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Adventure Starts here...

8 weeks to go -She Says

5/22/2015

2 Comments

 
by Richelle Olsen - She Science Ambassador and slightly concerned about to be bike tourer.


This trip is like NOTHING I have ever done before.  Biggest thing I’ve ever done was a 12 day trek to Everest Base Camp.  This is like a whopping 4,840kms longer than that, and well that was massive for me at the time!

Whats the drive for me? 

  • I want a chance to live life how it should be lived, in nature and under my own steam.  


  • There has got to be more to life than working to pay the bills.  I want to escape the monotony of eat, sleep, work, pay bills and replace it with the monotony of eat, sleep, ride and dodge bears!    


  • I want an adventure that I can do with Shane that we can both share, different to him doing something crazy, and me being support crew.


  • And I dearly, dearly want to be that person who is capable of joining any physical adventure I put my mind to..I figure if i can ride this far, then i can do pretty much anything. 

Whats worrying me?

How long have you got?  Hahaha!

  • Hills, no MOUNTAINS..there's a lot of them.  I think they might hurt...just sayin'!  I’m trying to train at home, and I’m riding way more than I have done before, but I'm rubbish at consistency, and I’m a bit lazy.  I’m sure I’ll pay for this on the trail......but nothing like the first few weeks on the trail to do some real life training right?


  • My biggest concern is driving Shane nuts with my slowness on the bike.  I’m gonna whinge, and he can be very patient, but I’m gonna whinge a lot.  And I’ll probably cry, he’s not that great when I cry, least not the whingey crying.  I’m pretty sure he can handle “the bear ate my arm” crying though, which is a relief.  In all seriousness, this is over 70 days of me waaay out of my comfort zone, with a sore bum, sore legs and little sleep...  But hey, the upside is that through the baptism of fire my tolerance for pain and discomfort should increase exponentially – least that's the plan.  God we are in trouble if it doesn’t!  In all seriousness it will be a massive test on our relationship.....but wheres the fun without tests?  Right?  Right?


  • Oh and I’m also going to drive him nuts with my lack of co-ordination.  He told me recently that I seem to do simple tasks the most difficult way imaginable.  Things like pouring water at odd angles, not being able to squat on my heels and trying to get on and off my bike.  These things will improve with practice yeah?  Its not like I haven’t had 36 years of practice already!


  • Funny as it sounds, I'm getting really worried about packing and repacking every morning and night, and everything being kept in its rightful place...  Shane will laugh at this, as our recent bikepacking trip to Buller over Easter showed me using half the campground to organise all my stuff.....there was stuff everywhere.  This bothers me, we will have to nail this early on for both our sanity!


  • Sleeping in a tent every night.  We all know how great a night sleep you get under the stars yeah?  Unlikely!  Air pillows and air mattresses, confined sleeping bags, freezing cold, unknown animals sniffing around outside all contribute to a less than ideal nights sleep.  And for those that know me, I LOVE my sleep, its my number 1 hobby, in fact most nights I get a minimum of 9hrs sleep.  Its something I'd better get used to, otherwise Shane will be feeding me to the bears due to my grumpiness!!  Our plan for 1 night a week in a motel should hopefully help too.


  • Animals – now these are top of Shane’s list, particularly grizzly bears, closely followed by black bears, wolves, mountain lions and rattlesnakes.....I guess I'm a bit scared of them, but as you can see, I have plenty of concerns on my list before I make room for them...I’ll let Shane worry about us getting eaten!

Picture

What I’m excited about

  • The adventure, the stuff we will see, the people we will meet, sharing it with each other every day (thats both good and bad!).


  • Learning to budget.  I haven’t had to budget since I was 20 years old.  Shane picks on me for my saying whenever we go on holiday “doesn’t matter if we forgot something, we can just buy it when we get there”.  And its true, till now, if I want something I’ll buy it.  That steak dinner that costs $30 (our daily budget)?   Sure why not!!??  Nope - not on this trip, which will take a bit of getting used to!  I’m looking forward to living simply.  It also has the massive incentive that the less we spend, the longer we can travel for!


  • For those who know me, I’ve always had issues with my weight, the main one being there’s too much of it on me!!  I am kinda ashamed to admit it, but Im excited about the fact that this trip will (hopefully) drop the kgs without even trying.  Unfortunately we won’t be getting good nutrition out there, cause we will eat what we can find at servo’s, but I’ll be eating less than I do at home, and doing waaaaay more excercise!  60kms a day more!


  • I don’t want to be a business analyst any more.  I don’t want to be the minion that packs into a tin can train every morning and night, to go to a job where people are stressing out about deadline A, or risk B, all for what?!  All that effort that I put into other people’s projects, I want to put into something that is mine, that I own.  I want this trip to kickstart that dream for when I return home.  I don’t know what my own business will be (I have tons of ideas), but I have many months on the bike to work this out!!

But in the meantime, I now haveexactly 8 weeks to rent the house, sell the car, save money, close off finances, pack up the house, organise our kit we are taking, catch up with friends and family, organise a charity garage sale,  and ride my bike ALOT.   

In reality I have no time to worry about the actual ride till we get there anyway!!!!

Read about the whole trip

2 Comments

Quitting our lives to go ride bikes

5/21/2015

3 Comments

 
by Richelle Olsen, She Science Ambassador
So in case you haven’t heard...we have plans...BIG plans!  Heres the gist...

 In July 2015, Shane and I will...

·         Quit our jobs

·         Rent out our house

·         Sell Herb the X-Trail

·         Sell as much of our stuff as we can, and put the rest into storage

·         And jump on a plane with our bikes, on a 1 way ticket to Vancouver, Canada!

Picture

What happens when we arrive in Vancouver?

Then we start the BIG one... 

  • We jump on a bus to Whistler to spend 2 weeks exploring the MTB park and surrounds with our good mate Vaughan, playing on our bikes.
  • Then we wave farewell to Vaughano, and cycle our loaded bikes the 900kms from Whistler to Banff, probably via Kamloops, on the road.  Probably making friends with bears.  Probably hurting cause its the longest either of us have ridden ever!
Picture
 

The famous Great Divide MTB Route, the long distance bicycle touring route from Banff in Canada, to Antelope Wells on the border of the USA and Mexico. 

  • 2745 miles (4418 km) long.  
  • Following the Continental Divide as closely as practicable and crossing it 30 times
  • Through Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.
  • About 90% of the GDMBR is on unpaved roads and trails and requires basic off-pavement riding skills to complete. The unpaved portions of the route range from high quality dirt or gravel roads to a few short sections of unmaintained trails which may not be possible for most people to ride at all. 
  • Over 200,000 feet (60,960 meters) of elevation gain and loss (thats like climbing Everest nearly 7 times) 

Picture
Heres the trail profile in feet and miles. The highest point is around 3,600m above sea level.

How long is it gonna take?

Well we will try to follow the guide book suggestion of 70 days in the saddle, averaging around 60-70kms a day (with some way longer ones thrown in).  But by the time we take a rest day once a week or so, and take a few stop-offs for some hiking and running in Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP and others, well the whole trip will take much longer.  Our biggest issue will be crossing Colorado before the mountain passes get snowed in....not sure how much fun that would be!!  So in short, we have no idea...3-4 months maybe?

Will we ride the whole way?

Shane definitely will.  I'm planning on riding most of it, but I am a little realistic in my abilities, so there may be one or 2 sections of 350+kms of no services, or some insane mammoth hills that I make the call to ride the road around, or jump on a bus to meet Shane in a few days time.  In an ideal world this wont be needed, but I know my limits, so will play it by ear.  Shane on the other hand has no limits.....

Where will we stay?

The plan is to camp 80-90% of the trip, mostly to keep costs down, though 1 night a week in a motel to freshen up ourselves and our gear is definitely on the agenda, where we can find one.

How remote will we be?

We pass through probably 3-4 big towns, and quite a few towns with just 1 general store.  Theres a few stretches of 3-5 days with no services at all, so we will have to carry plenty of food for those sections.  In fact the last 5 days has nothing except a town called Pie Town, with one shop...one guess as to what it sells!!!???

What will we eat?

Anything we can get our hands on!  Mostly 2 minute noodles, pasta, rice, tinned tuna, diner food and jerky really!  Mostly stuff we can buy from service stations!   I will quickly learn to not be fussy, and eat whatever we can get a hold of!

What riding experience do we have?  

Well Shane has ridden 12 ans 24hr enduro races a few times, and has run over 600kms non stop.  And me, well I commute 40kms to work once or twice a week on a river path, and I ride my mountain bike with my mates once a week or so....  So as you can see we are both super experienced......aren’t we??!!!    Oh I forgot, we did a 4 day bikepacking trip around Mt Buller last month to test out our gear, our legs and our bums....remarkably we passed all 3, albeit rather slowly!!  Nothing like a baptism of fire when we arrive, right??!!

Will something eat us while we camp in the wild?

Picture
Most likely, yes!  Bears are our number one predator.  We are expecting to see plenty of black bears, and hopefully no grizzlys!  Theres a number of precautions we need to take, including hanging food from trees at night, carrying pepper spray and blowing a whistle all day every day whilst riding through bear country.  Shane’s working on the theory that he doesn’t need to be fast, he just needs to be faster than me!  He’s also determined that the book about our adventures isn’t worth writing unless I lose a limb to a bear, and he rescues me......I love his loving concern for me!!! 

Then theres rattlesnakes, wolves, mountain lions and prairie dogs.......all out to get us.  ‘Cept maybe not prarie dogs, those little dudes are so so cute, like mini-meerkats!  But hey we are from Australia, we should be used to being bottom of the food chain shouldn’t we??  

What happens once we hit Mexico?

Tequila baby!!  Haha!  Shane has promised that if I make the length of the GDMBR I can lay on a beach somewhere with a sombrero and some guacamole.  Then, depending on the health of our budget, and whether we are still talking to each other (and if I still have all my limbs!), the plan is to keep heading south on the bikes.  As far as we can get.  With the ultimate dream of Patagonia....mmm Patagonia...but who knows!  Lets see where the road takes us!

But Why?

Ahhh the million dollar question!  But we have an amazing house, a nice car, Shane has his own business and I have a well paid contract job.  And its not like we are lacking adventure, with every second weekend we are off doing something fun in the bush, and then theres The Ultra Life trips which have meant 4 trips to NZ in the past 12 months!

Yes we do already have an amazing life, but ultimately, like many of us, we are simply working to pay the bills.  And we have itchy feet.  Both of us separately spent 4+ years in our 20’s travelling the world, and thats not something you forget easily.  Plus Melbourne traffic sucks big time...arrggghhh traffic!  And given we are not having kids, well, the question should be Why Not?!!

What are we taking?

Check our our Gear List

How are we feeling about the trip with 70 days to go??

He Says - Shanes thoughts as our departure date fast approaches!

She Says - and here's Richelle's thoughts with only 8 weeks till departure

Email me the latest blogs
3 Comments

9 weeks to go - He Says...

5/12/2015

0 Comments

 
by Shane Hutton - La Sportiva Athlete and Adventurous Type (but without an Adventurer Facebook page - so I probably don't qualify for that title!)

So we have decided to head off. The idea is simple Ride as far as we can for as a long as we can starting in Whistler & hopefully ending in Patagonia. 

A brief history of my WHY......

I traveled the world some 12/13 years ago mostly on foot with a few bus rides in between but always by local bus or transportation never a tour group. 

I walked sometimes for a few days between towns through the desert in Wadi Rum ( Jordan) and along the coastline in Turkey. I landed in Egypt with $300 & left 4 months later but thats another story. 

During this time a friend & myself had an idea.... Lets travel the world without flying????? We mapped our plan out & decided it was time but as what happens in travel, plans change, money runs out & before you know it you are being detained by customs in a questioning room at Heathrow airport but again that`s another story.

Fast forward 13 years a lot has happened but the nagging feeling has always remained. I think its either island fever or once you travel around the world you realize how small it is & how much more there is to see. 

How am I feeling with less than 70 days to go?

In a word Nervous. The ride begins with 900km of Mountainous terrain just to get to the start in Banff. I have had less than an ideal lead up to this trip with ongoing Patella issues. I will be riding an awesome bike but I will also be carrying an extra 25+kg

Once we hit Banff its a lazy 4,400km to New Mexico. More nerves due to the potential of winter setting in before we get through Colorado. If it dumps snow in Colorado it`s not measured in Millimeters it`s in the meters although this will just mean adjusting our route to suit. 

Bears..... I am genuinely concerned about bears. They don`t muck about. We have a lot to learn with dealing with our food & campsites so we don`t become too appealing for them. 

Richelle.... We are not sure how she will cope with the day after day hurt that it is going to involve. Also her on the bus & boxing her bike up every time she wants to catch the bus. These are other things that we will manage as we go but I do put a lot of thought into them.

Picture
This is me taking the photo of Richelle's interval training....hehehehe!

Things I am finding people cannot get their heads around........

We have no end date. This trip is about opening a new chapter in our lives. Seeing where the road takes us. I often find myself feeling like an author looking for the next chapter but suffering from writers block. This is probably how the great explorers felt struggling to find funding & support to head for the Poles or their next big voyage. 


I don`t think I am an adventurer but I do think I am Adventurous. 

What am I hoping to get from this?

MILLIONS of DOLLARS hahahaha No not really..

I am hoping to inspire people to take a leap of faith. Get out there & just do it. It doesn`t need to be a huge trip just go out & live. As my dad says " Your a long time dead "
I am hoping this might give me some clarity in what it is I want to achieve next in my life. Perhaps even a new career path. 

When are we coming home?

Next question!!

What am I MOST excited about?

  • That`s a tough one. The whole trip really. Patagonia need I say any more, Google it if you don`t know about it. 
  • Also pushing ourselves for such a sustained time frame. 
  • Possibility of seeing a wild bear ( I know I know )  
  • Riding my new bike. Custom built Salsa Fargo 2. Thanks to Ben The Bike Tech helping me with this project it`s def one of a kind bike. 
  • Changing the direction of our lives. Having an almost open time frame 

Stay tuned for more updates....
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Gear List

5/6/2015

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Bikes/racks and bags:

  • Shane – Salsa Fargo 2, currently still in pieces, but this will be a schmik machine once its built!
  • Bike Bag Dude Large Handlebar roll
  • Back rack - TBA
  • 2 Ortlieb back roller classic panniers 
  • Frame bag TBA
  • Salsa Anything bags TBA


  • Richelle – Trek Fuel eX 8 dual suspension UPDATE - with 5 weeks to go, I've changed my mind and will be taking my Surly Long Haul Trucker!!  Eeeek!  
  • Thule Pack ‘n Pedal Tour rack UPDATE - changing my bike means changing racks - now I'm taking a Tubus rear rack
  • 2 hot pink Ortlieb back roller classic panniers

 
Sleeping Gear:

  • Mont Moondance EX 3 tent  
  • Shane - Western Mountaineering Ultralite sleeping bag
  • Richelle – Westeern Mountaineering Sycamore sleeping bag
  • 2 x Exped Synmat UL inflatable sleeping mat 
  • Exped Airpillow 

 Other gear:

  • Bike repair kit
  • Jetboil stove + gas, 
  • Sea to Summit X bowls and X mugs
  • Sporks
  • Sea to Summit X-Pot 2.8L
  • Cleansing wipes
  • Ay Up lights
  • A whole lot of other stuff we need to work out!

Shane’s clothes:

  • 2 x cycling knicks TBA
  • 2 x jerseys custom made
  • OR Helium Jacket 
  • Patagonia Ultralight Down jacket
  • La Sportiva lightweight windproof layer
  • Thermal top and bottoms TBA
  • Boardies
  • Thongs
  • Buff
  • La Sportiva Bushido Trail Runners
  • Shimano MTB shoes with cleats


Richelle’s clothes:

  • 2 x cycling knicks TBA
  • 2 x jerseys custom made
  • Patagonia Torrentshell jacket
  • Patagonia Nano-puff hoodie
  • Snowgum lightweight hiking trousers
  • Icebreaker merino LS thermal top
  • Thermal bottoms TBA
  • Lightweight running shorts
  • Feetures Elite light no-show socks 
  • Shock Absorber Ultimate Run Bra 
  • Buff
  • Thongs
  • Brooks Cascadia trail runners
  • Shimano Touring MTB shoes with cleats
0 Comments

    Shane Hutton 

    I am an ultra runner, Mountain biker, Packrafter, Climber, Ironman, Endurance Athlete

    I am a La Sportiva, Io Merino & Kokopelli Packraft Ambassador with a taste for adventure, always up for a new and different challenge.  

    I like to create my own adventures that generally push me to limits. Proving that anyone can do it and raising money for Parkinson`s research as I go........

    Email me the latest blogs

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