So if you are our friends or family, please pardon some logistical stuff. If you are a future adventurer, dig in.
1. Support vehicle vs. panniers. Our first big decision was whether we should try to do the whole trip with just the gear we could pack on our bikes or whether to bring along a support vehicle.
A couple of summers ago when we drove out to Glacier National Park, on U.S. Route 2 we frequently encountered touring cyclists loaded down with stuff and poking along. It looked pretty romantic: these guys were fully responsible for themselves. They carried everything they needed, and there was something beautiful about the way they hung their gear so ornately from their bikes. But it also looked pretty grimy, and heavy, and slow, and as I considered our ride I imagined wearing yesterday's underwear inside out and eating a smushed up PowerBar for lunch each day. No thanks.
So we will have my Honda Odyssey as a support vehicle along the way, loaded down with food and bike gear and chargers and a bunch of stuff that we don't really need but have convinced ourselves to bring anyway. Our four riders will take turns driving, taking a day and a half off across the six riding days. (For those of you who may be compelled to point out that because we'll have driving shifts we will not be riding the full 444 miles, I invite you to get your butt out there and see how you do...)
2. Direction of travel and itinerary. Our second big decision was whether to ride the Trace from north to south or vice versa. Anecdotal Googling suggested that past riders were divided evenly between the two choices, so it came down to ease of logistics for us. We decided to go south to north, because our rider Matthew is from Oregon and Nashville was the most practical place to fly in and out. Because we don't know how much schedule flexibility we'll need, it makes sense to work our way toward Nashville rather than finishing the ride and having to immediately drive our buddy 500 miles to catch a flight.
Our ride will (hopefully) look like this:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Day 1 - 76 miles from Natchez to Raymond, Mississippi (Milepost 76)
Day 2 - 84 miles from Raymond to Kosciusko, Mississippi (Milepost 160, 2-day total 160, average 80)
Day 3 - 70 miles from Kosciusko to Houston, Mississippi (Milepost 230, 2-day total 154, average 77)
Day 4 - 72 miles from Houston to Belmont, Mississippi (Milepost 302, 2-day total 142, average 76)
Day 5 - 52 miles from Belmont, Mississippi to Collinwood, Tennessee (Milepost 354, 2-day total 124, average 71)
Day 6 - 90 miles from Collinwood to Nashville, Tennessee (Milepost 444, 2-day total 142, average 74)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From what I can tell, the ride is relatively flat for the first 350 miles, and then gets hilly when you get into Tennessee. So 90 miles on the last day may be a really stupid idea. If we feel good at mile 354, maybe we'll add some to day 5 so that we can subtract some from day 6. (Tune in and find out!)
3. Food.
Because we have a support vehicle, we have the luxury of bringing along pretty much whatever we want. So this week I made a trip to Aldi and went a little nuts. Here's what we have (so far) for the ride:
- 72 bottles of Gatorade (and a can of powder just in case)
- 2 giant, refillable water jugs
- a case of beer (to get us started; we hope to replenish with local stuff when we get down there)
- 2 cases of Coke (my cyclist neighbor Marc says this is the best lunchtime drink and will taste like magic)
- 8 boxes of granola bars
- 2 mega boxes of fruit snacks
- 2 giant jars of peanut butter and 2 of jelly
- 4 cans of Pringles
- 4 bags of pretzels
- 2 big bags of trail mix
- 3 bags of apples
- 1 bag of clementines
- 1 bag of Fig Bars and 1box of Vanilla Wafers, for dessert
You can only ride as far as your fuel will take you, so we are doing what we can to make sure we won't run out of gas. Combined with a big Southern breakfast each morning and a proper dinner each night, we should be good to go.
4. Bike gear.
My bike is a 2015 Giant Defy 1, which is not terribly fancy but which I love dearly. For the ride, the only real change that I made to it was a Brooks Cambium saddle, to keep my butt happy. I got the bike from Spokes in my hometown of Wheaton, which is a great shop with nice, really-smart-but-never-bike-snobby people. I had them tune it up this week so it is ready to go.
Other than a pump and helmets and gloves and all of the standard stuff you need to ride, here's the gear we plan to bring along and hope we never need:
- 8 tubes
- 6 tires
- 8 CO2 shots
- a backup wheelset (hey, you never know)
- our best collection of bike tools
- a traveling, foldable repair stand
5. Tech gear.
So that we can stay connected to each other (and to the outside world) and to document/measure the trip, we'll also have a silly assortment of tech gear.
- a Garmin Edge 1000 bike GPS and Varia tail light/radar
- laptops
- a set of TalkAbout two-way radios (in case cell coverage fails us)
- a 10-usb charger (to fill up our gadgets each night for the next day's ride)
- 2 GoPros
- 2 external battery packs for during-the-day (or over lunch) charging
- a zillion cables and batteries
Like other aspects of the trip, I am positive that there will be stuff that I think is crucial right now that we will never touch. And I am equally positive that at mile 2 we will realize we forgot something really basic.
6. Super-cool jerseys.
My friend Jeremy Huggins is an excellent graphic designer, so I commissioned him to make a neat jersey for our trip. Jeremy is really good at doing all of the work but making you feel like some of it was your idea, so here is what "we" came up with:
With all of that planning behind us, the next thing to do is actually get going. Hopefully we've got what we need.
No comments:
Post a Comment