This is a long post, I've been out here enough that my brain is opening back up.
Today was/is a great day. I'm back behind Austin Store at Austin Junction, hanging in the woods in the same place I stayed in 2003 and 2014. The current owners took over about 2 years ago and continued the long tradition of letting cyclists stay in the vast woods behind their store - providing bathroom access and basic amenities. I always say thanks by eating lunch and dinner at their resteraunt. Their land is surrounded by national forest land.
Austin House is a short day, just 35 miles and maybe 1.3k feet of climb, and the longest stretch between towns is only about 15 miles. It's also high up, maybe 4k feet (the pass 5 miles before is just under 5.3k) so it's not too hot, but it is above 90 degrees. A dry 90 though, so an Iowa 80.
Many things went great today. The night was loud, tons of late night traffic on near the hiker biker camp, but I think much of that may have been people leaving the motorcycle rally before today's 97 degree forecast. The traffic today was much nicer.
I was also in national forest for much of the day, which is way more chill. There was lots of river access if I needed to cool off, I could filter water if I needed too, and even stop anywhere and camp if it came to that. I didn't need to do any of those things, but it was nice knowing I could.
I hit the road at 7:30 and blew the first 7 miles into John Day quickly, only 36 minutes on bike, clogged a toilet at a Subway, swallowed my pride and asked for a plunger, then 14 miles to Prarie City getting there by 10am. I drank some coffee, lots of fluids, soaked my shirt (it was starting to get hot), and then set up to climb Dixie Pass at 11:15 with only 15 miles left on the day.
Then things just got awesome. Firstly, I visited my favorite covered wagon viewpoint of the Strawberry Mountains, a place where I have fond memories of from 2003 and 2014. Also, as said before, I was mostly in national forest so I felt more chill, traffic was light, and even though the 10 miles pass was very steep and hot I was enjoying myself.
About 6 miles away from Austin Store, which I remembered being at to the pass, I calculated an hour more or riding at my 6mph climbing pace, getting me there a bit after 2pm.
Then... minutes later... I reached the top of Dixie Pass. 6 miles before I thought I would, and coasted the last 6 miles to the store, getting their much earlier (1:50, but only because I stopped on the way down). 36.82 miles and only 3:16 on bike.
On the way down I met my 1st fellow traveler on this trip (WTF, where is everyone?) named Matt. He's a retired Chevy salesman from the bay area walking across the US. He started at Cape Mears and it going to a lighthouse in Carolina by way of Utah and a bunch of other hot states. He's pushing a 100lb cart and blogging it at OregonToCarolina on instagram. We had a nice chat in the shade on the downhill and then I headed out. He's at the store now, but needs to keep walking today.
The last person I met crazy enough to do that was on my 2014 trip in a town just outside of Helena. Tommy Lukrich and I camped together under a shelter on the 4th of July and lit off fireworks with locals. It was great. Tommy, if you read this, you'd like Matt. I told him all about your trip. You crazy cross-country walkers are amazing.
I also had very little pain today. I finally fixed by bike fit by lowering my seat about a 1/4 inch. This eliminated my tricep/shoulder pain.
I'm gonna get bike fit nerdy for a moment, skip this part if you want. About a month ago I was training hard for this trip and started getting a pain in the front of both of my knees, even off bike. I reacted by raising the seat on both my commuting and touring bike, and sliding the seat back a bit too on my touring bike. This fixed the knee pain, but it's not my prefered fit.
Now, knees much stronger, I was able to lower my seat back to a better spot. In addition to shoulder and tricep pain I was having some hamstring pain, so it clearly needed to be done. I'm also finding the sweet spot on seat tilt between too much weight on my hands (tilted forward) and numb man bits (not tilted forward). This, comibined with raising my handlebars and tilt yesterday seems to have fixed my situation.
Bike touring has a lot to teach you. The lesson here is, if something sucks, change it, even if it's been working that way for years. Who'd have thought that a 1/4 seat adjustment would completely (at least for now) fix my arm pain. Well, any bike person would have thought that, but that's not the point. The point is, solutions are often not the most apparent. Be open to outcome.
I'm starting to find my peace again out here. And also remembering that looking for something is a sure way not to find it. Goals are great, but being too goal orientated misses the journey and makes the journey suck. Case in point, the more you think about where you are riding to while riding, the harder the ride gets - but if you stop thinking about riding, suddenly you are there.
On the 2018 Divide I read Siddartha for the 1st time, and read it again on the 2019 Divide and am reading it again now. I don't know if that's respected or pish-pawed as pop-culture spirituality. I don't know if Herman Hesse sucks or not (I tried Steppenwolf but couldn't get into it). What I do know is it helps me get into a state of mind where I can think things not in words, feel things that exist, and generally figure things out. It combines well with bike touring - the suffering is very ascetic, but also you have soooo much time to think. It does work a bit better in the woods vs the shoulder of a road, but I think there is a lesson there too. I'm just not sure what it is yet.
(I also guilty-pleasure enjoy The Achemist, but I have major issues with the relationship part of the book.)
One pardox that is worth meditating on is the carrying of water. Let's assume you aren't in a stream rich area and you can filter as needed, but instead need to carry it all, like today. Well, kind of like today, turns out I could have filtered today but I have hard time telling what's going to be fenced off and didn't do that kind of research before this trip. Filtering is by backup plan.
ANYWAY, so today I had what I thought was a 15 mile steep climb. It was only 10 miles, but that's also not the point. It was 15 to my next water. How much water do I bring?
My general rule of thumb is one 26oz bottle for every hour I may be out, plus 1 spare. More if it's super hot, less if not. 15 miles at 6mph at 90 degrees makes for 4 bottles or 110 oz. One bottle weights 1.33lbs so that's 5.33 lbs of water up the hill.
Then it starts to eat at you, the more water you carry, the slower you climb and the harder it is. Is this too much water? Am I being dumb? Surely there is too much - I'm not hauling a trailer with 20lbs of water, I'd never make it. On the other hand, if I carry no water I'd not make it either. More than once I've burned 5 bottles of water in under 30 miles of relatively flat headwinds, but it was 110 degrees...
So what you I do? I generally carry too much water up hills. There is a saying in backpacking and bike touring that you carry your fears. It's very true. I'm too cautious to be ultralight. I also pre-hyrdrate before leaving. My super-hero of an aunt always says "the best place to carry water is inside you," and "don't show up to camp with water in your bag." I follow the 1st rule, but I'm too nervous about camp actually having water to follow the 2nd.
In the end, I generally 2nd guess my water choice the entire way up the hill, as well as my decision to buy a pack of rather heavy english muffins in Prarie City in case Austin Store wasn't open and I had to camp in the forest. Eventually you have to stop getting on yourself.
"Just do the fucking miles." That's it. That's the mantra. I learned it in 2014. Just. Do. The. Fucking. Miles. Perfection isn't real, optomizing your day is impossible, yes you are carrying your fears and wearing out your body. So what. Shut up, and just do the fucking miles.
I'm pretty sure that lesson can be applied to literally everything in life.
For the record, I was so well pre-hydated that it only took me one bottle of water to climb the 10 miles, I carried 3 extra bottles, 4 extra pounds, and I could have filtered for much of the way up. I also peed three times on the climb.
(Although if it'd been a 15 mile climb like I thought I certainly would have burned another bottle the last hour, and you need at least one spare bottle in case you have a flat or something.)
The really silly thing is when I last did this route I was 195 lbs, and a decade later I am now 205, so I'm carrying an extra 10lbs anyway. I really shouldn't sweat a bottle of water or two.
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