Showing posts with label bike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike. Show all posts

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Cycle Touring - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Day 0 Planning and Packing

Tomorrow, Friday Jul 27, I will be embarking on a 3 day, 2 night bicycle trip to Victoria, BC. Armed with a little more knowledge and experience from previous cycling and camping trips, my goal for this trip is to go slow, no rushing, and be as relaxed as I can be. I am going solo. I have no actual destination. Only the city of Victoria comes to mind. There will be no backup plans, no one to contact while I am there and no one to 'rescue' me if I get into trouble. It's gonna be great.

The plan is to start riding by tomorrow (Friday Jul 27) afternoon.  Make my way out to Tsawwassen BC where the Ferry terminal is located and camp the night there.  Luckily, I already have my first campsite booked up.  It is at friends' place who happen to be out of the country at the moment and have given me permission to set up camp in their backyard.  This will be the first leg of my journey.  At the first crack of morning sunlight, I will have to get up early and try to catch the 7am ferry to Swartz Bay ferry terminal.  And from then on, I have the full day to cycle to Victoria.  I am still undecided where I will be camping on my second night.  This I will decide along the way.

Today, Thursday, DAY 0, was spent planning my trip and packing up all my gear.  Experimenting on how to pack as efficiently as possible and make use of the limited real estate that I have on my bike and trailer.  I am already realizing that I need smaller gear...  small, small gear.  My tent is big, my sleeping bag is huge, and my sleeping pad is gigantic.  I know I have to pack as minimalistic as possible but these items are necessities, I could barely fit them all in my trailer.  Does this mean I will have to purchase the smallest gear I can afford?  The smaller the more expensive things get...  sigh.. :( .  For now, I will make due with what I have and I'll think about buying new gear in the future.
All the gear that I will be taking with me
I created a video blog of what I am taking with me and how I packed all my gear into my trailer and bike.  I also would like to show you how my Mayacycle trailer connects to my bike on the second video I made.  Please click on the links below.


Tomorrow I set off for my trip to Victoria.  Nerves are somewhat setting in but I am very anxious to get going.  There is a chance of rain tomorrow but I don't think I will let that stop me from going.  Rain or not, I will have to eventually endure all sorts of weather nature throws at me.  I can only gain experience from it and a necessary one at that.  It is almost midnight and I am still wide awake.  My biggest problem right now is that I may not get any sleep tonight as I am too excited to get going.
My next blog update will be tomorrow night at my first campsite.  I know most of you will be following me through Facebook through my Twitter updates., but to those of you who are not on my facebook list, you can visit me via Twitter here https://twitter.com/604Bluelight .
Good night for now.