The heat that beat us.

Day 2 - June 8th

51.4 miles 

Total 58

Day - Moving Avg 9.3

Day - Overall Avg 4.2

Well the day was so damn hot. We fell short of our goal by about ten miles. We started very early to beat the heat, but we spent too much time in Deming after our first 32 miles.

We needed to go another 31 miles to get to City of Rocks Arch. All of this paved asphalt riding is nice but the heat sure does reflect back at you. We tried to push ourselves, but the heat finally won. We decided to rest and go eight mile chunks to our destination.

Four miles later we gave up. We took weak shelter under a small shrubbery and whined for hours at the ants, sticky thorns, very hot drinking water, and passing cars which seemed to be oblivious to the fact that I said "ice cold pop please" to every passing car. There was even a water delivery van who blasted past us, as we pleaded silently from the roadside.

On the bright side, we were able to work on our sun burns. My arms have not seen such atrocious burns since the first time I hiked the PCT. I don't think Apricots sunscreen worked too well.

After close to three hours of waiting out the heat, we finally decided that we would make our destination in six mile legs. Slowly, begrudgingly, we packed up to hit the road. Only this time, we had the heat, and a headwind to battle. Three miles later, we saw a giant dumpster in the sun. We opted to sit in its stinky shade while trying to find out if the Bar S Ranch RV park was open. There was an antique road sign directing us two miles off route to the RV park. We were afraid to sidetrack and find the RV park long closed.

As the stench of the giant baking trash receptacle started to seep into our clothing a truck drove past. I ran over and asked if the park was open. He said it probably was. I asked if it had water, and he said very likely. Then he looked at our sad pathetic state and gave us his large Gatorade and cup of ice.

OMG it was heaven drinking a strangers Gatorade in the shadow of a dumpster.

We biked the final two miles to the RV park. They have been kind and accepted us, even letting us crash in the Club house to limit our interactions with the rattlesnakes which tend to cover the entire property at night.

We used our time to give ourselves a gear shakedown. A lovely shower, and grip loads of iced beverage.

Lesson learned.... Don't bike between noon and four in this atrocious heat.

Tomorrow, on to silver city and beyond. We are a little over a day away from the Gila Cliff dwellings, if we opt for the 37 mile detour.

Live life at a slower place.

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A trip to the border and back

Day 1

6.6 miles 

Total 6.6

Day - Moving Avg 14.9

Day - Overall Avg 7.7

We awoke early and rushed downstairs from the hotel to start assembling our bikes. We wanted to get the bikes rebuilt so that we could get a ride to the border and back before it became to warm. 

The bikes were disassembled more than we had expected, but they were extremely well packaged, so thanks for that River City Cycles. The exciting fact of this is that Apricots and I were able to learn a little bit more about our bikes as we built them. It was intuitive enough, and I only had one real problem. I did not have a torque wrench, so I guessed on when the screws were tight enough. We will likely hit up a bike shop in Silver City and have them to a quick inspection of the screws, as well as help clean up and problems which arise in our first few days.

After assembling the bikes, we took out our bikes to cycle south the 3.3 miles to the border. We snapped a couple pictures at the border. We wanted to have someone take a picture of us, as the self timer picture was mediocre at best. I tried to asking a passing pedestrian. Just my luck, he didn't speak any English, and our Spanish is sub par. I tried to gesture to him what we wanted, thinking it would be clear. Turns out the man was also blind. How hilarious is that? Time to brush up on our Spanish.

Apricots and I hopped back on our bikes and returned to the hotel. The innkeeper gave us his car keys and let us run errands with his van. Logically, we could have used our bikes, but we opted out, as it was already 100 degrees, and the day was still young.

Errands ran, food eaten. Bed time for an early rise.

Live life at a slower place.

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Getting Here In One Piece

Two mornings ago the chirping birds woke Apricots at five am. She threw a handful of profanities at the choir or bluejays and robins and slammed the window shut. She turned to me and said, "thank god I only have to deal with that for one more day." I laughed in reply, and reminded her that we were about to return to living in a tent for two months, and she grumbled about it being okay then.

I suppose it is like my reaction to spiders: in the house equals freaky bloodsucking evil satan spawn.... Outside of the house, snazzy arachnids which serve the greater good.

....... for the greater gooooooood.......

I told a coworker about my bike trip. He said that it sounded exciting, but that I shouldn't bike more than thirty miles a day. Uh oh.... We are aiming for around 60 miles. So.... Uh.... Maybe we have bitten off more than we can chew. Time will tell. One thing is for sure, I am feeling pretty anxious. I think Apricots is more relaxed than I am.

This morning my brother's wife made us breakfast (Thank you Miho) and my parents took us to SeaTac airport. A couple of bumpy flights later we arrived in the chilly city of El Paso, TX. It was only 97 degrees. Upon walking out of the plane, I received a call from Philip Skinner. He was 90 minutes ahead of schedule for picking us up. Sweet, no sitting around at the airport.

Apricots and I both jumped in excitement when we saw our luggage in tact and not lost. Then 90 minutes later, we were shuttled by Philip Skinner to his hotel Martha's Place in Columbus. We jumped again in excitement when we saw that our bikes were here, delivered on time. Thank you River City Cycles.

Amazing hospitality here from Philip and his wife. He knew that our bank cards wouldn't work in Palomas across the border, so he gave us cash and had his wife drive us into Mexico so we could have dinner at La Fiesta, an authentic restaurant just south of the border. He even gave us his cell phone to use in case our service provider wouldn't work at the border. After dinner he picked us up, and told us that we could borrow his car tomorrow if we needed to run any last minute errands before taking off.

Tomorrow we will build and outfit our bikes an do a quick run to the border. Then we will probably stay one more night before hitting the road for our crazy summer bike trip.

Live life at a slower place.

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Final Countdown

[Test Post]

Our bikes are shipped.

Our bags are packed.

Our anxiety is full throttle.

Tomorrow we will drive to my brothers place just south of Seattle Airport, and Monday we fly south.

We have a rough itinerary posted now for those who want to make use of the itinerary.

https://aslowerplace.blogspot.com/p/travel-itinerary.html

Additionally I tried updating the Gear and Bags page, but it is still pretty rough.

Time to sleep. The ride is upon us too soon.

Giddy Giddy!

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A New Blog Name

It's been a long time coming, but here it is.

Lauren "Apricots" Wright and Roger "Psycho" Binschus are up to their no good traveling ways again. This time, we will be traveling by bike.

We have decided to rename the blog to be more fitting for future posts. For the most part, I believe all followers will still be following the new blog url, but if it doesn't automatically transfer for you (and you still want to follow us), we will be posting on:

aslowerplace.blogspot.com

Expect exciting new posts in the coming days and weeks!

Our plan is to ride Mountain Bikes up the Great Divide. We start in New Mexico and travel up through Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta.

Exciting!!


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101 TRULY COMPELLING REASONS TO DO A LONG-DISTANCE HIKE

Pulled from The New Nomads blog

http://thenewnomads.com/?page_id=215

THE NEW NOMAD’S LIST OF 101 TRULY COMPELLING REASONS TO DO A LONG-DISTANCE HIKE

1. Confuse loved ones
2. Look for your purpose in life through solitude in nature.
3. Get time off work without having to feign illness
4. Puff out a flat butt
5. Lose weight
6. Gain respect and awe from others without having to really do anything other than walk around
7. Make people miss you
8. Make people worry about you
9. Bond with strangers you wouldn’t ordinarily even say hello to in passing
10. Good excuse to not bathe
11. Good excuse to talk and sing out loud to oneself
12. Let bad hair color grow out
13. Learn to value the little things in life
14. Only have little things in life
15. Learn to value and respect nature
16. Have mystical experiences
17. Easy to bluff mystical experiences to those at home
18. Easy way to disappear with secret lover
19. Meet soulmate
20. Unload soulmate
21. Wean yourself away from the poisoned nipple of modern media
22. Quality time with recently purchased $500 gadget
23. Hide from debt collectors, ex-wives, and angry roommates
24. Keep your adult children from moving back in with you
25. Put off adulthood
26. Create more empathy with the homeless
27. Learn to accept help from others
28. Learn how to balance a pack on your head
29. Develop an admirable tolerance for wet and cold legs
30. Finally get to listen to a song all the way through to the end
31. Create your own religion
32. Make yourself qualified to write a book
33. Join interesting community of people who are just as antisocial as you are
34. Interesting blog topic
35. Find Yourself
36. Find God
37. Find cool things left behind by other hikers
38. Make peace with the voices in your head
39. Avoid being constantly tempted by ice cream
40. Learn to simplify
41. Learn how complex protecting a bag of M & M’s can be
42. Be judged not by the amount of money you make, but by the weight on your back
43. People just have to take your word for it when you tell them where you are
44. Become intoxicated with beauty
45. Become intoxicated with exhaustion
46. Become intoxicated by idle thoughts of hot water
47. Create a 3rd use for the Power Ranger costume
48. No reason
49. Nothing better to do
50. Empty nesting
51. Avoiding nesting
52. Way to stretch unemployment check
53. Raise money for charity
54. Become a charity
55. Squatting is good for developing balance
56. Break Facebook addiction
57. Release from the claws of culture
58. Ample meditation time
59. Orgy of tree hugging
60. Excuse to wear nothing but tights
61. Breathe clean air
62. Create natural dreadlocks
63. “hobo” = “athlete”
64. Inspire excitement over 10 for $1 ramen noodles
65. Belong to the earth
66. Belong to nothing
67. Belong to whoever has chocolate
68. Discover yet another 10 uses for duct tape
69. Save gas
70. Pay no utilities
71. Become more in tune with a natural existence
72. Able to not look at yourself in the mirror for many months
73. Restore feeling of love for life
74. Learn how to eat wild plants without dying
75. Great opportunity to practice otherwise useless skills learned at scout camp
76. Low exposure to electromagnetic fields
77. No chance of drunk texting anyone
78. Confront and overcome fears of the dark, animals, death, storms, and loneliness
79. Fun
80. Acquire an unflattering nickname based on a stranger’s misperception of your primary qualities
81. Develop some mighty fine looking legs
82. Get that look in your eyes
83. Give your mother an actually real reason to worry about you
84. Learn to live high on convenience store fare
85. You can completely change your personality and blame it on “What happened out there”
86. Great excuse to avoid commitment in relationships
87. Learn the distinctions between fine granolas
88. Eat absolutely whatever you want with no ill effect
89. Can practice many variations on the lyrics of “Tom’s Diner”
90. Acquire stories to share for a long long time
91. Justify purchase of expensive camera
92. Take your mind off anything challenging going on in your life
93. Learn perseverance
94. Potential for pranks on other hikers are varied and numerous and almost always invite use of your Diablo voice
95. See men in kilts without going to Scotland
96. Redefine cleanliness, hunger, and entertainment for yourself
97. Gape in awe at the amount of useless things you own when you return home
98. Learn to sink into a night sky
99. Gain survival confidence
100. Get a groove in your move

BUT MOSTLY:

101. Get SANE

Another Hiker's Dream

One of the more famed trail personalities on the PCT, is planning to do a through hike of the Appalachian Trail. Scott "Squatch" Herriott, of "Walk" fame, and "Sidetrails" fame has decided to attack the AT, with the intent of generating another trail documentary of great humor, and beautiful trail culture.

Take a look at his kickstarter website to read a little more about it.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1676344846/flip-flop-flippin-one-mans-look-for-characters-on


And if you have not seen any of his films, and would like to "rofl", I suggest you pick up any of his fine films
Read up on him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Herriott
Or purchase some of his documentaries:
http://www.walkpct.com/
http://sidetrails.net/

Apricots and Psycho are in one of the sidetrails documentaries... and Psycho hiked with many of the people featured in the walkpct documentaries.

Seriously folks, this man is brilliant, plus he's tall. .... And if you want to conquer the world someday, it would be a good idea to have a connection to this man.
Oh, and for the ladies, he's a sexy sexy man with delicious hiker calves.

On “Alexander Supertramp” or Christopher McCandless

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
— Chris McCandless

 

 

I sat at Vermilion Valley Resort talking with a John Muir Trail hiker. We have met many strangers along the way who took interest in our attempt at through hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. However, his interest in our hike was fresh and genuine. He asked the usual questions of "when did you start?", "how many miles a day?", etc. However, his questions tended to get a little more probing. Finding myself nearing the final day of our hike, I spent time talking with him while he was still in the early stages of his JMT through hike. In fact, he was fairly new to long distance backpacking. As such, he was full of questions for us. I had been thinking about my hike, my experiences, and my overall impression of a PCT through hike, and his questions helped me process my hike just a little more thoroughly.  I, too, was interested in his hike. When we came full circle to "where it all started," I asked him what inspired him to hike the JMT. His motivations were similar to many through hikers, but he also stated that he was very inspired by the book (and movie) "Into the Wild." For those who are unaware of this book, I highly recommend reading it (or watching the movie, if you need instant gratification). The story documents Christopher McCandless' life and controversial death. After the discovery of his body, public opinion was (and still remains) heavily divided. Many people feel that Chris' decisions were immature, unrealistic, and ultimately life ending.

 

I do not wish to comment on his decisions, as there is already enough unnecessary debate regarding that. I do, however, wish to talk about Chris and why I find him to be such an inspiration. From my understanding, Chris had a dream, and he did whatever it took to pursue that dream. I believe that the greatest problem in life is dreams that never become actualized. Our spirits die when we fail to have direction. We need a carrot at the end of the stick. Often times we find ourselves going through life with too many sticks and not enough carrots, which lends us to a life without direction. At some point in our life, we just might find the stick which actually has a carrot at the end of it; a dream or goal that we desire. If we choose to pursue that "dream realized," we will have a direction to move. It is important that at some point we actually get the carrot – a "dream actualized." It is equally detrimental to have never realized a dream or actualized a dream.

 

Chris did whatever it took to actualize his dream, leading a wandering life taking sacrifices in social connection to achieve his ultimate goal of going "into the wild" in Alaska. I am inspired by Chris because of his severe focus on attaining his dream. It seems he went through life chasing his dreams, making decisions which ultimately led him to his big dream. I find Chris to be an inspiration because of his unrelenting pursuit of his dream.

 

Many would argue that he made bad decisions along the way, sacrificing good things, sacrificing beautiful relationships with people. He sought happiness, freedom, and truth over love, money, faith, and fairness. When Chris meets his fate in the end, he undergoes a paradigm shift in his understanding of the world. One of the last things he writes in his journal before dying is "Happiness only real when shared."

 

It is this realization at the end, which rounds out Chris as an inspiration to me. He pursued his dreams with unrelenting passion, and in attaining his dreams he experienced growth. He developed a better understanding of the world, a better understanding of nature, and a better understanding of his relationships. In 2005, I hiked 1000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, the latter third was spent largely solo hiking. Ultimately I left the trail, largely because I was no longer happy. This time, while hiking, I was able to spend my time with Apricots. The happiness associated with a shared hike exceeded my expectations. While I did find myself hiking at times wishing I could share what I was experiencing with others, with my family, and with other hiking friends, I knew that Apricots' was always at my side sharing the experience with me.

On “Reassimilating” or Life after the trail

“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country, or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the walls. “

— Thomas Huxley

Leaving the trail is one of the most difficult experiences of the trail. I had adjusted to a life on the trail. I was used to the routine, the regimented lifestyle, and the repeated phases of the trail. Life was simple. It was hard, but simple. Eventually the hike must come to an end, and we are forced to return to “real life.” That return seems to have been broken down into phases of re-assimilation to me, each having their unique flavor.


The first phase was shock, amazement, relief, rest, and celebration. We had just completed an amazing journey, our bodies were sore, our spirits were lifted, and our dreams were actualized. It is not possible to celebrate continually, so once the fizz of the champagne had settled, we needed to enter into non-trail life.


It has been nearly two months since we completed our hike. For the first two weeks after the trail, I still had pains. When I woke up in the morning, I would stand up on feet that have hiked over 2600 miles, have been my greatest asset, and greatest enemy for six months. I placed my hands on nearby furniture to brace my body as I hobbled out of the bed room. Fortunately this has passed, and I no longer have immediate aches when I wake. Occasionally, I sense some faint pain in my knees, reminding me of my accomplishments.


The most noticeable change between life on the trail and life off the trail in this phase is sleep. One would believe that I would be getting more sleep now, with the opportunity to sleep in, but that is not the case. After a fairly lethargic day (any day you don’t hike 20 miles is lethargic), my body has an abundance of energy. As such, I find it hard to go to sleep at a decent hour. If I do go to bed early, I lay restless in bed, mind wandering.


My body is still used to waking at first light, so as soon as light starts hitting my eyes, I wake up. This results in a complete lack of quality sleep. I stay up late, I sleep poorly, and I wake early. Then, around midday, I am tired from poor sleep. I want to take a nap, but know if I do it will only compound the problems of poor sleep. Two months after leaving the trail, I am still waking up early, but I am getting better sleep now.


After settling down in the daily routine of life, I have entered the reflective phase of post trail life. Life is routine enough that mundane time is spent thinking about how I spent my year.


I spent nearly six months of my life, receiving incredible support from nearly everyone who knows me, as well as an enormous collection of complete strangers. I was told on a nearly daily basis how amazing I was or how great it was to be pursuing my dreams against all odds and struggles. There was not a week that went by where someone didn’t say to me, “What you are doing is amazing,” “I could never do that,” “Congratulations to you for the huge endeavor you are undertaking ,” or “You are living your life to the fullest.”


A huge collective of people dedicated their time and resources to helping me fulfill my crazy dream of walking 2600 miles in the woods. I was a complete (dirty and smelly) stranger to them. Why did they help me? What was special about me? How did they arrive at the conclusion that I was someone that should receive their assistance? I know it wasn’t something unique to me, because several hundred other hikers received their own magic, their own assistance, and their own blessings from their own complete strangers.


I did not experience firsthand the magic other hikers received. As a result of that, my journey felt personalized. Every person I met that helped me along the way seemed to be placed on the trail specifically for my journey. They may have only been around to help Apricots and I, and no one else. This constant support from strangers gave me the illusion that I was someone special. In the back of my mind, I knew I was no different than any other through hiker. Yet, at the front of my mind, I was special. This carries over into post trail life, lending itself to what many call post trail depression.


I am not “depressed.”


I am not “hitting the bottle.”


I am not in need of “little happy pills.”


I am getting slapped in the face with reality though. I spent six months of my life hearing how special I am from complete strangers. Now I am back in the real world, seeking a job in a horrible market. I am faced daily with the challenge of competing with other people to prove myself to someone else. This is the opposite of what the trail was. On the trail, I was faced daily with the challenge of competing with nature to prove myself to myself. I had a shared experience with others, where we all lifted one another up (literally and metaphorically). Now, I am in a world where we are forced to claw our way to the top, trying to hold others down.


What is the next phase? I just hope the next phase is being a mindless automaton in a working society again. Grinding through the daily drudge of work, so that I could start paying down my debts and saving up for the next “big hike.”

On "A PCT Through Hike" or Walking for Six Moons

It is Psycho's birthday today, so for his birthday he would like to present you with his first entry on post trail thoughts:

On “A PCT Through Hike” or Walking for Six Moons

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in."
— John Muir


Looking back on a six month hike, and reflecting on changes, experiences, growth, and lessons learned is no easy task. I have been sitting at home reflecting on my hike, and even did so as I hiked. When we were at Snoqualmie Pass, my parents surprised us with a visit. It was my mother’s birthday wish to see her son in the midst of his hike, so they drove from their house to the trail. Over lunch, I turned to my mother and asked her, “What is something new you have learned in the last year of your life that you would like to share with us?”

She looked admiringly at me and said, “You would be the one to ask such a question, forcing upon me a moment of reflection. This is no easy question, let me think on it.”

As she scanned her memory of the experiences she had over the last year, I thought to myself, “How would I answer the same question?” Now I sit here trying to answer that very question.

Long distance backpacking is a unique endeavor. It is a complete wilderness experience that tests your mental limits and pushes your physical abilities. Along the trail, I met many people who said they could never do what I was doing. I once believed the same thing myself, but I challenged myself to do it. I tried once, and several circumstances led to an incomplete through hike. While I left the trail incomplete, I felt that I had learned much about myself and I had become infected with the long-distance-backpacking-bug. I spent the next several years telling friends and family about the hike, and my ultimate goal to go back and finish the miles I missed. I had an incomplete puzzle, and I needed to place the missing pieces to understand the bigger picture. It took me five years to get myself back to the trail.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. This time was different though, as I had a hiking partner for the entire endeavor, and I believe that is what made it a successful through hike. Most of the people I meet along the way who say “I could never do that,” think largely of the physicality of such a hike. The truth of the matter is that the physicality of the hike is only about ten percent of the struggle. The remaining ninety percent is the daily mental battle. I tell people along the way, your body can handle a through hike. Thousands of years of nomadic ancestry honed our bodies into walking machines. It does take a bit of time to adapt to a walking lifestyle, but the body quickly gets used to walking for nearly endless hours among seemingly endless days. Before you know it, the day has passed and the physical pain that you experienced when you crawled out of the tent is long gone. The body gets a rhythm, and while the pain nags (and sometimes screams), the body gets stronger. If you take proper care of your body while hiking, it can endure countless days of hiking.

The real struggle, the struggle that is ninety percent of the through hike, is the mental struggle. Every day you wake up with pain, or challenges ahead, or a general lack of motivation. You have to have the mental willpower to convince yourself that what you are doing is worth it. Sometimes you could walk for days in bad weather, extreme heat, or boring viewless trail. It is hard to understand that these are part of the full through hiking experience, and you need to endure the trials to experience growth. I would be lying if I said that I never wanted to get off the trail. In truth, I probably had that feeling every day at some point. At least once a week, I felt like it was time to give up and get off. I can recall a few times on the trail when I really really really wanted to quit. It was times like these, where I found strength in having a partner who knew I didn’t really want to quit, but rather was just completely miserable with my physical condition at those times. She had listened to me rave about the greatness of through hiking for years, and how disappointed I was to have left the trail last time. Every time I wanted to quit, she reminded me that I would regret it and that my misery was only temporary.

She was right. Often times things would turn around for the better within a couple hours. My physical pain would be gone (or at least forgotten), the weather would change, or the trail offered up some sort of magic which restored my desire to hike – a cold drink, a warm sun, a trailside cache, a spectacular view, or a heartwarming exchange with another hiker. It wasn’t always a couple hours. At times I would hike for a day or two experiencing gloom, wanting nothing more than to find the nearest road and get off the trail. Sometimes we did cut off the trail early, to restore our bodies and minds.

The interesting fact about going into a town full of luxuries, running water, cooked food, and shelter from the elements, is it did nothing for me other than remind me of why I was hiking. Trail towns are amazing healers for the broken spirit, but they also seem to carry a haunting feeling of emptiness. I enjoyed my zero days, and was thankful for the towns, but I was surprised how quickly the hustle and bustle of even the quietest towns made me yearn for the open quiet outdoors. Life is simple on the trail, and the senses are at peace. In towns, it is complicated and I would experience some sort of sensory overload. Often times, Apricots would comment on how I walked around in trail towns with a glazed over zombie like look on my face. I found it difficult to make decisions because I had an abundance of information being thrown at me, forcing me to constantly process what was important from what was not.

So while I found myself yearning for rest days, and town stops while I was hiking, I too yearned for the trail when I was not hiking. This dichotomy existed for the entire hike. Even now that I am off trail, Apricots and I are already discussing future hikes, future long distance backpacking, and future camping. If the trail taught us anything, it taught us that camping is far more relaxing than through hiking.

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