What do I most enjoy on a bicycle tour?
What is it I miss the most when the tour concludes and I find myself back at work once again?
I love that every day is different. I love that there are so many external factors like weather, road conditions, steepness of terrrain and water supply points that dictate how a day will go.
I love waking up not knowing where I’m going to sleep that night. I love waking up in the tent in the early AM as the sun is just about to poke over the horizon when the day is still and quiet and full of potential. I love getting everything packed up and then riding away from the campsite while shadows are still long. I love those early hours before the traffic, the flies and the wind wake up.
I love the feeling of accomplishment when you summit a big climb after many hours of pedalling and pushing the bike. I love the sketchy downhills with moments where you have little contact with the earth and the front and rear tyres are not necessarily in alignment. I love just floating over the loose gravel and picking just the right moment to brake and lean for the corner.
Yes, I love that every day is new and every road unfolds before you like a string unraveling from a ball of thread. You never know what the day and the road will bring.
So that is the title for this trip – New Day Rising.
The title also refers to this ride being a prelude. It’s not the real thing. It’ll be around a 5-week ride – a taste of future, longer rides in the High Country of Victoria.
It was meant to be a proper, 6-month ride from September to March while I waited on the new contract to commence. But a fractured proximal humerus, two shoulder tendon tears and a complicated recovery put paid to that.
So my shoulder ROM is still shit. My doctor said, when discussing my recent MRI results which confirms frozen shoulder, “Oh, Emily! That’s still terrible! How do you not find that debilitating?”, when I showed her my flexion and abduction range.
However, my shoulder pain is much diminished. It’s there when I wake and at the top of the ‘chicken wing’ movement, but not the constant pain I had for about 4 months.
So, I think the shoulder is decent enough to push the bike up 30% grades on rough, loose 4WD tracks in the mountains. And that is my main requirement for being able to undertake this ride. I meet that bar now, so let’s go!
Atlas has been in for a big overhaul service, plus replacement of the bottom bracket and rear rim. So Atlas is ready to go, too. Verne and Kermit need some new head coverings to protect their fraying fabric. Then they will be ready to go, as well.
Now, the other reason for the title of this journal….
It’s the title of my favourite Husker Du album. It’s also the title of the lead track… it’s a prelude to the rest of the album. I love the anticipation that builds in this song. It is a demonstration of ‘the roar’ that runs through me ALL THE TIME. It’s ‘the roar’ that propels me up the hills. It’s ‘the roar’ that gives me the resilience to endure the rough conditions on a bike ride of this nature where you have to be completely self-sufficient out there on those remote tracks. It’s ‘the roar’ that I feel when I bomb down a hill with that shit-eating grin on my face. ‘The roar’ is not just anger and angst – it is every emotion and how I feel those.
So what you hear below is what I feel inside when I’m angry, sad, happy and determined, etc. It’s a constant feeling rumbling through me, and I love when it flows out through the bike. We become one, and every curve and every climb is an expression of the vitality of my life.
So where are we going? I’m not quite sure. That’s one of the things I love about touring- just figuring it out as you go! But here’s an idea I’ve been playing with. It WILL change, but it picks up a bunch of tracks I didn’t do in 2023, and it involves over 70 water crossings. It’s the best time of year (generally, lowest water levels) for river crossing tracks, so I honed in on a few of those sorts of tracks. How many will we end up doing? Stay tuned in April when I write up the ride.
That’s quite a bike shop receipt you’ve got there. You’ll have to find a long, narrow frame for it and hang it on your wall. And I’m glad to see you’re not neglecting the maintenance on your travel companions. G-2 is getting torn and frayed from years of riding too. I’m afraid at some point I won’t be able to repair him with Scotch tape anymore. I might need to have him laminated.
I look forward to reading about you roaring through mountains of Victoria.
You know, I kinda thought G-2 was already laminated at this point. I think the laminating process could be quite traumatic (don’t ask Verne about his experience getting his eyes repainted), but just think, he could do river crossings after that! He could go floating! For the many, many kms that Verne and Kermit have done in the direct sun, I think they’ve actually held up pretty well. They’ve outlasted at least two tents that were felled by UV also.
Go Emily. Have a wonderful tour. Looking forward to reading how it goes.
Thanks, Tony. I tried to reply to your last post on my phone, and then on my tablet, but I kept getting an error message. It was great to see you and Ernie out on the Brompton and a good test trip for the new gear. I’m sorry your stretchers were a no-go, but they are probably a bit easier to find alternatives than another tent. I hope that one goes really well with the trip with Sue this month. Fantastic you can both get out for some trips. I hope you can get some more good rides in, too, and it’s not too smokey from the fires.
Holy moly, that is a long bill. Bike bills are more acceptable than car bills though. It is great news that you shoulder is good enough to finally ride. Have an awesome ride!
I wish I were with you. It is all shit and chaos here. I still have a job so far but no funds to do any work and will have no permanent seasonals to do any of the work with the funds we moved around prior to the election. We already had hiring freezes under Biden and were already at the lowest staffing levels since the Clinton clean out. The comms and rec teams have been obliterated. There will literally be shit building up on all the national forests this summer as there will be no one to clean toilets, maintain trails, roads, etc. Want to adopt an American?
Love – your favorite ex,
Evan
Yeah, come on down. We’ll probably be able to give you, and other federal workers, refugee status soon. We don’t seem to have a problem with people who arrive by plane seeking asylum… Just don’t come by boat. Actually, your expertise would be well-regarded in the firefighting community here. Sending all my best, I can’t imagine how awful and demoralizing it must be right now knowing your work is vital for community safety, forest health and the economy and it’s being smashed to pieces by ideology, ego and revenge.
Love,
Em
Hi Emily,
The opening picture is beautiful. The tent beside the road is classic. And the description of your passion for riding is infectious. Say hi to the crew, Love, Dad (Your bill reminds me of the ones for the Hot Rod parts purchased during the build of Black Flame)
Yes, the opening pic was a fantastic sunrise on a weird weather day. Pic taken from nearly 1600 metres near Oz’s highest airstrip (used to refuel firefighting aerial apparatus). The tent beside the road was less than ideal, but had a water supply and a good location for tackling the tough track it was on. All good memories and hoping to build a bunch more on this trip. Well, spending money on parts is probably better than spending money on booze and fast women 🙂
Looking forward to the journal Emily and hoping that your shoulder is a lot better by then.
Hi Mike,
I’m taking off on Sunday, but will write up the trip when I get back in April. So the shoulder is what it is and I’ll just try to work with its limitations. There is still a partial tendon tear, but I haven’t made it worse with all the stuff I’ve done at the gym over the past 6 months, so I’m hoping that it will be amenable to what I need it to do on the ride without getting worse. I can’t make the frozen shoulder and ROM any worse… so that bit is not a worry. We’ll just have to see how we go!