YOU'RE DOING WHAT?????

In 2001, Shane and I drove to Port Angeles, Washington left our car in a parking lot for 10 days and rode our bikes 500 miles on Vancouver Island from Victoria  to Courtenay, camping along the way.

We loved that so much that in 2002, we drove back to Port Angeles, Washington, left our car in an RV storage lot for 6 weeks, and rode our bikes 1000 miles.  This time we rode the entire length of Vancouver Island, again camping along the way. 

Included on this stretch of our ride was a 175 mile section of road we nicknamed the “Highway of Death” (Campbell river to Port Hardy). From Port Hardy, we took a ferry up to Queen Charlotte Island and rode the length of the northern island.

 From there we took the “poor man's cruise” through the

breathtaking Inside Passage up to Skagway, Alaska. Then we rode all the way back to our car. (We did end up renting a van for the “Highway of Death” section.)  Even back then we had enough sense not to ride that section again!

During a backpacking trip a few years ago, Shane and I decided to write a list of our 10 favorite trips EVER!!! We wrote them in secret and then compared notes. We had 7 of the same trips (and believe me, we had lots of choices!) But, our 6 week bike trip was #1 for me and #2 for Shane. For me, it was the first time in my life that I felt a real appreciation for what my body was capable of doing. I had gotten to ALASKA on a BIKE!!!  That trip healed body image issues I had had for a long time.

For years, I wanted to do another bike trip, but then we had babies and were hardly going anywhere. By 2010, our girls were big enough that I could start camping again, but bike trips were out of the question. That didnt stop me from talking about it all the time.

I would say, “When the girls are old enough we are going on a bike trip!” or “Maybe I'll go on a bike trip by myself.” I think this is why I became so passionate about biking. I bike everywhere.....the girls and I probably bike about 800 miles a year.

This summer, we were supposed to do a big car camping trip out to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon. The problem is that our car is just not able to go where we want to go (hence, the need for a car more suited for us). I brought up the idea to Shane of doing a bike tour with the girls ( I dont give up easily!) – Alli on her own bike and Jill on a trail a bike. Shane was into the idea and when we asked the girls if they would like that, they were WAY excited. 

Fast forward to Spring Break, when we did a trial run on Bizz Johnson. If you did not read those posts you can click here:

The Mellow Bike Trip Turned Epic

Building Perserverence One Tenth of aMile at a Time

What did we learn from that trip???

Alli COULD NOT be on her own bike. While she is capable of doing a small trip, long term and long distance would be difficult.

We COULD NOT use the current trail a bike that we had – an Adams. It was so wobbly and very hard for Shane to control.

Pile of stuff we WILL NOT be bringing on our trip!

When we got back we went through every single item and found 15 POUNDS of gear that we would not bring on a long bike trip. Books, the hammock, 

And of course we learned that no matter what, a bike trip was how we wanted to spend our summer.

So the research started. The BurleyPiccolo was what I found to be the best trail a bike for what we wanted to do. High weight limit – absolutely no wobble – sturdy and strong rack – weighed less. They are $400, so I looked on craigslist and found 2 of them $180 total (paid for with our paypal money – remember we are saving for a used car).  We had to drive to Sacramento and Redding, but it was WELL worth it.

There are some great rails to trails, but none of them are very long. The Bizz Johnson is the longest in California. There are lots in other states, but in Canada there is a trail that runs from Coast to Coast! We wanted to do the section in British Columbia from Victoria on Vancouver Island to Nelson on the mainland, located above Idaho. Bruce and Sue were willing to drop us off in June in Port Angeles and pick us in August in Nelson. We were SET! We ordered the book, got the gear we needed and started counting down the days.  We needed one more test ride with the new trail a bikes and loaded with gear.

One Wednesday in early May, Shane called me from school and said that Lassen was having their Car Free Weekend. He asked, “Let's drive up on Friday and bike to the summit as a trial run!” Two days to prepare, but we did it! We had been talking about doing this ever since moving to Chico, only took 15 years to actually do it!

Friday night we drove up after school, got to the parking lot of the visitor center at about 5:30pm. Loaded up the bikes and started riding. Let's just say – It was TOUGH!!! Our average speed was about 3.5 miles per hour. That is crazy slow.

But Shane and I are pulling not only our kids up this mountain, but all of our camping gear. We rode exactly half way (3.5 miles) that night in 50 minutes of pedaling time, 2.5 hours total time. Exhausted and hungry and cold, we set up camp on some snow. We crawled into bed at 9:30 and all fell instantly to sleep.

In the morning we got up and as we were getting ready to head up this massive, steep and windy hill, a couple from France stopped to chat with us. They were on a long trip that started in Seattle, went to San Francisco and now they were headed back to Seattle. I remember feeling GIDDY as we talked to them thinking – “In one month that is going to be US, out on the road, with just the power of our bodies to get us from one side of Canada to the other.” I couldn't wait!

Shane and Alli WAY down there at the bottom of the picture

Once more we started up toward the summit. We had another 3.5 miles to go. As we rode, there were lots of road cyclist FLYING past us coming downhill. They always passed us with a cheer of some sort – Awesome Family!!! – Way to go Mom and Dad!! – You guys ROCK!! – Lucky kids!! – So nice to see a family outdoors together! – Keep it up!

The girls love this kind of attention and we appreciate it too. It is nice to hear encouragement for what we love to do. It feels good to get kudos for doing what we love instead of doing what is “normal” or “expected”. I will admit, it also helped keep my legs pumping up this horribly steep mountain. Somewhere along the way a ranger stopped to talk to us and take our picture. We were the only family we saw out there the whole weekend.

We reached the summit after 60 minutes of pedal time – 3 hours total – this section was WAY more steep, and we were totally spent! Shane and I were each pulling about 150# up the mountain, not including our own weight. There was a lot of shouting for joy when we finally reached the summit.

Now, it is true that on the other side of the summit we could ride for as fast and as long as we wanted, BUT we would have to ride BACK UP in the morning. We decided to go 1 – 1.5 miles downhill and find somewhere to camp. This took 6 minutes! Is all the uphill worth the downhill? 100% YES! Is this the girls playing in the snow without jackets and without shoes? 100% YES!

Now, the next day we had to ride 8.5 miles back to the car, the first 1.5 miles being uphill – but then the icing on the cake – 7 miles of nothing but downhill. It was so amazing and fun. We never had to pedal. It was 26 minutes of a joy ride down the side of Lassen – no cars – just us and the wind in our ears. (I think I vaguely remember that I could not feel my feet because they were frozen, but WHO CARES!!!! 26 minutes of a joy ride is worth it!)

This trip to Lassen was our last trial run before Canada. All the problems needed worked out now before we left for 7 weeks. What we found out was that we are READY! The Piccolo is a perfect trail a bike for us, we could pack our 4 person tent, we can survive without cooking (we only used our stove to make tea), and most important – if there was a mountain that needed climbed, we would be able to do it. We headed into the end of May with happiness in our hearts for what would be sure to be one of our favorite family trips ever.

UH -OH!!!!!

Shane and I kept procrastinating the planning of our trip. We had the TransCanada Trail book, we had learned about Warm Showers (a website designed to connect cyclist with people willing to host them in their house or in their yard with a tent), we just had not sat down to write out how EXACTLY we were going to get to Nelson in 7 weeks. I finally started 3 days before Shane's camping trip with his friends.

Early on, I found out that the stretch of trail beyond Hope, BC was kind of a mess. There was almost no way around it except to ride the highway. Now, when I think back to the highway of death from 2002, I know FOR SURE that we are not going to ride on highways with the girls. I start researching everything that would help us get around this section– renting a van, renting a U-haul, finding a shuttle service – it is all over $500. By this time Shane is gone, off to the Eastern Sierras doing this:

I realize I must make an executive decision. My decision – we turn around in Chilliwack – nothing, and I mean NOTHING – is worth endangering our children. Some of you may be surprised to realize that we actually do have limits to what we will do! I was 2 weeks into planning and our whole trip had to change. I had a big job to do. I had to plan 5 more weeks and make sure that it was good since Shane would come home and learn that we were not doing AT ALL what we set out to do.

We have been to the sunshine coast (west coast of mainland, BC) many times. I knew the it would be awesome, but I wasnt sure about the safety of cycling it, or if there are backroads to get off the highway. With some research I found some awesome websites.

CRAZY GUY ON A BIKE – an UNBELIEVEABLE collection of cyclists journals about their trips. I found a lot of info here on the safety/danger of different areas

CYCLING THE SUNSHINE COAST – One woman's tour of the island with mileage and where they stopped

I was sold. This could for sure be done. It would take us one week to get back to Vancouver, then one week to cycle to Powell River at the top of the Sunshine Coast. That left 3 weeks to plan. The obvious next step is a ferry over to Courtenay on Vancouver Island which is a place we LOVE!!!! So another week to cycle down to Sidney.

2 years ago we went to the San Juan Islands and fell in love with Lopez Island. It is mostly flat with some rolling hills, people are SO friendly and it is a really relaxing atmosphere. So from Sidney, BC we could take a ferry over to Friday Harbor in the San Juans....then Lopez.....then Orcas. BOOM – 7 weeks – 50 days – planned! Well, almost....

I will not have any cell service in BC so I needed to write down the address of EVERY SINGLE PLACE we are going to stay. Then I had to write the directions we would need for every day to get from one place to another. I wont have MAPS on my phone – or a GPS unit – every night I will copy the directions from my notebook, onto a 5 x 7 index card and fasten it to my steering wheel so we know where we are going.

This was a huge ordeal in itself. Google Maps for Bicycles is a GREAT resource, but a lot of the GO TO directions are for taking the highways, which I am not willing to ride with the girls. I had to manually re-route each and every day, every single section of our ride for 50 days, to keep us off the highway. 

This also resulted in LOTS MORE MILES to ride. Taking back roads will be safer, but we will be riding a lot more, too. One day the original route was 30 miles, but after I adjusted the route to get off Highway 1, we have to ride 38 miles! YIKES! Total calculated(estimated) miles 720. Total hours on the bike 90 (so this will probably be closer to 200 hours for us!)

Our Packing List

Passports are packed, credit card and banks are notified that we are leaving the country, bike tour list is out and highlighted. We are chomping at the bit!! It feels good to be all planned, packed and ready to go.

We have a few more days of enjoying our beloved Olympia family. We get to spend Father's Day with Shane's dad for the first time in forever, then Monday at 12:45 we leave Port Angeles with only our bikes and the power of our own bodies for the adventure of a lifetime.

Click below to follow our journey....

DAY 1 - SAFELY IN VICTORIA

Testing, Testing....does this thing work?

I am trying to figure out how I can post to my blog while we are in Canada this is my test using the text voice to text program  so I don't have to type on my cell.  below is my first attempt syntax will be terrible and there will probably be typos but it will be the best I can do. 

enjoy

last night the as I put the girls to bed they asked if I was going to wake them up in the middle of the night so we could  drive to Olympia.  (The first 5 days of our trip will be at Shane's parents.)  when I said it would be at 4:30 they both cheered. they love getting woken up in the middle of the night to leave for a trip.

I went to bed at midnight, at 4 a.m. The alarm went off and Shane heard Alli already awake  apparently she had woken up at 330 too excited to go back to sleep.   we loaded up the car headed out at 4:50. now we are 7 miles  from Shane's parents

monday  june 16th at 12:45 we take the ferry from   port angeles washington to victoria on vancouver island in Canada with our bikes loaded with camping gear  to head off for 7 weeks. we hope to ride about a thousand miles I'll update you when I can.

BACKPACKING to TOWER PEAK - KID FREE!!!

Celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary and 22 years together- May 29, 2014

Backpacked 30 miles and 3,400 ft elevation gain.

From Leavitt Meadows Campground to the ridgeline above Tower Lake

Shane is always really good about picking awesome places to hike in the Eastern Sierras.  For this anniversary, it was Tower Peak in the Hoover Wilderness, right off the Sonora Pass.  The Eastern Sierras are so incredibly beautiful, I never get used to the huge granite walls, beautiful snow caped peaks and thundering waterfalls and rivers.  We always go without the girls because the hikes are usually more of a vertical climb, but I look forward to the day when the girls are able to come here.  There is no where like the Eastern Sierras.

We did not get to the parking area until 7:45 pm so we loaded up and hiked in our first 2 miles just by the light from our headlamps.   As is our typical MO - we could not find the trailhead so we head off in the WRONG direction - 5 minutes later we get back to our car and realize that we had left our trekking poles just leaning up against the car!  I guess it was good that we went the wrong way! Finally we find the direction to go and head off into the darkness.

There was no moon and the sky was filled with stars. So many stars, the milky way was crystal clear.  How I miss the milky way back in city life.  After hiking for about 90 minutes Shane and I had one of the most awesome experiences ever.  I cannot believe in all the years of backpacking that we have never experienced this, but it was amazing.....I will try to describe it, but there are no words for how this felt at 10:15 at night off in the middle of the Hoover Wilderness....some things just must be experienced:

As we were approaching what we thought was going to be our camping spot for the night, we thought we saw really low stars, lying just about the level of the horizon.  Being that we were in a canyon of pretty tall mountains, this really did not make sense.  So we stopped and turned off our headlamps to figure it out.  

We were surrounded by the pitch black of the night, but when we looked down we saw the entire night sky reflected back at us.  There was absolutely no wind, and we were elevated about 20 feel above this perfectly still lake that contained the reflection of every star in the sky.  It was a moment of amazement for me, sometimes I am stilled to the core by the beauty that is in this world.  We stared at this lake for quite a while before we continued on to set up camp.

The next morning we had a huge day ahead of us so we got up early, packed up and headed off to get as close to Tower Lake as possible.  We had about 8 miles to hike.  It took us 6 hours.  There is no way to eat enough food to keep up with what we are burning. We are just in a constant state of hunger.  (We both lost 4 POUNDS on this trip!!) 

It feels good to be hungry.  So often we just eat to eat.....it is something entirely different to eat so you don't collapse on a trail!! We never really collapsed, but we did need to take some breaks.

Shane fell in a river too....poor guy.  Not the river above, either....that would have been LOTS better.  He had to carry the bear canister with all the food and it seemed to throw off the balance in his backpack.  Unbalanced backpack and a tiny log crossing a rushing river is not a good combination.  He fell in up to his WAIST! We had to stop for a while in this meadow so his sleeping bag could dry out.

After things dried, we continued on to our destination.  This is Hawksbeak Peak, we think.....you will see though, that we have absolutely no map reading skills so that is just our best guess.

We got to our camp spot at about 4:45, after 7 hours of hiking and did not know how we were going to stay up until a decent bedtime.  We both could have gone to sleep right then.  But instead, we ate and played cribbage and read our books.  We made it until 8:00!  Our tent was full of sun, but we were exhausted....we slept until 7:45.  CRAZY!

Our view when we got up of what we thought was Tower Peak.  This amazing spire ended up being just two tiny insignificant dots on the topo map.  If you want to feel how insignificant we are in this world, go to the eastern sierras.  These peaks are just indescribably beautiful and breathtaking.  

Shane told me that we would be hiking up to the top of this.  I said, "Um...NO!" but we can get close.  So we set off to climb up about 500 ft elevation gain (1 mile) to Tower Lake and have lunch.  You know us, nothing can ever be that simple, so after eating lunch and observing a pretty cool ridgeline that went up to Tower Peak, we decided to climb another 1000 feet elevation gain (and about 1 mile). Doesnt that sound awesome!  Look at how beautiful it is:

But, it is crazy steep.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and eventually you get there, though!!

Once we made it to the top of the first ridgeline we decided to keep going to the next ridgeline.  That was when we realized that Tower Peak was actually BEHIND this huge spire that we had been heading towards.  The real Tower Peak is in the background of the picture at the top of this post.  We debated crossing a third ridgeline to get there, but the clouds were coming in and lighting on a ridgeline is really not that safe so we headed back down....

Getting back down is actually really fast....

The next day we had to hike out the 8 miles, but going downhill is at least less strenuous.  The problem with downhill is that is it so much harder on my feet and knees.  We were totally running out of food, our feet hurt, our shoulders ached, but there is nothing that stops us from enjoying being outside.  

There is nothing better than being outdoors relying on on our own power, the joy of seeing beautiful things and spending time with each other.  

This is what life is for.  Countdown to our 1000 mile bike trip - 10 days!!!

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