Into the Wind … California to Maine by Bicycle Christopher R Bennett Copyright © 2003 Christopher R. Bennett Published By Data Collection Ltd. PO Box 348 Motueka, 7161 NEW ZEALAND www.dcl.co.nz [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. ISBN: 0-473-09328-6 For my wife Lis whose love and support makes the impossible possible Prologue Prologue … My wife Lis said that “it is a male thing” wanting to cycle across America. I know as a fact that this is not the case since there are many females as enchanted with cycle touring as there are males. If you doubt this, just read one of Josie Dew’s books like ‘A Ride in the Neon Sun’ where she describes her bicycle as “the Light of my Life”. Josie encapsulates what cycle touring is all about (pg. 588): “It gives rise to love and hell, hope and pain, fear and joy. It causes one to suffer, plunging thy spirits into the murky depths of despair before catapulting them to inexplicable heights of shear heaven. It provides a means for seeing and appreciating this wonderfully topsy-turvy world that we live in—slowly, quietly and efficiently.” Lis’ comment was perhaps more in the context of my propensity to work hard and, when holidays come, to play hard. To celebrate my 40 th birthday I wanted to do something physically and mentally demanding. Something that would mark my reaching such a significant stage in life. Long fascinated with mountain climbing, and never having tried it in spite of three treks to the Himalayas, I decided that I would take up the sport and do a climb. These plans were interrupted by a black dog on a wet corner which contributed to my MX5 sports car abseiling off an embankment into some trees. The car was a write off but God was watching over me and I walked away with “only” concussion and whiplash. This put paid to any climbing lessons since it was several months before I recovered. I therefore decided to go cycle touring since that required less training. 1 Into the Wind I should qualify that comment. It is always great if one trains for any physically demanding venture, be it cycle touring, trekking, or kayaking. However, the problem is that in our day-to-day lives we simply cannot find the time to train sufficiently for any of these endeavours. Snatching a few hours here and there for a ride does not prepare one for eight hours a day in the saddle, 6 days a week. Similarly, going on short (or even moderate) hikes doesn’t prepare one for the exertion of the mountains. Instead, one resigns oneself to pain for (hopefully) the first few days and then as the body responds to the demands, the fitness comes. The beauty of cycle touring is that you choose the pace so the first days can be as easy or as masochistic as one chooses. Having decided to go cycle touring the next decision was where. Since my available time would be during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, that narrowed choices significantly. I craved a significant amount of miles, and as a child growing up in Canada I had dreamed of cycling across America, so that was another good reason to do it. In terms of route planning, there was none. While I had researched cycling options across America, there was a dearth of information on cycling from San Francisco which was my preferred start point. I planned on visiting friends in California and Michigan but between those two points the options were open. So I decided not to have a route but to just go where the fancy took me. This is one of the greatest delights about cycle touring; to be able to explore new roads and go where one likes. The map below shows the route the I ended up following. I traversed 13 states with a side trip to Ontario to see my parents. 2 Prologue To keep Lis informed of my progress, I carried a digital camera and a palmtop computer. I wrote up my journal and posted it to a web site during my travels. This book is based on that journal. To ensure that I was suitably equipped I treated myself to a new bicycle—my previous one having reached the end of its long distance life after several tours in Europe. It had been 13 years since I bought my previous bicycle and I was amazing how technology had changed. Due to the amount of gear that I would be carrying, I opted for a mountain bike which, although heavier, is more robust than street bicycles. With the long distances I wanted a chrome-moly frame instead of aluminium, the latter providing a stiffer and less comfortable ride. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a wide selection in New Zealand, but I settled on a great Marin ‘Elridge Grade’. I was tickled to find when I started my trip that it was named after a mountain bike trail north of San Francisco from where I started my trip. With the bicycle I purchased a number of other accessories—it is amazingly easy to spend lots of money in cycle shops if you are a gadget guy—and then broke it in for 100 km. It rode really well and 3 Into the Wind with 27 gears I felt ready for the mountains. I would use them all, and sometimes wish for more! The following photo shows my trusty bike, fully laden for the trip. It’s amazing how little one needs to live on, even when it entails camping and travelling in conditions ranging from snow to deserts. My bike and I flew out of Auckland on 28 May 2000. It was an overnight flight which suited me fine as I had been putting in long days (and hence short nights) trying to get everything done before I left. Once on board I took a sleeping pill, put in my ear plugs, put on my eye mask and remembered nothing until an hour out of Los Angeles. Just in time to retrieve my breakfast, a delightful fruit platter. I was reunited with my bike after some confusion and plenty of waiting, catching my flight to Oakland where I was met by David and Katherine Brown. David is a New Zealander and they met when he and I did the Mt. Everest base camp trek in 1996. As Kat loves to remind me, I was responsible for introducing them as she had injured her elbow in a fall and I said that my mate David was an ambulance 4 Prologue officer who wouldn’t mind helping with the dressing. They married the following year and moved to San Francisco, Kat’s home town. They lived in Fairfax which is a lovely hilly area about 30 minutes north of San Francisco. Monday was a public holiday, so David and I were able to spend some time together. We went for a brief walk up the hill to survey the land. Quite beautiful and unspoiled despite being so close to the city. Prices for houses were ludicrous since there were a lot of software companies in the area as well as Lucas Studios of Star Wars fame. David read from the paper that the price of a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house was $US 1 million! I reminded him of the time a few yeas ago that the first house in New Zealand to sell for $NZ 1 million (now $USD 450,000) made the front page of the newspaper. We had a late night catching up and sleep was difficult both due to the jet lag and the anticipation of starting my trip. It was wonderful having close friends to see me off on my adventure. 5 Into the Wind Day 1 - San Francisco to Corral Hollow: 86 km Kat dropped me off at the northern end of the Golden Gate bridge. All the gear was loaded onto my bike and away I went. Boy did it handle differently with 15 kg of camping gear, clothes and a little food squirreled away compared to when it was unloaded. For my surprise 40th birthday party Lis gave me a T-shirt to be worn for the occasion. Since I’m a kid masquerading in an adult’s body, I decided to continue wearing it for special occasions such as this. I cycled downhill to the observation platform before the bridge and admired the structure. A very impressive bit of engineering, especially when you think it was built 70 years ago. There were busloads of tourists taking photos and my bike attracted much attention. I refrained from telling people that I had only cycled 1200 metres downhill, preferring to focus on my goal of cycling across America. After crossing the bridge, I cycled along the waterfront to San Francisco. It was wonderful to finally have wind in my face, and 6 California wheels spinning under me. The problems of work were (hopefully) behind me; I was free with no plans to speak of for the next 10 weeks; and it was a sunny day with a tail wind. I wore a huge smile on my face. I wound my way past Fisherman’s Wharf and other famous landmarks. Seeing several men walking hand in hand reminded me of San Francisco’s reputation as the homosexual capital of America.