SUMMERtime

Posted from: Sparwood, BC

In case you’re reading this from Antarctica or New Zealand, here’s a news flash for you: it’s summertime and it’s HOT HOT HOT!! It sounds like much of the US experienced some heat the last week or so, and Jack and I were no exception as we pedaled our way towards the Canadian border. I think I’ve sweat more gallons of liquid in the last week since leaving Missoula than maybe the rest of my life combined.

On the one hand, on these hot days in late July, I feel so annoyed and even downright angry at the sun as it beats down on me. I get it!! It’s friggin summer! But can you not be so sweltering for literally one second?? But at other times, it’s bittersweet. It’s a time of year that feels long and hazy in the moment, but then always slips by so quickly. I think of all the other hot summers I’ve spent living outside, whether with conservation corps or other outdoor education jobs. Watching, and really FEELING, the seasons change around me brings such a nostalgic and soft feeling for me. I feel small and insignificant in the universe in those moments, like a tiny little seed being carried along the great wind of time and space. Instead of being angry at the sun, I am in awe of the world around me and the way that, no matter what I do or how I feel, time just keeps going on and the seasonal changes keep churning like clockwork over and over and over again. The passage of time is always striking to me, but when I’m out here, I feel especially humbled by it. I think this is one of the reasons that I keep coming to live outside.

Some HOT events since leaving Missoula:

Just after riding away from Jack’s parents where they dropped us off (back on route in Superior, MT), we noticed a loud and very annoying creaking coming from my bike. Since we are such excellent bush mechanics at this point, we quickly determined the sound was coming from my cassette. We did in fact bring a cassette lock ring tool all the way from Salt Lake City, so we felt certain we could take care of the problem! However, consider for a moment that the cassette is designed to spin. There is a specific tool called a chain whip that bike mechanics use to hold a cassette to keep it from spinning, but we didn’t bring one of those. So we both alternated sacrificing our hands trying to hold onto the toothed cassette, shedding blood in the process, while the other attempted to unscrew the cassette lock ring. But the damned thing was on there soooooo tight it wouldn’t budge!! At one point, I kid you not, we DUCT TAPED AND ZIP TIED A FREAKIN STICK TO OUR WRENCH (see photo below) to try to get more leverage but it still wouldn’t budge!!!!! In this time, a wonderfully kind soul named Jessie rolled up on us on his Rad Power e-bike, on his way into Superior. Jessie at first rode past us but turned back around and told us “the Lord told me I needed to turn back around and come check on you.” Amen Jessie! Jessie also told us he had some tools on his bike that might help us. We figured this meant he had a multi tool and maybe a spare tube, but nooooo! Jessie whipped out a whole tool bag complete with impact driver, crow bar, screwdrivers, you name it! Unfortunately, Jessie did not have a chain whip and ultimately we still haven’t managed to get my cassette off. However, Jessie was so incredibly kind that he offered to ride back to his house to search for any other tool that might help us, or alternately to at least ride into town to buy us some WD-40. We ultimately decided the issue wasn’t severe enough to warrant such efforts, so we thanked him but continued on our way. Still, it was amazing to meet someone who was completely ready to go far out of their way to help us, thank you Jessie!!

That same day, we rolled into Haugen, ID which turns out is mostly just a gas station on the side of the highway. We were both starving and it was getting late so we decided to dine on frozen gas station burritos. Outside the gas station, we sat at a picnic table to dig into our delectable dinners and soon made conversation with a truck driver who was stopping there for the night. His name was Ernie and he was very excited about our trip and congratulated us on making the time to follow our dreams. By the end of our meal Ernie said that we had inspired him to follow his own dream and go whitewater rafting (we really hope you make the time Ernie!). However, right as we were packing up to leave, another man stepped out to the picnic tables outside the gas station bar, this one with a much more sour demeanor than the delightful and friendly Ernie. He asked us where we were headed for the night, and we told him we’d probably just pull off and camp on forest service land not too far down the road (we camp like this almost every night, this is not a new thing for us). The man then asked if we were “packing,” which we obviously weren’t, but we have bear spray and are prepared to camp in bear country. Unfortunately, homeboy did not approve of this tactic. He warned us that bear spray is just meat tenderizer for when the bear chows down on us. He exclaimed: “BEST case scenario, you get trampled by an elk, and worst case scenario all that’s left of you are your bones. There’s bears, grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions out there!” He urged us to, “please just camp down here by the gas station where you can crawl to shelter if something happens to you.” In the middle of all this was Ernie, looking back and forth between us and the other truck driver with wide eyes. Jack and I honestly felt a little more scared of the other truck driver than of any of the animals we might come across in the forest. Crawl to shelter if anything should happen? Geez…. We thanked him for his advice and bid Ernie goodbye, but then of course immediately pedaled off to the forest where we found a truly excellent camp on a pleasant ridge amidst a bumper crop of huckleberries.

A few days later we rolled into the small but lively town of Wallace, ID. We weren’t expecting much, but as we rolled into town we were both immediately struck by the incredible historic houses lining the streets, all of which seemed to be impeccably kept up. We decided to stop by the local brewery, where we hoped to get a few cans to go since we were going to camp a few miles past town. Instead, we ran into Julie and Scott, who bought us each TWO pints and entertained us with excellent conversation! Julie grew up in Wallace and had come back to retire, and it really seemed like she could have been the mayor of Wallace for how much she knew about the town and all the stories she shared with us. They both welcomed us to town warmly and even encouraged us to come back and live there. It turned into a lovely evening on the front walk of Wallace Brewing, and a bit of a wobbly ride up the road towards camp afterwards! And, for what it’s worth, we did ask Julie and Scott if there happened to be an especially ferocious herd of elk stalking the woods of northern Idaho and Montana….fortunately there weren’t any they had heard of. Thanks again Julie and Scott for your generosity and warm welcome, we love Wallace!!

Another hot and notable event was the Route of the Haiwatha trail. This is an old railroad grade that goes through some really long tunnels and over amazing trestles. It’s now run by the nearby ski resort as a tourist attraction in the summers and thus we were surrounded by tons of folks on bikes! It was a funny shock to be biking along a trail surrounded by families enjoying a day out on bikes together — it was the most bikes we’d seen in one place since leaving Salt Lake, and a beautiful trail to boot!

We were also fortunate to get to have brunch with Jack’s parents, Alison and Steve, in Troy, MT where they drove two hours out of the way to meet us for the occasion! We are incredibly blessed to have families that are so supportive of this trip and have come very far to meet up with us on the road. Thanks again Alison and Steve for brunch and also for being such great cheerleaders all along this adventure!!

Speaking of cheerleaders, in the very northern bit of Montana, less than 100 miles from Canada, we came across some of our first official trail angels on the WWR! Ed and Betty have a beautiful property in the forest that the route goes right by, and they have a sign in front of their driveway inviting WWR riders to come up to get some water and snacks. I was soooo excited to see a property owner leaning into the route and riders, so of course we stopped in. We got to chat with Betty, who graciously gave us a few ripe blueberries from her beautiful garden; we also got to pet Amos the dog, who is almost pictured in the photo below. Thank you Ed and Betty!

Some other hot highlights…

Riding along Koocanusa Lake, which is MASSIVE and beautiful and extends between both Canada and the US. We took a magical swim off a little spit that we had all to ourselves, such a treat.

We made it into Canada on July 24th (PS, happy Pie N Beer day to our Utah homies!!), can you believe we actually biked to another country??? We can’t! The scenery is for real jaw dropping up here — we will cover this extensively in our next post!

With our crossing into Canada we also officially left the Western Wildlands Route and joined the Great Divide! We won’t be on the WWR again until the fall, which is kinda crazy to think about. We’ve already seen about as many riders on the Divide as we did the entire month and a half we spent on the WWR, but this time we aren’t getting to stop and chat with all of them, as many folks are whizzing past in the opposite direction. We did get to stop and talk for a while with the first Divide rider we met just after the border crossing — Chuck. He was full of lots of good beta for the route ahead. It was great meeting him and we hope the rest of his journey goes smoothly! So far it is pretty nice to get to talk to and even just witness fellow riders a little more frequently.

Shop Talk

This has been a long post, but some folks have expressed interest in learning about our gear, so here’s another gear feature!

One of the cool parts of our setups is that we sewed our own frame bags and panniers for our bikes. I’d like to feature our frame bags here first, because they are truly the OG sewing project for us. Back in 2021 we sewed our very first frame bag based off of a simple pattern featured on Bikepacking.com. We used the Makers Space in Salt Lake and started learning the ins and outs of sewing via trial and error. By now we’ve refined our design and added some key features like bigger zippers and a map pocket on the non-drive side. But our first bag still lives on out there; our friend Bridger still uses it! Our friend Packy also uses one of our earlier models as well.

The homemade bags have been an integral part of our bikepacking journey. At face value, bikepacking seems like another expensive, gear intensive hobby for outdoor enthusiasts. But through our sewing adventures and the many iterations of bags and learning how to repair and problem solve with our gear, I feel like we’ve found a way into bikepacking that doesn’t require buying a ton of fancy things. Yes, we have bought some bags and they are great, but we also have invested time and energy into finding our own way into bikepacking that feels good to us. I hope that this might inspire others to take a curious step into bicycle travel — you don’t need any certain type of bag or bike or setup to do it! Using some creativity and the things that you may already have (and maybe about 20 straps), you too can be a bikepacker!!

PS…

We’ve had a few donations from some folks and wanted to give a shout out. Thank you Uncle Mike and Aunt Tammy, and thank you Uncle Eric! Your support is SO appreciated! If you are interested in donating to our journey, you can find a donation form on our Contact/Donate page.