Tag: Cycling

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On Tour: 12 Questions for Forrest Watkins, 360 By Bike Founder

During an idle moment at a laboratory bench three years ago, Forrest first mentioned to me the idea of traveling to Asia and riding his bike home – to Oregon. The mindfulness of his subsequent work was exactly what I had come to expect of my friend and lab partner. A year into following his writing and photography, I was eager to turn the lens on Forrest. How does the narrator of 10,000 km of climate change stories describe what he is doing, and how is he holding up? Continue reading On Tour: 12 Questions for Forrest Watkins, 360 By Bike Founder

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Milestones.

From an email I sent out to followers a few days ago, a short retrospective of the past 5 months on the road:   Just over a year ago, I took the first pedal strokes of a journey that will eventually cover six continents. I set out to understand what climate change means to people around … Continue reading Milestones.

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Azerbaijan, The Land of Fire: 19 Photos From the Road

Baku, Azerbaijan/Bakı, Azərbaycan to Tbilisi, Georgia/თბილისი, საქართველო – 635 km this section (Total Mileage: 9,426 km/40,075 km) Tracing the name Azerbaijan back through history, one arrives at the Old Iranian word Āturpātākān, meaning The Land of Fire. In these lands, oil and gas deposits were known to turn earth to flame. Hindu and Zoroastrian worshipers used oil in sacred rites and channeled gas … Continue reading Azerbaijan, The Land of Fire: 19 Photos From the Road

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The Endless Steppe and the Aral Sea (Also, Giant Spiders): 14 Photos from the Road

Shymkent/Шымкент, Kazakhstan to the Aral Sea/Арал Теңізі, Kazakhstan–635 km this section (Total Mileage: 8791 km/40,075 km) I’ve ridden over mountains, through a summer in southern China and an early-spring blizzard, but it was the Central Asian Steppe that got me. I cycled for days to get as far as I did. Most of them temperatures … Continue reading The Endless Steppe and the Aral Sea (Also, Giant Spiders): 14 Photos from the Road

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Summer in the Valleys of Kyrgyzstan: 13 Photos from the Road

Bishkek/Бишкéк, Kyrgyzstan to Shymkent/Шымкент, Kazakhstan–540 km this section (Total Mileage: 8156 km/40,075 km) Heatstroke to freezing rain in 48 hours. The last six days have driven into my skull, with force and repetition, the importance of water in a water-scarce region. Academics and politicians are fond of saying that water is Kyrgystan’s only natural resource. In reality, … Continue reading Summer in the Valleys of Kyrgyzstan: 13 Photos from the Road

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Poppies on the Great Grass Sea: 16 Photos From My Ride Through Xinjiang and Kazakhstan

Ürümqi /乌鲁木齐, China to Bishkek / Бишкéк, Kyrgyzstan–779 km this section (Total Mileage: 7616 km/40,075 km) I’ve been on and off the road for the past few weeks, writing op-eds and letters for my application to join the Sustain.us delegation to the next UN climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco. In the time since I last posted photos, I’ve also had two border … Continue reading Poppies on the Great Grass Sea: 16 Photos From My Ride Through Xinjiang and Kazakhstan

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Driving Snow, China’s Energy Crossroads, and the Desert End of the Great Wall: 16 Photos from the Road

Header Photo: Snowy mountains near Zhangye, Gansu, China Lanzhou/兰州 to Jiayuguan/嘉峪关–452 km this section (Total Mileage: 6837 km/40,075 km) The last few weeks have brought storms down upon me, and with my visa deadline looming, I decided to hitchhike and take a train through some of the more remote and energy-rich regions of Northwest China. I missed pedaling those miles, … Continue reading Driving Snow, China’s Energy Crossroads, and the Desert End of the Great Wall: 16 Photos from the Road

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A blindfold

January 15 Those bright cold days that used to find their winter roosts in our valley? They haven’t returned yet this year. They had always come by now, before. But today is the same as yesterday and the days before; the air is wet enough to carry traffic sounds up from Franklin and the light comes … Continue reading A blindfold