The Genesis

A couple of years ago, with my 50th birthday approaching, I wanted to plan an epic trip to somewhere really good: Alaska. And I wanted to ride my mountain bike. After all, my shared bucket list item with my husband is to ride a mountain bike in all fifty states, and this would give us a chance to check off a bunch of ’em, if we drove there and back from our home in Indiana.

This year gave us that opportunity. William – who is a university professor – had a sabbatical. We decided to travel and ride bikes and write and work. We would bring the two dogs, Rory and Violet, because I am a zealous dog mama and can’t leave them behind.

With absolutely no previous RV camping experience, we bought a used Casita, a small fiberglass 17-foot travel trailer that was light enough to tow behind our SUV, a Toyota FJ Cruiser. It had everything we needed – a small but roomy fridge, small sink, small stove, small bathroom with shower, small microwave, and best of all – seats and a table that converted to a king-size bed.

You know how when you were a kid you would build a fort out of pillows and blankets? It’s like the world’s best grown-up fort. I loved it. So what if there was very little storage space, and as two very tall people we kept bumping our heads on everything?

It’s like the world’s best grown-up fort.

It was hard for me to wrap my head around leaving home for two months. I love to travel but I am also a home body. And what about work? How could I just… stop working? I panicked and thought about trying to secure graphic recording gigs along our travel route. But I talked to a few colleagues who disavowed me of that idea, reminding me that life on the road would be about “surviving day to day” – and, wise friends, they were right. I did have a few projects in progress that I intended to finalize while traveling, so I notified my clients of my plans (and in the end, thanking them effusively for their patience with my inefficient workflow) and packed up essential electronic devices.

It was hard for me to wrap my head around leaving home for two months. I love to travel but I am also a home body. And what about work? How could I just… stop working?

The Adventure Begins

We left our home and seven cats behind with a pet-sitter friend on August 9, 2019 with plans to return in two months on October 9, 2019. We headed northwest to escape the heat and humidity, but other than that we had no itinerary. We didn’t even know where our first stop would be. The day before we left I found a campground in northwest Illinois but that was the beginning and end of any advanced planning.

This would be a task we would repeat many times on our trip – scouting our next destination to land the Casita and unhitch for a few days. We tried to find locations with mountain bike trails – if we found that, it was a bonus, since we could ride right out of the campground without having to drive to a trailhead.

We realized early on that staying just one night in any location was too much work to unhitch the Casita and then hitch it back up the next day. We tried to stay at least two or three nights at any one place.

We also discovered we preferred boondocking  – primitive camping without any amenities such as water or electrical hookups in remote locations, such as National Forests – to RV campgrounds and resorts, which provided hookups, showers and laundry facilities, but they typically crowded the RVs in like sardines. We could boondock for three nights max before we had to visit a place with hookups to re-charge the Casita battery (as we did not have a generator, spare battery or a solar array like some RVers).

Additionally, it was stressful to have to keep the usually free-range doggos tethered and leashed at all times in crowded campgrounds. We looked forward to weekdays after the kids went back to school in September because it became easier to find available campsites in choice locations with less people.

We also signed up for Harvest Hosts, a “membership network that invites
self-contained RVers to stay overnight for free” at privately-owned farms, breweries, wineries and other locations with the owner’s permission – in an unspoken exchange for purchases at their business. We had a few Harvest Host stays throughout our trip – including a winery in Montana, a cidery in Kelowna, Canada, and an urban farm/RV Park, also in Kelowna. We would recommend this service to other RVers.

August: Challenges on the Road

(Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Fernie)

We had only used the Casita twice before heading out on this trip so you could say we were total novices, and a lot of things went wrong in those first two weeks:

– two tires blown out on the Casita in three days (subsequently we purchased higher quality tires, never exceeded 60 mph or towed a tank full of water, and made sure to dump black and gray water after every stay in order to reduce towing weight)
– tongue jack broke
– wore out the pigtail
– replaced a broken heat shield on the FJ Cruiser
– discovered the Casita battery was dead

…all in addition to typical mountain bike mechanical issues and trailside repairs.

At this point we slowly made our way back east. Idaho and Wyoming were a delight to explore, from the aforementioned hot springs to a ‘secret’ stumble-upon waterfall along the Snake River to steep mountain passes with extraordinary scenery to some of the best downhill trails on the entire trip in Lander, WY.

We encountered several days with steady rain and had to skip riding the Nebraska Cowboy Rail Trail and the spots we’d scouted for riding in Iowa. That was disappointing.

By the time we reached Missouri we were ready to spin wheels with our friend Rie and her band of Dirt Dames in Columbia, further south on the Ozark Trail, and then a few days later on the loose rocky trails of St. Louis.

~8,000 Miles Later… 

I write this three weeks after William and have returned from the trip of a lifetime: traveling and mountain biking through fourteen states and two Canadian provinces, pulling a small travel trailer with our SUV, along with two dogs and our bikes. My personal motto is “I brake for trailheads”. I have wanderlust to explore new places and I’m curious to know what each and every trail is like. I need outside time every single day to wonder and admire nature’s beauty.

At first it was hard to leave everything behind and disconnect, but it became easier to let go of the lifeline tethering me to home and work after the first week or so, and ease into the rhythm of road tripping.

At first it was hard to leave everything behind and disconnect, but it became easier to let go of the lifeline tethering me to home and work after the first week or so, and ease into the rhythm of road tripping. Then it became simultaneously simpler and harder to survive day-to-day on the road.

We never made it to Alaska, but wow, what an experience to explore so many unknown-to-us places on a slice of this continent. One of the best aspects of this trip is that we didn’t really plan anything. We would decide together where to go next, and once there, decide how long we wanted to stay. Then we’d move on.

Sure, it was tough and stressful at times. Things broke, the space was tiny, there was no room to maneuver or put anything, everything took longer to do, we got irritated with each other, washing dishes without running water is hard, going for a sweaty ride and then not being able to shower so you go to bed cold is very unpleasant, camping in the rain just sucks.

But there’s marvels and revelations around every corner, everywhere you go, and it’s not just in the popular, crowded, busy places. It’s especially not in those places. It’s important to pay attention to the details, live in the moment, welcoming to change, and be present for the beauty in this world.

There’s marvels and revelations around every corner, everywhere you go, and it’s not just in the popular, crowded, busy places. It’s especially not in those places.

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BONUS! Best and Worst of The Big Trip

On our last morning, camping outside of St. Louis, William and I sat around breakfast at the picnic table and compiled this list. In no particular order:

• Best overall mountain bike trail system: cayuna Lakes, Minnesota
• Best single trail segment: coal chutes, Canmore, CAN
• Best MTB town: Fernie, BC, CAN
• Best shopping experience: Kelowna farmer’s market
• Best mind blowing landscape while riding: banff NP
• Best general mind blowing landscape: Jasper NP, Alberta CAN
• Best technical trail system: rattlesnake MTN, Missoula MT
• Friendliest bike shop(s): Glacier Cyclery and Nordic, whitefish MT and GAnnet peak sports Lander, WY
• Trail with the most annoying PUDS (pointless ups and downs): Pipestem Creek Trail, Jamestown north Dakota
• Town with the fittest population: Ketchum ID
• Town with the cutest uncontrolled feral bunnies: Canmore, Alberta, CAN
• Best rail trail: Myra canyon, kettle valley RR, Kelowna, CAN
• Best campground (s): Sinks Canyon State Park, Lander WY and Tally Lake, Whitefish MT
• William’s favorite overall ride: Gorby and Far Out, Fernie, Alberta, CAN
• Julia’s favorite overall ride: Upper and lower Brewers, Lander WY
• Best natural hot springs: Frenchman’s, Ketchum, ID
• Best restaurants to eat breakfast and charge electronic devices: lone pine cafe, Baker City, OR and Big Bang Bagels, Fernie, CAN
• Most outdoor gear/cycling shops per capita: Fernie, CAN
• Best meal: Vistas, Banff Centre, CAN
• Worst tourist crowd town: Banff, CAN
• Favorite bike shop and cafe: Red Raven, Crosby, MT
• Best surprise mountain biking trails: Dry Falls State Park, coulee city, Washington
• Best stumble upon campground with surprise MTB trail: Schnell Recreation Area, North Dakota
• Worst riding day: Phillips Lake, Oregon
• Best surprise waterfall: Fall Creek Falls, Swan Valley, Idaho
• Best beer: Lolo Creek Brewery, Lolo, MT
• Best place for William to finally destroy his Niner bike: Hanson- Larsen Memorial Park, Rapid City, SD
• Best Urban MTB trail system: Kelowna, BC, CAN
• Best brand new trail system: Copper City, MT
• Best new word learned: ‘Skookum’ (of a person or animal – strong, brave, or impressive – used to describe Violet the bulldog)