Well, it just happened that the Adventure Cycling Association had its inaugural National Bike Tour Weekend this year June 2-4, 2016! The online welcome stated, “Gather up your family, friends, bike clubs, youth groups or adventure buddies, and go on a bike overnight to your favorite campground, nearby park, public land, hotel, cabin, B & B, hostel, or a friend’s backyard. Experience the joy of bicycle travel with thousands of other cyclists in North America on the same weekend.” What a great opportunity for us!
In the winter of 2016 we were reading by the fire about bike touring in the Lake Champlain, Vermont, area and thought we can do that. Our adventuring hearts warmed up with dreams. Vic had been researching light touring bikes and thought he found just what we needed. So it was on a cold wintry day in January Vic said we needed to go to a Salsa dealer in Frederick, Maryland, to just look at bikes. “Just look,” remember that part. There it was as if waiting for me: a Salsa Vaya 2 light touring bike, a gorgeous shiny blue, in my size, with a geometry that matched my body and a Sram drive train designed for light touring. Now, we had discussed light touring versus heavy touring. We were not interested in cross country touring or camping. We were interested in a DIY inn-to-inn. You have to follow your heart in these matters, and sleeping on the ground did not appeal to us. When we got to the bike store, there was my Salsa Vaya 2, in my favorite color, a perfect fit – and a purchase was made. Vic said he could not bear to buy a bike, as his business was custom bicycles, and so he set about building his own, starting with a Salsa Vaya touring frame and heavy duty carbon fork, in white with blue highlights, finding the right components to match mine. The next months were focused on Vic’s research on panniers for both bikes, pannier frames to fit his carbon fork, lights, fenders, tool kits, all the needed touring gear. I turned around one day, and his bike and my bike were perfectly outfitted and ready to go!
We planned a practice ride June 3-4 to coincide with National Bike Tour Weekend. We used bike routes from a local club in southern Maryland, routes we had mostly ridden on road bikes. Vic pulled together a two-day, one -night, route and assembled cue sheets. We packed our new waterproof panniers as light as we thought we could, and left one vehicle at the end point, bringing another to the start. We checked with the small town visitors office to find a great place to park the car safely overnight and they offered a small theater parking lot. Great! The weather looked good and off we went. Well, as expected we learned a few things that first time out. A few things we’d like to share with other bike touring newbies:
- Pack light, pack light, pack even lighter! Did you get that? Yes, unfortunately, what we thought was light was not light. Learning to steer a heavily loaded bike is not fun.
- Learn to appreciate the pace. We were used to road bikes that matched the whim of our weight, speed, hills and desires to go around corners quickly. We learned that bike touring is SLOW. We had to go slow up hills and even on the flatter sections of terrain. We were forced to bike slowly – or what felt like slow to a couple of roadies – and to look around at the beautiful fields and flowers. We passed through serene Zekiah Swamp and gradually learned to enjoy the pace.
- Be in shape. We learned that biking on loaded bikes uses a lot of core muscle strength and is, therefore, as much a challenge as riding a road bike going greater distances and much faster.
- Bring snacks. We learned that not all routes have stops for bathrooms, food, or water. We learned how good it would be next time to bring more snacks and food. Different from a one day ride where you drive to a nearby restaurant to refill.
- Be prepared for rain. Pack your rain gear in an easily accessible place (not the bottom of your panniers) and put it on at the first drops of rain. This explains our quick introduction to bike touring in the rain. We were just a mile from a warm, dry hotel room as droplets started forming on our arms and the skies darkened, and we kept thinking, we can bike that last mile, no problem! By the time we pulled into the hotel, the skies were dark, the traffic in town thick, and the rain heavy. We showed up like wet rats in the lobby. Luckily this hotel had a dryer and offered us towels to stuff in our shoes. Lessons learned!
Velo Spirits 