Day 5

5.27.09

The sun rises out here at 5am. And couple that with the transparent roof of a tent and you’ll soon find that you begin to roll with the rhythm of the sun. It rises at 5 – you rise at 5. Hell, I was getting up to work back in Ohio at 6:30am, so much for the “vacation” way of life.

         It takes us a solid 2 hrs to pack up the gear from camp and be ready to ride, so 5-6am is a good time to awake. But today, ahhhhhhhh this was a reward for busting our humps on a 90-mile ride yesterday. We only wanted to stay on schedule and make it to Courtenay – 47K away. It was sunny and cool in the morn. We left camp and high tailed it to Starbucks for coffee and internet. As some of you may already know, we’re now officially Skype pimps….having discovered the underground world of toll free, world wide calling on the computer. I signed up for $8.50 for 3 months of unlimited calling. You folks flushing tons of cash down the drain with cell phones – get on the wagon!

         Well, we went to get caught up with our businesses via email, and then started doing our Skyping with family, loved ones, friends, and anyone else who we remotely give a damn about…….. because we just love to talk for free on long distance and watch the minutes rack up without charge – it’s like heroin for God’s sake! I even called my Aunt Tilly from Bugtussle, who I haden’t talked to for over 51 years……and I just turned 52 this past May!

         Just took it totally casual, stoking on a redeye coffee, and talking with the locals about our trip. We finally left at 10am, rode back to our camp, tore down, and were on the road at a very late 11:15am. We were told about the “scenic route” also call Rt 19A, so we deviated off of Rt 19, and onto Rt 19A, all along the ocean inlet. Did a breakfast at Mickey D’s – 3 double cheeseburgers – and I felt the wrath of burger belly for the next 27 miles.

         Rode at a casual pace the whole time, with just a few power climbs along the way, all along the ocean inlet of the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. No more Mickey D’s for breakfast, that’s for sure, as I had the wonderful taste of breakfast on each and every power climb.

         Ended up in Courtenay, a wonderful little seaside community that is pretty sports oriented – hiking, kayaking, backpacking, surfing etc. Great town center and very friendly people. We were directed to a town camping area right along the river. Arrived at 3pm, and once we were checked in, we went straight to the river for a much needed dip, that to wash away three days of sweat, salt stains, and the BO on our cycling kits. At first the water took your breath away, but after a few seconds it felt wonderful in the warm BC sunshine. I washed my cycling gear in the cold water – with NO soaps – and then let them sun dry at camp.

         Emailed and Skyped at the camp Center with free WiFi, and then off to town to eat – Chineese. Ryan hunkered down at a coffee house and emailed and Skyped for a couple hours, while I grabbed a six of Molsons and went back to camp to cook dinner #2 – Raman noodles with spicy chicken fake flavoring. I don’t read the ingredients  - I just eat the stuff.

Getting late, sun’s gone down, it’s now 11pm, and got to hit the hay for a 60+ mile day tomorrow to Nanaimo. Cheers………pete

Day 4

Pete and I pulled off just outside Woss, British Columbia and camped in a rest area by a river last night. It was rainy pretty gnarly. We thought it would stop but it rained all night. Our Hilleburg tents kept us totally dry. Man we were stoked about that. We woke up early and it took us 2 hours to get all our stuff packed up. We rode a few miles u the road and pulled into a gas station and grabbed coffee. It is amazing how much better things taste when your camping. It was the best coffee ever…

 

We started riding what turned out to be the most grueling ride I have ever done. 90 miles. It was massive amounts of climbing. We had one descent that was 30 minutes and I was going close to 50 mph with my 70 pound yak behind me. We had one climb where we were going 4.5 mph and it took 30 minutes. It’s hard to put in perspective what we did today, but I know one thing. It hurt like hell. Pete just wrote a book about mountain biking in the Blackforest of Pennsylvania and he said today’s ride was harder than anything he has ever done out there. Overall we averaged 12.6 mpg for 90 miles. We had 7:05 ride time today.

 

At mile 60 I was so tired I noticed I was zig zagging in the middle of the road. Not a good sign considering massive logging trucks were zooming by at 100km an hour. I almost fainted. I took some electrolytes and felt a lot better. When we finally got into Cambell River we found a gas station and got dinner #1. 2  hours later we are sitting in a restaurant overlloking some boats and Cambell river eating dinner #2. 

 

Day 3

5/25/09

First day out. Woke up at 5am, and immediately began to work to put trailers together and then pack all the baggage. Drank hotel coffee and jammed on that. Done by 9am. Then off to mail back bike bags and all the unused gear bags and packs. We pulled the boxes up to a mall, inside the mall and hit the counter. Ended up with 70lbs of shit between two bike boxes. Cost $176. Well worth getting that done and out of here.

Then we had to buy bungie cords and a fuel bottle, lighter and some grub for breakfast. Done. Next, back to hotel and get all the shit down to street level. I knew these bad boys were going to have some weight, but damn, when we carried those yaks down the two flights – a knew this was the big time with weight – probably 75lbs apiece. Ouch.

Checked out, and by this time the drizzle we had on our little morining mission, had turned to a full out rain. What a great way to start. Hell, we’re here, and it’s time to blow this pop stand. We started out on those fully loaded gigs – and what a shock. Wow. I damned near took out Ryan on the first K, veering to the right and nearly clipping him. He had to stop on a hill climb out of town. Shit, were those things heavy.

         We road in the rain, and I was definitely under clothed. I had shorts, and long sleeved jersey with light weight underarmor beneath. My knee caps were on fire they were so cold. Hands – numb! The temps had fallen considerbly since the last day, and the headwind and rain only helped to make things miserable to a huge scale. I finally had to stop and put on all my gortex stuff and gloves and over gloves. I was chilled to the bone on this first day of riding.

         Took me 45 min to warm up, but the rain stopped and I finally felt like I was getting the core temp back up. We had agreed that we would make it a mellow day and just ride to Port McNeil – just 20 miles from Port Hardy. We made it in 2 hrs, and the weather had cleared a bit – enough for me to throw it out to Ryan to go for it and see if we could do Woss in the ensuing 4 hrs – 40+ miles away. He was game. He just had to “microwave is soaking wet socks, and get a cup of coco.

We were off again, trying to make up some time with getting such a late start – 11:30am. Had good weather for a bit, and did a shit load of climbing – especially that 30-miler that never ended. Did in the big ring the whole way, but used the pie plate numerous times in the back. We make good time and averaged 10-12 mph the whole climb. It looked way worse in the bus trip down that it actually was on the bike.

         By the time we really started to get tired, it had started to rain again, a nice stead drizzle to a steady rain. We needed 10 more miles to hit Woss, and the rain was in the picture again. We were both getting pretty beat when we came to a little Rest Area. Just next to it was a pipe coming out of the side of the mountain. We rolled on, but came across another Rest Area just 200 meters further – bed time ! We rolled in, and found a great camp spot at the very end of the area – plenty of room to pitch tents. Pitched them in the rain, and then I did a water mission to the pipe to fill the 6 liter bag.

         Got situated in the Hilleberg and then went to get dinner ready – Ramen Noodles of course. Couldn’t get stove started for the longest time, and I was almost resolved to have PBJ’s for dinner. Then I turned a valve at the end of the stove and it started to let gas to to the burner. Halellujia

Gorged on Ramen in a light Drizzle and then off to bed. Too tired to even use the computer or do anything. Conked out at 9pm and slept ok, though a bit of turning over and over on the pad with a small pillow. It rained all freaking night, with absolutely no breaks. I had the feeling that tomorrow would be pure hell. 

Day 2

Day 2-still not on bikes. We got up at 6am today and went to JJ Bean Coffee in Vancouver. So good. Vancouver is stupid beautiful. We easily could have spent a week here and I can see why the 2010 Olympics will be held there.

We boarded our bus and got on a Ferry we took for 2 hours. Then our Ferry landed us in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island where we took a 7 hour bus ride to Port Hardy. Pete and I met this hilarious guy we dubbed Don Juan. He boldly declared he was on his way to see 4 different women this week. We decided to play along with his delusion and we encouraged him to take his daily vitamins cause he was gonna need them and we have been laughing all afternoon.

Pete and I had originally thought that Vancouver Island would be a mild warm up for the Rockies. That is until we got to Woss, BC. I witnessed for the first time in my life a 30 mile climb with 5-8% grade for the whole thing. I kept thinking it would end soon and after about 20 miles Pete and I just started laughing. That climb will be our second day of riding and it is going to be sufferfest on the worst possible dimensions. On the bright side there is a Huge Fresh water lake that we are probably going to camp by and we will get to use our brand new Katadyn Water Filters and Hilleburg Tents for the first time. 

Tonight we went grocery shopping, watched the Cavs game at a Sports Bar, and had the best Clam Chowder we have ever had hands down. Right now we are blaring Janes Addiction and Pete is putting our bikes together.

Day 1

We flew from Cleveland to Toronto to Vancouver. Pete took the far pic of me with our gear. We had about 290 pounds of gear we checked in. Flights were fine. A few people asked us what we were doing and were amazed and very happy for us. Our friends Ben and Karen picked us up in Vancouver and we ate dinner at a place called Go Fish. This is a pic of Pete by where we ate dinner. Great weather in the 60's with blue skies. It was a great 1st day en route to Port Hardy.

May 6. 

Put in four great weeks of cycling: 2 here in Ohio and 2 in the Black Forest. I did all of these rides on the 29er, which is like heaven to ride on up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. No need to even use the front shock with such big, beefy tires. I just locked the thing out 6 weeks ago, and hadn't the need to go back yet. This is definitely the ticket for our TransCan trip.

My Black Forest weekend with Judy was spectacular, with temps in the 70's and 80's for our cycling. We ended up doing 2 rides on the Rails To Trails along Pine Creek, and 2 rides up in the mountains. Pure Paradise! Finish that out with a trip to the Hotel Manor for dinner and drinks and it was a memorable weekend trip.

I've worked my way through the 15-hr weeks, up to 20-hr weeks, and finally up a 30-hour week last week. Feel pretty good, save for maybe 2 nice little raw spots on my butt, right along the sit bones. Good thing for Body Glide (during the riding) and Aquaphor (post riding), as my butt is feeling back to normal again. Now it's time to back it down in volume and get all the rest of the logistical stuff taken care of. I'll shoot for about a 12-15  hr week this week, and 12 or so for next week. On our final week I think I'll be down to 8 or so hrs on my 26-inch mt bike while we pack our 29er rigs into shipping boxes for our 5/23 departure. 

Almost all the gear is ordered and set to arrive in the next couple of days. Still need to take care of some of the battery needs - extra computer and Nikon camera batteries. We're taking a LOT of gear on this trip, especially with respect to electronic equipment. Hell we're a freaking mobile communications system on two wheelers for goodness sake!

Jerry is going to help me finalize my Mac laptop for the trip by getting most all of my desktop software transfered for me to be able to do my Excelincycling website while on the road. This will also enable me to send pictures to some of our sponsors, to newspapers and back to Jerry to upload on the 4thehealthofit website. I also put Skype, on and will encourage others to install this free software for audio-visual communication with me for my coaching duties. 

Coming down to the wire.........Pete Gladden

18 days away

8 months of prep is coming down to the wire. I been working like crazy on business stuff, sponsor stuff, finishing a quarter of Grad School early, and we been finalizing our gear list. Pete "snuck" in a 30 hour ride week. Ridiculous. I got 23.5 hours in last week and with everything else going on I have the Canadian Rockies on my mind which await us. The mountains pulling a 70 pound trailer. WTF.