Knee socks, green jackets, black lycra tops straining across bulging bellies—or maybe hanging loose. White hair floating beneath a helmet. Fat tires, skinny tires. Drop-bar bikes, upright rides— Meet me in Rio Vista Park on a 70-degree November day. Listen for a Swiss-German accent, an East Coast brassiness, a Midwestern diffidence. We’re deep in the […]
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A Fistful of Lightning
I left Seattle (again) on a gloriously sunny Monday — statistically the wettest day of the year, but you’d never know it. Outside my window, a 12-foot-tall wooden dragon raised a red lightning bolt to a bold blue sky. Beyond, the jagged silhouettes of the Cascades echoed the zigzag lightning in its fist. Over the […]
Quadra Island: Dipping Beneath the Surface
Yesterday I climbed a stepladder to hang my laundry on a line strung between a mobile home and a cedar tree in a forest. Two cycling jerseys, a pair of shorts, two pairs of socks and underwear, and a white silk sleeping bag liner fluttered in the breeze. A half-finished shed stood before me, opaque […]
A Free Being
Last summer, shortly after losing my job and turning 50, I loaded up my green Kona bike with about 70 pounds of gear and pedaled 2,700 miles from Seattle to Halifax, Nova Scotia.* Bicycle touring was something I had read about, thought about, talked about, dreamed about—and delayed—for years. Those 11 weeks on the bike […]
The Maiden Voyage of the Dynohub
In preparation for my upcoming bike travels, I’ve made an exciting upgrade to the bike: a dynohub! This genius device attaches to the front wheel and generates electricity with every pedal stroke. With the tremendous support and expertise of Paul Priest and his compatriots at Recycled Cycles, the Kona is now equipped with a headlight, […]