I’m not sure I could survive without my bike. From short rides along the shore of West Seattle, to epic month-long bike tours in Chile, I love to ride. Here are some photos I took along the way.

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Watch a slideshow of these and additional mountain bike & cycling tours photos HERE

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A friend of mine from Whitefish had this great idea for a bike tour. Let’s ride from New York City to Washington, DC. The result was Climate Ride 2008. If it sounds interesting, you better hurry up as there are only 5 spots left!

What is Climate Ride 2008?

Do you want meaningful action on global warming and renewable energy? Do you want it now? Do you like to bicycle country roads and meet fun people engaged in making a difference? If so, join the Brita Climate Ride 2008, the first multi-day bicycle tour where you pedal to raise money and awareness of climate change and hope for a future powered by renewable energy and a green economy.

This is your chance to get out on the road and drive the ultimate carbon-free machine: the bicycle.

Join us today for a bike ride you will never forget.

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I just put up a posting on eBay for a brand new set of Sram Rival brakes I am selling. These have never been used or mounted. Very nice set of road bike brakes – http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220269897228 for a very good prices. Contact me directly if you’re interested (no eBay fees!).

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say again: we (those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest) are blessed with so much natural beauty within relatively easy reach, that it can be really difficult to decide where to go on the weekends. Do we go sea kayaking, mountain biking, climbing, backcountry skiing…ah, the choices!

This past weekend was no different, so on Sunday it was up early for the drive out to Newhalem for the beginning of an overnight bike tour on the North Cascades Highway. The goal was to finish in Winthrop, meeting up with a large group of friends who had ridden over the day prior. For those who have yet to visit this stunning national park, I highly recommend you go now. Less than three hours from Seattle, it’s actually one of the least visited national parks in the country and believe it or not, there are folks in Seattle who have no idea this much rugged beauty is so close to home.

The North Cascades highway offers awe-inspiring views combined with leg-busting climbs. Matter of fact, the total elevation gain from Newhalem to Washington Pass is nearly 6000 ft. Sweet. Once you crest the pass, the long winding Alps-like descent brings you into the high and dry Methow Valley.

[View with PicLens]

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I love B.O.B … or B.A.R.B (depending on who’s asking.) He/she never complains, doesn’t need to be cleaned up after, doesn’t eat a lot and most importantly, no matter what I do with him/her or whereever I go, she/he obliges without a peep! Sure she requires some basic maintenance, but don’t they all! After years of trouble-free companionship, I dedicate these cycling tour photographs to B.O.B…I mean B.A.R.B

But at the end of the day, what are my real feelings about my trusty BOB trailer? Sure it works perfectly for trips to the grocery store or quick rides through the city to the local bike shop, but how does it stand up on a long bike tour and, more importantly for some, is it easier to tour with a trailer versus panniers?

First and foremost, almost ALL my extended bike tours have been with this trailer. I’ve done some short jaunts with panniers but I cannot compare the two on long bike tours.  So, that being said, I truly do love my trailer…most of the time.

While I managed to (somehow) escape major damage dragging it through remote sections of trail in southern Patagonia (as I made my way towards the beginning of the Carretera Austral in Chile) I encountered numerous folks with bike panniers trying to jerry-rig their broken bags/racks.  Of course, that was a pretty extreme case. On your ‘average’ bike tour (read: pavement) I still think a trailer offers certain benefits that may outweigh riding with panniers, such as:

• BOB trailers are super easy to attach/remove. Remove a couple pins and your bike is free to go
• Everything goes in one place, one bag, one trailer. This is good and bad because it is very easy to over-pack BOB. Consider BOB your porter. He’s very content hauling big loads. The waterproof duffel bag that comes with the trailer is big and we (I) tend to fill it, regardless of how long the tour is
• Hills kind of suck. There is no denying it…BOB does not like to really climb. He’ll do everything possible to slow you down. So yeah, the trailer surely adds ‘drag’ and friction. I was in pretty good shape when I embarked on my solo journey in Chile and, surprise surprise, because I over-packed, hills were, in some cases, brutal. (Granted, climbing dirt roads covered in baseball-sized rocks is never easy.)
• BOB is built tough. He can take (almost) what ever you throw at. Nothing on my trailer has broke.
• You don’t need rack attachments. The thru-axel works on just about any bike (I’ve some issues using it on my road race bike)
• Definite CON: the trailer is another piece of gear you have to deal with. If you’re traveling with your bike via bus, train, etc. this means you need to consider how you’ll pack the trailer (and the now-removed bag.) Not the case with panniers.

This isn’t to say bike trailers are better. Just about all my experiences bike touring are with B.O.B. I actually am looking forward to a future tour using panniers. Unfortunately…none of my bikes have rack attachments…

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m pretty convinced the Discovery Coast Circle Tour is quite possibly one of the best bike tours no one knows about in North America.  Although I have created a photo gallery that includes some of the images from that trip, I wanted to provide a better sense of place for those viewing my images. So here is an interactive map illustrating the route as well as general locations of where I took my photographs. If for some reason the Google map causes problems, you can open a new browser by CLICKING HERE

View Larger Map

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Although I haven’t been shooting much this past week I often found myself surrounded by stunning images and photography old timers such as Art Wolfe and Greg Gorman.  While working at Art’s gallery in downtown Seattle for the week I was fortunate enough to time it just right so as to catch a two-day visit by Greg Gorman. For the majority who are unfamiliar with Greg’s work, he is a fairly well-known portrait photographer who has been capturing all angles of the celebrity world for more then two decades. During an evening slide show full of hilarious comments and celebrity before-and-after photographs, there was one quote in particular that captured the essence of the industry: "Photoshop works because reality sucks!"

On a completely different note, my next photography trip, a week long bike tour culminating in and around the Great Bear Rain Forest near Bella Coola, British Columbia, begins tomorrow. Come back in a couple weeks to view the slide show.

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After much deliberation and the cancellation of my eastern Europe bike tour (which I just realized I would be in the middle of at this very moment,) I can finally look forward to packing up the B.O.B for a short bike tour in just over a week.   Beginning on or around the 11th I’ll have my brother drop me off at Whistler, BC, where I’ll hop on the bike and begin the adventure north.

Within minutes I’ll find myself climbing into the beautiful coastal range as I pedal my way NE towards Williams Lake, about 250 miles distant. From there it’s time to head west on Bella Coola Highway 20, which apparently is the gateway to a vast wilderness. Mostly paved and hopefully only lightly traveled by RVs and logging trucks, it’s Heckman Pass that I anticipate being the high point of the journey (no pun intended here) as it drops 5,000 ft to the sea. With grades as steep as 18% it should be pretty interesting how a fully-loading skinny-tire bike handles the dirt roads (unlike my Chile bike tour, which consisted of endless "ripio" too but I was riding a mountain bike.)

If time permits I hope to venture off the main road to allow time for exploring some of the remote areas south of HWY 20, including Ts’yl-os Provincial Park , which is home to Chilko Lake, the largest, natural, high elevation lake in Canada as well as prime grizzly bear habitat. Hmmm…not sure if bear spray will do much here!

Once I reach Bella Coola, about 600 miles from Whistler, I’ll hop aboard the Discovery Coast Passage ferry heading south through Inside Passage to the tip of Vancouver Island. With enough time I should be able to bike down the island to Nanaimo, (passing, unfortunately, Alert Bay, a place I recommend everyone visit via sea kayak to experience the thrill of being face-to-face with the orcas) a short ferry ride back to the mainland, Vancouver and life as we all know it.

Besides the simple joy of exploring a new area and dealing with the unexpected mishaps that are part of wandering in more remote areas, my goal is to photograph this natural landscape to the best of my abilities. So check back in a couple weeks and I should have, what I hope, will be some pretty cool photos and stories of the area.

Below is a very simple map of the general route I’ll be on, although as I read more and more about the area there are what appear to be some pretty spectacular dirt roads I can take instead of section on HWY 97.

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