Bike Touring
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Day 11. Crouch to Boise, Idaho: Coming Full Circle
I’m wrapped in the good vibes of finishing our loop of Idaho with a brief foray into Montana. As you may have guessed if you read my previous post, we took the pavement today. Continue reading
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Day 10. Cascade to Crouch, Idaho: Taking Off the Training Wheels
Greetings from Crouch! It smells delicious here, like a sweet wildflower I don’t recognize. The dry air heightens my senses; the afternoon sky is pure blue, and there is no haze, anywhere. Continue reading
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Day 9. McCall to Cascade: An Invitation to the Idaho Mountains
After days of roadside observation of the stand-offish peaks on our tour, Felkerino and I received an invitation to the mountains in the form of the Adventure Cycling Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route. And so we went. Continue reading
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Day 8. Riggins to McCall, Idaho: 50 Miles Up
Today Felkerino and I had a hard time getting our bike touring act together and ended up leaving Riggins at 9:30 a.m. Gasp! Continue reading
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Day 7. Kooskia to Riggins, Idaho
To make up for our 90-mile gradual downhill to Kooskia, we spent much of the following day climbing. Continue reading
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Day 6. 135 Miles from Missoula, Montana to Kooskia, Idaho
After our layover day in Missoula, Felkerino and I rose early for a 135-mile day over to Kooskia, Idaho, via Lolo Pass. Continue reading
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Day 5. Adventure Cycling Headquarters
We are currently overnighting in Missoula, Montana, after a short mellow 50-mile day from Hamilton. Continue reading
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Day 4. Lost Trail Pass into Montana
After three days of riding and fretting about my bike tour fitness, I’ve now decided that it’s a much better plan to focus on pedaling rather than worrying. This approach makes the day better. Continue reading
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Day 3. Challis to North Fork, Idaho: Salmon River Serenade
Today’s episode in bike touring found Felkerino and I sidling along the Salmon River for most of the 82 miles we covered. Our route was via highway Idaho 93, but it was quiet except for the perpetual singing of the Salmon River. Now that’s the kind of highway noise I could get used to. Continue reading
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Day 2. Pickup Truck Dreams in Idaho: Lowman to Challis
We began today with a quiet exit from Lowman, a town nestled between the mountains. As we rode I wondered how life would be if, in order to go anywhere, I had to climb thousands of feet away from home. Continue reading
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Day 1. Riding Out the Bike Tour Kinks: Boise to Lowman, Idaho
It’s our first day touring Idaho and I already feel in the teeth of it all. After some urban trail riding out of Boise that took way longer than it should have due to our lack of familiarity with the area, we ascended away from town. Continue reading
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Letter from Jerry: 3500 Kilometers into Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
As I write this, our friend is out on the road somewhere, pedaling steadily eastward. Jerry talked with me before he departed for his big cross-country bike tour, and you can read those thoughts here. Now that Jerry’s been traveling for a few weeks, I thought it would be great to catch up with him… Continue reading
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Our Friend Jerry is Going Coast to Coast: Bike Touring Alaska to D.C.
Over the last couple of years, Felkerino and I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jerry, a local cyclist and fellow D.C. Randonneur who will be riding a solo coast-to-coast tour from Alaska to Washington, D.C. Continue reading
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Choose Your Own Eventure: C&O Bike Tour to a Marathon
Hello friends. I’ve just returned from a weekend concept ride I’ve been plotting for the past year. It involved a 134-mile mini bike tour from Washington, D.C., out the C&O to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and the Freedom’s Run marathon. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I ended up with was a satisfying fall… Continue reading
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Colorado 2014: By the Days and Miles
Every day that goes by, our 2014 Colorado tour becomes more memory. I’m surprised to feel saddened by that, since one of our intentions while there was to feed our wanderlust and tire ourselves out so that we would be at peace with settling back into our life in Washington, D.C. Maybe that peace will… Continue reading
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I Really Don’t Know Clouds
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow it’s cloud illusions I recall. I really don’t know clouds at all. –Joni Mitchell I first listened to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” when I was a teenager, and found it terrible. I had never imagined that a person could think about… Continue reading
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Bike Tourist Encounters
Since I started bike touring, I’ve trained myself to keep an eye open for others who might be on an adventure. Bike riders can blend into the landscape, but if you pay attention they will jump out at you. During the two weeks that Felkerino and I pedaled our bicycle around Colorado, we crossed paths… Continue reading
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10 Things I Learned on Our Colorado Bike Tour
Remember me? It’s been a few days, but I’m mostly free of my post bike tour fog and thought I’d rip off a quick top 10 list of what I learned on our tour. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 11: Rollins Pass on Tandem
Felkerino called our day going over Rollins Pass an immersive experience. It’s definitely one of the most intense things I’ve done on a tandem. Continue reading
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Rollins Pass: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
But if you try sometimes You just might find You get what you need. –The Rolling Stones More to come. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 10: Another Day, Another Mountain Pass in Colorado
The short story is this– 82 miles from Leadville to Winter Park. Our bike is still in one piece. Thanks to everyone who complimented our pure power and torque after the broken crankarm incident. This also provides solid evidence that Felkerino is indeed pedaling. Continue reading
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CO Tour Rest Day: Backwards Pedal and Crankarm Day
When we last saw our two intrepid bike tourists, they were stranded in Leadville with a broken crankarm… It was Leadville layover day and bike shop stop on our Colorado odyssey. Nervously we awaited the 10 a.m. opening of Cycles of Life to see if Brian could repair our broken crankarm. We watched him… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 9: Las Cosas Se Arreglan: Cottonwood Pass and a Broken Crankarm
“Las cosas se arreglan. La gente no.” Things can be fixed. People can’t. Someone I used to work with told me that, after I had been in a fender bender. That phrase keeps running through my mind as I reflect on our day from Gunnison to Leadville, 105 miles via the big meandering Cottonwood Pass… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 8: Creede to Gunnison: 106 Big Bicycling Miles
It still surprises me that Felkerino and I can ride a 200k brevet in 10 hours, but when we bike tour a century will take us 11 or more. Is there no escape from bike tour pace? It was a big day of riding, with the big climbs packed into the first half of our… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 7: Wolf Creek Pass, I Think I Love You
As we began the steady ascent up Wolf Creek Pass, I wished that I had known about it years earlier. I wished that I had begun bike touring years earlier. If I had, then maybe I would have basked in the magnificence of this pass years ago. If only, if only. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 6: Hot Hot Rollers to Pagosa Springs
Today’s 65 miles reminded me of riding in the Virginia Highlands, only with evergreens and a higher elevation. And more horses. And a dry heat. And the white hot sunshine with rare shade. Okay so it wasn’t alike in all ways. Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 5: Bike Tour Magic: 83 Miles from Ouray to Durango
Felkerino said that today is when the mountains embraced us. I said it was a day of bike tour magic. Part of the reason for that, of course, was the beautiful climbing on the Million Dollar Highway for the first 38 miles. We ascended from Ouray at 7,800 feet to over 10,000 feet and crossed… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 4: Everything Weighs Something, Even Ambition: 100 Miles to Ouray
When bike touring, you become keenly aware of how much your stuff weighs. This weighs “x” amount. Do I really need to take it up every hill and mountain? If yes, the item goes on the bike. If no, set it aside. I am pleased with how Felkerino and I packed. The only potential surplus… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 3: What Goes Up from Carbondale Must Come Down to Paonia
Greetings from Paonia! We wish you were here. Then the mosquitoes wouldn’t just be gnawing on Felkerino and me. Another great day on the bike, tempered with looming saddle sores. Haven’t had one of those in a few years so maybe it was time. I blame Trail Ridge. This day, which was essentially a 30-mile… Continue reading
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CO Tour Day 2: 90 Miles From Kremmling to Carbondale
Riding through the big mountains of the west can be so cathartic. Their presence envelops me and I become– no, I realize– that I am so small. Felkerino’s and my efforts to clamber over the mountains is almost laughable. We take so long to go up and over their every bump that I suspect we… Continue reading
Chasing MailBoxes 