Wrapping up loose ends

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Bags are packed:

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I have four new panniers packed as follows:

  • One with food for eight days
  • One with camping stuff such as thermarest, stove, water filter, fuel, etc.
  • One with clothes
  • One with miscellaneous items including bike repair, toiletries and some electronics.

I sent off a package to Fairbanks with some items to swap. In particular, after Fairbanks I may not need as many warm clothes or to carry as much food at a time. However, sent some additional items I can use along the way.

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My storage locker is now packed with everything to save away in Austin including four bicycles.

Finally after packing everything up, I locked my doors and handed over my keys to property manager. They will list it to find tenants. My gear is packed in a rental minivan. Tomorrow morning plan is to drive to Colorado. Will spend the weekend there before flying out on Sunday.

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Almost homeless

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My townhouse is now empty. This past weekend I completed moving my remaining items into storage. As these things go, it barely fit in the size I had rented, though if I’d rented a different size I’m sure that would have been the case as well. Towards the end, I had the sense that I’d like to have sorted through a few more things since I’m sure there is more being stored than I might later use, but that time will mostly wait.

This afternoon I met the cleaning crew. This is from a company that does “move out” type services. Costs a little, but nice to get everything thoroughly cleaned. Tomorrow morning I will have a company clean the carpets. After that, hand the keys to a property manager and hopefully will soon have it rented. I decided to rent to get some income but more importantly to have someone looking after those little maintenance items that can otherwise creep up.

Once I downsized from a full house, I put my remaining items and bicycle into a rented minivan and am staying at motel in Austin. These past weeks I’ve kept some bins for things I might “possibly” need for the trip. From the photo below, clearly these five bins are more than will fit in my panniers. Not particularly worried since I know several instances where I have half a dozen tires or extra things to completely sort through. However, general idea is to start with this limited stash and pack together four panniers and perhaps a care package of things I don’t need yet that I’ll send on to Fairbanks.

Not to make too much of plight of those who are homeless not of their own choice (seems like a tough life), but I jokingly describe myself as having become homeless (this week) and unemployed (last week) – but also freed up from these things so I can take off on this trip.
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Tour Divide and GDMBR

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The Tour Divide mountain bike race had its grand start yesterday on traditional second Friday in June. The link to the leaderboard is here and the discussion forum is here. A description of the route is here. Also a fun article describing 2015.

The racers that win the Tour Divide are really a different class, covering 2700 miles in around 15 days including 200,000+ feet of climbing and mostly off road. It is something I’ll follow along as a spectator but have no pretense of doing. Checking the leaderboard periodically as well as the blogs.

The route that the Tour Divide race follows is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) as mapped by Adventure Cycling. It is partially through Tour Divide and partially through Adventure Cycling (I’m a life member) that I’ve gotten interested in the GDMBR. As a result, my plan is to try riding the route after I get to Banff. I will swap out my touring bike for a mountain bike (already sent on way to Montana). It is a bit of an experiment: I’ll see how well off-road touring goes and I’ll also get some riding this trip on my mountain bike. Overall, I’m expecting my pace to be 4x-5x slower than the winners of the race or try finishing in two months or so.

Of course, can’t get too far ahead of myself, first up on the docket is Alaska and starting my ride. So in the mean time, I’ll watch vicariously as some of these racers show their stuff and offer occasional tidbits about the route.

Jumping from the high board – last day of work

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When I was a kid I sometimes visited Sunset swimming pool in Longmont. There was a high dive board there that I would jump off. It was perhaps only 3m high, but to me it was way up in the sky. As I climbed and walked along the board I’d peer down and think, “my goodness, that is way up,…what am I doing, what if I fall, will the water hurt, etc”. Then I’d run to jump off end of the board and after a momentary descent fall into the water and all would be OK. “That was fun! Time to do it again!”

I’m reminded of the high board during this past week as I’ve done my last week at AMD. I’ve been mostly too busy to think too much about it, but when I’ve peered off the board I have wondered once or twice, “wow, it will be a long way down!”. Since graduating from college in 1986, I’ve worked for two employers: Hewlett Packard from 1986 to 2009 and AMD from 2009 to 2016. I’ve moved around a few times and lost my job in internal reorganizations. However, by the time each position was due to end, I had something else lined up. I had a paycheck lined up when I stopped receiving the previous one. So this is a first, which adds a bit to both the nervousness and also the thrill of really getting out there.

If I think about it, I realize things should be OK and just like once you hit the water from the jump – you settle into a routine and swim and make it all work. There is still a lot of loose ends to tie up here in Austin and then drive to Colorado before departure, but I do look forward to time I’m finally on the road and can just get into a “flow” and be in the trip. That is just part of what comes with the adventure. Having fun with the excitement of making the change but also looking forward to getting to the new routine.

p.s. I sent my goodbyes already but also leave with a postscript to my AMD colleagues. I enjoyed the almost seven years at AMD including people I worked with and projects we did. Will keep in touch and hope our paths cross again in the future. I will miss AMD.

Bush telegraph and the internet

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One thing I enjoy doing is catching up with other cyclists along the route. Back in 2001, when I cycled around Australia there was what we called the “bush telegraph”. There was mostly one road that was traveled by both cyclists and caravans as well. As we met each other, we would trade accounts about other cyclists on the road. “Did you see to cyclists pulling trailers?”, I would ask. “You mean the ones with the big hats, yes we saw them around Kununarra”. With conversations like these the bush telegraph allowed us to informally keep tabs on other cyclist friends and occasionally meet up as we went along.

While the internet was certainly around and I blogged my 2001 trip, the availability of wifi and cell internet connections has now only increased. As a result, one can now augment the bush telegraph by checking up on respective web sites as well.

So far I’ve read quite a few journals of folks who did similar trips and added those to the links page. As I meet others in real time, I’ll try adding there as well. One that I’ve been following recently is Dr Scott Acton JWST World Bicycle Tour. Scott is from Niwot, Colorado so there is a connection there since I graduated from Niwot High School. He has a multi-part trip whose first segment started in Colorado and is heading towards Deadhorse or Fairbanks. As a result, the last part of his trip, from Watson Lake onwards, is giving some early hints of road conditions I might expect on my ride. Not sure if we’ll intersect (his original plan was to get to Deadhorse around time I depart), but at least fun to see his journal and photos.

Reflections on trip planning and timeframes

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A long holiday weekend getting many things moved into storage. I live in two story townhouse and have most of the second floor empty and packed away and moved to storage. Also did some reflecting backwards on the story of how this ride came to be…

For the past 25 years, I’ve had a pattern of working hard for several years followed by an extended break for a cycle trip. After the trip, I’d jump into new position and role with renewed energy. So essentially since my 2007 trip across Russia it was somewhat determined that I’d take more trips just not exactly when.

First one on the docket was a trip planned for 2013 with TDA across Africa. After that it was more hazy, perhaps 2018 or even 2019 to keep a five year pattern. I changed jobs to AMD in 2009 and moved to Portland, OR and even with these changes I still had my Africa trip on the docket and slowly anticipated it as 2010 and 2011 came along. I liked Portland, particularly living in the city center, being able to walk to work, lots of nature nearby and good chances to cycle such as taking weekend trips down to Salem or Eugene and taking the train back. The office was small and I liked the folks I worked with.

December 9th 2011, I learned that AMD was planning on shutting the Portland office in 2012. As one of two managers on site, I was given advance warning, the actual news would not come until March 2012 (later refined to be March 22nd). The overall idea was to collect together US compiler work into the San Francisco Bay Area and encourage key personnel to move. I was grateful to be included in planning and committed to doing what I could to make it go smoothly. I didn’t necessarily expect many to move because Portland and San Jose are fairly different, because spouses and children were involved and because they would have more local alternatives.

At the same time, I had several months to contemplate exactly what I might do next. The short run was pretty clear: I would assist transition until the Portland office closed and I would also take the first half of 2013 as an extended bicycle tour across Africa. While it wasn’t my preference to shut the office, I would do everything I could to help the transition as I could. That looked to continue until end of 2012.

It was in 2H 2013 that things were more open-ended. I gradually developed three alternatives:

  • Stay with AMD, take the relocation offer and move to San Jose
  • Leave AMD, stay in the Pacific Northwest, Portland or Seattle and find the next interesting work
  • Complete the Africa trip and follow this up with more extended touring including perhaps South America. Figure out what came next after that

I couldn’t act on any of these alternatives or even let folks at work know, since the site closure was all still a secret. However, being the planning type I could spend some extended time exploring these alternatives, learning more and being better prepared when time for the site closure.

In February 2012, I took a weekend trip down to San Jose and explored the area. I looked at apartments, talked with a realtor and contemplated how I might travel to work and whether I would need to purchase a car of not. I had lived in the Bay area before (1997 to 2001) and enjoyed it, but enough had changed that I wanted to figure out what it would be like this time. I generally figured out I could make it work. It might be a step back from Oregon or Colorado but assuming the work would be engaging all would be ok.

I explored a number of blogs of people who had cycled across South America and learned what I could about their travels and adventures. It was all quite interesting and my enthusiasm for doing this trip “someday” grew, it was now more an issue of figuring out when not if I would ride. I also got more enthusiastic about possibility of making this a really big trip by starting in Prudhoe Bay and cycling all of the Americas and learned everything I could about similar rides others had done.

I also looked around at job postings and companies in Portland and Seattle to see what might be available. Too early to act on anything specific but at least reassuring there were good companies doing interesting things. I also looked back in Colorado at similar postings. Perhaps a little tougher to find things there, but not out of the question.

March 22nd, 2012 we had our announcement. People were surprised and shocked, but I did what I could to help them work through the loss. I also tried to connect key players since I knew initial contacts would be crucial. I also came up with my own revised plan: 2012 was still transition and 1H 2013 was TDA, but instead of going to San Jose, would it be possible to move to Austin instead? Several things attracted me to this possibility (a) less expensive and no income tax (b) it was a new place I hadn’t been – San Jose would be OK, but exploring a new area had potential to be great. I wasn’t so sure about summer heat but if it really didn’t turn out – then I had enough confidence that I could still go back to another alternative.

After a short exploratory tour that included some of the same real estate checks as San Jose as well as looking for daily commuting routes, I moved to Austin in July 2012. I was still pretty excited about a trip across the Americas, but determined I would figure this out on one of two timeframes: either immediately after TDA in 2013 or after I had been in Austin for three years – or starting in 2016.

In October 2012 AMD had a layoff that increased my focus on these two choice points. I briefly tried to see if I might volunteer to leave – take severance and both my trips together but didn’t put a lot of effort there. Once I knew I was past the layoff, I was also more focused on the 2016 goal. The company might have site closures or layoffs but I could put a mark on the wall and work towards it as it came closer. May seem strange, but from that perspective this trip has been on the calendar since right around end of 2012 and something I’ve based choices on since that point.

The more intensive planning and sorting has been more over the past six months to a year and isn’t quite done yet, but nice to have the time finally near.

Four piles

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How to plan for a long-term departure.

This weekend is a moving weekend. I’ve rented a van and been moving boxes and furniture to storage. My master bedroom is now empty and goals for rest of weekend are to get my second bedroom (office) and garage as well. Unlike a shorter vacation, don’t just plan to leave my residence occupied. This time I’m putting all my stuff in storage and renting it out. This makes sure someone is watching the place and gives me a place to come back on my return.

On previous long trips I’ve done a mixture of things:

  • Three months in 1997, my stuff was in transit as part of the move
  • One year ride in 2001, I put all my stuff into one bedroom of my condo and rented out the rest at a reasonable rate to a friend
  • Ten months ride in 2007, I left stuff in a duplex and had tenants in other unit below
  • Six months in 2013, I put everything in storage. Had an apartment before and after but not during

The other project that has been going on for a while is to sort everything I own into three piles:

  1. First pile is everything I need on my trip, a limited set of things.
  2. Next pile is things I give away or throw away. Probably the best thing to reduce clutter, though sometimes I find myself doing it a second time on return when I look at what was stored and think, “did I really need this”
  3. Third pile is things to store.

I’ve been doing this for several months and slowly getting it all sorted out. However, now with a rented van and storage unit time to get things wrapped up.

One last weekend test run

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Today a short ride to McKinney Falls State Park and chance to test my stove as well as my ability to post from phone. Tonight is a full moon hike. Next full moon coincides with summer solstice and start of the trip.

I’ve set up a plugin that is supposed to mirror posts including this one to the scc2ush Facebook page. Hence this is secondary check to see if that happens.

Equipment list

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Completed writing up my equipment list. A copy is here.

Some things make this easy: (1) I’ll be able to mail things home or buy along the way if necessary and (2) I have previous lists from cross continent trips: across Canada, around Australia, across Russia and across Africa as well as from others on the web.

However, there are still a few areas I’ve hemmed and hawed trying to get just the right contents. An initial area of concern is the start of the trip from Prudhoe Bay. Here I need to bring enough warm clothes and sleeping bag for perhaps the coldest part of the ride. I also need to carry enough food as services are limited the first 10 days of cycling. First place to otherwise get a meal is Coldfoot after 240 miles and only a few places after that. At the same time, a lot of road is gravel and I’m concerned starting out overloaded and perhaps not as good shape as I’ll be later in the trip.

As a result, there are two things I’m going to try doing: (1) send a package to Fairbanks with items not needed right at the start and (2) start with a tablet instead of PC. The latter choice came as I realized there wouldn’t be a lot of places to recharge the laptop as well as that “The Milepost” has a tablet edition that loads entirely on a tablet.

Another choice that is different from past rides is I’ll start with a Primus multifuel stove. When I did the Dempster Highway 20 years ago I had a stove that I didn’t use much despite the sparseness of that road. After that I pretty much relied on a “no cook” approach though did end up with a small ISO butane stove on my Russia ride. So I’m revisiting that choice from 20 years ago, at least given remoteness of the road as well as Great Divide coming up, though I might switch from gasoline to ISO Butane when I can since that burns cleaner.

Other than those two differences, a lot of similarities with packing lists I’ve done before.

Bicycle

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Today I picked up my Trek 520 bicycle from Mello Johnny’s bike shop.
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I’ve decided to refurbish/retrofit my existing bikes rather than start with a new one. The wheels were already new from my wheel building class. However, the rest of the drive train was well worn. For example, they told me the derailleur pulleys had as sharp teeth as they’d seen and I knew the rear derailleur wasn’t quite shifting down any more. I also ended up replacing bottom bracket, middle chain ring and my chain as well as putting in a new cassette.

One new toy that went with my dynamo hub in front was a USB port that threaded through the top tube. Hopefully this holds up well as would be nice to charge some USB devices on the road.

Overall was pleased with how the retrofit went and took a weekend 75 mile round-trip overnight ride down to San Marcos to try everything out. This bike has perhaps ~15,000+ miles on it and overall was pretty comfortable ride across Russia so happy to retrofit it again.