I’ve been prepping for the big one.

I’m not talking about Armageddon or the Yellowstone caldera erupting, but a multi-week bike tour down the Pacific Coast with my brother.

While thinking about the upcoming adventure, I recall one of the best things about bicycle touring: meeting funky people. By funky people, I basically mean anyone — who isn’t quirky?

I once rode this route solo from Eugene, Oregon to San Francisco years ago. It was so much fun, I told my brother I’d do it again. What’s not to like? You have amazing scenery along the coast, wonders of the world as you pass through the redwood forest giants, and — because of its popularity — lots of goofy cyclists.

The first people who come to mind when I think of the coast ride are a couple I met from Australia. They started their ride in Vancouver, British Columbia and ended in southern Chile also doing side trips to Cuba and Columbia before flying back to Australia to ride their country’s coast back home.

She was an outgoing elementary school teacher and a lounge singer, and he was a construction worker among other things. They rode a fancy German-made hybrid tandem bike with the front of the bike being a recumbent (a sit back in a chair style) and the back of the bike being a regular style upright. The bike was made by Hase and called a recumbent-upright combo bike.

When I returned back home, I followed the couple on their online blog about their adventure. Because the woman rode up front and didn’t do any of the steering, she had her hands free to record video and take photos. On one occasion, while riding across the hot desert in Mexico, a car pulled up alongside of them, rolled down their window and handed her an ice-cold Coke, then sped away. It was a magical moment captured on video. They went on to say that Mexico was one of their favorite countries to tour bike through.

Another funky person along the Pacific Coast ride was a woman I met from Belgium. I met her in Oregon. She also started in Vancouver, British Columbia and was on her way to Nicaragua.

“I’m worried about traveling through Mexico,” she said. “Everyone tells me it’s dangerous.”

“I’m sure it will be wonderful,” I told her. “I think you’ll love the food in Mexico.”

Many of the tour bikers down the coast choose to camp in “hiker/biker” campgrounds. Most of the state parks along the coast offer these sites at a third of the price and no reservations required. Here, you meet fellow cyclists from around the globe doing the popular ride.

One retired fellow I met said he had been riding the coast route every summer for the past 10 years. “I just love it,” he said. Other bikers had gathered around him to pick his brain on specific sections.

I stayed at one hiker/biker campsite and three brothers rode up and joined me. They were college students from Seattle on their way to San Diego. Oddly, at night, all three big dudes crammed into a smallish two-man tent that resembled a bulging potato sack when fully occupied. They claimed to have slept well.

I saw another woman riding what looked like a cruiser bike pulling a trailer, wearing a floral dress and loudly singing songs. She was heading north.

Another man I met at a campsite, of Chinese descent, was from Atlanta, Georgia. He told me he was a writer and was taking part of the summer to ride from Seattle to San Francisco to “watch the Giants play — I’m a big fan.”

I sat around a campfire on a chilly night with the writer and another seasoned tour biker and we shared adventure stories. The seasoned biker talked about riding the Transcontinental Bike route two different times. “It gets in your blood,” he said. He had ridden the coast ride once before.

“I heard my girlfriend was here in Oregon, so I think I’ll cut my ride short and go visit her,” he said. Sometimes love trumps the desire to ride a bike.

My hope is to meet more funky people in the coming weeks and pass on the ride report to the three or four people who read my column.