"My first overnight bike trip was not what I expected," Neve writes, "although I'm not sure what I had imagined in the first place. The idea began when I told my mum about some dreams of someday spending a whole week living off my bike. After hearing that, she was definitely excited, and she suggested we try an overnight trip before thinking about something longer. With that, it began."
Beside being a hoot, Neve's experience was hot -- which makes it seem like the right Bike Overnight to feature now that we're into the dog days of summer.
"When the morning of our trip arrived, things already began to look difficult. The weather was warmer than it had been all year. Being from central Alberta, it's not often that we see temperatures above 28 C (82 F) -- so, with the forecast calling for sunshine and a high of 32 C (90 F), I began to feel nervous.
"By the time we left home and were on the road, the heat was already against us. Looking up the shoulder of the highway I began to question whether I was up for this. Luckily, things were working well for me -- but only me. Barely ten minutes into our three-hour-plus journey we were forced to pull over. Unfortunately for my mum, her gear shifter decided to stop working, trapping her in the 14th gear for our entire trip. But without a word she continued; turning back was not an option."
The intrepid duo make it to Pigeon Lake Provincial Park, despite the oppressive heat and the lack of a low gears for mum. There they cooled off in the lake, ate some backpacker-style food ("I was leery of eating something with a shelf life of three to five years, but to my surprise, the food was really delicious.") ... and discovered a problem with their tent site.
"Not only was the entire campsite gravel -- when we squished our tent into the bush to avoid sleeping on top of rocks, we discovered a horrible stink. The smell of a dead animal drifted from the bushes and soon filled our tent. I couldn't believe I had ever wanted to do this!"
No problem -- the situation was easily fixed by picking up the tent and moving it. And in the end, after they'd ridden back home the following day, Neve was philosophical about the entire experience.
"It felt nice to pull down our driveway after 80 kilometers (50 miles) of biking. I was happy to be home, but eager to go on another trip -- just not today (or ever again in such hot weather).
Read the rest of Neve's story at BikeOvernights.org. While there you can take a look at our current Photo of the Week, which comes from the April 5, 2011, post Pink Primrose & Texas Heroes by Justin Moore.
Top 2 photos by Neve Holmlund.
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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to 45,000 readers worldwide.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/08/thirteen-year-old-girl-pedals-to-pigeon.html
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