Day 2 - On The Road
Today I started my ride! I unfortunately got a late start as I had issues with building the bike again and needed to make trips to Walmart. Also I was tired and slept till 8am. However I got on the road later and Montana is one of the prettiest places on earth in my opinion. However it has lots of mountains blocking everything, and it peaked at 94° with no shade. About 16 miles into my ride I'm at a stop light and an older gentleman pulls up next to me and says, “there's a cafe a mile up the road on the left, pull over there”
This man didn't give me his name, did not smile, and did not say what he wanted. But I'm adventurous so I pulled over a mile ahead. He got out of his car and said, “I saw you touring and thought maybe you would like a break. Want to grab a coffee?” Turns out Mike is a seasoned bike tourer having done some amazing domestic and international bike trips, and also had lived his whole life here in MT. So we chatted, getting to know each other and he asked my route and if I had questions. I had many and Mike gave me a lot of advice. We changed my routes a little to avoid some fences I wouldn't be able to cross and he gave me some recommendations about my campgrounds for the night. Specifically that it's not the best and maybe consider somewhere else. We chatted for 40 minutes before I realized the time and I got ready to go.
I filled my water bottles and got riding again. At this point I'm on the streets, basically the frontage roads next to the highway. And something to know about MT towns, they are almost all in valleys or basins. Which means leaving town means climbing those mountains. So while my road was not incredibly steep (avg 6% grade) it did not end. I was melting in the sun running out of water, and still had 25 miles to go. It was getting later in the day, I was bonking, so I made the decision to bail on the day and get a cab. I did not want day 1 to be the one that ended in failure. And based on Mikes suggestion I skipped over that campground and went to my next stop in Butte! And this helped mentally because Butte was a motel day. This also helped me get back on schedule, as technically I was a day behind what I planned.
I saw lots of small birds and beautiful landscapes from near a highway but not much else. Today was a tough but fun day, and I'm glad I skipped ahead. I'm thankful that I met Mike and I'm looking forward to getting a donut in the morning.
Day 1 - It's finally here
The day I've been waiting for is here and I'm going to start my ride with a ride… to the airport. All this time I had been waiting for my bike to be finished. This was a longer process than expected, and I really wanted to do this ride on this new bike. So I waited. I started making alternate plans, ‘what if I left this day?’ ‘where could I take the bus to so I can start further along.’ Because I had no idea when it would be ready, I made many alternate plans. But by the time it was ready, a bus was no longer an option.
Before I flew out to Helena, MT, our little dog Walter died. He was a great cuddler and I love/miss him so much. While I was planning this trip I was very worried about him passing as he was nearing 17. So while I was frustrated about the delay, I was very glad to be there with Walter in his last days.
So I finished building and setting up my bike and then had to immediately break it apart and box it up. I put my pannier bags in the big blue Ikea bag (3 out of 10 wouldn't recommend) and checked it along with my bike. Once I got to Helena I took a cab to my hotel, grabbed some dinner and started building my bike. So while not day 1 of riding, it is day 1 of the adventure. Hooray!
I'm leaving out the 4 random searches I had flying, my first trip to Walmart in a long time, my cab driver trying to convince me to go to comic con with him, cuz of relevancy and not as interesting as they may sound. Here's a nice magpie instead.
How did I choose where to go?
This was really tough for me. I started with an end point. Having family in Maine made Kittery an obvious final destination. Then it was a case of what I wanted to see and do along the way. RAGBRAI (a group ride across Iowa) was first on the list followed by visiting family and friends in Chicago and Detroit. Then knowing outwards from Iowa, I chose as many National Parks as it was feasible to ride through. This includes Yellowstone, the Badlands, Indiana State Dunes, and Devils Tower. From there I scoured forums of bike packers to find routes they took, and compared them to Google maps directions.
I know vaguely where I'm supposed to be on what day, but I'm a more unstructured type of person. This criscycle is about the journey and experiencing joy outside. There will be pain and suffering, but that just elevates the high points.
Some dates where you can meet me in big cities. I'll be in Chicago around August 2nd and I'll be in Detroit August 9th.
Having traveled all over the world I have however never visited Canada, and am extremely excited about the prospect. I'll be going from Detroit to Toronto, to Montreal, before coming back south to the US. I'm gladly taking suggestions for things to do in Canada, specifically those two cities.
Next I'll be writing about the bike and some of the gear I'm taking with me.