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Touring by Boot, Boat, Motorcycle, and Bicycle: a brief history
Cambridge, Massachusetts, circa 2000 or 2001. Photo Credit: Jess Strauss Hunt.
Depending on the threshold of how a person might define a "tour", by a minimum number of days, etc, one could make the argument that I began touring as a youngster, with or without shoes, and primarily in the forests and wetlands that were within walking or cycling distance from my childhood home in Franklin, Massachusetts. My childhood tours, expressed from as far back as I can recall, roughly age six years old until adolescents, may have been short but they were frequent and rich with the satisfaction a person feels when they've stepped outside of their comfort zone, towards a wanderlust, in my case, that seemed then and now to be my primary mover. Many more details about my childhood explorations are available in the prologue to Going Full Tilt to Newfoundland and Labrador, a travelogue that documents my 2018 autumn tour through the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
Beyond childhood I entered adolescents, by this time I was part of a gang of five, Kerry, Roy, Dan, Jason, and I. Our coming together was a wonderful expression of inevitability in a universe that nonetheless operates via the seemingly bizarre rules of quantum physics. My friends and I flourished within the safety of our friendships and during this time I added many more adventures to my long list of childhood tours.
As an undergraduate, I began to dream of far away places, including the deserts of western North America. Shortly after completing a Bachelor of Arts in Biology at North Adams State College, I worked as a volunteer at Grand Canyon National Park, for the Student Conservation Association working in collaboration with the National Park Service. It was 1995, a year post-graduation from North Adams, and I was, by now, assembling the employment part of each year into as many as three components; a few months as an outdoor educator; field biologist; and some sort of outdoor laborer scenario, painting, landscaping, or construction. The first two often didn't pay anything at all, the last one provided enough money for a modest living, the one I preferred then and still do today for its many benefits including a life underwritten by adventure and learning.
Eventually, inspired in part by lyrics written and sung by Jim Morrison, late lead-man from The Doors, and the writings of Edward Abbey, especially his prophetic words from Desert Solitaire, I departed New England with cash in my pocket (from a last minute painting job) on a 1982, CX500, Honda motorcycle, a $250 purchase a few weeks before, towards the heart of Pennsylvania but ultimately farther south and then west away from the onset of winter in New England. My attempt to avoid winter was only partially successful, I ran into the first winter storm of the season as I approached the Pennsylvania border. Before I stepped off the motorcycle that evening, I was experiencing a new depth of cold, wet through, especially feet and fingers, without a windshield or any other shelter from the sub-zero temperatures and deeper wind chill.
I'll never forget that initial day on my first truly ambitious, solo tour. In part, because when, days later, I rode into the rolling hills of Virginia, into the vicinity and eventually through the town of Culpeper, by now under a warm sun despite persistently cool temperatures, I was filled with the satisfaction that a person feels when they've overcome a significant challenge. Moreover, even though I remained ignorant of my destiny at that time and its enviable benefits, a lifetime of learning and exploration by boot, boat, motorcycle, and eventually bicycle, I was overwhelmed by the conviction that my decision to depart comfort and certainty, back in Massachusetts, had been the right one.
Over the next six months, I rode Ms. Culpeper, as I named her shortly after surviving that memorable winter storm so I would never forget, over 16,000 miles through twenty-four states from Massachusetts to Florida, Florida to Texas, Texas to Arizona, then Arizona back to New England to initiate my next seasonal, field biologist position in the Gulf of Maine in the spring of 1996. The next fall I was back on the motorcycle, and the next fall too.
By 2003, five long journey's and a handful of shorter ones behind me, all of them by motorcycle, I had explored all of the lower forty-eight states as well as the Canadian provinces east of Manitoba including remote Newfoundland and Labrador. Throughout, I camped and cooked on the periphery of mankind's infrastructure, almost always no cost camping in National Forests, lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, etc, or elsewhere but always hidden away from conspecifics that didn't understand and so would otherwise spoil my wanderlust and freedom to explore unhinged by financial or social restraint.
Eventually, I hope to share all of my hand-written, travel journals (scroll down to view a sample from my 2003 cross-America tour). In the meantime, below I've assembled a complete list with maps of my bicycle tours to date, a total of seven tours as of edits to this page that I made on 24 February 2021.
Some of my tours, the recent ones, are captured and published here on my website in the form of detailed travelogues, either completed or a work in progress (2018 tour). Click titles, below, to visit each tour including many images and a chapter-by-chapter travelogue if one is available. Three of my earlier tours remain, for the most part, memories that I can share, by voice, but so far very little in the form of written words.
There was a time when I integrated each chapter of my travelogues into my blog page but I discontinue this practice in 2018, adding instead each chapter as a stand-alone page, because Weebly's blog search and organization options are quite literally dreadful. Sadly, anything I added to my blog in the past quickly became lost, for the most part unsearchable and even unscrollable, thanks to the ludicrous design 'options', essentially none, implemented by Weebly. Note, for this reason and others, I strongly advise using some other platform, such as WordPress, for anyone that might be considering building their own website.
My travels by bicycle were motivated, assembled, and completed based on inspiration from my previous touring experiences by boot, boat, and motorcycle. By the way, the "boat" component of my explorations was a benefit of my earliest passion as a field biologist, marine birds, organisms that raise their young on far-flung islands scattered here-and-there across Planet Earth's oceans. Perhaps those stories can eventually be told, also, here or elsewhere or both. In the meantime, the spirit of those earlier journeys, by alternative mediums, is in plain view, as a watermark, behind my most recent travel stories and experiences.
Beyond childhood I entered adolescents, by this time I was part of a gang of five, Kerry, Roy, Dan, Jason, and I. Our coming together was a wonderful expression of inevitability in a universe that nonetheless operates via the seemingly bizarre rules of quantum physics. My friends and I flourished within the safety of our friendships and during this time I added many more adventures to my long list of childhood tours.
As an undergraduate, I began to dream of far away places, including the deserts of western North America. Shortly after completing a Bachelor of Arts in Biology at North Adams State College, I worked as a volunteer at Grand Canyon National Park, for the Student Conservation Association working in collaboration with the National Park Service. It was 1995, a year post-graduation from North Adams, and I was, by now, assembling the employment part of each year into as many as three components; a few months as an outdoor educator; field biologist; and some sort of outdoor laborer scenario, painting, landscaping, or construction. The first two often didn't pay anything at all, the last one provided enough money for a modest living, the one I preferred then and still do today for its many benefits including a life underwritten by adventure and learning.
Eventually, inspired in part by lyrics written and sung by Jim Morrison, late lead-man from The Doors, and the writings of Edward Abbey, especially his prophetic words from Desert Solitaire, I departed New England with cash in my pocket (from a last minute painting job) on a 1982, CX500, Honda motorcycle, a $250 purchase a few weeks before, towards the heart of Pennsylvania but ultimately farther south and then west away from the onset of winter in New England. My attempt to avoid winter was only partially successful, I ran into the first winter storm of the season as I approached the Pennsylvania border. Before I stepped off the motorcycle that evening, I was experiencing a new depth of cold, wet through, especially feet and fingers, without a windshield or any other shelter from the sub-zero temperatures and deeper wind chill.
I'll never forget that initial day on my first truly ambitious, solo tour. In part, because when, days later, I rode into the rolling hills of Virginia, into the vicinity and eventually through the town of Culpeper, by now under a warm sun despite persistently cool temperatures, I was filled with the satisfaction that a person feels when they've overcome a significant challenge. Moreover, even though I remained ignorant of my destiny at that time and its enviable benefits, a lifetime of learning and exploration by boot, boat, motorcycle, and eventually bicycle, I was overwhelmed by the conviction that my decision to depart comfort and certainty, back in Massachusetts, had been the right one.
Over the next six months, I rode Ms. Culpeper, as I named her shortly after surviving that memorable winter storm so I would never forget, over 16,000 miles through twenty-four states from Massachusetts to Florida, Florida to Texas, Texas to Arizona, then Arizona back to New England to initiate my next seasonal, field biologist position in the Gulf of Maine in the spring of 1996. The next fall I was back on the motorcycle, and the next fall too.
By 2003, five long journey's and a handful of shorter ones behind me, all of them by motorcycle, I had explored all of the lower forty-eight states as well as the Canadian provinces east of Manitoba including remote Newfoundland and Labrador. Throughout, I camped and cooked on the periphery of mankind's infrastructure, almost always no cost camping in National Forests, lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, etc, or elsewhere but always hidden away from conspecifics that didn't understand and so would otherwise spoil my wanderlust and freedom to explore unhinged by financial or social restraint.
Eventually, I hope to share all of my hand-written, travel journals (scroll down to view a sample from my 2003 cross-America tour). In the meantime, below I've assembled a complete list with maps of my bicycle tours to date, a total of seven tours as of edits to this page that I made on 24 February 2021.
Some of my tours, the recent ones, are captured and published here on my website in the form of detailed travelogues, either completed or a work in progress (2018 tour). Click titles, below, to visit each tour including many images and a chapter-by-chapter travelogue if one is available. Three of my earlier tours remain, for the most part, memories that I can share, by voice, but so far very little in the form of written words.
There was a time when I integrated each chapter of my travelogues into my blog page but I discontinue this practice in 2018, adding instead each chapter as a stand-alone page, because Weebly's blog search and organization options are quite literally dreadful. Sadly, anything I added to my blog in the past quickly became lost, for the most part unsearchable and even unscrollable, thanks to the ludicrous design 'options', essentially none, implemented by Weebly. Note, for this reason and others, I strongly advise using some other platform, such as WordPress, for anyone that might be considering building their own website.
My travels by bicycle were motivated, assembled, and completed based on inspiration from my previous touring experiences by boot, boat, and motorcycle. By the way, the "boat" component of my explorations was a benefit of my earliest passion as a field biologist, marine birds, organisms that raise their young on far-flung islands scattered here-and-there across Planet Earth's oceans. Perhaps those stories can eventually be told, also, here or elsewhere or both. In the meantime, the spirit of those earlier journeys, by alternative mediums, is in plain view, as a watermark, behind my most recent travel stories and experiences.
A Complete History, Bicycle Tours:
Number of Tours: 8
Period: 5 September 2016 to present
Total Distance: 24,163 miles (38,661 km)
Total Climbing: 1,0296,42 feet (313,835 meters)
Ascents of Mount Everest from sea level: 35.5
Number of Tours: 8
Period: 5 September 2016 to present
Total Distance: 24,163 miles (38,661 km)
Total Climbing: 1,0296,42 feet (313,835 meters)
Ascents of Mount Everest from sea level: 35.5
My Bicycle Tour Debut: United States, New England, Autumn, 2016
Dates: 5 to 11 September, 2016
Number of Days on Tour: 7
Total Distance: 389 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 55.5
Elevation Gain: 25,998 feet
Dates: 5 to 11 September, 2016
Number of Days on Tour: 7
Total Distance: 389 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 55.5
Elevation Gain: 25,998 feet
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Seven Countries in Sixteen Days: Europe, Autumn, 2016
Dates: 5 to 20 October, 2016 Number of Days on Tour: 16 Total Distance: 1557 miles Average Miles Per Day: 97.3 Elevation Gain: 44,271 feet |
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Hamburg, Germany to Scotland By Bicycle: Europe, Autumn, 2017
Dates: 9 to 29 August, 2017
Number of Days on Tour: 21
Total Distance: 1490 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 71
Elevation Gain: 56,370 feet
Dates: 9 to 29 August, 2017
Number of Days on Tour: 21
Total Distance: 1490 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 71
Elevation Gain: 56,370 feet
A Social Tour of New England By Bicycle: United States, New England, Autumn, 2017
Dates: 6 September to 7 October, 2017
Number of Days on Tour: 31
Total Distance: 1507 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 48.6
Elevation Gain: 98,513 feet
Dates: 6 September to 7 October, 2017
Number of Days on Tour: 31
Total Distance: 1507 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 48.6
Elevation Gain: 98,513 feet
Going Full Tilt to Newfoundland and Labrador: United States & Canada, Autumn, 2018
Dates: 20 August to 12 October, 2018
Number of Days on Tour: 53
Total Distance: 2814 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 53
Elevation Gain: 147293 feet
Dates: 20 August to 12 October, 2018
Number of Days on Tour: 53
Total Distance: 2814 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 53
Elevation Gain: 147293 feet
Le Tour de Europe | Duncansby Head to Istanbul By Bicycle: Europe, Autumn, 2019
Dates: 21 August to 22 October, 2019
Number of Days on Tour: 63
Total Distance: 4392 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 70
Elevation Gain: 230,751 feet (equivalent to 8 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
Dates: 21 August to 22 October, 2019
Number of Days on Tour: 63
Total Distance: 4392 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 70
Elevation Gain: 230,751 feet (equivalent to 8 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
Flagstaff (Arizona) to Portland (Oregon) By Bicycle: United States, Autumn, 2020
Dates: 22 September to 13 October, 2020
Number of Days on Tour: 22
Total Distance: 1596 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 73
Elevation Gain: 85,000 feet (equivalent to 3 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
Dates: 22 September to 13 October, 2020
Number of Days on Tour: 22
Total Distance: 1596 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 73
Elevation Gain: 85,000 feet (equivalent to 3 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
Connecting My Grandfathers: United States, Autumn, 2021
Link to Route: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/77015431
Dates: 6 September to 13 October, 2021 †
Number of Days on Tour: 37
Total Distance: 2914 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 79
Elevation Gain: 104,000 feet (equivalent to 3.6 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
† A 449 mile "afterlude", days, miles, and climbing, is not included in this summary. For those details visit this page.
Link to Route: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/77015431
Dates: 6 September to 13 October, 2021 †
Number of Days on Tour: 37
Total Distance: 2914 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 79
Elevation Gain: 104,000 feet (equivalent to 3.6 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
† A 449 mile "afterlude", days, miles, and climbing, is not included in this summary. For those details visit this page.
Europa 360: Europe, Autumn and Winter, 2022
Link to Route:
Dates: 22 August to 19 November, 2022
Number of Days: 84 on tour + 6 post-tour in Barcelona
Total Distance: 7,055 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 84
Elevation Gain: 217,446 feet (equivalent to 7.5 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
Link to Route:
Dates: 22 August to 19 November, 2022
Number of Days: 84 on tour + 6 post-tour in Barcelona
Total Distance: 7,055 miles
Average Miles Per Day: 84
Elevation Gain: 217,446 feet (equivalent to 7.5 times up Mount Everest from sea level)
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A randomly chosen set of back-to-back pages from my 2003, hand-written journal that documents my thoughts and experiences on an east to west and back again tour of North America on a 1982, CX500 Honda motorcycle. Written into the header, page 1, are odometer readings from the motorcycle, start 56,882 and end 57,243 on 6 June 2003. By the time, years later, I finished touring on Ms. Culpeper, her odometer logged over 80,000 miles.