Change and growth takes place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life. - Herbert Otto
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The Cliff-noted version of why am I doing this:
In August of this year I decided that after 6 truly phenomenal years at Camp Woodstock working with some of the best folks imaginable it was time to take a leap of faith and move away from 42 Camp Road. The time just seemed right try a new environment and begin growing in different ways. That said, every new journey should always start with a great adventure! Upon hearing of my big moving plan (and then taking 2 months to actually believe me), my friend Dot proposed a cross-country bike trip....which I somewhat hesitantly agreed to do....and then later realized that she wasn't joking. So here we go!
Our general preparedness:
Dot's cycling experience - Long bike trips in Alaska, New England and Canada pulling camping gear and a dog for weeks. Hannah's cycling experience - Has not biked over 30 miles in a single day in her life, but CAN ride with no hands (a proud self-taught skill)! I didn't get on a road bike until this year and most of my biking experience has been on a mountain bike.
Luckily we both have camping skills, okay gear, good humor, and a relative amount of athleticism (though I think we've both traded physical training for basic carbo loading as of recently).
How this will work:
On January 17th we will fly to San Diego, CA and meet our pre-shipped bikes there. After a day or two of getting our act together (and the ceremonial back tire dip in the Pacific) we will hit the road (i.e. 5,000ft mountain climb) on/around January 20th. We will be carrying camping gear since there are long, desolate stretches and great parks, but also plan to utilize warmshowers.org, which is a "couchsurfing"-like organization for cyclists. If all goes well, we will be dipping our front tires in the Atlantic off St. Augustine, FL in late March. We plan to bike an average of 60 miles per day. Here is the map of our generalized route (ours is the orange line): Southern Tier Biking Route
Three ways you can get involved!
- Reach out to your cool friends in southern states and ask them if they have a room for two sweaty girls for a night....we are pretty great company.
- Write us nice, uplifting notes!
- Help send a kid to camp! Because I so value camp, camping, and everything that has to do with very uncomfortable communal living and friendship-building, I am connecting this trip to the Camp Woodstock annual campaign so that together though sponsorships and colossal cycling millage, we'll be able to send a child to camp for 2 weeks....giving that child the opportunity to have their own adventure. Information about how to do this will soon follow.
In the spirit of all good adventures,
Hannah
