Introduction

Welcome to the first post of Life Eclectic! It's been a long time since I've done any blogging. I think my first week of studying at Queen's U in Kingston, ON in 2008 was my last entry. Studying was largely uneventful so there wasn't much to relay. An unexpected lesson was that I love being close to the mountains and  ocean here on the west coast.

In the past few  years I have finished my MA, changed my job, taken up cycling in a big way, considered doing a sprint triathlon and discovered I sink more than swim. So I have been busy with life, but nothing came along that I considered blog worthy. That has changed recently as I have not one but two adventures in the planning stages.

The first is a trip to New Zealand with my long time friend Suzanne, to undertake copious amounts of back country hiking and camping or what the Kiwis call "rambling". The length of time will be a maximum couple of months from December 2013 to January 2014. New Zealand has always been a draw as there's no bears, cougars and snakes; creatures that hikers have to be aware of here in BC. On the downside there are hundreds (thousands?) of other tourist flocking to NZ, most of whom I want to avoid especially the ones dressed as Tolkien characters (blech).

There's plenty of planning to do: airline tickets, bus tickets, updating gear so I don't carry the usual crushing 50lbs over long distances, finding good candidates for back country locations that avoids the busy and over regimented Great Walks, and so on. There's also plenty of reading to do so I'm not a complete ignoramus when I arrive on the shores of NZ. I have learned I'll be pushed out of my comfort zone although I'm hoping my technique of cat hole disposal is mostly acceptable.

Now really given that there's still eight months until lift off there's little reason to be concerned or even, say, start this blog. However, a notion has being growing in my mind that challenges the straight forward NZ plan. In 2014, I'd like to undertake the Tour Divide race.

It started a few years ago with the viewing of the Ride the Divide documentary. At the time, I was entertained by what I thought was the insanity of it all. There's a 60% "did not finish" rate caused by the anguish of days of suffering. Why would anyone do that? Why, why, why ...? So on I went with my cyclocross bike finding new adventures on the double track and back roads of southern Vancouver Island. I thought I was content, but it seems that a seed was planted in my mind years ago that would not die. Now it's grown into a full blown notion and soon a plan. Daily the TDR touches my consciousness with random thoughts like, "Maybe I should run tubeless?".

I should clarify that I am an unlikely racer. The big five-o is a few short years off. I have gained some trail skills on my CX bike, but really I mostly suck and spend a lot of time riding my brakes on the down hills and carrying my bike over the smallest of obstacles. I have not participated in a multi-day cross country mountain bike race or for that matter any race of any kind (not counting the tortuous elementary school "sports day" events). The thought of camping without my double walled tent (a Hubba) does not thrill me. I come off a 4 hour 90km ride on mostly flat pavement feeling spent thinking I'll have to do double that for 25 days on challenging terrain to stay in the general classification (i.e. a ranked finished). I will have to manage a bum knee plus the expected suffering of physical and mental fatigue, saddle sores and extremity numbness.

I have tried all the usual methods of dissuasion and will continue to do so with more challenging and more remote bike packing trips. So far though, the notion remains persistent and my ambition intact: I want to ride the TDR in 2014. The next 18 months will be busy ones.