I love living and working in Leadville and Summit County, but sometimes you just have to go on vacation. Now we all know that Lake, Summit and Eagle counties have miles of scenic bike paths and some of the best single-track mountain bike trails in Colorado. However, I really wanted to see and ride something different. My wanderlust took me out West to the Olympic Peninsula, Highway 101 and the Northern Oregon coast. And I did it all on a shoe-string budget of $900.

The adventure starts — on the road

Olympia is a funky little town filled with hippies, closet horticulturalists, inexpensive bars and cafes. It's like Boulder probably was in the early 1970s. I bought my bike (a single speed beach cruiser/townie with knobby tires and fenders) at the K-mart in Lacey (an adjacent town) for $80.

The peninsula has an excellent municipal bus system — inexpensive and efficient. As Hwy.101 on the peninsula is a twisting, hilly, tow-lane road with almost no shoulder and absolutely no view of the Pacific Ocean, it is best traveled by bus. It's

a very scenic ride — misty, forested hillsides and old logging towns.

Astoria is an old, funky fishing town as well, but it's much nicer than Aberdeen. There's a rec center to take a swim and get a shower. There's some hotels to check e-mail and poach a continental breakfast. There's also

a couple of great bars — the Labor Hall and Mary Todd's Workers Bar (fun place, stiff drinks).

With all the brand-name hotel and motels, T-shirt shops and kite stores, one could easily mistake Seaside for the Jersey Shore, except for the trademark rocks out in the surf and the extremely frigid waters. A must visit is the Bridge Tender, an eclectic little tavern on the main drag right next to — you guessed it — an old, out-of-service drawbridge over the inlet.

About five to six miles out of Seaside, it starts to get hilly — up and down, up and down. I really wished I had a mountain bike for this section. This is a very poplar route for cyclists (especially Canadians and Europeans), and many ride road bikes equipped with saddle bags and the skinny road tires. The shoulder is extremely narrow, and the pavement is extremely rough and steps off the road surface quite abruptly.

Cannon Beach is a high-end coastal community. It's like the Aspen of the Oregon coast. This is all due to the fact that this is where Haystack Rock, probably the Oregon coast's most famous attraction, resides. I just got lucky. After riding through the miniscule commercial portion of town, I happened upon the top of a wooden staircase with a small landing and a bench. Haystack Rock is really a sight to see. Rising up out of the ocean like a mini mountain, it's occupied by seagulls and puffins flying around in circles, jockeying for the best positions on which to roost. At the base of Haystack, there are tidal pools teeming with starfish and many other forms of aquatic life.

Hangin' at the beach

On the way to Manzanita, at the bottom of a long downhill stretch, there is a small, extremely beautiful stretch of shoreline called Oswald Beach. There is a public access parking area (so it's hard to miss) and some really beautiful hiking and single-track biking trails. This particular beach is very popular with the surf set. It's a lot like a ski area parking lot on a winter weekend, but I'm sure these folks would consider their sport much more eco-friendly. So after a quick session at Oswald Beach, I was off to Manzanita.

Manzanita is probably the coolest beach town in North America. I'm sure it's probably pretty expensive to rent one of the cottages (I just camped/

passed out at the gazebo in the park), but it'd be well worth it. Manzanita sits on a beautiful stretch of beach, sans the giant rocks that dot most of the Oregon coast. There's only one grocery store in town (a really good, healthy, non-corporate one), and there is a smattering of good pubs and restaurants.

After arriving to town, I settled into a locals pub to watch college football and enjoy some food and drinks. Since it was raining in the morning, I decided to take one of the aforementioned county/municipal buses on south to Rockaway Beach.

This is not the Rockaway Beach made famous by the Ramone's song — far from it. While Manzanita has a bit of a trendy, upscale vibe, Rockaway is purely unpretentious, family-friendly and laid-back — way back. Rockaway has changed surprisingly little since then. The taverns are now full-scale bars and there are a few more vacation homes in the area, but that's about it. Well, this is where my bike ride ended. When I woke up in the morning, I found that someone had cut the lock off my bike and absconded with it — a real bummer.

Busin' it

Portland is a great town, but it's quite confusing for the traveler. I stayed at a hostel up the hill on the northwest side. Clean, cheap and safe. Kids from all over the world seeing the left coast by bus and by train mostly.

Portland has great restaurants, bars and night clubs. There's something for everybody. There's even some edgy clubs and eateries across the bridge on the Burnside — the rougher side of town. There are, however, still some working-class neighborhoods in the area with fun and friendly neighborhood taverns.

While I was in Portland, I think I may have drank at literally every bar in town. I enjoyed the exotic and carnival-like atmosphere of Mary's. And I found a day mission that was owned and operated by Ray Manzerek, the keyboardist for the Doors. The shelter is right around the corner from the Crystal Ballroom, an old, ornate music hall and theater that was Morrison's inspiration for the song Crystal Ship. The yokels informed me that Ray owned and ran the shelter out of the money he made on his royalties.