Final Countdown

One week to go until the official start - May 4th.  We have a few meetings on the 4th and dinner, of course.  We actually start pedaling on the 5th.  The dates of the tour are May 4th until June 20th.  Start point is San Diego and we finish in Anacortes, WA.  Below is a small map that I have lifted from the WomanTours website.

This is the third "epic" I will have done with WomanTours so it will be difficult to stop myself from comparing to the others from time to time.  On the previous two trips we have had 30 or slightly more participants; a few too many in my opinion.  It looks like only 16 have signed up for this inaugural Sierra Cascades trip, so I'm pretty happy about the lower numbers.  I know we'll be well fed - our chef will be Emily who fed us on last year's Atlantic Coast trip.  Two other women have done both of the other tours with me.  One other did the Southern Tier in 2013 and one more was on the Atlantic Coast with me last year.  And the guide for the first half of the trip was one of our guides from the Atlantic Coast.  So - lots of familiar faces, and I'm looking forward to meeting all of the others.  

In Calgary we've had a wonderful early, warm, and dry spring.  Great weather for getting in a few bike rides and early-season hikes.  I got out for two rides last week on the same route - 85km and 4400 feet of climbing.  Put those two together and you've got our June 10th ride - can't wait; ugh!  This week has turned more seasonal with a bit of moisture.  I haven't been motivated to go out hiking or biking in it so that has been good to get a few more to-do-list items done and visit with a few friends before departure.  Last night I started to pack and I can see that I'm going to have some challenges meeting the WT weight restrictions for luggage.  Today I ditched the shampoo (going strictly with hotel-issue) and bought a smaller size of contact solution.  Yes, it is coming down to those small items.  In this day & age the electronics bag is one of the heaviest - electronic shifting spare battery & charger, GPS & charger, camera, spare battery & charger, iPhone & charger, tablet & charger, iPod & charger, etc.  My gear bag would sure look different if this were a camping trip!  And - of course - two full bottles of my favourite sunscreen which I can't find in the US.  Not sure I'm willing to give up any extra articles of clothing yet.  I'll wait for the final weigh-in on Sunday.