I’ve been back in LA for about a week now and I thought I would take a moment to write a final post to create some closure. This was my first bike tour and I learned a lot. Thanks to the research I had done beforehand and advice I had gotten from the bike touring community on Reddit, I felt I was very well prepared for the adventure. But there are always lessons to be learned through actual experience, and I thought I would take a moment to share them here.
Lessons Learned:
Perhaps the main lesson I learned was that I grossly underestimated how much bike weight matters. With all my equipment – tent, sleeping bag, water, food, clothes, etc – the back end of my bike was super heavy. And although I tried to balance the load on either side as much as possible, my bike handled like a bus. Going straight on paved roads it wasn’t bad. But on the dirt trails, my bike would want to fishtail a lot and with my thinner tires it would sink lower into the path. Over several miles, the extra work I needed to do really added up. Also, not surprisingly, going up hills was slow going. But going downhill was great! I picked up momentum super quickly.
Did I Use Everything I Brought?
Almost! I didn’t get to use my plastic poop shovel (this is to dig a hole) as bathrooms were available during the whole week. Also (and thankfully), I didn’t have to use my bug spray. But I think I used almost everything else I brought with me.
What Would I Have Done Differently?
This is a tough question. The trip went really well for me, so I don’t think I would change too much. Perhaps a little more planning would have been nice. There was one night in particular when I was just exhausted, but biking there was no place to spend the night. The nearest campground was another 5 miles away. That was tough.
On the one hand I like the idea of being free and not knowing where I’ll be spending the night. But on the other hand, being stranded somewhere sucks. So maybe making a list of more suitable sleeping locations would have been useful ahead of time.
Would I do it again?
Absolutely! There is something very gratifying about forcing myself to face some physical challenges every day and powering through. There were days on this trip – most notably during the rain soaked portions of the journey, as well as trying to pedal my thin tires through mud – that were physically grueling for me. But I forced myself to press on and at the end of each day, I felt some small accomplishment.
Final Thoughts
This was a wonderful experience. The few people I met along the way were great, the weather (yes, even the rain) and the scenery were perfect, and the physical challenge was just the right amount of hard. It was such a pleasure to ride into Rochester and be with my family again, but I also really enjoyed my week of solitude. Like I mentioned previously – I wish I understood myself better. I know I need these challenges in my life but not really sure why. And I’m learning that maybe it’s ok to not know why. I just need to do what I do, and that includes indulging my need for adventure every now and then.
What’s Next?
Good question! No idea. I really enjoyed bike touring. I got to see some really beautiful, off the beaten path kind of stuff while covering lots of distance efficiently. I could just stop and sit and watch the world go by whenever I wanted. So I would definitely be interested in doing a trip like this again. I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open for future possibilities.
