Steve Varley's first bicycle tour

Steve Varley provided the following article discussing his first fully loaded/self-contained bicycle touring experience.

Steve Varley on the first day of his first tour just before heading out!
Click to enlarge.

I had liked the idea of bicycle touring for a long time. I don't know why but the thought of self-supported adventure, independence, on-your-own, really appealed to me. I have been on many tours over the years. I've crossed Utah and Wyoming many times on organized tours. When I did that, I wondered how a person could carry everything they need on the bike. It was hard enough just getting through the 60 or 90 miles on a bike with just a tool kit and a wind breaker.

A few years ago there was a newspaper article about a guy from the East who toured the most rural Nevada routes he could find. He wrote about pedaling through these small towns and talking to folks along the way. That sounded just right to me. Later I talked to a guy who rode Highway 50 across Nevada; "The Loneliest Highway in the US". What a romantic thought. Well, this all took a couple of years but I eventually thought if I'm ever going to do this I've got to set a date and get ready. So I did. I set it on June 2002.

Committing to the time set off a rash of decision-making and information gathering. I poured over maps with a calculator. Made lists. Weighed articles of equipment and clothing. I actually had a spreadsheet of water supply and consumption so I would know how much I needed to carry each day and how much it would weigh. Well? This was June in Nevada!

About this time I discovered the Phreds; a mixed group of crazy gonzo, free-spirited people totally committed to touring amazing distances on bicycles. You can go to their chat site and ask what the millimeter spacing of chain rings is on a 1985 Schwinn or what the road shoulder width is from Luqa to Ghadira in Czechoslovakia. Totally amazing experience! You can join this group at:

http://www.phred.org/mailman/listinfo/touring (Editor - You can also read an interview with the host of this list here).

From this group I got several important ideas about touring on a bike. You don't have to have a great bike, you'll probably have a better time if you're prepared, and you're going to be sorry if you don't think about weight. I had finished a supported tour across Utah one year and we were hanging around drinking a few beers and I noticed a bike that had just completed the "self-supported" version of the tour. These 12 or so people had taken the most scenic, toughest country, toughest hills, route from southern Utah and I was staring at an old 2 chain ring bike loaded with everything you'd need if you were backpacking for a week! I was pondering just how much more that bike weighed than my bike, a tandem that year, when someone told me the bike I was staring at belonged to a young woman!

My preparations during the last month before the trip consisted almost entirely of re-thinking everything I was taking and reducing the load. Instead of thinking "I'll need that" I was thinking "I might be able to get away with not taking this and I can make do with this instead if necessary". My goals were to camp as much as possible; I hate sleeping in motels; and I like to eat well. To be sure there was a certain style that I wanted to maintain. I wanted my glass of wine with dinner and I don't like too much freeze dried food. Looking back on the trip I took far more than I needed but hey, it was my first tour.

My wife and son dropped me off in Carson City, Nevada during the middle of June and at six the next morning I put the bike together and pedaled off. I had a really nice week pedaling "The Loneliest Highway". It's stark and beautiful, almost pre-historic out there. I ran across several other tourers too. There was an Austin Healey rally and I saw vintage cars almost everyday. Lots of groups of motorcycles touring too. There was no shortage of people experiencing the "loneliness of the highway". No bicyclists. From talking to people I understood that we were all heading East so we never met. The drivers were all very polite. Even when they passed at 80 mph they gave me plenty of room.

I finished my week-long tour with a good knowledge of highway shoulders, a healthy respect for all of the hills I'd climbed, a solid satisfaction in my accomplishment, and a feeling that I liked this, mostly, a lot. My wife picked me up at the end and drove me home. It was actually hard to acclimatize myself back to normal living after my week of life on the road. A satisfied customer!

Submitted by Steve Varley

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