Moving slow is a hard task for me. Amidst, working enough, maintaining physical, emotional, and mental health and still having fun, I’m having an increasingly hard time slowing down — for introspection’s sake. Aren’t we all?

In a few weeks, when Jackson and I mount our bikes for the long haul across the Pacific Northwest, we’ll be intentionally moving only as fast as our bodies can take us, which feels just the right pace.

This journey started a year and two months ago when I returned from a post-graduation solo road trip. A trip I took for similar reasons of process and space from routine. My trip was amazing, but quick and I travelled sometimes 10 hours a day. Jackson wanted to go on a similar journey of sorts following his graduation this past May, but without rushing.

When recounting my trip I wished, “I could have taken in everything slower, like on a bike or something.”

We were sold pretty quickly on the idea of carrying all our belongings on two wheels and getting everywhere by pedal power. In January, we decided we’d do it, bought plane tickets and here we are only a few weeks away from shipping out. The trip is and will be a challenge, but mostly I think it’s an opportunity — one life doesn’t afford you all the time.

Between Jackson graduating, both of us finishing jobs, starting new ones, and moving it seems like just yesterday we started planning for this adventure. My life sort of feels like this great graphic by Wendy MacNaughton from Caroline Paul’s book “The Gusty Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure.”

No time for meh. Besides working a lot and saving money for the trip, we’ve acquired many necessary items, planned travel routes and friends to visit along the way, all while trying to have fun in the mean time.

---

I knew Jackson was the right adventure partner for me during our first backpacking trip together across the Bigelow mountain range in Carrabassett Valley, Maine, in spring snow up to our knees. It was May and after the heavy snow that winter, trail crews hadn’t made it through yet to clean up the downed trees. Despite being rained on earlier in the day the clouds cleared and with the sun setting on our first day of hiking we reached the summit of West Peak. We howled at the glowing orb as it set behind Flagstaff Lake. In that moment, I felt pure joy. Jackson did too. Later, we’d go to sleep at 9:30 p.m. in wind and sub 30-degree weather, have our boots freeze over, and have to crack the ice off them with rocks before continuing hiking in the morning. But it was fun. I swear.

Moments like this are why we want to go on this trip. We both like pushing ourselves, mentally and physically to be as optimistic as we possibly can while putting ourselves in challenging situations in order to experience the back roads, hidden swimming spots, sunrises on rolling hills, the sunset on West Peak or the smallest poignant personal revelations.

Turning our adventuring spirits towards biking is a new challenge for both of us. We will each carry 30-40 pounds of gear, food, and water on a steel frame between our legs. My bike is named Annie, after Annie “Londonderry” Cohen Kopchovsky, a suffragist who circled the globe in 15 months on a 42-pound bicycle in 1894. She’s a certified badass.

“Cycling had not only hit its peak popularity by the 1890s but also became inextricably tied to early feminism. The bicycle gave women more freedom to go wherever they wanted, whenever they saw fit. It made women feel powerful, strong, and self-reliant, and became the favored conveyance of suffragettes…”  -Kristy Puchko (in the article linked above) 

Biking + feminism…awesome!

Jackson’s bike has yet to be named. We both will be riding Surly Long Haul Truckers. We spent a lot of time picking the most affordable and reliable gear for our trip, which I’m sure I will talk about at points in this blog, but will spare for now.

Beside biking Jackson and I both like food (a lot) and farming. I’m a poet and lover of a good story. Jackson is drummer (you can listen to his band Wyld Lyfe online) and lover of water sports. We both love to ski. We met in college at UMaine at poetry night sharing e.e. cummings poems. Most of all we love sharing stoke — thrill or excitement — for fun and we seek it out whenever we can.

Here’s a picture of us:

---

Now is a good time to thank all the people who have helped us prepare for this trip, our families and friends, and especially Tom. THANK YOU!

It’s also a good place to say how privileged we are to be financially, mentally, and physically stable enough to stop working for a few months to challenge ourselves and travel. We are lucky to have this opportunity because of many factors and we’re thankful, as we realize it’s not available to everyone, or for everyone.

---

I’m hoping to post on the blog weekly (Jackson will make occasional video updates), but if you don’t hear from us, please don’t be concerned, we probably don’t have internet. If you need/want more updates, follow us on my Instagram account (@danielle.walczak) where I’ll be posting more frequently.

We’re hoping this blog can serve, not only as travel musings, but also as a place to keep all of you who have taken interest in our journey informed on how we’re doing and let some new people in on our adventures.

Thanks for joining us on the ride,

Danielle and Jackson