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Introduction |
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-- Ultramarathon bicyclist Lon Haldeman, when asked why he decided
to attempt setting a record for the fastest bicycle ride across America.
In September of 1996 I spent
three weeks in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming exploring a
section of Adventure Cycling Association’s "Great Divide
Mountain Bike Route" -- GDMBR for short. Adventure Cycling,
originally known as BikeCentennial, publishes an extensive series
of cross country bicycle touring maps. The GDMBR was something
new, a route that would attempt to follow the Continental Divide
as much as possible from Canada to Mexico on non-paved backroads.
The map for that section had just been published, and having
done several bicycle road tours in Wyoming I was anxious to try
out the mountain bike route. It was an interesting, demanding
trip. Not long after I returned to Minnesota, I was struck with
the idea of doing a coast to coast tour that would incorporate
some of the GDMBR along the way.
Curiously, I'd never really thought much about doing a coast to coast ride before. I'd always liked self-contained bicycle touring and had done a number of two or three week tours over the years. I had friends who'd done long tours, had read about them in Adventure Cycling magazine, and in books. Yet the urge to do a coast to coast tour hit me more or less out of the blue. The idea wouldn't go away, and with a little more reflection, I realized it could be something of a "Friends and Family Tour" -- start from my friends' place in Bellevue, Washington (in the Seattle metro area); ride east through Washington state and then down to my sister’s home in Denver; then across the Plains to eastern Iowa, where I’m from originally and still have family; then east to Columbus, Ohio to my brother’s home; then southeast to the coast, and finally turning back west to Durham, North Carolina where I had a friend I hadn’t seen in years. As planned, it would take me through thirteen states and be at least 4,000 miles, although I never attempted to calculate the mileage precisely before I left.
By this time I was emotionally committed to doing the tour. I was able to reach agreement with my employer for an extended leave of absence to start in June of 1997 and the die was cast. One factor seemed clear early on, that I’d have to do this as a solo tour. The route was much too convoluted, and I wanted to be able to spend extended breaks with my friends and family along the way. I was open to others joining my for any part of the tour, however I didn’t really connect with anyone. Doing the tour solo was not really a concern. I’d done solo tours before and knew I was up to the challenge. Many bicycle tourers feel going solo is best, if you really want to be open to encounters with other people along the way.
When I rode the Great Divide route in ‘96, I found a lot of the gravel back roads had an extremely rough washboard surface. There were long miles of tooth rattling, butt pounding, hand numbing roads. I’d done that tour on a non-suspension mountain bike equipped with panniers, front and back. No way was I going to face those kinds of roads again with a similar rig. Yet, I would be spending most of this tour on roads, so I felt a mountain bike, suspension or not, was out of the question. This led to my decision to use a heavy duty touring bike, and carry my gear in one of the new single-wheel bike trailers.
The old joke about no new pursuit
being worthwhile unless you have to buy a bunch of new gear seemed
proven once again. I ordered a new touring bike from Bruce Gordon
Cycles, his BLT (Basic Loaded Touring) model. This was a project
in itself as the bike arrived frame and wheels in one box, and
another box full of components. I built the bike and rode it
almost exclusively in the spring to make sure any kinks got ironed
out. Building it took a little head scratching at times, as Bruce
Gordon incorporates a few neat features specifically for touring
that I hadn’t seen before. In anticipation of the rough
back roads I installed a suspension front handlebar stem and
a suspension seat post.
With the increase in interest in back road touring, the popularity of the Yak trailer from B.O.B Trailers has zoomed. Wonderfully designed, it uses a single wheel in back, so the trailer follows in the track of the bike. It attaches to the bike via a special skewer in the bike’s rear hub that allows the trailer to hinge both vertically and laterally. I bought a B.O.B trailer and managed to get out for one overnight tour to try it out before leaving for Seattle.
The other piece of new equipment was a Handheld
PC. Coincidentally, a whole flock of these new ultra-small machines
had been introduced in the fall of ‘96. I thought having
one would be a wonderful way to keep my trip notes, and keep
in touch with people via e-mail. After considerable research
I settled on a Velo 1 from Philips Mobile Computing. How could
I not choose a machine whose name means bicycle in French?
Another big part of preparation was
sifting through Adventure Cycling’s "Tourist Yellow
Pages", finding contacts for maps and other information
in all the states I’d cross through. In the states where
the Adventure Cycling maps worked for me it was easy -- just
order the appropriate maps. But there were lots of gaps -- how
to get north out of the Seattle area; how to get down out of
the Rockies to Denver, and then through Denver; how to get across
West Virginia, etc. For some I found useful maps and information,
for others I came up empty and had to leave those problems for
when I reached that part of the tour.
When it finally came time to leave for Seattle I still had dozens of items left to complete on my checklist. I packed up the bike and trailer and the rest of my gear, hauled it down to AmTrak and shipped it to Seattle. I flew to Seattle in order to use up an orphaned plane ticket I had on hand.
It was great to see my friends Gary and Linda in Bellevue again. I spent several days there, visiting and finishing getting ready. After what seemed like an endless string of little tasks, I was finally ready to hit the road.
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