Things to Do, Places to See

Right now, I am possibly in the best shape of my life. Since deciding to get healthy a couple of years ago, I not only transformed my body, but my mind has undergone a transformation as well. My whole definition of "fun" has changed. Back in the day, "fun" was hanging around in bars and clubs until the lights went on and nowadays, I choose to get to bed early even on the weekends, so I can get up at the crack of stupid to ride the bike for five hours.... See, I am a total party animal.

With the increased fitness also came a new sense of adventure. Adventures, that are based around the fact, that the human body is an amazing machine, that can get you to places and lets you enjoy things in a way that is just not possible in a car, on a motorbike or in a plane.... experience places away from the noise of life at the rhythm of your breathing.

With that being said, here is my current (subject to change at any time ;-) top three on my bucket list in the adventure department:

Source

• Hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail: I first heard of the Appalachian Trail (AT) when I read the book "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. At the time, I was preparing to move to the US and basically read anything and everything about the area I was moving to. While very entertaining, the book really didn't give me too many hints about how life in the south-east is going to be. Still, the descriptions about the land, the trail is winding through, left a lasting impression on me. At the time, anything other than shorter day hikes on the AT would have been delusional for my out of shape self. When my husband and I first started dating, we did a couple of hiking outings in the surrounding area and always enjoyed it very much. Soon we started daydreaming about the AT and the possibility of taking a week or two to just be and let our feet carry us as far as they can....

Source

• Bike Tour around Lake Constance (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): While there are more challenging bike tours out there, this one is definitely on the bucket list.... Because it's beautiful and especially because it's not too difficult. This way, my mom and dad would be able to come along. We could take it easy, take our time and enjoy the local cuisine and scenery.... with a lot of focus on local cuisine of course! ;-)

Source

• Great Divide Mountain Bike Route:  I am fully aware that I have no business on ever even thinking about riding this route, but I guess that's why they call it a bucket list. I have hardly any mountain biking experience. I don't own a mountain bike (but my hybrid works for the little I do right now) and even though I said for the last year, that I want to get more into mountain biking, so far it's just been that: talking about it... no action whatsoever. Still, ever since following Jill Homer's blog and seeing the Tour Divide movie, it's an intriguing possibility... far fetched, but a possibility. The prospects of doing a self supported ride over that kind of distance, being on the road for not only a couple of days, but a couple of weeks. It's daunting and fascinating at the same time. Just picture yourself to follow the Continental Divide and to experience the changes in landscape and climates. Crazy right??

When looking over these adventures, my mind starts wandering right away:

What is involved to accomplish these goals?

Of course there is the training to consider. Also, there is equipment to choose and to get familiar with e.g. a tent and know how to set it up, an appropriate bike and the skills to fix the basic stuff when the next bike shop is 100 miles away. But also: How do I get the time away from work and how do I finance something like this? I know, none of these items are completely out of the world things and I know, once I set my mind on it, I will find a way...

In the meantime, I enjoy daydreaming about the possibilities.

First Item On My Bucket List

No, I am not planning on kicking the bucket any time soon, but lately I had a revolving thought about bicycle travel and also some outside inspiration from books and magazines, that I feel I have to put it on record, so that it starts to become a more concrete goal. Besides, I am sure that when I start to think about other goals, I would soon be able to find other items for the list.

Anyways, back in summer, in one of my reading-like-crazy phases, I picked up several travel report books. One guy was hitch-hiking around Ireland with a fridge, two dudes rode around the world on their BMWs and then there was this guy, that circled the globe several times in every possible direction on his bicycle in the last three decades.


Source of picture is here.

Especially this last guy (Tilmann Waldthaler), made a career out of travelling on a bike. His very first tour in the 1970s, he did on a touring bike, built for him... At the time he was in Australia and basically biked through the Australian Bush on skinny tires. He also described the first time he saw a mountain bike several years later and how he embraced this new sport. He actually wrote a mountain bike guide for the Alps only to be shown the door when trying to sell his book to his editor, because there was no market for this content in the editor's opinion... Only to sell it a couple of months later, when the need for it was even evident to this said editor. This guy really works to live. It was the revolving theme in his book, that he took on a job, just to finance his next trip of several months. He said, he always worked and doesn't need a lot. While reading excerpts out of three decades of travelling on a bike, he made the impression of a grounded dreamer, if this makes any sense to you. Now he doesn't have to take a regular job anymore to keep on travelling. He travels and then writes books about it, gives speeches and showcases his pictures. He is a professional adventurer. Here is an interview with him in German.

Even though I admire this lifestyle, I am a creature of comfort. I can take camp sites, porta johns, heat and coolness, discomfort and dirt for a couple of days, but then I want to get back into civilization with all of it's amenities. And yes, this is maybe the most extreme case of bike touring that you can do, but between this and doing a bike ride around the block, there are tons of possibilities. It's just the question of which shade of gray fits to your abilities, your preferences, your wallet and your time resources.

More food for thought gave me an article in the Roadbike Action Magazine (August issue) about two guys that went from Canada to Mexico in around four weeks. Those guys did the structured approach (I like structure) and they travelled light... very light. They basically did this trip on their credit cards. They didn't carry food other than water, stayed in hotels every night, didn't even have a full change of clothes with them, so they washed every night. I read this article and first I thought, this is just crazy expensive, but on the other hand... I did three weeks of road trips before and I had to stay in a hotel every night and also had to eat out every night. Besides, if you don't have thousand things with you, you can use your regular road bikes for this trip (like these guys did) and don't have to buy/ rent a touring bike. On a road bike, you are also able to log some serious mileage as log as your legs and your butt are game for it.

We'll see... It's on the bucket list now and I am going to work from here! ;-)