Gravel Camp
Gravel Camp is an event consisting of a night of camping plus a 50km off-road bike ride in Rubicon, Victoria. It’s put on by Fyxo from Melbourne, and I attended the inaugural offering in March this year. Beaut day for a bike ride. As much as a love a bike ride, my main motivation to take part in Gravel Camp was that it seemed like a good way to get my toes wet in bikepacking. And by “toes wet” I mean I had my bike and I was camping, but I didn’t have to deal with packing part.
Liquid memories
Liquid memories I put up a shelf in the garage/workshop to store water bottles (bidons) I’ve inadvertently collected over the years. It’s quite cool to have these up as they represent memories of people, places, our travels. Look forward to inadvertently collecting some more!
If a tree falls…
This morning, whilst checking out my local mountain bike trails, two notable things happened: I almost ran over a snake. An enormous tree broke and landed next to my car. Fallen tree right next to my car 🙏 With almost comic precision, the tree laid directly across my exit, it’s length being more/less the exact width of the path. At first I was confused; it’s not something I’d expect to see after returning from a couple hours riding my bike, that’s reserved for something like a smashed car window and stolen sunglasses.
Red in the morning…
Sometimes I get this view when I walk into the kitchen. Sailor’s warning…? This morning I was treated to a spectacular sunrise peeking through our loungeroom window. I woke to the sound of rain, and since I have a night of camping and a 50km ride ahead of me this weekend, thought I should have a good look through the curtains to see what I’m in for. I saw the colour of the sky and hightailed upstairs to enjoy the view from the window shown above.
Getting’ RAD in Alberta
We once pet-sat for a dog named Hector in Alberta, Canada. Hector was a brilliant dog to look after for three weeks, and Alberta was a personal highlight of the last leg of our US road trip in 2018. It wasn’t just the dog, or the landscapes, pristine waters, rocky outcrops, beautiful mountains, or myriad wildlife, it was also because Hector’s home turned out to be a stone’s throw from where the best BMX movie of all time was set and filmed: RAD Trailer for RAD (1986) (sound might be very quiet, FYI) What an incredible coincidence!
Gallery: Alberta, Canada
Continuing the backlog of photos from the US road trip. If you haven’t seen previous instalments, the best place to view is probably on Flickr, the second best would be to go through this blog in reverse chronological order. Enjoy!
Gallery: Cascade River State Park, Minnesota
Hands down, Cascade River State Park in Minnesota is the place with the most variety of mushrooms in one place. Observe: View this post on Instagram There’s more. ‘shrooms volume 3. #mushrooms #moremushrooms A post shared by Kelly Dietrich (@borrrring) on Sep 26, 2018 at 1:24pm PDT View this post on Instagram You were warned. ‘shrooms volume 2. #mushrooms #moremushrooms A post shared by Kelly Dietrich (@borrrring) on Sep 26, 2018 at 1:22pm PDT View this post on Instagram Only a gazillion mushrooms on today’s hike.
Salsa El Caballo de Carga
The Salsa El Caballo de Carga resting in the scrub This week I had the pleasure of putting together another bike based around an old Salsa El Mariachi frame. I call this one The Salsa “El Caballo de Carga” (The Salsa Packhorse). “Packhorse”, because its purpose is a gravel-y, touring-y, bikepacking-y, off-the-beaten-path, do-it-all kind of bike, and also because Salsa “El Mula” (the Mule) sounded pretty boring. I’ve had a build like this in mind ever since completing a 4-day tour of the Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburg Pennsylvania, to Cumberland Maryland (240 kms/150 miles) in 2017.
Photo: Rabbit warren
The wardrobe at Rare Hare on the Mornington Peninsula.