First Post, touring in the Dakotas

From the September 13th to the 23rd myself and two other fine riders from the local bike club here in Toledo Ohio went out west purely based on one members goal of riding 100 miles or more in four states in his goal to ride at least 100 miles in every state. It was the sort of nobel idea I love.

The above pic was taken as we road out of Roosevelt National Grasslands park North into SE North Dakota. It was one of the most remote sections of our ride.

No paved roads. No cellular reception. No towns. Barely an odd farmstead at which to get water for 60 miles. Endless heavily washboarded gravel roads, endless headwinds, stark beauty, thousands of cows and a few grouse. We traveled through some beautiful badlands and crossed the Little Missouri River on a concrete wash bridge.

We ran into five people the whole day and stopped to chat with all of them. The most common greeting was "are you lost" and in a manner of speaking we were. We had no maps, no GPS, only a sense of direction and a nose for adventure. It worked out well as that evening we ran into our first and only bonafide trail angel of the trip in Golva North Dakota. I have a nice Golva Saloon beer cozy to remind me.

Though camping was available our trail angel offered to put us up in the town's recreation hall with carpeting, heat, a kitchen and bathrooms. She then offered to cook us a pizza at the local saloon which was closed, brought us eggs from her neighbor and some fresh tomatos from her garden.

Heaven sent after a long day of tough riding.

More pics to follow in the comming days / weeks.

Bikerafting Alaska's Lost Coast: Yakutat to Glacier Bay.

via vimeo.com

Mike Curiak's video shakedown of their trip.

"Late June, 2011, I went on a little trip with Eric Parsons, Dylan Kentch, Doom Fishfinder, and Roman Dial.

We beach biked out of Yakutat and bear trail bumbled along Alaska's outer coast, then trailless stumbling and ocean paddling brought us into Glacier Bay.

We carried all gear and food from the start, drinking from fresh and glacial streams, cooking in driftwood fires, sleeping just above high tide."

Yakutat to Gustavus Coast‬‏

via youtube.com

Screw trying to summarize this up, just watch the video, preferably in full screen full 720p. One 20 second clip that will just blow your mind with its magnificence.

You can view more pics and read part one of the trip report here:
http://epiceric.blogspot.com/2011/07/yakutat-to-gustavus-coast-trip-part-1.html

Eric has been blowing my mind with his adventures since I discovered the videos from his "lost coast" trip: http://lostcoastbike.blogspot.com/

stand-up paddling 300 miles

A Hawaiian man completed what is believed to be the first ever crossing from the Big Island to Kauai on a stand-up paddleboard. It took five days alone at sea on his surfboard to cross the 300 miles of open ocean. He survived on dried foods and freshwater strapped to his board and slept on an inflatable mat that he’d tie to the top of it, occasionally getting awoken when a wave flipped his board and mat. He was treated for infected blisters on his feet, but was otherwise in remarkable condition. He wasn’t even sore - the hardest part, he said, was the mental anguish of spending five nights floating in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard.

via thegoat.backcountry.com

Another reminder that there are endless opportunities to push the boundries of human endurance in wild and wonderful ways.

Alone Across Alaska: 1,000 Miles of Wilderness

"A solo journey across northern Alaska. Features grizzlies, caribou, moose, wolves, Dall sheep, as well as spectacular scenery."

Alone Across Alaska: 1,000 Miles of Wilderness from bucktrack.com on Vimeo.

Stumbled on this while doing some research on packrafting. What I loved most about this was the original route planning which combined hiking and rafting (though technically not packrafting) to follow the Brooks Range divide in Alaska. I haven't seen or heard of anyone else attempting this and Bruce did it solo.

new 650km trail to open in South Africa in 2010

Refresing news from Africa.

The Rim of Africa follows a natural line along the mountain ridges of the Western Cape. It is Africa's first long-distance hiking initiative based on the likes of the Appalachian and Continental Divide Trails in the USA, the Camino de Santiago in Spain and the more recent Sendero de Chile in South America.

The vision of the Rim of Africa is to create a mega-distance trail on a par with the best the world has to offer. Mega-distance trails in Europe and the USA play an important role in giving access to time in wilderness while stimulating a walking culture.

The Rim of Africa stretches from the greater Cederberg wilderness area on the Cape's West Coast to the Outeniqua Mountains in the Garden Route, traversing more than 650km of mountain paths. The route takes in the Cederberg, Skurweberg, Hexrivier, Keeromberg, Langeberg and the Outeniqua representing a flagship hiking product of international significance, attracting hikers from around the world.

There is potential to link the Rim of Africa to the Outeniqua Trail and on to the Eden to Addo Hike for Biodiversity creating an extended trail of 1200km ending at Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape.

Via Gadling

A little inspiration, wild camping in the English Lake District

This video is a little over the top with the dramatic music but I still can't hold that against it. I don't know anyting about the author, Terry, I just stumbled on this video at random. But I do know he speaks very honestly, hits on some universal truths, shoots some amazing video and visits some extrodinarily beautiful places. It is in a word superb.



To check out the high definition version (well worth it) check it out at YouTube - Nirvana

Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked

Catching up on Alastair Humphreys blog I was inspired to do a little reading up on Patrick Leigh Fermor and stumbled upon one of the best news paper articles I've read in a long time. It's long, well written and chuck full of interesting facts and details.

Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked - Telegraph: "Patrick Leigh Fermor: The man who walked"

There is a great overview on Fermor on wikipedia, a good introduction, but most of the details come from the article anyway.

Sir Patrick 'Paddy' Michael Leigh Fermor DSO OBE (born 11 February 1915, London) is a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Battle of Crete during World War II. He is famous for his travel writing and is widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer".

His books

• The Traveller's Tree (1950)
• The Violins of Saint-Jacques (1953)
• A Time to Keep Silence (1957)
• Mani - Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (1958)
• Roumeli (1966)
• A Time of Gifts (1977)
• Between the Woods and the Water (1986)
• Three Letters from the Andes (1991)
• Words of Mercury (2003) edited by Artemis Cooper

Cycling Home From Siberia

Some days in the life of a Siberian cyclist... a dazzling rush through some random encounters from Rob Lilwall on Vimeo.

From CyclingHomeFromSiberia.com:

My book about the journey “Cycling Home From Siberia” will be published by Hodder and Stoughton later in 2009.

[..]

In September 2004 I began this journey by flying with my bicycle as far away from home as I could think of: to the Far Eastern side of Siberia. My intention was to cycle back to England via the most interesting route I could find. As it turned out, I took a detour to Australia and was on the road for over three years, cycling 30,000 miles through 28 countries...

Great video. Can't wait for the book. (And perhaps a DVD?) What really strikes me about this journey though is not that the guy is s superb videographer (though he is), but when you look at his route (pic below), it's unlike any other route I've ever seen. I've seen routes from more then a dozen multi-continent bike adventures and I've never seen anything remotely resembling this. Rob's route really reflects that he truly divorced himself from all the modern expectations and geographical goal setting, a near impossible task, and just followed his nose. More so then any other adventurer I've seen in the past decade it is as if he just climbed on a bike one day and started riding.


(click for full size)

Update: I also found this to be a superb interview.


Small Talk Interview in Nanjing from Rob Lilwall on Vimeo.

Via: The Epicurean Cyclist