The Transcontinental Eating Contest for the Pandas came to an end when we arrived at Wells Beach, Maine on Friday, August 8, 2008 at around 2 p.m.
We finished at about 4,400 miles having crossed 15 American states- Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine- and 2 Canadian Provinces- Alberta and Ontario.
The entire trip took 72 days, 64 days on the bikes and 8 rest/travel days. That comes out to an average of 69 mile days, but most days were 70 to 90 miles and then there were some half-days. We only needed 4 century days (100 miles or more) to keep us on schedule.
Impressive as this sounds, it was a day-by-day accomplishment. I rode across most of the country with only the next town, landmark, family visit, camp site, ice cream cone, or meal ahead of me, until finally yet suddenly, we had reached the ocean! We did not take the short route. It is not necessary to ride 4,400 miles to get from one coast to another, nor to spend 2 weeks in Minnesota, nor to zig-zag south/north to make 4 stops with family in the Midwest- although I highly recommend it!
I am extremely thankful that we finished this trip without major crashes or injuries. We had no altercations with cars, cougars, cows, or the most dangerous of animals, people. We look forward to the minor injuries we have healing over the next few weeks as we withdraw from the lifestyle that is biking all day, every day.
Last night at dinner, Dad, Cate, Sarah and I were discussing risk management in adventure sports, and we mused on what we did right that got us through safely, and what we could have done even better. I think most of the former were basic, such as putting on sunscreen 3 times a day, filling up water at every opportunity, dealing with equipment problems as soon as we could. We studied maps and routes carefully so that we knew what we were facing and we always made sure we got to a grocery store to have a good meal at the end of the day. In terms of the latter, we should have taken better care of our knees before tendinitis developed and had more reflective gear for rainy days. Although much of our success stemmed from our strong attitudes and behaviors, we also had to rely on people across the whole country to keep us safe in storms, give us directions, feed us, or simply behave as hosts to us, and they did not let us down. I am too cynical a New Yorker not to cringe when I write this, but I think my faith in humanity has been renewed, if not formed for the first time.
Where do we go from here? Speaking only for myself, I was ready to be done. I have a desire for adventure and a love of cycling that I will have my whole life. I have gained the confidence to be less closed off from new experiences and not to enter a situation with the prejudice that I will not be able to communicate or have a positive experience. There were countless moments, attending the Jasper County Fair in Indiana comes to mind, which showed me that the differences between my life in New York city and the lives of people in the rest of the country are not insurmountable and do not inherently create a barrier; it is possible for us to be part of a broader community, to share a country.
While I am being sappy, I should mention the most obvious source of strength I drew from during this trip. No, I don't mean mint chocolate chip ice cream, but rather my sisters. I am really thankful to have 2 people with whom I was able to share the trip with humor and love and that we were able to support each other so well. Also not to be taken for granted is the support we got from our parents, which we were so fortunate to have.
My head is so full of other adventures I want to have that part of me just wanted the trip to end so that I could start planning them sooner! A back-country mountain bike touring trip is definitely in the cards, but I need to make "real life" work for a while.
In the short term, I am looking forward to spending this week with my extended family in Meredith, New Hampshire to celebrate the life of our grandmother and then to seeing the people that I have missed these past months when I go Berlin next week, and then back in New York.
I am sure there is more to say but I will leave it to Cate or Sarah.
Thanks to everyone for reading and giving us such nice feedback!
Liz
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Center Barnstead
Cate and Sarah with our cousin Mary Fougere and Abby the dog. Mary and Jim were the best hosts for our last night!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I smell VICTORY!
Tonight is the eve of the last day of the trip. We are getting fueled up and rested at our cousins' the Fougere's house in Center Barnstead, New Hampshire. Jim and Mary have us well-fed (we CANNOT stop talking about food), and are even taking us out for ice cream now. I think it is because we told them the story about getting treated for ice cream in the cute town of Woodstock, Vermont, and being so thankful for it. We refused to buy ice cream out of principle because it cost a ass kicking $5 a cone. When discussing this predicament with a friendly tourist, Ed Curtis, (we told him we needed to get the hell out of town to find some ice cream that was not gold-plated), he offered to treat us! Yay! I think we also inspired him to do a bike tour.
The weather and trucks were seeking to destroy us yesterday so we could not make it further than 40 miles. We therefore had a regular day today (70 miles instead of around 50), but made it to the Fougeres way earlier than usual. No hanging around begging for ice cream today. We meant business. It was a very nice 2nd to last day!
I would like to also mention that adding "pants" to the end of words is fun. Like shooshypants or sillypants or switchipants (means a. the name of my college roommate or b. to switch who is in the front of the line while biking or c. all of the above).
-Catepants
The weather and trucks were seeking to destroy us yesterday so we could not make it further than 40 miles. We therefore had a regular day today (70 miles instead of around 50), but made it to the Fougeres way earlier than usual. No hanging around begging for ice cream today. We meant business. It was a very nice 2nd to last day!
I would like to also mention that adding "pants" to the end of words is fun. Like shooshypants or sillypants or switchipants (means a. the name of my college roommate or b. to switch who is in the front of the line while biking or c. all of the above).
-Catepants
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Pulling in to camp....
We found Davy! (the friendly raccoon). Actually, this dog's name was Bongo, and Bongo specializes in bounding and staring deep into your eyes. Cate tried to teach Bongo to count, but he didn't learn all that much.Our first day in Vermont!
Our turtle friend! We saved him from certain death by car, and then we named him "Cusp."
A motorcyle, carefully balanced on a pinnacle by the side of the road. (In the middle of nowhere).
Going to Vermont!
Sometimes when people offer to take our picture instead of using the self-timer, we feel obligated to look normal in our pose.
Liz volunteered to take a picture of the two of us in our usual style.Fort Ticonderoga
Lake Champlain, and Vermont, in the background.
She even pulled the trigger.
Soon this area was filled with soldiers, in costume, demonstrating how to "parade"
Cate, examining water very thoroughly before entering. Sarah, getting a leech.
Question: does Cate have her shoes on in this picture?!Camp Santanoni
The main lodge.
Liz was mad at us because she wanted a "nice" picture.
the beginning of the 5 mile trek/bike
Some of the auxiliary buildings of the camp.Monday, August 4, 2008
Camp Santanoni and the Best 20 Mile Day Ever!
5 days to go and counting, we have recently realized that we really don't have that much farther to go. This realization has come with shorter days, and shorter days generally means we spend more time doing our mileage anyway. It's not that we bike slowly, we've discovered, it's just that we don't bike. This was especially true yesterday. We knew we only had a forty mile day, so we might as well take our time doing it right? Our first stop was after one mile. Yes, only a mile. Not only that, our excuse to stop was to check out the Adirondack Museum. Even though it didn't open for another half an hour, we decided it was worth it to wait. Yes that's right, we though it was worth it to wait a half an hour instead of riding to see a museum that probably was pretty uninteresting (one of it's exhibits: a privy. A glorified privy). In the end, we discovered that the museum was 15 dollars each and we decided it wasn't worth it after all.
We continued on all of 10 more miles (a really hard push I know) before stopping again in Long Lake for second breakfast. After struggling to get back on our bikes and hour later, we made it all of (gasp!) 10 more miles before stopping at the Santanoni Great Camp, a lodge built in 1893 on 12,900 acres that is now all state preserved land. After discovering that the main lodge was 5 miles away on a dirt-and-sand-and-rock trail reserved for hikers and mountain bikers, we though about it long and hard. Was it worth it to go on this long detour out of the way to camp in this forest preserve when it was kind of drizzly and we knew that with all of our stuff on our bikes we would sink into the sand no problem? Yes! Of course it was. But first, we went into town, bought a twelve-pack of beer, and then proceeded to bike-and-trek five miles out of the way on a hiking trail.
The camp was really beautiful when we got there, the sun came out, and best of all, there was no one around. For miles. Not an RV, not a camper, nothing except these old buildings, some of them ruined, a huge lake, and us (and our 12 pack). Even though after I discovered a leech on my foot after wading in the lake for a short while, we were not to be deterred and all went swimming. We generally relxed and even felt refreshed enough this morning (back to the rain) to make the 5 mile trek back to the road.
This morning our 50 mile day passed so quickly because we ran into some other cross-country cyclists! Pete and Ryan are headed to Boston, and today they were planning on going 140 miles, to get to Ryan's girlfriend's house! They had a lot less stuff than us. They were also really cool and we rode 30 miles with them or so, and it felt like nothing.
Now we are in Ticonderoga, and are excited to journey on into Vermont tomorrow!
-Sarah
PS we will try to upload pictures soon, we promise.
We continued on all of 10 more miles (a really hard push I know) before stopping again in Long Lake for second breakfast. After struggling to get back on our bikes and hour later, we made it all of (gasp!) 10 more miles before stopping at the Santanoni Great Camp, a lodge built in 1893 on 12,900 acres that is now all state preserved land. After discovering that the main lodge was 5 miles away on a dirt-and-sand-and-rock trail reserved for hikers and mountain bikers, we though about it long and hard. Was it worth it to go on this long detour out of the way to camp in this forest preserve when it was kind of drizzly and we knew that with all of our stuff on our bikes we would sink into the sand no problem? Yes! Of course it was. But first, we went into town, bought a twelve-pack of beer, and then proceeded to bike-and-trek five miles out of the way on a hiking trail.
The camp was really beautiful when we got there, the sun came out, and best of all, there was no one around. For miles. Not an RV, not a camper, nothing except these old buildings, some of them ruined, a huge lake, and us (and our 12 pack). Even though after I discovered a leech on my foot after wading in the lake for a short while, we were not to be deterred and all went swimming. We generally relxed and even felt refreshed enough this morning (back to the rain) to make the 5 mile trek back to the road.
This morning our 50 mile day passed so quickly because we ran into some other cross-country cyclists! Pete and Ryan are headed to Boston, and today they were planning on going 140 miles, to get to Ryan's girlfriend's house! They had a lot less stuff than us. They were also really cool and we rode 30 miles with them or so, and it felt like nothing.
Now we are in Ticonderoga, and are excited to journey on into Vermont tomorrow!
-Sarah
PS we will try to upload pictures soon, we promise.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Adirondacks
Back in New England! Here, it is rainy.
New Yorkers' Vacationland- Ahhh!
So far our last week has been reminiscent of our first week in Washington. We are in mountains and lakes and it is rainy and cool. But there are some significant differences. There are SO many people, and they are from New York and New Jersey! We even see New Jersey license plates. And the climate and landscape remind us of hiking in New Hampshire. We are almost done, and it feels like it.
Two days ago we rode from Fulton to Boonville, New York. On the way we picked up some beer, which I of course bungeed to my bike. When my 24 oz can of Labats Blue broke free of its bungee in a pothole 2 miles before camp and exploded, I was forced to shotgun it with haste. I was standing in someone's yard at the time, and he and his teenage daughter came out to talk to us. We tried to give Trixie some responsible advice on getting into road biking as I was drinking beer as it gushed out of the can. Fortunately I was not too intoxicated to make it to Stysh's Brown Barn Campground. Stysh was a great character who gives the cyclists, not the RVers, the run of the place. That was the second night we camped with Chip and Seth, a father and son pair of cross-country cyclists from Oregon. We talked and swapped stories almost the whole evening. After sharing pancakes with them the next morning, Chip promised us cake if we made it to Blue Mountain Lake the next day. So obviously we booked it there and arrived earlier than usual, but Chip and Seth were not there.... We hope we will see them again and we really hope they will still have some cake. Their blog is, bikingforallergies.blogspot.com.
Yesterday was a whole day of dodging vacationing New Yorkers as they drove yellow taxis- I mean minivans and RVs- through the narrow roads of the Adirondacks. The towns we went through, Old Forge and Inlet, were hopping because the weather was bad. We realized as the day went on that there was only one explanation for the crowds- it must be the weekend. We started to get a little nervous about finding a campground. Luckily the proprieter of the Blue Mountain Lake Inn allows cross-country cyclists to camp on the lawn, and even use the shower and sit on the porch when it rains! Thanks Mary Jo! We had a great night's sleep in the soft grass even though the town was celebrating the anniversary of its boat club with exuberant festivities.
Today we are making slow progress in the bad weather. We are only 11 miles from Blue Mountain Lake in the town of Long Lake. Tomorrow we will get to Ticonderoga, New York, which is where we will depart from the Northern Tier route and head for the southern coast of Maine.
Two days ago we rode from Fulton to Boonville, New York. On the way we picked up some beer, which I of course bungeed to my bike. When my 24 oz can of Labats Blue broke free of its bungee in a pothole 2 miles before camp and exploded, I was forced to shotgun it with haste. I was standing in someone's yard at the time, and he and his teenage daughter came out to talk to us. We tried to give Trixie some responsible advice on getting into road biking as I was drinking beer as it gushed out of the can. Fortunately I was not too intoxicated to make it to Stysh's Brown Barn Campground. Stysh was a great character who gives the cyclists, not the RVers, the run of the place. That was the second night we camped with Chip and Seth, a father and son pair of cross-country cyclists from Oregon. We talked and swapped stories almost the whole evening. After sharing pancakes with them the next morning, Chip promised us cake if we made it to Blue Mountain Lake the next day. So obviously we booked it there and arrived earlier than usual, but Chip and Seth were not there.... We hope we will see them again and we really hope they will still have some cake. Their blog is, bikingforallergies.blogspot.com.
Yesterday was a whole day of dodging vacationing New Yorkers as they drove yellow taxis- I mean minivans and RVs- through the narrow roads of the Adirondacks. The towns we went through, Old Forge and Inlet, were hopping because the weather was bad. We realized as the day went on that there was only one explanation for the crowds- it must be the weekend. We started to get a little nervous about finding a campground. Luckily the proprieter of the Blue Mountain Lake Inn allows cross-country cyclists to camp on the lawn, and even use the shower and sit on the porch when it rains! Thanks Mary Jo! We had a great night's sleep in the soft grass even though the town was celebrating the anniversary of its boat club with exuberant festivities.
Today we are making slow progress in the bad weather. We are only 11 miles from Blue Mountain Lake in the town of Long Lake. Tomorrow we will get to Ticonderoga, New York, which is where we will depart from the Northern Tier route and head for the southern coast of Maine.
Friday, August 1, 2008
On our own again, on the road again
Today the Denny girls are back on their own again. It was really nice to have Mom and Dad come to carry our stuff for a couple of days (and to cook for us, clean us, and generally provide for us). The first day they came out, we decided that we were going to do 105 miles, because it would be easy, right without any of our stuff? We all started out feeling great, but slowly, as Liz broke a spoke, and we found ourselves on busy roads with lots and lots of holes, trying to get through Buffalo and into Canada, it turned out to be a bit stressful. Then we got news from our mom that it was actually a lot longer to the campsite than expected: about 10 miles longer. While this just about killed us, it didn't, so I guess it made us stronger. And thankfully, Mom was waiting at a restaurant by our campsite, with 5 beers and 4 plates of appetizers just delivered to the table. This was wonderful. Overall, it was our longest day at 114 miles, and our fastest average speed at around 17 mph.
The next day, we took our time biking through Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, before as Liz stated below, the US border almost labelled us as a security threat. We went through an Indian Reservation where someone asked if Dad and Liz were married. (They are not). We since went one really hard day on the Erie Canal (90 miles on unpaved canal path is not as easy as it sounds), and one easier day on scenic roads by Lake Ontario through northern New York.
Now we are planning the last week of our trip (ah!) and looking forward to riding through the Adirondacks and Appalachians.
-Sarah
The next day, we took our time biking through Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, before as Liz stated below, the US border almost labelled us as a security threat. We went through an Indian Reservation where someone asked if Dad and Liz were married. (They are not). We since went one really hard day on the Erie Canal (90 miles on unpaved canal path is not as easy as it sounds), and one easier day on scenic roads by Lake Ontario through northern New York.
Now we are planning the last week of our trip (ah!) and looking forward to riding through the Adirondacks and Appalachians.
-Sarah
We are not really cheaters!
A few days ago, we passed a fellow touring cyclist. He then passed us a few minutes later when Liz broke her spoke, then we passed him at lunch, then he passed us, etc. On our final passing, we clearly were benefitting from our lack of stuff (nicely carried by our mother). He called us cheaters (somewhat joking, in a British accent). It felt pretty nice not to have to carry our things for a few days, and I felt a little bit guilty. Our114 mile day would have been impossible with our gear and without our mom with food and beer at the end.
I have discovered on our journey how many ways one can travel across the country on a bike. There are people who carry next to nothing, go really fast, and stay in hotels. There are the people who carry loads and say that they are camping, but really hotel anyway, and go fairly slowly. There was a man we passed who was doing 100 mile days with a loaded trailer on the back of his mountain bike. That looked tough. There are the couples who ride tandem bikes. Being stuck behind someone would really stink. Unless it is a family of 4, all on one gigantic cycle. That could be awesome, and good training for the circus. We also have met a man who was walking across the country, one of the most amazing people I have met. The majority of people seem to be like us, but that may just be the ones that we run into.
If I were to do the trip again, I do not know how I would do it. I enjoy the freedom of carrying my own stuff, but when I have less time (and hopefully more money), I could imagine taking less equipment in order to go more miles. Or, my real goal would be to train my future dog to run along side of me and jump into a high tech, lightweight trailer whenever it gets tired. No need to bungee it. It would be the ultimate cycling companion (other than Liz and Sarah). Either way, we loved to see our parents and spend time with them for the past few days! It gave us a real boost on our trip. I cannot believe we only have 7 days left.
-Cate
I have discovered on our journey how many ways one can travel across the country on a bike. There are people who carry next to nothing, go really fast, and stay in hotels. There are the people who carry loads and say that they are camping, but really hotel anyway, and go fairly slowly. There was a man we passed who was doing 100 mile days with a loaded trailer on the back of his mountain bike. That looked tough. There are the couples who ride tandem bikes. Being stuck behind someone would really stink. Unless it is a family of 4, all on one gigantic cycle. That could be awesome, and good training for the circus. We also have met a man who was walking across the country, one of the most amazing people I have met. The majority of people seem to be like us, but that may just be the ones that we run into.
If I were to do the trip again, I do not know how I would do it. I enjoy the freedom of carrying my own stuff, but when I have less time (and hopefully more money), I could imagine taking less equipment in order to go more miles. Or, my real goal would be to train my future dog to run along side of me and jump into a high tech, lightweight trailer whenever it gets tired. No need to bungee it. It would be the ultimate cycling companion (other than Liz and Sarah). Either way, we loved to see our parents and spend time with them for the past few days! It gave us a real boost on our trip. I cannot believe we only have 7 days left.
-Cate
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Cycling with Dad along the Erie Canal
We have really enjoyed having our parents here these past few days! Check out Dad leading the pack!
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