All my prep didn’t prevent my rookie mistake

We camped hard by the Arctic Ocean at the top of the continent. Finally we would be getting on our bikes and starting the long road down to Panama.  This is what I’d spent months training for; the continuation of my quest for the magic that the road brings. Was it my excitement at the prospect of what lay ahead, the blazing midnight sun or the howling of the dozen or so dogs kennelled hard by our camp site that kept me from sleeping? Probably a mix of it all. Even so, I was ready to tackle the road come morning, which in fact was no different from the night.

I clipped in and off we set down the gravel highway from Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik, a distance of about 150 km. A welcome breeze played across my face keeping the mosquitoes at bay. I felt an inexpressible joy to be riding here. I was strong, the gravel manageable, the scenery stunning. At about 20 km into the ride I started to feel a twinge on the outside of my knee. Kinks, I thought, from not having ridden for a week. I pressed on . The twinge became small shafts of pain. I thought the seat height hadn’t been properly adjusted after the flight. It felt a little low to me. I raised it a couple of mm. That didn’t do the trick. The lateral knee pain grew worse. I wasn’t going to let it defeat me on my first day out. I pushed on—40, 50 km. After that I realized to continue was stupid. I had months of biking ahead of me. I broke off riding at lunch. I was depressed and mad. I never had any problems with the Salsa Marrakesh, which I’d used on my previous two long treks. I cursed myself for having switched to the Surly. I cursed the bike for making a fool of me. Then I realized that I had been a real idiot. I had made a cardinal rookie error.

I had written in an earlier blog, “never assume, always verify”.  Well, I had done it again. I had made an assumption which led me false. I had trained intensively on the Salsa Marrakesh indoors on my trainer and on the Surly Bridge Club outdoors. Never had any problems. So why was there an issue now with the Surly? It hit me. I had gotten Assioma power meter pedals for the Surly. That meant I had to get shoes with Look Keo cleats. These were not a shoe/cleat combination I could use on an expedition trek. When I switched to my regular shoes with SPD cleats it never occurred to me to check how that would work on the Surly. Bad assumption.

The next day we were at Tsiigehtchic, a hamlet on the confluence of the Mackenzie and…