Alaska

I'm trying out mobile posting. So posts might be small but frequent.

I'm in Alaska, I've decided that grape fruit is a new favourite touring food. After a few weeks of Luna bars and cliff, I'm done with processed sugar and constantly feeling my mouth is pealing from the inside. Graphic I know, but this is what it feels like.

By the way, did I mention I'm in Alaska? I've met up with my three fellow touring partners, we're staying at the lovely house of Linda and Angie, nested against the eastern mountains of anchorage.

The sun sets at 1am and rises at 3am. I feel I'm in perpetual summer, it's beautiful. Cotton wood spreads seeds gently floating thro the air. Magical.

We set out for Denali in two days.
A bounty of pictures to come. Till then, I'll leave you with the view from the plane. It shocked me when I saw it. Preparing for landing, I look out the window to the most magnificent sight and it wasn't till this moment that I realized the grandness of Alaska and what I'm about to do.

There is a nervous bubble in my belly. I'm tingly. I smile to myself at every moment of reflection. This is going to be wonderful.

it's started

ok

so i'm going to blog!

so much thought is pouring through my head, an outline?

bikebike, i rode to bikebike! ~400 miles, from portland to Vancouver BC

(it was amazing)

shall i just tell the story? i never feel like i know what to say.  We left portland on friday the 15th, four new friends, Darren, Taylor, Marjorie and myself.  I was the hub, having met all these people before, (Darren being a long time friend and past housemate) but for everyone else it was a new beginning.  

we gelled, even with a bike break down occurring with in the first hour (Taylor’s derailer hanger broke in half) and a two hour late start, we laughed and road and got to know each other.  

hmm, i just can’t write this way, sorry y’all, it has nothing to do with my feelings towards the story, only my complete inability to capture it.  hopefully some pictures will help...

did you get it? do you feel the love? do you feel the wild beautiful weather and green landscapes.   There are these roads of trees too, shaded roads with bits of light streaming through, pollen floating through the air, and if the breeze caught you, and you happened to have the right song playing, the world went slow mo, and i glided.  

and luckily you can’t see too close, in the pictures of me reaching the tops of hills, i’ve got too many photos of that.  when people ride harder than you, they reward you by cheering you on as you reach the top, they snap a photo of you in your moment of exhaust, is that sweat or tears momoko, i can’t tell.

We rode 6 days, an average of 65 miles a day.  As we got closer to bikebike/vancouver, the magnitude of what i said i would do started to weigh on me.  I picked up my computer and 3 video recorders in Bellingham, i got an international data plan, i got ready for bikebike!

and yes, i’m excited, but the ! at the end of bikebike! is actually just part of the name. 

at this moment, i’m slightly drained. 

bikebike! is the most magical thing i’ve ever seen.  why, because there is so much energy, life, and love.  Four days long, it starts with a party, then 8 hours of workshops, then a party, then another 8 hours of workshops, then a bigger party, then a breakfast no one can wake up for, workshops that are hung-overly attended, and a circular discussion of what has happened and where it will happen again next year.  

it’s complex and beautiful, multi cultural, multi national, and for the most part, it’s all done with volunteer work and love.  people say things like “bikebike! is my favourite vacation” while they are elected to a minimum year long commitment to be a working group for bikebike!  this is the place that your community bike project get it’s rejuvenating juice.   Like zelda’s magic potion, but this is where all the fairies come together and ooze.  

and it’s funny for me, this is probably a place where i am the most sober.  I barely drink despite surrounding debauchery, i don’t want to miss anything.  i want to remember every conversation.

talking about how bike collectives are like organism, and the process of existing, and struggling is much like an evolution/survival of the fittest, and so, if we make a start up kit, and we fund new shops, we run the risk of denying the collective the opportunity to grow and develop and possibly even come up with some new way of organizing that makes them stronger and more resilient.  Cause we talk constantly of organizing ourselves, of not reinventing the wheel, but it makes me wonder, what if the wheels not done being thought about, it’s not perfect, maybe we ought to reinvent at every moment to have a chance of achieving something better.  

but re-invention without and understanding of the past is often wasteful, and there is a philosophy that thinks through “how to run an effective collective” and that philosophy is not that much different for collectives of any kind, or businesses, or homes, or relationships...

and i could talk about this for hours, and guess what, at bikebike! i do.

Finances

Ok, so I'm going to talk about my budget:

Using my ride as the example, I'm going to work through how I've figured out how much to save, and how much to spend each day and how to know i'm going to be able to afford not working for 3.5 months and going on a bike tour.

When I make a budget, I always do it in a numbers/excel/google spread sheet.

One column is current money held, + any income expected while on the ride

And the other column is know expenses before the ride
And the last column is known/expected expenses during the ride
The other important thing to know is the number or days you will be riding.

I've got about $4000 saved. I hope to spend less than this because at my current living standard, I spend about $1300 per month just being me in portland. I think life is cheaper when you're on bike tour.  Your rent is the camp sites or occasional motel. We're going to use warm showers whenever we can and sleep in people's back yards and in random places in the forest. When we do pay for a camp site, it will be spilt between 4 people and from my research, camps sites go from a high of $30 to a low of $12, with hiker biker sites at $4. I think I will certainly spend less that $5 a day on average for accommodation.

Food, food's weird. I'm assuming there will be 15 days where I am fed by other people/means. Maybe I'm cutting it too close, maybe I should just budget for the whole time. It's just that I know there are at least 15 days, where I will be fed without having to shell out cash. There's bikebike which I've already paid for, family which will feed me, and I've still got a lot of food in portland that I plan on eating and or shipping to myself along the way (see general mail post). I'm assuming I will spend $10 a day on food. It doesn't really allow for eating out, or $10 breakfasts which are so much fun. But this is about what I average in Portland, and I drink a lot of coffee here and eat out at least 3 times a week. I can't imagine doing that much while riding through the Yukon. The last month of the tour will be the place where I spend the most on food, we'll probably start dipping into other funds if they look like they have extra.

The things I have to buy before I go are pretty obvious and clear. Although, given how close my expected expenses are to my income, with only $324 as the difference. I really wonder about the $175 bike fitting... Of course, what will really make me more happy, 100 days of riding in just the right position, or 3 nights out of drinking and dinner... (or other means of measuring the pleasure of $175...)

Either way, it's nice to have the numbers to show me where I'm at. Many of the "expenses" are guesses and for safe measure. There is always the possibility of falling behind schedule, and needing to take a bus or other transportation to make up time. And there is bike repair, which, so far, knock on wood, I've never needed while on bike tour. But knocking on wood doesn't really work so maybe this tour will be the one. Yet I've already bought extra tubes, chain, break pads, extra spokes, cables and duct tape... I think i'm ok, so long as my de-railer doesn't bust.

And of course there is always the "unknown unknown" which has, without fail, always come up on a bike tour. All in all, I have about $500 of my budget, or 20% of expected expenses, is for emergency. I feel good about this. And i've even budgeted for a bit of fun and alcohol!

The interesting thing for me will be to see how closely I stick to this budget, and seeing where I mess up. Previous experience has taught me to put in the emergency funding for transportation and accommodation. And when I look at it, I've budgeted for $23 per day. That's totally doable. I was touring in Japan for $25/day and that shits expensive. Of course, I didn't really do anything but ride my bike and eat and sleep in the woods, but, this tour won't be too different.

hmm. Last thing, keeping score.
It's important to track of your spending. This is the only way to stay on budget.
I tend to cary around a small little book of paper, and I write down everything I spend. It not only helps with budget but it's also a great way to remember what you did on a given day.

Here's a sample, (not from a cheap trip :(
But a fun one!

anyhow, keeping track is one of the most important things for budgeting. If you've set a reasonable budget, and you don't seem to be able to keep with it. It means two possible things, you made a bad budget, which you should learn from and fix, and find more money or shorten your trip. or you are spending too much, and you need to reign yourself in.

I'll let you know how I go in the end.

general mail

So I discovered the other day "General Mail"

This is where one can mail the post office a box, put general mail on it, and then the post office will hold it there for 30 days!

So, I can send myself boxes and care packages to Anchorage, Fair banks, and even tiny towns like Tok.

Apparently this is how the PCT people do it (Pacific Crest Trail).

I'm so excited.  This is a glorious service that the post office gives that speaks to an older time, with a smaller population.  If more people used this, it wouldn't be possible.  And in other ways it reminds me of the library.  the Library has a lot of awesome possibilities, and I think it currently give great services.  It's likes a free university.  It's sad that it's not more used.  And also, libraries should lend out more than just books.

There's a lot of potential there.  Bike collectives remind me of libraries.  And it's funny that there are now web starts ups that pop up and enable sharing, and lending, and the reality is that they are fulling the role of the library.  Why is the library failing to do these things.  To re-invent itself.

If I become a philanthropies.  I will work on reinventing libraries.