In The Beginning
At my request, Tina and I are off to do the Northern Tier. Why?, well, the usual reasons... some adventure, experience parts of the US we've not been in (both natural and cultural), be outdoors, meet different people, enjoy the simplicity and routine of life on the bicycle, and most of the other positive reasons someone is drawn to do this sort of thing. As Miss Brodie said, "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like."
Some basics; Our route will be a modified Northern Tier (NT). We will start in Port Townsend, WA where one of my sister lives. Tina will ride with me through the Cascades and Rockies. We both hope this to be the most beautiful part of the ride, albeit hilliest. She will then return home from Cut Bank, Montana while I continue on. In MN I'll continue on the North Lakes Route to the Erie Connector and back onto the NT. I'll stop in VT, our home is 20 miles off the NT . I will get out to the Atlantic but I'll be ending in Portsmouth, NH, close to another sister's home.
Our gear. Tina rides an electric assist Yamaha. I ride a Trek Crossrip. We do have some concerns about finding enough juice to get over some of the passes. But, we've done this sort of thing in the past. We think we can figure it out. We can always thumb a ride if needed. Her gear and bike will weigh in at about 70 lbs. (mostly bike and battery). My set up will be about the same with food, fuel and water. Hopefully, I'll be able to pare some weight as the weather gets warmer.
Our hope is to camp, use warm showers, motels and hostels along the way. Invariably, finding a place to sleep at night is often very taxing. The NT seems to have plenty of towns that allow for camping in the town park. So, hopefully, this will be less of an issue then on past trips.
Our gear is pretty standard and a bit lean. I'll discuss gear a bit more in the journal entries. We don't carry much food. We hope to be in towns at some point of every day during trip. That being said, we do carry some breakfast and lunch.
Our current big concern is getting in shape. With less than three or four weeks to go we've only been riding 30 miles a pop at best. Both our legs and our butts need to get in better shape. We'll see what happens.
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4 months ago
Thanks for your comments! First I'll get a picture of her setup but probably not until we start. For water, Tina hangs a single cage off her handle bars. Fortunately, Tina does not drink a lot (me, I'm like a fish!). But more importantly, we will carry a water purifier with us, an ionizer. We (I) will also carry a bladder full of water if needed as well.
Second, we've crossed the US with a different electric bike in 2018. Sometimes, we had to stop twice a day to recharge the battery. Also, we've become quite adept at finding chargers in public places (town green gazebo's, sides of stores, etc.). But we also do shorter days as you suggest.
4 months ago
Sounds like you have a good plan and I look forward to following along on your journal.
4 months ago
We did consider taking a second battery. Tina decided against it mostly because it seems there will only be only a couple of iffy days. Her original battery has over 4,000 miles on it. So, Tina bought a new one hoping the range would be a bit better (it's marginally better at best). Local riding in hilly VT indicates her absolute range should be about 70-80 miles. We are seriously counting on the downhills not to take too much energy!
Jamie
4 months ago
4 months ago
4 months ago