Thought of the Day

Riding in the pursuit of happiness

Monday, July 28, 2014

A Journey into the Unknown

Only 6 more sleeps until we start riding and with this knowledge comes a lot of nervous excitement and a little bit of self doubt. Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Will we make it to our end goal of Cedar City, Utah some 2,800 miles (4,500km) down the track? Now that we have told our friends and family about this blog, the pressure is on to accomplish what we have set out to do. Maybe it would have been smarter for us to make this journey incognito, suffer in silence and if it happens to be, we fail anonymously. Sleep is becoming harder to find as we get closer to our start date of August 3, my mind wondering what will be in store for us over the coming 2 months.
These are the things I do know about our upcoming adventure.
  1. Our touring bikes are waiting for us already at the REI Portland store in Oregon - unpacked, reassembled and tuned up, ready for us to collect on Friday after we land and more ready than we are to start putting the pedal to the metal.
  2. We must cover on average, about 60 miles per riding day to reach our end destination (that's almost 100km per riding day) regardless of weather, illness or injuries, or we just plain blow a head gasket! (This sounds so much more do-able when you use American distances - it's deceptive bro).
  3. We have allowed ourselves 7 whole rest days for the entire trip.
  4. Our bike set-up is frickin' heavy - steel frame touring bikes, super heavy duty touring tires (Continental Tour Plus tires on the front and Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the rear - these Schwalbe tires weigh about 1kg on their own!), rear rack, plus after final weigh-in it seems our touring load has ended up evenly distributed between the two of us at 18kg per person. Then we still need to add food and water ....
  5. We have a couple of "D Days" .... a) we need to be in Granby, Colorado around 4-5 Sept if we want to take on the Great Parks South route thru the Rockies ... b) we need to be leaving Granby by 8 Sept if we want to have any chance in hell of making it to Utah but taking the easier, shorter route ... c) we need to be ready to roll out of Telluride, Colorado on 16-17 Sept if we are definitely going to ride thru Utah otherwise we will change our plans and end the ride in Durango, Colorado ... d) in the back of my mind, and as an extreme fantasy where we are totally smoking this ride, it would be fun to make it to Telluride for the Blues and Brews Festival 12-14 Sept.
  6. We are starting the ride in Astoria on the Oregon Coast.
  7. We most likely have not adequately prepared for this ride.
Things I am uncertain of about this trip.


  1. Where we are going to eat and sleep every day / night.
  2. Whether we can actually do this. Sure we can ride 60 miles in one day, maybe 60 miles a day 2 days in a row, but will our bodies let us ride 60 miles a day for 2 months without breaking down? We have only cycle toured once before back in 2001 around the wee island of Tasmania covering 1,000km over 1 month with plenty of rest days. This sounds like a small feat in comparison to this trip but, hey, it was our honeymoon after all!
  3. Whether we will lose any weight from cycling so many hours everyday, or whether we will somehow manage to consume all the calories we have left on the road each day. I would put my money on Steve to lose the most weight (seeing as he has the most to lose) so start placing your bets people.
  4. How long and feral Steve's beard will be by the end of this thing, and what may be living inside all that facial hair.
  5. Whether Steve will survive the whole trip with only 1 pair of underwear.
And this is what keeps me awake at night!

Friday, July 18, 2014

Testing one, two, three ....

So now that I have downloaded the Blogsy App for IPad, hopefully this whole blogging attempt will be more feasible whilst we're on the road. Unfortunately I think I am going to become one of those unfashionable people that spend their whole time taking pics with their iPad on this trip! Not very cool at all.

My trusty steed for this long journey

 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The prep is done, now for the waiting ....

This is my first blog ever, so all / any readers out there - go easy on me!

A Cranking Odyssey could be described as a cry for help as we navigate our way through a mid-life crisis, but in reality, it is just an excuse to escape the monotony of day-to-day work life for 2 months, be outdoors in the fresh air almost 24 / 7, spend some (hopefully) quality time with the other half, use our legs to transport us around America under our own steam and continue to test our theory that the world looks better on two wheels.

Steve and I have kitted ourselves out with Novara Safari touring bikes from REI complete with Ortlieb Classic waterproof rear back panniers (keen to see how they hold up in our first rain shower) and Sea to Summit dry bags for the top of our rear racks. 

Packed gear weight is approx 16-18 kg per person.

The plan is to follow the Transamerica Trail starting from Astoria on the Oregon Coast as far as Fairplay in Colorado, with the option to make our route more challenging by climbing the mountain passes of the Rocky Mountain National Parks on the Great Parks South route to Poncha Springs, then follow the Western Express across to Cedar City in Utah - a total of approx. 2,800 miles.

What are these routes you ask? 

Well, the Adventure Cycling Association has mapped out a complete network of bicycle routes throughout America, making the planning for a testing endeavour such as this sooo much easier. We'll be travelling old school, relying solely on their hard copy maps (with the occasional sly glance at our Iphones when needed).

Our friend, Katie, is accompanying us from the start of the trip until the end of August. I'm not quite sure if she realises just exactly what she has gotten herself into, agreeing to embark on this journey with a couple of bickering, married Aussies; but she'll find out soon enough, I'm sure!

If all goes to plan, we'll start our ride on 3 August 2014, so check back closer to this date for more updates. 

My mission for this adventure, should I choose to accept it, is to try my best to keep this blog up-to-date whilst on the road. No promises!



Testing out the load around the country roads of Double Lake / Coldspring, TX.
The touring bikes handle pretty nice and as stable as can be with the extra weight.