Tuesday, October 27, 2009

what we hauled

Okay, I'm disappointed in the formatting of this blog but here it is anyway.... imagine nice, orderly, engineerlike indented lists.

We really wanted to take a picture of the bikes fully loaded, and then another with every single item out. But it always seemed like such a daunting task and by the time we got to Denver we hungrily unpacked for good, without ever looking back. So here is my list of what we carried, entirely from memory (except I had to go back to one photo to get the license plate number):

Simon's typical riding outfit:
        bike shorts - thanks, Pete!
        short socks, Smartwool - thanks, Wendy!
        shorts - thanks Mom!
        short sleeve button-up lightweight shirt - old standby favorite
travel shirt ever
        Merrell nubuck slip-on shoes - thanks, Mom! These were perfect
all-purpose shoes
        sunglasses, polarized (Thanks, Wendy!)

1983 Fuji Touring Series III, lugged steel, silver
        27" wheels, 36-spoke
                27 x 1.25 Schwalbe Marathon tires
                Shimano 14/28 6-speed freewheel
        24/38/50 front chainrings
        MKS pedals with toe cages
        SunTour rear derailleur (Thanks, Matt!)
        SunTour front derailleur
        Suntour downtube shifters
        Ritchie biomax handlebars
                grip tape with Fizik gel underneath
                1980s Shimano DuraAce brake levers (thanks, random guy in
South Carolina!)
        saddle is ?? (Thanks, Atlanta SoPo Bike Co-op!)
        Dia Compe center-pull cantilever brakes with Koolstop black pads
        4 water bottle cages, 2 attached with hose clamps
                small Sigg with Twilight Ale and Green Lakes Organic Ale
stickers (under the downtube)
                big Sigg with Obsidian Stout and Black Butte Porter sticker,
secured to top tube with small bungee
                tall plastic bottle - Novara? (above the downtube)
                short plastic bottle - Glacier Cyclery, bought at the thrift store
across the street from Glacier Cyclery for 25c (on the seat tube)
        front and rear fenders, silver
        underseat bag
                padlock - Thanks, Colleen!
                lock cable
                heart highwheel pin Wendy made me in Vancouver
        handlebar rack, handbuilt and dipped by Bundy, attached with
zipties
                spare small bungees and twist-ties
                handlebar bag with Boy Scout sailing merit badge, held down
with small bungee (Thanks, Bundy!)
                        Olympus waterproof and shockproof pocket camera
                        sunglasses case
                        sunscreen
                        headlamp
                        digital watch (pretty neat idea)
                        Leatherman (Wendy found it in a field)
                        folding bike tool with allen wrenches and 2 screw drivers
                        tiny folding scissors (thanks, Mom, these were essential!)
                        bug repellent (midsummer only)
                        butt cream (early in trip only)
                        book (??, then Rama, then The Mauritius Command, then
Nostromo)
                        notebook (Take Take Take, thanks Anne)
                        hardcover journal (handmade by Rhiannon!)
                        pens, one wrapped in duct tape
                        wallet - homemade with velcro change purse and total zip
closure
                        phone
                        epinephrin (for my Achilles heel)
                        candy and snacks as needed (Mega Smarties when
available)
                        maps of the day
                        sailboat bead pendant - thanks, Julie!
                        lip balm
                        toothbrush and toothpaste
                        handkerchief - lost and replaced with spare bedsheet rag
        front Blackburn lowrider rack, aluminum. Attached braze-ons and
P-clamps, stiffened with hose clamps
                front left Novara pannier with Chinese sailboat patch
                        wild turkey feather (lost in transit. it flew)
                        clothing bag
                                2 pairs underwear - Thanks, Wendy!
                                1 pair short socks -
                                1 pair long socks
                                cargo pants, REI
                                swim trucks (Wendy found these on the curb in
Berkeley)
                                T-shirt, the Nepalese embroidered one I bought at a
thrift store in Kauai
                                short sleeve button-up lightweight shirt - Thanks,
Wendy!
                                long-sleeve button-up lightweight shirt - thanks,
John, way back in high school. This
was my #1 sailing shirt and is
still a bug-evasion shirt
                                sarong from Thailand (used as towel, tablecloth, sarong, weapon, Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal evasion, etc)
                        thin brown sweater, embroidered with bighorn petroglyph
(which Wendy also found on the curb in Berkeley)
                        fleece hooded pullover - Thanks, Wendy!
                        beanie (found at Lake Isabel in Colorado)
                        fleece gloves - bought in Italy
                        rain jacket, Pertex, Mountain Hardware
                        rain pants, Gore-Tex, Mountain Hardware
                        sun hat with chin strap - bought for $3 in Namibia
                        toiletry bag
                                deodorant
                                nail clippers - thanks, Wendy!
                                Dr. Bronner's soap, peppermint?
                                razor
                front right Novara pannier with masthead mat knot boutonnière from Laura and Mike's wedding
                        bald eagle feather (lost in transit. it flew)
                        Thermarest - a cushy one
                        sleeping bag, down, summer, REI
                        4 rain covers        (2 handmade by Mom!)
                        Fussy rusk box (thanks, Lanelle!)
                                2003 iPod with RockBox (used for music over the
hard passes and to store photos
- see music chosen on other list)
                                iPod cable and charger
                                external AA battery pack for iPod
                                2-3 sets of earbud headphones
                                headphone splitter cable
                        another plastic box
                                extra sunglasses, in case, in case
                                eyeglasses with cleaning cloth
                                earplugs
                                bamboo spork (thank, Todd!)                        
                        bag of patches (sewing projects never completed)
                                Japanese handkerchief (thank, Onn)
                                raccon with grocery bicycle from the Beehive
collective
                                various Kuna patches from Panama
        rear Tubus rack, stainless. bombproof. Thanks, Jay!
                Washington license plate #B19327A, attached with zip ties,
folded as a cradle.
                rear left pannier, homemade from my leather bag, secured
with leather belt
                        the library (in a ziploc bag)
                                maps
                                bureaucratic paperwork
                                passport
                                letters (for nostalgia)
                                letters (for delivery)
                                other papery stuff
                        sewing kit (in ziploc bag)
                                little camera bag, handmade by Mom
                                        small plastic box
                                                several safety pins
                                                several straight pins
                                                one huge sewing needle
                                                a few regular needles
                                        pre-threaded needles in a box
                                        1 roll thread
                                        thimble
                                buttons
                                roll of Velcro loops
                                roll of Velcro hooks
                                various rolls and colors of thread
                        electrical bag
                                Cateye LED headlight (with 2 AA)
                                2 red blinky lights (with 2 AAA)
                                superbright halogen headlight (for 4 AA)
                                phone charger
                                camera battery charger
                                USB LED light
                        quick-grab toolkit, at the ready
                                tire levers
                                small pump
                                self-adhesive tire patches        
                                0-2 spare tubes        
                                rag (some soft shreds of Andrea's Shady-stained
bedsheets)
                                fast orange hand cleaner in a little plastic tub                
                        serious projects toolkit (in a mesh bag)
                                chain lube ("Rock'N'Roll", picked up at Twin Bridges
bike camp in exchange for butt cream)
                                Teflon lube
                                wrenches
                                chain break
                                spare chain links
                                4-6 spare spokes
                                vulcanizing rubber cement and pieces of old tube
                                sandpaper
                                zip ties
                                electrical tape
                                miscellaneous nuts, bolts, washers, and
doohickies
                                Thermarest hotset repair kit (found to be way expired
when Wendy's pad inhaled 23 cactus needles)
                                [for future would add hypercracker
and big pliers and brake cable cutters]
                        bag of bags
                                mesh and canvas bags
                        harmonica (my mom's Hohner from her high school days)
                        kite (thanks Ana, it was wonderful! Que cola!)
                        bag of line
                                30' of cord for hanging food from bears
                                miscellaneous bits of cord        
                                webbing
                        1.0L Nalgene water bottle
                        toilet paper, at the ready
                        lobster-on-bicycle flag (from Beehive Collective patch)
mounted on hunting arrow
                rear right pannier, homemade from army bag found in SF.
"The Kitchen", secured with blue webbing
                        cutting board - doubled as the stiff back of the pannier
                        sponge
                        stove kit in a bag:
                                MSR Dragonfly backpacking stove
                                wind/heat shields
                                cleaning kit (never used)
                                extra nozzle for diesel and kerosene
                                Sigg bottle cap
                        Sigg bottle with attached pump and Coleman fuel or
gasoline (filled at Sandpoint, SLC, Needles, Moab)
                        lighter
                        MSR gold coffee filter
                        bottle of Sriracha hot sauce
                        bottle of olive oil
                        bottle of sesame oil
                        bag of spices
                                sesame seeds, black
                                sesame seeds, white
                                sea salt
                                black pepper
                                chipotle powder
                                cumin
                                anise seed
                                oregano
                                orange peel
                                ???
                        Jetboil 1.5L insulated cooking pot
                        small (1.0L?) cooking pot
                        2 mugs
                        spare 27" tire (my Schwalbes presumed to be from a bad
batch)
                        flip flops with integrated bottle openers! Thanks, Karen!
                small duffel. "the food bag", secured atop license plate cradle
with with old tube
                        titanium spork (thank, Richard!)
                        Emergen-C drink packets
                        solar panel and AAA/AA charger with homemade
phone/USB cable (velcro'd to top)
                        trash pocket
                        a few pieces of lightweight tupperware (thanks, Denise
and John!)
                        "bag of bags"
                                plastic bags
                        a fine load of food
                        occasional spare 1.5L water bottles for long desert
stretches


With all of the above mounted on the bike (except for me in my riding clothing clothes) and a dwindling food load, the Fuji weighed 85# without water and 95# with full capacity liquids. Yes, it felt very heavy. I would definitely tighten up the ship for future tours!. But you should feel my thighs! (If you are clean and attractive)

Speaking of clean and attractive, now we address Wendy's gear. She'll have to speak for herself on the details of her personal stuff, but here is what I can account for:

Wendy's typical riding outfit:
        bike shorts
        short socks
        short sleeve shirt
        Gore-Tex hiking/trailrunning shoes - her classic red pair with holes in them
        sunglasses

1999 Cannondale aluminum touring frame, forest green
        700C 32-spoke wheelset, with Mavic rims and MTB hubs (?)
                Schwalbe Marathon 700x32 tires (began with used pair, replaced with new in West Yellowstone, MT)
        pedals with toe cages
        Avocet women's touring saddle
        samurai sticker
        fenders, yellow, Planet Bike
        3 water bottle cages
                silver Klean Kanteen on top of downtube
                green Klean Kanteen on seat tube
                small plastic Glacier Cyclery bottle underneath downtube
        center-pull cantilever brakes with Koolstop orange pads        
        straight, wideish bars
                Ergon shapely bar-ends with parallels
                Alivio brifters , installed by a friendly guy in Kyushu, Japan
        handlebar bag mount
                handlebar bag
                        passport
                        wallet
                        pen
                        journal
                        book
                        lip balm
                        folding knife
                        sunglasses case?
        front above-wheel Jandd rack
                front left pannier, adapted by Simon from army bag, with heart-pocket added by Wendy
                        fragile food
                        snacks
                        water purification drops
                        first aid kit
                                -
                                -        
                                -
                front right pannier, vintage blue denim, built in SLC
                        secret things like charms and hexes that girls hide from boys, which I'll never know about
        rear burly Jandd rack
                REI Halfdome 2+ tent, with ground cover, stakes, and rain fly, secured with bungee
                Thermarest, nice and cushy, secured with bungee
                rear left pannier, Kootenay, made in Canada
                        clothing?
                        pack towel, orange
                        ???
                rear right pannier, matching the left
                        flying, calling monkey
                        sleeping bag, REI, down                
                        ???

In Mancos, CO, with dwindling food supply, the Cannondale weighed in at 73# dry and 82# with an overfull supply of H20.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

omak to sandpoint

Commentary to follow...






































Saturday, October 10, 2009

Getting Hitched


DON'T PANIC.


It is wonderful and liberating to travel without a car. It forces you to move through the world in a way which, though at times uncomfortable or inconvenient, is ultimately more rewarding. Those very inconveniences and discomforts thrust you out into raw, genuine experiences where self-reliance and openness to the unknown reward you in ways the directness of a car never can.

You also stop in places you would never think to stop a vehicle, and you can camp and explore, stop and start, circle around, speed up, slow down, move and stop moving in ways that a cumbersome half-ton of metal full of things you don't need just would not allow.

It's also a thrill to stop caring about fluctuations in gas prices and eventually stop even noticing those fluctuations. People look out for you and help you when you are on a bike; in a car (which isn't painted with fish or birds) you are an anonymous one of the moving masses getting shuttled from an unknown here to an unknown there.

Cars are a burden and bikes equal freedom. And that being said, I'll also say that we're definitely not above hitchhiking. We're also not below it, or next to it, or inside it. We do it, usually with no shame.

We do appreciate the elegance and purity of the totally unsupported bike trip. We've met people who would never think of "cheating" themselves by not cycling every meter of the Transamerica. But everyone draws their own boundaries, and this is not that kind of a trip for us. Here is a comprehensive guide to how motorists have helped us out:

1) Jason and Phoebe the Swift. Go back to an earlier blog to read about how we found Stefan a ride home to Seattle.

2) Columbia Falls to the Swan Highway. After staying a week with John and Denise, we went to breakfast with them on our departure day. The restaurant was south, they way we were headed, and somehow it is not nearly as rewarding to ride a road that you have already driven. It really loses its magic. So we decided to bring the bikes in the truck and head on our way. Storms were inbound after breakfast and with John and Denise's encouragement they drove us further along our way. Wendy liked the idea of staying out of the rain. I was grumpy and irritated, thinking 'What's the use of a bike trip if you have to rely on cars to keep you out of the rain? Where's the pride of being out in the elements? Are we not warriors?' and so on. It dumped and dumped and dumped by the time they dropped us off at a little sheltered porch to pack our gear and we waited out the weather. I was bummed about our first real hitch, but in the end, it provided us the time and shelter to get our bikes and gear back together after a week off the road, and even better, we were able to arrive that afternoon at the Flying Popcorn Ranch with plenty of time to meet and enjoy the wonderful space and inhabitants. And what self-respecting mother would let anyone's child head out into the rain when it was in her power to keep them warm and safe and healthy? Thanks, Denise and John!

3) Somewhere along Highway 83 to Highway 200. We left Seeley Lake along a road which several people told us was the most dangerous in Montana. A cyclist had been killed somewhere along here just this year. And with narrow shoulders and busy, fast, two-way traffic it's not surprising information. It was a Sunday afternoon as we started to descend from town, and as the road got narrower and wetter and twistier and busier, we had to pull over for sanity's sake. And having popped our hitching cherry just a few days before, the idea of asking for help certainly wasn't out of the question. So the thumbs came out and within 5 minutes a father and son stopped to pick us up. Everybody in Montana has a big pickup truck and our bikes, though heavily burdened with fresh veggies, fit snugly side by side in the back, and we fit snugly side by side in the back seat. They took us the ten miles or so down to Highway 200 which, though busier and faster, has deliciously wide shoulders. From there we biked happily in the rain, knowing that we were carrying our bodies and our souls in working order to Missoula.

4a) The biggie. West Yellowstone to Salt Lake City. By mid-August it was clear that we were smelling even more flowers than we had planned for. We wanted to spend as much time as possible riding in Southern Utah, and to fix a date where we could meet Adam. So it was an easy choice to take Don and Nancy's offer to drive us from Yelowstone to Salt Lake. It was a feat of Tetris fitting our bikes and theirs and all our gear into their sedan, but a roomy truck and ingenuity go a long way.

4b) Also the Biggie. Salt Lake City to Cedar City. Part two of our effort to meet Adam in Southern Utah and savor that part of the world . The Go Green Shuttle is a van service that tows a trailer for bikes an luggage! In addition to all the obvious reasons this is better than Greyhound, it has he added perk of not having to break our bikes down into boxes. A few hours of dozing and we were suddenly in a faraway land, so very different from the Montana of yesterweek. I missed seeing the transition between environments that is so sweet about bike touring, but all worries were laid aside as we plunged into Utah's wilds.

5) Hanksville to Lake Powell.

We sat with Adam in this almost-nothing junction of Hanksville. (Sorry, Hanksvillians, I'm sure there is more than "almost nothing" hidden in your town but I'm referring to our experience more than your habitat,) The market we counted on for our resupply was closed on Sunday, forcing us to either spend a night in the middle of nowhere or fill up on convenience store food for the next three days of remote facility-free cycling into the interior. I wanted to follow Adam north to Goblin Valley, and Wendy advocated against any route that would force us to backtrack through Hanksville. And while we pondered our next move, lightning storms threatened to kill us all. I took my usual tempt-the-fates-thinly-disguised-as-optimism stance of heading out into the weather ("Chances are we'll be killed by cars before lightning gets us") and Wendy took the preserve-the-bodies-for-future-earthly-adventures stance. Only Adam's fate was certain, that he had to head north by 3pm to catch his train out of Green River. In our moment of frustration and indecision, hitching was an option, but the drivers of every pickup-truck-hauling-a-speedboat-to-and-from-Lake-Powell seemed to fear us more that pity us. 3:30 was minutes away when we saw a pink Volkswagen van with the word COYOTE painted on the side. If ever there was a hitch out of Hanksville, this was it.

The Coyote Shuttle operates out of Moab and in this case was ferrying cars to the end of somebody's 10-day rafting trip. They were headed down to the reservoir and Christy, adventureminded saint that she is, was more than happy to load up us and all our stuff at the drop of a hat. We had time for a hasty goodbye to Adam (perfect for me--I can't stand long goodbyes, no matter how much I'm going to miss the other party) and we were whisked away, dry and astounded, down to Former Glen Canyon. We had the pleasure of seeing all this red sandstone alive with muddy waterfalls and impromptu rivers, and we were greeted at the reservoir by such an assault of wind that the interiors of the cars were sandblasted entirely in the few moments the doors were open. We couldn't imagine riding the twisty road in that wind, nor attempting to pitch the tent in such a gale, so we rode back with Christy and all the drivers, stuffed in the van, ten miles up the waterfally canyon to a snug little sheltered camping spot. A fun and happy hitch, and not the last of Christy and Coyote we'd see this summer...

6) Natural Bridges National Monument to Blanding. Best hitch ever. By the time we reached Natural Bridges, our aforementioned convenience store rations were quite thin. We had one day of food left and thirty hard miles over Comb Ridge to Blanding. But the allure of hiking in canyons full of geologic wonders and hidden petroglyphs and ruins was too much temptation, and we decided to take our chances. Some advice: Never count on hitching as part of an essential plan. It's pure hubris, and we all know where that leads. When, at the end of our day of hiking, we confidently ate the remainder of our food and stuck our thumbs out in the pouring rain at the park exit, we figured that out of the dozens and dozens of RVs in the park, there was plenty of goodwill and carrying capacity in left the park. Not so. We forgot to imagine that RVists might not want hairy wet hitchhikers and their muddy bikes to settle into their mobile living rooms. The only kind-looking folk were in vehicles far too small for our package. Or maybe they are the only ones who can say no in good conscience and don't have that guilty cornered look on their face (I do feel bad how hitchhiking puts people on the spot and forces them to reckon very quickly with their consciences and passengers and sense of adventure). Sunset was coming fast and as outbound traffic thinned to a trickle (as we imagined the flash floods and waterfalls were now doing in the canyons below) we were holding out for the one possible ride left in the park--the dreadlocked film crew we saw heading in to take pictures of the sunset. Film crews have vans, right? Dreads takes risks, right?

Well, the sun disappeared along with all our hopes. We felt rejected and cold, and above all ashamed for letting ourselves fall into a situation where we were going to have to beg for food. (Still, the ruins we discovered that afternoon were offsetting some of that dismay.) And as we prepared to go the to full campground to ask in the dark to share a campsite with somebody (we had some sympathetic people in mind already), a UPS truck came barreling into the park, on the wrong side of the road to avoid the visitor center, grazing our noses and panniers on what seemed like the most important delivery since the birth of the Iditarod. Five minutes later, on his way back out, in the complete dark now, we thumbed enthusiastically. He stopped! He was heading to Blanding even! He had an empty truck! But he told us that he wasn't allowed to pick up hitchhikers unless there was some sort of an emergency. His tone of voice suggested that almost any explanation would do, so when we told him we had run out of food he jumped out of the truck in a flash and in thirty seconds our bikes and gear were in the back, Wendy was in the jump seat, I was on the floor of the cab, and we were on our way! He was great company, very interested in our trip, and we enjoyed last-minute success of our near-failure. And it of course was a novelty to see yet again into the inner workings of UPS, rapidly becoming the official sponsor of our trip!

We arrived in Blanding at 9pm only to find the bikes locked in the truck and the lock jammed. But we all breathed a sigh of relief when some WD40 solved everything, and we were all off in the drizzle on our own two-wheeled vehicles to our respective dry cozy beds.

7) Canyonlands National Park, Needles District to Moab.

Highway 191 north of Blanding was wonderful, until after Monticello we caught up with all the fast busy trucking traffic heading north to Moab. We were so relieved to be off the highway when we turned left and rode an amazing road down through Indian Creek to get to Canyonlands, where we spent a few days. That spur was a commitment--all downhill on the only paved road, meaning a long uphill backtrack to get back on our way to Moab, a place we knew we had to ride hard to get to in time to enjoy it and to meet Pete and Michelle when they arrived. Faced with the choice of spending those few precious days riding a vicious highway or having a few days to enjoy Wendy's old stomping grounds and do some hiking, we opted to shoot for the latter. But remembering our near-sorry luck hitching at at park exit, we decided to start riding up out of Indian Creek and try a new technique of thumbing on the go. We would take any ride toward Moab, even if only back to 191. And once we hit the road it was a beautiful day and beautiful riding and the idea of cycling the whole way seemed like not such a bad idea after all.

Remember when I said that it's when you really need a hitch that you have the least chances? Well, when you least need one, they appear out of nowhere. We were less than a mile out of the park entrance, totally open to a full day's ride. When we saw a pickup approaching, we figured we'd still stick with the original plan, you know, let the universe decide your fate and all that, and flashed those dry thumbs without even stopping. When the truck disappeared over the first hill, we were both even a bit relieved to get to ride some more, and had already forgotten it when it came right back over the hill to come pick us up! It al happened so quickly and in minutes we went from riding the lonely roads to riding in the back seat with a retired nuclear engineer and Spanish/English high school teacher who dropped us off by lunchtime in the middle of downtown Moab. Poof.



8) Moab to Blanding II.

Pete and Michelle had only a week to ride with us, and we had only a week left of our trip. Following our previous trend of never backtracking, we had no qualms about arranging for the Coyote Shuttle (enter Christy again!) to lug the four of us and our bikes and our gear back down to Blanding, off the truck route, and perched on the edge of the country which would lead us through delightful backroads, past ancient petroglyphs and tombs and forts and homes on our way to Durango. It was an adventure in itself. Jesse picked us up in the stretched VW bus he built himself and busied our minds with stories of wind power and diesel turbos. We made a stop at a nutty homemade windmill and he dropped us off at a hidden granary we had discovered on the way up.

Enough detail about hitching. The purists can criticize us all they want, but the memory of the wild look of adventure in the eyes of a UPS driver is justification aplenty for us. Is it still a hitch if you pay for it? In the bike touring world, we think yes.