1. The hardest day is Day One.
Mostly because you will not have gotten much sleep the night before!
2. Ear Plugs are the most important thing to remember to bring.
Imagine if you didn't get sleep before Day 1, what it would be like not getting sleep before Day 2!
3. Afternoon Routine.
-Park the bike, pump up the tires. (You'll lose a little air overnight, but you can always ride to rest stop one the next morning and pump them again. The lines in the morning for bike pumps will be long!)
-cover your bike seat
-take your bottles, helmet, etc with you. rinse out your bottles sometime before bed.
-get your gear bag, tent and set up your tent
-eat dinner (do this before showering or you could get a nice sugar level drop while you're standing in the shower and pass out!).
-take a shower, if you can- bring one of those microfiber towels on the ride for your hair, it gets most of the loose moisture out and then your hair won't be soaking wet all night.
-listen for evening announcements.
-fill your water bottle with water for overnight sipping. Also bring a snack back to- your tent because you will wake up in the middle of the night starving!
-bring a headlamp (rather than a handheld flashlight) on the ride. When you go to the porta pottie in the middle of the night, be sure to "flashlight inspect" it before you enter. Sad to say but some people have a problem with aim.... think of this in the worst possible way and you'll know what I mean.
4. Morning Routine.
-get up (turn off your alarm clock before you leave the tent- if you leave it on snooze your neighbors will smack you when you return)
-get in the porta pottie line.
-go eat breakfast (bring your morning toiletries and towel with ya so you can wash up after breakfast)- if you want some french pressed Peets coffee, come find me.
-wash up
-get dressed
-take the tent down
-roll your bag and your tent over to the gear truck
-stop by morning "cyclist" Yoga with the Yoga Nazi (no really, it's good for you and you will end up doing it anyway by Day 3 so you might as well get in the habit early!)
-fill your water bottles, re-set your cycle computer to zero, take pictures.
-Ride out- no later than 7:30am or you will be behind all day!!
4. Trust me a rolling duffel bag is what you want. Even the most experienced backpacker won't want to carry his bag 100 yards after riding over 100 miles in the heat and/or wind.
5. Day 2 (Santa Cruz to King City) will be WINDY. Plan on it.
Definitely stop for artichokes, but don't get the deep fried ones, get the steamed ones. There will be a long-assed line for the fried ones, and no line for the steamed ones. The fried ones will come back to visit you- the steamed ones will be good fiber!
Trust me on this one.
More to come as I think of them....
