Hello folks, from Salida (pronounced sal-EYE-dah), where Fi and I are enjoying a casual day in one of Colorado's best mountain biking and outdoor sports towns... just a hip, fun town to spend a day or two. From here, our route becomes more remote, mountainous, and arid, so we're soaking up a couple nights of restaurant food and comfy motel beds before we head back out. We've also had to buy some more water storage bladders and filtering gear, as we're advised that finding water will become more challenging as we continue into southern Colorado and New Mexico. Pulling water from cow troughs doesn't really appeal to us, and we're really hoping it doesn't come to that. Traveling from Silverthorne, we passed first through the thriving ski and summer resort town of Breckenridge (where an old, ... read more

Greetings from the idyllic riverside town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where Fi and I have been taking a couple of days off the bikes for a little rest and relaxation; also an opportunity to wash some clothes, do some bike maintenance, and soak up the luxuries that a clean motel room offers. So far, we've accumulated a bit over 1100 total miles of riding, and 53,000 vertical feet of climbing. Most days have been a lot of fun, although the hot conditions of southern Wyoming's arid, high desert was starting to wear us out. Passing over the mountains that comprise Medicine Bow National Forest, our last night in Wyoming culminated in a primitive campsite near a dumpster, amid a minefield of sheep dung and no clean water source, and where not a single square foot of ... read more

Hello from Lima, Montana - pronounced like the bean, not the Peruvian capital! Since our much-needed rest day in Lincoln, we've been making good progress south and have now broken the 500-mile mark, which feels great. The riding has continued to be challenging, with extreme heat being a factor on many days, and at times we've deviated from the official Great Divide route and found our own way on less gnarly terrain. We've crossed from one side of the Rockies to the other three times now (this trail must have been designed by a sadist), so are accumulating some pretty decent climbing stats. For anyone interested in such things, we've done over 28,000 feet of total elevation gain since we left Whitefish. Despite these grueling facts, some of the riding from Lincoln has been fantastic and ... read more

Hello folks! Today was day #1of our big ride.starting from Whitefish,MT. The day began inauspiciously, punctuated by me (Ken) showering myself with bear spray (my eyes and nostrils still sting as I write this) and ended 48 miles later in Bigfork, a pretty little town perched on a mountain lake. More on that later, but first a little bit about our trip out here: We flew out of Norfolk on Thursday, July 16th, arriving in Chicago where we spent the nigbt before catching the Amtrak Empire Builder to Whitefish. We stumbled off of the train two days later at about 3:45 am, 6-hrs late due to some heavy weather and a freigbt train derailment in North Dakota. I don't know the extent of damage or pollution, but the tank cars tipped on tbeir sides in the ... read more

So, just to paint a picture as to why we decided to do this long distance bicycle expedition, this is something that Fi has wanted to do for a long, long time; before we even met. When she first proposed the idea of a self-supported bicycle expedtion accross a continent, I thought she was out of her mind. I've always loved her adventurous spirit (we met while hiking separately in Peru) but I secretly hoped that she'd forget about it; she did not. As it turns out, I actually warmed up to the idea after a couple of years, and now I'm just as excited about trying this as she is. We've met several people who have done this exact thing, and have thought, "why can't we?" Now that I'm finishing my career in the U.S. ... read more