Living Well With Diabetes

In eleven hours, I’ll be on the road towards Alaska. After nearly half a year of thinking, pondering, and planning this thing, it’s finally time to lace up the shoes, clip in and go.

But first, there’s a ton of last-minute things to do tonight in preparation for departure tomorrow. First on my agenda was to locate my pocket knife. It’s a nice, basic Swiss Army knife I’ve had for years. I had it out on dresser a week ago or so and now it’s disappeared. I’ve been looking for it for the last three days and I am really stumped as to where it is.

I was whining about all of this to my neighbor Paul the other day and and also when I saw him at the coffee shop this morning. Well, I was just about to hop in the car this evening to go buy myself a replacement pocket knife when Paul knocks on the front door. In his hand is a brand-new Swiss Army knife almost identical to the one I lost. What a great guy and what a great send-off gift! Actually, it had a few tools on it that my missing knife didn’t have — scissors, tweezers, a package hook (whatever that is) not to mention knife blades that are much, much sharper than the ones I’m used to. I’m going to have be be careful.

Also on my agenda tonight is to pack all my gear up. Actually, I packed last night to make sure everything fit. It did and it actually came in about 48 pounds. I unpacked again tonight so I could post a photo here of all the gear I’m taking. Laid out like it is in the photo, it’s hard to believe it all fits into my four panniers (approx. 5300 cubic inches). But, there it is.

And these are the panniers it all has to fit into.

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One week from today, I’ll be climbing on my bike and headed for Alaska.

Much has happened since I started planning this trip back in February and this trip is not what I had envisioned when I first wrote about it back on March 31. Still, I’m looking forward to getting started and a lot of work has gone into getting ready for this two month long adventure.

Willie Weir, a life-long bicycling tourist, and now a columnist for Adventure Cyclist Magazine, writes in his article Liftoff (you can read it online) that the space shuttle burns 90% of its fuel in the first eight and a half minutes of flight. His point was that it takes a huge amount of energy to overcome the pull of gravity. He goes on to talk about how this is true in bicycle touring too — it’s very difficult to overcome the pull of home.

I completely agree with Willie. I remember how much work it took to get Pat and myself on the road for our 48-state Dream Tour back in 2006. I also remember a huge sigh of relief once we got on the road because it meant all the work and planning was done and was successful. All I had left to do was ride my bike 10,000 miles and that seemed simple and straightforward compared to all the planning.

Much of the same kind of work and planning has gone into this tour. It has been made simpler in that no house and pet sitter is needed for this tour. Much to my disappointment, Pat has decided to sit this one out. She’ll be tending to things at home and will not be joining me in Bellingham, Washington like I originally planned.

But, the planning for this tour has also been more difficult because this is a self-supported tour. In the Dream Tour, I had a support van and the weight of gear such as a laptop or cooler or tent wasn’t a big concern. On this tour, all gear choices come with serious consideration of its weight. I spent an entire afternoon debating whether to bring a large tube of toothpaste (4.2 ounces) which is enough for the entire trip or to bring a travel-size tube (about 1 ounce, but much more expensive) and then have to purchase more along the way. (The travel-size won.)

Last week, I took a three-day bicycle tour to Brigham City, Utah for the Utah Tour de Cure fundraising bicycle ride. It was an excellent opportunity for me to try out riding with all my gear for three days. For the trip to Brigham City, I had 48 pounds of gear, but I think when I leave next week, I’ll have something closer to 52 pounds of gear. So, you can see why I take the weight of things very seriously.

Another difference in the planning for the Dream Tour and the planning for this tour is my job. For the Dream Tour, I took almost the entire year as a leave of absence. I had nearly two months prior to departure when I dedicated my time to planning (and training) for the upcoming tour. This tour, on the other hand, I’m working full-time right up until the day before I leave. That has made for a very busy spring.

There is one more detail about the trip that is different than I had originally planned. Instead of going only to Juneau, I’ll be spending a few days in Juneau and then going to Sitka, Alaska for three days. My good friend Dave Nevins lives there and he’s organizing a event in the evening of August 2 for one of the local diabetes support groups. I’ve been invited to come and speak at that event. I’ll be able to say a few words about The Dream Tour and I’m sure I’ll have a few pictures to show and stories to tell from my journey to get there.

For the next couple months, I’m going to try to make regular postings on this web site. How well I succeed at that depends mostly on how often I have internet access. I’m bringing a small laptop with me (2.2 pounds!), but I will be relying on hotels, campgrounds, coffee shops, public libraries, etc. for my internet access.

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I went on a hike with our dog Pearl today. I hiked about half the way up Grandeur Peak.

On the way back down, at the Grandeur Peak trailhead, I saw this sign for some dogs, free to a good home.

(Hint: Note the top line of the sign.)

Why am I suddenly hungry?

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I was nearly home and done with my daily commute by bicycle. In front of me was the last hill to ride up before the half-mile downhill coast to my front door.

It wasn’t a big or long hill, but it was a challenge. It rose steeply and then leveled off each time it approached one of the five intersections that lay between me and the summit. I had just passed the point at which the ride up the hill starts to feel like real work. I unzipped my jacket. It had seemed so necessary when I put it on at the start of my commute. Now it seemed so unnecessary.

I passed the corner house where a mother and daughter were out in the yard raking leaves. Well, mom was raking and daughter seemed to be supervising. I shifted down in preparation for the upcoming steep incline to the next intersection.

That’s when I overheard the daughter ask “Would you rather be a movie star or a doctor?” Her tone of voice suggested that all other possible career paths weren’t even worth considering. Movie star or doctor. Those are your choices. What’s it going to be?

I kept riding even though I really wanted to stop and hear the answer. It put a smile on my face to think about the question and what the answer might be.

That’s one of the great pleasures of cycling. No, I’m not talking about eavesdropping. I’m talking about how it gives me some time to think about my own questions and what the answers might be. But first, you have to be able to hear the questions. The slow, silent pace of cycling allows you to actually hear the questions. And, apparently, not just my own questions.

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Grandeur Peak is an 8300-foot peak in the Wasatch Mountains just east of Salt Lake City. In fact, you can look east from our front porch and get a glorious view of Grandeur Peak. Even better, I can walk out my front door and within three hours, be at the summit of Grandeur Peak.

Because it’s so close, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the last ten years hiking on Grandeur Peak. Today’s version of hiking on Grandeur Peak was motivated by a look at the weather report for the weekend: rain and snow. Today, on the other hand, was about as nice a fall day as you could ask for: clear air, blue skies and temperatures in the sixties. If I didn’t already live here, today would be as good a reason to move to Salt Lake City as any.

After I finished work today, I gathered my camera and our dog Pearl and headed for the trail heading up Grandeur Peak. Some of the photos I took turned out well enough that I thought I would share them here. Enjoy!

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