The last time I saw Matt Beedle was a dozen years ago at his wedding. I was a newlywed myself and Kate was pregnant with Luke at the time. My third year of seminary was about to start and, as such, Matt and Amy figured I had been trained up enough to preach the homily. If I recall, the Gospel that day was the story of the transfiguration on the mountaintop – a fitting theme for our relationship....
My sister lives in Portland, Maine, and earlier this year my son and I made the journey north for a visit. While there we wanted to seek out the quintessential Maine experience: cool walks on the Atlantic coast, lobster, local beer, and, of course, L.L. Bean. All of you mail order aficionados out there know exactly what I’m talking about. Just a short pilgrimage north of Portland is the town of Freeport, which is nationally recognized as an outlet shopping Mecca and the flagship, bricks and mortar L....
“Now that’s a water source right there,” said Sam as we sped over Bread Creek. That was the fourth or fifth creek that Sam had designated a “water source” after only twenty miles or so of twisting, turning, and climbing through the backroads around Lake Sylvia. It’s not that he was running out of water. We had only been out for a couple hours. No, like any good gear connoisseur, he was just itching to break in his brand new Grail water filter....
I think a number of Tour Divide riders experience fear at some point along their journey. And I mean genuine fear, not just your basic worry about strange noises coming from your bike, nagging saddle sores, or the possibility of having consumed contaminated water. I mean fear for your life. It could be a chance encounter with the local fauna. I met one rider who got close enough to a grizzly to have to use bear spray....
So, I was reading the latest copy of Adventure Cyclist, and I came across an article by Brendan Leonard titled “Island Hopping in Arctic Norway: How far are you willing to go for the perfect campsite?” Apparently there’s this cultural tradition in Norway called allemannstretten. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but you could translate it as “right to access.” Basically, as long as you stay away from cultivated land and are at least 150 meters away from buildings, you can set up a tent and camp....