Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Dork Speaketh

No.  I am not dead, confined to a cell, or living completely off the grid a la Dick Proenneke (but wouldn't that be nice?).  I'm just lazy.  That's why I haven't updated this blog in over a year.  Or I've been really busy.  Sometimes I confuse the two.

So why blow the dust off of this site and begin assailing you, dear reader, once again?  A few of my more loyal vistors may remember a couple of years ago when I said I was going to ride the Tour Divide.  These same readers may also remember that I in no way did that.  A few things came up such as making money again after not working for a year and/or the realization that I didn't want to attempt racing 2700 miles but instead enjoy myself.  Either way, it never happened.

But now, in the summer of 2015, my girlfriend, Pam, and I are planning to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route!  The GDMBR is a bike route that follows trails and forest roads along the Continental Divide from Banff, Alberta to the Mexican border.  We have already begun reading through books and websites, cringing at topographical maps of the route, gathering bits of gear and taking rides.  But as anyone who has prepared for a trip such as this knows, there's plenty more to do!  Moving forward, I will share more of our plans as well as the "shakedown" trips that we take to prepare.  Then I will make my best effort to bring you along for our ~2.5 month trip along the Great Divide.

So yeah.  There it is.  Oh man I am so excited!

But what would be a blog post without some pictures?  So here's a couple from 2014 that I dug up.

In the middle of the summer, I visited Pam out near Seattle, WA and we packed up a rental car to spend a week out on the San Juan Islands.
Pam and I went sea kayaking off of San Juan Island to go look for orcas ("killer whales").  We saw a pod while we were out there.  This was the first time I paddled a tandem and first time I paddled in the ocean so I was trying really hard not to screw up.
The San Juan Islands from the top of Mount Constitution on Orcas Island.  Of course I referred to it as Mount Constipation the entire time.
I visited State College, PA again for my friends', Clay and Britt, wedding.  While there I took a few days to tour the back roads of Rothrock State Forest and ride trails with Eric and Jeef.
You can never have enough campfires.
I bought a Surly ECR for extended shenanigans and it will accompany me on the Great Divide.  Here it is with a beautiful Rothrock vista behind it.
Pam and I took a road trip of nearly the entire Outer Banks of North Carolina.  At one point, we paddled out to Cape Lookout.  Let's just say I was slightly intimidated at this point.
Camping for the evening on Cape Lookout with Pam.
Pam bought a Surly Troll for the Divide!
Although the Triangle is a busy place, there are still adventures to be found.  And hermits.

Oh yeah.  Something else I forgot to mention.  I started making caps in order to combat my seasonal affective disorder.  I was gonna start out and make myself a pair of pants or a shirt, but then my mom reminded me that a) those garments are really hard to make and b) I hadn't touched a sewing machine in a decade.  Moms are always so smart.  At her suggestion, I started off with a hat and so I have made a couple of cycling caps.  My first few are definitely a large/x-large right now to fit my large Mrotek head.  I will soon scale it down for normal people.  Besides providing me with encouragement, my mother, Dolores, is also supplying me with reclaimed wool fabric in a vast assortment of patterns, plaids and different colors.  Below is one of the first I made out of reclaimed wool with a brim made of plastic from a popcorn tub.  Stay tuned if you are interested in one.


1 comment:

  1. Booya!! Stop at Headframe distillary in Butte, Mt!! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete