3/31/24 Well it had taken me three days of constant travel but I’d made it – the Lyngen Alps of Northern Norway. It was Easter Sunday and I was 69 degrees north of the equator – nearly 500 km above the arctic circle – and Heikki, Mika, Kari, Aaro and I were about to go […]
The Rift Race
I realized recently that I’d forgotten to post a recap of my trip to Iceland to participate in the Rift Gravel Race. First of all a bit of gratitude; I’m grateful to have the fitness, the finances and the time required to pull off a 200K bike race across the lava fields of Iceland. So […]
Stagecoach 400
This story begins with a noisy bike chain. I was doing some winter riding down and around Palm Springs when my chain started a creaking. A stop in at the local bike shop resulted, as it often does, in a discussion with the local cycling guru who mentioned the Stagecoach 400. A minimal amount of […]
Unbound 2023
Oh goodness where to begin the story of Unbound. I’ve been trying to gain entry into Unbound before it was Unbound: back in the Dirty Kanza days. Well 2023 was my lucky year, and way back in January I was notified that I had indeed been given entry into the event. Be careful what you […]
Keep on Keeping On – SIR 400K
Currently I’m like the dog who caught the car. I signed up for Mid South, Unbound, Rift and SBT GRVL, and guess what: I got into ‘em all. That’s six hundred miles of gravel racing. The Mid South is already water under the bridge, and suffice it to say I didn’t finish as well as […]
Palm Desert-Joshua Tree-Salvation Mountain-Salton Sea Bikepacking
Monday Dec 19th 2022 Palm Desert to Cottonwood Springs Campground Joshua Tree National Park After eating all the breakfast food that we could find at Lori’s house we finalized our packing and were posing for a departure shot at 10:30. This felt a bit late to be starting a bicycling adventure, but we only had […]
Monster Gravel – GRiT L Pre-Ride
On Monday June 7th my buddy Dan and I drove over to Cle Elum to preview the new GRiT L course. The GRiT is a new three course event (GRiT, GRiT L, and GRiT XL) scheduled for July 10, 2022. Dan and I decided to ride the forty-seven-mile GRiT L. Forty-seven miles might not sound […]
GRiT Pre-Ride #1
Route Beta: This is a mountain biker’s gravel course: significant climbing on minimally maintained roads. I suggest 1.9” or wider tires (basically mountain bike tires) and gearing as low as you can go (mountain bike gearing). The Yeti is old skool with a triple in the front. I spent a lot of time in the […]
Olympic 300
Over the weekend I joined my “up for anything” friend Mykenna on a 300Km brevet ride with the Seattle International Randonneurs. A brevet is an organized ride with a set start time and a set route. For the 300Km distance the rider is allotted twenty hours to complete the course. An interesting aspect of riding […]
Post Adventure Blues
Following a recent ride of the Oregon Outback I got to thinking a bit more about something that I’ve experienced for nearly three decades – what I call Post Adventure Blues (or PAB). Recently I’ve discovered that this is a common condition known as Post Event Depression. For me, the feeling has never escalated for […]