Riding on the trail at the Idaho Border
The 2013-2014 year was my first year teaching. It had been a rough one, with many a 60+ hour week. While my wife was off singing music in England, I decided to try something new: I would ride my bike across Washington from Idaho to the Pacific coast. I had read up on the John Wayne trail across most of Washington and decided it was worth giving a try, particularly because riding on roads scares me!
This was my first major trip as well as my first time traveling a long distance by bike... and boy did I learn a lot! Any person who has taken a long trip that is self-supported will tell you: It is impossible to be truly prepared for everything that will come up! We simply plan our best, begin the trip, and take the rest of the adventure as it comes.
To the left, is a picture of my gear... it was way more than I needed... also more than the bike could carry. More on that later. But I come from a boy scout background and I like to prepare for things. The trick with biking is knowing how fast you will go... it is quite possible to carry almost no food and bike fast enough to eat exclusively in towns if you know your pace (still bring food just in case). But I didn't know my pace. I had never done this before.
Just to show that I really didn't know what I was doing and it still worked out, I will list some of my mistakes.
Mistakes I made:
1. I started in August on a HOT year in eastern Washington. It was very uncomfortable!
2. I bought my bike for $150 on Craigslist and fixed it up myself. It worked out fine but could have been a disaster in the heat.
3. I bought my rear bike rack at Target and proceeded to put a lot of weight on it while mountain biking on a rough gravel road. I have nothing against Target but they themselves would admit their bike racks are not meant to be used that way... this decision caught up with me very fast!
4. I "winged it" when finding places to camp, never getting reservations beforehand and not doing much research... this got difficult on the west side of the state where there are a lot more people.
I made many more mistakes... but life went on and I learned. I want to encourage anyone who dreams of going on a biking or hiking trip that you don't have to figure everything out beforehand! You don't have to start out as a pro. All you really have to do it plan well enough that you don't injure yourself or die. Anything else that happens is part of learning the ropes. And the payoff of taking scary risks like this is often really a wonderful thing! So go for it like I did!
Posing for a picture on the beach in La Push
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