So for Shannon and I, while we have
this really deep romantic relationship,
she and I have been looking for things
that we can do together.
In the out of doors, something adventurous.
And we found mountain biking.
And it's great, we're really bad at it.
I feel like I'm just learning how to
Switch gears? How to use gears.
(grunts)
Ow.
(laughs)
When we talk about our strengths
and weaknesses I think that there's a lot
we're going to learn about each other
to be perfectly honest.
And I'm really excited about it
and a little bit terrified.
When Shannon and I first met she was playing
ultimate Frisbee for Seattle Riot
she's like two-time world champion
which in the world of utimate Frisbee
it's a big deal.
So, Graham is a professional alpine climber.
He really spends a lot of time climbing, running hills.
He's definitely an endurance athlete
which is the opposite of my background
which makes it kind of hard
to play well together in those sports.
So I started trying to figure out
other sports that we were more
on an even playing field with.
Oh my god!
I decided to start mountain biking.
And we started to realize that this was something
that we really enjoyed doing together.
We're complete babes in the woods.
I have no idea how to do this.
Look at her, my main babe.
(laughs)
There's like too many padding up here.
You have a booger.
Thanks sweetie.
Really what it comes down to is
the fact that we both totally suck.
It's a comedy of errors.
(groans)
Are you ok?
Oh (beep).
Bend is very much a biking town
so it was pretty embarrassing to be such beginners.
Do I have my glasses on right in my helmet?
Yeah.
Do I look like a biker?
You look great.
Yeah, Graham!
Whoo!
Yeah!
The exciting news today
is that we have new pedals.
It's been really fun
engaging that learning curve together
and slowly getting better at the same time.
Pre-work biking session.
Having something that we do together in the out of doors,
something adventurous, is going to be
a massive thing for us to learn about each other
and add a whole new exciting building block
to our relationship
So we knew we wanted to find a place
where we could put our new sport into action together.
Last summer Graham and I drove
through the Owyhee Canyonlands
and we were totally blown away with
the beauty and the remoteness of the region.
Soaring cliffs, big rivers,
there's a majesty out here.
It's truly wilderness and it's truly beautiful.
So we started planning and pulled together
this trip to go take bikes out there,
put a bunch of stuff on 'em, go explore.
- We really wanted the adventure aspect
to our first bike packing trip.
Started zooming in on Google Earth
and really trying to find a route that made sense.
Animal trails or local roads,
so that's how we found our route.
And it's going to take us we think about five to seven days.
Kind of worried about water,
we're going to the desert.
Food, tire punctures,
spokes broken, chain break,
shifting, cable breakage, digestive issues,
there might be some rattlesnakes.
Is there anything else that I should be afraid of?
That's a great-looking list
you have there Shannon.
You guys think that
it's gonna test your relationship? I think it already has
intellectuals, gracious people...
but not cyclists
I think some bike wheels are gonna get thrown.
I want to say I hope it's gonna be good,
and I do hope it's gonna be good,
but mostly I just look forward to seeing how it goes
It might be just a really bad idea
for us to go on this trip.
But it could be really sweet,
and I think we're just going to have to find out.
The reason I'm most excited to go with Shannon
is that I think that there's a lot
we're going to learn about each other.
Morning, muffin.
Morning
Here we are.
It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.
It's great.
Excited? I'm really excited.
Well...
here we go.
Hit it, girlfriend.
We started out the trip, and the weather was gorgeous.
Literally whooping for joy as we rode around.
Mean, lean, fightin' machines.
About as fun as bike packing could possibly be.
Whoo!
I just really enjoy the feeling
from the seat of a bicycle.
Feels like flying.
Being able to get from point A to point B
through the wilderness using my body
and the tools I can carry with me.
So that was yesterday.
Today, we woke up and it was raining.
We're both from the Pacific Northwest,
you can deal with some rain.
Let's get out there and get going.
Well time to go get involved.
Wipe this off.
There's not a shred of blue in the sky.
Graham thought he needed to overcompensate for that,
so he wore all blue today.
See how the riding goes today.
Got all of our stuff into waterproof bags,
and I think we probably biked for about 45 minutes
before we hit the first patch of thick mud.
It just gets worse,
the bikes are just totally caked in mud.
Which made for some really slow biking.
I was feeling miserable and cold
and really just in survival mode,
and then it started to thunderstorm.
(thunder roars)
Got that weather over there is coming at us
and it feels like crap.
Not something that you wanna run into
moving slowly along a ridge line
carrying a giant piece of metal.
Totally heinous.
I think my chain's off.
Eventually we just drag the bikes
down into this canyon.
And we ended up finding a cave
that was big enough to actually pitch our tent in.
I'm really glad that Graham's survival skills
kicked into action.
We're able to set up the tent,
get some of our stuff dried out, just kind of recoup.
We've zipped our sleeping bags together,
it's a good sign that we're getting along well.
You know the advice coming down here during
this time year was like, it's gonna be amazing.
Only problem is it might be too hot
and there might not be any water and now we're like
there's so much water.
There is water, in fact.
The air is full of it.
The air is full of water.
And the following morning
the big pulse of rain had passed.
And just continued on.
We might even have to wear sunscreen today.
The rain had stopped and the ground had started to dry.
And it just kind of washed away
all the stuff we'd been dealing with.
Ah!
Dude, I don't know.
I might actually kind of be having fun right now.
We're pumped.
We'd been fighting, through the storm,
through all this mud,
and we were really rewarded
by a super pretty remote zone
that not many people get to.
And that really just explains
why we came out here in the first place.
All the stuff I pictured
finally kind of came to fruition.
It was perfect.
We've only got a couple more days,
and now we're right in the thick of it.
Deep in the gorges of the Owyhee,
and it's stunning.
Despite all the shenanigans we've been dealing with,
I'm really grateful that
that we get to spend time out here.
Cruising along, working hard on the bike,
seeing gorgeous vistas.
Both incredible geographic features
and incredible plant and animal life.
Just us with the birdsong,
the babbling brooks, pretty special.
-Makes me happy.
I mean this is really the reason that we came.
We've watched each other train
and prepare for really intense situations.
The World Championships in Frisbee
or big climbs in Alaska or Pakistan,
and on this trip you know we prepared together,
and we went and did it together.
We definitely learned a lot more
about each other on this trip,
and how we work best together,
learning how to form a better relationship.
Got along really well.
I mean not all the time, but generally speaking
we really got to experience
how each other deal with challenge.
Things get kind of hairy like, we'll figure it out.
We did it and it felt good
It did feel good, thanks to you buttercup.
Boom.
Yeah.