Seattle to Sedro-Woolley

Long day today. Don't know how it ended up being 90 miles but it was. Totally cooked from the ride and excitement of starting out. Keeping the post short tonight. Going east to diablo lake tomorrow.

First 1/2 mile - A Shakedown Ride

Yesterday I reached the point where I was tired of trying to figure out which jersey was better, whether to take 8 cliff bars or 12, or whether I really need to bring a 15mm pedal wrench. So I just dumped everything into the panniers ("bread bags") and rode from home up our 1/2 mile hill to a local park and went around the park, and over the speed bumps to see how the bike handled fully loaded.

I made it, but found out that (a) I'm still carrying too much weight and (b) I need to anchor the panniers better on their lower end so they don't come away from the rack.  Overall the bike felt good. I put very heavy rims and solid tires on so the bike feels solid and handles fairly well.
After I got home again I weighed everything. Bike is 26 lbs. Not bad with racks, fenders, and touring tires. The panniers and tent all together weighed 43 lbs! Too much. So, again I'll be trying to predict the future and weighing (literally) the benefit of having too much or too little of something "just in case". I heard recently that we "pack our fears" so I'll be confronting  the naked position of travelling without a full tool kit, lots of extra food or multiple little stashes of toilet paper. Already this morning I found unnecessary duplicates of items, so chucked out the odd one. Want to get down to 35 lbs max.  Part of my problem packing is that I'm used to the back-country preparation of the continental divide trail where you might be 50 miles from any kind of service and unless you are racing, you really need to pack more stuff. Two years ago, friends and I met up with some horrible sticky mud that coated everything with 4" of gloppy abrasive sand and pebbles and ruined chains and derailleurs in less than a 100 yards of riding. We know better this time not to ride through those conditions, but after an angel rescued us (thank you again Walter from Elkford, B.C.), Tom, our mechanic, spent the evening and into the night turning 3 ruined bikes into 2 fully functional and 1 that was good enough to go on a parts run the next day. The point is that we were well prepared mechanically and it saved our trip.
This trip won't be in the back-country but will be along the North Cascades, Highway 20. If we pack less food, we will resupply more often. Normally I eat lots of organic fruits, vegetables and range free chicken eggs.I know what awaits us in small roadside gas stations and convenience stores are shriveled jo-jo's, over cooked hot dogs, soda and potato chips. We will make our best selections and try to visit local farmer's markets, but the diet is not something that is under control when cycle touring. It is compounded by a ravenous appetite that craves any kind of calorie and NOW!
So the real story here is that cycle touring is about confronting a greater lack of control than we perceive we normally have. If you embrace the truth that one has very little control except in how we confront an issue, then you can experience a great deal of freedom. If you fail at this task, then you are having "an Adventure"!

Blue Beauty is Ready

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” - G.K. Chesterton

The thought of riding over 650 miles in 2 weeks (Seattle, WA to Whitefish, MT) is daunting, exciting and holds lots of anticipation. I hope the adventure lies in seeing new things and meeting new people and any inconvenience has to do with something other than equipment failure. I built my touring bike, the Blue Beauty, at a UBI class in Portland in April of 2010. I've since added racks for panniers and also built the bike my daughter will ride. Given that almost everything on these bikes has been made, assembled (credit also to Bainbridge Island Cycle, www.b-i-cycle.com), and inspected by me means that any equipment failure will also point directly to something I've done or failed to do. I'm also hoping that means that I can fix any issue that arises. The 3 pounds of tools and extra parts that I'll be lugging up the many passes we will climb provides a perverse comfort. I certainly hope I never have to open that tool kit and curse its wasted weight at the end of the trip rather than use it often and be glad I brought it. Regardless, we are at 11 days and counting before starting the adventure and I think the Blue Beauty is ready. Note the new handlebar bag that had its maiden voyage this morning in the thick fog of my morning commute from Bainbridge Island to Seattle.

Packing and re-packing

Trial packing of all essentials is a good way to get down to the bare essentials. I've kept gear lists from past trips, and use those but every trip is different. Crossing northern Washington state in summer is going to be both warm and alternately cold at night, so I'll include the down jacket (small warm and weighs less than a pound). We will be following a highway so I assume we can find water that is drinkable and so I'll leave the water filter behind. Will use that on the Continental Divide trip later in the summer. Anyway, there is always the trip to the post office on day 3 when you figure out how silly it was to bring X item and are more than willing to ship it back. Love those flat rate boxes!
Less than two weeks to launch now!

Preparation is endless

Preparing for two trips. The first is a father daughter trek from Seattle to Whitefish, MT following the Adventure cycling northern tier route (mostly). See http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/northerntier.cfm

The second is leg number two of the continental divide trail with my touring buddies. Two years ago we covered Banff, AB to the US border at Roosville, MT, so this year we start in Roosville.

Different trips, different gear. First trip is road bikes with panniers, the second is mountain bike with a trailer. Some gear will be used for both, stove, water pack, clothing, basic tools. Making sure both bikes are in great shape and we have critical spare parts. Will include more detail later.