Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Top Five Things I Learned While Biking Across Canada

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I woke up today and realized it was Tuesday and that--hey!--I have a job and I AM ON DEADLINE in a very serious way. So, uh, I'm here to procrastinate! I kinda forgot about my writing job because there was a pause in the action, so I did a week of cushy temping instead (my hours were noon to five(!) and all I did was play Scrabulous while babysitting a phone that rarely rang) and somehow my brain preferred to believe the cushy reality was my permanent reality and, thus, deleted my inconvenient deadline from memory. Anyway, I remembered that it's Tuesday and realized I haven't done a Top Five Tuesday in a while. And, because I've been tinkering around with the Big Agnes blog lately, this week's theme is bike trip related.


5. Carbs are your friend. Period. They're even better when you wash them down with gravy. Oh, go on. Diet this, diet that, blah, blah, blah it's all nonsense anyway. Eat what you want, girlfriend. Only Jessica Alba can look like Jessica Alba and, fortunately for the rest of us, wearing a bikini and waving our fannies at the paparazzi is not in our job description.

4. Although, if you don't get enough fresh fruits and vegetables, you will start to feel a little funny. In the head. Your body needs fruits and vegetables. So does your brain. There was a day, at the height of the Vegetable Crisis, where I woke up, started weeping, and then was unable to stop crying (or explain why I was crying), so I spent several hours grimly pedaling while silent, persistent tears streamed down my face. It was bizarre. And pathetic. I was just...LOW. Low and vague and cloudy. And low. We hit a salad bar the next day and I was all "Whee! I'm fine now!" and went skipping down the street, all high on folic acid. Causality was typically pretty apparent during the trip. ME HUNGRY. ME SLEEPY. ME WANT STEAK. If you're biking over 100 kilometres a day, your body/mind is pushed to its outer limits anyway, so crises evolving from nutritional deficiencies will became obvious very quickly. For us, within about a week or so of poor nutrition, we were howling at the moon.

However, I think this same process of mental/physical erosion happens even if you're not engaged in extreme physical activity; it's just more vague and slow when you're physical expenditures are limited to shifting your weight from one ass cheek to the other or using your index finger to dial a mouse wheel. The erosion is there, but you're less inclined to notice it consciously. If you feel a little down, a little low, and also happen to be one of those people who has to count the catsup on their fries as a serving of veggies, that might be a big part of your problem.

3. Your body likes to move. Your body was made to move. Before we left, we didn't train all that much, considering we were embarking on a 7000 km bike trip. That started in the Rockies. Oh, sure, we worked out, we were active, etc. But, we also worked full time. So, we spent maybe an hour or so working out (almost but not really) every day (which actually isn't all that different from what we do normally). On the bike trip, we typically got in about seven to eight hours of cycling every day, while carrying about 30–50 pounds of gear. And did I mention the Rockies? Because they were really big. And mountainous. I wasn't sure if two moderately fit, not-all-that-young people could really pull it off without some physical repercussions. But, in fact, we were fine. We were more than fine; we were fantastic! Our bodies adapted so quickly and readily to the increased activity. In fact, our bodies gobbled it up and asked for more. No strains or pains. No back pain, no neck pain, no migraines. Sit at a desk for eight hours and you'll feel it. You'll be creaky and sore and your body will complain and get all tangled up and angry. Get up and move and your body will perk up, do a little dance, and then give you an impulsive hug before taking off in a gallop.

It was more than that, more than just feeling surprisingly great considering how hard we were working. The other thing that happens when your body is happy is that you're happy. Happy body, happy brain. Apart from the vitamin deficiency episode, we both marveled at how...solidly great and clear-headed we felt. In fact, I was so clear-headed that I—okay, you better sit down for this. Are you ready? I was so clear-headed that I even started to understand math. Yes. I no longer believe it's possible to be happy unless you get at least an hour a day of exercise. I don't care who you are or what you say, I won't believe you. You wanna feel better than you thought possible? Go outside. Move around. It doesn't matter what you do—walk, bike, stroll, roll over 75 times—just give your body what it wants. It'll thank you. As a bonus, you can eat gravy and still be a hottie.

2. When you're going through some ups and downs, hills will look much worse from a distance than they actually are. It's an optical illusion. Partway down one hill, the hill ahead of you will look steep and tall and daunting; get to its base, and it's actually not so bad. In fact, you'll zip over the base and be partway up before you know it. Typically, your dread will far outweigh the actual effort required of you to tackle a climb (procrastinating editors take note).

There is an exception to this rule: the mountain pass. If you can't see the top of a hill (because it's 50 km away!), your mind will play another trick on you and will make impossibly large uphill grinds look like they're slanted downhill. I could never figure out this optical illusion, although certainly it could just be straight up denial (Ha! There's no WAY I can't see the top of this mountain. That would mean...no. NO.) So, sometimes just when you think you're going to get to sit back and coast, you're actually about to go through an extended period of hell. And when you're going through hell? Too bad, suckah. There ain't nothin' you can do about it but keep on going. Amen.

As for coasting? I never once encountered the free downhill ride my mind sometimes expected. The only time life will let you coast is after you've earned it.

1. The world is full of good people. People you don't know will slow their trucks down to a near stop to protect you from bears, they will pull over on a hot day to offer you cold water, they will lean out their windows to cheer you on when you're struggling up a hill, they will give two strangers the keys to the town hall so that they have a place to stay, and no matter where you are, there is always somebody who will crack a beer for you and invite you to join them around the campfire. People love to laugh and tell stories and will welcome you into their lives if you let them. People are good. Life is good.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Maritimes--Intro

It's been seven months. SEVEN MONTHS! Which means it's been niggling in the back of my mind that I never really finished this blog for seven months. (I have a tendency to put things off and then pick them up again long after someone normal would have let it go.) So, I'm gonna give poor Big Agnes her dues. Here we go...

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The Maritimes. We entered the Maritimes via the Trans-Canada trail, which runs through a strip of forest and farmland from Rivière du Loup, Québec to Edmunston, Brunswick. Our arrival in New Brunswick collided with Labour Day Weekend and, right on time, the onset of fall. Our last night in Big Agnes was in the tiny town of Cabano, Québec and it was a very chilly last night. By the time we crossed the border into New Brunswick it was definitely fall. As in cold and rainy, with no end in sight.

The Maritimes, then, signified a shift in how the trip went. Not only did the cold, damp (wet!) weather make camping unappealing, camping also became less accessible. The Maritimes, well, they're sparsely populated. And we could no longer rely on a campground being within a reasonable biking distance on any given day. In fact, sometimes we were grateful to come upon any form of accommodation at all!

Something else happened too: we started to get tired. Really, really tired. Road weary, bleary, fatigued...as though at any given moment a nine day nap would be nice. When researching and planning the trip, we'd read that the fatigue borne of several months of riding is one of the reasons why it's best to start in the Rockies--get 'em over with while your legs are still fresh. I have to assert that this turned out to be very, very true. I can't imagine facing the Rockies at that point in the trip. What's weird about the fatigue is that we were, in fact, in fantastic condition and we easily gobbled up the steep climbs of New Brunswick without a second thought. But, all the same, we often found ourselves counting down the kilometres until the next stop. Our sudden reliance on motels was costing us a mint, but we were secretly grateful for the incredible luxury of dozing off to Law and Order while curled up in a real(!) bed.

So, in general, the Maritimes had a real feeling of winding down, the trip and us.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

So, How Does It Feel To Be Done?

Checking out the incredible view

The first question everyone asks us. Well...It doesn't feel all that good, to be frank. Everyone, including us at some point, I'm sure, had an expectation that we'd be pumped up and proud of what we'd achieved. But really? On our last ride, we were both just quiet and sad and a little tearful.

And then it was just over.

It's not that we're not proud of ourselves, it's just not that "WHOO!" kind of proud. What we did took months and it was neither easy nor hard. And, more than anything, what we did was quiet. One day of ever evolving countryside slipping into another while we rode with the tacit understanding of mutual support. And, really, that's all there was to it.

What amazed me on a daily basis was not what I could achieve with my body, not how far I could ride or what hills I could grind out, but the easygoing peace of mind I was able to step into while my body occupied itself with getting strong, being strong, and, in that world of fresh air and sunshine and birdsong, I had nothing left to focus on but the surprising landscape of my own uninterrupted thoughts.

And then we found ourselves at the top of Signal Hill gazing out over the Atlantic and there was nowhere left to go but home.

So, how does it feel to be done? I think it feels like we're not quite ready yet for all the noise.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Believe it, Baby!!!

Yesterday, we dipped our tires in the Atlantic Ocean in "The Gut" in Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland!

End of the road!

Our quizzical, non-celebratory expressions are more of an "Is that camera timer working? Was that a beep? Did you hear a beep?!?" look than an "I'm wrestling with an existential crisis because I just finished biking across Canada and now there's nothing left to do but pack up and fly home."

While there's so much to say yet, I'm still on Newfoundland time, which means that I've woken up on the West Coast at 6:30 in the morning to discover that my body is outraged that it hasn't had its coffee yet.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Final Word on La Route Verte

I know I've raved about what a fantastic experience La Route Verte is already, but really, I (we) just can't rave enough about how much fun we had cycling in Québec. I think the one detail I forgot to mention about La Route is that it provided us with numerous opportunities to meet other cyclists. We made friends with Benjamin, who was training for a triathlon and who lead us on a reckless whirlwind ride through Montréal, and Ken and Adrian, who were biking from the Yukon and Victoria respectively and with whom we passed a fun afternoon biking and chatting on the way to Rivière du Loup, and Anton who had biked across Asia--ALL of Asia--then flew from Japan to Vancouver and biked home to Québec, a trip that had taken him over two years. Anton's legs? Were like grain silos. It was just great fun to have other cyclists zipping in and out of our days and sharing a piece of our adventure with us.

The other great thing about La Route Verte is that is takes you right from Rivière du Loup to Edmundston, New Brunswick on a tree-lined trail. It was two of the best days of riding we had on the trip, with lush scenery, lakes, and rivers and even a few wheat crops! I could go on, but I think the pictures speak for themselves (and I have a ridiculous 20 minute time limit at this Internet cafe!).




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Lunch on the lake







Saturday, September 8, 2007

No Detail Left Behind

Yet another disturbingly detailed sign in Québec.

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I would like to know if this sign would be any less effective if the injured child's sock wasn't half off, or if there wasn't the dramatic pause created by the ellipsis before "le vôtre."

Pas de Ca-ca

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I think perhaps this sign suffers from too much detail. Imagine being the graphic designer working for the city of Montréal and getting your original design back with a note along the lines of: "While we liked how realistic your silhouette of a Great Dane looked, what we want is a steaming loaf of crap somewhere on the sign. Just so there's no confusion."