Time in a Bottle at the Whiskey Off-Road

JD was the first one I saw at the Phoenix airport. (I bet the oversize luggage drop is a great place to meet guys...) So glad to see his friendly face. I hadn't slept enough leading up to the trip, was too anxious and excited for it to begin. Before long, Tony, Azul and Elizabeth strolled by - and the adventure was officially on.

After an airport shuttle ride courtesy of Don Johnson, "the friendliest shuttle driver in the universe who greeted us with love in his heart" and an honest effort to make us laugh, we met the Blackburn crew and a few new Blackburn Rangers, then we piled all of us and all of our bicycles, gear and stuff into a couple of vans. Elizabeth scouted an amazing Mexican place (Carolina's) that quelled our hunger and readied us for the 2 hour drive to Rancho Relaxo. 

Blackburn rented a 5-bedroom ranch house - for real, horses included - for all 20 of us. We camped on the lawn, a couch, or car, and a few of us lucky ones got actual beds. Any shyness I've retained from childhood disappears whenever a bed (or dessert) is up for grabs, so I had a bed to myself. Except for the night my buddy Jackson (Laura and Robin's dog) joined me.  

We got to preview Blackburn's cool new 2014 product line, and watched a couple of the original Ranger videos. I cried as I always do when JD made it to the Mexican border. Just knowing the emotion and pride I felt when I made it to Mexico on my own shorter, easier but still tough ride, it gets me every time. After a sweet ride into Prescott that afternoon, we watched a few bike touring movies in the park. Tequila and bourbon helped keep us warm. 

Then it was off to the Whiskey Off-Road! We started at the festival grounds, then rode up, up, up, and up some more. Elevation gain was something like 4,000' or 5,000'. My sherpas Rob and Billy escorted me up the gravel fire road; neither I nor my trusty Voodoo cyclocross bike were prepared for the official course's gnarly single-track. 

Easily the most exercise I've gotten in the past 8 months thanks to a couple fractured bones over the winter, the ascent kicked my ass. But it was fun! The most gravel grinding I've ever done, and I'm afraid I'm already looking for more. The view at the top didn't hurt either. 

When we arrived at camp, food and chairs were already set up ready to welcome us home. The wind made pitching tents a little tricky, so that turned into a bit of a team effort. Hatchet-throwing was that evening's main event. I was one of the first to hit the target during set-up, but sadly didn't connect with it again all night. Someday maybe I'll aspire to Azul's somersault-throw combo. 

I woke the next morning to rain, as was predicted. Not wanting to get up, I lazed in my comfy sleeping bag a while longer until the rain started sounding… sharper. I peeked out to find sleet. Yikes! So I did the only sensible thing, and put on another layer of clothing before burrowing back in my sleeping bag. But the sleet was here to stay, at least longer than my bladder could hold out. Much scrambling ensued - to pee, to get breakfast, to tear down my tent and prepare for the day. With only short-finger gloves, and an impressively runny nose, "scramble" is an exaggeration with a lot of stopping to warm my hands and blow my nose (which sadly did nothing to warm my hands).

Once camp was packed up, I and a few others hiked down to the Blackburn bacon station, on the 3-hour delayed race course. Thank god Mark and Katie welcomed all of us into their heated van, stocked with dry wool socks and ziploc bags to rescue my soggy cold footwear ensemble. I took a few turns handing out bacon to riders as they zipped by, sometimes completing a successful handoff and once sticking a piece right in a guy's mouth. I don't know how any heterosexual male could have resisted Laura, with her gorgeous smile and fistful of bacon, as they came down the track. Indeed, few did. 

Eventually it was time to head back into town, and JD gallantly rode with me down the fire road. We found some amazing views that hopefully my memory will hold - my phone battery didn't withstand the sleet and snow. We found an ice cream shop and continued to swap bike tour stories. Having both completed first-time epic bike tours last summer, it is so great to have someone to share those stories with - someone who gets it. I'm excited to have made a few new friends and looking forward to hearing their stories soon. That's the cool thing about the entire Blackburn family - they all get it, they all have stories and I'm just grateful they keep wanting to hear more.   


   

Best Mexican place in Phoenix

Steeds at pasture

JD getting his relaxo on

Add caption

Rangers… mount up!

This is Big Johnson, but you can call him BJ

Movie night in the park

Loaded up with our new Blackburn gear and ready to ride

Hey, I know that dude...

And so it begins...

Following Billy, and starting to wonder if I have enough water...

Nice reward for the climb

I like how the red jersey brings out the roses in my cheeks

Ever-important recovery calories!

The videos! Pacific Coast Highway

Here are the videos produced by the incomparable Encompass Films about me and my fellow Rangers. A wonderful gift from Blackburn.

1. Pre-ride 

2. Starting off

3. Getting the hang of it

4. The finish!

Raring to Go (written June 14, 2013)

(I put this together the night before I left on my Pacific Coast Highway bike tour, and am posting it now. For further trip updates, including post-trip reflections, check here: http://www.blackburndesign.com/outthere/pacific-coast/jschofield/ )

It is the final week before my trip, and I am ready to be done with the planning, errands, logistics and details! What little time I'm spending on the bike is less about building endurance, and more a reminder of why I'm doing all this work. If I can make a ridiculous analogy, I feel like a racehorse at the starting gate. (Pretty sure racehorses are faster than my 10 mph average.)

I've had my bike fit, tuned, re-fit, adjusted, mapped the route, tested all the camping gear, swapped some things out, thought of and forgotten a gazillion little details.

When I finally do get out for a training ride, it is such a relief... a release just to be out, simply riding my bike. And 5 hours into that training ride, when I can still feel my fingers and think, yeah, I could actually wear these shoes for a few more hours - those are the sweet rewards for all the grueling preparations.

But the funny thing about planning is - I can do it with my little dogs at my side, in the comfort of my own home. Is there a word for the emotion of missing something before it's gone? There is a lot of push-pull between home and the road right now.

I am having a lot of fun daydreaming about what lies ahead. I'll close with a few trip predictions:
- I'll see a major change in how much I swear ... not sure if it will be more or less.
- Telling people about my trip will prompt them to tell me about their dream adventures. (This has happened a few times already; it's pretty fun.)
- I will develop an extreme dislike of sunscreen in about a week. It's already brewing - sunscreen and sweat, yuck!
- I will consume astounding quantities of food! I will enjoy this immensely!
-The proverbial blood, sweat and tears will make an appearance. Although I may have already met the quota in the planning phase...

The Next Adventure - Biking the Pacific Coast Highway

"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." - Cesare Pavese

 In 3 days I will again subject myself to this sweet brutality. I've been fortunate to wander far from home in the past, this time I'll stay in my own time zone. Powered by my own two legs, I'll pedal down the U.S. Pacific Coast - from the Peace Arch in Blaine, WA to the border of Mexico at Imperial Beach, CA. I'm not sure what I'll find along the way, other than what Mr. Pavese promises. I suppose that is my intention, to strip away the familiar comforts, the ruts and routines into which I've grown comfortable, only to expose my dreams, the sea and the sky.

Several people have compared my trip to Cheryl Strayed's journey her popular book Wild. (She hikes the Pacific Crest Trail with little backpacking experience but a lot of moxie.) It was definitely an inspiration for my own trip, particularly a guy she encounters on her trip, who marvels at the amazing experience she's having, and wishes aloud that he could do the same...before driving off in his fancy car, back to his office job.

Here's the thing. He can, you can, I can have an adventure like that. "I can't" is bullshit. I've left my own office job and BMW bracket or no, this involves some sacrifices - steady paycheck and benefits, yeah? (I should note I'm getting a little help from my friends, see below.) I am taking an early / temporary retirement to travel, bike and write. It was not easy. That's worth repeating: it was NOT easy; it took agonizing deliberation to get here. But I'm here, counting down the hours to the starting line.

"Someday" is not a plan.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain



I am super lucky to have some help on my Pacific Coast Highway tour. Check out www.blackburndesign.com/outthere

 Updates along the way @jen_scho (Twitter) and jen_scho (Instagram)

Looking for inspiration? Check out these sites:
- Adventurer Alastair Humphreys: Www.alastairhumphreys.com
- Bruce Weber "Life is a Wheel" http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/29/travel/biketour.html
- Adventurer Helen Thayer www.helenthayer.com
- Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild www.cherylstrayed.com
...And because dreams are infectious, here's one of my favorites - Mr. Rogers: http://m.video.pbs.org/video/1428499965/

Home

Am back in Seattle, amazed at how cold it is here - and how much stuff we have at the house! I guess I've been succeptible to complexity and clutter in my comfortable life; this masks how tenuous life truly is...life's fragility is much more transparent in Sri Lanka. And it's crystal clear how lovely my little family is...and so sweet to reunite with Toby and the dogs on Tuesday. I miss the ocean but will get in some (cold) saltwater again very soon. I promise to go back and more trip stories and photos of my beautiful trip, hopefully this weekend. Jetlag haunts me every day, but it was all worth it. Thanks for following along with me.

Jerusalem Day

Greetings from Jerusalem, on Jerusalem Day. I had no idea I was arriving on the anniversary of Israel securing Jerusalem, but here I am. I'm not sure what time zone I'm in, but since my last post I've made it to Jordan, successfully rented a little stick-shift 4 cylinder Suzuki, and after a wrong turn found the Dead Sea. I had a quick float - felt like a cork bobbing around in the water, it was weird to get in a swimming pool right after and sink. Got back on the road only to miss the turn to the border. I pulled in at a service station and a guy my dad's age helped me get going in the right direction despite the fact that we shared no common language. He hopped in the car with me and pointed me through a very complex u-turn route, then said "hello" as he got out. It was awesome. I hope he understood how grateful I was. One of this trip's highlights is all of the handsome men ready and willing to help at any time! Ok, off to find some real hummous...

Next stop: Jordan

Am at the Colombo airport jonesing for a nap before my 3am flight to Amman. Later I'll go back and post more Sri Lanka tales (lounge singers, bats with a 2'-3' wingspan in the park, spices' dry heat that lingers a long long time). I've been scribbling many notes in my journal and someday I'll have a solid internet connection enabling photo uploads too. But first I need to go snag myself a row of seats for a snooze in the waiting area. Sri Lanka is a pretty tough act to follow but I'm willing to see what Jordan and Israel have to offer.