BIKE PACKING AMERICA'S LONGEST MULTIUSE TRAIL NETWORK

Even the slightest rain can sound thunderous inside a tent--and this was not slight rain. It came down in buckets, just as my partner Maggie and I were settling into our sleeping bags.

I worried whether the barely-twoperson tent would withstand a deluge like this and what the protocol was should lightning strike. And then lightning struck.

We talked about what to do. Maggie pulled up some information on her phone and was soon crouching on one foot, to avoid creating a circuit, she said with confidence. She counted the seconds between each flash and rumble out loud to gauge the storm's proximity to us.

I was mostly thinking of just how scant our escape options were. Our only way out was our drenched bicycles, resting against a soggy pine tree outside the tent. We took turns proposing different plans: spend the night in the campsite bathrooms, ride to the nearest motel, call the cops. We settled on hoping for the best. I fell asleep amid spiraling thoughts of dread: first night in, and this bike trip was already feeling like a mistake.

I woke up to the sound of birdsong and gentle raindrops, one beckoning me out of my sleeping bag, the other making a convincing argument to burrow deeper into it. But multiday bike touring, I would come to learn by the end of a 10-day journey across New York State's Empire State Trail, is all about convincing yourself to do things you might not feel like doing-ride another dozen miles to the next town because it's either that or a soulless highway motel, eat yet another granola bar because you didn't plan lunch properly, wake up early to beat the hottest hours of the day-only to be thankful, eventually, that you did them.

Under a canopy of drizzle, Maggie and I emerged from our tent and went about a set of tasks that would soon become routine: We boiled water on our tiny camp stove for coffee and tea, broke down our sopping tent, repacked our panniers, and triple-checked that we left nothing behind. We were exhausted-a bad sign considering this was Day Two.

But it was understandable, given how much we'd already experienced.