I moved to Washington, DC to attend George Washington University; I selected International Affairs as my major and began studying Arabic (and desperately cling to the fading, underutilized scraps of knowledge which remain), dancing ballet (which is for me an internalized activity-- I love to do it for myself but do not care to perform on stage, which I have done twice now), and writing for the GW Hatchet (which I love doing and has shown me that GWU's high price tag is partly about pulling in famous people by way of its clout).
I had many other small adventures and made many good friends who I miss dearly. However, by popular demand, those chronicles will wait until I finish my most recent and largest adventure: last month I rode my bicycle 620 miles from Washington, DC back home to Detroit, MI. My old AmeriCorps*NCCC teammate, Nate, planted the seed when he was talking about biking from Minnesota to Georgia a few years prior, and I finally realized I had both the means and the inclination: I stored most of my stuff at Kat's house, shipped a few things home, and I didn't want to pay all the money to ship my bike home and then fly after it. In retrospect, the cost of this trip was still a few hundred dollars greater than that would have been, between the tent and the sleeping bag, the miscellaneous supplies, and the tremendous amount of food I ate.
I used google maps for a rough framework for a route, and some additional research pointed me to a pair of trails that run all the way from DC to Pittsburgh: The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Trail and the Greater Allegheny Passage. That first site is maintained by an avid DC-area cyclist and was a wonderful resource: he also had a big packing list and a highly detailed mile-by-mile guide to go with his maps and his narrative. Ohio, by the way, has many small and disjointed trails-- for the most part, I used google maps's suggested bike route which took me across a lot of state highways and county roads.
So what did I take?
- A tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad
- Two cycling outfits (shorts, shirt, bandanna) and one regular outfit (jeans, t-shirt), a poncho
- Sunblock, insect repellent, some chain lubricant to keep my bike running smoothly
- A little soap and shampoo and face wash and a loofah, vitamins, q-tips (which mostly got ruined in the rain), deodorant, toothbrush & toothpaste
- Camera, phone, charging paraphernalia,
- A box of Clif Bars and some granola bars my darling friend Laurel gave me
What did I take that I didn't use or need?
- A camping pot full of dried pasta, a small bag of rice and another of beans, a can of tuna and a military-issue can opener (no dry firewood!)
- A light coat (my body heat and a poncho was enough to keep me warm, even through the rain)
- A book (A Game of Thrones-- if it was light out I was pedalling or eating and if it was dark out I couldn't read)
- Toilet paper (there were enough outhouses and restaurants along the way)
- My checkbook (my card can be a little finnicky but it was fine)
I didn't wind up needing my bike lock, my spare inner tubes, my multi-tool, my knife, my tire levers, my hand pump, or my CO2 pump (no flat tires!), but I wouldn't have left them home anyway because most of those are in-case-of-emergency tools.
Next: Day One.
