Inspiration & Blog

Just a brief post from a rough and tumble four day loop through some of western North Carolina’s most rugged and unforgiving terrain.

Here are four artfully crafted videos about passionate individuals who make things in the realm of bicycles.

Olde Hickory is steadily rising on my favorite brewery list. I discovered the Redeemer and quickly snatched up a bottle to bring for a post-ride treat at the Bent Creek Campground.

The third edition of Bunyan Velo—A quarterly collection of photographs, essays, and stories celebrating the simple pleasures of traveling by bicycle—is now available! Within its pages you will find memoirs from 15 riders traveling everywhere from the Kenai Peninsula to the West Australian desert. I was honored to have my own article, An Impromptu Journey, and photography included in this issue.

I finally finished transforming an old lugged steel Craiglist turd into a sweet light-touring/randonuerring bike. On the maiden voyage she rode like a dream and here’s how I celebrated…

Ridiculously difficult climbs… Long and hot stretches between anything… Smog-belching busses missing you by mere inches… Incessant hunger…Leg cramps… Undying headwinds… What’s not to love about all that?

On this second installment of FilmFestFriday, I decided to pull together several videos that capture two things that bikepacking great… wilderness and camaraderie. Here are four bikepacking videos that may inspire you to strap some bags to your trusty steed and head out into the forest.

Beer and bikes, you can have one without the other… but its just not as much fun! That was the headline on the fledgling brewery’s Kickstarter page when it launched in January 2013. The three founders of Crank Arm Rickshaw Company are just as passionate about beer as they are about turning cranks, which led them to spin-off this bike and beer destination.

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

Wherever my travels take me, I always enjoy observing, if not directly experiencing, the myriad ways in which the locals get around town. The family of 6 on one scooter in Thailand, the shepherd with his flock riding on top of an Indian bus, and the over-flowing psychedelically painted Jesus-themed Guatemalan chicken bus are just a few examples. But nothing is more inspiring than seeing the ways people use bicycles.

Here are four great videos that may make you want to hand over a resignation letter, pack up a bicycle and just go. Or, they may just give you something to grin about as you while away your Friday afternoon.

With over a thousand miles of glorious singletrack, excellent touring routes and a plethora of prestigiously awarded craft breweries, is Vermont the Holyland of ‘bikes and beer’ travel destinations?