The planning, the training, the driving have come to an end and now the CanMexPac ride actually begins. Yesterday we picked up Jim and Bill at SeaTac International Airport and after a sumptuous meal in Seattle we overnighted in Bellingham ready to ride the next day. Of course we woke up many times during the night and I am sure Jim and Bill were probably peeking out their window, just like I was. At 2AM the ground was dry and I thought that was a sign that was too good to be true. At 5AM, the light rain proved that the 2AM sighting was indeed too good to be true. At 7AM we started stirring, getting breakfast and attending to the bikes, in preparation for the portage to Blaine at the Canadian border. After a leisurely morning of preparing, hoping for a rain respite, we actually started riding south from the Canadian border at about 10:30AM. Before we rolled out, Jim talked to my wife and arranged some “soft” stops for her to meet us. “Soft” means we would probably be there at the pre-arranged time, and “soft” meant that if she did not find something more interesting to visit, it would be a nice time to meet her as she was our SAG vehicle; Support And Gear. Eighteen miles south of Blaine, we stopped and celebrated with local coffee the fact that we were 1% complete on our approximately 1800 mile trip. And Dennie and her mom was there to celebrate with us.
Except for the headwind, it was a good first day for riding. There was some light rain, but not bad. The temperature was about 65F and the climbing was very moderate. And the scenery was definitely different than what we experience in New Mexico. There was dark, damp rainforest with thick green moss on the cement bridges. The skies were grey but it was still beautiful, and again, so different from what we ride back home. And there were vistas of bays, and islands, and green mountains and forest meeting the sea. I was loving it!
We were navigating with a combination of maps and GPS tracks. Jim had the maps from American Adventure Cycling that we had purchased and has the entire ride mapped out and described from Vancouver, B.C. to Tijuana, Mexico. I had the same maps but I had given my maps to Dennie, our SAG driver, so she knew where we were … or should have been, but I will get to that. I had also gone out to the American Adventure Cycling site and downloaded the GPX routes and I was using my Garmin Edge 705 to keep us on the correct route. So Jim was using paper and I was using the GPS, and together we were finding the little roads that American Adventure Cycling recommended. To AAC’s credit, they do a pretty good job at putting you on safer, low traffic roads when possible. But sometimes that meant we could easily miss an obscure turn. After a while, we started relying more on the GPS, especially when there were multiple turns in sequence. This worked well until the GPS operator (yours truly) missed a turn and after about 5 miles down the road said, “Whoops, we are off GPS. We better stop.” This is probably a good time to mention chemistry, ride partners and personalities. Without getting into too many specifics, after we are just about 50 miles into our ride, with more headwind than we expected, you don’t want to hear you are no longer on the route. I was not happy with myself for missing a turn. So at this time, we pulled out the maps and tried to figure out where we were. But the maps are very detailed and designed to support riders that are on course, and apparently if you are even five miles off course, you are also off the map. With grey skies that hid the location of the sun, I was not even sure which direction was west or north. BUT fortunately, the Edge 705 has a “go to” feature. So, I punched in “Anacortes, WA” and the 705 replied “on road or off road?” We are definitely skinny tired roadies and no one was feeling adventurous enough to go off road, so we chose the on road option. In the end, we might have added 3 miles to our total ride distance which turned out to be 66 miles for the day (Day One route).
We rolled into Anacortes and found our lodging, a very charming place called Anaco Bay Inn. We got cleaned up and the three riders debriefed and went over the Garmin MapSource actual track for the day and the intended route. We found the 90 degree turn we missed (I feel it was mostly my fault because we had become comfortable depending on the GPS rather than pulling the maps out) and also decided we did not add that much distance to the ride. Jim thought our “new” route might have even been shorter, but I am sure it wasn’t. But, bottom line, all’s well that ends well.
Tomorrow is a shorter and even flatter ride, not that today had much climbing, just a few moderate rollers. Jim is coaching us to slow down some and make it a recovery ride. He said we have a lot of miles to go and we should pace ourselves in the beginning. That is good advice for me because I really have not ridden in about two weeks. I told Jim if we are pushing too hard than he should just fall back, because if I look back and see him hanging on my wheel, then I assume we are riding as we should. Bill admits that he rode like a horse heading for the barn when we got within 5 miles of Anacortes, he was really pushing it.
It is time to get this post published, and then retire and rest and rise tomorrow for Day Two of our CanMexPac ride.
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