About 10 years ago I bought a touring bicycle and some panniers and tried some 'loaded touring'. At first it was 'bike overnight' stuff. I carried the tent, stove, food & water, clothes, etc. Then I tried two nights out. Still enjoyed it, so I planned a lake tour. We have five federal flood control lakes in this part of Kansas so I could create a loop route and hit them all, one day at a time. I could leave from home and return to home. I figured when I retire, I'll do that.
Then Wilma and I had health issues, I retired, she died and life was on hold for a while. Now I'm back in the saddle, literally. Love my bike. When I met Liz, she had similar interests. Her background in loaded touring far exceeded mine, but she was game to do this lake tour. Game on!
Five lakes, five nights in six days. That was the (flexible) plan. After four lakes, though, we just kinda ran out of gas. Our objective from the start was to have fun and see if we travelled well together, not to enter an endurance contest. We could have finished the tour but didn't feel the need to. So we bailed out at Clinton and pedaled home. We still ended up with 193.3 miles, which is almost like pedaling to Hays, Kansas. Looking back, we should have hit two lakes, then taken a rest day, then proceeded. We're both trying to figure out what our 68 year old bodies are capable of while being haunted with the memory of what they used to do.
Our average speed isn't worth noting. We had some rough days. No storms but some headwind. We didn't have extensive pre-trip training. I think we did just fine. We ate at some fine restaurants and the camp food was pretty good, too. And we found that we can travel well together and not kill each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment