Mumonkan
Well-Known Member
for-word:
so i did a lot of talking about doing the Tour Divide, but the more i thought about it the more i realized my desire to do it was "because i can" and not necessarily because it was what i truly wanted to do. i have no doubt that it would be an incredible epic journey to be told till im on my deathbed, but it boils down to a super long gravel race, and the more i ride my bike in the woods, the more i like singletrack. plus, if im being honest i dont have enough time to bring myself to level i wanted to be at by the time of the grand depart in june.
i had told myself and others (perhaps this was a self-fulfilling prophecy) that if i didnt do TD i would do some smaller trips that were more diverse and based around singletrack. so this is where im at now, planning my year on the bike wandering the earth. first up was planned on being a route in Oregon with @wyakinflow for about a week and a half. 350 miles composed almost entirely of gnarly rainforest PNW singletrack, but the timeframe didnt fit for june (the time i had already taken off for TD), as there was likely to be snow in many of the mountain passes, so it was pushed back to mid-august.
then-ish:
a couple of months ago i crossed paths with a friend i used to work with in the hallway at work, he was telling me about this job that he probably wouldnt be able to do, but thinks would be right up my alley, and it was. theyre gonna pay me money to go to weekend events and do stuff, but the key element here is that theyre gonna pay for my all my travel expenses, and are flexible when i decide to come back home. JACKPOT.
i just signed the contract today, first stop: Mesa, AZ - Apr 30th.
so im sure you all know what im planning on doing with this already. i spend a couple days trolling my bookmarks and forums and blogs and i decide this will be big bikepacking trip #1 in an alien land. i was talking to @wyakinflow about a small 3 day trip out there solo, and he mentioned he would love to come but would compromise time from work set aside from Oregon...
LIGHTBULB:
how bout we replace Oregon (which is pretty dependent on when we go) with an equally gnarly trip in AZ? some more trolling of the interenetmachine and behold:
after about a day of thinking (probably less) we were all in. ill do the job, most likely nervously distracted the entire weekend about my bike and my gear and the weather and navigation, then spend a week out in the desert shredding the gnar battling dehydration, rocks, and plants that want to stab millions of holes in us. well probably hit some extra curricular singletrack jawns in Sedona, and spend like 8 seconds in the city to see what its all about, maybe people there dont suck as hard as they do here (not holding my breath). hell to the yeah. amped is not the word.
-
for this trip im taking the Fatboy, Gossamer, ill be building it a new set of B+ wheels, adding a squishy fork (ive ridden rigid bikes all my life), and using a dynamo hub to charge my gps and phone/camera.
ive never spent enough time out on the bike that i needed more than one battery backup, ive never flown with my bike anywhere, ive never been in a desert, ive never been to Arizona. basically the only thing that will be familiar to me will be riding bikes, eating, shitting, and pissing, and probably minimal sleep.
i got like a month and a half to get all this shit, dial it in, and figure out how to get all of that crap there and back. ill post in this thread all kinds of (presumably) chaotic ramblings about the horribly bad decisions i will inevitably make from now till then-ish.
im nervous as hell and thats how i know im doing the right thing.
so i did a lot of talking about doing the Tour Divide, but the more i thought about it the more i realized my desire to do it was "because i can" and not necessarily because it was what i truly wanted to do. i have no doubt that it would be an incredible epic journey to be told till im on my deathbed, but it boils down to a super long gravel race, and the more i ride my bike in the woods, the more i like singletrack. plus, if im being honest i dont have enough time to bring myself to level i wanted to be at by the time of the grand depart in june.
i had told myself and others (perhaps this was a self-fulfilling prophecy) that if i didnt do TD i would do some smaller trips that were more diverse and based around singletrack. so this is where im at now, planning my year on the bike wandering the earth. first up was planned on being a route in Oregon with @wyakinflow for about a week and a half. 350 miles composed almost entirely of gnarly rainforest PNW singletrack, but the timeframe didnt fit for june (the time i had already taken off for TD), as there was likely to be snow in many of the mountain passes, so it was pushed back to mid-august.
then-ish:
a couple of months ago i crossed paths with a friend i used to work with in the hallway at work, he was telling me about this job that he probably wouldnt be able to do, but thinks would be right up my alley, and it was. theyre gonna pay me money to go to weekend events and do stuff, but the key element here is that theyre gonna pay for my all my travel expenses, and are flexible when i decide to come back home. JACKPOT.
i just signed the contract today, first stop: Mesa, AZ - Apr 30th.
so im sure you all know what im planning on doing with this already. i spend a couple days trolling my bookmarks and forums and blogs and i decide this will be big bikepacking trip #1 in an alien land. i was talking to @wyakinflow about a small 3 day trip out there solo, and he mentioned he would love to come but would compromise time from work set aside from Oregon...
LIGHTBULB:
how bout we replace Oregon (which is pretty dependent on when we go) with an equally gnarly trip in AZ? some more trolling of the interenetmachine and behold:
after about a day of thinking (probably less) we were all in. ill do the job, most likely nervously distracted the entire weekend about my bike and my gear and the weather and navigation, then spend a week out in the desert shredding the gnar battling dehydration, rocks, and plants that want to stab millions of holes in us. well probably hit some extra curricular singletrack jawns in Sedona, and spend like 8 seconds in the city to see what its all about, maybe people there dont suck as hard as they do here (not holding my breath). hell to the yeah. amped is not the word.
-
for this trip im taking the Fatboy, Gossamer, ill be building it a new set of B+ wheels, adding a squishy fork (ive ridden rigid bikes all my life), and using a dynamo hub to charge my gps and phone/camera.
ive never spent enough time out on the bike that i needed more than one battery backup, ive never flown with my bike anywhere, ive never been in a desert, ive never been to Arizona. basically the only thing that will be familiar to me will be riding bikes, eating, shitting, and pissing, and probably minimal sleep.
i got like a month and a half to get all this shit, dial it in, and figure out how to get all of that crap there and back. ill post in this thread all kinds of (presumably) chaotic ramblings about the horribly bad decisions i will inevitably make from now till then-ish.
im nervous as hell and thats how i know im doing the right thing.
