A Trial of Errors

INT. AIRPLANE - SOMEWHERE OVER IDAHO - DAY

Squished in a middle seat on a full Southwest Airlines flight, doing my best to ignore my jangling nerves (all the flying I've done in my life and I've never gotten used to the idea of being stuck in a giant metal tube 35000 feet in the air with no control over my own safe passage...but let's not think about that now!) At any rate, it seems as good a time as any to dish about this past weekend's bike camping excursion.

Clearly, I'm alive, and happily still in one piece. My trusty friend/current roommate/travel companion turned out to be not quite as badly banged up as I'd imagined, and was game to come with. (Whew!) His bike, on the other hand, was pretty much totaled (Crap!) And so we lost a good three hours off our planned start time searching out a loaner, and then franken-biking a seat onto that loaner. So the planned 40 mile trip out to find a campsite was whittled down to 27 (the last six of which were done in the back of a taxi, as we didn't have enough daylight to safely navigate a six mile straight uphill climb from Port Angeles, and the loaner bike had no lights.) Once we set up camp, though, the rocky start gave way to a pretty solid weekend. The scenery along the Olympic Discovery Trail was lovely:

Along the Strait of San Juan de Fuca

My camping gear performed beautifully (super star shout out to my NH bestie for the gift of the year in an inflatable solar powered lantern!) my legs, though well battered and bruised from numerous run-ins with the pedals and a couple minor crashes, held out well enough to tackle a four mile hike on our one day off of biking, and I even managed to make it down the six mile long hill, on a main road with traffic, without dying, or even falling off (scariest part of the trip for sure!)

I may not know what I'm doing, but at least I look the part! 

20 miles in and still smiling

So, for all of that I should feel much more prepared for my impending Scandinavian excursion now, yea? You'd think so, but truth is I think it only made me realize how much work I still have to do to get to where I'm truly comfortable on the bike. (Like, say, getting to where I can mount and dismount without veering wildly and/or falling over!) Good news is Finland, by all accounts, seems to be a country full of long empty roads, courteous drivers, and extensive bike paths....exactly the environment I need to really learn to become one with the bike. So roll on, Scandinavia...but first, I'm shipping up to Boston!