Sometimes you have weeks to plan, others you’ve just got minutes to pack. No matter what, when the time comes, the hammer falls, and you’re out the door. As ready as I thought I was leaving Leavenworth was still a shock. Amos made the journey down by plane and showed up with his bike, the lease was up, and a hard frost stifled any attempts at gleaning a last few days with the families that made Washington feel like home. The road sucked us in and knocked me off my feet before I knew what hit me.
As much as we all want to leave a room in tears of laughter, departures are a hard art to master. In my short life I’ve had a lot of practice leaving, but it still feels fresh and awkward every time. We’re here in Boise, resting with friends and preparing to set off on the next leg. I’d like to think I’ve got a few words of introspection to share with you after the experience of leaving Washington and our week of travel but if you’re short on time I’ll cut to the chase – it might just boil down to this: Welp – Big Gulps huh? See ya later!
I never really put much thought into this trip, instead I accepted it as more of an eventuality I couldn’t – or didn’t – have to prepare for. Call it faith or something larger, but all I mean is like my friend Rich used to tell me – “worst case scenario: you’re gonna do somethin’ sick”. So not knowing the details and destinations of our ride seemed like a trivial detail in the bigger picture. But in addition to these technical refinements in our travels I’m also embracing this half-hazard approach as an opportunity to try and share with you the some of the mystery and unknown that we come across every day on the road. Living and traveling by bike is about freedom, about openness and adventure, it’s about not knowing where you’re spending the night, if you’ll have enough water, how far your going or why in the hell you’re out here.
We’re trying things a bit different this time: we got a ride in a car over the first hill, we left without a proper map or any real understanding of what we were getting into, and most importantly we’re not carrying our climbing gear along with us. Before our departure we collected all our essential non-cycling gear and shipped two boxes ahead to Springdale. While this changes the ethic of the trip, it also impacts it’s style and affords us the ability to travel much faster and farther each day. What that means: we’re on a bike tour – nothing short of a spiritual pilgrimage to Zion.
I don’t want to try anymore to glorify our experiences as physical achievements or degrade our intentions with with some sort of human-powered manifest destiny. Nearly every day on the road we’re asked where we’re from and where we’re going, and as a group of three this is a tough one to answer. We’re from Alaska, Montana, and New Hampshire. We’re going to Alta and Jackson Hole. We’ve coming together for a short time to travel to Zion. But instead we just tell them we’re going to Utah, It’s easier.
So if I can’t say with conviction to myself where I’m going or why, what am I supposed to tell you? If I’m not going to pepper our rides with bits of sustainable rhetoric how can I convey them? Well, for now all I can say is this, right now I don’t feel the urge to prove anything or the convert anyone. This lifestyle – car-free, bicycle-powered – call it what you will, it’s a silly thing but I’ve never found anything better, and I’m just going to embrace it and see where it takes me.
Departures are like resolutions, in that sometimes we need a physical or temporal delineation to manifest our hopes and habit changes. A departure isn’t unlike most other transformations in that each one includes an end as well as a beginning. But departures can be something smaller too: a vacation.
I think even more than my simple-minded faith, the real reason I didn’t feel the need to stress out on plans and preparations is that all along I knew this was what I wanted to be doing. I knew I didn’t have to make it into some epic challenge, it would probably do that it’self. I didn’t have to think about where we were going or how long it would take, I’m headed somewhere awesome with my friends, and we’re going to have a good time – cause after all, that’s what it’s all about.
If there’s something in your life you don’t like or you want to improve, don’t wait any longer, leave that shit behind and start a new day, a new you, a better tomorrow.. But if things are going pretty well and you’re happy with where you’re at, well, just don’t forget to take a break once in a while – a departure if you will – to bask in the glory. Life is good, but sometimes you gotta take a step back to soak it up.
Enjoy the photos, see you on the road.
