And so it begins.....

Or should I say it has re-surfaced.  What am I talking about? Bike touring!  Yep, Jay and I are officially going bike touring.  And I for one am totally excited.  We both have done a bit of touring in the past. Most of my tours have been in Ireland, Britain and Europe and most of Jay’s have taken place in the Pacific North West.  One thing I have learned through Jay is that you don’t have to travel far to experience beautiful bike touring (Or any other touring for that matter).   The one bike tour we have completed together was in 2004 where we credit card toured through East Germany from North to South with a short stop in Berlin and then following the Salle River to the head waters.  That was fun.  So, eight years later we have decided to outfit ourselves and discover the world by bicycle. 

JP with her Surly

Most of my touring has been done on the infamous pink bike:  An old Specialized Hard Rock rigid frame mountain bike.  It worked – I never had any problems- it handled all the terrain I could throw at it and is still functioning today. However, it is no longer to be my touring bike as we have decided to update our equipment and gear for our future plans.  Our first purchase is our bikes.  We opted for Surly Long Hall Truckers.  Mine was delivered first, three days after having abdominal surgery… so it now sits in my living room – so I can stare at it longingly.  Soon enough I will be able to ride my Forrest Green two wheeled work horse – and who knows where it will take me.

We are in the process of planning out several 2-3 day local shake down tours to work out gear issues.  We will mostly be camping on our bike tours from here on out as credit card tours are very spendy! Although I am very familiar with backpacking and camping – I have little experience with camping while bike touring – so I have a lot to learn. 

Our first longer tour will be this summer- where we intend to tour around Wales.  We have about 800 miles of bicycling sketched out over a two and a half week period.  If all goes as planned, my cousin Alexa will be joining us for the last half of the tour.   For now I will settle with reading about Wales and staring at my bike.  I must heal and then work up to 60-80 miles per day on a loaded bicycle. I have my work cut out for me!