The road is long, with many a...

Stage 1 - Seattle to Port Townsend.
49 miles, 3hrs 50mins
Safely checked in to the great little Palace Hotel in Port Townsend having rolled off the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry at 10am this morning (picture below is at the very start of the road). I really couldn't have wished for a better first day wish perfect biking weather (blue sky, temperature around 17C, dry and not a breath of wind). Also the roads were ideal for cycling with a smooth wide shoulder lane and the drivers being super courteous when passing. Add to that the bike worked a treat, though it is really, really heavy. Only small issue was, me. Physically I feel great but mentally I'll need to be a bit more disciplined than I was today as I did a couple of things I really shouldn't have en route; firstly zipping past a group of roadies on the climb out of Port Gamble (I just couldn't resist it), but more important was not stopping for lunch. While I got away with it on today's short stage I'll need to make myself resist that 'summit fever'-like urge to just keep going for a few miles more before stopping, no just a few more. I certainly won't get away with it on some of the desert stages.

With so much of my focus on the bike and how I was feeling I actually ended up paying little attention to the scenery and surroundings and after one glance up at the Olympic mountain range when crossing the Hood Bridge saw me almost go headfirst over the edge in shock at how impressive it was I took to looking even less. Though, of what little I saw it looks like a lovely part of the world.

On a different topic, I've also got to say a big thank you to Angus for driving over from Montana to meet me at the airport. Also his friends, Wayne and Stacey, for their hospitality over the past few days in Seattle and particularly for feeding me enough Jack Daniels spaghetti bolanase last night to keep me going till I reach California!

Looking to tomorrow, forecast is still looking good for what is a somewhat tougher day with 77 miles, +4000ft of climbing and only a tent to stay in at the end of the stage. I also suspect I won't get any phone signal there so might not be able to post anything here for a couple of days.

Anyway, I'm off out to find food. Don't care what, quantity is all that matters.

It Lives! It Liives!

It arrived at lunchtime today so after two hours putting it back
together I'm now good to go.

...well, sort of.

No Excuses

(Sat 4th, 8am) Things are definitely looking up. While I've still not got my bike it's apparently made it to Seattle, somewhere, so should be here today. Even better news came from the Komo News weatherman saying that a high pressure system has just formed off the west coast which'll stop the rain & cold air that was expected next week from making landfall. As a result it'll be some 10C or so warmer than 2C-7C highs I was fearing, lots. He even went as far as to cheerily proclaim that Spring has arrived. Another bit of good news was I managed to pick up a can of bear spray (for mere 50 bucks - now there's premium pricing on a product if ever I saw it). Guess I won't even be able to use the bear-ate-my-liver excuse then.

It's beginning to look like this whole show might actually get on the road.

Touchdown, albeit sans bike

Let's be honest I'm struggling to convince myself that I'm about to do what I'm about to do. So, I'm not really that surprised that the US immigration folk didn't believe me. But, they were all set to let me through once I'd gone down to get my bike from baggage. Alas when I returned with no bike and only a sheet of A4 paper saying my bike was lost it became an altogether more complex and time consuming process that almost involved rubber gloves. Finally got through an hour and a half later to meet a perplexed Mr MacIver - they took my phone as well). Still here in one piece and hoping to see the bike tomorrow.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

So, all going well, 24 hrs from now I'll be jetting my way across the Atlantic. My good friend from school, Angus MacIver, has very kindly decided to make the trip all the way from Helena, Montana to meet me at the airport so I'm not lugging 40+kg of kit through some strange city. Speaking of the kit, the packing has actually gone surprisingly well (touchwood) even with with all the extra cold-weather kit I've had to pack at the last minute. As you can see, I've even been able to take shampoo off the kit list. And, no, those aren't stripes from the clippers, its strange ridges in my bonce.

The one thing that still isn't working properly is the GPS system (see my earlier blog). Given its shape and general uselessness, I've decided to christen it 'the turd' for the trip. Anyone caring to read my review of it on Amazon can find it at this link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B001E9651O/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt_sr_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addOneStar

Signing off from Scotland.
Fraser

Fighting Weight. More Like Fighting Weight

I've just made a quick note of what shape I'm in before I head off. HR and bp figs are probably skewed up markedly as I picked up a cold at the weekend (e.g resting HR is normally in the 45-55bpm range). None-the-less, gives me a baseline for when I'm finished.

Mass
Weight 96.3kg
Body fat 21.6% (20.8kg)
Total body water 52.4% (50.5kg)

Volume
Chest 42"
Belly of happiness 40"
Thigh circum. 24.5"
Calf circum. 18"

Pressure
Systolic b.p. 135
Diastolic b.p. 85
Heart rate 67bpm

The Gathering Storm

Having just checked out the long range forecast for the first few days of the route it's looking like I can kiss goodbye to any chance of an easy start to the trip. With the forecast for Port Angeles on a week on Wednesday being for rain, which is no surprise, but also disturbingly cold with a high of only +3C (vs an average early April high of +13C. Looks like I'm going to have to add a fleece, balaclava and who knows what else to the ever growing kit list. Perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention to the fact that none of the hotels etc. opened in that neck of the woods until mid May.

Still, it all adds to the challenge and, on the bright side, I'm hoping it might be too cold for the local bears to venture out 'investigating' the residents of their nearby campsites.

Every Little Helps

Just starting to pack up the kit for the final time. However, given I'm actually struggling to lift the bike once it's fully kitted out (bike & kit now coming in at around 40kg) I've embarked on a weight-saving mission that is becoming almost OCD in nature. As a result, everything, and I mean everything, is being checked and recheck to see if a) I really need it, and b) do I need all of it ... and then it's being checked again. The toothbrush was one of the more obvious targets but zip ties trimmed to the minimum, labels cut off clothes and even shortening the strings on my kite (my one and only real luxury item on the trip) are just some the things not to make it into the final packing. A severe haircut and nail trim are next on the list.

GPS'd Off

Half four in the morning and after numerous fruitless phone calls to the Garmin GPS helpdesk and several computer crashes later I'm calling it quits having only managed to program about a quarter of the route into my new GPS (a Garmin Oregon 400t , if you're wondering) . Of all the many, many pieces of kit I've bought for the trip this has easily made it into my top three of 'definitely-not-worth-the-money' list.

Tempted to leave the thing behind and just pack a sextant!

Loving the Fairies...

...the Glentress 'Trailfairies' that is. The ardent crew who've built what are surely some of, if not the best mountain bike trails in the UK at the Glentress mountain bike centre(http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/achs-5rnfvj). Their creations include this great section of boardwalk and other joys such as the 'wall of death' (which, incidentally was closed today - worrying).

Well, I decided to head down there and hire a bike for the day as my steed is currently in pieces in the workshop of Edinburgh Bicycle for a prolonged and increasingly expensive service (I think I could probably have bought myself a motorbike complete with fuel for my trip for the amount this is going to cost).

If I were to be honest, I was a touch hesitant about going there so close to my departure as the last time I went for a spin there I ended up with a very large haematoma under my rib cage having fallen....badly....in the car park....onto a flower pot. It was actually more embarrassing than it was painful but it was trip-to-casualty-for-chest-x-ray sore. I was even more nervous today when the only bike I could get to hire was too small for me, had loose front suspension and a knackered saddle. Thankfully, though, all went well. And when the tails are as good as this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvGvXJT05x8 then who needs four grand's worth of full suspension machinery.

As an aside, I did actually see one of the elusive trailbuilders in the forest today - he looked about 17 stone, wielding a shovel and was about to get into a JCB - yup, I decided against calling him a fairy.