Why not?  

Since 2013, we have had many bike touring adventures: many multi-week trips and some short over-night ones.  However, we have never undertaken a multi-month journey, but now is the time! We are taking this one because, well, we can…, and we want to do it while we can still physically do it. It also seems like a right of passage for a bike tourist - whether it’s going across the country - the Northern or Southern Tier, or down the U.S. on the Continental Divide Trail.   We have family on the East Coast, so we thought integrating a trip to see family would be a nice way to end the trip; therefore, it is the Northern Tier for us. 

But back to why we do this type of activity or why we are taking this specific trip; as I said, we want to do this while we can. We are fit enough, and our current employment situations afford us to focus on a bike trip at the moment.  It just seems like the time is right.  It was time to take the leap into the abyss. I know, the abyss is frightening; it’s really easy to put activities, goals or adventures on hold because the fear of the unknown and the outcomes can be really unsettling. Plus, being comfortable is really, well, comfortable. Who doesn’t like feeling comfortable? 

Well, we certainly do like a basic level of comfort: food, shelter, et cetera, but “ too much comfort also kills our drive.” I didn’t make that up; I read it somewhere, but it was meaningful enough for me to remember because it is so true.  Bike touring can be uncomfortable in so many ways: weather discomforts, traffic discomforts, terrain discomforts, sleeping discomforts, nutritional discomforts, threats of animal attack discomforts ( Sleeping in bear country can be a problem.), and the list goes on…However, the positives can outweigh the “what-ifs.” 

Plenty of people  are held back from dreams and adventures by the fear of the unknown, and it is understandable, but “ it makes us stay where we are rather than venturing out to the unknown to become better.”  I didn’t make that up either. Anyway, before we were bike touring, we were taking plenty of trips to other countries to bike, kayak, and/or hike, and we had many memorable adventures.  However, once we started bike touring and bike packing seeing America became our goal.  The more we toured, the more of America’s people, landscapes and cultures we experienced.  You might be saying, “ You can see that from a vehicle!”  Yeah, you can, but it’s not the same experience.  The bike affords a visual and sensory experience like no other.  For instance, biking Highway 1 on California’s coast is so much different.  We can stop in places overlooking a rocky precipice where cars can’t access.  We can stop for an ice cream and sit on a bench looking all disheveled, hot and sweaty, with our bikes by our sides, and people still want to talk with us; this would not happen if we were traveling by car.  

People want to know who we are, where we are going, and if they can help us out.  Maybe it’s because we are a novelty, but politics, income, bicycle skeptics, and whatever else separates us human beings doesn’t exist in this realm. Meeting people, seeing their way of life, and exchanging our histories creates a mutual relationship of understanding, maybe for a short while, but it was there…a connection was made.  

We could tell you so many stories of people’s generosity and maybe we will someday, but for now, you’ll here about this story and the places, people, and adventures we encounter along our version of the Northern Tier.  We hope to blog each day when lack of connectivity does not get in the way.

There you go!  This is why we do it and why we are doing it.  And, as one not-so-wise person once said, “Here, hold my beer; I want to try something…”

“Adventure Awaits”

Dawn and Mike

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