Building perserverence one tenth of a mile at a time.....


If you missed Day 1 of our bike trip along Bizz Johnson you may want to start here - 

BIZZ JOHNSON DAY 1


The day after the thunderstorm was a disaster. Everything was soaking wet. Our bikes had just been abandoned by the trail because we were so strapped for time so they were drenched. But it was a beautiful clear day and we were ready to get a move on. Jill's trail a bike was totally flat and Shane had to drag the whole thing down to the creek to find the hole in the tube because he could not get the back tire off. We had to pack everything back up and reassemble all the panniers and finally we were set to go. Wouldn't you know it! We rode 0.2 miles and got to the CAMPRGROUND!!!
But really, the night before we would not have had time, so it really worked out ok.

Now remember what our original plan was.....we were going to cycle to Westwood, then come back to Susanville to get our car, all over a 4 day time span. I believe that in the morning we still had hope that this would actually happen. We had done 12 miles that first day, at mile 19 it was supposed to finally go downhill for 7 miles, then on the ride back we would only have 7 miles uphill and 19 miles down. Naively, we still believed this was going to work.

Pretty soon after the campground we realized that there was no way on this EARTH that we were making it to Westwood and back. The trail was thick and mucky sand. Alli was such a trooper. Shane was way up ahead of us with Jill and Alli and I would ride our bike a tenth of a mile and stop to do some standing yoga breaths, then another tenth of a mile and more yoga breaths. It was a long and arduous day. We finally made a plan that Shane would stop at every mile marker and wait for us. At this point, Alli and I were just walking our bikes because it was just impossible to ride them. Shane was managing ok, but he is a beast so, you know????

At each mile marker we would stop for a break all together and Jill would usually say, “I need to dig a hole!” code for – “I ate WAY too many raisins and need to go poo again!!!”
resting at one of Jill's poop stops
She must have gone 6 times that day. Guess what...if you eat a cup of raisins all yourself, its gonna give you the runs! We tried to tell her, but she is learning about fiber. It's a good thing.

When we would stop for break I would also read to them out of The Willows in Winter – believe me when I say I will not bring this book on a bike trip again. It must weigh 2 pounds! I was regretting all the weight I had on my bike. Every mile was so HARD!!! At our lunch break Alli read to us from her book. She still doesnt LOVE to read, but the fact that she WILL do it and CAN do it, makes me so thankful for what Vision Therapy did for her.
The girls would also build fairy houses. I love these...

As we trudged on we went from being able to walk our bike S-L-O-W-E-R than molasses in January, to being able to ride 0.05 miles in tiny little spurts. Seriously, it was way better to ride for 40 seconds and stop in the shade, then ride again instead of pushing our bikes up the hill. At one point, I wanted to take Alli's picture – a candid one – that showed how determined, but miserable she was.....and the minute I got the camera out she put a big smile on her face. I told her, “NO!!! We need to remember this trip as it was, you are not having fun!!!” and bless her heart – she said, “I wouldnt choose to be anywhere else right now, but I AM SO TIRED!!!” Then she gave me the real face she had been making (the picture is at the top of this post!)

Probably half way through our day (we took 6 hours to go 7 miles) Shane and I decided that we would push on to Westwood. It was supposed to be 30 miles total and then I could ride the highway back to Susanville to get the car. I loved that idea. It would be just me, no gear, riding through beautiful country and being able to go maybe up to 30 miles an hour!!!! That sounded fantastic since all I was doing right now was about 2 miles an hour in little 30 second chunks of time. I think this has to be the WORST time to ride the Bizz. Snow is melted so the sand is mushy...then rain is possible....I would love to try again in the fall.

After about 5 miles the conditions improved a bit. We were running out of water and knew there was a river coming up so we hiked over to where it was. As we hiked we had to step over hundreds (and I am not exaggerating) of piles of cow poop. Well, wouldnt you know, when we got to the river it was FILLED with hundreds of piles of cow poop.
We have a filter, but really.....I couldnt have drank that water. I would rather go thirsty. We took an inventory of our water supply and figured we would make it through the night and get some fresh water in the morning.

At one point about 6 miles in, Alli and I were riding now maybe 0.2 miles before taking a break, Alli says to me, “I can keep going, dont stop just because of me.” This girl has some crazy determination. I wanted to fall on the ground and curl up into a ball, and here she was wanting to push on. We ended up stopping after 7 miles and setting up camp. We are slobs, I'm glad there was no one around to see this, but here I will show you:

After this incredibly long day, Alli and I get into the tent and she asks to see the Trans Canada Trail book....this is where we are planning a 7 week bike tour this summer. I asked her if she still was excited about going on our long bike trip or if she didnt want to go
anymore and she looked at me and said, “WHAT???? Why wouldn't I want to go? Of COURSE I still want to go.” Then she spent 20 minutes looking at all the stuff we are gonna see this summer. What an awesome kid.

The next day we woke up and I realized that we are going to need to cut their hair before our 7 week trip. There is no way I am going to be able to deal with these mops.
After a healthy breakfast of beef jerky and chocolate chips we got loaded up and started for Westwood. Amazingly, we had passed the 19 mile marker and we were still going UPHILL! We continued uphill for another 2 miles. Luckily the trail here was not sandy so Alli could ride a half mile before needing a break.

Jill eating chocolate chips for breakfast
Finally, with smiles on our faces, we got to some downhill. Alli was so excited, she could pedal a full mile before needing a break. We still met up with Shane and Jill at every mile marker (this is the reason why I dont have much about what those two did....we were hardly with them!!)
And as tired as Alli was, it did not stop her from having to climb this sign when we finally made it to Mason Station.

After Mason Station it is a 4 mile ride on the pavement. I have never loved pavement so much in my life. After the last 3 days this was a welcome surface. Alli felt very mature to be able to ride on the side of the road. We got into Westwood and went to the Old Mill Cafe and had the best food I have ever had in my LIFE. 

Well, you need to be a cyclist or backpacker or do something where you eat nothing for days on end, all while burning 5000 calories, to really appreciate what I am saying. For 3 days we ate nothing but nuts, jerky, avocado, some almond butter, a can of chicken, olives and some larabars....and cycled for 7 hours a day. So we went a little crazy at the Cafe.

Shane and I had not had potatoes since going paleo, and since we couldnt have biscuits and gravy, we decided to have hash browns and gravy instead. We had 4 cups of coffee each. I cannot even describe how good this food was. The girls were eating the gravy out of the BOWL with a SPOON....like it was soup. Then to top it all off, the girls wanted pie,
and after what they just survived we were fine with that. Would you believe they ate this entire thing (minus 2 bites that shane and I managed to get) in about 45 seconds. So guess what.....
this is Jill 5 minutes later, out on the concrete saying she needs to throw up. OOPS! She never did, but boy did she feel awful.

After we rolled out of the cafe and found a park for everyone to hang out at, I rode off to get our car. We cycled 30 miles to get to Westwood, and I had to cycle 21 miles to Susanville. It was beautiful. I love being able to road bike. 

The road was pretty clear which is nice, so I didnt have to worry a lot of cars and there were no semi trucks. It might be hard to believe but I love biking up hills.  Look how steep this is!!  And I am SMILING!
As I climb to the top of a pass, I end up cycling like this.....I stay in a low gear and count my pedal strokes to 100, then I shift up and stand up, then count my pedal strokes to 100.....over and over and over and over until I get to the top. 

Doesnt that sound like a load of FUN!!!  Well, it is meditative for me. PLUS......the downhill makes it all worth it.
Once I get over a pass it is usually speeds of 25 – 30 miles per hour for a good solid 10 minutes. There is nothing more fun than that.

We had been on our bikes for about 16 hours during our trip. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to go get our car! What a great learning experience this has been for us. WE have a lot to figure out before we hit the road for our 1000 mile bike trip through British Columbia!!!


Next up....Biking up Lassen for the Car Free Weekend!!



THE MELLOW BIKE TRIP THAT TURNED EPIC


We got home from Lava Beds at 12:30 on Wednesday afternoon and left for our bike trip on Thursday at 8am. This involved a lot of chaos. What we should have done was pre-packed all the bike stuff prior to leaving for Lava Beds. Instead, we had nothing prepacked PLUS we still needed a bike rack for the back of Jill's trail a bike. 

In 2001 Shane and I went on a bike tour on Vancouver Island riding over 500 miles in 2 weeks. In 2002 we did a bike tour from Port Angeles, Wa to Skagway. Ak riding over 1000 miles in 6 weeks. Back then we knew EXACTLY what we needed for a bike tour. Fast forward 12 years.....add 2 children into the mix and we are clueless! Our plans for summer 2014 are to bike the TransCanada Trail through British Columbia. We have 7 weeks and are hoping to cover 500 – 1000 miles depending on how it goes!!  We need to get this figured out!

For the Bizz Johnson trail we were starting from scratch. We packed our gear one way, loaded the bikes, then realized something wouldnt work, so we reloaded and tried everything a different way. We tried Plan B and Plan C and then Plan D. Something was going to have to work out eventually, right? I pulled out the bathroom scale. One thing I remembered from our previous trips was that the bags should really have the weight evenly distributed. I could at least do that right!

Alli ended up with 17 #'s, I had 49#'s and Shane had 38#'s (plus, he has to pull Jill). We accepted the fact that this was as good as it was going to get in the short period of time we had to pack and we went to bed!


We set out the next morning hoping that we had packed everything we needed. Our plan was to park in Susanville and ride the 26 miles to Westwood, get the girls some ice cream, and then ride back to the car on Easter. Shane and I can easily ride 40 – 80 miles a day if we needed, but with Alli on her own bike we would be going at her pace. We had 4 days to ride 52 miles. It seems TOTALLY doable. (and yes, all that gear in the back of our car was being loaded onto our bikes!!)

This is the motto of our life:   The greatest adventures happen when nothing goes according to plan.  

Believe it or not, we only rode .2 miles before we had a serious malfunction! Jill's trail
a bike was wobbling back and forth like crazy. Shane could barely keep the bike straight. Easy fix...we needed the allen wrench. I dug into the tool bag on my bike, could not find it!!! Shane ran back to where we got the bikes set up, he had just used it there. Nope.....he checked the car.....nope......uh oh! Shane dug into the tool bag. Apparently there is a hidden pocket I was not informed of. Allen wrench found and problem number 1 resolved (only 17 more problems to go!!)

The trail a bike was not fixed, but it was better. Shane is a powerful guy. He was able to handle the wobble. Even as loaded down as he was, with Jill attached (she does NOT pedal), he was still going to be faster than Alli and I. The deal was he would ride ahead and wait for us every so often and then we would stop for a lunch break all together. The trail was hard packed dirt and was barely a 1% or 2% uphill grade so Alli was doing great. We would stop and rest every mile. When we would finally catch up to Shane and Jill, she would be halfway up a hillside – she wasnt using too much energy biking, obviously. At 5 miles we stopped for lunch.

Well, “lunch” is probably stretching it a bit. When you are on bikes and have to carry everything, meals take on a whole new meaning. We had jerky, nut mix, some raisins, apples with almond butter and a can of olives. Shane, being as brilliant as he is, grabbed some frozen bratwurts and some fresh diced up bell peppers for dinner. We figured, at least on the first night we could eat gourmet.

We had about 5 miles to go to the campground (we thought). The grade started to be more like 3% and Alli was needing to break every half mile. At one point we loaded her bags onto the back of Shane's bike (cuz, you know, he didnt have enough already!) but that made the trail a bike go all over the place. So then we unpacked her bags, loaded up my bags with as much of the heavy stuff as we could and had her carrying only clothes and her sleeping bag (maybe 6 pounds).  Problems 2 - 5 resolved.

Then Jill's pedal fell off.....then Shane's rack disconnected on one side......then the trail a bike had a flat. But, nothing is too much for us..... Problems 6 - 9 resolved, nothing stops us so ON WE GO!!!!


At some point the trail got incredibly sandy. Do you know how hard it is to walk on the sand at the beach? Well, now we were having to pedal our bikes (loaded with gear) through sand. To make matters even crazier, there were some massive thunderclouds coming in. Alli was needing to rest every .25 mile, Shane and Jill were NOWHERE to be seen and we were at least 3 miles from the campground.  Problems 10 - 11 being dealt with.....

Alli and I were taking a LONG rest (typically we would stop for 2 – 3 minutes. Just enough to get some standing vinyasas done) but Alli was DONE so we were just stopped for 10 minutes with no way of telling Shane that we were needing a serious break.
I was starting to worry because I could see the thunderclouds getting bigger and darker. As I sat there wondering where in the world Shane could be and if he was at all concerned about us I heard someone sneeze really loud. Alli and I stood up and pushed our bikes around the corner where we had been stopped for 10 minutes and there was Shane talking to a biker. Jill was halfway up the mountain climbing a tree. Alli, remember – she could BARELY MOVE 2 minutes before this – ran up the hill and started playing with Jill.


Apparently the campground was about 2 miles ahead (and the road conditions would only get worse – according to the biker we met). The clouds were getting crazy dark so we decided that Shane would take the tent from me and ride ahead to set up camp as the girls and I walked and pushed our bikes. Problems 12 and 13 working themselves out...

As exhausted as they (Alli) were, it did not prevent them from wanting to climb every sand hill we passed so that they could slide down. At one point the rain started and I felt like the best, most prepared mom EVER, when I pulled out everyone's rain gear. I thought the rain to make the girls want to speed up so we could snuggle in a warm and dry tent, silly me....they still climbed every sand hill we passed.

Finally we saw Shane walking toward us. I figured he had found the campground, but he hadn't, he was getting too concerned about the clouds so he just found a meadow to get set up in. As we started to set up camp Shane asked me, “How long do you think until the rain starts?” I said, “15 minutes – TOPS” Luckily we are crazy fast at getting tents up – 2 tents up, all the gear safe in the vestibules, and 13 minutes later the crazy rain, thunder and lightning started. We hadn't dealt with our bikes back on the trail, but they would survive the rain.  Problems 14, 15, 16...



When I say this was a crazy storm, I mean CRAZY! The rain was coming down in sheets, the thunder was rolling for 30 seconds starting at one side of the mountain and going over us to the other side of the mountain, there was lightning every 45 seconds. Jill is TERRIFIED of thunder, Alli LOVES it. Made for an entertaining hour as we were all smashed into one small 2 person backpacking tent. At one point I remembered that my phone (there was no signal, but I had been audio recording the girls) was in an outside pocket on the bikes so Shane – always the gentleman – braved the crazy storm to go save it.  Problem 17, Shane to the rescue - as usual.

It was 7:00 we had ridden/walked 12 miles and not eaten since “lunch” at 1:30. Shane and I looked sadly at each other as we realized that our bratwurst were going to go to waste. It is not safe to cook in a tent, even in the vestibule- there isnt enough room or air movement. There was a metal bridge we could have cooked under if there had been no lightning.....so instead, we ate nut mix for dinner.  Problem 18 - compromise made.

Around 9, Shane and Alli crawled over to their tent. The rain was still going strong but there was no more thunder or lightning. We all managed to fall asleep in tents being pummeled with rain (if you don't know what this sounds like, I equate it to feeling like you are inside a radio stuck on a station with only static. But guess what, we were all so EXHAUSTED that we slept until 8 the next morning!!!

Days 2 – 4 link to it below.......here's a preview -  Problem 19 - Sandy trail does not get any better when it is wet....

TEACHING PERSEVERANCE ON A BIKE