T-7 days

I was going to say my expedition will start in one week, however with the amount of time and work I have been putting into this expedition since early February I think that is when the expedition really started. I have put endless hours into working on the plan, studying other expeditions, and learning everything I could about Antarctica. Then I did everything I could to try and get funding for the expedition. Once I got the money for the expedition I was able to work with a lot of great companies to get the equipment that I need for this expedition. 

The sponsors on my Sponsors Page have all been incredible. I choose each of these companies because I their products were what I needed. However I have to say that the people that work for each of these companies are as great as their products!

Of course I have spent many, many hours and riding my fat bike. I stopped using the GPS to track my miles in the last while. It is kind of strange but heading into the expedition I have wanted to just be able to do some riding without it being published to the world. As I am riding to the South Pole I will be recording as much data on the expedition as possible, and using the tracking map people will be able to see where I am at all times. It has just been nice to not worry about that for little while.

Anyway, there is so much that has gone into this expedition the last 9 months. My traveling portion of the expedition starts next Friday, and the Antarctic part of the expedition starts on the 23rd. Weather and other things could force changes to my schedule but here is the current plan:

• 15 Nov 2013 - Leave Salt Lake City, flying to New York, Santiago, and then to Punta Arenas
• 17 Nov Arrive in Punta Arenas. Get bike and gear through customs, repackage food into bags for the expedition
• 23 Nov Fly from Punta Arenas Chile to Union Glacier, while acclimating check out bike and equipment to make sure everything is working correctly
• 30 Nov Fly to Hercules Inlet. I want to start this day because it is the 1st anniversary of my mother dying from high cholesterol. I really want to be able to use this expedition as a way to promote active living and help people live a healthy long life.
• 4 Dec - Celebrate my 50th birthday in Antarctica by going for a bike ride :-)
• 14 Dec - Wish my wife a happy anniversary. First time we won't be together for our anniversary.
• 25 Dec - A white Christmas. My daughter will be calling home from Croatia where she is serving as a missionary. I will call home at the same time and with the miracle of speaker phones get to talk to my daughter for a couple of minutes.
• 1 Jan 2014. New Year in Antarctica. By this time I should be getting close to the South Pole.
• Early January fly back from the South Pole to Union Glacier.

I plan on riding 10 hours a day. My best guess is this should result in about 20 nautical miles a day. The planned route is 709 miles, but by the time you factor in deviations from the planned route the actual route will likely be more. I am planning on 750 miles. So 23 miles (20 nautical miles) per day should get me there in 33 days and get me to the South Pole the first week of January. I am scheduled to fly back from the South Pole on Jan 22, so I should have plenty of extra time and hopefully I will be rescheduling for an early flight back.