level of effort I put into studying for the exam or just do a simple vacation?
I was originally planning to bike and hike along the Oregon Coast this week instead of exploring the Columbia River Gorge. The Oregon Coast was my first choice because I have only visited the Oregon Coast two times. I took my family to Cannon Beach in 2015 when they visited Oregon from North Carolina. I also visited Seaside for the Oregon Public Transportation Conference in 2019. I had visited about the same number of cities in the Gorge before this week but the Coast is much longer than the Gorge. I have so much more to explore along the Coast!
Barriers to Car-Free Vacation Along Oregon Coast
While I did not know about the record-breaking heatwave in the Gorge when I started planning my vacation, I have been thinking about what my car-free vacation could have been along the Coast. The below 2019 Oregon DOT video and this 2013 BikePortland post convinced me to avoid biking along the Coast. Biking along the shoulder of dangerous Highway 101 did not sound fun or relaxing. I wanted to have fun and relax during my vacation. At least ODOT is trying to improve biking conditions along the Coast through creating the Oregon Coast Bike Route Plan.
Source: ODOT
The below safety message, which was installed in 2021, is one of ODOT’s attempts to improve biking conditions along the Coast. While I appreciate ODOT for recognizing the safety issue and trying to improve the biking conditions, I do not feel comfortable biking in the shoulder on Highway 101. Hopefully, neighborhood greenways on low-volume and connected side streets or trails are built. This is what made biking in Denmark and the Netherlands feel safe. I doubt Danish or Dutch cyclists would feel comfortable biking on Highway 101. Why should American cyclists settle for biking on Highway 101?
Source: ODOT
Yes, I could have used transit to avoid biking as far on Highway 101. I am impressed by how transit actually connects every city along the Coast with the Willamette Valley. A seven-day transit pass only costs $30 for unlimited trips along the Coast’s three northern counties and a roundtrip between the Willamette Valley, which includes Portland, and the Coast. While I seriously considered using transit to explore the Coast, the first- and last-mile transportation issues still exist. This means I would likely still have to bike on Highway 101 to access transit and my destination. Since I still want to do a car-free vacation along the Coast, I would love to have my concerns be proven wrong.
Source: nworegontransit.org
You may have noticed that the transit map only includes NW Oregon. I also want to explore the rest of the Coast and Southern Oregon because I am trying to experience areas of Oregon that Portlanders usually do not experience. I found a unique experience when I was researching a potential vacation to the Southern Coast and Southern Oregon. While Paradise Lodge along the Rogue River is not transit accessible, it is also not car accessible. As the below video explains, guests have to hike the Rogue River National Recreation Trail or ride a raft, jetboat, or helicopter to access Paradise Lodge. I had no idea such an experience existed in Oregon! Who wants to experience this with me?
Barriers to Car-Free Vacation in Columbia River Gorge
Doing a car-free vacation in the Gorge was not much easier than going to the Coast. The main reason why I decided to proceed with going to the Gorge was the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. While I experienced fantastic views along the Twin Tunnels Segment between Hood River and Mosier, it appears I am one of the few people who access the trail from Downtown Hood River and Mosier. According to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s webpage, the trail is “universally accessible”. I guess car-free visitors are not thought about when visiting the trail. The below street view is between Downtown Hood River and the west trailhead. I did not feel comfortable sharing the road with motorists, especially on the blind switchbacks, so I walked my bike up and down the switchbacks. How are wheelchair users supposed to access the trailhead from Downtown Hood River if they do not own a car?
Source: Google Street View
I experienced a similar accessibility issue between the east trailhead and Downtown Mosier. Rock Creek Road has no sidewalks or bike lanes. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department believes both trailheads are universally accessible because they have “parking at either end”. Their webpage does not even provide directions for people who want to access the trailheads from Downtown Hood River and Mosier without using a car. This would be an easy way to reduce traffic congestion in the Gorge.
Source: Google Street View
Despite the accessibility issues near the trailheads, I enjoyed most of my day trip between Hood River and Mosier. Since I have rarely seen people in person during the COVID restrictions, it was nice to visit Kathy Fitzpatrick in Mosier. She graciously offered to store my bike and pannier at her home while I explored Downtown Mosier and hiked to the Mosier Falls swimming hole. I am glad it cooled down enough to enjoy more than swimming in the Gorge. While I did not feel safe attempting to climb the rocks to access the Mosier Falls swimming hole, I got the opportunity to swim on Tuesday at Hood River Waterfront Park.
I wanted to end my post on a positive experience but the 40-foot staircase near Eagle Creek ended my vacation earlier than I planned. Even if I did not have an extreme fear of heights, I would not enjoy carrying my bike and hiking backpack up and down the staircase. This staircase prevented me from accessing the rest of the Bonneville Segment of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. While the staircase would not be approved for construction today, it was constructed in 1996, which is before ADA mandates for recreational facilities were required. Thankfully, ODOT plans to seek funding to replace the staircase with an ADA-compliant trail. Since the priority is completing the trail before fixing the ADA-compliance issue, it may take several years before ODOT replaces the staircase.
We’ve said it’s a priority for us to get this fixed at some point in the future, but our priority is the trail and completing it first. I want to make sure we’re keeping our priorities straight.
While I would prefer to get back on my bike and not have to rely on a shuttle when hiking, especially when the Sasquatch Shuttle stops service at 6pm, at least this is an option for accessing waterfalls until the Eagle Creek staircase is replaced. I wish this shuttle service was included in the GOrge Pass. $200 for the Sasquatch Shuttle’s annual pass is expensive compared to the $30 annual GOrge Pass! Sasquatch Shuttle’s $10 day pass is reasonable. Due to the popularity of the Eagle Creek Trail, which just reopened, I am surprised the Sasquatch Shuttle does not stop at this trail. Maybe the owner was waiting for the trail to reopen.
I have plenty of thoughts to share about my advocacy work in Clackamas County, which is located in the Portland region. I am involved with the I-205 Toll Project, Regional Mobility Policy Update, Oregon City 2040 Comprehensive Plan, Clackamas County Climate Action Plan, 82nd Avenue, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues, pushing to keep sidewalks and trails open during the Oregon City protests between Antifa and Proud Boys, etc. Since I am trying to encourage myself to continue studying for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam, which I am taking in November, I may not have time to share many thoughts about my advocacy work. The short version is I am feeling burnt out by trying to be a constant advocate. I am jealous of my Portland advocacy friends who have paid staff from advocacy organizations to support their work. I have tried to partner with these organizations but they do not have enough bandwidth to help me beyond providing a letter of support. While I care deeply about my advocacy work, I keep trying to tell myself that I need to prioritize self care.
Hopefully, my vacation to visit family and relatives in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and North Carolina in late July and early August will allow me to prioritize self care. Since my dad and I often argue about politics, I am concerned that I could return from vacation more stressed than when I leave. I wanted my car-free Gorge vacation to help me return less stressed but the trail access issues were stressful. I guess I should have just done a staycation like many of my friends suggested. Staycations are mentally tough for me because I feel the need to travel when I have time off work. This feels like a perfect opportunity to end my post on a positive experience. I am excited to someday experience and write about the completed Gorge Towns to Trails trekking vision!
I will be doing my first solo multi-day, multi-city, car-free vacation in the Columbia River Gorge from June 26-July 5 (working remotely on July 1). I will be in Portland briefly on Saturday to participate in Loud and Lit, which is this year’s largest Pedalpalooza group bike ride. The largest Pedalpalooza ride is normally the World Naked Bike Ride but this ride was canceled again this year due to COVID restrictions. I enjoy riding in the World Naked Bike Ride, so I hope it returns next summer. Cascade Locks and Stevenson will be my next stops on Sunday and Monday. Most of my vacation will be in Hood River. I plan to do a day trip to Mosier along the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. Hopefully, the heatwave will be gone by the time I reach The Dalles next Friday for a one-night stay. I am very concerned about the heatwave in The Dalles because The Dalles is normally hot during the summer. I plan to finish my vacation by returning to Cascade Locks for the rest of Independence Day Weekend.
Several days of my vacation will be during a record-breaking heatwave. While I have been planning daily bike rides to waterfall hikes and kayaking in a lake or the Columbia River, the 110-degree heat over several days may force me to spend more time swimming and staying inside air-conditioned places. Since most people drive to the Columbia River Gorge and may think a car-free vacation is impossible, I wanted to share how I planned my car-free vacation. As this 2019 post shows, I have actually been thinking about doing car-free vacations to the Columbia River Gorge for two years. I did a weekend car-free vacation to Hood River in 2019 but my next vacation will involve multiple cities. While the below transit map has not changed much over the past two years, a big change is coming to the GOrge Pass on July 1. I will be able to ride transit anywhere on the Oregon and Washington sides of the Gorge for only $30 with the annual GOrge Pass!
I am also excited about the launch of the Gorge Food Trails website in 2021 because I want to support local businesses during my vacation.
Since I do not want to risk overheating my laptop in my pannier during the heatwave, I plan to only take my smartphone on vacation. This means I will have to create blog posts using my smartphone. Due to this, the posts that I publish during my vacation will be shorter than normal. Feel free to send me feedback about what you want me to expand on after my vacation. Despite the record-breaking heatwave, I am excited for my vacation!
“Cabo San Lucas at Eye Level” is a reference to “The City at Eye Level”. While this book is still helpful, I wanted to share the below video from Create Streets that provides a concise perceptive on the same topic. I am focusing the following post on two approaches I took to walk between my hotel and downtown. Yes, most tourists at my hotel paid for transportation to downtown. I paid for roundtrip transportation between my hotel and downtown once because the Arch and Lovers Beach water taxi provided through a company at my hotel included a nearly 50% discount on a massage at my hotel’s spa. Even though my massage therapist did not speak much English, I still enjoyed the massage. I knew enough Spanish to say thank you, give feedback on how the massage felt, and provide a tip.
Transportation between my hotel and downtown was cheap, so I was not trying to avoid paying for transportation by walking. As a transportation planner, I wanted to experience whether it is feasible to walk from my hotel to downtown. I also wanted to slow down time to take photos and stay in one place to watch people interact with the infrastructure. Being driven was too fast to take photos and observe people on the highway!
While I knew walking along and across highways would be risky, I was surprised by how much more dangerous walking was in Cabo San Lucas and other parts of Los Cabos than anywhere I have walked in the US. As I will show later, I should clarify that walking was much safer in the downtown tourist area. It is unfortunate that the locals have to suffer from dangerous infrastructure while the tourists get the safer infrastructure. The locals have to suffer from the dangerous infrastructure every day while the tourists likely only spend a few hours walking downtown. In case you are curious how I know the elderly person shown in the below photo is a hotel worker, I saw a hotel logo on their shirt and they were walking from the direction of many hotels. I did not speak Spanish well enough to ask whether they work at the hotel shown on their shirt.
Elderly hotel worker walking on highway towards downtown with no sidewalk. Photo: Ray Atkinson
The below intersection was a few feet away from the above photo where the sidewalk ends. Due to the walk signals not working and the lack of beg buttons, I ended up having to jaywalk across this busy intersection. I watched the locals jaywalk to figure out when to safely jaywalk. Even though I hate beg buttons, I would rather have a beg button than try to jaywalk.
Walk signals did not work and there were no beg buttons! Photo: Ray Atkinson
As I mentioned earlier, the walking infrastructure got safer in the downtown tourist area, which was not far from the above dangerous intersection. The below video shows a running signal (the person in the signal runs instead of walks) in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. I did not even have to push a beg button to activate the running signal. The signal automatically started. I barely crossed the highway before the runner stopped running, so I doubt the signal is timed for elderly people and people in a wheelchair. While I am not sure whether Mexico has something similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the ramp on the side I was standing on likely was too steep and narrow to be ADA compliant. Why is the signal only limited to the Hard Rock Cafe?
Beach Route
Due to how dangerous the highway route felt when walking, I avoided the highway route for my next walking trip to downtown. Even after I tried to force Google Maps to provide a beach route to downtown, Google Maps kept forcing me to use roads. Since there were no cars on the beach, I felt safer walking along the beach than on a highway with missing sections of sidewalk and walk signals. Thankfully, I wanted to walk all the way to downtown because there was no public beach access until downtown. I kept looking for public beach access as I walked past continuous walls of private hotels. The hotels had “private property” signs everywhere. Even though I wanted to take a short cut to access a road between the hotels, I could not find any public access so I kept walking until I reach the marina in downtown. I was getting nervous about whether there would be public access from the beach to the marina. This is the only public access to the beach that I saw between my hotel and the marina. The very limited public access to the beach surprised me because I have been getting used to Oregon’s laws that require public access to the beach.
Why does Google Maps not show a walking route along the beach?
In addition to having difficulty finding public access from the beach to the road, I was constantly approached by Mexican vendors on the beach trying to sell cigars, weed, coke (cocaine not the drink), hats, jewelry, activities, etc. The below photo shows one of the worse locations because vendors approaches me from the hotel side and the water taxi side. The water taxi vendor wanted to take me to the Arch and Lovers Beach. Thankfully, the vendors let me through after I replied no, shook my head, or ignored them.
Is the beach a transportation walking route? Photo: Ray Atkinson
Even though no one was using these stairs, which face the marina near the public beach access, the hotel blocked the public from sitting on the stairs. I found it difficult to just find a public place to sit after walking along the beach. While I understand hotel management likely does not want people who are not staying at the hotel to be on their property, the stairs face a public walkway. I believe people need public places to sit when the walkway is public.
Private stairs facing public walkway near public beach access. Photo: Ray Atkinson
Fun Vacation Despite Walking Challenges
I added this section because I do not want readers to think I had a horrible vacation. I realize after reading what I wrote in this section that it appears I tried to show that I had a fun vacation. I definitely enjoyed escaping western Oregon’s rainy and cold winter to a place in Mexico that is consistently sunny and warm during the winter. I was able to go swimming outside and wear sun glasses every day! While the weather was great, I plan to learn from the bad aspects of staying at an all-inclusive hotel for my next vacation. I feel context is important in the bad aspects because I would rather have been in Mexico than doing a staycation like many of my Oregon friends.
Due to the threat of COVID-19, I decided to stay in one all-inclusive hotel the whole time instead of traveling to several cities. While I ate and drank plenty during my first time staying at an all-inclusive hotel, which felt like a cruise ship on land, I quickly got cabin fever or stir crazy because I had a constant urge to leave the hotel to explore Mexico. I am not sure what personalities the people who relaxed by the pools all day have but I got stir crazy after only an hour of laying in or by the pools!
Even though my dad felt it was unsafe to leave the hotel and urged me to stay in my hotel the entire time, I needed to leave daily to maintain my sanity. I got tired of the tourist restaurants in my hotel. I would have preferred experiencing and financially supporting authentic local restaurants instead of the tourist restaurants in the hotel. While I would need to speak Spanish better, I also would have preferred talking more with the locals instead of other tourists. I did not come to Mexico to hear American tourists bash COVID-19 restrictions in their home city and state! Many American tourists booed the hotel staff at midnight on New Year’s Eve when they kept announcing that everyone had to wear a mask and do physical distancing when celebrating the new year. As the below photos from my trips outside the hotel show, I consistently wore a mask and did physical distancing.
While I plan to write a follow-up post after I use on-the-ground engagement for Clackamas County shuttle planning, I am not sure how many more posts I will have time to write until after passing the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam. Due to the first round of COVID-19 restrictions, my exam was canceled in May 2020. The second round of COVID-19 restrictions canceled my November 2020 exam. Since the vaccine is being distributed, I am hopeful that my May 2021 exam will happen. Even though I am still struggling to choose the best correct answer, especially when I must think from the perspective of the exam writers and nationally (Oregon has special planning), I have been studying for the exam with few breaks since summer 2019. I am excited to blog more consistently after passing the exam!
While I recently returned from a ten-day family vacation, I already feel the need for another vacation because my family vacation was stressful. Exploring Philadelphia was fun but being stuck in my parents’ van for seven days and dealing with my parents’ unwillingness to effectively communicate with their in-laws was not relaxing. It felt awkward to tell my boss and others that I did not have a relaxing vacation because most people assume you return from vacation rejuvenated. The main reason I was willing to give up a relaxing vacation is that both of my grandmas are in their 90s. I am not sure how many more times I will get to share experiences with them.
Thankfully, I still have opportunities to have relaxing vacations. A cool benefit of working at Clackamas Community College is three-day weekends during the summer term, which is from the last week of June through Labor Day. In addition to getting every Friday off during summer term, I only have to work 36 hours Monday-Thursday to get paid for working 40 hours. Since not everyone gets Friday off, I have missed off-campus meetings that are scheduled on Friday. The meeting organizers update me after the meeting so I stay informed.
I found writing this post interesting because I started writing it in 2015. I have 46 draft posts that I have not published. The Willamette Week link I inserted in the 2015 draft no longer sends people to an article about taking the bus to hike in the Portland region. The below photo is from the 2015 article.
Map showing it is possible to hike by using transit
As the below map shows, transit services to the Columbia River Gorge have greatly improved in the past four years. The Columbia Gorge Car-Free website helps me plan my weekend vacations without using a car. While I visited The Dalles for a Transportation Options Group of Oregon meeting, I was not able to stay in The Dalles long enough to really explore.
Map of transit services in the Columbia River Gorge. Source: Gorge TransLink
Since I want to do more than hike in the Columbia River Gorge, I am excited to see that the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail is almost completed! I will be able to take transit from Portland to the Columbia River Gorge to hike and bike. The below videos explain the history of the 100-year-old Historic Columbia River Highway, what is being done to convert it to a trail, and how the local communities feel this new trail will impact their communities.
Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. Source: ODOT
I am also excited about the Salmonberry Trail, which will someday allow me to bike from the Portland region to the Oregon Coast.
I also enjoy traveling beyond Oregon. I can use Amtrak, Greyhound or BoltBus take car-free weekend vacations to places like Seattle, Vancouver (BC), and California. I will be presenting on a panel at the Association of Commuter Transportation (ACT) Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Forum in Seattle on November 12-13. This provides me a great opportunity to explore Seattle and Vancouver during the weekend before my presentation. November will be a busy month for me because I will also be taking the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Exam.
Source: Association of Commuter Transportation
Since my 29th birthday is in September and my work projects should be less busy in September because there will be no CCC Xpress Shuttle service most of September, I am thinking about taking a long vacation in September. The PSU Alumni Association’s Young Alumni Travel Program has a nine-day Costa Rica Unplugged tour in September that includes exclusive discounts of up to 15% off per trip! The trip is limited to 18-35-year-olds. I prefer to avoid tourist traps so I enjoyed reading how this trip has “Local Guides who make tourist traps a thing of the past.” The tour starts on a Saturday and ends on a Sunday, so I thought I would only need to take five days off work. Since the tour does not include roundtrip San Jose flights and each flight takes a day, I would need to take seven days off work. Unfortunately, I do not have this many days saved so I will need to think about this trip next year.
I would enjoy learning about how other people plan car-free vacations. Have you tried to plan a car-free vacation? Where did you go? Did the transportation services connect smoothly or did you experience barriers? Would you do it again?
I find it interesting to think about a place before visiting it for the first time. While I had a layover in Philadelphia as I was flying to the British Isles in 2003 (yes, I was 12 years old), I did not leave the airport so this does not count as visiting Philadelphia. I flew to the British Isles through the People to People Student Ambassador Program. Even though I have not really visited Philadelphia, I feel a strong connection to it because I cannot think of a better city to celebrate Independence Day. I also helped plan where to install Indego bikeshare stations in Philadelphia during my internship at Toole Design Group. I did the planning and GIS work in Toole’s Silver Spring, MD office, so I did not visit Philadelphia during this project.
While I know where the Indego stations are, I struggled to decide where to stay in Philadelphia because I wanted to avoid staying in the tourist areas. I wanted to find a racially diverse and affordable neighborhood where I could experience being a local. I finally reserved an Airbnb in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood in South Philadelphia because this neighborhood appears to be far from the tourist areas and near racially diverse neighborhoods.
I realize I am white but being surrounded by only white people in Oregon City feels weird and gets exhausting. While I often hate on the South because of the bad political and religious decisions, I miss the South’s racial diversity. Since I have not seen many non-white people for months, I would not be surprised if I experience culture shock in Philadelphia.
I also expect to be shocked by the weather in Philadelphia because the high in Oregon City has only been in the 70s with low humidity. Philadelphia has highs in the 90s with high humidity! Since I was shivering during Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride last Saturday evening, it would have been nice to have warmer weather in Portland. Yes, I biked nude in public through Portland’s streets with 10,000 other cyclists. This was my fourth World Naked Bike Ride. While many people have told me they think it is weird to be naked in public, I enjoy seeing how people decorate their bodies to protest automobile dependency. Since many people have body image issues, it is an amazing experience to feel comfortable enough with friends to be naked together.
It’s getting late and I have to work tomorrow. While I wanted to finish this post before departing on vacation, it appears I will have to finish writing it later.
Welcome to 2019! I cannot believe my ten-year high school reunion is this year! In case my NC family and friends are curious whether I plan to fly back to NC for this reunion, I will decide this after learning what day the reunion is happening and whether I have enough vacation days available.
Adventure Cycling Association’s The Greg Siple Award
I applied for the Adventure Cycling Association’s The Greg Siple Award, which closed yesterday. If I receive this award then I may not have enough vacation days available to attend my high school reunion. Both of the Outdoor Leadership recipients receive a four-day Leadership Training Course of their choosing and a ten-day (some tours are shorter and some tours are longer) Self-Contained Tour of their choosing within 18 months of taking the Leadership Training Course.
Source: Adventure Cycling Association
Following the Leadership Training Course, recipients are required to complete the outreach project that they proposed in their application. Recipients are also required to write two blog posts, which will be posted on the Adventure Cycling Association’s blog. One post will be about their experience taking their educational course and one post about the outcome of their outreach project. Finalists will be notified by February 8 and asked to submit a short video recording or do a live interview (no more than two minutes) in response to one question. Winners will be notified by March 1. I am excited about this potentially life-changing opportunity!
Ray’s 1st Hawaiian Vacation
My last post discussed my work goals for 2019. While I need to be less of a workaholic and depart work before my boss tells me to leave, I have been planning a nine-day January 19-27, 2019 Hawaiian vacation that will force me to not be a workaholic. My parents and twin sister, who still live in North Carolina, will be meeting me in Hawaii. Since my brother is in graduate school and working a new job, he cannot take nine days off for this vacation.
Since Hawaii has six major islands, I decided to visit more than one island. I will start and end my vacation on Oahu Island. My dad’s optometry conference is on Hawaii Island (aka Big Island), so I will fly there and back from Oahu Island. Flying between islands is expensive and my dad would have had to pay for three people, so he decided that my parents and sister will only visit Hawaii Island.
Coordinating my flights to and from Oahu Island around my dad’s conference schedule were made more complex by the fact that our rental home on Hawaii Island is not easily transit and bike accessible. This means I cannot easily use transit or bike to and from the Kona International Airport. My dad, who rented a car, will have to pick me up and drop me off at the airport.
Unfortunately, car-free transportation logistics get even worse on Hawaii Island. Unlike Honolulu, which has bikeshare, no city on Hawaii Island appears to have bikeshare. I even tried to rent a bike on Hawaii Island through Spinlister, which just relaunched today. As the below map shows, Spinlister has no bikes available on Hawaii Island, which is the southernmost island.
Source: Spinlister
While transit exists on Hawaii Island, it does not appear to be as reliable as what I am used to in the Portland, OR region. The below map looked great until I reviewed the bus schedules. My family will be staying in Waikoloa Village and my dad’s conference is in Puako. Since the car rental company only allows my dad to drive the car and my dad needs the car to attend his conference, my mom, sister and I will not have a car for several days. I hope transit proves to be more reliable than what the schedules show. If not, we will be spending more time that we want in Waikoloa Village. I could rent another car so my mom, sister and I can explore Hawaii Island while my dad is attending his conference.
Source: County of Hawaii Mass Transit Agency
Even though I chose to have fewer days on Oahu Island than Hawaii Island because I wanted to spend time with my family, I may explore more on Oahu Island than on Hawaii Island. This is mostly due to how much easier it should be to travel throughout Honolulu and Oahu Island. Honolulu has direct (no transfer needed) bus service from Honolulu International Airport to my Waikiki (Honolulu neighborhood) hostel. Since I received a $20 off code, I reserved a free bike in Waikiki through Spinlister. Honolulu also has Biki, which is a dock-based bikeshare system. Ride Sharee operates a dockless bikeshare system in Honolulu.
Source: Biki
Since many tour companies provide affordable transportation from Waikiki to throughout Oahu Island, I do not need a car on Oahu Island. While I am still stressed about transportation logistics on Hawaii Island, I am feeling prepared for transportation logistics on Oahu Island. If I do end up needing a car in Honolulu, my second cousin lives in Honolulu with his wife and baby. He offered to pick me up and drop me off at the Honolulu International Airport. He has also been helping me plan my Hawaiian vacation. I expect to be busy or relaxing on a beach in Hawaii, so I plan to wait until returning to Oregon to write a reflection post about how my vacation went. What do you have planned in 2019?
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