Last ride before the trip...

Friday, August 13, 2010

Are bad things supposed to happen on this day? I’ve heard that and I suppose I am a little suspicious, but I felt like I needed to go on that last ride before the backpacking trip…no more days off.

I headed out on the same course I’d done yesterday, but I figured I’d ride it a little slower. It was a pleasant night and although my legs were a little tired from yesterday’s effort, I felt pretty good and rode well…finishing in almost exactly the same time as the day before. I was ready to hike.

Don was planning on coming over and spending the night with us so that he’d be ready to go at 6 a.m. He’d told me he’d be over around 10 a.m., but I know Don and when he called and said that he was running a little late, I just laughed. He made it by 11:30 p.m. and he, Holly and I talked until 1 a.m. when I finally said I needed some sleep if I was to drive 8 hours after what would now be about 4 hours of sleep. I was counting on Don’s non-stop story telling to keep me fully alert for the entire drive.

I’d made another batch of pinole for the trip and added another tablespoon of strawberry syrup and two tablespoons of vegetable oil…to make it sweeter and moister. It worked well – even Don liked it. He’s really quirky with life in general and, I figured, would be with food. He’d already told me that he was trying to figure a way to carry enough water for the entire three-day trip because he was paranoid about parasites in water that didn’t come out of a bottle from Giant Eagle or from the tap in his kitchen.

“We’re going to the source of those water providers. We’ll be able to see it coming out of the side of the mountain with no middle man to add chemicals, charge us an arm and a leg, or stick it in a bottle. It’s the best tasting water in the world…and I have a purifier to boot,” I tried to explain.

“Yeah? Well, I read ‘Born to Run’ like you suggested and in the book they talked about a parasite in that water that gives you a giant worm that you have to pull through your eye socket to get out of your body! I’m not taking a chance on that,” he said.

“Okay…first of all you do understand that the Adirondacks are in upstate New York, which is about as far from the Copper Canyon of Mexico as you can get in the United States, don’t you?” I explained to him how the parasite we were concerned about was found in water where animal and or human feces had a chance to be and was referred to as ‘beaver fever’ and I’d purify any water that had even a chance of being tainted, but he wasn’t buying it.

“You’re going to get thirsty then…because I’m not carrying a case of bottled water in for you,” I concluded.

I set him up in Jack’s bedroom and headed off to bed. This was going to be one, fun trip.

Bike duration: 85 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 120.
Calories burned during workout: 1275.