by Erica Aguilar
Staff Writer
and
Monica Schwarze
Features Editor
When stepping into the office of Oris Barber, director of human resources, a sense of serenity emanates from the pictures he has taken from his many adventures on his bicycle. His love for bicycling has given him the opportunity to photograph scenes ranging from the sandy beaches of Southern California to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. However, it is on his next trip that he expects to take his best pictures.
This fall, Barber will depart on yet another bicycle expedition, planning to travel a total of 3,200 miles, his longest tour thus far.
His longest tour to date was 660 miles, where he flew to Seattle and bicycled to the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Southern Canada. He recalls seeing a spectacular view of about 20 killer whales.
His next trip is scheduled to begin in October and will last six or seven weeks. He would like to depart every morning around 8 a.m. and stop pedaling in mid-afternoon. He plans to average 50 to 70 miles a day, which is equivalent to seven or eight hours of biking.
“I am traveling through the southern states to avoid the cold weather in the north,” he said.
His adventure will start in California and will end in Florida. A few of the other states Barber will bicycle through are Arizona, New Mexico, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.
Barber said he plans to start his journey with the rear wheel of his bicycle on the sand of the Pacific coast and end his trip with the front wheel of his bicycle in the Atlantic.
In addition to his bicycle, Barber will be carrying 45 pounds of gear including a tent, a sleeping bag, flashlights, cooking utensils, clothing and rain gear.
He tries to travel as light as possible, saying that, “the more you pile on that bike, the more you have to pedal on that road.”
Because of this, Barber will also be bringing a minimal amount of food. This will not cause a problem because he will be traveling through cities where he can stop and eat. Even so, he will need to buy some supplies for a 100-mile stretch in Texas where he may encounter few other people.
“There will be times when we have to plan ahead,” he said.
Barber will be traveling with a few friends he met on other bicycling tours. Although he usually travels alone, he has been on organized tours with as many as 600 other bikers. He usually enjoys the company, and has made many friends through bicycling.
“I’ve been very impressed in general with the type of people who take these trips,” he said. “Maybe I’m generalizing, but they tend to be very neat, very easy-going people.”
Since he is in good health, Barber can travel as far as he desires, but he is known to make spontaneous stops to capture the beauty he sees and photograph it. He also plans to take coffee breaks, eat and go to some museums throughout his trip. He never plans these museum stops.
“Most of the time I will be camping out, but I will choose to check in to a hotel and have breakfast sometime,” said Barber.
He will reach his destination somewhere near Jacksonville, Florida, and will fly back to California.
“This bike trip would be my great adventure so far, but I hope it isn’t my last or my greatest,” he said.
Barber began taking bike tours shortly after he moved to California. He had been bicycling for about two years, but he had not taken any long trips until he heard about a bike route down the Pacific Coast Highway that he was interested in traveling.
After several months of biking up the California coast, Barber decided to get involved in cross-country touring.
“You find yourself in the same places a lot,” he said. “It gets to be boring.”
That was when Barber first heard about the trip to the San Juan Islands. Although he hesitates to call the San Juan trip his favorite, he does say that it is one of the trips he can’t wait to repeat.
“It’s hard to say which one’s my favorite,” he said, “but I know I’ll be going back there to do some bicycling. You see something you get interested in and you want to figure it out.”
Interesting sights are one of Barber’s favorite aspects of bicycling. Although he does not consider himself a photographer, his automatic Nikon camera accompanies him on every trip, and there are stories behind many of the photographs that grace his office walls.
One of his favorite photographs is of a yellow flower blooming out of a piece of drift wood.
“I like the contrast of the rough wood and the sandy beach and the grass,” he said. “There’s something that goes on in that picture that I really like.”
Barber took the photograph on a trip through Oregon. He thought he had made a wrong turn, and when he put down his map, he saw the flower.
“I looked over my right shoulder, and it was as though this flower was screaming ‘I’m beautiful, take my picture.’”
Another one of his favorite photographs features a sunflower dropping its head after the first frost. The rich, warm colors of autumn trees dominate the background of the photograph.
“This one represents summer giving way to autumn,” said Barber, who usually thinks about the view that he will photograph before taking the picture. During one trip through Vermont, he turned around and rode a half mile because he felt he had passed the perfect view.
“I said, ‘I’ve got to go back. There’s a picture there.’”
Barber also takes his camera on his frequent kayaking trips. Although he has not taken a kayak tour yet, he is planning on doing so soon. For now, he usually takes his kayak to Newport Beach.
“About a mile off shore, I’ll go out and circle the bell buoy and speak to the sea lions,” he said.
Barber is not the only ULV faculty member who is interested in biking. At least once a year, he is joined by five of his colleagues for a short bike tour up the California coast.
“We call it a little bit of a retreat,” he said. “There are a lot of retreats here, so we have one of our own.”
He is hoping to get students involved in bicycle tours as well, and is considering giving a lecture or a seminar on how to start touring.
Anyone who is interested in joining Barber on the trip can contact him at ext. 4075.
Erica Aguilar
Monica Schwarze
