u/djrivard1

My wife wasn't a cyclist. She had a whole list of reasons she couldn't do a tour. Wrong bike, not fit enough, can't camp, doesn't speak French. Honestly I was a bit nervous, everyone says taking your partner on their first tour is how you put them off it for life.

We did the Avenue Verte anyway. Gatwick to the Eiffel Tower, about 400km over five easy days, plus a rest day at Giverny. And it just... worked. The route's basically flat, you sleep in B&Bs the whole way so there's no camping gear to deal with, and the ferry in the middle gives you a four-hour sit-down that resets everyone's legs and mood. By day three she was the one checking the map.

Now she wants to pick every tour we've done since.

Wrote it up properly on my Substack if you want the longer version.

Happy to answer anything if you're thinking about doing it or you have a reluctant partner you are trying to come on your tours with you.

Probably just me being slow to figure this out, but.

Did a 6-day tour last year from Canning, NS over to Cavendish Beach on PEI. Nothing crazy, mostly gravel, some quiet pavement, a chunk of the Confederation Trail. Surly with two rear panniers, frame bag, the usual setup.

First two days I rode like someone with a concussion. Missed turns I'd literally planned the route around. Ate one of those Petro-Can chicken sandwiches that I knew, knew, was going to wreck me later. Had a 30 km imaginary argument with my accountant. Couldn't have told you which way the wind was blowing.

Eventually figured out the gear wasn't actually the problem. I was just hauling around invisible cargo. An email I'd been avoiding for nine days. A half-finished argument. Some work thing I kept putting off.

Somewhere around day 3 it starts to shift. Not in any obvious way. You just notice you've climbed for an hour without thinking about anything. By day 5 or 6 the answer to whatever I'd been avoiding kind of just appears. Not as a big epiphany. More like, oh right, that was actually obvious, why was I making it weird.

Anyway, I never see anyone write about this part of bikepacking. Everyone's super into gram-counting, which fine, but the heaviest thing on the bike for me is always mental cargo I couldn't leave at home. Wrote a piece about it here if anyone wants the longer version.

Mostly curious if anyone else has noticed this. Specifically, does it work on shorter tours? Like can you get there in 3 days, or do you need at least 5-6 for it to actually start dissolving the noise?

Did a tour with no phone last month. Way weirder than I thought.

Left it in the bag the whole time. No photos, no Strava, didn't tell anyone where I was. Just rode.

First day was honestly rough. Kept reaching for it without thinking. Realized I'd been low-key narrating the whole tour in my head, composing captions on climbs. Felt dumb when I noticed.

By day three the impulse was gone. Stopped at a barn I'd ridden past twice on previous trips and never actually seen.

Anyone else tried this? Not sure I'm going back.

(Longer write-up on my Substack. Mods, kill it if not allowed.)