I've been feeling restless. It has been 6 months since I finished my college degree, ending 18 years of formal education, and I am looking for adventure. When my old pal Kate came up with the idea of cycling the Silk Road last fall my life consisted of a tiresome struggle to get my BSc in Environmental Sciences and get out. Before I knew it I had signed up for a trip that would be far crazier than any I had previously been on, and why not make the mode of transportation a bicycle which neither of us a) owned, or b) knew how to ride fully-loaded or repair? (this is just one example of the type of challenge Kate and I like to create for ourselves)! Luckily we now have other amazing people joining the group and a bike trip under our belts, allowing our friends and family to breathe a sigh of relief. But first a little background. I hail from the small town of Erin, Ontario, located just an hour outside of Toronto. The population is a whopping 2000, and any estimates above this likely include livestock. Kate moved to town back in 1993 and we instantly became friends... and terrible influences on each other. After high school our lives headed in different directions but we recently reconnected over a love for endurance sports and the willingness to try the extreme. Our friendship has now survived the NYC marathon and a cross-country bike trip despite all the 4am wake-ups, tight sleeping quarters, really poor hygiene, utter exhaustion and some delightful saddle sores, which I think says a lot! I am attracted to China mostly because I know so little about it. I find excitement in the fact that I get to explore an unknown corner of the Earth through books, films, maps and travel guides. I am inspired to attempt to learn a new language, to piece together the geography and to understand the culture's history, religion and lifestyle. I love the fact I have no idea how the air will feel in my lungs or the dirt beneath my tires and that all my eyes will gaze upon are things I have never seen before. This trip will be packed with experiences, both good and bad, that will be totally exotic and unpredictable. I am jumping in completely inexperienced, idealistic and heady with naïve excitement. I have no idea what the time will hold, but I know that I will be pushing myself to limits I can't even imagine. For me there is nothing more liberating than that. Ride on! The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars. -Jack Kerouac
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