WABDR: Preparations

PREPARATIONS AND PACKING

I know you are ready to hear about this epic adventure of ours. Believe me, I was ready to hop on my bike (I named her Hanaa, meaning “happiness, joy, and peace”) and go. But before one is ready to go into the Wild, preparations need to be made.

Before I get into the preparations, let’s talk about the importance of naming your bike. My Shadow back home is named, Layla. I can hear you singing along to the song right now. That is exactly where her name came from, she eases my worried mind. Therefore, it was important for me to find the perfect name for the machine I would be spending the next couple of weeks with. Jennifer, my sister, had been calling it Lil Ripper. That name was not going to work for me. I saw the peace sign on the key chain and immediately started researching names meaning “peace, love, and happiness” - all necessary for life in my opinion. And I didn’t want to die on this trip. My thinking was a bit of peace, love and happiness would make it all the better. Thus, Hanaa was born... Until it was suggested to me to think of my bike as my lover. Let him dance under me and move in rhythm with him. I am an open person. However, this was not the time for me to experiment with a female lover. One new experience at a time was quite enough. Hanaa transitioned into Poet Lover. (There is a poem in that for another time.)

Back to the preparations….the living room began to fill up with all that we would need for the trip. Shopping and to-do lists were written...and rewritten as we watched the mound of our supplies grow. I had no idea where it was all going to go. I had the utmost trust that Jennifer knew what she was doing.

To do:

Enroll in Life Flight insurance

I did this while sitting in a bookstore down the road from my sister’s house. That was about the time I started freaking out. I was in over my head! I had no business thinking I could ride a dirt bike (I know, a dual sport bike, but dirt bike is so much more familiar) through the mountains. Seriously! What what I thinking?!

Pick up the CRF

Jennifer was having a Trail Tech put on it. Whatever that meant. I just figured it was a fancy GPS.

Change the oil in the CRF

You would think if we were going to have somebody do it, it would have been done the same time as the Trail Tech. That is not how we operate. The plan was for Jen to change the oil herself. (She is really good like that with mechanical stuff. Not me!) The night before we were to leave come and brought rain with it. The desire to do it herself was no longer there. Back to the shop to get it changed.

Grocery Store

Trailmix - didn’t want to go hungry on the trail

Panty liners - don’t need to bring as much underwear

Top roast - to make our own jerky

Sportsman’s Warehouse

**It is important to note that we were at Sportsman’s Warehouse no less than 3 times in two days. Sam the Salesman saw us come in and immediately greeted us by name.

Knife - got to protect ourselves from wild animals

Yellow sunglasses for Jen - something about the shadows or some such thing. I wore goggles

Pocket Rocket - the first time I heard this term, I thought it was something dirty. Come to find out, it is a small, powerful  propane heater used to make oatmeal and coffee on those cold mountain mornings. .

Hammocks and straps - just the thought of relaxing in a hammock had me super excited!

Sleeping bag - there was much talk about whether to get one or not. Finally, it was decided we would. The toughest part of the decision was what temperature range to focus on. We decided on 30 degrees.

Air wicking shirt - I have no idea if that is what it is called. The goal was to have a shirt that would keep me warm or cool depending on what my need was.

Lighter - It was doubtful we would use this as we did not want to be known for starting the forest fire of 2019.

WABDR Maps - You would think we would already have these, right? Jennifer had maps hanging on her wall for the past six months. She even studied them as she devised the plan for our epic adventure. It was only a couple days before we left that she noticed they were the wrong ones. Unfortunately, Amazon does not have immediate delivery service so we were dependent upon the postal service. Fingers crossed they came before we left.

Pack the first aid kit

Bahahahahaha! Somehow this was overlooked. More on that in a couple of days.

Bring tools, fix-a-flat stuff, etc…

Remember when I said I am not mechanically inclined? I really have no idea what she packed here.

Finally, we had everything we needed gathered up. Time to pack the bikes. On Jennifer’s bike was: the horseshoe dry bag (containing a personal bag for each of us, the food, and the hammocks), a backpack of emergency supplies - except for the first aid kit, and a full thing full of gas.

I carried the sleeping bags and tent.

About the time we left, Jennifer made the comment, “We really should have practiced with a full load. Whatever. Fuck it. We’ll figure it out.”

From that moment on, our epic adventure became known as the “Fuck it” trip.