Mountain Climbing Entries Downhill All the Way G Monday, February 14th, 2011 Tyler: As we exuberantly freewheel down the mountain we've spent the last two days climbing, we spot a cyclist on the other side of the road, huffing and puffing his way up in the opposite direction... The Big Climb: Part Three G Friday, February 11th, 2011 7:30 PM / Tara » 73km ridden » 1955m climbed » 1325m elevation The velvet black sky above us is strewn liberally with stars, all twinkling and dancing like diamonds around a brillia... The Big Climb: Part Two G Friday, February 11th, 2011 3:00 PM / Tara » 60km ridden » 1230m climbed » 600m elevation Every second of this climb is full and rich with experience. My emotions swing wildly from pure joy at the slightest b... The Big Climb: Part One G Friday, February 11th, 2011 4:30 AM / Tyler » 0km ridden » 0m climbed » 300m elevation The alarm sounds, it's shrill, infernal beeps rending my cocoon of sleep asunder. As the pitch black of early morning see... Climbing Prep G Thursday, February 10th, 2011 A few days ago, we rode motorcycles north from Phou Khoun to Luang Prabang. The mountainous north/south highway we took is also on our cycling route. Tomorrow, we'll be retracing some of our steps,... It's All Downhill From Here G Sunday, January 9th, 2011 We're mentally prepared for an easy day of coasting, excited to reap the rewards of our labor. But as we cycle out of town, a freakishly steep hill looms before us, and I am caught off guard. I tho... Climbing to Da Lat G Monday, January 3rd, 2011 Stepping out of our guest-house, the chill bite of an early morning wind blows in our faces, sending up an army of goosebumps. Our exhaled breath is white like cigarette smoke, and this means one th... Climbing to New Year's Eve G Friday, December 31st, 2010 Figuring out what the problem is, and making a plan to do something about it helps a lot, but at the moment, there's not much we can do to execute our solution. For the time being, we'll just muscle... Pedaling Upstream G Sunday, May 9th, 2010 With everything we needed to thrive at our hard-to-reach Romanian forest free-camp, we almost decided to stay another day. Instead, we packed up, said hello to some horses grazing in a nearby pastur... Macro Love G Thursday, March 18th, 2010 Flowers make me happy. I don't care if it is cliché, they just do! When we got our first camera I was thrilled when I realized I could finally capture the beauty I see in them. When we get home I... Donkey Day G Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 Leaving cities is always hard. There is inevitably some navigation difficulty, as well as a handful of surprises like one-way streets, delivery trucks taking entire lanes, people double-parked hapha... Celebrating Sunday G Sunday, February 14th, 2010 I would never have imagined this to be true, but many of our favorite days involve slowly climbing mountains. As long as we bring copious amounts of food, start the day with a positive attitude, and... Wet and Cold G Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 A sickly drizzle of freezing rain patiently waited to receive us this morning. As we stuffed ourselves during our last continental breakfast at the Grand Hotel in Potenza, we were blissfully unaware... Rags to Riches G Sunday, January 24th, 2010 Walking into the four-star Grande Albergo hotel in Potenza's charming shop-lined cobblestone downtown was quite the experience—a real example of how polar our trip can be at times. There we we... Brrrrrrr G Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 In an odd change of perspective, every climb was cause for celebration today (and there were plenty of them: 800 meters, or over 2,500 feet in all). In lieu of hopping around madly trying to keep wa... Climbing in the Cold G Friday, January 22nd, 2010 The day didn't start out very cold. In fact, the first twenty five kilometers of our trek east were just beautiful; much flatter than I expected they would be too! We cruised through non-stop civil... Field Recording G Thursday, January 21st, 2010 During yesterday's ride, we enjoyed the Amalfi scenery on our second trip through it's unforgettable coastline. Though it provided spectacular views once more, we'd forgotten how mountainous the are... Amalfi Again G Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 When Tyler expressed his desire to return what I call "the tunnel from hell" to do some recording, I was torn. On one hand, I was excited that he'd finally be able to capture the bizarrely intense d... Autumn in the Mountains G Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 Our frosty free-camp at 1,400m (4,500ft) was so cold we blew off our 5:30am alarm this morning. Cuddled in our toasty warm tent we hoped the sun would come out sooner rather than later. It didn't. ... Run-Ins G Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 Our first run-in of the day was with a man in an ANAS van (the Italian highway maintenance service) shortly after leaving our seaside free-camp. He stopped us about 10km into a long ascent and did h... Feeling Capable G Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 When we groggily awoke to rain pattering on our tent roof, we promptly rolled over, slept in, and let nature run its course. Thankfully by 9AM the gray sheet of clouds had drifted out to sea, taking... South for Winter G Sunday, October 18th, 2009 We've been contemplating several different routing possibilities to wrap up our tour of Italy for several days now. Today, as we approached the point where the roads diverged and decision-making bec... Climbing Elba G Saturday, September 26th, 2009 Elba Island is one part collapsed mountain, one part volcanic remains. The resulting landscape, while stunning, is quite a workout on a fully loaded touring bicycle. Elba Island Coast Road Elba Is... Volterra and the Sea G Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 A brilliant golden light filtered through the trees this morning but I was far too comfy in our tent to get up and take a picture. I will just have to commit the morning splendor to memory. Quickly... Conquering Julierpass G Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 Today is the big day; our highest mountain climb ever will take us over Julierpass! For breakfast, I make us a large pot of muesli with cooked apples to keep us well fueled. Feeling full, we hit th... Ascending & Descending G Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 We said farewell to Chur under overcast skies, thankful for the gray cloud cover that would hopefully stick around and protect us from the sun. A long sweaty day of climbing is a lot more enjoyable ... Unexpected Climb G Monday, August 10th, 2009 We left the campsite today cheerfully, feeling as though we'd done Zermatt justice. In just a few days we'd managed to do quite a bit: taking in a festival, riding cable cars, hiking in the mountain... Hiking in the Swiss Alps G Saturday, August 8th, 2009 We'd planned on going for a proper hike through the mountains today but when we awoke to the sound of rain on our tent, we had second thoughts. For most of the morning we hemmed and hawed through th... Climbing to Zermatt G Thursday, August 6th, 2009 After a long crepe-making/eating session this morning (in preparation for our mountain climb), we hit the road and headed into the town of Visp. As we left our campground the bicycle lane we enjoyed... Changing Scenery G Saturday, July 18th, 2009 Today was our last day in the mountains for the next few weeks. I expected we'd have an easy ride with a short pass to climb somewhere in the middle of the day and then we'd be home-free. Boy was I... Gorgeous Climbs G Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 After sleeping in rather late this morning we packed up our river-side free-camp and carried our belongings over to a steep embankment leading to the road. Once we were mostly prepared, we took the ... Helvellyn Ascent G Monday, April 27th, 2009 As the morning wore on, the clouds cleared a bit and it was starting to look like we might have a nice day ahead of us. Tara's cramps were subsiding so we decided the day would be much better spent ...