DAY 5

Day 5 - Montpelier IDAHO to Afton WYOMING

A really good day. Most of it spent cycling through Caribou and Bridgers National Forests. The gist of it: us riding through a canyon surrounded by either big, red, earthy mounds, or by pine trees and creeks full of beaver dam's. Really scenic.

The day had two pretty decent climbs, the first we completely smashed, and in doing so we both realized our improvements in fitness and ability to ride best together. A short, quick downhill and a lunch stop in an abandoned run-down farmyard.

Then we met the second of the days climbs. This was 7km at 7% gradient, a hill that was steeper and basically more unrelenting than anything we've faced yet (despite it not lasting as long and despite the mercury finally dropping). 7% for 7km is seriously steep. But we did it. And in relative style. Our fitness levels have improved markedly after a hot and hilly initiation.

The reward for such an easily conquered mountain? Try 25km's of non-stop downhill, averaging about 35 km p/h, pedalling every 10 minutes or so. So good. We're also in Wyoming now, which is good. And Grand Teton is two days ride away and Yellowstone four, which is even better. A really good day.

Sidenote: Roadkill. Deer, Eagles, Squirrels, Raccoons. Not us though.

DAY 4

Day 4 Preston IDAHO to Montpelier IDAHO

This was a day of optical illusions and rollercoasters. As to the former, for long parts of the ride it seemed we were riding flat or even downhill terrain, but couldn't go faster than walking pace at all, crawling along a 6km p/h!

Confused, Luke questioned the tyre pressure, then put us being unfit at fault, before pretty much blaming Ada. Soon enough we worked it out, if we looked at the road to our side as we passed, we could see we were actually going uphill, contrary to whatever the cars on the horizon/sloping hills/tree line suggested.At least it meant there was nothing wrong with us or the tyres. So we battled the hills, which become blatantly obvious 6% grade ones, for 25kms!! By the end we were having breaks in 800m, then 500m, even 300m intervals, seemingly getting nowhere.

But every uphill has its downhill. And this one was magical. The pine and maple trees of the Cache National Forest got bigger and denser, light rain fell, and we sped down and down, flying along, huge smiles on our faces, screaming and carrying on (this time in a good way). We'd done it. The troubles of the ascent long forgotten. We cruised to our destination past wide open fields of barnyards and ranches.

DAY 3

Day 3 Logan UTAH to Preston IDAHO

A nice short day today with a few highlights.

Firstly, we are well and truly away from the metro Salt Lake City area and its associated traffic and bogan outskirts. We're now in farming country and everything looks sounds smells and feels better.

Second, we ate at our first bonafide American diner! It was awesome: big greasy delicious burgers, booths, American memoribilia adorning every nook and cranny, just everything you come to know and love from every second TV show and film you've ever seen.

Thirdly, we entered a new state, Idaho, which gave us a buzz.

We did our first bike repair.  Ada's bike must've sustained a bang at some stage, causing one of her/my (third person first perons blah blah blah) spare spokes to come permenantly dislodged.. no biggie..

Sidenote: There's nothing good to watch on any of the 100-1000 available TV channels. Except maybe the infomercials.

DAY 2

Day Two - Ogden UTAH to Logan UTAH

A few K's into today's ride, we met Allen, a Utah old-timer, cycle-tourist and life-saver. After telling us about his recent tour of Russia, we found out our planned route for the day would, not far ahead, turn into an uphill dirt-track pot-holed god-forsaken slog. Just as well. Lesson learnt: Don't trust Google Maps. So with his directions we diverted our course, following highway 89 for the day. The morning was pretty good, we made good time, passing fruit orchards and farmers stalls, pausing for peaches and raspberries. It was a stroll in the park.

The second half of the day was anything but. In record high temperatures for that time of year (35 celcius), we made a long, long climb (15kms) past roaring trucks (this includes standard, normal trucks, plus every second private car which in Australia would pass as a mini bus, or, indeed, a 'wide-load' truck). It was a pretty big test of mental and physical strength at such an early stage of the trip.

Finally we made it, the descent opening up through a scenic valley, and we rolled all the way to Logan.

Sidenote: We visited Wal-Mart twice today.

DAY 1

Day One - Salt Lake City UTAH to Ogden UTAH

The time had finally come to begin our massive journey. It was pretty nerve racking: how would the bikes handle with the load, how would we go with directions and how would we go riding on the wrong side of the road, how would we handle the traffic, how would we handle the stifling 35 degree heat!?

Lukes bike, it has a black seat and is 100x bigger than mine...

We had to wait a while to find out.

At the very first pedal stroke of the trip, CLANG! Ada's pedal had fallen straight off. Unbelievable. An omen perhaps? We called Mark and luckily for us he picked us up, took us to his shop (which was closed) and fixed the broken thread.

My bike with the broken pedal...

He then rode with us to a bike path which would bypass a large section of trafficked highway, and we were belatedly away!

In a nutshell we made it to Ogden along busy, heat-hazed roads, pretty drained emotionally and physically, but happy to be in the swing of things.

FEELING SORRY FOR ADA? MAKE HER HAPPY. CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Every cent goes to Bicycles for Humanity

ARRIVAL IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

We arrived in Salt Lake City after an eternity of flying, stopovers and time-killing in various airports, in bizarre moods, half exhausted, half overflowing with anticipation and energy. Our new friend Mark Kennedy, who owns and runs Saturday Cycles, picked us up from the airport and took us straight to his bike workshop.

 

 

There we were introduced to Christie, a Saturday Cycles employee, where we spent the next 4 or so hours setting up our new bikes with racks/bags/saddles/pedals etc, eating mexican and drinking beer on the roof for smoko. With the new bikes finally set up and ready to go, we rode home, dog-tired at 1am on the right-hand side of the road with Mark and Christie as our escort. A massive thankyou to them both.

 

 

 

We spent the next day further tinkering with the bike setup and checking out Salt Lake City, with its impressive array of Mormon buildings, lush green yards and nature strips, and fluro orange flags to carry with you when you cross the road. 

 

 CLICK HERE to Donate

Every cent goes to Bicycles for Humanity

 





DEAR READERS

Click here if you'd like to donate.

Hello and welcome! Some of you may have seen and skimmed over, even read, an article on Ada and I in any one of the local Geelong newspapers this week. If so, thanks for checking out our blog. Feel free to browse over some of our earlier posts about the charity and the preparation for our journey, and be sure to follow us on the trip itself: we'll be updating the blog from our August 25 kick-off, plus the Bellarine Echo has expressed interest in writing up an update every month or so.

If you're inspired and would like to support the great work Bicycles for Humanity are doing, there are a few options. You can donate money via our link below, you can visit their website (www.bicyclesforhumanity.com) where you can find info on how to help at working-bees or even start your own fundraiser. It's all good stuff.
Luke & Ada

Click here to donate.
Every cent goes to Bicycles for Humanity

NEW BIKES!

We bought new bikes! Ada and I are now the proud owners of Surly Long Haul Truckers. These bikes are legit: tough, reliable, comfortable, useful. Nothing showy. Nothing stupid. They are designed specifically for what we're doing: to carry heavy loads all day every day up whatever hill into whichever element is thrown at us. They're black (and yes, matching, but we like that cute-Japanese-tourist-couple-in-matching-outfits look, so we'll give it a try). We'll fit them with fenders (Planet Bike Cascadia), thickish bullet-proofish tyres (Continental Contact) and some beautiful comfy Brooks leather saddles. We'll post a photo when we pick them up.

The bikes are waiting for us at Saturday Cycles in Salt Lake City, Utah. Thanks to Mark Kennedy, who runs the show, for his help in having the bikes setup and ready for us on a Sunday (when he'd otherwise be closed).

Click here to donate.
Every cent goes to Bicycles for Humanity