July 22, 2017
Prologue: Is This Really Happening?
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Sis speaking;
What the heck am I'm doing? I must be crazy, or maybe I had one glass of wine too many the night I said to Bud, "I'll go with you."
I've only been riding for a a little over a year and a half. When I found out stuff - bad stuff - that pushed me out of a 26 year marriage, biking helped to reduce the stress. The more I pedaled, the more the stress flew off my shoulder.
Then Andy (Doc) entered my life and we pedaled together. And I met Sheila, who quickly became my biking buddy and friend. And we pedaled and pedaled together. She's an incredible rider and I've learned a lot from her. Andy often says, "I'm grateful for Sheila, because she pushes you so I don't have to p*** off my girlfriend."
I didn't quite understand why Bud wanted to ride his last 2 adventures, until I read his journal. Then it started making sense. It's not just about riding. It's almost a metaphor for life. Pushing through the hard times, overcoming obstacles, appreciating the small things, not giving up, adapting, helping others, appreciating others, courage, getting stronger, taking one step at a time, the thrill of accomplishing the seemingly impossible, etc.
So maybe this is my way of punctuating a new chapter in my life. Gonna leave the ugly and the toxic in the desert, and embrace the joy that comes with overcoming.
Meet A-Bike-With-No-Name. Unlike her beloved sister, Ruby the road bike, who weighs under 20 pounds, this gal is a tour bike. She weighed in at 61 partially loaded without water and some other necessary stuff. Baby boomers, can you guess why I named her A-Bike-With-No-Name???
Doc speaking;
Why am I doing this? I'm a 64 yr-old cardiologist and have been riding bicycles for almost 4 yrs. My adventure bikes had always been motorized, but that ended 9 yrs ago when a deer exploded from a forest and into my 1000cc sport bike. I guess my spirit of adventure was broken along with 15 bones that candescent day. "Maybe someday" dreams are fleeting as July dew. When my friend of 40 years succumbed to sibling rivalry and decided to do this trip with her brother, how could I sit that out when I had the chance?
Bud speaking, 2 weeks prior to departure;
It's Sunday morning early and I'm off for a ride on my 1981 Raleigh super course which is a bike that I actually took out of the box new in 2007. I'm wearing my 1979-era Bell helmet, which makes me feel even older than I am. My newer Nutcase helmet was shipped with the bicycle. The bike is already in San Francisco waiting to be delivered to the bike shop, and is scheduled to be reassembled on Tuesday. That way if there was any shipping damage or the bike shop sees anything wrong with the bike they'll have time to fix it. So things are good that way. My personal stress is running rather high as I have a ton of things to get done, both dealing with my work and personal life.
We're trying to do this trip staying indoors as much as possible, actually the goal is to stay indoors 100% of the time, so that requires pretty good advanced planning for the five weeks. For instance I called one place last night and the first three hotels that I called were completely sold out on rooms for one month from today so the 4th hotel that I called had two rooms available for that day, and I went ahead and booked them both pronto. My sister (Sis) and her beau (Doc), soon to be my brother-in-law, are accompanying me on this trip. My sis and the doc are cyclists but they have just mostly done road cycling and some mountain bike cycling, and they have never done any sort of a long tour. This particular tour is challenging enough that it was worrying me when I was going to do it just by myself, and it's been more of a concern since two newbies are going along with me. I'm not worried so much about their physical conditioning, but long distance touring requires tremendous mental effort and some sacrifice along the way, and I know that they don’t have a clue what they're getting into. I would have done this trip in 4 weeks if I was traveling at the speed that I traveled two years ago when I did the TransAmerica trip, but we're doing it in 5 weeks by adding in a week of rest days which should allow for a little more reasonable pace. I'm currently riding on one of my standard training route and speaking into a lapel microphone that's attached to a digital recorder.
Jake, City Cycle’s (Jenks, OK) famed wrench & cycle constructer, had disassembled and packed my touring bike and shipped it to Huckleberry bicycles in San Francisco. So I haven't been able to ride the touring bike for a week now, and I've been riding my road bike instead to keep up the training and to try and break in a new saddle. I usually ride Brooks saddles, and my old one is quite comfortable, but it has developed some cracks around the rivets and I'm a bit concerned about taking it on a long tour. So I bought a new Rivet saddle, the Independence model, and I've been using it on short rides to get it broken in and see if I want to use it instead of my old Brooks. I didn't actually buy the rivet saddle yet, the company was nice enough to give it to me simply with a $25 fee, and if I decide I like it then I pay the rest and if not I simply return it. So that's a pretty good deal and allows you to try out a new saddle without much risk. It has about 300 miles on it now, and I'm beginning to like it, but I’d feel a lot better if it had 500 miles on it before I left on the tour. The independence is a slotted saddle, and it's the first time I've ever had a slotted saddle, so I'm trying to get used to that. I usually break in a new saddle by riding shorter rides on it until the saddle has about 500 miles on it, and then I'll start riding longer rides on it. If I continue riding the rivet for the remainder of this week before I leave for San Francisco, I will have approximately 400 miles on it by that time. So I'll wait until then to make a decision on which saddle I'm going to use for the trip. I have chastised others for taking new leather saddles on a tour, so I definitely know better. Hopefully, I will be able to tell if the rivet is ready for long rides before I leave on tour. The rivet saddle has a very interesting story behind the founder of the company, and I encourage you to look online and read the blog on the rivet saddle website. I should mention that my old Brooks has about 15,000 mi on it, including the TransAmerica Journey 2 years ago, so it's not like it has just wore out all of the sudden.
My sis was having issues with her saddle, and I suggested that she invest in a leather saddle and try to break it in before the tour started. I'm not certain if she was able to do that or not, because she's also had some knee issues and has decided to not train during the last two weeks prior to the tour so that her knee could heal. She's generally in good bicycling condition, so I'm not worried about the fact that she wasn't able to train the last two weeks. My experience with touring is that it takes somewhere between one and two weeks to really become battle-hardened and ready for the road, so a couple of weeks after we commence we should all be in pretty good condition.
I'm really not worried about the physical condition of any of us, because I know we've all trained adequately to handle the physical challenges of the tour. However, the mental challenge involved with hard riding day after day in stressful environmental conditions is going to be a new experience for Sis and Doc.
We are hoping to do this entire trip without camping. However, in order to do so, we will have to do one crazy long day of approximately 127 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing. We could split it up by camping on one day, and we have options of camping at the 51 mile point, or continuing on and then camping at approximately 100 miles. To give ourselves the maximum flexibility, we are going to leave the camping gear with my wife, and have her ship it to the hotel that we would stay at the night before we camp; if we should decide to camp. We’d like to avoid the weight of the camping gear, but it's not an easy decision because it does involve having to do a crazy long day. We have almost 2.5 weeks to decide, so by then we should know if we can handle that challenge.
Most folks would say that it's not too wise to consider bicycling across the American southwest desert during the last week of July and the month of August. It's difficult to argue with that logic, but the decision to take the tour at this time had more to do with work schedules than with anything else. Trying to schedule 5 weeks off from work is difficult for me, especially when you're trying to fit the schedule to the needs of others on your team. And so, that's why we're taking the tour at this time. There will be significant challenges along the way. The first challenge involves getting out of California, because we have to climb the Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms California's border with Nevada. Assuming we successfully meet that challenge, the next challenge we face involves working our way across the Basin and Range provinces of Nevada. Basins consist of a flat desert-like section, which terminates into the next mountain range. Most days we will have to cross several of these Basin-Range systems, meaning that we will have to climb several mountain ranges each day, and we will have to endure the unpredictable winds in the Basin areas. Assuming we make it through Nevada, the really rugged stuff starts in Utah. Southwestern Utah probably has more eye candy per mile than any part of the United States, and we will cycle through this rugged terrain. There will be long days with no services along the route in both Nevada and Utah. Utah is most definitely expected to be the hardest state along this route. Assuming we successfully get through Utah, Colorado will offer its own challenges with high mountain passes, but it's likely that Colorado will not be as difficult as Utah. Our only crossing of the Continental Divide will occur in Colorado at Monarch Pass, and that will be the highest elevation that we reach at 11,500 ft above sea level.
We will have challenges from the heat of course, but it's not just the heat, it's the fact that there will be very little or no shade through Nevada and most of Utah. There are quite a few days along this route where there are no services whatsoever. So once we leave the town we are in, there will be no place to get water or food or to rest until we reach the following town. Some of these distances are rather large, anywhere from 60 to 84 miles of travel with no services. We won't have any problem with services being available all through California, and even the first two days in Nevada. The Carson City and Fallon, Nevada areas will have plenty of services along the route. Once we leave Fallon, then we get into the rugged terrain where there are limited to no services. There will be days when we are required to carry a lot of water, as much as five liters or even a bit more on an 84 mile day with no services. We also have to carry food during those long sections, of course. We will have to take our rest stops in the sun since there'll be no shade available. The true hardship on the long no-services days isn't just the fact that it's a long day, but it's the fact that you have no real way to rest and recover during the day.
Although you can't tell, I'm dictating these words as I ride along on my training ride in the early morning, by using a digital voice recorder which is hooked to a lapel mic that's clipped to the collar of my jersey. So as I think of something brilliant to say, or perhaps something not so brilliant to say, all I have to do is push the record button on the recorder and commence speaking and the lapel mic picks it up well enough for me to understand later.
Sis speaking;
I might have to call this blog "Riding through the desert on a bike with no name... with my Bro and my Beau." 😂 Or with my Bubs and my Hubs without my Cubs:)
Still mulling it over in my head but basically can't think of a good enough reason not to do it. Here's my list of reasons not to go and my responses to myself:
1) I'll miss Doc.... (Take him with you... or get over it)
2) Expense..... (So what, won't be buying groceries or gas for 5 weeks. Time to use that AARP hotel discount:)
3) I'll get homesick.... (get over it)
4) My butt will hurt... (get over it)
5) Everything will hurt (get over it)
6) How will I live without Fritos and dill dip and wine?... (let the DTs wear off, then get over it)
7) 5 weeks without makeup!!... (I won't have to look at me, so I can pretend not to notice the terrified expressions of others who see me)
8) 5 weeks of helmet hair... (see above)
9) It's the freakin' desert for crying out loud... (Sweat is probably good for you)
10) Oh How I Hate To Fly.... Take a xanax and pretend to be deaf if asked to leave the plane.
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Bud speaking; (excerpts from an email I sent Sis in May after she decided to go on this adventure)
Judy, you certainly surprised me this weekend by saying that you might want to go on the trip. I'd be happy to have you along, just want you to be certain that you really do want to do it. It would be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life, but it could also be the most rewarding thing that's ever happened to you. There will be at least one day that you wish you hadn't gone on the trip - be sure to read my Transam journal again for the very last day I was in Virginia and the first day in Kentucky and you'll see what I what I mean by that. I only had 1 down day and it lasted less than 24 hours, but it was such a downer that I will never forget it.
You have a lot to do to get ready, but you have enough time to do it. Andy will help guide you toward getting a bike and I think I gave you some websites for equipment. You need to get the Western Express route maps.
Once we get to California and then we head east, there's really no option to bail out and go home - after the first day, there's no city along the way that has an airport. It's pretty isolated country we travel through, so once we head east from California the only option is to finish by reaching Pueblo. If you show up with that mindset and understanding it'll be fine. It really will be the hardest thing you've ever done. Physically I'm not worried about you being able to handle it, but you have to trust me on this one; the mental part of it is just as hard as the physical part and it affects everybody a little bit differently. In some ways the physical part will actually be easier than my trip across the country, because I think we'll be averaging less miles per day. But some of those days will be long with no resupply options until we reach our destination town. It's possible on such days to get into serious trouble if we don't carry enough water and food - but we will. Still, it's a real adventure, and that means there is some risk.
On the issue of camping versus hotels, I think we can make it the entire way without camping. It will take some pre-planning, but I'm pretty sure it can be done. I'm not totally ruling out carrying the gear yet - I know it sounds weird, but an extra 15 pounds is no big deal - after all, I carried it coast to coast (as did all the ladies I met, no one does the Transam without camping gear) - to me, it's just part of the "normal" load - but it would be easier to climb the passes without it. If we do good planning, we should be comfortable enough to dump the camping gear. But on my 2015 ride, my plans fell apart on Day 3 - so there's that consideration - I can almost guarantee that there will be something unexpected that affects our schedule along the route. The good thing is that it won't really matter for getting a hotel in almost every place, as there will be rooms available - except for a couple of towns as I mentioned earlier.
If you want to go, and if Andy wants to go too, I think that would just be freaking amazing. Like I said earlier, there really are no bailout options along the way. However, my own experience is that you get so totally consumed with completing each day's ride, doing laundry, planning out the next day, buying food and snacks to get thru the next day, blogging - the time actually goes by relatively fast. If you go I have a plan to include you in the journal - so you will have to write at least a bit every now and then, or every day if you want - "Bud and Sis Ride Bikes Again and do the Western Express" - and if Andy goes, maybe "Searching for a Heart Attack; Bud, Sis, and the Doc Ride the Western Express." The hardest part of the trip is coming up with the right title/theme for the journal, you know...:>)
Keep riding the bike and physically you'll be fine. And you really do need to get and learn how to use a rear view mirror, it will be most important in California, but also helpful in other places as well.
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