Silvia Halperin and Steve Green are known names in the recumbent trike community for their travels by trike in the US and abroad. Sylvia’s YouTube videos about taking a trike by plane helped me face the reality of moving across country with my Catrike Pocket, Puma. Puma took some bumps and jacked up the Philadelphia baggage carousel, but that wasn’t her fault – the loaders were just not thinking correctly. Thankfully I had padded her well so she came out of that mechanical fight just fine.
Steve’s known for being a trike hobo, packing up his items for a multi-week camp-by-trike epic journey the subject of many a triker’s wet dreams (seemingly mostly long-retired men who are presumably waiting for x y or z before they can start planning their own multi-week journey… though I’d love to be proven wrong).
As someone who changed careers and my entire lifestyle in order to be healthier, and then moved to three states with my husband, cats, and trike to bushwhack the career path I wanted, I’m aware of the sacrifices and struggles inherent in making dreams become a reality. I’ve also consciously closed doors to dreams I wanted in order to accept the reality of other decisions. Right now those dreams don’t fit into my current trajectory, and I’m (finally) good with the current trajectory. Focus, Jamie. Focus.
Ok, so I’m not setting out to be the next Sylvia or Steve. I’m only the me that is me. I like to plan dreams into reality, and I like to write, mostly stream of consciousness. So here’s my plan. Let’s figure this out.
With some input directly from Sylvia Halperin, indirect experiences from my Facebook Recumbent Trikes group and inspiration from my friend Stephanie in Texas who takes time off for short road trips, and the wishings of my friend Hoppy in my local trike group about multi-day touring, I’m gonna make a SMART goal, right here. Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Relevant, and Timebound.
I am going to ride my trike on the Pacific Coast bike trail between Oregon and San Francisco.
That seems pretty specific, but could be tighter. Except we are in the middle of a PANDEMIC. And I’d like to have a child to suck my life away in 2022. I mean to love forever. So… sooner rather than later, but what is realistic?
After a couple hours of research I have found that the section recommended from Crescent City to San Francisco is over 400 miles. Just 30 minutes on the Explore Del Norte County (Crescent City CA area) website and I’m already thinking there’s so much more than biking that could be great to do. Do I want to tour 400 miles by myself on my trike? Not really. Would I like to take a couple weeks, say, in late summer, to tool around the area, working a little and playing a lot, clocking in a good number of miles on my trike but also maybe kayaking, beer tasting, working remotely in all its glory? Hell yeah.
So, SMART goal reality check. Less “EPIC woman against nature” and more “this is what remote work from wherever actually means.” Though a nice 15 minute YouTube diversion, converting a van I don’t (yet?) own for full RV style camping also isn’t necessary. I COULD see myself sitting in my trike as I work on my laptop from the trail at the scenic point of a trail… or leaning back on a bean-bag chair in my open converted RV hatchback Suburban looking out over a picturesque green valley dappled with trees in a hatchback SUV, sleeping with an inflatable or foam rollable mattress and working from an Instagram-worthy picturesque location. Maybe some day I’ll post a picture like that. But not for the likes. Maybe I’d do it and just not post it to the world. Gasp.
If it was just me I could take out the passenger seat and fit the trike and a single person comfortably with some mattress-like padding and cooler to take a few snack. Definitely doable. Not feeling super tent vibes when I think about lots of cycling too. But I’m married. and more directly: I don’t have that kind of vehicle. We traveled from DC to San Diego and slept in the back of a long-bed truck for three of those nights when we were younger. I could totally do that again.
For next year, I think I’ll plan some incremental trips. One day, maybe with a different (smaller) trike ilke a Greenspeed Gt3, I’ll do a roughing it mode, but for now I picture myself, alone, in 2021, for two weeks in a small town, triking and hiking and typing away. Not because I’d be single but just taking time for myself in the way I travel, not someone else.
Here’s my starting list:
November/December 2020: Ride to my parents’ and back in 2 travel days (92 miles)
January/February: Ride to my grandma’s and back in 4 travel days (170 miles)
Late Spring? Train trip! In my head: ride my trike from a train to an Airbnb near a bike trail.
Viewpoints from the Horizon 