Help Save the Continental Divide Trail for Mountain Bikers

While I was watching the Tour de France and drinking coffee this morning I noticed an article in the Rocky Mountain News – "Parts of the Continental Divide Trail may be banned to bikers".
Basically, there is an effort through a USFS Proposed Directive to exclude mountain biking as a non-motorized use on the Continental Divide Trail. This is unfortunate and frustrating. It seems that cyclists are always having to fight for the right to be an accepted, non-motorized user group. I have ridden a few sections of the Continental Divide trail on my bike. Every time, it was a very enjoyable and unique experience. See below for a map of my favorite section from Copper Mountain to Searle and Kokomo Passes.

If you have ridden sections of the Continental Divide trail and feel compelled to comment to the Forest Service, please submit a letter through the IMBA (International Mountain Bike Association) website: http://www.imba.com/news/action_alerts/07_07/07_03_divide_trail.html

What is the Continental Divide? If you’ve ever been to Colorado you probably have a picture of yourself as a kid sitting in front of the Continental Divide sign on some mountain pass…

Now for the geography of the Continental Divide:
A continental divide is an elevated natural boundary that separates water that flows into either the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. The "Great Divide", one of four in North America, runs from Alaska through Canada and the coterminous United States to northwestern South America.

More Continental Divide resources:

Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_divide

About Geography - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_divide

Continental Divide Trail Alliance - http://www.cdtrail.org/

1,000 Saturdays

We’ve decided to give our trip a subtitle – 1,000 Saturdays. The idea came from a random conversation with our friends in Vail. We were all hanging out on a Thursday night and one of our friends said "I feel like tomorrow is Saturday". I smiled and added "Now everyday is Saturday for us". And so it goes…

We have been busy in the first couple of weeks of being jobless. It seems that much of our time has been spent cleaning, sorting and organizing. We underestimated the amount of "stuff" we needed to store in Denver. It’s amazing how much two people can acquire over 12 years of being together. There have many more trips to Goodwill than expected. At times it has been difficult to decide what to keep since we will be gone for 2+ years. You really begin to realize what you "need" to live.

The transition to the Bicycle Geography life has been interesting. You would think that being footloose would be a piece of cake. For the most part, it’s been great but we’re still working from a plan and sticking to a schedule. Most recently, we’ve been working on routes in New Zealand and Australia and we’re in the process of procuring a solar panel to run our electronics. Most importantly, the bikes are almost complete and we’re looking forward to going on some mini-tours before we leave in September.

And yes, we’ve been getting out on our bikes. It’s hard to top the riding in Eagle County, but we have been enjoying the urban trails in Denver. The singlespeeds have been out quite a few times in Bear Creek Lake Park – a nice oasis on the west side of Denver.

One Less Car - People Who Ride

We recently received an order of t-shirts from some cool, grassroots bike people. We wanted to get a few shirts to give out to family and friends. We also wanted to find a t-shirt company that wasn't just your typical "mass production" outfit. Chris happened to find this great website called One Less Car . Problem solved. One Less Car makes t-shirts and stickers and promotes the use of bicycles as "a truly practical transport option in place of the car". Thanks to Cole for working with us to create some really cool shirts. They will definitely be part of the kit on our trip.

ps - if you're interested in a shirt, drop us a line at bicyclegeography@yahoo.com

-LK

The Bicycle Commuting Diaries: Commuter of the Year

I was honored yesterday to receive a really cool award, the 2007 Eco Trails Commuter of the Year award. Check out the details here: http://www.eaglecounty.us/news.cfm?id=2668

Thanks to the Eco Trails committee for their votes. And a BIG thanks to my good friend Jennie for nominating me.

Vail Daily Article

We got our first media exposure today with a great article in the local Vail Daily paper. Read the article here:
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20070621/SPORTS/70621052

A huge thanks goes out to Ian Cropp for meeting with us and listening to the whole story about our upcoming adventure.

How Far? How Many?

Here's a few stats on the big picture:

Miles we plan to pedal (approximately) - 19,000
Continents - 4 (Australia, Asia, Europe, North America)
Countries - 34 (+/- depending on our route through Europe)
Major Religions - 4
World Biomes - 5

Along the way we will travel through the most populated country (China) and the least crowded country (Mongolia). We will see some of the cleanest cities (Honolulu), most expensive places to live (Moscow) and the biggest islands (Sumatra).
You can get a feel for how diverse the cultures and the landscapes will be.

Two One-Way Tickets Please...

Today we bought our first one-way tickets for the trip. Monday September 24th is the day. We will fly to Auckland to start our trip. I guess we feel relieved to have a day set now. Really, we're experiencing many emotions from nervous to really excited.
We've been very busy packing and wrapping up things in Eagle County. We have two more weeks in our house and four weeks at work. It's finally setting in that this trip is very real. We've been able to catch up with many friends and acquaintances - everyone around here seems to know about the trip.
We had a chance to meet with someone from the local paper here, The Vail Daily. It was fun to talk about our trip in detail. We look forward to the upcoming article.
-LK

Moving Right Along

It's been two weeks since we made our trip public. We've had such a positive response - thanks to everyone. It means so much to us to have support and encouragement for something like this. It's amazing how many people have said "you're very brave" or "that's going to take a lot of courage". I guess we're so used to the idea of riding our bikes around the world now that it seems like something anyone could do.
We finish up our jobs on July 12th and then move to Denver into my parent's house. It should be a great time. Maybe we'll convince Mommo and Papa to go with us...
-LK

Of Mountains and Maps

We took a break from the bikes on Saturday and did a classic mountaineering route in the Longs Peak/Mt Meeker cirque. We’ve been to this particular part of Rocky Mountain National Park several times. We know the hike from the Longs Peak Ranger Station to Chasm Lake by heart. Over the years we’ve ticked off a few different routes, each one memorable for its own reason. On Saturday we completed the Dreamweaver route on the northeast aspect of Mt Meeker.




The image above provides a good view of Mt Meeker and its neighbor to the north, Longs Peak. The process in which I found this perspective was quite interesting and rather efficient. It’s crazy how much geographic information is available on the internet. I began by typing “mountain ranges of the world” into the Google search engine. The results took me to the following link on the Peakware website: http://www.peakware.com/areas.html. From there I found the “Front Range” under "North America". By following the link I was able to see an overview satellite image of the area and see a listing of the peaks that comprise the Front Range. Each mountain in the list was linked to a page containing vital geographic information about the peak as well as photos. My curiosity then led me to download GoogleEarth so that I could view the mountains in 3D. GoogleEarth has become a popular tool in recent times. It has added a whole new dimension to interpreting information from a spatial perspective.

More info on mountains throughout the world and their significance:

http://www.mountain.org/education/subexplore/explore01.cfm

View the photos of our climb:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicyclegeography/sets/72157600275015082/

Press Release: The World Tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Leslie Kehmeier
Bicycle Geography
PO Box 4433
Eagle, CO 81631
bicyclegeography@yahoo.com
http://www.bicyclegeography.org/

Chris and Leslie Kehmeier Announce Plans to Ride Bicycles around the World to Promote Geographic Knowledge

Chris and Leslie Kehmeier of Gypsum, Colorado will realize a lifelong dream of seeing the world by selling their house, quitting their jobs and traveling the globe by bicycle. They call their project Bicycle Geography.

The Kehmeier’s self-supported journey begins in Oct 2007 from their home state of Colorado. Their timeline is two and a half years and they plan to visit the following areas: New Zealand/Australia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, China, Mongolia, Russia and Europe.
During the journey Chris and Leslie will promote geographic knowledge, inspire people to ride bicycles, and endorse sustainable modes of transportation.

Chris and Leslie consider bicycles to have great practicality and functionality and have chosen them as their main mode of transportation. Bicycles not only allow increased mobility, health and economic benefits, they require only human-power as fuel.

After reading an alarming news article in 2006, The Kehmeiers were inspired to promote geographic awareness as part of their trip. They learned that young adults in the United States are significantly lacking in their geographic knowledge. They hope to bring more awareness to the subject of Geography through photos and journals on their Bicycle Geography website.

[END]

About the Bicycle Geography team:
Leslie Kehmeier was born and raised in Colorado. She can usually be found turning the pedals on her mountain bike, hanging from the side of a mountain or planning a weekend trip to Paris. Leslie is a 1991 graduate of Bear Creek High School in Lakewood, Colorado and 1995 graduate of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with a degree in Geography.

Chris Kehmeier was born in New Mexico, and raised in Nevada and Colorado. When he is not working in irrigation design and sales he gets out on his bike, on foot, and on a rope as much as possible. When he is resting his legs he dabbles in the kitchen and plans his tick lists for future bike and climbing trips. Chris is a 1993 graduate of Littleton High School in Littleton, Colorado and a 1998 graduate of Colorado State University with a degree in Horticulture.

For additional information about Bicycle Geography please contact Chris or Leslie Kehmeier bicyclegeography@yahoo.com or visit http://www.bicyclegeography.org/

The Bicycle Commuting Diaries: The BOB Trailer Accident

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” my husband asked as I wobbled out of the driveway. “Yes, I’ll be fine. It will be better once I get moving”. I was commuting to work on my bike. I was also towing 50lbs of National Geographic magazines in a B.O.B trailer. I intended to deposit them in newly installed recycle bins at work. The trailer seemed a little unstable, but I had hauled loads before and figured that I would be fine. Apparently speed wasn’t a good thing for this particular load and I ended up crashing a third of the way into the ride. As I picked myself and my bike up off the ground, I thought to myself “Hmm, I’m not so sure about this reduce, reuse, recycle thing…”

National Geographic is a great resource for all things Geography. There are also many other great ways to get geographic information. Here are some links:

About.com: Geography
http://geography.about.com/index.htm?terms=geography
ESRI Geography Matters Weblog
http://blogs.esri.com/roller/page/geographymatters
National Geographic Map Machine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/
Geography Zone
http://www.geographyzone.com/new/index.php
My Wonderful World
http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/
AGS: Geographic Organizations
http://www.amergeog.org/geographical_organizations.htm
Geography Network
http://www.geographynetwork.com/

Kilimanjaro - Africa's Highest Mountain

Here are the facts on Kilimanjaro, Africa's Highest Mountain...

Location: Tanzania, Africa

Height: 19,340ft/5895m

What: Volcano

History: First climbed in 1889 by German geographer Hans Meyer and Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller

Other: One of the seven summits; the world's highest free-standing mountain

Links:

Facts and info about volcanoes: http://volcano.und.edu/

Comprehensive Kilimanjaro website:http://www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com/

Glaciers on Kilimanjaro:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10856

Chagga;Tanzania's third largest ethnic group:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagga

Out of Africa

Just got back from our first trip to Africa. We spent our time in Tanzania and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was a wonderful experience and I have to thank the guides and porters – they made the trip. They are amazing people and are very proud of their mountain.

I kept my expectations to a minimum before going as I didn’t want to predict certain things about Africa. One could expect all kinds of extremes given the current trend of the media. I read Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari a couple of years ago and thought it to be a realistic representation of the continent.
So what did I think while I was there? I think it was a similar to any other developing country. It appeared that the people work very hard for what they have and don’t have a lot of extra. I was not there long enough to immerse myself in the everyday culture, so I would expect that Tanzania, like all countries, has its own set of unique issues. As a geographer I understand that the state of any country depends on its location, climate, history, culture, etc. The more I travel, the less I anticipate certain outcomes in certain places.

My favorite memory of the trip is seeing all of the bicycles. I was surprised to see fewer cars and more bicycles. The bikes looked very sturdy and were definitely incorporated into everyday life. The Swahili word for bicycle is baiskeli.

Here are a couple of links to bicycle related things in Africa and Tanzania. The second link is a great essay about Africa and bicycles written from the perspective of 12 year old from Ghana.

http://www.ibike.org/africaguide/tanzania.htm
http://www.ibike.org/essays/2006.htm#Role

The Most Popular Vehicle

I was riding my singlespeed on a trail yesterday and started thinking about how empowering it is to ride a bike. People who transport themselves from place to place through their landscape are using their own pure human power. They have an energy-efficient, cost-effective vehicle that is fun and provides exercise.

I found the following links to illustrate my point. From treehugger.com:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/11/ecotip_2_bicycl.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/07/world_most_ener.php

From the same website, I found another interesting link from Princeton's International Networks Archive:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/the_bicycle_is.php
Filled with interesting facts, the graphic is a detailed picture of transportation and the world today. It's amazing to think that China has more bicycles than the world has cars.

The Bicycle Commuting Diaries: Changing Landscapes

I’ve been commuting by bike for the last 10 years at various levels. Some years I’ve been pretty motivated, other years have been lean. Commuting was nice when we lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. The city planned for and accommodated bicycles on the streets. When we moved to Eagle County, Colorado things changed a bit. We first moved to Eagle and it was possible to walk to work. After a couple years, we moved seven miles down the road to Gypsum. I started commuting again – this time along US Highway 6. Most people thought I was crazy to commute seven miles, let alone on a highway. I didn’t think it was a big deal – the shoulder was adequate and the traffic wasn’t anything like the Front Range. So I’ve covered the distance between Eagle and Gypsum on and off for the last 5 years with little or no worries. And then development came…

The growth and development of Eagle County has been steadily increasing since we moved here. It started with the housing and now it’s the services that go with it. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Starbucks, etc. Everything that you’d find in a metropolitan area is already here or will be coming in the near future. This summer I have witnessed the changing of the landscape personally. Between Eagle and Gypsum I see the progression every day as a pedal up and down US Highway 6: a round-a-bout under construction in Eagle, the creation of a building for Costco and the hauling of millions of tons of dirt from a dry hillside to the end of the runway at an airport. Instead of a few cars passing me in my thirty minute commute; it’s a constant stream of cement trucks, long-haulers, dump trucks and every other kind of car. I’m getting pretty good at guessing the type of rig by the sound of the engine as it approaches me.

I definitely spend some time during each commute making note of the significant changes this year. I know that everything in Eagle County is changing. The people, the place and it’s happening in a short amount of time. People are migrating to and throughout this place and it’s happening in a very short amount of time. I wonder if it’s a good thing that Eagle County has gone from a rural area in western Colorado to an urban landscape in a rural setting?

AfricaBike Project

I'm off to Africa next spring for a special trip. My husband and I will be taking my dad to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. It's the highest mountain on the African continent at 19340 ft / 5895 m. I recently read an article that the glaciers on Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya (17057 ft / 5199 m) will be gone within 25 to 50 years as a result of deforestation and industrial pollution. So it seems our trip will be special in a bittersweet way - we will get a chance to see glaciers that others may not see in the future. It's a pretty obvious example that our Earth and its resources are not infinite.
See the article at: http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=162001&format=&page=1


The article reminded me of a neat project that the Kona Bicycle company has put together called the AfricaBike project. Basically, Kona has embarked on a project to design, build and donate bikes for home health care workers in African countries. Not only does the project help those who are helping the fight against HIV and AIDS, it reinforces a sustainable and affordable means of transportation - the bicycle. Check out the details of the project at: http://www.konabiketown.com/

What is Bicycle Geography?

I was inspired earlier this year to pick up carry the torch for geographic knowledge as I read an article on USATODAY.com that described the lack of geographic knowledge from adults and children.
(See article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-05-02-geography-poll_x.htm)
Since reading the article I have put a lot of thought into a creative and fun way to share geographic knowledge with the people around me.

So here it is...
It's Bicycle Geography: The study of the world and all that’s in it (people, places and time) from the seat of a two-wheeled, human powered machine.
There are many definitions for both geography and bicycle. I came up with my favorite blend.

Stay tuned as I share thoughts and stories from both the road and the trail.

Welcome

Just started. Stay tuned....