537 MPH and 12 MPH

So far, its good. I got into Seattle late on Saturday night and though TSA opened and inspected my bike boxes, nothing was lost or damaged. Thanks Peggy for ride to the airport.

Sunday morning I put together the bike and trailer and it took me longer than I expected. I didn't get on the road until about 9 a.m. and navigating through Seattle with the Google directions wasn't easy, but I never got far off track thanks to help a number of friendly Seattle residents.

Seattle is bike friendly. About half of the 80 miles I rode yesterday were on bike paths and the roads had wide shoulders. The only challenge is navigating those posts at road crossings. I have to remember my trailer is slightly left of me!


This is one of the bike paths: the Centennial trail. It follows a railroad right of way and so there aren't many hills.

I stayed at a motel last night just outside of Sedro-Woolley. I figured that with the holiday weekend, campgrounds might be full and I didn't want to take a chance of not having a place to stay with night approaching.

Today I started the official Northern Tier route. Its was a nice ride basically following the Skagit River.


Its been cloudy, but no rain so far. Temps in the 50's and a light wind made for easy riding. Right now I'm in a campground just outside of Newhalem. Its only 3 pm, but the next campgrounds aren't for another 40 miles and that was a bit too far for one day.

On the flight I finished a reading a book, "The Long Walk." Its a true story about some escaped WWII prisoners that walked from Siberia to India. It kind of put my ride in perspective. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Newhalem, WA

All Packed

I've spent a good portion of the last week getting prepared for the ride. I'm flying out to Seattle later today and will begin the ride there. I'm flying on Frontier airlines. Progressive, outdoor thinkers that they are, they don't have an excess baggage charge for bikes.

For airline travel, I broke down the bike and put it in a bike box. The bike is bigger than most and with the longer chainstay it barely fit.  I had to take off the handlebars, and the front wheel is going in a second box along with the trailer. I put in some extra air-pillows to brace it. Hopefully I won't have any travel damage, but just in case I've got a list of bike shops in Seattle.

My route will take me through the Northern border states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, N. Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Let the adventure begin!

Bike, Burley and Brute Force

Here's the  Burley Nomad, 27-speed transmission, and oatmeal fueled powerplant.  I'll add a list of components later.

Trial Run - Day 2

Nice to have the wind at my back. 50 miles at 12.3 mph and I didn't get lost. The WI countryside really is pretty with green rolling hills and lots of cows looking at you with that look of "where are you going to?"

Riding the back roads, there aren't many places to stop for coffee or a meal. I happened to notice a place called the Hideaway. It is a traditional WI tavern with about 12 seats in the whole place. 4 seats were occupied with friendly folks having a beer at 10 a.m. 6 oz glasses at 70 cents seemed to be the most popular. I had a cup of coffee, a pretzel and for dessert a glass of Old Style. It was good.

Tomorrow I ride back to Cedarburg. With a hoped for tailwind, I plan to be there by 5 p.m.

Trial Run

I picked up the bike yesterday and was all I was expecting and more. The guys at Crank Daddy's took good care of me. Steve did the bike fitting and Mike added a few other items to make it an official touring bike.

Mike at Crank Daddy's

I left early this morning and headed up to Point Beach State park (about 80 miles from Cedarburg.) No problems with the bike, and pulling the trailer was pretty easy. I was doing 15 mph... and then winds started. I had 15-20 mph winds right in the kisser and speed went down to 12, 10, 8 and then 6. It wasn't much fun and of course I got lost a couple of times and that added 5 miles to the ride. But I'm here at the park and so far so good. I'll find out if the sleeping bag is warm enough pretty quick. :)

Pointe Beach State Park

I have two more days on the trial run and should have about 200 miles in total.

Panniers or Trailer?

How am I going to carry all the stuff I need to be self-sufficient for a couple of months? Panniers (bicycle saddlebags) are the traditional approach.  A pair placed over the rear and front wheels can carry 50 pounds of gear. The downside is that they put lots of load on the wheels and spokes and have to balanced fore and aft and left/right to avoid potential handling problems. The other approach is a trailer.

Trailers come in one-wheel or two-wheel configurations. The one-wheel trailer obviously is a narrower profile and there's only one tire to go flat. If much of your riding is off-road, narrow trail riding, this is the best choice. BOB makes a great line of one-wheel trailers. They have excellent load capacity and low center of gravity.


However, I'm going with the two-wheel Burley Nomad trailer.  Its lightweight at 15 lbs, stable and can carry up to 100 lbs. The profile isn't much wider than my handlebars. As with the BOB trailers, the center of gravity is low and load balancing is not critical. I like the fact that you can pack it much like you'd pack the trunk of a car. Everything in it should be easy to access.


From the reports I've read, the Nomad is easy to attach and folds down for easy storage or, in my case, shipping. I'll find out soon enough.

Lots of Little Decisions

OK, most of the big decisions have been made. Now to address some of the details.

Bike Security - What am I going to do to prevent my bike from "rolling away" at night or when I'm in a restaurant? If someone really wants it, there's not much I can do. But I should be able to discourage the opportunistic thief. So at night I figure to lock the bike and trailer side-by-side. That'll make it impossible to roll away and different to carry away. I'll use a cable lock at other times and just keep an eye it. All the valuable items will be in a removable handlebar bag (I always wondered what it would be like to carry a purse.)

Cash Security - Wallets don't fit in a jersey and I want to be sure to keep money and CCs on me at all times. So, I'm thinking of wearing a waist pocket. I can slide it around to my back while riding and to the front when I'm off the bike.

Storing and Organizing - I bought a bunch of zip-lock bags in different sizes. I figure I can use them to package clothes, maps, electronics, food, tools, etc. The bags don't weigh much, will keep things dry and clean and of course it will be easy to see what is in them.

Cooking - I'm not going to be cooking a lot since this trip is more about riding than camping. I should be able to get by on packaged foods for the most part, but I'm sure there will be times when I'd like something hot. At the very least I should be able to boil some water and make tea or instant oatmeal. So, I figure I need a lightweight mess kit.  A good thermos might be useful too, if I can find one that is lightweight.

Next step: Pick up the bike and take it on a 3-day break-in ride. I want to make sure it is comfortable and also figure out what stuff I forgot and what I can leave behind.

Staying Connected

This blog isn't going to be very interesting if I don't keep it up on the ride. So, I need some mobile connectivity. I've got a low-end cell phone and an Apple iPad without the 3G capability. Neither is going to let me update this blog while on the road.

So I went shopping. There were two decisions to make: hardware and service provider.

Service provider: Now there are lots of services out there, but I wanted good coverage throughout the ride and in particular in the sparsely populated areas of Montana and N. Dakota. Furthermore, while this ride is going to be a long one, I didn't wnat to get have a two year contract that I really wouldn't use much after I got back. I checked out all of the big names: AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and a number of smaller carriers. Verison clearly had the best coverage (3G), particularly in the Western states. They also have a monthly payment option.

Hardware: I need a real keyboard, but weight is a concern as well. So a laptop is not practical, but a netbook might work. Keys are a little smaller, but weight is typically under 3 pounds. With a USB modem, I'd be ready to go. Prices start at $250 for units with 8 hours of battery life. Still, that's a bunch of money and I probably wouldn't use it much aftert he trip was done. I'd prefer to use my iPad if I could get connectivity and a real keyboard.

The Solutionn: The ZAGGmate Aluminum case and keyboard solves the keyboard issue.

http://www.amazon.com/ZAGGmate-Aluminun-iPad-Bluetooth-Keybaord/dp/B004FG16MG/ref=sr_1_8?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1304260585&sr=1-8

The people at Verison helped me with a connectivity solution. I could use a portable hotspot ( MiFi 2200) and that would let me connect my iPad. With a $35 per month 3 GB plan, I'd be all set. Unfortunately, the MiFi220 costs about $260 at Verison. This is far too much to pay considering that I'd just use for a few months. Understanding that, the Verison rep suggested that perhaps I could find a used one. Better than that I found one (a new overstock item) on Ebay for about $80.

So, my total mobile connectivity investment is:

iPad Keyboard and Cover:     $ 90
MiFi 2200 Hotspot                $ 80
3 Mo Verison service            $105
Total                                     $275