Two wheels move the soul

“Life is simple! Eat, Sleep, Bike.” Those are the words written on a baseball cap that was given to me some time ago, and for 108 days this year that saying dominated my life. This year’s adventure trek, cycling the scenic byways of rural America proved to be an amazing and at times enduring experience.

My carbon neutral pedal powered journey around the country was a concoction of a dozen scenic road maps posted on an Adventure Cycling’s website. I connected several of these prime cycling routes where they intersected, to create a 7,600-mile grand circle tour. By the end of April the pre-planning phase of my 3rd Blue Planet Ride, a charity bike ride to raise funds for Blue Planet was finalized and ready for a spin into the real world. And so it was that on May 3rd, under a gray and cloudy sky, I traded the comfort of my suburban couch-potato life for a front-row seat on a bike saddle with a greater than 180-degree panoramic view.

In Ohio I followed the Underground Railroad, a bicycle route leading from Oberlin to Sturgis, Kentucky over quiet and scenic country roads. Meadows were overgrown with flowering dandelions and apple orchards were in full bloom, a prelude to a healthy crop-season in the making. In Kentucky ferocious looking canines are certainly not a cyclist’s best friend, as these exasperate ankle chasers come after you with a vengeance. At one point I had to outpace a pair of bulldogs on the loose, causing an instant rush of adrenaline going through my veins, enough to outsprint them, BOB trailer and all.

For each of these 108 days on the road there was a story, a unique experience or a picture perfect moment. America at its finest, as well as an America in distress. There were horrendous cloudbursts and sixty mile per hour crosswinds to battle. Thunderstorms and lightning strikes, flooding and tornados were dealing terrible blows to local communities. Snakes, turtles and rodents dead or alive were abundant on and near the road. Swarms of tiny flies, mosquitos, mud, dust and dirt were all part of the adventure. Oh, if only I had put some fenders on that bike.

My usual twelve-hour cycling day covered a distance anywhere from 60 to 150 miles, depending on the winds, elevation-grade and type of terrain. After the Ozarks I followed Highway 50, the loneliest highway in America, through Colorado, Utah and Nevada. Natural Bridges, high deserts, mesas, canyons, ghost towns, The Pony Express, and local saloons were all part of the landscape. A twenty-seven mile climb in the Sierra Nevada, up and down Carson Pass with stunning vistas and view points of frozen lakes and snow covered mountains, will be one of those Blue Planet moments I won’t soon forget. From Napa to Boonville was a wine-tasting-delight fest, and beyond the vineyards towards the Pacific Coast, 500-year-old redwoods were towering over me. From there it was onwards to the Oregon Coast, the Olympic Peninsula, and a stop in Seattle for a fourth of July holiday party with family and friends.

From the sea-level shores of the Puget Sound, it was an uphill battle across the Cascades with passes, summits, reservoirs, waterfalls, deep wilderness, active volcanoes and rugged granite and basaltic peaks. Highway 20 took me on some of the most scenic stretches of back country near Winthrop and Twisp in the Okanogan Valley, along the shores of Lake Pend Oreille in the Idaho Panhandle, and the Going-to-the-Sun road in Montana’s Glacier National Park. From there it was on to North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and my home state Michigan where after a brief visit to picturesque Petoskey and Leelanau, I made it back home for an on time arrival.

A dramatic and beautiful orange sunset painted a happy moment in the sky on the last outdoor night of my journey. I paused and looked at it for a while and felt blessed with all the good fortunes, great sceneries and wonderful people I met along the way. The ride turned out to be everything I anticipated and hoped for and so much more. In HinHam, Montana at Spencer’s Hi-Way Bar and Grill a poster on the wall said it all: “Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.”

Random thoughts of water

During my Blue Planet Ride 2010 in Europe, my friend David from the Czech Republic, with whom I biked part of the way, came up with a fun project to create awareness about the lack of access to safe drinking water for so many people all around the world. He carried with him a spiral sketchbook for the purpose of having a daily water posting written by a random person we would come in contact with. A store clerk, a gas station attendant, a warmshower hosts or a newly made friend. He approached them with a smile, introduced himself and explained the purpose of our trip. Sometimes a bit hesitant other times spontaneously they would take on the task at hand and put their prosaic and crafty ideas on paper. Depicted above two such special memories and wonderful Blue Planet moments.

Norre Alsley in Stine Denmark wrote: water is important because it cleanses the body of waste matter, and is a life essential for healthy living. Jessica an icecream vender at Il Gelato in Neuruppin, Germany wrote: Water is a life essential and without it you can't order any ice-cream here! Some were flavored with humor others more serious or with a focus on the environment but the message was clear and everyone knew the most important thing: WATER IS LIFE!

Almost time to make some new tracks

Time is flying and we are now down to ten days before "lift-off". Blue Planet Ride 2011 will kick-off on Tuesday May 3rd to begin a 108 days, 7,834 miles and 18 states, tour of duty. This is more miles than I have ever done in one year! It will cover parts of the Southwest, the Pacific Coast, including the San Juan islands and British Columbia and returns via the Northern route across Glacier National Park back to the Great Lakes region. I will mostly be camping, using the national parks, city parks and the outdoors along the route as daily base camps. Since it is a self-supported solo ride it means that I will be doing my own navigating, communicating and raising awareness for the global water crisis. All essentials including two sets of cycling clothes, rain gear, bicycle tools, and a daily ration of food and safe drinking water, will have to fit in two rear panniers and my BoB trailer. No Sherpas here to help carry the load!

For the last several months I have been busy planning the trip, creating the route and shopping for gear. Together with my friend Nick we completely overhauled the bike and during that process discovered that the rear rim had cracked from all the abuse during last year's ride and needed to be replaced. We also changed to a 12-32T cassette and three new chainrings to get me down to 24 gear inches in anticipation of all the climbs across the Rockies. At the bike store the shop owner, a veteran touring cyclist, explained that my bike was not really designed for long haul trekking and that I should consider purchasing a touring bicycle engineered for that purpose. I thought about it but in the end opted to stick with my eighteen year old Trek. Only time will tell whether that was a wise decision.

The mission of this Blue Planet Ride is to raise awareness and funds for sustainable global water projects and ultimately help end a humanitarian crisis causing two million people, mostly children, to die every year from water born diseases. I start my journey with the hope that many will see the need to save lives and support and follow my ride either electronically or on the road. Like previous years, I am looking forward to making new friends along the way and raise another $10,000 for water projects. Please tell your friends and give if you can. For daily updates click the Facebook or Twitter button on the sidebar of this blog.

Cycling the European continent

In retrospect, politics aside, the year 2010 has earned high marks on my personal Richter scale, with numerous highlights and shattered cycling records, in distance, total vertical elevation and weight loss. Yes, by the end of my Tour-de-Water, more than twice the distance of the Tour-de-France, I had lost eighteen pounds. Where as the year before I got my kicks on Route 66, this year my cycling journey took me across the ocean to discover the less traveled roads of Europe. This self supported, carbon neutral pedal powered cycling tour of duty, mostly solo and partly with my blue planet friend David, turned out to be another amazing, adventurous, and at times challenging journey of a lifetime.

The voyage started out in the rain from the familiarity of my childhood neighborhood near Amsterdam and returned there on a hot summer day some ten weeks later. The route connected the dots of over fifty major municipalities via bicycle lanes, brick and cobble stone city streets, dirt and country roads and main and minor highways. I biked along the shores of the North Sea, Baltic Sea, Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, and the English Channel. Further inland the route followed the river Danube from Austria to Croatia and at times traveled alongside the rivers Elbe, Weser, Vltava, Drava, Lubljanaca, Arne, Garonne, Loire, Seine, Maas and Rijn, on their way north or south to an ocean or a sea.

For accommodations we tried park benches, playgrounds, beaches, camping sites, secluded parking lots and mosquito infested cow pastures. In Hyeres, France we stumbled upon a small yet quiet park with a seemingly welcoming thick grassy lawn, but learned a valuable lesson when the sprinklers went off at two in the morning and chased us soaking wet to dryer grounds and onward to a less hostile environment. By four fifteen in the morning we found a cozy resting place on a scenic outpost overlooking the beach. In Holland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia I arranged “sleepovers” hosted by warm shower friends, an e-network of global cycling enthusiasts, opening their doors to traveling cyclists. In France I found refuge in chambres d’hotes, youth hostels and an occasional bed and breakfast.

Day-trips through Copenhagen, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb, Florence, Arles and Bruges were rich in history, art and architectural masterpieces, and the scenic landscapes of Schleswig Holstein, Bohemia, the Apennines, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, French Riviera, and Brittany were a feast to the eyes.
 

Along the way, in Mauthausen Austria I paused to pay respect to my grandfather and the many holocaust victims that perished there, and later on in Belgium and France remembered the fallen heroes of the battlefields of Normandy and Flanders Field (where poppies blow. between the crosses row on row. – by John McCrae). And did I mention the tantalizing fruit of the vine wine tastings in Germany and Bordeaux, France? The gelatos and paninis of Italy, creperies and pattiseries of France, beer and pommes frites in Belgium, Dutch herring and cheese pancakes, Czech and Hungarian goulash, and last but not least all the exquisite home cooking and the variety of beers, brewed to perfection in each of the thirteen countries?

It has been a great year, and a blessed journey, with wonderful people all along the way and across the hundreds of kilometers, who supported and reached out to my Blue Planet cause and me. I feel fortunate and am grateful for that. Thank you, Dank je wel, Merci beaucoup and Danke schon!