In the 19th century in New Zealand, shipwrecked sailors off the Southern Islands were such an issue that the government decided to drop off giant boxes of supplies (blankets, matches, fuel, foodstuffs) on select islands. Every five years or so a boat would go around and re-stock them (and presumably pick up any survivors). To ensure that these goods would only be used by those in need, the supplies were cursed against thieves. 'Whoever takes without need blah blah blah die horribly blah blah'

Like any solo traveler, I'm eventually going to have to leave my stuff alone. Which raises the risk of thievery. As my Tibetan prayer flags are doing duty in my mom's office, I've been looking into curses as an additional preventative measure.

Unfortunately, the internet has not been very helpful. As in - not helpful at all. I was very surprised by this. Maybe spell-casters know something extra about protecting intellectual property rights?

Plan B is to draw the 'all-seeing' eyes of Nepal, along with one of my favorite general purpose questions, laminate it and stick it onto my luggage:

'

WHAT WOULD GHANDI DO?'

ps. i'm also bringing a lock.

The Plan B map - the first few days ...

View Larger Map

Yesterday, I loaded up the BOB, probably 85% full, and took it out for a test ride around the lake. Verdict? Not terrible. Although 15 minutes into the ride my Bob fender fell off (I guess I should have used a screwdriver). I then tried to find the screw but gave up after I attracted too much attention. A cyclist, decked out in full cycling gear, crouching in the middle of an intersection, peering at the ground - not discreet.

BUT other than that, and the fact that it took me roughly 30% longer than usual, and I had a flat, not bad. You are not just slower going uphill (although you ARE) but you are also slower going downhill. Its a bit nerve racking to have 20 lbs of gear bouncing around behind you - I shall be keeping descents to a sedate 30 mph.

I am not re-gearing my bike. Climbs over 8% are going to gruesome, drawn out battles to the bloody end!

Countdown is on! (5 or 6 days left depending on bus schedules)

(Lets all take a minute to admire the animated banner that represents THREE HOURS of my life.
and again please!)

Weather:
I have been very down on Invermere's weather in this blog. So I'm making a point of saying today was gorgeous!! Sunny, warm, perfect cycling weather as I did my three-hour-ish jaunt around the lake. Wonderful! (Training Day 9? 10?)

Not much more to say. Everyone, back to the animated banner! If you don't want to see it again, it just means you haven't seen it enough.

ETA:
I did another header. Old header found here.
The new one took me five hours, but I think looks more impressive. Maybe. Slightly?

Training
The motto of yesterday's training was 'something is better than nothing'. Ended up riding 90 minutes out and back on Westside road. Saw a lot of deer. Not much else happened. This morning I woke up to mixture of freezing rain and snow. Way to hit me with the door on the way out, Invermere!

Plans
Plan B is to take a bus to Victoria and just start my trip there. Skip the mountains and the weather.

Equipment
The BOB trailer arrived two days ago. Unfortunately the rear axle skewer thingy (i can't believe I'm an engineer. embarrassing! Waterloo probably can't believe it either.) doesn't fit my bike. According to the website this problem is 'easily fixable with a threading die, a metal cutting saw, and a ruler'. A statement I am very suspicious of, so off to the bike store I go.

Hair
The hair debate rages on. My mom thinks I would look great in short hair, but I need to be 'ready' for that decision, and not merely cut it because of this bike trip. I'm leaning back towards braids with a bandanna. Can't argue with the bandannas' ability to cover a multitude of hair sins.

Packing
Everytime I move, I have to get rid of stuff that I previously thought was worth moving. Some of the items that aren't making the cut this time:

- my downhill suit bought when I was 15. Which I've only used once for non-costume events since I quit racing. It was a light blue suit with yellow spider webs all over it - very retro 70s for 1993. Technically, my dad bought it for my younger sister, because he had already bought me a pair of skis and didn't want it to look like I was getting more ski stuff. He then hinted that we 'could share'. My sister took one look at it and handed it over to me with a flat 'I'm not wearing that'. I don't think she's *ever* worn it. hmmmm - Lyn? Would you like your downhill suit back? Let me know.

- My clock radio from high school. Yes. That clock radio has been with me pretty much everywhere, but has been functionally replaced by my phone, which is approximately 2% of its size and weight. (actually that is not true, my phone does not play tape cassettes).

- My tape cassettes (a collective 'awwwwww' for all my old mixes that I taped off the radio). Not to mention my first music purchase ever - the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing - also the very first time I used an ATM. It was quite the day).

- My engineer texts failed to make the cut last time. This time its my law text books. Being donated to my current place of employment. Except for the 'Criminal Code' a book I like to keep visible in my car in case I get pulled over). "What's that you say Officer, what section? Let me just look that up ..."

- Art. My art that does not lie flat, or fit into my car. I went through a 'quasi-sculpture' phase of art sometime last winter, throwing aside the limitations of the 2-d 8.5 x 11 page. These have now got to go. Farewell 8 square feet of Sisyphus and his boulder made from carefully dripping candles (took me *forever*, didn't age well). Or the crumpled paper statutes of naked people 'held' together by an entire can of varnish.
We will always have our memories!

The one thing that this trip has made me think about and examine in my life more than anything else ever has, is my hair.

Those of you who have seen my hair will be surprised to learn that I've ever spent anytime thinking about it - but I have, occasionally.

But this trip! I currently have long hair. Do I cut it short? How short? Is dirty short hair really a better option than dirty braided hair? If I cut it? Into what style? If I leave it long, my hair can not be combed without conditioner, so I can only unbraid to wash it. If I braid it, how many braids? Two. Or four? Ideally the more braids the better for keeping the hair together through multiple days.


Then I had a brilliant idea that I'd dread my hair. Let nature take its course. Let the hair organize itself! This was the leading hair solution until I started researching dreads. The follow facts emerged:
- do not attempt to dread your own hair - go to a specialist. They were especially emphatic that white people do not attempt to dread their own hair. (CON: I guarantee there is no hair dreader in Invermere, and $)
- the first month of dreading hair actually requires a lot of upkeep and products (I am only bringing one piece of cutlery - there is no way that I'm lugging bottles of hair products with me)
- and third, and most important, it is apparently one of the worst hairstyles for cyclists. I read blog after blog of bike couriers complaining about dreads. Doesn't fit under the helmet, scalp pinching, gets into your vision, really heavy if wet, get caught on things.

So what to do? The obvious choice is to cut it short. But then what about my hallowe'en costume? My hair has been my savior on this. In a pinch, I can always go as a very successful Cousin It.



(me, modelling my hair last night)

and, in the alternative:



(this was very popular with the kids I was ski coaching this year, even if they were too young to get the homage)

Anyway, now that you know how I spend my evenings in Invermere, back to the original issue - Hair.

Chances are I'll snip off like 6 inches before I go and do the braids. And if it is impossible or driving me crazy, I'll just cut it off on the road.

Woke up on Saturday to this:



On Sunday I drove down to Calgary with Paula to do my MEC shopping.
The shopping was excellent. The weather was from January.

Inches of snow, the passes iced over and slippery, cars in the ditch, even in the valleys there was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground, then the wind - howling - knee high swirls of snow being whipped across the roads. It was, without a doubt, utterly unbikeable, as in, impossible to bike. Not hard, not challenging, IMPOSSIBLE.

For whatever reason, this is the coldest snowiest spring in anyone's memory. This is unfortunate, but the reality. Heading North in this in a week and a half would be a very bad plan. The thing about bad plans is they don't get any better unless you change them, so I've decided to change mine. To what, I'm not sure yet. I will still be heading out on my bike as close as possible to May 1 as possible, but I will not be heading North. I need to do some brainstorming!




Now the shopping!
I won't list it all, but here on some of the key purchases:
- MSR Hubba Tent (1.6 kg)
- Merlin -3 sleeping bag (690g)
- Bear Spray and Holster for easy access (did you know that bear spray is 10 time more effective than mace? The guy in the store was like 'make sure that you are upwind'. Make sure when? How? Presumably, I'm being attacked by a bear in an unexpected manner and from a non-negotiable direction).
- A whistle and an emergency space blanket
- Travel towel (my one luxury, I went for a large rather than a small)
- Oriskaso Solo. I am ridiculously excited about this. Origami cookware.
- Titanium spork.
- Also, I checked, my stove still works and I know how to use it.

Training Day 9
(5:00 pm until 9:00pm)

Yeah. That was pretty much it.

i just got an email from a friend (I will call her 'Hannah') who asks if there are goals for my trip? Or any rules? Like no staying in hotels? Or no using matches? (I made up the last one :)

Now, most people when they hear about my trip say things like 'wow that sounds hard', or 'difficult' or 'crazy' or 'would you like to borrow my handgun young lady'. But clearly for Hannah, there must be something *more* going on with this trip for it to be sufficiently challenging. I love it! Everyone needs some Hannah in their life. If Hannah was on this trip I think we'd be heading to the South Pole on bikes to teach penguins how to fly (and we'd do it too). I take back what I said earlier - my high school friends rock - Go Shepp!

Of course now that the idea is in my head, I'm going to start thinking of rules. My initial goal was mere survival, but now I see that it is a pansey-assed goal. I'll have to get back to you on this one Hann!

Here there be monsters

Started to do some route planning.
Day One. Invermere to Lake Louise. 147 km. Along this route I will hit two climbs.

1) Sinclair pass - 4,875 feet. This 11 km climb's steepest sections are 10% probably averages out around 8. I will hit this climb approx 1 hour in, and should take me an hour.

2) Vermillion pass - 1651 m (5,382 ft)). This I will hit approx five hours into my first day and again take me about an hour. In 2003 an intense fire swept through this section of the national park. Five years out, it still looks like another planet. (I'll cross the continental divide here)

Day Two.

Lake Louise to Columbia Ice Fields (125 km) (where I'll cross back over the continental divide). Columbia Ice Fields are the largest Icefields in Canada. I've been told that there is a NASTY climb up to the Ice Fields but don't have statistics. Probably the one to Bow Summit which hits (6,787' ft).

Day Three

Columbia Ice Fields to Jasper (107 km). As the worst of the climbs should be over, I'll probably spend the morning exploring the Ice Fields before continuing North. This should hopefully be a relatively easy day.

Day Four to ???
Jasper to Prince Rupert, BC (1093 km) along the Yellowhead Highway. Here there will be wind.

View Larger Map

On this map A=Invermere (start) B=Lake Louise C= Jasper D= Prince Rupert. I can't get Columbia Ice Fields to show up, but its approx half way betwee B and C, where all the white is :)

Yesteday I biked! Training day 8! One thing I have learned from living in a small town is that when you see a deer, it doesn't mean that you've 'seen the deer', it means that you've missed the five other deer that are about to nonchalantly step out in front of your car (the other night, I had to wait idling while two deer finished grazing in my parking space). It's even worse on the bike. Not only are the deer not afraid of a bike, they seem downright curious - almost as bad as cows. Have you ever had to road bike through a herd of cows? Don't.

No cycling yesterday either. But also, no ice cream or jelly beans, so I think relative to the day before, yesterday was a training day! (Day 7 ).

Last night I meet up with someone I hadn't seen since high school. I will call her Paula and hopefully she doesn't mind. At first I wasn't all that excited, because at some point its just been so long that even though you technically should have ten years to catch up on, you don't actually have that much to say. It turns into one of those dreaded reunions where you struggle to tell your life history in any sort of comprehensive manner and they look at you like you are crazy. I think most high school friendships are sort of suspect anyway. Like making friends with your fellow inmates. Sure its all fine and dandy when you are stuck in a grey building day after day, but after you get out, maybe its better to move on?

(errr ... clearly I'm not referring to any of my high school friends who may be reading this - I treasure what you wrote in my yearbook. So true!)

Not so with Paula! I knew things where going to turn out well when we had the following conversation:

Paula: So have you ever *done* an overnight bike trip?
Me: uhm. No.
(silence)
Me: and you know what? I'm not going to try it out either. I'm just going to go.
Paula: Oh for sure. I wouldn't try it out ahead of time either. Its about commitment.
Me: Ohmygod! That's exactly what I think! Commitment! You have to commit.

Of course my first clue that we were going to get along fine was probably when she explained how after finishing her masters and starting her career as an environmental consultant she decided she didn't want to do it anymore and became a helicopter pilot instead. How cool is that???? Jealous!!!

I think my body has figured out that it will soon be very unhappy with me. All it wants to do is lie in bed and eat ice cream. ICE CREAM! I tell you. Its freezing out!!! Plus who wakes up at three in the morning and thinks: "This is the perfect time for jelly beans."

Yesterday was supposed to be Day 7 of training, and I canceled it due to gale force winds, hail, temperatures around zero and threats of snow. One may wonder - what if I get this weather in two weeks from now? Did I not think of this before?

Well. As it happens i did, and at the end of Jan/the beginning of Feb, when I was starting to figure out the timing for this trip, I asked the 'locals' if I needed to be worried about snow on the passes in May.

May? They said. Absolutely not! There will be no snow.

Those same locals are the ones now commenting 'Well what about snow? aren't you worried about snow?"

I actually think I will be fine. That it will still warm up maybe five degrees (according to annual weather statistics) - which won't be tropical or anything, but it will be sufficient to keep roads from icing up. But in the meantime, not really doing much training.

Oh well. Its not like over-preparing for my trips is something I've ever excelled at.

ugh. those jelly beans were a mistake. I feel awful this morning.

Greetings.

A rather premature post, as the Tour de Sarah has yet to actually depart. Or indeed pack (or assemble) as the case may be.
I have approx two weeks before I depart on my three month? bike tour of some portion of the Americas.


Things to do:

- Plan the route (so far, Northern BC, Oregon Coast and the Grand Canyon are 'musts').
- Buy a tent/hammock, sleeping bag, tarp for my bike, solar charger, other misc camping stuff
- Figure out what is meant by misc camping stuff
- Memorize 'So you are in Bear Country' phamplet. (Yes, I too am afraid of bears)
- On a related note, get medical/travel insurance.
- Buy some long boring book that I should read but never have or don't remember (Is it time to take another crack at The Magic Mountain? Will the Bleak House be any more fascinating 15 years later? Or keep plugging away at Cien Anos de Soledad for the sake of my spanish? (I've had it for four months and I'm on page 12 - so this one has potential to last)).
- OR learn the harmonica?
- Get rid of all my worldly possessions (except my car and my skis ... and some of my books, and my laptop)
- Pack five extra inner tubes. One extra tire. Five extra spokes. Extra bolts for my shoes.
- Download some new music to my phone
- Start charging electronic things now.
- Ride my bike!

No matter what, I plan to stick this out for two weeks. Absolutely no quitting before two weeks.
Even if i get lost, if my bike falls apart or if i fall off my bike, if it rains, if it snows, if it hails. High winds or flooding. Even if i meet crazy people, or skunks, even if I'm cold or hungry or bored or lonely. NO QUITTING.