B2VT

The B2VT (Battlefield to Vermont, which was rebranded from the great B2B, Brewery to Brewery ride) was our last long training ride! 132 miles wasn't easy, but we managed to finish pretty quickly - a ride time of a little over 7.5 hours.

Don beat Dave in the King of the Hill (a race up the biggest uphill) with a time of 21:15 minutes. Dave finished it 29 seconds after Don.

Dave is happy about men in spandex. Don is happy about food.

ROUTE PLANNING

With a little over two weeks before our departure, we convened for a much needed meeting.  We were successful in finalizing our route with the knowledge that it will change to some degree while we are on the road.  We decided to cross the Rockies via the Lolo Pass (Lewis and Clark in reverse) and then continue south to Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and into the Badlands.  There appears to be a magical Route 14 which runs along our desired path nearly 1000 miles, across the states of South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We’ve been concerned about navigation in areas without cell service, so we took photographs of the route to store on our phones (see photos).

We still are not sure how we will cross into Ontario, Canada from Michigan as bikes aren't allowed on the bridge at Sarnia, but Dave, who is from Grand Rapids, MI, assured us that a family member could meet us and take us across in a pick-up with our bikes in the back.  We plan to cross into NY at Niagara Falls then take one of the NY State bike routes (#5) along the Erie Canal, departing from it in Schenectady to head to Williamstown.  Williamstown is the only location that we have a scheduled stop.  On Thursday July 24, we have third row tickets to see Chris Pine in Fool for Love at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  We’ll be 180 miles from the finish which gives us two days to get to Boston, dip our front wheels in the Atlantic near Castle Island, and get ready for our welcome home party at 6 PM Saturday July 26th.

JERSEYS

Sometimes on a rainy day in Boston, it's tough to get motivated to go outside and get on the bike to ride on the potentially treacherous streets of the city when your bed is completely dry and warm. But since biking across the country doesn't allow for a day off just because of some pesky rain, there's a point at which we've got to get used to conquering our dislike of being uncomfortable in favor of the end reward. On our trip, the reward is that we get 120 miles farther in a day instead of sitting in our tent and waiting out the rain and then having to make up that distance later. While we're still in Boston, that ultimate reward is harder to see - a warm bed is quite tangible compared to those extra muscle fibers added to our legs from a morning ride in the rain.

But on these rainy days where it sucks to get on the bike, there are still some things to get excited about as we prepare to embark on this crazy trip (three weeks and one day before we fly out!). For one, our custom jerseys. These things were designed just for us by Don's sister, who has a secret calling as a sportswear designer. Aren't these things sweet? (Thanks, Gail!)

Though they won't arrive until the day before we leave for our trip, it's still pretty exciting to see what we'll be wearing out there on the road for July. And, in case any of you guys happen to be out there somewhere on a hot day in July, hopefully you can spot us by recognizing these jerseys!

POST-WORKOUT FOOD

Post-workout food! Buffalo chicken wrap and a chocolate jimmy carter shake. Nothing better for speedy recovery.

Honestly, one of the toughest things we're going to need to think about on this trip is fueling our bodies. At 8-10 hours per day in the saddle, we're burning a ton of calories (6000+). This means we need to be eating pretty much constantly unless we want our bodies to start disintegrating. And since none of us are using this trip as a crash dieting opportunity, it would be nice to actually eat excess calories so we have a chance of building muscle during July. Because we're carrying everything on our backs (er, mostly on racks on the back of our seatposts) we need to be wary of picking up too much extra weight by packing food. We'll obviously have to pack some food for between stops, but we're probably going to end up relying on a fair number of roadside restaurants/gas stations/coffee shops. The good news: we're burning so many calories that it doesn't really matter what kind of food it is. The bad news: the rural roads of America aren't known for their cuisine. So, friends: plan to cook nice things for us when we return! We'll devour them.

GEAR SUGGESTIONS

The ride starts in 31 days! The three of us are working on collecting our last bits of gear for the ride.

Over the past 6 months, we scoured the internet looking for high quality gear with an ultralight mindset. In case any of you are thinking about an endeavor like this in your future (or you just want some ideas for ultralight cycling or camping), we wanted to share our research.

Click this LINK for the spreadsheet.

3P TENT

Our 3-person tent arrived. It's roomy, self standing, and super light at 3lbs 4oz. I had to set it up to see what our digs for a month would look like. Thank you Easton for making the Kilo 3P. It's amazing.

It's hard to believe that this thing weighs so little and yet can house the three of us for a month. We've also been looking into some other options for rest stops that might include a shower or maybe (if we're super lucky) a bed. Some options include warmshowers.org, but we're open to suggestions. If anyone's ever had luck with this sort of thing, let us know! And if you've got a house along our route that you want to open up to us (or at least a shower that you wouldn't mind us using and a yard we could camp in) then shoot us an email!

LIFE ON THE TRAINER IS OVER

Now that the weather is better, the three of us are emerging from my basement and riding outside. Feels good to be actually moving. But we'll miss the amazing TV we've been watching (thanks Dave Cattermole!)

Though Gravity and The Wire were quite the adrenaline-rush for us as we pounded out the miles inside, we're excited to get back on the open road and see some sunshine. Hopefully we'll look a little less pale by the time we start our ride (for vanity as well as for our protection against sunburns!)

ALL IN!

It's confirmed. 3 riders, 29 days, 10 states (and 1 province). The three of us are planning on traveling about 3500 miles during the month of July via bicycle self-supported from Seattle to Boston. Follow along on our adventures as we prepare for and complete this epic ride.











Riders: Don Hess, Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Dave Young