Post-ride information overload

Hi hi from Syracuse!

This is my last post, and in it is contained various pictures from east of Colorado, silly stories about my post-trip fun, me reminiscing about biking cross-country, and a book list!

The bike path from Silverthorne to Breckenridge

Highest point on the transamerica! It's mostly downhill from here.

The view from Hoosier Pass

My only nice picture from Western Kentucky

Looming storm clouds in Kansas - I found shelter, fast.

Current River - Missouri

Crossing the Ohio river from Illinois to Kentucky

Kentucky sunrise

Treehouse!

Happiness is a bike tour

Newby, the wonderful groceries fairy

As much as I hate invasive vines, they make for some interesting landscapes

Somebody in Virginia doesn't like Obama

Mick biking up the Virginia Creeper Trail

Now I know why they're called the blue ridge mountains

Panorama from the blue ridge parkway

Sunrise somewhere pretty in Virginia

Struggling to lift my bike over my head in victory (I failed)

 After finishing my trip, I drove into DC, spent a day there, and then Sonya and I went to the beach in Delaware.

Sonya super excited for the beach

View of the Atlantic from a beach in Delaware

After that, we drove to Princeton to visit my friend Thaddeus!

A great evening ensued, including but not limited to: heart-stopping hoagies, rock climbing, unnecessary difficulties in choosing 6packs, night-time exploration of Princeton, dredging the depths of youtube (this), drunk facetime, hand-carved wooden spoons, and 40 koozies.

No, that's not a corpse - that's a bacon cheeseburger, french fry, and  mac 'n' cheese wedge hoagie.
Princeton knows how to stop your heart (hand for scale)

Thaddeus channeling his inner Nordic god at the Princeton climbing wall.

After that, we went to see Abbe Hamilton in PA! Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but we went caving (oh man did I miss caving), and then attended a potluck with the caving crew! It was incredibly fun. The evening included explaining burning man to an Italian girl with barely any knowledge of english, being called Chip & Chop (the Italian version of Chip & Dale) due to our matching fleeces, lots of fun songs about animals and nature, and trying to patch Abbe's thumb up after she cut it with a bread knife and refused to tell anyone but me. It was fantastic!

Now, some random thoughts about bike touring!

I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. Any budget can accommodate it, any pace works, and you'd be surprised by how easy it is to get in biking shape, regardless of how fit you were before. Physical disrepair is no excuse for not being able to tour. I've met several couples in their late 60's / early 70's who were having an absolutely fantastic time.

There were times when thought I'd made a huge mistake. I would think: "What kind of hubris inspired me to take on this trip?". But after pushing through and continuing on, I realized that you can only thrive in adversity - constantly blowing your comfort bubble to smithereens and exalting in the catharsis that ensues.
The challenge - both mental and physical of putting in 50+ hour weeks of biking will change you. It's impossible to spend 8 hours a day on a saddle with negative, petty, or angry thoughts. You simply won't make it. Instead, you find yourself focusing on the positives of every situation, and on the amazing experience you've gotten yourself into.

Touring isn't about biking. It's about the people you meet. This trip restored my faith in humanity. I didn't meet a single bad person during the 58 days I was on the road. Everyone I met was kinder than the last. There are good people regardless of where you are, be it the high peaks of Colorado, the plains of Kansas, or the windy mountain roads of Appalachia.

America is an amazingly varied region, and biking through many different climates and geographical conditions gave me a great overview of the country - even if I didn't scratch it's proverbial surface. However, thanks to this trip, I experienced rural America - something that I had never really known anything about. Most towns I went through had populations ranging from 50 to 1000. I stopped locking my bike up after a few weeks. Why bother? Everyone knows each other, and nobody is interested in petty bike theft. Many places I went through were experiencing crippling poverty, but that didn't stop them from being welcoming and genuine people.

Anyways, those were some random thoughts. There are many more, but I don't want to make this too too long.

Book list (in the order I read them)

1) The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King - 8 book series of pretty fantastic science fantasy / western. It's a bizarre world to explain, but if you're into that kind of thing it's great. I have never read any of his other stuff (I hate horror in any shape or form), but these books were amazing.

2) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - an absolutely marvelous book for a bike trip. In fact, during their motorcycle trip, they follow the transamerica for most of Montana, Idaho, and Oregon. I think that anyone could gain from reading it, it was wonderful.

3) Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman - a compilation of research that explains why we are such social creatures and why we do not thrive when we aren't connected to others. Good read - there are some pretty counter-intuitive findings about human behavior in there.

4) The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz - fun short book that does a great job of explaining the beauty and intricacy of mathematics. Regardless of how much you like (or dislike) math, it's a engaging and entertaining read. 

5) Thinking In Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math by Daniel Tammet - This was my absolutely favorite book of the trip. Through different anecdotes and stories, autistic savant Daniel Tammet explores many different questions that relate to life in this amazing book. It doesn't matter if you need your phone calculator to get you through figuring out a dinner tip or if you're a numerical analysis PhD - I highly recommend it. It's beautiful. I loved it. He has synesthesia, which is a pretty sweet condition that he shares with the amazing author of book #6.

6) Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov - not as good as Lolita (in my opinion), but a great read. It is formatted as a commentary to a 999-line poem, through which the story progresses. The beauty of it is that it can be read in several different ways: Poem then commentary, or by alternating the poem and the commentary whenever necessary.

7) This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works by John Brockman - Edge.org asked the question "What is your most favorite deep, beautiful, and elegant theory?". In the form of 150 one to two page responses by a plethora of famous (and not so famous) scientists, it went through many theories I knew - and many I didn't. Although there was a lot of quantum stuff that went way over my head, most of it was interesting and captivating

8) A Prison Diary (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven) by Jeffrey Archer - if you don't know Jeffery Archer, you should. He is an absolutely fantastic British novelist, and I recommend every book he has read. In this three part series, he recounts his experience of the British prison system after his convictions for perjury and perverting the course of justice. I found them to be a fascinating take of the British prison system, and they are extremely interesting - although they can get pretty hardcore - he doesn't pull any punches.

9) Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk - as much as I enjoyed the movie, the book is even better. It's a hard book to explain without ruining everything about it, but it is amazing in a disturbing kind of way.

Honorable Mention  Ulysses by James Joyce - I tried. I gave up. I'm sorry.

10) Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself by Rich Roll - a bad book to read during a bike tour. All I wanted to do after reading it was ditch the bike and start running again. It's a pretty inspiring read, and is making me want to do ultra's even more than before. I'm also planning on trying vegan for a bit due to it. We shall see. If you're into triathlons, ironmans, or any ultra-endurance sport you'll enjoy this. 

11)  Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - honestly, meh. It's a very popular sciency book, and I don't agree with the way he structures his arguments. He also seems to misunderstand the scientific method. Instead of postulating a hypothesis, constructing experiments to test said hypothesis, and arriving at a conclusion with the data from the experiments; he states a conclusion, uses very specific data that supports that conclusion, and from there postulates a hypothesis that leads to that conclusion. It made me mad. I'm not sorry.

12) Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet - a biography by the same author of #5. It's really good as well. He explains his life as an autistic savant, and I loved it.

13) The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - I haven't read a novel as good as this one in a while. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, which may give you an idea of what calibre it is. Again, I can't say much about it without ruining it, but it is a fantastic read. The metaphors she uses are unique, and the insights offered at the end of the book were beautiful and thought provoking.  

14) Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind by Daniel Tammet - yet another book by Daniel. Funnily enough, I've read them out of the order they were published - but it's kinda fun that way (They go Born on a Blue Day, this one, and then Thinking in Numbers). I'm actually cheating, since I'm still reading this one, but it's good. He talks about how savants don't necessarily have different functioning brains than the average person - they simply function at another level. In this book, he talks about the potential that is within all of us to use our brains more effectively.  

22.5 books in 58 days while biking cross-country. Not bad, eh?

Anyways, all good things must end (I hope this is a good thing). If you're still here, dear reader, I hope you enjoyed these silly blog posts. They were really fun to write, and I was cheered by the fact that a substantial amount of random people have told me how much they enjoyed them.

In conclusion: GET ON YOUR BIKE AND RIDE.

Love,

Malcolm

Success!

I made it!

Quite the underwhelming end to my journey - the map directions were confusing, I took a wrong turn near the end, got lost, and suddenly found myself at the Yorktown victory monument!

AK Minnick, a friend of my dad's was kind enough to greet me at the very end, snap a few pictures, take me to lunch, and drove me out to DC where I will hang out tomorrow until the fantastic, selfless, one in a million Sonya Pevzner drives down to road trip back up to Syracuse!

I don't know how to feel, it ended so fast! But I'm exhausted (it's 9:48 - way past my bedtime) so it's sleepy time now. 

Be prepared for one more post once I get back to Syracuse with a trip wrap up, lots of pictures, and a book list to rival the New York Times!

Love,

Accomplished, satisfied, overwhelmed by big city life Malcolm

Ground Rush

Where did the time go? 

All I have is a easy 50 mile ride to Yorktown tomorrow, and that's it. 

Mick was telling me that in the military, when he used to parachute, he experienced a phenomenon called ground rush. When parachuting, descending feels nice and slow, but upon reaching the last 50 meters, the ground suddenly seems to rush up at you incredibly fast, even if your velocity has been constant the whole time. 

This also applies well to bike touring. I was in the middle of the country, plodding along, and suddenly, I'm almost done. It's a very peculiar feeling. 

Mick and I parted ways yesterday morning, and he made it to DC today! Biking alone feels strange after spending almost a week with him, but it has been a nice relaxing way to finish up the trip. The countryside has been beautiful in a peaceful sort of way, the weather a bit chilly (the cold woke me up in the middle of the night for the first time since Colorado), and the back roads deserted. The prefect way to ease out of this trip. 

Tonight, I am spending the night in a Methodist church, and since they have church camp today, it is full of small children, life, and hot dogs! It's a fantastic way to wrap up my last night on the road. 

Everybody is incredibly kind, and I feel right at home! I feel incredibly blessed by the kindness I continue to encounter every single day while on this trip. 

Am I going to be able to sleep tonight? I don't know. Facing real life again will be a struggle. 

Love,

Slightly melancholic Malcolm

Hi everyone!

Today was absolutely ideal. Back roads, cloud cover, great scenery, and vanishingly small levels of traffic all combined into a great ride. Tomorrow we are biking to Vesuvius, which marks the beginning of a 4 mile 2000' ascent where we join the blue ridge parkway for about 27 miles, before zooming all the way back down to near sea level. 

Checking the map today, I was astonished to realize that I end in 5 days. I should arrive in Yorktown sometime Sunday the 17th, unless the fates conspire against me. 

Tonight, Mick and I are staying behind a rafting shop in Buchanan. The view from the riverside is superb. Trees are everywhere, and it's making me excited for the fall leaves already!

I just finished yet another book - I might add a book list of all I've read during this trip, along with some praise/criticism in case any of you are feeling in need of a new book or two (or twenty, I've been quite voracious). 

Alas, the flip side of the coin with traveling wih someone is hat I don't chat to as many random strangers or have sketchy camping experiences (Mick, being 58, is doing a great job at curtailing my dirtbag instincts - I would have knocked on random doors or slept in a ditch yesterday, but instead he convinced me a motel was the right idea).

Thus, these posts have turned more into stream of consciousness updates, and I hope they remain entertaining. 

Oh, I do have a good one. I was sheltering under a gazebo the day I met Mick, and there was a man there taking a break from his drive to West Virginia. We got to talking, and amongst all the typical questions, he asked me very genuinely if most bikers were gay. After I answered that being a biker didn't necessarily make you gay, I asked him why he was wondering that. Apparently, that's what he has been hearing from people. 

Curious. 

Anyways, it's bedtime soon!

Love,

Malcolm

Malcolm doesn't approve of motels

It rained until 10:30, so Mick and I left around 11 to begin our ride. Unfortunately, Mick's front dérailleur cable broke yesterday, so he had been in his granny gear since then. We got to the first bike shop and it was closed, so we biked to the next one, and got it fixed. He was ecstatic! I couldn't imagine being in my smallest chain ring for a day and a half. He took to drafting behind me during moderate downhills as he would spin out past 16 mph, and couldn't go any faster than that. 

I am now sitting in a motel room with Mick, drinking steel reserve and eating Chinese food. The beer and the food is great, but the motel is horrid. I'd much rather be sitting outside than in this expensive, stuffy room. 

However, Christiansburg, VA had no other options, so here we are! I'm giving the bed a strange look, I haven't slept in one of those since Missouri, and before that since before the trip started. 

The ride today was beautiful! After the rain ended, it stayed overcast and cool all day, which is a blessing. I'd rather get that than the 80 and 90 degree weather that should be occurring. 

Virginia is especially verdant after all the rain we have been getting - it feels almost tropical at times. 

There are 12 adventure cycling maps, and today marks he beginning of the last one! 368 miles to Yorktown from here, and we plan on doing 50 and 60 mile days until we split up, at which point I shall blast to the coast and be done around the 17th or 18th!

Love,

Malcolm 

My kingdom for a bike-sized umbrella!

Mick and I are sheltering under the pavilion we slept under last night, waiting for the rain to ease off to start pedaling. The little trickle of a stream in the park last night has now become a raging torrent, I check on it every so often to see if it has burst its banks yet. 

The beauty of slowing down and doing 50-60 mile days is that you can afford to stay in camp until 8, or 9, or 10 since there isn't as much of a hurry. Mick is writing his journal (he hopes to turn it into a book, eventually). I am reading my kindle, and we both wait as the rain appears to lessen a bit. If not, we might end up sleeping in the pavilion tonight as well. 

In other news, this tour might be changing from "Malcolm bikes across America" to "Malcolm breweries across America". There's so many microbreweries, and they are great! Mick is more of a wine guy than me, and Virginia has a lot of wineries, so we may also go through a lot of those. 

Life is good, touring with a companion again is fantastic (I can't believe I biked alone for around 40 days), and I'm now prolonging this as long as I can. The end is gazing straight at me, but I can still hide from it for a while. 

Love, 

Malcolm 

Mountains, rain, and an Irishman

So my plan failed. 

Second day, the rain was so hard and i was so tired I ended up doing 60 miles. 

However, I met Mick, an Irishman who is biking the transamerica from San francisco to Boston. He is 58, and this is his retirement gift to himself. Since I'm not in a hurry while I'm with someone, we're going to ride together for the next few days. 

Due to the rain and fatigue, we took a short day yesterday and went to Damascus, which is basically the Mecca of the AT. We stayed in a hostel, went out to the local brewery, listened to some live music, and had a fantastic time!

Today, the weather was really humid but the rain didn't start for real - we just had a very halfhearted drizzle near the end. Since we were nearing our destination with time to spare, we stopped at a winery and did some tasting. 

We also finished up with the western Appalachians! We have a huge mountain in about 150 miles, but until (and after) that it's all flat or downhill. Yay!

Life is much better with a travel partner, and I'm again enjoying the trip rather than trying to blast through it. 

Love,

Malcolm

Beautiful Appalachia!

Hi hi.
Yesterday's 100 miler went well. The Appalachians are super fun to ride up, and really satisfying to ride down - however it's been drizzling today so far, and that has been undermining morale.
I stayed at the Freeda Harris Baptist Center last night, and it was fantastic! I arrived right as food was being served for the church camp, and everyone was really nice! I chatted with a bunch of people, and had a really fun night.

Also, for all of you that are facebook friends with me - so sorry about yesterday. I guess I should be careful around sketchy free wifi.

As of now, I'm not sure if I can push the next 68 miles to Damascus, but we shall see!
Oh, and as a side note, I entered Virginia this morning!

Love,
Love, (since I forgot to say it last time)
Malcolm

Off to a bad start

I just had he worst nights sleep this whole trip, so the next two days don't bode well. Let me explain:

First, the bivy was great for the cold western nights, but when it's 80 all night, it becomes a sweltering sauna. Also, it offers 0 protection against any kind of insect, as I have to leave it pulled down to my waist for even a semblance of air flow. Problem is, there's always a chance of rain, and I'd rather be safe and not get poured on. 

I went to bed at 8, tossed and turned and swatted Mosquitos for the first hour or two until he sun went down and the temperature lowered until slightly over bearable, and fell asleep around 10:30. Woke up sweating and itchy everywhere at 12:30, and that's when the neighborhood loose dogs started showing up. One of them literally barked from 12:30 to 3:00 (I checked the time constantly), and then they started wandering around, and in fear of them getting pissed off at me / trying to eat my food I took refuge on the nearest playground drawbridge. Needless to say, it took me another hour to fall asleep. I was planning on waking up at 5, but after waking up at 4:30 and realizing I only had two and a half hours of sleep, I decided to luxuriously sleep in until 6. 

It's gonna be a rough day. 

Silly plan for the next few days

After my rest day, I have now entered the Appalachians!

Did 70 miles today, and since I want to get this last mountain range over with, I'm planning a 99 miler tomorrow, and a 95 miler the day after that. 

...I'll let you know how bad of an idea this plan is in two days. 

Love,

Young, rash, impatient, foolish Malcolm

Kentucky fun times!

I'd like to start off by saying that Kentucky is absolutely fantastic. I knew nothing about this state, and after hearing about the rabid dogs, I imagined hovels of trailers lining the roads, with hordes of mongrels slobbering angrily at me as I fearfully biked past. 

Thankfully though, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Kentucky is absolutely beautiful! It's mostly farmland, with lots of rolling hills and forested areas. When I get up in the morning everything is foggy, giving a soft edge and lending an eerie beauty to everything, even the most boring trees and telephone poles. 

I have had some interesting experiences, to say the least. Here's a sample:

I was riding and this guy waved at me, stopped his car, introduced himself, asked how I was enjoying riding through Kentucky, asked if I was riding alone, and if I had a girlfriend/boyfriend. He then said it was a pity (I answered no), said I was good looking, bid me a good afternoon, and drove away. I was flattered? I might need to stop biking around wih my jersey completely zipped open. 

I've gotten in the habit of waving to absolutely everyone on the road, be it cars, pedestrians (not many of those), motorcyclists, porch sitters, or lawn mowers. However, a few days ago I was absolutely exhausted and out of it, saw a pair of moving eyes, and waved... to a horse. I felt silly. The horse probably felt confused (and I hope, important). 

Outside a grocery store, this man came up, introduced himself as Newby, and got super excited about what I'm doing. He then insisted on buying my groceries, and went around the store talking to absolutely everyone and telling them what I was doing - I felt like I was shopping with André. 

As I was camping at Lincoln Homestead State Park, a gaggle of Amish folks  showed up on a wagon. They came over and chatted, and one of them (age 16) mentioned he biked over with some friends. We talked biking for a while, he left to let me have dinner, and came back with a $3000 full carbon Specialized road bike. The juxtaposition between his suspenders, bowl cut, traditional garb and the fancy bike was fantastic. He's riding down to Tennessee in a few weeks. Woo!

Also, that same night as I was sleeping on a picnic table under the pavilion, I woke up in the middle of the night to a pack of cayotes yelping all around, a pack of loose dogs barking at them, and the most stars I have seen in years. 

I met Chelsea, the second solo female rider I have encountered so far. From South Carolina, enjoying her ride immensely, and got super excited when I mentioned the treehouse available for bikers to spend the night in (more on that later). One beautiful thing about this tour is that while meeting other riders, the dynamic is completely different from meeting strangers. We're all a part of a big family. There's no ackward small talk. We wave, one person veers into the other side of the road, we stop, and chat. We swap stories, exchange tips on the road ahead, laugh about some shared experience, even if we're going in opposite directions. It's incredible how many people you know in common, considering you're stuck in a 60 mile "bubble" of bikers. You part ways after only a few minutes, but I always feel like out of all these people, given the chance to spend some actual time together, I would be firm friends with most of them. 

Every person I meet deserves to have way more than the paltry line or two I write about them. Everyone has such different reasons to tour, outlooks on life, philosophies, and values that are apparent even in a few minutes. My one wish about his tour is that it would be possible for me to see all the wonderful bikers I meet again. I mention this because Chelsea is the first biker I see in about a week, and I've had a lot of time to think about my fellow tourers and how amazing every single one of them is. And crazy, too. You have to be a bit insane to hop on a bike and ride all day for two to three months. 

Oh yes, the treehouse. This lovely man owns a house on stilts he built in the woods near his house, and makes it available for bikers to sleep in. It was fantastic (pictures when I next have a computer). 

And currently I am spending a rest day in Berea, KY at this awesome dude Aaron's place! I have been wiped the past few days, so it's nice to relax, listen to music that's been stuck in my head for weeks, eat a lot, and sleep inside. 

Woops, I just realized how long this blog post has been. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't tl;dr. 

Love, 

Malcolm

Bye bye Illinois, hello Kentucky!

I made it across the Ohio river! Despite the significant lack of crocodiles, piranhas, submerged logs, buried treasure, and tsunamis, it was a nice, relaxing, uneventful 5 minute ferry ride across. The Ohio borders Illinois and Kentucky, so I am now officially in dog attack country. I am going to be one with my pepper spray for the next 500 miles or so (although I hope I never have to use it). 

As an update to my last post, my tent is forever lost in the bowels of the American shipping system, so I don't think I'll ever see it. Oh well! I'll pray for a cold front and a lack of Mosquitos for the next 1000 miles. 

Incidentally, sometime tomorrow I'm hitting the big 3000! I don't even know how I'm almost three quarters of the way done. Man has this trip been going fast. Every day is another adventure. 

Speaking of adventures (if you're willing to stretch the meaning of the word), last night in Goreville I was trying to find a place to stay, so I asked one of the local churches if I could camp in their yard. They said yes, invited me to dinner, and before I knew it I was helping at the arts and crafts station of their church camp! It was absolutely wonderful. Besides the name that belongs to a bad horror movie, it's a great place! They had a really nice, tight knit community, and it was fun hanging out with all of them. 

 I stopped for lunch in Elizabethtown today, and met a wonderful man named Bill Anderson. A self-described "barefoot hippy", bill is 65, and has hitchhiked over 25,000 miles around the country. He went to southern Illinois university for 7 years, earning an absurd amount of credits in various majors. After college, he was addicted to drugs for 10 years, went to jail/prison a bunch, and lost his teaching license. However, he turned his life around, and now he does odd jobs around town, and most importantly, mentors a bunch of troubled youth, and keeps them on the straight path. I wish I wasn't on my ipod, so I could post a picture of him! He had a lot of really interesting stories, and I was glad to meet him. 

Anyways, my point is that regardless of where you go, you never know who's sitting at the picnic bench next to you as you enjoy a tuna cheddar cheese wrap. 

I am now in Marion, KY staying at a church that has been hosting people since the original bikecentennial!

I'm absolutely starving, so off to the kitchen I go to make pasta mixed with dehydrated potatoes. Mmmmmmmmh!

Love,

Malcolm

Out of Missouri, into Illinois, and almost out of Illinois

Hello hello from the Bike Surgeon in Carbondale, IL. 

I crossed the Mississippi river yesterday, which signaled the end of Missouri, and the beginning of Illinois! Right across the river, Chester is the first town you enter. It is the home of Popaye, so there are statues of him absolutely everywhere. It's also home to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a tavern which lets bikers stay in their "bike shack" for the night. The bike shack, along with half the fried chicken I had for dinner, made for a great evening. 

I stopped for lunch in Carbondale today, went to the bike shop, and I'm having Gertrude's bottom bracket relubed because man, has she been creaking. 

Tonight's goal is Goreville, IL (not the name of a town where I'd usually choose to spend the night). I got sick of how warm and stifling my bivy sack has gotten in these temperatures, and I ordered a marmot limelight 2 to be delivered there today. Let's hope it hasn't been delayed! 

Illinois is almost done already - about 60 miles from Goreville is the ferry that'll take me into Kentucky!

There's a very ominous cloud coming up above town, I hope it rains before I leave, as opposed to right as I leave!

Love,

Malcolm

Edit: So it turns out, I need to replace my chain and cassette along with relubing the bottom bracket. Also, FedEx doesn't ship to post offices, so the tent is being returned. Aaaaaaaaaah! I talked to a nice amazon lady, and she might be able to delay it a the nearest FedEx processing station long enough for me to ride (or more likely, catch a ride) to it and pick it up! If not, I might have to order another tent since this one will be getting returned. 

Birthday Parties, Breweries, and Bottle Cows

Hi everyone! I hope you find today's post enjoyable. First, here's a few silly pictures, and then I'm going to talk about the past few days, which have been absolutely fantastic!

A sign in Frisco, Colorado

One of the first things I saw in Missouri. So many innuendos.

 In Fair Grove, MO, I spent a night through Warm Showers with Jay and Kelly Wood. That evening, their friends Jana and Anthony were having a birthday party for their son, Alex. Since they still wanted to provide me with a place to stay, they suggested I come with them to the party, and it was absolutely fantastic! Boy, have I forgotten how angsty 15 year olds are, though. As a matter of great personal pride, none of the boys had over two burgers, while I had four. Biking > adolescence when it comes to appetite.
Jay showed me around his metalworking shop and helped me fix one of my panniers, while Kelly gave me advice for post-graduate career options! They were wonderful hosts, and I'm really glad I got to meet and spend time with them!

Thanks again, Jay and Kelly

While hanging out at their house, they suggested I check out the Piney River Brewery, which was about 55 miles away, about 5 miles from the town I was planning on staying at the next evening. Boy was that a great idea.
The brewery is located about 4 miles away from the main road, and with about a mile to go, the tarmac ends and is replaced by gravel. Undeterred, I persevered down the road, regardless of the surprised looks I got from the trucks that kept passing me.
Once I arrived, the party immediately started. Everyone was really surprised that I biked over, none more than Joleene, one of the co-owners. She was kind enough to give me a complementary taster tray, and they were all amazing!

Thanks Joleene!

 Just to make all of you beer aficionados out there jealous (I'm talking to you, SUOC), their Float Trip Ale won the 2014 Beer World Cup gold award for best american style wheat beer. Also, they've only been around since 2010, and have already won several awards besides that one. I'll be keeping my eye open for them in the future. If you want to check our their website, go here.
.

Plus, they have really good artwork

One of their employees, Jonathan, was kind enough to show me their brewing area downstairs!

Why do brewers always have amazing beards?

I had an absolutely fantastic time! Everyone there was wonderful, kind, and couldn't get enough of hearing about my trip. Apparently I'm the first transamerica trail biker to take the time to bike down, and Joleene and Brian (the owners) were super excited about it! Everyone kept offering to buy me drinks! I need to go out wearing bike shorts more. Their tap room is located in an old barn that's open from 2 to 7 on Saturdays, and there's live music, a bunch of locals, and an amazing atmosphere!

Woops, Malcolm looks a bit drunk.

While at the brewery, I met Rock, who's working at one of the farms around town. he kindly invited me to his place, where I'm currently spending my rest day! So far today, I have bottle-fed a calf, fed the pigs, herded some cows, and put up a bunch of fencing. It's been a great rest day.

Baby cows can't get enough breakfast

Unfortunately, you missed the part where they saw us and all came running out of the trees about 30 seconds before I took this picture.

Om nom nom. Bananas, Oranges, nothing withstands their mighty jaws.

My steed for the day. Gertrude, you're dead to me.

Missouri has been more than amazing, and I'm going to be really sad to leave it!
While Kansas was an emotional rollercoaster, Missouri is a physical one. None of the hills are that tall, but boy are they steep. I love it. It's probably been the most fun riding I've had all trip! The Ozarks are gorgeous, the people are amazingly kind, and I've heard the rivers are super fun to float down!

Love,
Farmer Malcolm

More Kansas!

Hello hello from the Immanuel Lutheran church in Walnut, KS. Today has been great. 

After leaving eureka this morning, I biked around 40 miles in the beautiful countryside, when suddenly, the skies went dark. Within 30 seconds, black thunderclouds appeared from over the horizon and blanketed the sun. In my immortal wisdom, instead of "roughing it out" like I have been, I decided to stop at the conveniently placed farmhouse on the side of the road and ask if I could weather the storm there. Luckily, Steven and his mother Karen were in, and hey let me in to their wonderful home, fed me, and showed me around he house (it was awesome). Since the storm showed no signs of abating, and I didn't feel like biking in 60 mile winds, thunder, and hail, they were mind enough to drive me to this church, where I was planning on spending the night. 

Upon arrival, I met pastor Jay, and proceeded to have one of the best evenings I have had so far. Jay is 29, made us a delicious chicken/potato/cheese/cream/bread crumb dish of amazingness, and then we spent the evening talking about lord of the rings, religion, star wars, game of thrones, fiction novels, video games, belgian beer, meteorology, science, canning and growing your own food, and many other topics. 

It was very relaxing and enjoyable. 

Eastern Kansas really is a wonderful place. The people are amazingly kind, and the landscape is simple yet unassumingly beautiful  It's great how everybody here hates western Kansas too, it's a great thing to bond over. 

Love, 

Malcolm

Malcolm, your friendly Kansas weather expert

Did I mention how hot it is here?
Yesterday, we had a heat index of 115, and today it's a balmy 96 (feels like it's 104!). Boy am I glad to be inside a library. I made the mistake of starting around 7:30 this morning, and was biking shirtless within a few minutes. Some nice dude in a van was driving by in the opposite direction, stopped, and wordlessly handed me a huge chilled powerade he had obviously just purchased for himself. Some people are angels.
Tomorrow, wake up time is 4am! (if I get a good nights sleep - going to sleep in the Eureka city park tonight. Hopefully the temperature will drop below 90 sometime before midnight)

I can't seem to find a memory card plug-in to this thing, so I'm giving up on showing you pictures of fields (because I know you all reaaaaally want to experience Kansas after my last thrilling post).

Here is my to do list for the rest of the day:
1) Go shopping (If you thought I was a bottomless pit before, I'm sorry. I can't find a metaphor to describe my hunger at this point)
2) Find the city park
3) Hope the city park has a pool
4) Weasel my way into said pool by any means necessary, and stay there until they physically throw me out
5) Eat
6) Pray the weather cools down fast
7) Sleep, and have sweet dreams about all of you.
8) Wake up tomorrow, realize I have nothing to do but bike for the next month
9) Be incredibly happy
10) Bike

Kansas

 Eastern Colorado was great after Hoosier pass, as it was all downhill. However, in Eads, I encountered the mother of all thunderstorms and had to take refuge... In the park bathroom. Let's hope this isn't a trend I'm starting (fun fact, the night I spent in the other bathroom was the fourth of July, I forgot to mention that).

Kansas has been quite the emotional roller coaster. In my opinion, western Kansas is basically the worst place ever. It's flat, featureless, boring, ugly, worthless, and the wind blows constantly from the south from 8am to 8 pm. All you see is wheat, corn, fallow fields, oil pumps, and all that sees you are cows moronically chewing cud as they gaze at you with disinterest. It's basically Mordor, but instead of the tower of the eye, all you see are grain towers that taunt you when they raise up in the distance, and you think you're almost in town, but they just get bigger and bigger until 8 miles later you're at their feet, staring up at them as they tower over you. 

My worst day was yesterday - a 20 mile straight south stretch on rolling ground took me three and a half hours, rather than the hour and fifteen it should have. That, and the constant whistling of the wind preventing all rational thought almost broke me. Man was I hoping for someone to talk to, or even just to yell at the wind with me. Some citizens living off that road may have heard "FUCK KANSAS AND FUCK THIS WIND!" and animalistic screams of rage as they were enjoying a beautiful (if windy) Sunday morning. 

On the plus side, Kansas has gotten much better since then central Kansas is absolutely gorgeous. It's still mostly flat, but there are lots of rolling hills, trees, and actual greenery, not just corn or wheat. I'm in Newton right now, spending the night at the bike shop with 6 other tourers. 

Also, another fun fact, I reached the halfway point in eastern. Colorado. Woo! I'm at about 2400 out of 4000. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures, no access to a computer!

It's bedtime now, thanks for reading my rant about Kansas! 

Cheers,

Malcolm

Super fun mountain time!

Hello from Colorado (or as I have been calling it, awful mountain land)
I am currenty sitting in the lovely Katie Racette's appartment in Avon (which is about 20 minutes from Vail). She was kind enough to pick me up from Silverthorne yesterday, and will drop me back off there tomorrow so I can tackle the highest pass on the trail (Hoosier Pass - 11,542'). It's all (mostly) downhill from there!

Unfortunately, I didn't take too many pictures of Wyoming (it was all too pretty and couldn't afford to stop every 5 minutes to take a picture), but here's a few more from the Tetons!

Finally figured out how to use the camera timer!

Swimming in Jenny Lake

Bye bye Wyoming!

 Oh man - did I mention I had my first downpour a few days ago? I thought Wyoming was bad for thunderstorms, but Colorado gave me a warm (wet and cold) welcome!
Coming down a pass, it started pouring. Being the stubborn person that I am, I decided it would be a good idea, instead of hiding under a tree, to tough it out (keep in mind I had 30 miles till the next town).
At first, it was a drizzle. Then it was a downpour. Then a thunderstorm. Then hail. It was great.
Biking in the rain is like playing in the mud - once you accept you're gonna get dirty (or wet) it's a great time.
Picture this: Malcolm, completely blind due to the raindrops covering his glasses, speeding down a dark deserted mountain road, belting "make a man out of you" at the top of his lungs, soaked to the skin as lightning strikes all around. I must have made quite the sight.
Anyways, after about 10 miles of this I started getting really cold, and the first cars I saw since the beginning of the storm pulled over and asked me if I wanted a ride. I gladly accepted, we threw the bike on the rood (getting a 70 pound bike + gear on a roof rack is no laughing matter, especially in a thunderstorm), and they drove me to near Granby, where the storm mercifully hadn't gotten to yet.
We chatted as we drove, and it turns out these fine gentlemen were out for a day of fly fishing. The one on the far right, John Lennon (you read that right) had actually just met Gertrude's designer (she's an AWOL by Specialized), and was super excited to see an AWOL in action! He also happens to be an Ironman (Lake Placid 3 years in a row, so I may see him yet if I decide to do it next year!).

My amazing saviors

 That night, I camped in Hot Sulpher Spring's city park, and met an amazing couple, Bob and Mary, from Wisconsin. Bob retired two years ago, and they have been touring the country in their RV since, settling down somewhere nice and warm for the winter. We had so much in common, hung out all night chatting, and they were kind enough to share their delicous dinner with me.

Bob, Packer, and Mary

Meeting genuine, kind people like Bob, Mary, and my earlier saviors remind me of why I'm doing this trip. Landscapes fade, but the people you meet stay with you forever. You get to meet people that you would usually never cross paths with. Genuine kindness is everywhere, people are amazing, have wonderful stories, life experiences, and gems of wisdom to share.

Anyways, got to go! I'm heading to the store to get Katie and her roommate Johanna a 6-pack and some flowers (shh, don't tell!)

Love,

Malcolm

PS: I love you even more if you actually read my gibberish!

Wyoming, aka thunderstorm land

Wyoming is coming to an end! I am sitting in a McDonalds in Rawlins, poaching their Internet and recharging all my stuff. I camped 16 miles out of town last night, on some BLM land right off the highway. Due to it thundering all afternoon, my bags and I got covered in red dirt. Biking this morning I met some other tourers, who asked if I was doing to continental devide (probably due to my nasty scruffle, dirt coated panniers, and overall hobo-ish appearance. I wasn't sure if I should feel badass or disgusted with myself.

The last day Hunter and I spent together we kayaked on Jenny lake, went hiking somewhere up one of the Tetons (I was barefoot - bad idea), and braved countless Mosquitos (Hunter perfected the single-hand smash).

I lost my cycling computer somewhere in Hunter's car, which actually has been quite nice. I'm not constantly checking my speed, and it's a great feeling not actually knowing the mileage I'm doing. Biking has become a much more meditative process.

Today's goal is to get to Colorado!
Signing off.
Love,
Malcolm

Like No Place on Earth

Hello everyone, from Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

My friend Hunter just finished her NOLS Wilderness EMT course, and we decided to spend a few days together in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Hunter enjoying Grand Prismatic Spring

She also brought her laptop, which provides me with the opportunity to show you some cool stuff that I have seen so far!

To begin at the beginning: Andre and I drove to the Oregon coast to start my trip!

What a man

My first big hill was Mckenzie pass, which took me over the Cascades.

The Sisters

After a few days, I was desperately trying to find somewhere to sleep in Oregon, so I decided to sleep off the road near a historical covered wagon, which just happened to be an amazing place for a sunset.

Stealth ditch camping

Strawberry Mountain

Entering Idaho, Tommy and I camped besides the Snake River, which was peaceful and fun to jump in!

The next day, we were on a bike path for a while, and found a great camping spot where it intersected with the highway overhead.

In Riggins, the lovely Jillian Hanson decided to stop by and spend the night with us. We jumped in the Salmon. It was cold.

Thanks for the guest post!

 Past Riggins, the scenery got ridiculously beautiful. I had to snap a few pictures because one wasn't enough.

 Later in Idaho, past White Bird we took the old highway 95 and went up white bird hill, which offered a great view of the valley behind us.

 Past that, we went up the Lochsa river, suffered some mild dehydration (67 miles without services), and met Arlo (unfortunately not pictured).

 Near the border with Montana, we stayed behind the general store in Powell, a self-proclaimed hippy commune, with 7 other bikers! Everyone's rig was different, but this was my favorite.

 Fast forward a few days - Tommy spent an extra day in Missoula, and Arlo was taking his time to get to Wyoming, so I blasted forwards to Twin Bridges, Montana because I heard it had a dedicated biker-only free campground with showers, bathrooms, and outlets. It was a long day, (135 miles), but around mile 110 the wind and rain got absurd, I almost got blown off the road by a truck, and a nice couple gave me a lift. I met Joe and Jessica, two tourers that were also spending the night. Joe is taking a week off to do a short tour, and Jessica is soloing the transamerica, east to west!

 The night after that, I was around 40 miles from West Yellowstone and couldn't find any free camping spots, so I went on a national forest road up to a trailhead to stealth camp. The heat/fly combination made me take refuge in the bathroom, which was incredibly comfy, cozy, and insect-proof.

Here's to a memorable night, Papoose Creek bathroom.

 The next day Hunter and I met in West Yellowstone, camped somewhere in northern Idaho, got a backcountry pass for Yellowstone, hiked into and spent the night at Mallard Lake!

We're so pretty

We are currently sitting in Cowboy Coffee in Jackson, planning tonight and tomorrow (camping, canoeing on Jenny Lake, and then parting ways as I blast through Wyoming and into the great unknown (Colorado and the midwest).

Until next time,

Malcolm