DAY 12 - Epilogue
"Until I bike through a thunderstorm, I will always be afraid of a drizzle."

Okay, so this post is going to be a little different, and much longer than my previous ones. So far, I've been taking each day to talk about a specific aspect of riding, but today I'm going to try to tie things together compactly, and talk about ther ride as a whole. Get ready, because there's going to be a lot of sections.

Some Statistics
  • Total distance: 1067km
  • Total ride time: 55 hours and 30 minutes
  • Average speed: 19km/h (over the whole trip - as mentioned before, this varied a lot, between around 16km/h in hilly regions to around 24km/h in flat areas)
  • Top speed: about 55km/h (go slow when going uphill, but there's no speed limits going down!)
  • Total uphill: around 3km

For those of you curious about my finances, I'd say I spent about $2000 CAD. That's around $1500 on food, hotels, and expenses during the trip, and around $500 on gear getting ready for the trip (the GPS, bike gloves, bike pants, etc were easily a few 100 dollars). I might be overestimating this stat, but my bank account doesn't lie. I spent about $1500 over the past two weeks.

Of course, the gear I had cost a lot more. For starters, the bike itself was free as a family heirloom. I had paniers (side bags) and a front bag that were already attached to my dad's bike. Similarly, I already had some gear from just biking around Toronto. The sleeping pad and tent were also my parents', though to be honest, the cost of the sleeping bag and pad is probably more than how much I would have spent staying at hotels on the nights that I used them. Make of that what you will.

There is one more stat that I am very proud of: I got sunburnt just once - on the first day where I didn't cover the backside of my left arm. Okay, this section has definitely been derailed already from stats to something else, so....

The Path

There were two routes I could have taken. The one I took, and the one bypassing Lake Ontario from the north side. It was unfortunate that I had to choose the route before leaving. Still, I'm happy with what I did. Looking at the other route, it seems like there are also good trails, and maybe I could have avoided some of the pain of travelling through those crappy central Massachusetts highways. Alas, the road not taken.

The Things I Carried
I've been meaning to make this post for a while, and figured that the end of the trip is the best time. Below I am going to post pictures of everything I brought with me to Boston on the bike.

Let's start with things directly on my body. In the above picture are my bike pants, my helmet, my biking gloves, my sunglasses, and my shoes. Actually, these sunglasses aren't mine - I stole them from Sarah.

The bike pants are something that I was skeptical about at first. Usually when I go canoeing or hiking, I prefer pajama pants, as they are light, cover skin from the sun, and I already have a few pairs. However, on a whim, I decided to buy this pair for about $45, and I'm so glad I did. The seller promised that the extra crotch padding would protect my ass and nether regions from scuffing. I don't know if the padding worked or not, since my bum doesn't get sore from biking anymore (I've already gotten used to the seat), and there were some days where I did not use these pants. However, they were great as shorts! Actually, the fact that they were tight fitting was excellent, as I didn't have to carry the weight of heavy flapping fabric like I would have had to do had I been wearing normal cargo shorts. 10/10.

My helmet is something that goes without saying. I wore it religiously, and as long as I was on the bike, the helmet was on me. There were times that I would unbuckle the straps to put on sunscreen, and briefly forget to buckle them back, but I usually caught on relatively quickly, and fixed the helmet. Not much else to say about it. I can't say how effective it was, since I never had to use it. Still, 10/10.

The biking gloves were also a new purchase. I always liked wearing some kind of glove while biking to prevent blisters and general ickyness from getting on my hands, but I didn't realize I'd have to shell out like $60 for them. Yeah, I think they were overpriced, and I also suspect they were a bit big on me. But somehow the fact that they weren't super tight made it so that I could take them off easily during breaks or to check my phone for directions. 10/10.

The sunglasses were on me about as long as the helmet was. Sadly, they got dirty really easily and were hard to wipe off. Maybe it was because my shirt was also full of sunscreen, but there were definitely times where the sunglasses were more annoying than the sun they were supposed to protect from. I should look into getting real biking sunglasses. Maybe they clean easier? Maybe they don't slip off when I sweat from my face? At some point my sunglasses fell off and I think I ran over them. Anyway, they are now crooked. Sorry Sarah! 6/10 - This is something I definitely can try to improve on.

Let's not talk about my shoes... They are very old, and are not meant for biking. These are hiking shoes that I got like two years ago, and that I've been heavily abusing over the past, well, two years. They used to be waterproof, until they got holey. Through these holes, the shoes kept getting filled with small pebbles that were kicked up by my wheels when I would go on stone dust roads. I promised anyone who looked at my shoes that I would get new ones in Boston, but I think I'll wait until my parents are so embarrassed to see me in public that they will just buy me new shoes. Besides, it's summer, so I hope to be wearing sandals all the time! The shoes were actually comfortable, and didn't give me any trouble at all. I almost forgot to even talk about them. Had I bought new shoes, I would have had to get used to them and all, so I'm glad I went with what I had. 9/10, because rocks in your shoes don't make your shoes rock.

Above is a picture of all of the things I kept in the front pouch of my handlebar bag. Well, I also kept my phone there, but I'm not going to take a picture of that. Pretty self-explanatory - chap stick, headphones, and a headphone pouch. For more information about my cell phone, see my post on technology

I used the chap stick about twice, on the first few days. It was pretty unncessary, as I could have bought some in any convenience store. Still, it weighs almost nothing, and I really like this brand. 2/10.

The headphones are a controversial topic. I enjoyed listening to music through them on the long and boring stretches of upstate New York, and sometimes the music really helped me go up hills. The music was also a good pace-maker, as I strived to do 1km/song, which was a fun little game that I played for a few 100km over the course of the ride. On the other hand, some say that the music is a distraction from cars coming from behind. I don't know what I think about it - I definitely felt safe listening to music along the broad shoulders of route 5 in New York, and on the bikes routes that went through the woods. However, for the latter, I didn't want to listen to music! In Massachusetts, I barely listened to music, mostly because I wanted to concentrate on the horrible roads, but also because I really liked the sounds of all the streams that ran along the roads. As for safety, cars were making a lot of noise, and I did have a mirror that I used excessively (about as much as I use my mirrors when I drive). For those of you who think it's unsafe to bike with headphones, I challenge you to drive from Toronto to Boston without a radio. Tell me if you need to hear the cars in order to know that they are there. 9/10 because they sometimes got tangled (I refuse to use chordless headphones).

The headphone pouch will be used during my stayin Boston. 10/10?.

That key is for my bike lock. I'll write about that in a few paragraphs.

This is sunscreen. Well, this is the third bottle I used, and a tiny bottle I bought because they had no big bottles in the Goshen grocery store. I completely used up the first bottle and half of the second bottle before forgetting it in a hotel room. This bottle is less than half full. I used a lot of sunscreen, and it shows. I'm not burnt, and all of my clothes and bike bags were covered in this oily white-ish grossness. This is part of the reason it was so hard to wipe my sunglasses. Anyway, 10/10 - I didn't get sunburnt.

This is a compact-folding blanket/pouch thingy that Sarah got me for the trip. It's about body length, and it's very thin. At first I thought it would be good as a sleeping bag, but I was wrong. It was too cold! Still, it's a great picnic blanket, and I'm sure I'll see a lot of use for it while I'm in Boston. 6/10.

This is a picture of all of the biking-related stuff I brought. Most of it was stored in the handlebar bag, except for the pump and inner tubes, which I put in one of my side bags that had space in it. Pictured from left to right: two spare inner tubes, a multitool (with its pouch underneath), a patch kit, back light, bike lock key, screws, monkey wrench, ankle reflectors, bike pump (along the bottom), Filzer multi-tool, bike lock, tire levers (inside the bike lock), front light (inside the bike lock), strech chord with hooks, smaller front light, a square of black inner-tube rubber, two I-don't-know-what-they-are-called wrenches, duct tape, bike grease.

Most of this stuff was for emergencies or maintenance away from a road. To be frank, I don't think I really needed any of it, as I was always close to people, and there were more than enough people willing to help me whenever I needed it .

The inner tubes are a weird story . When I took the bike to the repair shop , the owner also replaced the inner tube. Actually, I don't really remember what tube went where, or why I have so many. Future Assaf, you should do a quick check of these spares to see what's really in these boxes. 10/10 - I'm really glad I have spares!

This multitool is special because it has a sharp knife and pliers. I used it a bit to fiddle with the gears and breaks, but it wasn't very necessary. 2/10.

These patch kits are awesome. So lightweight, so small, so strong. 10/10

I didn't use the back light at all, but I'm going to need it in Boston. 10/10.

The screws are just there because when I had to get a screw for my rack , I had to buy the rest of package as well. Are they necessary? No. Did they ease my mind? Yes. Next time I should just bring one. 1/10, pretty much useless.

The monkey wrench is useful for a few screws here and there on the bike. It would have been useful had I had those extra screws above and wasn't in an auto-shop where they could be easily installed. It was really heavy, and I never used it. 1/10 - at least it didn't break in a moment of need or something...

I forgot I even brought these ankle reflectors. They were completely useless, as I never biked in the dark. Still, they are weightless and took up no room, and I'm sure I'll use them in Boston. They also are good for holding down a pant sleeve so that it doesn't get caught in the chain. 10/10.

The bike pump was useful. It's a really good and compact pump, and I love it. Fun fact: I got this pump in Boston last summer. 10/10.

This Filzer multi-tool is probably the first bike tool I ever got. I love it to bits. It's got a bunch of hex wrenches, a + and a - bit screwdriver, and it's just a nice simple tool! I used it all the time to tighten my gear shifts. Actually, even before this trip, this thing was always in my bag. My worst nightmares involve accidentally bringing this on a plane and having it confiscated. 10/10 + emotional attachment.

Okay, so finally it's time to talk about the bike lock. The thing is heavy, bulky, and I used it about twice - once in the Royal Botanical Gardens, and I think another time when I went into some store. Most of the time I just brought my bike indoors, and asked nicely to lay it against a wall, gear and all attached. For the trip itself, the lock was dead weight. Should I have bought a new lock in Boston? Probably, but these things are expensive. On the other hand, the lock did give me freedom. Had I wanted to explore by foot, I would have been able to. I'm confliced. 5/10.

The tire levers are standard, easy to carry, and actually proved to be useful! . 10/10.

This front light has been with me ever since I started winter biking in Montreal, and wanted a light strong enough to blind cars. I love this light, and actually keep it on me at all times as a flash-light. This light, along with the back light, are USB rechargeable, which, combined with my external battery pack, made them ideal for the trip. I didn't use this light at all for biking, as I didn't bike in the dark, but I did use this as a flashlight when tenting. 10/10.

The bungee chord was useless. I already had one wrapping around my laptop. I thought I might use this in case one of my bags broke and I would have had to hack some way to strap it on, but I really could have just used my other one. 3/10, since one of them was useful.

I didn't use the smaller front light at all. 0/10

The square of inner-tube rubber is a nice hack I learned from the McGill co-op bike shop. I learned there that it makes a great random wedge to make things that mount on the bike tighter. For example, the kickstand shook a bit, and I probably could have wedged that in there to make it tighter. Though considering I had spare inner tubes, this bit of rubber was a bit redundant. Still, it's very sad to cut an inner tube just for a spacer, and this bit doesn't weigh anything. 7/10.

The pair of IDKWTAC-wrenches were completely useless. I only brought them because they were in the pouch with the 2/10 multi-tool. 0/10.

I don't go adventuring without duct tape. This time I used it exactly once to tape a thank you note to Jeff and Michelle for letting me stay on their yard. 10/10.

The bike grease was useless. If I needed something greased, I could have probably pulled up into any auto-shop and bummed grease or bought some. 0/10.

In this picture, the only new things are pill bottles, a toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, a small pack towel, and a small kitchen knife with a sheath.

The pill bottles contain medicine against headaches and stomach aches. In case of dehydration, I sometimes get severe headaches that would make it hard to do anything or think clearly. Sometimes I just get them without any good reason. The same thing applies to stomach aches. Over the past few years, I haven't been getting them a lot, but I still carry these around just in case. Besides, others around me might need a painkiller. 10/10 for the headache pills, and 6/10 for the stomach meds. Worst comes to worst, I just suffer for a bit.

The teeth care bag is self-explanatory. 10/10

While I didn't use the pack towel, I think I should have used it for cleaning the sunglasses. I didn't get around to jumping in a lake, but this towel gave me that freedom. 10/10.

The kitchen knife was not sharp. At first, I thought that I would be usin it a lot to cut up vegetables, block cheese, or even salamis, but man, this knife sucks. I should have just thrown it away. 0/10, but I should bring an actual knife next time.

Pictured above are the two water bottles I brought. The green one fits on the bike frame, and the black one was my spare, which was always in one of my bags. I tried to use the black bottle as little as possible, always opting to refill my green bottle as often as possible. When the green bottle would get about 1/4 full, I would start looking for gas stations or people mowing their lawn who could help me with water. I would then drink the remaining water, fill it up, drink as much as I could, and fill up again. Doing this every time I stopped near water was a good idea, and I only had to pull out my black water as a refill after a few days. Unfortunately, I did run out of water once. On a particularly lonely stretch through hills, I recall running out of water on my green bottle, and then my black bottle. This scared me, but I knew I was close to a town, so I felt safe. All in all, I'm happy with the amount of water I was carrying. 10/10

You can also see my sandals there. I wanted them for Boston, even though they took up a lot of space.

In this picture is my technology set-up. There's a red chord bag, a sleeping pad, my laptop, a smaller chord bag, an external battery pack, some loose-leaf paper, and my wallet. All of these things were in my "do not lose" side-bag, except for my wallet which was in the front bag.

Originally, the red bag was for the sleeping pad (that big square red thing wrapped with a bungee chord), but for this trip, I used it to carry my laptop chord, my purple USB chord (which was used to charge the battery pack and to connect the GPS to my laptop), and to hold the smaller black drawstring bag. It was really convenient to have an extra layer of organization for my chords. 10/10

The sleeping pad was great padding for my laptop, and I'm really proud of myself for coming up with the bungee chord trick. The laptop itself was necessary, as I need it in Boston. Actually, the laptop was a difficult decision for me. At first, I thought that I would rather have it be mailed to Boston, or delivered by some friends coming here anyway. I was worried that it would get damaged, or that it would take up too much room/weight. In the end, I think I did the best thing I could have done. I'll talk about the sleeping pad along with the tent. 10/10.

The external battery pack was one of the best investments I made for this trip. I've talked about it a lot already , but I really want to make sure that future Assaf knows how important this thing is if you're taking a cell phone or anything USB rechargeable. 10/10

The loose leaf papers were useless, except for that one time I left a note for Jeff and Michelle . 0/10, a receipt would have been equally useful.

My wallet is my wallet. Not leaving that behind. 10/10

This is my GPS. It was great. 10/10

I also brought some clothes. I used this orange sleeping bag bag to keep them semi-organized. Clothes are overrated. 0/10. But seriously, I mostly wore T-shirts, and I'm happy with that decision, but maybe next time I should check out those shirts that those douchebag-looking cyclists keep raving about.

This is my hat. I brought it for fun.

This is my trail mix, and my pencil-case. I ate my trail mix on the ride, and I'm gonna use my pencil-case in Boston. 10/10 for both.

This is a foldable fabric bag which I plan to use in Boston. It was a waste to bring it all the way over. 0/10

This is the tent I used. It folds really small, and it's very light, so I figured why not bring it? Honestly, this is the biggest question I've been thinking about this trip. Should I have brought the tent? On the one hand, it gave me freedom to sleep wherever I wanted. On the other hand, I didn't use it enough to justify bringing it. On the third hand, it would have been useful in case of emergency. On a fourth hand, I was always along relatively busy highways, so did I really need this? Maybe if I was biking in a more desolate location, this would have been necessary. The same applies to the sleeping pad. For this trip, under these circumstances, I'm giving it a 3/11, because I used the sleeping pad 3 nights out of the 11 nights that I biked (I slept on it in Ethan's dinig room last night).

Some things not pictured: passports and a book. Both were 10/10, even though I didn't read much, as I spent most of my evenings writing this blog and sleeping.

Aside: biking with more than one person

I think that there are some things that I brought that made more sense if I went with more people. Specifically, the pack towel, blanket, useless bike tools, tent, knife, and the bike lock. Somehow I never wanted to explore or bathe in rivers, but I was focused on getting to my destination. If someone else were with me, I'd probably be more inclined to doing nature-related stuff like picnicing, water-activities, and camping. I would also need to bring more bike-fixing gear because of the lowered flexibility of travelling with more than one person. We wouldn't be able to hitch-hike, and there's double the chance of problems.

All in all, here is everything I brought.

Wait... Something seems to be missing from this picture...

The Bike

I'm not going to tell you the brand names of my bike, the wheels, or anything else, since I don't know them, and I don't care about them. Suffice it to say that this bike is older than I am, and was used by my dad when he was biking around in the US.

This is the rack. It carried all of the bags apart from the handlebar bag. I loved it!

This is the frame, with the green water bottle mounted on it.

This is my handlebars setup. From left to right: my bell (which I got in Boston, 10/10), some plastic wedge for mounting a probably long-lost flashlight, the mount for the handlebar bag, a small goodluck charm placed on my old bike by a homeless person in a park (actually, I got my old bike from someone who told me that story, I have no idea if it's true), and the mount for my GPS. Oh! And I can't forget the mirror. This mirror is awesome, and I highly recommend anyone biking to get a mirror!!!. Easily 10/10.

This is a closeup of the mount for the handlebar bag. See those screws jutting out? They dug into the bag's fabric and made it a huge pain in the ass to take out. Ugh. I got them shimmed down when I got to Boston, and I hope this helps, otherwise I'm throwing away the whole setup.

These were the gear-shifters for the bike. Really old-school. I had to tighten them with a screwdriver every two days or so. Not a big deal. It's what you get for riding a vintage bike.

Totally unrelated, but today I saw another identical bike locked on a post in Somerville. Apparently I'm not the only one riding this oldie!

Food

When I first set out, I thought that I would be buying food in supermarkets, and mostly eating picnic stuff. Things like cold cuts, sandwiches, fruit, and trail mix. I thought I would occasionally stop by to get a hot dinner, but that I would be carrying most of my food.

I started like this, but after a few days, I kinda stopped doing that. There were a few good reasons. The first one is that stopping to shop and to make food on the trails took a lot of time! I wanted to bike, and doing all of this business of cutting up things for sandwiches, and dealing with packaging, and thinking about which stuff is about to go bad in my backpack, was just not compatible with biking 100km/day.

The second reason was a volume and weight problem. It was hard to carry a lot of food with me at all times, and when I did, my bags just barely closed, and the food came out squished and miserable. Look, an apple doesn't weigh anything (and I actually had an apple with me almost every day, when I could steal one from a hotel breakfast), but three apples, two cucumers, bread, and tomatoes, end up weighing quite a bit. All of this weight needs to go in the side bags to keep the bike's weight low, and one of my paniers (side bags) was already full of laptop and other unloseables. Thus, everything had to go in the "food bag", which destabilized the bike.

Another reason I stopped buying food in supermarkets is simple convenience. Supermarkets aren't open for as long as most restaurants and fast food places (I ate at McDonald's for the first time in years because they were the only thing in a small town, where I needed to charge my phone ). Additionally, in restaurants or fast-food places, I could bring my bike inside, take things to-go, and always have my bike near me. In a supermarket, I had to leave my bike at the front, where it could get stolen.

This is probably another thing I would change if I were doing a trip with more than just myself. I would strive to do less kilometers per day, but do more picnic stuff.

External Conditions

I was exceptionally lucky with good weather. There was one day where I got slightly damp, but the rest was smooth sailing with sunny days. There was a threat of thunderstorms at some point, but I guess they fizzled away, or were deterred by my scary face.

Either way, I would have really liked to write a blog post about biking in the rain. I would have liked to write in my epilogue what it was like to get wet, and how I coped with this challenge. I would have liked to write how I was glad that the rain cleaned my clothes, and how my tires were muddy. I would have liked to elaborate on the joys of being alone in a thunderstorm, and braving the elements. I would have liked to write about taking a second rest day after getting a cold from biking in the rain. I would have liked to write about how my water-tight bags repelled a torrential downpour, and how slipping into dry clothes in the evening was a transformative feeling of rebirth. But alas, it didn't rain.

In all honesty, this disappoints me a bit. The fact that I don't have any experience dealing with rain means that I still fear it. It's the same as the mountains. I stopped fearing mountains after passing through them. Until I bike through a thunderstorm, I will always be afraid of a drizzle.

One thing I did get a lot of experience with is different surfaces to bike on. I learned that the road bike is really good for roads, but not much else. Still, with the new tires, I felt more confident riding on stone dust, and I think that next time I won't shy away from such trails.

So what's Next?

Well, firstly, there's two months' of gerrymandering research . Yeah, this is actually just my commute to work :P But in terms of biking? I don't know. After the big 150km push I did on the last day, I feel like I can upgrade the challenge. I entertained the possibility of doing this route in 5 nights instead of 10+1, but would that really be fun?

A lot of people are asking whether or not I plan to bike back to Toronto. The option is tempting, but do I have the time? The money? During the trip itself, there were times I didn't want to continue. There were times where I wanted it to end, because I just wanted to be settled in a room I can call my own, and to not be covered in sweat and sunscreen. I, personally, have a problem where I forget the bad things that happen to me. In a few days, I'll get nostalgic about the ride, and miss the good days, but I need to remember that there were bad days too.

Overall, though, it was good. The door has been opened, and I'm sure that as long as there's summer, I'll be spending it biking.

Some Thanks

Thanks to my mom, who kept telling me that she enjoys my posts, and that this ride is totally insane. Oh, and for teaching me to always put on sunscreen and wear a helmet.
Thanks to Ethan for being my emergency contact in Boston, and for hosting me on short notice.
Thanks to Sarah for talking to me when I needed a break, and for keeping me excited about the journey. Oh, and for the blanket and towel!
Thanks to my dad as well. For the good advice, the support, and for the presistent opinion that I should tent in some public place, get harrassed by police, and then have a good story to tell. Oh, and for the bike itself :P I was originally planning on riding a fixed gear bike to Boston... Glad I didn't!
Thanks to my readers, commenters, and proofreaders, for giving me attention and fixing my typos and grammatical nonsense.

And a special thanks to all of the people I met along the way. Some of you may be reading this, some of you may not. I loved hearing your stories, and I am so so so grateful for your support of my travels. To all of the gas station attendees, lawn mowers of upstate New York, fast food workers of Massachusetts, residents of Herkimer NY, hotel clerks, I sincerely thank you for making this ride a positive experience.

Oh yeah, and thanks to the car drivers for not running me over, and for keeping a safe distance. No thanks to that driver in the blue car who cut me off this morning.