And… here I am, riding my bike in the heat and humidity of Kerala, India. I’ve posted a few updates across fragmented islands of social media like Instagram / Strava, or group texts… but plenty of folks I know don’t use those sites. So I’m looking into posting updates here to link back to (though it’s not quite as easy on my phone while traveling). I’ll at least post a summary here later, after the tour, as usual. ...
Last weekend I organized a ride up to Point San Pablo, about 40 miles of scenic, mostly-flat* riding, with the majority of it on paved separated bike paths (the Bay Trail, on-street bike paths in Richmond, the Richmond Greenway, and the Ohlone Greenway). We had a good group of seven, some who I’ve been riding with off and on for years and some new folks. And the remarkable exchange between two people of: ...
(This is a placeholder writeup with a few photos, perhaps I’ll come back some day and flesh it out…) I spent a week cycling the length of Korea (~400 miles from Seoul to Busan), as a fully supported** ride with an organized tour group and about 20 strangers (though a few I’d met on a bike tour in Vietnam the previous year). By the end I felt exhilarated, challenged, stimulated, and full of great food. ...
(a brief recap, perhaps to come back to with more detail some day) I’ve wanted to push myself farther out of my bike touring comfort zone, in terms of traveling in a culture very different from home, and for long enough and at a slow enough pace that I start to pick up on the rhythms on daily life. I dove in to a four-week tour through Vietnam and Cambodia… ...
For years I’ve daydreamed about biking from DC to Pittsburgh on mostly car-free dirt trails, on a ~330 mile winding route that combines the C&O Canal Trail (a dirt trail formerly used by mules to pull cargo barges along the C&O canal in the 1800s, a transportation method that eventually lost to the railroad, and was nearly converted to roads before being preserved as a park in the 1970s) and the Great Allegheny Passage (a combination of rail trails integrated and completed in 2013). ...
I never really got into “mountain biking”, because for years I associated it with going fast on rough terrain and dodging obstacles, while I like to ramble and mosey and stop a lot. I also like rides where I can walk out my door (or hop off a train or plane) and get on the bike without having to drive somewhere. I realize my impressions were a narrow caricature of what mountain biking can be, though, and I’ve always enjoyed the bits of off-roading that sneak into rides– the last mile of dirt getting to a camp site from the road, strange muddy paths I find myself on when trying to bypass roads, or detours through parks to avoid main roads, and even when “road biking” I generally run 32mm+ tires to give myself more comfort and flexibility for unexpected detours. ...
After a few years of trying, I finally snagged the coveted Campsite #1 at Kirby Cove, and gathered a group of friends + kids for a Sunday afternoon ride there… the weather was perfect and clear, the company was good, and the vibe was relaxed. We could practically see the campsite from the bridge… And down we go along the gravel road… ...
Fun 30-mile ride during Beer Week along many off-road paths and canals, MLK Jr Shoreline Park, the mosaic murals of Jingletown, and along the shoreline in Alameda… with a stop at Cleophus Quealy for tacos and good beer.
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