“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon”. Something that Chris McCandless (Into the Wild) wrote in one of his letters to which I can relate pretty well after nigh five years on the road. For him and […]
Zion National Park, Utah “Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end.” Edward Whymper nailed it in Scrambles […]
Woody’s Wheel Works, Colorado Roughly 1,000-killer-miles straight from Death Valley to Denver, we worked our cockadoodle guts to get there. But then our friend Woody is like L’Oreal, he’s worth it. A guy that can only be described with any real accuracy as Jack Nicolson meets Father Christmas. But first, it was a challenging test […]
Ancient beings in the Bristlecone Pine Forest, California In early April, when Death Valley had finally, finally started to lose some of its gleam, we jumped back on the road. And an hour’s scoot to the east of Bishop, up the road from Big Pine, arrived at the Bristlecone Pine Forest nestled in the White […]
“I really don’t want to go,” and pouted as I tried to internalize an unnecessary degree of petulance. Dispensing our warm goodbyes to biking friends in Borrego Springs, we saddled up and I reluctantly turned the key in the ignition. After multiple postponed departures, that is. A heavy sigh betrayed a sadness in parting from […]
With our fill of summertime southeast Alaska, we kicked the side stands up in the lush temperate beauty that had surrounded us for the best part of the whale season, the wonder of things both small and huge: the colour of a wildflower that brushed against me on the trail, or the grand sweep of […]
Yup. It’s been a while. Stark raving mad-as-a-box-of-frogs, the radio silence is o-v-e-r. “Delighted” is a weak term; I’m finally able to relieve the itchy feet as we hit the road again. From late summer last year right through to the onset of spring based in Alberta’s Narnia, this summer found us back in Southeast […]
Having far from satisfied our fix of Juneau in Southeast Alaska last summer, and fortuitously invited back—courtesy of a Fishhook Fatty hooking us up with a fellow biker—it didn’t take long to make preparations. Namely pack the panniers and head south to the ferry. But only made possible thanks to Ian and Kristina, who tirelessly […]
What had begun to feel like a protracted ice age—having spent half a year in a landscape leached of colour—followed the joyous onset of spring in Wasilla, Southcentral Alaska. Where the dominion of winter finally permits the release of snow and ice from her frozen prison. A new world about to mysteriously surface, bursting with […]
The thought of halting our trip was completely untenable. Coming up to three years in maintaining a steady momentum, why would we stop now? Yet staying a few nights over late summer at Nevil and Michelle’s place merged rapidly into a fortnight, which fused at equal speed into a few weeks, that somehow extended into […]