Getting ready

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle.  Its passenger is its engine." ~John Howard

There is something that is simplistic about using a bicycle to get from point A to point B.  There isn't much to it--wheels, pedals, a chain, gears if desired.   And it is fun!   The more I ride the more I want to use the bicycle to get from point A to point B and to increase the distance between the two.   Fortunately my husband has that same desire and I would argue that he is the one that has helped turn that inner desire that I have had since I was a kid into reality.

We will begin our first major self-supported tour as a couple on Wednesday, May 16.  We will fly out to San Fransisco, CA and ride north to Portland, OR.  If time allows, we may take a detour once in Oregon over to Crater Lake as we have both heard that it is stunning.

I must give all of the planning, route determination, bicycle set-up and other logistics kudos to my husband, James.   He has been working really hard to make sure this dream becomes a reality.

I'm writing this blog for a couple of reasons:  1) to document what worked for us and what didn't work for us; 2) and to provide a diary of our experiences during this trip.  This will be the first major vacation we have taken as a couple since we were married 5.75 years ago.

Our equipment list:

• Bikes, obviously.  James converted both of our mountain bikes into touring bikes.   His frame is a VooDoo while mine is a Specialized frame.  We have mountain bike gearing to help us get up and over some of the major climbs we will encounter during our trip.  This is essential especially since we'll have an extra 40-50 pounds to carry on our bikes.
• He put on touring tires that are very robust.  They were Schwalbe tires.  I had the Marathon (the standard touring tire) while James bought Marathon Plus tires which were thicker, softer, and can be ridden on trails.  The limiting factor for his tires were they were slow.  Mine were definitely faster than his.
• We are using standard SPD pedals.  Nothing fancy.
• Gear for hauling our stuff:
• For me, waterproof Ortlieb panniers.  They hold 2600 cu in total (not including the handle bar bag).  These are awesome and they are bright yellow for visibility.  A huge thanks goes to Freeze Thaw Cycles for hooking us up with these awesome bags!
• James is using his panniers he bought 7 years ago.  They aren't water proof but have a nice rain cover to protect his belongings when we encounter wet weather.
• Gear we are hauling:
• Sleeping bags, thermarest sleeping pads, a medium thermarest pillow for me, 2 person tent, cooking stove, packtowels, and a GSI personal Java Press.  Yes, good coffee is a must for this trip.  James made fun of my pillow but he kept stealing it from me.
• Bike tools. Spare tubes. Bike pump. Chain lube. Zip ties.  Lights for the front and backs of our bikes.
• Basic medical supplies, emergency poncho and blanket.
• Maps.  We ordered several from the Adventure Cycling Association.  This website is a valuable resource for bike touring.
• Clothes:  for me a pair of convertible hiking pants, 3 pairs of wool socks, 2 pair of bike shorts, one sleeveless jersey and one with short sleeves, arm and knee warmers, biking shoes, lightweight sandals, tennis shoes, a long nylon dress, a short sleeve short, a wool pullover, and wool leggings.   I also have biking gloves, a helmet, sunglasses, rain pants, a windbreaker that can be converted into a vest, and my favorite Endura Rain jacket.  Not only is it waterproof, it is highly visible (mine is high-vis yellow) and reflective.  The goal is to take items that take little space and will dry quickly when washed or rinsed out.
• We'll spend most nights camping in our tent but James has promised me an overnight stay in a hotel at least 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the trip.  I'm hoping there is a hot tub at the hotel we stay in.
• Food -- we'll carry some food with us but we plan to stop at grocery stores in the towns we roll into so we don't have to carry a lot of extra weight.
• Shipping our Bikes out to San Francisco
• We used BikeFlights, a company owned by a friend of ours, Bill Alcorn.  He ships bikes where ever people need them to go at a much cheaper rate than flying the bikes and most other bike shipping companies.   It cost us $120 to ship both bikes from PA to CA plus we put most of our gear, food, and clothing we would need for our trip in the bike box.  We filled out the form and within 30 minutes we had the mailing labels in our inbox, we printed them out, set the bike boxes on our front porch and Fed Ex picked up our bikes and took them to our hostel.

We did a practice run using our equipment 2 weeks ago and everything went pretty well.  I've added a few pictures of our test run to this post.