Shakedown ride

We took our “shakedown” ride this weekend, from St. Joseph to Melrose. The purpose of a shakedown ride is to test all your equipment and gear, to be sure that it all works, and that you have what you need for riding/camping/eating. Because of scheduling conflicts between now and the beginning of our cross country journey, we knew we had to take our show on the road this weekend, or we wouldn’t be able to do an overnight ride. Unfortunately, there were no open campgrounds on our route---but we discovered we could camp in the city park of Melrose. So we prepared to ride there and test our new tent. On Saturday morning, the Weather Channel forecast a 30% chance of rain, changing over to snow and temperatures in the thirties, dropping to the high teens overnight. Not ideal, but the odds seemed to be in our favor. So, we loaded up the gear—8 panniers, 2 handlebar bags, tent, sleeping bags, bikes and ephemera and drove to the trailhead. When we got there, I set my bike up pretty quickly, then waited for Kami to get all her gear strapped on. This is when I learned the first lesson of the shakedown. As I was fitting my helmet on over my toboggan, she asked, “What did you do with *my* bungee cords?” and I said, “huh?” and although there was a tangled knot of bungee cords clumped in the floorboard, she insisted that I had somehow purloined “hers”. So, I said, “I thought those were my bungee cords” and a spirited discussion followed, resulting in me removing my sleeping bag (and bungee cord) from my rack and noting that the rule, apparently, is “if you put the bungee cord in the car, it is yours. If you didn’t put it in the car, it isn’t yours”. I refastened my sleeping bag with the longest bungee cord I’ve ever seen in my life, and we hit the road. We had been riding for about 10 miles into a bitter headwind, when we could no longer ignore the dark clouds ahead. We decided to pull over in the next sheltered area to put the rain covers on our panniers, and just as we stopped, snow began falling. Not lightly, either. Big snow. But, it wasn’t sticking to anything, and we found a tube of tent seam repair at the spot we stopped! We took off again, headed to Melrose. The wind was relentlessly in our faces and cold, but the snow stopped after about fifteen minutes. We got to the city park at about 5 and found a secluded little spot next to the river to set up our camp. We got the fabulous new 2-door tent up really quickly, and I dove inside to get out of the wind and unpack our gear. Frankly, it was freezing. After dumping our bags, we rode our bikes to Main Street and decided to eat at FUNKY’S RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE, although “decided” makes it sound like there was a choice. It was great to be in a warm spot, and have a hot meal. I had eggs and potatoes and toast, and Kami had chicken tortellini soup, although curiously, it had floating wads of ham in it. It was time to return to the park--- we began a game of scrabble (I carried the game in my small pannier. It seemed like a necessity at the time) but called it due to darkness. I left to find a restroom, and when I came back in the dark there was a car pulled up next to the tent! It was the Melrose police, collecting $10 for camping. I asked the policeman if he would come back through the park to check on us overnight and he said he would, and added that it was going to be a cold night for camping. Kami later asked me why I was gone so long, and I admitted that I had not only found a bathroom, but it had one of those hand dryers and I had been shooting hot air in my rain pants for the preceding ten minutes! I was trying to create a “hot air balloon” effect in my pants, but it didn’t work that great.

As the freezing wind whipped through the mesh panels of our tent, I realized that this brand new tent was certainly well-ventilated, and then it was brought to my attention that our new tent is a 3- season tent. I think I know what season it doesn’t cover: Minnesota. I started thinking about all those Everest documentaries I've seen, where the people are freezing in those tents, and drinking cooked water---the thing they've got going for them is they're also extremely oxygen-deprived. Unfortunately, I still had enough oxygen to know how cold I was! I put on all my clothes and burrowed into my down sleeping bag, Big Agnes, for the night. Big Agnes is rated to 15*, but I’m not so sure. The next morning, Kami left the tent briefly and came back to announce: A) Our tent was covered in snow, and B) The Ceremonial Cooking of the Oatmeal was cancelled due to “inclement weather”. I reached into the ice box (also known as the vestibule of the tent) and removed the diet coke I had deposited there the night before and had a stiff drink. We decided to pack it up and ride 6 miles to Charlie’s Café for breakfast. It was awkward trying to get everything back in place while wearing full-fingered gloves, and it took us twice as long, but we got it together and left for the road feeling pretty good.

The wind that had hammered us the day before seemed to be blowing from the exact same direction and with the same strength, and we flew on our bikes to Freeport for breakfast. When we came out, it was snowing again, and it snowed on and off the rest of the day. I found a penny, and saw three bluebirds. Life is good! We rode back to St. Joe without any troubles at all and feel like our equipment and gear are in good shape for the ride. We can even do a little arctic camping!