Amber’s Two Wheeled Adventure
30 Jan 2025
30 Jan 2025
I caught up with Amber to discuss her epic cycling journey from Los Angeles to Alaska (and then Japan!). Not even Google could provide me with a suggested route for their journey!
We delve into the inspiration behind the trip, the challenges faced, and the profound impact it had on her perception of time. Amber shares insights into the planning and preparation for the journey, the freedom and spontaneity experienced along the way, and the valuable lessons learned about slowing down and being present in the moment.
Yeah. Good question. I think we both always really enjoyed travel and we’ve done a couple of backpacking trips before. But more recently, we got into cycling and bike packing trips. And we’ve done quite a few short breaks. I mean, the longest trip we’ve done by bike was only 10 days. So it was quite a bold change to go to 8 months of cycling.
Selecting the location was really hard because we had the whole world to choose from! We talked about it a lot and contemplated lots of alternatives. We considered cycling from the UK to somewhere like Singapore, which one of our friends has done. That would have also been an amazing route that we would have enjoyed but we had various safety concerns.
We’d been to California before and just loved the diversity of national parks across the US. We were looking for that sense of absolute openness and wilderness that I think you rarely get anywhere else. That’s what drew us towards North America. It just kind of made sense. We could keep cycling wherever we wanted to rather than skipping sections and we just loved the idea of linking up a load of national parks and immersing ourselves into the wilderness, seeing wildlife and it just being the two of us.
“Yeah. I mean, training wise, we didn’t really do anything before we went!”
We did quite a bit of planning in terms of working out overall mileage. So we knew the rough route that we wanted to take and looked at a map; national parks that we wanted to visit en route to Canada and Alaska, then simply joined the dots!
Then we worked out the overall mileage compared to how long we were allowed to stay there due to visa limitations. From there it was a case of working out an average daily mileage that we thought was achievable whilst factoring in some rest days. We estimated we could comfortably do 50 kilometres a day, which is not that much on average.
But, obviously, we’d have a lot of days off hiking and exploring the national parks and just resting. So I think for that reason, we thought, oh, it’s only 50 kilometres a day. We don’t need to do any training. That’ll be fine.
It’s funny because you just gradually build up and I think our longest day on the trips did include a few 100 milers. When I mention that to keen cyclists, they’re like “oh, okay. That’s not too bad then”! But when you say it to a normal person, their reaction is “oh, my goodness! 100 miles with a heavily laden bike!”
We were pretty careful with the mileage at the beginning and the nice thing about it was that we had so much freedom because there were so many places to camp in North America. So we settled into this nice rhythm of not deciding necessarily how far we were going to cycle on a particular day, just having a rough idea of where amenities were and where we could camp.
“If we felt good, we could do a really long day. If we were tired or if it was getting late in the day, we could stop. And that was an incredible feeling. We just wanted that sense of freedom.”
And that was one of the best things about our trip. Something I wanted to achieve before we left was just to slow time down and to just have this one objective every day; cycle, find food, find a place to camp… and that’s all we had to worry about.
Our shared calendar, which was absolutely packed before we went away, was stressful to look at! At least one thing booked in every day. And then after we left, it’s just blank and that was so lovely.
Time really slowed down, to a level I’ve not experienced before.
It was really weird. And at the times, you’re thinking “oh my god! It’s only been a week it feels like it’s been two months!”. I’d message people back home feeling like I hadn’t spoken with them in ages and so much must have changed in their lives. And they’re like “You know, it’s only been a week?!” But so much had happened to us in that week that it was really odd. It felt like time had slowed down so much, which I loved actually. I look back on that really fondly now because time has since sped up.
Yeah. Definitely. I feel like I made a set of resolutions coming back because stepping away from your life gives you so much perspective. And I agreed with myself that I would try to be more present, try to have that sense of slowing down a little bit more often because it’s so impactful. In that moment when time slows, there are so many more ideas popping into my head and I have the space to think. I will definitely incorporate that into life now. But, it’s hard. And there’s definitely a sense of time having massively sped up again although it’s better than before we went away.
I think it came from just clearing that to do list and clearing the calendar appointments and commitments. Anyone could do this to a small scale. And, naturally, I think I’m terrible as it! The London team will know that as well as every weekend, every holiday, I absolutely pack out my calendar!
“I could do this and that, and see these people and do a hundred things”.
I’m absolutely more conscious of having some time for myself, even if it’s just a week off on leave where many days I don’t plan anything or I just choose one activity; a long distance hike or a cycle to focus on.
I guess that’s part of it; you go away and don’t have all the distractions of home, then it’s easier to resist being drawn into what’s going on around you. On the trip, a lot of the time, we wouldn’t have any phone signal at all. There was no endless scrolling through social media to fill up those spare moments.
“You just had to sit there; chat, look at the stars or read a book.”
That made the pace of life feel slower. I would recommend doing those things when on holiday or even just the weekend. That’s what I’m doing more of now.
Oh, for sure. And I think we felt the pressure to use social media whilst we were away initially; to keep people up to date with what we’re doing and to share our journey with friends, family and colleagues. But we did stop in the end; we gave up on it (which some of you might have noticed if you followed our socials) because it was just taking up too much time and we found we didn’t want to sit and stare at a screen.
And it’s bizarre; I feel like the less you do on social media, the less you want to do it. This is interesting because I thought it would be the other way around; that I’d be craving that connection on social media after having a break. But the opposite was true.
Since I’ve got back, I’ve deleted Instagram because it’s has taken up too much of my time; it’s so easy to do every spare second you have; just start scrolling… I’d just click on Instagram, for example, without even thinking about it and would think “ah, here I am on it again!”.
So that’s been a huge change.
Oh, yeah. I mean, there are so many. We could almost talk someone through virtually every day of the trip in terms of what happened and where we stayed. But in a normal year, if someone asks me what I was doing on this date 8 months ago, I’d have no idea. So that is really different.
One highlight I’ve mentioned to a few people is an amazing wildlife encounter on Vancouver Island. We weren’t having the best time there; it was really wet and forested, and we were off-road most of the time with bears everywhere. But then we slogged up this track to a beach with a campsite. We’d heard you could see whales or dolphins from the beach, so we hung out there, but didn’t see any the first day. The next morning, we took our breakfast down to the beach, and a humpback whale came within 20 meters of us.
It was incredible.
We heard it first, and then it slowly cruised along, really close.
It was one of those moments where you just thought, wow, people would pay good money for this. We’ve just cycled here, and we’re this close to a whale. It was really awesome.
Another highlight for me was just people’s kindness. It was amazing how much kindness we received. I don’t know if it’s because you look quite vulnerable on a bike, but we got so many offers of help.
In the desert, people would offer water. One time in Canada, we managed to wear a hole in my bike frame in the middle of nowhere. We hitchhiked to a nearby town, and the couple that gave us a lift were so kind. They barely had room for us but squeezed us in. We used a platform called Warm Showers, like couch surfing for cyclists. People offer their homes for free and often a meal as well. We had a particularly bad issue with the bikes, and there was only one host in the town. He saved us, gave us a meal, and put us up. It was wonderful.
I think I’d come from being so busy and stressed, commuting to London and seeing people literally fighting to get on a train.
“The bike is just an icebreaker, a talking point.
It’s comforting to know that most people are really kind and would help if needed.”
I should also mention, we eloped…
Well, we’re not fussy people and don’t like to be the centre of attention, so we had discussed the idea of getting married during the trip. We also liked the idea of putting the money towards travelling rather than a big wedding.
We knew that Vegas was an obvious choice, but once we arrived in Vegas we realised how much we hate Vegas!
“We really didn’t want to get married by Elvis!”
So we discovered that in Colorado, you can purchase a DIY marriage certificate for $30! We had met a few people who had done this, and it sounded very ‘us’.
We walked into the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park, found a quiet spot and married ourselves!
Good question. One of the biggest challenges was when we wore a hole in my bike frame in the middle of nowhere. We relied on people’s kindness to overcome that. Another challenge was managing our supplies, especially water and food. In the desert, there wouldn’t be a water point for miles, and we had to carry a lot of water. We also had to plan our food carefully, especially since we’re vegan.
Sometimes we had to mail order protein powder to ourselves or rely on convenience stores.
It was tricky, but we managed. It was a lot of eating pastries and whatever was available to get the calories we needed!
Yes, we did. We ended up cycling more around Canada and then flying to Alaska because the route from Canada to Alaska was very long. We would have made it to Alaska too late in the season, so we flew to Alaska and then from Seattle at the end. We spent a couple of weeks in Alaska and then flew to Tokyo. We cycled most of the length of Japan, which was really cool. It was very different from North America, but both parts of the trip were amazing in their own ways.
People in Japan were very kind, but much more reserved. There was a language barrier, so we didn’t have as many great conversations. But anytime we looked lost or confused, someone would come up and check that we were okay, and they would try to help us with Google Translate. It was really comforting to know that people were willing to help, even if they couldn’t speak our language.
My favourite part of cycling through Japan was the convenience. There were convenience stores on every corner, and we could easily find food and supplies. The scenery was also beautiful, and we enjoyed cycling through the countryside and small towns. It was a very different experience from North America, but equally enjoyable.
Having not long completed Carbon Literacy training, sustainability and environmental issues were at the forefront of my mind. We met such a variety of people with polarising views. In the US, there were Trump supporters who were keen to dig for oil, but also plenty of people passionate about the environment and local issues; all doing what they can to make positive change.
In Japan, we were shocked at the amount of plastic waste, mostly from single use plastic items. It made me realise that, at home, I’m in a bubble – both in my professional role and outside of work. There are global issues, and then there are local ones. My shared views across the pond, but each with a unique perspective which shows the importance of visiting places to understand each culture’s particular issues. To be honest, it did make me feel despair at times. It will be hard to make everyone feel the same way; it’s easy to preach to the converted! The real challenge is engaging people who see things differently, but these experiences make be better placed to do this.
I now try harder to understand people’s views; and you can’t do that without talking to people.
Plan your finances in advance, this decides what you can and can’t do; how long you go for etc. It also provides reassurance so you don’t have to worry and can focus on enjoying the journey.
You don’t need really expensive kit, but you should learn how to maintain it.
In fact, we met a guy who had just quit his job and was cycling from Alaska to Mexico; he had never been camping before and was riding a $20 bike! It just goes to show that having the drive to do something like this is 90% of it. But preparing means you’re more likely to succeed. Start small and build from there; if you can survive a 10 day cycling trip, you can probably survive a 10 month one!
There were harder days, when the route was long or the weather was against you, but you get a lot of time to yourself. We’d often set off on a day of cycling and only really talk during breaks! The rest of the time we’d be listening to music, audiobooks or just lost in our thoughts.
There are also plenty of interactions with others which are important. We even joined some other cyclists for part of our route through Japan which was a great social dynamic. It can make or break relationships, we had heard some sad stories of break ups but some couples manage it by simply meeting up each day at the destination. It’s about experimenting with what works for you.
At the same time, you get to share these beautiful and unexpected moments together.
We’re thinking about exploring more of Europe. We have a few short cycling and hiking trips planned in the UK. We feel it’s important for us to continue these adventures; perhaps nothing quite so big, but a weekend away here and there.
We’re getting a puppy in a few weeks, which will keep us busy!
There are so many beautiful places to see, and we love the freedom and adventure that comes with cycling!