I don't know what I'm doing

At some point in the last year or two, my friend John Sloop, who I have known for over forty years, said he wanted to have some sort of grand adventure before he gets too old. His idea was to ride a bike from one side of the United States to the other, and he wanted somebody to go with him.

I always dreamed of long distance travel under my own power. I envisioned hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (because I live close to it), or kayaking the Columbia River (also because I live close to it). But I have also thought about bicycle touring, and, since I'm not getting any younger either, I told him I would do it.

So about a year ago, I bought a bike and started training. I'm 61 years old, and not nearly as fit as John, but I'm trying: last year I rode about 2250 miles. The problem is that our route across the US is over 3500 miles, and it normally it takes ten to twelve weeks. So the fact that I rode 2250 miles in eight months does not really mean much.

The Pacific Northwest winter has not really helped my training. Autumn was dry, so I was able to get in quite a bit of riding. Then winter hit and I started skiing, neglecting my biking. It was a great start to the ski season, too. It's rare for my local resort to open before Thanksgiving, but they did this year and by Thanksgiving day I had a three days of skiing already.

In mid-December that came to a screeching halt: I fell and tore my meniscus. A small tear, but it ended all physical activity for a while.

By early January I decided to give up skiing for the season, even if I was able to. The risk of falling and ending the bicycle tour before it began was just too great, so I decided to focus on biking. On January 14th, I had my first ride since November, putting in 15 miles. It was slow and grueling, but it was a start.

Winter cycling in northwest Oregon is not particularly pleasant. If you have a nice sunny day, it's probably sub-freezing and the roads are icy. If the temperature is above freezing, you're lucky if it warms up to the low 40s by noon, and it's almost certainly raining. And even if it does warm up for early afternoon, the sun drops behind the ridge to the west of our little valley and the temperature plummets.

But we are starting to have some warm days, and they're getting longer. Our plan is to start the trip some time at the end of April, so I still have about seven weeks. I'm not riding nearly as much as we hope to on the trip, but hopefully I can get close to our average mileage by the time we start.

Wish me luck. I need it.