I forgot to mention the tourers we met on day 6. This one is for all of you who are thinking, "I can't do that."
We were cruising through Lincoln City (not my favorite place to ride though, I might mention, as it's something like 6 miles long and probably less than a mile wide with no bike lane or even a shoulder to speak of), when I got stopped by a red light that Anthony and Davan had made it through. From my left, out pops two tourers, each with panniers and pulling trailers. One of them made a concerted effort to catch up to Anthony, but the other, I quickly passed. She was an older lady and we exchanged friendly hellos as I passed.
The first one, who did catch Anthony briefly, enough to say hi, soon dropped back and I passed him, as well. He turned out to be an older gentleman.
This couple showed up at Beverly Beach that evening, giving us a chance to really meet. They live in Oklahoma and had started out car camping across country. As they had planned, they left their car with a friend in Washington and started biking down the coast. They were going to San Diego, where they planned to fly back to their car and continue car camping.
This very nice couple, traveling with many amenities such as their lap top, a table cloth and wine glasses, were doing about 30 miles a day.
I mentioned already that they were older. How old? Well, they were in their 70. I'll tell you what, if a 70 year old couple can do it, then no one should be saying, "I can't do that!" Maybe, "I don't want to." Because, really, anyone can. You just have to start somewhere. Ride a couple a miles today. Or even a mile. And then do it again tomorrow. Next week, add some more distance. Pretty soon you'll see results.
Here's to the Beverly Beach couple. Enjoy your travels!
So true. I commented on the previous post before reading this one. We had a group from our church (mostly younger but at least one who was late 40's) go from Vancouver to Halifax in 7 weeks. Many of them did not train before heading out, just go the gear and headed up the mountains doing a hundred km a day. One of the guys did a documentary about it called "Strength and Honour, Cycling Canada Coast to Coast". They had a support vehicle with them so didn't carry their stuff, but it is rather interesting anyway and interesting how they were able to do it despite not training.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's amazing what the body will do. That first week or two, if you don't have enough preparation in, is quite difficult, though!
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