Day 1: A day late and a mile short
As a wise man said, every trip of a thousand miles begins with a realization: "Holy shit, I'm going a thousand miles!" It's 3,300 or so, in our case, en route from Seattle, WA to Virginia Beach, VA.
We had the idea last year after I bicycled to Gerlach, Nevada for Burning Man (chronicled here). That was a 700 mile ride, my first ride of more than 150 miles, and it was extraodinary. I'd always wanted to bicycle across country, and I saw that 700 mile ride as proof of concept. Having finished it successfully, I looked forward to the next leap. Mary has also long wanted to do something extraordinary (I did not drag her along on this trip, thank you - she and I are willing partners in the expedition). We're neither of us in fantastically good shape, or well trained for a three thousand mile bike ride, but we're determined.
The strangest thing about preparing for a long journey is the process of severing the strings of your regular life. Work, bills, pets, house - all have to be placed in the care of other people. The piecemeal surrender of life's commitments feels like a preparation for death.
We had a bit of a rocky start. We postponed our departure by a day to give ourselves a full day for final packing and equipment check. Unfortunately, I still had a piece of freelance work to finish that took most of my day, leaving Mary to assemble all our gear while I swore at my client. The client came back with changes which I was unprepared to tackle, which left me in a moral fever that literally kept me up all night.
We spent the night with friends, the couple who are watching our dog Sally while we're gone, whom we had also imposed upon for an early shuttle ride to Golden Gardens in the morning, so we could start at "the coast". We loaded up our car with bikes, gear, and dog, loaded our stuff from our car to their truck, and slept on their couch. Unfortunately, an unheard alarm lead to late rising, which meant no ride for us. We reloaded our car (sans dog) and drove home. At home, the couple who are housesitting for us generously offered us a ride to the beach, so we transferred our load once more.
At Golden Gardens we did a final equipment check, loaded up our bikes, and started out along the Burke Gilman trail at 9:45am. Since we were both suffering from sleep deprivation (for my part, enjoying headache, nausea and shakes), we soon stopped for breakfast.
The day started gray and cloudy. The sun broke through and warmed us in the late afternoon. We hit Woodinville around 3pm but didn't realize it, and continued another 5 miles on to Redmond. I can't say I regret it though - the trail through those parts is gorgeous. Leaving Woodinville put us on urban arterials, which are never fun, and they wore pretty badly on Mary.
By 5pm we'd eaten only Clif bars since breakfast, so we halted at a quickie mart between Woodinville and Snohomish and tour through it ravenously. We came out with two dollar frozen burritos, spiced nuts, and a boiled egg. Road food never tastes so good as it does after a full day of exertion.
We were about 4 miles shy of Snohomish when roadwork narrowed the shoulder to a two foot wide strip bordered by concrete bumpers. We stopped shy to reconnoiter. If I were alone I would probably have bulled through it, but it was no road for Mary, who was looking a little dazed. We followed down an adjoining road to find a shady spot for a break, and lucked into a little grassy meadow, actually someone's oversized yard. When Mary saw it, she knew she was done, and we decided to camp there. Mary spotted the owner nearby, and got his and his wife's permission to pitch tent.
It was a good spot, on a mown lawn, nestled against an old barn. The tent went up easily, and I crashed hard and fast. Poor Mary spent a good part of the night nauseous, sweaty and shaking, either from overexertion or her truck stop burrito. She was mostly recovered by morning, though still tired.
In the morning we took the back road to Snohomish and stopped for breakfast at the Buzz Inn, a kitchshy old diner bordering on the Snohomish airfield.
It's a slow start as we find our pace and build our endurance, but I have no doubt that the first week will toughen us up.
We had the idea last year after I bicycled to Gerlach, Nevada for Burning Man (chronicled here). That was a 700 mile ride, my first ride of more than 150 miles, and it was extraodinary. I'd always wanted to bicycle across country, and I saw that 700 mile ride as proof of concept. Having finished it successfully, I looked forward to the next leap. Mary has also long wanted to do something extraordinary (I did not drag her along on this trip, thank you - she and I are willing partners in the expedition). We're neither of us in fantastically good shape, or well trained for a three thousand mile bike ride, but we're determined.
The strangest thing about preparing for a long journey is the process of severing the strings of your regular life. Work, bills, pets, house - all have to be placed in the care of other people. The piecemeal surrender of life's commitments feels like a preparation for death.
We had a bit of a rocky start. We postponed our departure by a day to give ourselves a full day for final packing and equipment check. Unfortunately, I still had a piece of freelance work to finish that took most of my day, leaving Mary to assemble all our gear while I swore at my client. The client came back with changes which I was unprepared to tackle, which left me in a moral fever that literally kept me up all night.
We spent the night with friends, the couple who are watching our dog Sally while we're gone, whom we had also imposed upon for an early shuttle ride to Golden Gardens in the morning, so we could start at "the coast". We loaded up our car with bikes, gear, and dog, loaded our stuff from our car to their truck, and slept on their couch. Unfortunately, an unheard alarm lead to late rising, which meant no ride for us. We reloaded our car (sans dog) and drove home. At home, the couple who are housesitting for us generously offered us a ride to the beach, so we transferred our load once more.
At Golden Gardens we did a final equipment check, loaded up our bikes, and started out along the Burke Gilman trail at 9:45am. Since we were both suffering from sleep deprivation (for my part, enjoying headache, nausea and shakes), we soon stopped for breakfast.
The day started gray and cloudy. The sun broke through and warmed us in the late afternoon. We hit Woodinville around 3pm but didn't realize it, and continued another 5 miles on to Redmond. I can't say I regret it though - the trail through those parts is gorgeous. Leaving Woodinville put us on urban arterials, which are never fun, and they wore pretty badly on Mary.
By 5pm we'd eaten only Clif bars since breakfast, so we halted at a quickie mart between Woodinville and Snohomish and tour through it ravenously. We came out with two dollar frozen burritos, spiced nuts, and a boiled egg. Road food never tastes so good as it does after a full day of exertion.
We were about 4 miles shy of Snohomish when roadwork narrowed the shoulder to a two foot wide strip bordered by concrete bumpers. We stopped shy to reconnoiter. If I were alone I would probably have bulled through it, but it was no road for Mary, who was looking a little dazed. We followed down an adjoining road to find a shady spot for a break, and lucked into a little grassy meadow, actually someone's oversized yard. When Mary saw it, she knew she was done, and we decided to camp there. Mary spotted the owner nearby, and got his and his wife's permission to pitch tent.
It was a good spot, on a mown lawn, nestled against an old barn. The tent went up easily, and I crashed hard and fast. Poor Mary spent a good part of the night nauseous, sweaty and shaking, either from overexertion or her truck stop burrito. She was mostly recovered by morning, though still tired.
In the morning we took the back road to Snohomish and stopped for breakfast at the Buzz Inn, a kitchshy old diner bordering on the Snohomish airfield.
It's a slow start as we find our pace and build our endurance, but I have no doubt that the first week will toughen us up.
posted by Ivan at
12:04 PM
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