I keep getting asked why I am biking across the country and I didn’t really have a good answer. “I wanted change” is both trite and obvious. I have had a couple of months to consider it and I still couldn’t put my finger on it–that is until last week. I had met a family …
Author Archives: SB Touring
Magnificent Failure
On a recent tour I biked through one of the cities where I had lived in my youth. I was excited because I hadn’t been there since moving away. An added enticement was that an old friend, old girlfriend, had seen on social media I was coming through and reached out. The invite and the …
Because the World is Still Big
When I was small the world was big. My best friend lived four doors down and that seemed like another world. The houses between ours were filled with all the people I knew in the world. We had a nemesis, Curt, but he lived far away—as your nemesis should. He lived almost a full block …
Campfires
I was riding through the outskirts of a large city one night on tour. It was about 35 miles of suburban neighborhoods punctuated by the occasional break of forests and fields. As I rode down the street houses would disappear, streetlights vanished, and I would find myself in the still darkness of an empty road …
A Story of Rivers and Lakes
It is 2500 miles to bike up the Mississippi River and 1000 miles to bike around Lake Michigan. I have crossed scores of rivers, thousands of streams, and seen countless lakes and ponds during this journey of exploration. I have spent the last 2 months next to some of the most iconic waterways in North …
Ode to Spring
Tonight I am in Hog Island State Park, a primitive campground on the Upper Peninsula. It is at the highest point north you can get on Lake Michigan—just a few miles from Canada. The geese have been calling to each other all afternoon, the frogs join in occasionally with their viewpoints, and soon the crickets …
Do Yourself the Favor
Fun fact: The coastline of Lake Michigan is 1400 miles, making it 107 miles longer than the Pacific Coast of the US from Canada to Mexico. It gets its name from the Ojibwe word michi-gami meaning “great water”. I’ve biked them both and have to say they are each incredible in their own way. Do …
Asphalt Buddha
I had this conversation recently. Me: “This jelly has been on my bike for the last month or so un-refrigerated and it definitely is a different color from when I left on this trip. Do you think it is safe?” My friend: “I wouldn’t recommend anybody else eat it, but your probably safe.” I ate …
Thick and Meaty
I had a very interesting encounter the other day. I was standing outside of a service station/convenience store in a small town in Northern Wisconsin. I had just spent the last few hours slogging up a bike trail that was strewn with downed trees that I had to either crawl under or heave my bike …
The Consequence of Convenience
This year the Mississippi broke a record. Not a record that anybody wants, but when you break the planet, these are the kind of records you end up setting. It has had a sustained flood level for a longer period of time than any other period in the recorded history of this grand river. I …
Mule 