"A beginning is a very delicate time"
Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)
In preparation for our forthcoming adventure we planned two weekends away cycle camping, trying the tandem with the (almost) full load to see what worked, what didn't, and what the heck we were letting ourselves in for.
First training weekend - NOT Maine as planned...
Our first weekend was planned for the 3 day Labor Day Weekend. The plan was to catch the train to Portland, Maine, spend 3 days exploring the coast, camping along the way, and catch the train back. However, best laid plans...
We arrived early doors at Boston's North Station. Frog had done all the planning - route selected, campsites booked and paid for, train tickets booked with bike allocation. We, like every other Boston resident, grabbed a Dunkin' Donuts breakfast and readied ourselves for the train. Alongside us were a variety of people, weekend workers, excited people ready for the long weekend, other people with bikes - the buzz and hum of a long weekend permeated the station. Of course we stood out - a couple of weirdos with a long bike, covered in brightly coloured bags, dressed in dorky lycra - we were happy with that and very excited for our first real weekend.
As the platform was announced we joined the throngs of people going to the train, us looking for the assigned bike carriage. And then the blow was struck - despite Amtrak advertising this train with a bike carriage, it was broken and the train had arrived without space for bikes, and they would not let us, nor the other people with "normal" bikes. Being belligerent, we bundled on anyway, getting our bike in a corridor. And then the guards arrived. They said we had to get off we refused, they said, we said, and so it went on. I would not say that they were threatening, for want of litigation, but to all intents and purposes they were. We explained our scenario and how we had booked the bike space and one of the guards tried to help us out. He took us to the information desk and tried to find other options for us - we tried to book on the next train, which would be 3 hours later - leaving us with too little time to reach our pre-booked and pre-paid campsites, that day, and the next. The information desk told us that the bike carriage was full, so we could not travel on that train either.
After some drama, and some tears, I discovered that Amtrak had lied to us and that the bike carriages were broken and not available at all that weekend, despite them selling us tickets for that purpose.
After some exploding emotions, we started to replan. With the help of Yelp.com we identified a campsite within a half days ride south, towards Cape Cod - the roads would be ugly, getting south out of Boston is never pretty, and the disappointment of plans ruined and wasted by Amtrak lasted with us a long time.
We got on the road as soon as we could and set about peddling south. The roads are large, but bike lanes are well marked and we passed through South Boston, past a carnival and out onto better roads pretty efficiently. We saw one car crash - I thought that was pretty good considering!
The sun was shining and we started to make good time. Riding a tandem is always a pleasure - riding a "normal" bike is one of the greatest pleasures of my life, but when you ride a tandem it spreads joy wherever you go - people smile and laugh and wave and take videos and photos. People want to talk to you, cars beep at you in a friendly manner (wow!!) and the journey becomes pleasant. I call it "The Smile Generator" :)
The miles started to role under the tires and we were starting to forget the disappointment given to us by Amtrak.
This was the first time we rode the bike fully loaded, and we were finding that this was a different sensation from the simple riding we had done around Boston and on the Boston Bike Party. A tandem is a different beast to a normal bike - it can fish tail at any time, and any excessive movement by ever the captain or the stoker generates some movement. And that movement can be scratching a tender part, watching a bird go by - anything! When you add on the full camping load this them becomes amplified. Tandem design is discussed here (http://badgerandfrog.com/tandem-design/) and our kit selections are discussed here (http://badgerandfrog.com/kit-for-our-adventure/) but at a very high level we were riding an 18 kg bike with 150 kg of bodies, plus pannier racks pannier bags, and tent, stove, clothes, medical supplies, water, computer, solar charger, cameras, phones, chargers, tent, sleeping bags, food etc coming in somewhere at a grand total of somewhere around 220 kg (circa 480 lb) of moving mass. Holding onto the bike and controlling that mass across the contact points of the feet ,hands and bottoms was proving a new and interesting experience. I had sore hands, numbness in arms and feet, and a sore bum.
On the road we bumped into several other riders, some of them also on touring and camping weekends. In particular we bumped into Bryan and Leslie and had some very interesting chats with them - Bryan builds his own bespoke bikes, check out his work at http://www.royalhcycles.com.
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We found the campsite we had selected, on the outskirts of Plymouth - famous for the Plymouth Rock - alleged site of the landing of the first settlers, with a replica of the Mayflower ship that transported them alongside. The town is lovely, and the campsite was incredible http://www.ellishaven.com. I think we were the only tent, otherwise it was all super large campers with big families cooking with a huge amount of organisation and infrastructure - cookers, marquees, chairs, bikes, dogs - and of course plenty of beer. The campsite has lakes and entertainment for kids, and we were lucky enough to have live bands for e two nights we were there - not quite the wild camping experience we were preparing for, but a nice start into our first trial of the adventure.
We cooked on the gas stove we had brought, and made tea in the morning (I am nothing, if not the absolute cliche of an Englishman in America!) once we had purchased a replacement gas canister as the one we had carried did not fit our burner!
We spent the days exploring the area and rode the channel that splits Cape Cod from the mainland - learning how to handle the bike in huge wind, how to be efficient when shopping, and how to lock up your bike at a supermarket without it blowing over in huge wind! One time we were a little lost, and google maps was pushing us down a route past a locked gate - we went on anyway and found ourselves in miles and miles of cranberry fields, beautiful to look at, but in very sandy grounds through which we could not ride, and it seemed that we were trespassing too! A bit nervous, plus also very slow progress!
We shut down camp on the third day, worked out how to get everything back in the bags and bundled back to Boston as fast as we could.
In summary, we found that nothing really worked out, we got wet, we got lost, Amtrak let us down, but we were able to pull together, and find solutions together. This is a huge positive and has made us very content as we start to stare down the big adventure which starts very shortly indeed.
Days ridden: 3
Miles covered: 173
Strava links
http://www.strava.com/activities/188555822
http://www.strava.com/activities/188557089
http://www.strava.com/activities/188557553
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