Departure

With anticipation of my early morning flight to California to kick off my bike trip, I sit, listening to the local fireworks in the distance. I have been looking forward to this three month trip for so long that it is hard to believe my adventure starts tomorrow.

Today, I test loaded the bike and panniers. Bike and kit weighed in at 79.5 lbs (including tent, sleeping bag, cooking equipment, etc.). It took a few minutes to get used to riding with that sort of load. There are a few items I can discard, but nothing that will add up to any material weight. The heaviest non-essential item that I have is a sleeping pad (only 1 lb, 8 oz), so I'll assess whether it's worth the carrying weight in my first few days of the trip. Last time I did a trip like this, as soon as I hit mountains I became pretty ruthless about discarding non-essential items, so we'll see if the sleeping pad makes the cut.

I've now disassembled the bike, and it's packed up for my flight to California tomorrow morning. Bruce and Charlie have kindly offered to prepare a farewell meal tomorrow night (Bruce kindly avoided calling it my "last supper"). I will set off Thursday morning from California on a nice, easy training ride up to Seattle. My next communication will come from the road.