A shorter day today. I felt good when I set off this morning, and thankfully that lasted all day. The weather was good and I spent the majority of the first 40 kilometres on a very pretty but quite hilly bike path. I started to feel the odd twinge in my knee towards the end …
Day 146 – Grand Rapids to Two Harbors*
15,000 miles! It was nice to hit that earlier. Only 1/6 to go - I should be home in about a month. I’ve still got a lot of cycling to do and a few nights in a tent to endure (primarily tomorrow), but I really am starting to feel like I’m getting close. It’s still …
Day 145 – Bemidji to Grand Rapids
Today has been another uneventful day. The scenery has become a fair bit more interesting but still wasn’t anything that exciting. I’m struggling to think of anything to write about this evening. Whilst a boring day is better than having a spoke break - or something else along those lines, it does make writing a …
Day 144 – Grand Forks to Bemidji
Once again, I woke up this morning feeling more tired than when I had gone to sleep. I actually fell asleep again for about half an hour after eating breakfast (not deliberately). Much like yesterday, I felt a lot better once riding; although this didn’t happen until a fair bit later than I had planned. …
Day 143 – Devils Lake to Grand Forks
I didn’t get much sleep last night and waking up this morning was a real challenge. It took me ages to get out the door, but once on the bike - as is generally the case - I felt a lot better. This morning was actually reasonably cold and I don’t think it went much …
Day 142 – Minot to Devils Lake
Today was the first rain I’ve had in America.. I think it was anyway, the last couple of weeks are beginning to blur together but it was the first time I’ve needed a jacket. Now although I am now out of the 40 degree heat, today still wasn’t cold and I found myself facing a …
Day 141 – Williston to Minot
Ok it's another late night so this has to be another quick update.. Today is the 4th of July and I had been slightly apprehensive about whether that would make things harder; but instead the opposite happened. The roads were almost empty all day, so riding on the main road wasn't actually that bad. The …
Day 140 – Glendive to Williston
Today has been a bit dull. To be honest I’m not overly upset about that given yesterday’s events but it does mean that this will be a short update. I also lost another hour today so it is already rather late. Unlike last time, I knew the clocks would change as I crossed the state …
Day 139 – Forsyth to Glendive
Today has not been a good one. It’s annoying that despite 3 fairly straightforward days, I’m instantly on the back foot again after just one bad day. I’m not going to get much sleep tonight, and quite frankly I don’t really want to dwell on the details of today too much so this probably won’t …
Day 138 – Roundup to Forsyth
Today didn’t really hold much of anything. It has been another early finish but that is almost entirely down to the fact that there was nothing to stop for. Apart from a few clusters of deserted buildings I didn’t pass anything. There was a lot of low-lying cloud today so mercifully, the temperature didn’t reach …
Day 137 – White Sulphur Springs to Roundup
Today couldn’t really have gone any better. The difference the wind makes when it is actually in the right direction is amazing. I got another good sleep last night and felt good pretty much from the minute I woke up. The ride today has been the fastest average speed of the whole trip, and considering …
Continue reading "Day 137 – White Sulphur Springs to Roundup"
Day 136 – Helena to White Sulphur Springs
A shorter ride today… It’s amazing how much difference 25 miles can make. I finished not long after 2 o’clock this afternoon so I’ve actually spent more time doing nothing than I have riding today. Over the course of this trip, I have discovered that I’m actually quite talented when it comes to resting, so …
Continue reading "Day 136 – Helena to White Sulphur Springs"
Day 135 – Missoula to Helena
Today was another hard day in the saddle, and the first 90 miles or so were not that enjoyable. The road headed gradually uphill for the majority and the wind wasn’t exactly making it easy. Once again the heat was pretty draining. I have come to the conclusion that 40 degrees is more or less …
Day 134 – Thompson Falls to Missoula
I think America is trying to kill me… Today started off fairly well. I was making good time and I had it in my mind to push for an early finish today so that I could get my wheel looked at without any time pressure. The first 60 miles went very much to plan and …
Day 133 – Priest River to Thompson Falls
I think last night may have been the first time of the whole trip that I managed to get consecutive 8 hour sleeps. Unfortunately I think that run is about to end, but it was fun while it lasted. I took ages getting ready this morning. Not entirely sure why - I felt good, I …
Day 132 – Colfax to Priest River
I’m sorry but this has to be really short. I managed to get an 8 hour sleep last night and I’d really like that to happen again. Today was similar to yesterday - stunning scenery (until Spokane which came after about 60 miles) and still very hot. Other than that, hitting 13,500 miles total is …
Day 131 – Othello to Colfax
I spent today riding through the Palouse region - a rather large agricultural portion of the country that provided some stunning scenery. Wheat fields and rolling hills combined with the complete lack of civilisation made for some very surreal riding. Despite this, I really struggled to get comfortable on the bike this morning and it …
Day 130 – Rimrock Lake to Othello
As per, I’ve left this far too late so I need to be fairly brief.. The majority of the first 50 miles were slightly down hill so it was relatively easy going. The scenery started where yesterday left off, but after not very long, the pine trees ended very abruptly and were replaced by not …
Day 129 – Castle Rock to Rimrock Lake
Today had the potential to be one of the best days of the whole trip... but unfortunately, it didn't quite work out like that. This was largely down to bad luck but I didn't help myself by being even less productive than normal this morning. It was almost 8 o'clock when I finally got going …
Day 128 – Newberg to Castle Rock
So it turns out I wasn't being totally incompetent when trying to fix my wheel yesterday. The rim had actually spilt so there wasn't much I could do (although that's probably something I probably should have noticed). This means I now have a new wheel.... I owe a huge thank you to Kyle and Showers Pass …
Day 127 – Newport to Newberg
Today did not go quite as well as I'd hoped. The weather was good and it was set to be the flattest day I've had this week, so it should have been fairly straightforward. To be fair, the weather was stunning, and I have decided that Oregon - for the most part - is a …
Day 126 – Coos Bay to Newport
Today was the first day I haven't woken up up to thick clouds and the weather throughout the ride was actually rather stunning. It still wasn't that warm but it made a nice change. Despite the weather being so dull for the last five days, my face has actually gone a bit red so …
Day 125 – Brookings to Coos Bay
Today was actually very similar to yesterday (apart from the wind direction), so to save some time, I'm not going to bother describing the ride... If you feel like you've been short-changed, perhaps read yesterday's update again. I do however have some advice for any men planning a cycling trip with a woman... Today I …
Day 124 – Arcata to Brookings
I’ve now left California - the not-so-golden, Golden State - and entered Oregon. Unfortunately I think the weather looks set to stay the same. Today was a bit weird on that front, it kept changing between dense fog and completely cloudless skies, there wasn’t really any in between. Thankfully the wind was actually behind me …
Day 123 – The Middle of Nowhere to Arcata
I’ve had a cold the last couple of days and so I need to get to bed ASAP in the hope that it will clear… So as is often custom - I need to keep this short. My night in a tent was generally ok apart from the mosquitos and because I was slightly away …
Continue reading "Day 123 – The Middle of Nowhere to Arcata"
Day 122 – Gualala to a random campsite somewhere on the Redwood Highway between Riverdale and Pierce
Today has been a rather mixed day. The first half was far from enjoyable. I had a headwind, the temperature didn't go much above 10 degrees and my knee wasn't helping the situation. (You may have heard all that before.) The cloud started to burn off at about 1 o'clock and thankfully all those problems …
Day 121 RTW – San Francisco (Tiburon) to Gualala – Start of Leg 7
I'm now in the US and have had a pretty good last few days. After not really sleeping on the 11 hour flight from Auckland, jet-lag is probably going to hit me at some point in the very near future... So if this blog is a bit late going up, it's probably because I've fallen …
Continue reading "Day 121 RTW – San Francisco (Tiburon) to Gualala – Start of Leg 7"
Leg 6 – New Zealand Summary…
This is the shortest leg of the whole trip so despite having a few hours to kill before my flight I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to write for this… Distance: 942.2miles / 1516.3km Riding Time: 66 hours, 30 minutes, 21 seconds Av. Speed: 14.2mph / 22.8kph - despite my bike being …
Day 120 – Miranda to Auckland – End of Leg 6
Ok, I’m afraid I’m not going to do much of an update tonight. I had a really nice ride into Auckland today, and it’s been a very positive note to finish New Zealand on. I may or may not do a more comprehensive summary of the whole leg; but I’m not yet sure as it …
Continue reading "Day 120 – Miranda to Auckland – End of Leg 6"
Day 119 – Te Kuiti to Miranda
Today ran a fairly similar course to yesterday in terms of length and speed. My knee limited the latter for the first half of the ride which was a bit frustrating as it felt like a backwards step in what, I thought, was becoming a good recovery. The scenery today was rather nice and very …
Tom Davies RTW 