ready, set, get ready!
With the kayak guiding season over and done, and with three weeks still left until nowhere soon officially kicks off, I was left wondering how I would fill my time. Obviously we are nowhere near ready, however as countless people have told us…
you’ll never be ready, but one day you’ll just ride away.
And so instead of doing the things that probably should be done, I decided to go for a bike ride…
Robyn Hutchings and I both work for Spirit of the West Adventures as kayak guides (ie. choppers and lifters, or as I realised this summer, “those who watch the sky and are aware of the moon cycles”). It’s a short intense season; the fullest time guides hope to work between 70 and 80 days. As incredible as the trips are, by the end of it, you’re done. Plain and simple.
The idea of a short bike trip was exciting for a few reasons; first, it would give us a chance to exercise the other half of our bodies (you don’t use your legs while kayaking, eh?); second, we would be able to go as slow or as fast as we wanted/needed to (our job is to guide and facilitate group paddling experiences, emphasis on group and not so much on paddling sometimes); and third, the weather looked incredible!
After a last big group breakfast at Sheldon and Amy’s house on Quadra Island, Robyn, Aussie Ally and I (and all of our stuff – two bikes and a kayak on the outside) departed for the south. Ally headed home to Aus via Nanaimo and Robyn and I landed on my parents’ house with an explosion of gear. The next day was a flurry of MEC-ing and yard tinkering, and despite our best efforts, liftoff was not achieved.
However, the next morning found us on the 9am ferry to Saturna Island. 
I won’t give you a blow by blow of the trip. For more photos, go here, and for the first episode of our podcast (which includes some goods from our little trip), go here!
Other than good old good times, I learned a few great lessons about bike touring.
- Bike touring is like backpacking. Weight is your nemesis, a loaded bike is a bitch. Well, it makes you its bitch. On the first hill.
- Bike touring is a little bit like kayak touring, in that you spend a significant amount of time searching for small important things through small, tightly packed spaces. In other words, panniers are a lot like hatches. I tell people at the beginning of paddling trips that kayak touring isn’t really about kayaking, it’s about organisation. I am beginning to see the crossover.
- Clipless pedals, while great for riding, are a little trickier for stopping. There is no photo of the first slow motion fall due to a failure to unclip my left foot.
- Bike touring is really fun.
So, lessons learned, Robyn and I returned to Victoria in time for Rifflandia. Yesterday, Alex and I had a long phone conversation. It felt good to address all of the things that keep coming up. I am beginning to realise that there may be a fine balance between getting ready and being ready; while infinite preparations could be made, I know that pretty soon, it will be hard to imagine a time before we rode our bikes every day, going south.
