One challenge at a time

Having got to bed just after 1am and having decided a lie in would be nice on our first and only unstructured free day... I awoke at 6am. A bit surprised that there was no coffee and breakfast made for me, I thought about taking down my tent.... oh that's right... there wasn't a tent... and I could have another shower... and it wasn't snowing outside! The bonuses of being in Vegas 😁 Eventually I dragged myself up and down to breakfast... or was it dinner? For there in front of us at the buffet was a full carvery, the possibility of mimosas, Asian food, Indian curry, pancakes... in short, anything you wanted for breakfast you could have. So plate loaded up with a variety of different things, I sat down and planned my day in my head. Souvenir shopping was the main aim, as I was only staying here once in my life and then... well... plans were forming... The noise had not decreased in decibels and there were people sitting at the casino tables that I'm sure I saw last n...

After a decent nights kip, we took down the tents for the last time, ate breakfast and loaded up the buses. As we were doing this the dawn light began to reveal the mountains all around us, which was a surprise as in the dark they gave no clue as to their existence. I was kinda sad to be leaving camping behind. Despite the cold, it had been a magical time, with songs around the campfires, smoke in the eyes, breakfast in the dawn light, friendship and peace... this was going to be shattered at the end of today and dreading that made it seem worse to leave. We drove to Zion N.P and to a side canyon called water canyon, parking up the buses before trekking into the base of the canyon and the trailhead. It was pretty warm and I soon found myself in just a t-shirt, a first for this trip. Once we started on the route proper, it was pretty tough going with sand underneath our feet and the trail stretching uphill, fairly steeply over rocks and roots. It reminded me of the relentlessness of c...

The sunrise revealed Lake Powell in all it's glory. The sky was blue, a colour which matched the lake perfectly and the desert sand rose up from the lake into towers of rock, one of which apparently was where Jay Z and Beyonce helicoptered their guests after their wedding randomly. It.made me wish that I had my bike because I could trace the trails meandering through the desert towards the pillars of rock. But it was not to be. We packed up the tents once again, all now experts at this particular task and once again got into the buses for our transfer to Bryce Canyon. Bryce had been on my bucket list for a long time and I was way more excited about this part of the trip. I had heard stories of.it's beauty, of the towering spires known as Hoodoos and couldn't wait to not only see them, but walk amidst them. We arrived and walked to the rim. And there all my words ran out because the sight of Bryce literally took my breath away. I'm glad I saved the most American of all...

I am pleased to say that I slept a whole heap better ... the $20 that I spent onthe extra sleeping bag.was.the best.$20 that I have ever spent. I was warm.. and reasonably comfortable. Unfortunately the flip side to that is that dragging myself out of bed at 6am hurt... a lot. Camp routine had fallen into place... getting up at 6am for coffee... followed by breakfast at 06:30... with.load.up in the vans around.8am. Only this morning was different as we not only had to get.ourselves sorted for a hike but we had to pack up the tents and clear out camp ready for a move to Lake Powell. Fortunately I am used.to this sort of thing and had my kit packed.and squared away.before I had had coffee. Routines from bike rides past kicked in and it felt good to be in this simple life... Yes it was cold.... yes I was tired... but I will never tire of going to sleep with the sound of nature around and the stars above. After breakfast came the task of packing up the tents. A few unfortunate souls ...

We awoke on day 5 tired, slightly grumpy, and incredibly cold... crawling out of our tents to snowflakes gently falling through the pines and sprinkling the tents and chairs with a light dusting of the white stuff. Breakfast... as efficiently as it had been prepared in the field... became cold the moment it touched the plate and given that I had spent most of the night awake and shivering, I was not in the most positive of moods. I had not brought along winter gloves or a winter coat... smugly expecting at least 20 degrees C higher than the UK. How wrong was I! My sleeping bag was also inadequate for the near freezing conditions I found myself in. After breakfast we piled into the vans and once at the trailhead split up into 4 groups. Our group was to attempt the Grand View trail and had a bit further to drive to the trailhead. Grand View was a fairly steep and exposed trail compared to the other paths and I was really looking forward to seeing a different trail than the Bright An...

I left the day 3 blog at being dropped off at the hotel... partly because day 4 really began the night before. I had literally found out an hour before that one of my favourite (ist) people in the world was also at the hotel waiting for everyone to arrive. Julie (or more fun Jules) as she has become known is a Southern gal now living in Aspen. I first met Julie in Vail, when I jetted out to see Mike play with Big Country in Denver and to hike up Vail Mountain with LHS.  She certainly earns her moniker and I gave her a huge hug when we met in the lobby, glad to be able to spend some more time hanging out with her. One by one, or sometimes in two's the LHS trekkers Rocked up (see what I did there?). Some I knew well, some I had met once or twice and the rest were new people, including my roomie for the week, Michelle, a bubbly lady with a fantastic american accent, who has proved to have a great sense of humour and a willingness to put up with being my tent buddy! I'm crap wi...

Finally... the sun came out in Arizona!! This meant that we could go for a hike ... Woohooooo! Up early ( due to jet lag) ... we got ourselves kitted up and headed out into the desert. Hands up who wants to climb that mountain.... yay.... hmmmm ... okay perhaps not. The peaks were still covered in a grey looking cloud  ... not to mention that the peak I was looking at was apparently pretty steep. Perhaps not best for a warm up. So at Louize's suggestion, we headed over to the Dixie Mine trail, a meandering through the desert kinda trail. The cactus that grow here, seguaro (guessing on the spelling) only grows in the Sonoran desert and are a protected species. So much so that if they want to build a road they have to uproot the cactus and replant them at the side of  the road. The desert, usually dry and dusty and devoid of greenery had started springing to life with grasses, and even flowers appearing amidst the stones. The washes, usually parched were running with water...

Arizona... I love this place. Especially the corner of the world that Louize and Mark have picked to put their boots down in. Warm... mountains all around... the desert reaching right up to the back door with the wildlife all around (yup including creepy crawlies) and no rain..... errr hold off on that last point... 'It hardly ever rains here' protest Louize and Mark... Uhuh I said... staring out the window at the grey skies and the drizzle which is quickly turning to a downpour of biblical proportions. In fact... last time I was here it rained, ending the drought of many months.... but it never rains... only when I visit apparently. So the rain didn't kill of our plans because being Brits... we are used to it. Unlike the Arizonans (is that a word?) who seemed to have largely stayed at home today because they aren't used to driving in the rain. It certainly made our shopping trip easier! I can kinda understand it though... due to the fact that 'it hardly eve...

In Reading it is just gone 9:30 am... in Phoenix, Arizona it is now 00:36. I got up at 06:30 this morning... or yesterday morning... I am not sure which. I have been up around 27 hours straight. This morning I left to drizzle and a bit of a gale... and have arrived to warm breezes and the sound of crickets.  Isn't the modern age both wonderful and bemusing that one minute I am passing hedgerows... and the next .. cactus! To say this was an unplanned trip is underexaggerating.... I didn't think I would be back in the good old US of A so soon. But sometimes opportunities must be grabbed and the randomness embraced and with a hectic week of night shifts and very last minute grabbing of flights, insurance and SPOT sign up, I landed in Phoenix to the waiting Louize and Mark.  Louize and Mark are no strangers to 'Embrace the Randomness' and can usually be persuaded to Go With The CraZy.  It usually starts with a facebook message from me saying something like ...

                  Best laid plans and all that! I set off from a lovely B and B in Minehead... ok the sun wasn't shining. My aim... to cycle the West Country Way Bikepacking route. I had a total of 4 days. The route was around 116 miles. Given that I had managed that mileage in Canada in 1 day... I figured 2 days out and 2 back wasn't unreasonable. I packed as if I was going on a 4 week challenge... more of that later... but my kit this time included a tent... 1kg of extra kit with the purpose of evaluating its presence for next September and Ecuador. The rest of my kit had been tried and tested on the Tour Divide so I was pretty happy with it. The initial downhill to the start of the route was certainly a good way to ease in to a ride and then I was greeted with a view of the Bristol channel ... rays of sunshine beaming down from ominously grey clouds... sparkling off the tops of the waves. I peddled along the flat concrete of the...

Day 5... Breathe in... My last whole day in Monachil and I was slightly undecided what to do... as in I was so spoilt for choice that it was hard to choose just one thing! I decided to hedge my bets and threw the bike into the car. As usual first glance outside and the skies were blue... promising another astoundingly hot day. I set off back towards the forest... only again I would drive further to the parking place I had seen near the end of my last ride. I bounced around the gravel roads... taking in all the scenery... breathe in... I parked up and now came the choice... bike further down the road I had turned back on the other day... or ditch the bike for a day and head off into the foothills along one of the myriad of footpaths that dotted the hillsides. A quick glance at maps.me revealed a sign for a waterfall along a walking path (signed with a 'no bikes' sign. The waterfall won the argument and I set off one foot in front of the other along the dusty path......

Thanks to the wonderful world of technology I have had hopes raised and dashed (again) whilst watching England v Croatia on the Sky Go app.... just as well the rest of my day was much better! Once again returning to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains I decided to explore beyond the forest I cycled up to the other day. The bonus of hiring a large car means my bike can squish in the back without taking the front wheel off.... a bonus with a dynamo hub as the wires for that are zip tied to my bike meaning its a real pain to take off the front wheel. The detractions of having a car larger than the one you are used to as well as driving on the wrong side of the car... is that it is hard to judge the distance between your car and the edge of the road. Now when your sat nav leads you up the garden path... or in this case up v narrow windy gravel roads instead of the main road... it gets a bit hairy. So thats how my day started off before I ignored the sat nav... turned round ...

Day 3 made it perfectly clear to me that up till now I had just been messing around in the foothills. Given the location of my hotel... to cycle anywhere fun... I first have to slog up... and up... and up... just to get to tracks which are deserted. So today was going to be slightly different. I decided to load my bike in the car and drive up.. to Sierra Nevada itself. A small mountain town which mainly comes to life in the ski season but which also advertises bike trails for the summer months. It looked as though I could drive there, park and then throw myself around the trails up there for a bit. Fortunately the bike just made it into the car without any removal of anything and I began the short drive... up of course. The road from Monachil to Sierra Nevada literally wjnds around the mountain tops. This would normally be ok ... despite the lack of barriers on the drop side. However Im in a car that is significantly wider... driving on the wrong side of the car... which ma...

Now my title of today's blog is in no way a subtle link to my book (on Amazon) or the documentary (Available from   https://vimeo.com/ondemand/145353 ) but it was a weird day ... starting one way and ending up so different  as sometimes happens. I had looked at a map of the area to find a good place to ride and remembered the gorge I had seen the day before. A trail ran right alongside the river and led in the direction of it. So after a breakfast of toast, ham and cheese ... I set off on my bike. It was already scorching hot at around 10am and the path provided some much needed shade. The path was narrow with very steep ups and down and as I progressed along became more and more tricky to negotiate with a bike. Roots... overhanging trees... fallen trees... rock steps... just steps... You name it... this path had it!  In fact it was totally unsuitable for a bike. Several times I had to catch myself before I fell in. I resorted to pushing. In fact at a lot...

Day 1.... First thing to do today was put my bike together... easy... at least until the back wheel got stuck. After a bit of swearing.. I realised that the brake pads had no space for the disc to go in... it was then I remembered Lewis from AW Cycles showing me brake installation and I realised what was wrong... easy to fix after that... So bike working well... I sat down to breakfast. Lack of Spanish a fairly big problem (must learn more) ... I kinda got a breakfast.. at least coffee is easy... It looked a bit cool.. and I worried that i had packed enough clothes. I filled my water bottles and water bag... in fact only one bottle with the bag as I wasn't intending to do too much today... just get the lay of the land. I hadnt managed to do my usual trick of nicking food at breakfast for lunch... all I had was a packet of starburst from the airport... so my first stop was going to be the supermarket.... only I had forgotten that it was sunday ... and there were no 24 hr sh...