A bike touring blog. Mostly about bikepacking and single speeds. By Montana Miller
I picked up the bottle in the D8 tienda, which is like Colombian Aldi's– put your own groceries in a used cardboard box after checkout. "Ron Viejo de Calandas" I wondered if it was some kind of brown aquaguardiente (aguaguardiente is like the national liquor, it tastes like licorice schnapps). Figured I'll try it. Back … Continue reading Colombia: Belén to El Cucoy
Thunder, louder than it should be, boosted by the echoes on the green steep rocky walls of the valley, pounding rain. Booming cumbia reggaeton mixes, yelling dudes, and fighting barking dogs compete with the storm to be the loudest thing on Friday night. I kinda wish I was at the town party, but I'm so … Continue reading Colombia: Villa de Leyva to Belén
A little drip of sweat in right eye, burns, I stop pushing my bike up the rocky track and try to get a dirty glove finger under my sunglasses to wipe it away. Instead of wiping it out I add glove dust to the sweat mix and wipe it in further, dammit. Try to blink … Continue reading Bikepacking Colombia
We just finished dinner at a little farm called the Cinnamon Eco Lodge, and the grandpa of the family just brought out his jungle pipe. As long as we've been here, I've been seeing guys sitting next to the road hitting these things- it's a bamboo bong, used to smoke Lao tobacco, which is very … Continue reading Ha Giang to Lao Cai
Close to the top of a giant climb, I see a pack of six little kids running down out of a steep field. Nothing unusual, kids are constantly running out to scream "Hello! Hello! What's your name!" I wave to these ones, and say hello, and keep moving up the steep hill. They're down to … Continue reading Vietnam: Cao Bang to Ha Giang
"Try, try it, this for you," says an old lady with a cone hat. She pushes a little donut into my hand before I know what's happening. Colleen and I were just walking down some busy side street in Hanoi, scooter horns and buzzy exhausts. "Oh, thank you," I say. I try the donut, not … Continue reading Vietnam: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
I never finished writing about New Zealand last year, work just got too busy. We rode all around the South Island, it was nice, I'll write it up sometime. (And here's a plug for a good gig- if you're interested in being a bike tour guide or mechanic, we're crazy short staffed. Work in the … Continue reading Hello Vietnam
I'm way behind on this as usual, but we're taking a few days off before our last couple weeks of riding, so I'm going to try to get caught up. Back in December: From Colville at the top of the Coromandal, we ride south to Whitianga. A vacation community with some houses attached to a … Continue reading Colville to Rotorua
This is the Big Boy. I like her very much. So first, why- in the last year I've been real taken with skateboarding. I couldn't imagine taking a winter off the board, but I still wanted to go bike touring. So I just needed to figure out a way to carry my skateboard on the … Continue reading The Big Boy
We've just crossed the Alabama Florida line, and the 15th and 16th dogs that day run out of their yard to chase me, and I snap. "Arff arff arff arff arff!" they yell. “Fuck you fuck you fuck you!” I yell, and boot the closest dog in the head. Four really good, solid kicks, excellent … Continue reading Florida and Mississippi
Dirt Cruise 