Leaning forward helps. I learned that staying seated, with your butt on the saddle and really working the legs is the best way to get up hills. As I am not a Tour du France rider who is attacking the paleton or sprinting towards the finish line, this is the tactic I am going with. I want to make it up the hill. I can feel Sierra changing her position in the back. It feels like she just added an extra 5 kg of weight to the trailer that I am pulling right now. I try to catch my breath. This hill isn't even that high. I don't think you can even call this a hill, and yet my lunges are burning. My legs feel fine, but my mind keeps telling me that I cannot do it. That I need to stop. I look down, trying to find my groove. Suddenly I feel my legs go faster and look up. I made it. The wind in my face feels great on the way down. I sit up, rest my legs and enjoy the little break. We have not even made it to Sweden yet, and I am already struggling. What have I gotten myself into?
There is a moment when I plan a trip, where something usually goes wrong. And of course, this time was no different. Sierra was not able to put much weight on her
left leg and had a swollen shoulder. I was really counting on her being able to run a good stretch next to the bike. We had trained for this trip and built up her endurance, but now the diagnosis
from our vet said that she needs to rest for a few days. It was going to be tight but had a chance of fitting into our plan, as we only had to ride to the campground in Travemünde, roughly 4
hours ride away, and then take the ferry to Trelleborg, which also meant 8 hours of rest. I did have a feeling, though, that we probably needed more time than that. We took some pain meds with us
just in case and looking back I am glad we had the backup. It is important to be flexible when traveling and adventuring with your dog. "Hike your dog's hike!" is the most important rule when
hiking with your dog. So this time I changed the rule to: "Ride your dogs ride!" It is important to know the signs: When does your dog get tired? When is your dog in pain? When are they stressed?
Sierra has learned to give me the signs and I listen every single time, to reassure her and make her understand that I get it. If she gets tired while running, she taps her nose to my leg. I use
this sign to slow down. If she then tabs again, I stop and cool her down. If she needs a water break or gets tired, she will then move to the side of the path and lay down. I then wait until she
gets up by herself again, no matter how long it takes. Know your dog and know the signs when they try and tell you something. Traveling with a dog does slow things down.
Another challenge for me was the gear. I am used to hiking and packing my backpack. I know what I can fit and where everything belongs. But where do you put
everything on your bike? I had somehow decided on small bags. Not only for financial reasons but also, in my mind, to save weight. Now, I am not sure what difference a bigger bag would’ve made,
but hey, we learn from our experiences. Despite gaining knowledge of how bikepacking works, I was still a little overwhelmed. I had no idea where to fit all my gear, didn't want to put a lot
inside the trailer as this was Sierras space. But also, somehow the bags didn't seem big enough. I packed. I repacked. Changing the set-up again and again. I tried every possible way of packing
our gear. It was a jigsaw puzzle. In the end, I decided to not worry about how it looks and just be glad it fits without disturbing my riding. In the hopes that my packing will get better over
time.
When we finally somehow managed to fit everything onto the bike and trailer, more or less professional, we made our way to Travemünde. This is where we had planned to sleep on a campground for one night before taking the ferry in the morning. The campsite Ivendorf is beautiful. Not only it is only 5 minutes from the port, they are also extremely flexible and biker friendly. Making sure there is always room for bikers and are flexible if, for whatever reason, you arrive late. Plus, they do have a nature pool to cool down in on a hot summer's day. One wish I had from the start was an early start. So leaving at around 6 in the morning, we packed the final things, secured the apartment and took off. I will be honest with you, the first 20 minutes were a horror and I honestly thought I had to turn around again and do this on foot instead. Sierra was sooooo difficult in the trailer. I was so disheartened because we had practiced this for so long and spend so much time training with the trailer that I could not believe how much of a drama the first few minutes were. Now, looking back on it, I know the reason. Sierra was lost. I had my friend over for a few days ahead of time. Her routine was gone, and suddenly we had packed up everything and left our home. She didn't understand and wasn't stressed because of the trailer but from the overall situation. It also didn't help that she wasn't allowed to run. Dogs reflect our mood. I was nervous about how this trip was going to go, it was early and with an extra person on board that she wasn't familiar with pushed her to the limit. We figured it out and found our tune after a few days, but this is something that was a very important lesson for me to learn and keep an eye on in the future.
We kept riding, and I decided to take it in two stages mentally. The first stage was making it through the forest and past several small towns, while stage two was
the ocean part. There is something magical of riding alongside the ocean on a perfect bike path for a good amount of time. What I also love is that once you get towards Timmendorfer Strand and
Niendorf you get to ride on big roads that are designated only to bikes, "Fahrradstraße". Cars are allowed, but you have the right of way It fells so nice having the amount of space and not having to
be so extremely aware of traffic around you. The last 30 minutes felt like they would never end. I was getting tired, Sierra was getting moody again, and I could feel the distance within my whole
body. Riding roughly 42km on the first day was really hard for me. Not only physically but also mentally. I was worried about my first ferry ride with Sierra and about the first day in Sweden. I
never used to be this nervous about my travels, but taking Sierra with me always added a certain level of "stress" to it. In the back of my mind, I would always worry about if she was going to be
alright and how certain situations would play out, as she used to be so extreme reactive. But I also learned from our hike on the Tour du Mont Blanc that our long training really works, and in
the end I never really had to worry about anything. But nevertheless you first worry a bit :) . We kept riding and at 1am we arrived at our campsite and spend the remainder of our day exploring
the harbor and resting.
Write a comment