Sideways
Putting my feet up was fun... for about 48 hours. After that, I was watching my foot with a similar intensity but a lot less patience than a cat watches a mouse, but my foot was on its own timeline. As I was watching my foot, I started plotting my next move. The folks on Bowen Island had to sit through about a week of me getting really excited about something, changing my mind, getting really excited about something else, and finally, choosing the next adventure, and getting super duper excited as I started turning my crazy idea into an actual plan. Maybe that's why they suggested I put in a few weeks of work at camp as photographer/cook/Merlin... :)
So what is the plan? Since my foot (which is much better than it was) is still noticeably happier on the bike than on the trail, and the weather window for completing the PCT in one shot is kind of over, I'm going to get back on the bike in a very Canadian way!!
Once I made that decision, a lot of frantic google mapsing began to scope out roads and distances. I am leaving my plan fairly flexible, but it includes biking north through western BC to Alaska and Whitehorse, then east possibly to the Northwest Territories, down through eastern BC and Alberta, down the ice fields parkway, back up to Edmonton, and east through Saskatchewan and Manitoba to Ontario, and possibly farther east. I am unbelievably excited about this plan for a lot of reasons:
- getting back on the bike and seeing just how permanent I can make my bike shorts tan
- exploring the North!!
- revisiting things from childhood road trips with my parents
- seeing friends and family scattered across the country and making new friends
- feeling strong and free on the bike
- celebrating Canada's sesquicentennial in the best way I know how
I'm excited to celebrate Canada as I go. To celebrate the bugs, the remote roads, the rocks trees and water, the amazing people, our far flung distances, our small towns, our Tim Horton's, our beautiful scenery, our First Nations founders, our challenging weather, and the rugged terrain that made us Canadian. For patriotic and sesquicentennial celebration reasons, I am going to start the ride on Canada Day, and I have a rough goal of biking 150 kms a day :)
I have realized it isn't going to be possible to nail down an exact plan and mileage as there are a lot more variables with this trip. The route is far less known - yes, in some parts of the north, there is only one road, but in a lot of BC, there are some sideroads that I plan to test the bikeability of. I am not likely to have months of California sunshine - storms and winds will put me days off my plan. Basically I'm packing for more and preparing less:
- more gear and food storage for more rain, more cold, and longer remote stretches.
- fatter tires to allow for more off-pavement and gravel riding
- bear spray for... seasoning my food
- disc brakes so I have functional brakes (haha)
I am also happy to announce my bike got her name!! Ali (who I'm staying with at the moment) looked at me one day cackling with my plans on the couch, and declared that I was officially a nutterbut squash. I agreed (she is letting me stay after all:p), and realized rather than a perfect name for me, it was the perfect name for my bike. It's orange like a butternut squash, it doesn't have the most accommodating seat, and it gets up to nutty things. After weeks on the bike trying to name it, it has finally named itself - must be time for the next adventure.
Changing Gears
Putting my feet up was fun... for about 48 hours. After that, I was watching my foot with a similar intensity but a lot less patience than a cat watches a mouse, but my foot was on its own timeline. As I was watching my foot, I started plotting my next move. The folks on Bowen Island had to sit through about a week of me getting really excited about something, changing my mind, getting really excited about something else, and finally, choosing the next adventure, and getting super duper excited as I started turning my crazy idea into an actual plan. Maybe that's why they suggested I put in a few weeks of work at camp as photographer/cook/Merlin... :)
So what is the plan? Since my foot (which is much better than it was) is still noticeably happier on the bike than on the trail, and the weather window for completing the PCT in one shot is kind of over, I'm going to get back on the bike in a very Canadian way!!
Once I made that decision, a lot of frantic google mapsing began to scope out roads and distances. I am leaving my plan fairly flexible, but it includes biking north through western BC to Alaska and Whitehorse, then east possibly to the Northwest Territories, down through eastern BC and Alberta, down the ice fields parkway, back up to Edmonton, and east through Saskatchewan and Manitoba to Ontario, and possibly farther east. I am unbelievably excited about this plan for a lot of reasons:
- getting back on the bike and seeing just how permanent I can make my bike shorts tan
- exploring the North!!
- revisiting things from childhood road trips with my parents
- seeing friends and family scattered across the country and making new friends
- feeling strong and free on the bike
- celebrating Canada's sesquicentennial in the best way I know how
I'm excited to celebrate Canada as I go. To celebrate the bugs, the remote roads, the rocks trees and water, the amazing people, our far flung distances, our small towns, our Tim Horton's, our beautiful scenery, our First Nations founders, our challenging weather, and the rugged terrain that made us Canadian. For patriotic and sesquicentennial celebration reasons, I am going to start the ride on Canada Day, and I have a rough goal of biking 150 kms a day :)
- more gear and food storage for more rain, more cold, and longer remote stretches.
- fatter tires to allow for more off-pavement and gravel riding
- bear spray for... seasoning my food
- disc brakes so I have functional brakes (haha)
I am also happy to announce my bike got her name!! Ali (who I'm staying with at the moment) looked at me one day cackling with my plans on the couch, and declared that I was officially a nutterbut squash. I agreed (she is letting me stay after all:p), and realized rather than a perfect name for me, it was the perfect name for my bike. It's orange like a butternut squash, it doesn't have the most accommodating seat, and it gets up to nutty things. After weeks on the bike trying to name it, it has finally named itself - must be time for the next adventure.
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