Shoving Off - Day 1

When I was a little girl, my mom took my brother and I up to the rec center to sign up for tee ball.

This was completely voluntary on our parts, whether we did or did not want to play was completely up to us.

Panic stricken at the thought of doing something I knew nothing about, I adamantly shook my head "no" and told my mom I did not want to play.

The sick feeling of drunken butterflies in my stomach led me to believe nothing good could come from this "new" thing.

So, I didn't sign up for little league and my brother did and the summer progressed.  My brother received a uniform, his own trading card and after games his team would go out for ice cream.

It led me to believe that I got hosed by those little drunken butterflies.

But that hard learned lesson did not make them go away and whenever I prepare for something new or outside of my comfort zone, they always come back.

As I rode away from my home on the first day of my trip, I felt a little blue.  I was going to miss my husband, my animals and my family.  Maybe in the end it would have been better to have begged and pleaded with someone to ride along with me so I wouldn't be lonely or intimidated by the mileage ahead.

This feeling lurked about my shadow as I pedaled past the areas I know all to well.  Clinton River Trail, the Pontiac Loop (where some crazy ass lady almost swiped me with her car...I hate riding through Pontiac), Bloomfield Trail...

And then I started into a section I had only ridden on once before and then into completely unknown territory. 

Which surprisingly made those butterflies start to drop away.

The further I progressed on my route, the happier my spirits became and soon like a good pack of rolaids, my enthusiasm for the path ahead squelched those butterflies (but I still did miss my husband, my family and my animals).

And like bread crumbs, puddles filled the pathways and streets as I moved through each Township, indicating the presence of rain moving in front of me, my private little storm cloud clearing out the trail.

Amazingly, the route I put together was made up of primarily just rail trail paths on this first section.  I had very little road riding until I started creeping up on my destination (a small town outside of Lansing called Dimondale).

The sun was shining, traffic was minimal since it was a Sunday evening and before I knew it, I was already rolling into the hotel parking lot.

In an effort to make myself a bit more presentable, I've gotten into the habit of trying to smooth out my fuzzy tennis ball hair when I take off my helmet.  I went through the routine out in the parking lot of the hotel prior to entering.

The concierge was very pleasant and quickly checked me in with minimal gawking at my disheveled appearance.

After rolling my bike to my room (I have to say I love the sound of my hub echoing off the walls of places it should not be), I immediately took a shower....and it was glorious.

Then, as I was preparing to leave the room to hunt down dinner, a funny thing happened.  

The power went out.

I walked over to the window and threw back the curtains and outside was a torrential down pour.  The wind was blowing so hard that the garbage cans in the parking lot were sliding across the pavement.

Talk about timing!

I hadn't been checked in for even twenty minutes, if that!

Panicked at the thought of not getting dinner, I switched into my rain pants and jacket and made my way across the parking lot to the onsite Wendy's.  

I had a date with some prefabricated chicken nuggets!

By the time I walked there to get my food and then start back, the storm had already passed. 

As I trudged across the pavement avoiding giant lakes of water, holding my prized nuggets, I felt like I had gone out and rustled up that food with my bare hands.

I returned to my hotel room to find the power was back on :-) and set up my little meal on my bed.  As I ate an episode of "Bones" playing on the television, I stared out the window in a dazed state of euphoria.

Tomorrow I would venture further west, my destination, the coast of Muskegon.  My hopes for the roadside scenery were high, but for now, I cleaned up the remnants of my meal and prepared a cup of tea for bed.

Trip Stats:

Total trip distance today was 115 miles 

Total cost was $74.95 for the hotel room and $7.20 for my dinner

Total time in saddle was somewhere around 9 hours (Strava kept seizing and segmented half my ride while not recording some sections...geez....technology)

This, The Final Night

The mark of a good adventure is the sadness that comes with its end.

Tomorrow I make the final leg of my little bike excursion and head to Union Station to catch the train back home.

The past few days have been spent attending conference classes and my brain is craving the freedom of the road once more.

So, what exactly was this little mini adventure?

A few weeks ago, an opportunity came up for me to attend a conference in Chicago. 

I immediately thought, "How awesome! A conference in Chicago, I've never been there....I wonder how many miles away that is...."

As it turns out, approximately 358 miles if you go south from my front door or 314 if you head straight across Michigan to Muskegon and nab a quick ride on the Lake Express Ferry and then head south along the coast of Lake Michigan and then you head a little inland as you cross the border to Illinois and then....well you get the picture!

What a perfect way to practice solo bike packing and to test the waters around whether this was a type of riding that I would even enjoy!

What was even better was that the conference coincided with the week of Labor Day, so it would only require one personal day to connect the holiday weekend with the conference start up.

Double awesome.

Now for the hard part...how do you pack light when you need to bring both business professional attire and your gear?

Now, no one came up to me at the conference and outed my potential fashion impairments, but I'm sure the show ponies galloping around the convention center felt I missed the mark on fashion.

Either way, my rule for everything I packed was that it had to be able to perform at least two jobs and weight next to nothing.

In the end, I ended up packing as follows:

1 Pair of Columbia Everyday Hiking/Travel Pants (which were super comfy and somewhat business casual looking)
2 Pairs of Bike Shorts (One set worn, One packed)
2 Sports Bras (One Worn, One Packed)
2 Pairs of Socks (One Worn, One Packed)
2 Pairs of Dainties (Underpants)
1 Pair of Shoes
1 Pair of Bike Shoes
1 Hat
1 Helmet
1 Bike Headlight
2 Batteries
1 IPad
1 Phone
2 Charging Cords
1 Book
1 Journal
2 Short Sleeved Shirts (One Worn, One Packed)
1 Long Sleeve Merino Wool Base Layer
1 Light Weight Jacket
1 Rain Jacket
1 Rain Pant
1 Cable Lock
1 Can Pepper Spray
1 Whistle for Perverts
1 Large Knife to try and not hurt myself with...I mean for safety
1 Bag of Miscellaneous Snacks and Tea

I didn't obtain an official weight of my gear as mounted to the bike, mainly because I didn't want to fixate on the poundage as the miles started adding on.

"Thirty pounds of crap....ugh...why did I ever think I would need shoes on this trip...stupid, stupid, stupid."

Instead, I was hoping that by leaving that information out I would be able to just ride like I always carry all of my worldly possessions with me.

When I get back home, I will definitely be weighting everything so that for future reference I know how much more I can handle, but for now, I would estimate it was a total of at least one hundred billion extra pounds...haha.

So now we know the game plan, the foundation of supplies and the destination.  Next up will be the content of A to B to C, but first I need to catch up on some of my beauty sleep :-)!

Rain, Rain...In My Face

I rode away from the house to work without my handy rain coat twice this week. 

The sun was shining, birds were chirping and it was sticky, humid out. 

This made me eager to pack lightly and shed extraneous commuting layers. 

Ahhhh...the freedom of summer on the bicycle!

Fast forward to the monsoon we can now call "Monday and Tuesday nights commute" and you will find my spirit slightly dampened.

Haha.

Fortunately for me, I did have my protective waterproof phone case and my favorite pair of X-1 headphones...which are completely waterproof. 

Not even kidding.

I was soaked from head to two to the point that posting a picture of me would be deemed obscene, all that wet spandex and sports bra sticking to me in unflattering ways...

But I was singing in the rain with my headphones on.

This made it almost like being a kid again, riding through the puddles and splashing myself in the face.

However, the adult inside kept thinking I would need a thorough deworming after ingesting so much street water...who knows what was floating in those puddles!

Either way, if you're in the market to pick up some new headphones, check out X-1 audio.  In particular, I have found that the women's momentum ear buds fit my tiny little elf ears perfectly!

I was dubious that they would hold up, but they are unscathed after that soaking and look like they're brand new after all that muddy water!

 

Photo Courtesy of Detroit News Facebook Page

Adventures In Bike Packing

This past weekend was the 4th of July Holiday which presented the perfect opportunity to begin pretend camping :-)!

Since Josh was working most of the weekend, we weren't able to book a campsite but with our cool family we didn't need one!

Saturday night we joined the Meske clan for a bbq at Jim and Krissy's house.  They are such gracious hosts that they didn't even mind when I asked to set my tent up in their backyard.

This would be my first adventure in bike packing and definitely my first attempt at trying to pack more then my average commuting gear.

Fortunately for me, I have my awesome Thule Pack and Pedal!

Within a matter of five minutes, I was able to attach the Thule rear rack to my Superfly and then I snapped on the commuting panniers.

The panniers have a lot of room for gear, but with this being the first excursion with excess items, I didn't want to go overboard with weight.

In the end, I went with my shoes, clothes, tent poles, snacks and stakes in the panniers and mounted the tent to the top of the rear rack.

At this time, I haven't narrowed down the type of compression sack I would like to use for my sleeping bag so Josh agreed to bring that with him in the neon.

The weather was gorgeous all weekend with big fluffy white clouds and this particular evening was no exception.

Since pretty much everyone went up north for the week, traffic was extremely light and my route through the urban jungle of Warren was fairly tame.

There was even time to stage pictures on the overpass so I could catalog my maiden voyage!

Upon arrival, I was able to easily access my clothes in the panniers without unloading the tent.  After a quick change out of my spidey suit I was ready to bbq!

Later that evening, under the light of tiki torches, I was able to put up the tent with minimal assistance (step one in survival training...haha) and unroll my sleeping bag in my temporary home.

This will now be my second time camping this year after riding during the day and I've decided that the third attempt will include an air or foam mattress of some kind.

My Alps bag is comfy, but that minor comfort feature seems like a worthy investment and a small way to minimize morning stiffness (ba dump bump bump).

What I learned from my adventure, weight distribution will play a huge part in how I pack my gear. 

I can definitely see the benefit of a front and rear rack for balance and will be putting a lot of thought into what I pack and where I should place it on my bike.

Overall, this first experience went well and it set up a solid platform for my next excursion which will include actual camping!

The Summer Solstice (Part II)

One thing I noticed about the 24 Hours of Summers Solstice, is that Chico Racing really knows how to put on an event.

When we stepped into the chalet we were promptly greeted by a plethora of smiling faces as the Chico team of volunteers steered us in the appropriate direction for check in.

We were in and out of the chalet within ten minutes and on our way to the hotel for the night.

The decision not to camp the night before was a hard one.  On one hand we wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the race, not to mention trying out the new tent and sleeping bags we had purchased.

But, on the other hand,  a comfortable nights sleep away from the hub bub also seemed like a worthy avenue.

Had we known that the "hotel" was really code for "all night trucker country music beer fest" we might have cancelled our reservation sight unseen.

When we rolled up to the hotel, it felt like we were stepping straight into an independent film.

Thankfully, a healthy dose of Zzzquil fixed us both right up and we slept through the all night party.

Race morning we were up, fed and watered by nine and at the pit tent with coffee in hand at ten.

There is something beautiful about a noon start time...

Josh did a final run through on the bike and then sent me off to warm up.

There was a wafting smell of bacon in the air as those that had camped overnight were fixing breakfast.  Team riders milled about getting their bikes ready while kids ran back and forth between pits enjoying the freedom that camping brings.

Up at the main chalet, riders were already marking their spots at the starting line.

With the large number of racers going off in the mass start, I definitely did not want to get buried in the back, even with 24 hours of racing ahead of me.

I did something slightly brazen and set myself up just slightly off the starting line.  The wide two track off the start went straight into an uphill section that would allow for the hot dog team riders to separate from the pack and should provide ample room for me to maintain a line heading up the hill.

The minutes ticked by and riders continued to fill the chute.  It was like a large amoeba as everyone pushed together, waiting in nervous anticipation for it all to begin.

Josh found me on the line and gave me a final good luck high five.

And then we were off!

And it was c-r-a-z-y!  Both sides of the two track were lined with screaming onlookers as we made our way up the hill.

The stronger team riders pulled ahead and I found a nice spot following a group of guys into the singletrack.

As we looped back around towards the chalet area we entered a switchback section through the pines.  Both sides of the trail were lined with screaming onlookers again and cowbells rang in the air.

That feeling of riding through those screaming onlookers will be in my hall of fame for a long time. 

I couldn't help but grin and I especially couldn't help it when they would yell, "Go Vanderkitten! "

As we made our way through the first lap, I felt comfortable with the pace and kept at a good chase pattern with the riders around me. 

Before I knew it, I was making my way through the solo pit section and Josh was handing off a new bottle of water and some gels to me.

This first lap was the longest one distance wise, but also my fastest one for the entire race.  This would seem counterintuitive to have such a fast first lap and many times it would be considered a huge error in 24 hour racing, but I honestly never felt taxed during that lap.

My second favorite part of the race was coming through the timing tent.  You had to dismount, run through the tent, scan your timing chip and then run back down the chute to remount and continue on your lap.

What I liked about it, was that the team riders were corralled in the center and as soon as they would see a solo rider running down their designated chute they would start hooting and hollering, "Goooo solo!!!"

Awesome!

The next few hours were a mixture of good laps and bad ones.  Josh and I maintained bottle hand offs and after five or six laps we decided to have me stop for a few minutes so Josh could put my light mount on and I could eat half a pbj.

My main nutrition for the race was an every other bottle rotation of water and Roctane with my all time favorite GU gel pack "Salted Caramel" and some GU chomps to help mix it up.

And I actually found that I loved every flavor of Roctane that we used throughout the race.  Not one of them was a bad choice!

I have to give a huge shout out to Drew from GU and Shimano for hooking me up with the Roctane and the GU.  Drew is awesome!

Once the light mount was on, we were all set for the night portion of the riding.  Thanks to our fabulous friends Cullen, Danni-with-an-i, Brad and Bob we had enough battery power to illuminate the town of Bolton and I was able to run my lights on high without worrying about running out.

Given my terrible night vision, their contribution of battery power was greatly appreciated by myself and Josh.

My third favorite thing about the race was that during the night riding section, when you entered any of the switch backs there was a trail of lights moving up and down as far as the eye could see.  The sheer number of riders gave the impression of a bunch of ants on a log.

Now, somewhere in the night laps, Josh and I had decided that I should take a slightly longer pit, somewhere around five to maybe ten minutes so that I could put on a baselayer and to also drink some soup.

Josh hates tomatoes and has never in his life made tomato soup.  So when I rolled into the pit and found him boiling a can of tomato paste, he told me that he saw my soul through my sunken in eyes and at that moment my soul hated him.

I do not recall this somewhat evil exchange to be quite so dramatic, but he says it still lingers in his mind.

I remember just desperately wanting something food "like" that was warm to eat and feeling like another pbj would make me want to vomit.

While I switched into my baselayer, Josh was able to dilute a chunk of the paste which I drank and then it was back out on the trail.

By the time I came through the pit again, I didn't even remember any of that having happened.  And what was more exciting, was that in a few hours the sun would be coming up and we would be re immersed in daylight.

I've been chasing the sunrise lap for two races now.  Both of our 24 hour events at Hanson Hills were overcast and I missed that transition to day.

This time it was all mine and I actually started getting a little misty eyed that it was going to happen.  We came all the way to Canada to catch that lap...and it was glorious!

Birds were chirping and the squirrels were coming back out onto the trail...

My butt hurt and the palms of my hands were going numb, but this was as close to a freakin Disney movie in the woods as I am ever likely to get!

As daylight settled in, I started vaguely remembering that I had a conversation with another Vanderkitten during the race...or did I?  I thought I had been riding with one of my fellow VKVIP's for a few moments, but had I made that up?

It turns out that it was true!  Linda was there riding as part of a team and while our conversation was brief it did happen!  Facebook helped to reinforce this several days after the event!

Josh became the world's greatest husband when he brought me a McChico sandwich prior to my last few laps.  It was the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had and it disappeared in record time.

This led me into the last few laps of my race and one particularly notable lap through the out and back section of the solo pit area.

All night that section had been abusing me with her little tight climbs and giant rock obstacle.  I was so sick of being abused by it that I decided on this last lap to make her pay...or make her pay as much as someone who's been riding all night can make a trail pay (these are the unrational conversations you have with yourself during 24 hour races).

Anyways, I rode through that section like my legs didn't hurt and/or like they couldn't hurt anymore then they already did and it felt wonderful.

Take that trail....take that rock...

And then, just like that the race was over. 
We had planned and plotted our trip to Summer Solstice and it was worth every minute and penny we had put forth towards our little adventure.

In addition to the little adventure, we were also able to make some new friends along the way and we hope to cross paths with them again down the road!

For now, it's time to recover and to enjoy a few weeks...or maybe days without a specific goal in mind...and then we will be returning to the drawing board for our next epic adventure!

For anyone out there looking to add an endurance event to their calender, I highly recommend this race and of course want to send a huge thank you out to everyone at Chico Racing for putting it together!

And a big thank you to all of my friends and my Baurhenn and Meske family members for their support and patience during these past few months of training!  

In addition to a big shout out to my workplace, Parkway Small Animal & Exotic Hospital, for being so patient with me as I have been commuting to work every day over the past year.  

To Cullen, thank you for all of the loaner parts that made sure I would be able to complete this journey without a doubt.

And to husband, thank you for not letting my darkest moments scare you and for laughing at them later when we get to celebrate the high points together!

The Summer Solstice

In the past year I have consumed 82 pounds of emergency fish...

Ridden over 7500 miles...

Braved the epic winter of snowmageddon...

All this to lead into the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice.

However, this adventure began three years ago when my friend Tim told me about an event held in Canada, an epic 24 hour mountain bike race.

I, being new to the sport of endurance mountain biking, immediately thought this event sounded fantastic and eagerly began to dream about attending this race.

There were just a few minor details to take care of first...

Training...getting married...training...buying a car...training...budgeting...training...

The road was long, but looking back, also necessary to put me into the right condition and mindset.

This past winter, I stopped tracking my mileage with a computer and began riding by destination.  By framing my training rides in this way, it took out the urgency to collect mileage and instead allowed me to concentrate on each present moment of the ride.

As it turns out, this re framing took the overwhelming feelings I'd felt during my other 24 hour races away.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself...first we have to discuss all of the awesome little details that made up the essence of our trip to the town of Bolton.

I really feel that Josh had the most challenging tasks in our preparation.   Afterall, the only thing I had to do was ride my bike :-)

But as the pit chief,  Josh was in charge of making sure we had all the parts, lights, bikes and hard goods that we might possibly need for this event.

And on top of accumulating everything we would need, he would also have to fit it all into our little neon.

And he did a fantastic job :-)

I'm pretty sure there was a kitchen sink lurking somewhere in the car with us...

After saying goodbye to the puppies and naked kitties, we embarked on our journey early Thursday morning. 

We were equipped with our very first burner phone...be gone you evil international roaming charges...and Captain America was proudly riding shot gun.

Our boarder crossing went off without a hitch, we even made it to our first Tim Hortons stop in record time!  Things were going well as we plugged along towards Toronto for our first night on Canadian soil.

Our first destination was going to be the Hockey Hall of Fame, Josh is a huge hockey fan and he had never been to the HHOF so it made perfect sense with us being so close to Toronto that we would stop by.

Plus, as a regular part of our prerace traditions,  we've watched the movie Miracle more times then I can count and it seemed fitting to visit the Team USA memorabilia for a little inspiration. 

Without our cell phone GPS, we did inadvertently get a little back tracked when we entered downtown Toronto (navigation is not one of my strong suits), but eventually we found our way and we were able to tour the halls of the great HHOF.

Shortly after, we had dinner at at the esteemed Wayne Gretzky's restaurant, where I drank over eight glasses of water in one sitting...possibly a little dehydrated from the drive...and then it was time to make home in our hotel.

Unfortunately, there was some road construction on our way out of Toronto that made the drive to the hotel terribly slow...but that did allow us a front row seat to watch the bike commuters navigating the road ways.

There were hybrid bikes, fixies, trials bikes, road bikes and mountain bikes mixing together as commuters made their way along the roadside.  Amazing!

I'm 100% positive that living in the city is not for me, but I am extremely impressed by the presence of bike commuting in Toronto. 

And then it was time for some "Zzzzz's"

The next morning we awoke feeling somewhat refreshed and ready for our short journey to Bolton.

Our main priority was to get the pit tent set up and a good preride of the course under my belt.  Once that was complete, it would be an early night for both of us so we could tackle SS with vengence....Muuuwaaahahaha! 

As we turned onto the Regional 50, just a mere ten miles from the race venue, we were surprised to suddenly feel a sharp jolt as the car behind us smacked into us.

Poor little neon...

We rolled up onto the shoulder and took a moment to assess the situation.  The bikes hadn't flown off the roof rack (because Thule racks are awesome), the neon was moving....all good.

The other driver was also okay, although extremely panicked about having run into us.

We exited the vehicle to inspect the bumper and found the trunk to be a newer, slightly bowed in version of itself.  

After exchanging information, we continued on our way to the race venue...both of us still somewhat in shock that after traveling all that way we would get hit so close to the race venue!

But soon...that was a distant memory because we were pulling into the Albion Hills Conservation area and there were signs decorating the hill side declaring that at long last we had arrived!

Insert slight heart palpitation here :-)

After checking in with the gate keeper, we made our way through the park to the solo camping/pit area.  There were a few tents already stationed in this area, but fortunately,  we had arrived early enough to claim an awesome spot for the ACF tent.

Josh immediately dismissed me from getting in his way as he began to lay out his "area", leaving me free to check out the course.

I quickly changed into some riding clothes and hopped onto the trail.

The way they had the solo pit area set up, we were stationed about 5 km from the finish in and out and back section that would allow Josh to see me twice each lap.

This would work out perfectly for bottle hand offs a throughout the race.

The remainder of the course was a good mix of single and double track with plenty of climbing sections to keep it interesting.  

There were a lot of roots and bumpy sections that made me grateful to have the thud buster seat post and maybe a little nervous about not having a proper full suspension frame.

After being cooped up in the car for two days, I felt a little stiff moving through the lap and had to bust a few cobwebs out of my lungs, but it appeared that even after a few days off of the bike I hadn't completely forgotten how to ride it!

Once the preride was complete, I made my way back to the pit tent and found Josh all set up and already making friends with our new neighbors.  He's such a pit social butterfly :-)

Then it was time to check in at the chalet for the proper race credentials and to make our way to our hotel for a final nights sleep. 

To be continued...

Where Did All The Time Go?

The sun has come up and it is June.  I cannot believe it!

The past few days have been gorgeous outside and have allowed for some perfect riding conditions.  Which is really nice to experience over the ever gloomy rain we were treated to a few weeks ago.

Summer Solstice is officially 20 days away!  Special thanks to Steve for helping me to realize my countdown clock was three days slow...at some point i changed the end date and didn't realize it. 

I'm so good with numbers and everything...haha.

Josh brought home my special little friend, Wall-E, this week.  He's so adorable it's hard to believe that he packs so much light beam power! 

I'm looking forward to spending lots of time talking to him on the trail :-)

Yesterday I took an early morning ride out towards Richmond and then met up with Steve for some trail riding at Stony before I had to reroute for home.

I took some time to enjoy a pbj while overlooking the lake at Stony.  The days seem to be going by faster then I eat my emergency fish and it's making me feel somewhat sentimental about warm summer days.

Hello sunshine, hello green grass, hello chubby little squirrels...

But no hello for ticks...

The next three weeks will be spent arranging gear, practicing night vision and mentally preparing for a sore butt.

It's going to be a busy June!