Jeremy's Bike Blog

Life on the bicycle is getting a touch routine.  Avoidance of routine was one major thing that motivated me to quit the job and get on the bicycle, so it’s not ideal that eat/cycle/sleep is getting as familiar as it is, but I realize it’s also somewhat unavoidable.

On the plus side, I’m learning to take my time.  When octogenarians Bob and Ray from Kentucky chatted me up for 15 minutes in the Chevron as we got coffee this morning, I realized that a couple of weeks ago I would have given cues or made my excuses to keep it to more like 5 minutes.  But I’ve gone to lengths to ensure that I have nowhere I need to be by any particular time, and I feel like I’m starting to truly focus on the here and now rather than looking forward at what’s to come.  After all, at my current rate, it will take me an almost unimaginably long time to get to Bogota, so projection can be a bit demoralizing.

I’ve been meeting a handful of people per day, who seem genuinely interested in hearing my story and sharing theirs.  As my primary sources of stimulation have been whittled down to podcasts, audio books, and natural scenery going by at an average of 10mph, I find it easier to be, myself, more genuinely interested in hearing their stories, which is a welcome development; I’ve long since realized that I’m a bit more self-interested than I’d like to be.

I’ve also made a point to reach out to people 1:1, by IM, text or e-mail.  To that end, if you would like to reach out to me, I would sincerely enjoy hearing from you, and promise I’ll write you back, eventually, connectivity permitting.  I’m jcalvert@gmail.com.

Anyways, here’s the play-by-play.  I don’t know if I can, should, or will keep up giving the play-by-play, but will for now.  From Escalante, I cycled to Tropic, had a Taco Salad, then slept in Bryce Canyon NP near the Mossy Cave.  I cycled in about a quarter mile of the half mile path, stashed the bike, tooled around and took in the sights as I waited for the place to clear out, then set up camp and had a wonderfully quiet night under some amazing arches.  Got up early to not be spotted by any early-morning sightseers and cycled to the main park entrance, took a shuttle to one viewpoint, walked along the rim to the other, took the shuttle back and had a leisurely breakfast.  Cycling on in a fairly vicious headwind, I stopped for an early dinner in Hutch, then continued on from there for another 10 miles and set up camp in a ditch on the side of the road, a decision I made at 5pm as what was threatening to be severe weather rolled in.  This turned out to be a bad call.  It rained, hailed, and thundered just enough to get everything wet, then the sky cleared completely just after sunset and the night was frigid as I slept in a crust of ice.  It would have been better to have cycled through the wet, then set up a dry bivvy and spent more like 8, rather than 14 hours in it.  Oh well.  I did start reading “1491”, a book about Mesoamerica before European contact, and now I wish I had the audio-version as well so I could continue it while I bike.