Bisque had the great idea to go to the Canadian gulf islands for a bike trip over the July 4th weekend and I was so in. I had two other friends that had gone the last year and had all come back sunkissed and blissed out from hanging out on beaches and eating pastries. I was so excited! The Canadian gulf islands are a series of islands off the north coast of Vancouver Island which are connected by a network of ferries.

My partner and I have a bad track record of trying to hike or ride in the mountains too early. We’re both from warmer places (California & Georgia) so, even after 8 years of living here we both get a little confused. Last year we tried to backpack around Mount Baker in early July and were thwarted by thick snow cover, this time we tried to bike around the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in late May and also ran into a lot of snow. I was trying to come up with a fun and simple backcountry route for an upcoming Friends on Bikes campout and this was not the one.

2021 is the second instance of SPLAIN, and it took me longer than usual (two year, yikes!) to get the data out because I'm a lot busier with a job I really love and building a home within a wonderful partnership. I am one person, doing this for free, because I’m a data nerd who loves bikes.

I think there are a lot of folks that are intimidated by cycling or commuting by bike in cold, rainy, snowy, or icy conditions – and with good reason! I put together a few recommendations on how to best approach cycling in less-than-ideal conditions that will hopefully help you stay pedaling year-round.

2021 is the second instance of SPLAIN, and it took me longer than usual (two year, yikes!) to get the data out because I'm a lot busier with a job I really love and building a home within a wonderful partnership. I am one person, doing this for free, because I’m a data nerd who loves bikes.

I think there are a lot of folks that are intimidated by cycling or commuting by bike in cold, rainy, snowy, or icy conditions – and with good reason! I put together a few recommendations on how to best approach cycling in less-than-ideal conditions that will hopefully help you stay pedaling year-round.

Two years ago I conducted a survey of trans, transgender, two-spirit, women, intersex, non-binary, femme, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming cyclists on Duwamish territory now known as Seattle to understand the cultural climate of bike shops. I chose to survey bike shops because they are discrete and are usually the place where many people begin their cycling journey.

I got into riding gravel/unpaved trails and roads a few years ago and I gotta say, it’s pretty great! I am lucky to live in Seattle which is surrounded by lots of forests with publicly accessible logging roads and unpaved trails on old rail lines. Here is an non-comprehensive list of some gravel routes I have enjoyed in Western Washington!

I am really big fan of wool for travel and outdoor stuff, and especially cashmere. I am also a REALLY big fan of not spending a lot of money. I am here to prosthelytize about the merits of secondhand cashmere and why you should wear it on your next trip or ride.

What is gravel riding, and why is it so seductive? The bike industry loves using images of svelte cyclists plastered in mud out in the middle of the woods. How did they get all the way out there and how can I be that cool?

I like to think of myself as more of a punk than a gearhead type of cyclist. I am never interested in the newest, shiniest thing. I prefer waiting for the real gearheads to get tired of their stuff so I can get it secondhand and haggle them down to below half-price — that or do without all together. So by this same token, I have always been skeptical of sports-specific foods, supplements, lotions or potions.

I have been a bit arrogant about not wearing chamois and not using chamois cream for a lot of my cycling career. But honestly, I haven’t needed it! However, the physical toll of nine days on the bike took me and my butt in a place we hadn’t been before. I am here to tell everyone that saddle sores are real and not to be taken lightly! So please heed my warnings, learn from my failures, and enjoy my guide to dealing with saddle sores.

I think that gear envy is a pretty real phenomenon for a lot of people. Those feelings of scarcity or inadequacy (I wish I had that” or “Why didn’t I think to bring that?!”) are amplified when your friends have cooler gear than you; or perhaps it’s the high stakes of outdoor survival that put the lizard part of my brain on edge. Whatever the case, here is a list of stuff that didn’t make it to my helpful packing list spoke card, but are nice (and lightweight) additions to your setup. I will periodically update this list, since there is always new gear to covet.

My partner’s parents are really lovely and I appreciate so much that they make the effort to visit with him (us) despite living so far away in Georgia. They decided to make a big road trip out of coming to see us, going through Texas to see cave dwellings and abandoned mining towns in Colorado, beautiful rocks in Utah, and dahlia farms in Oregon. When they finally got to us they had already been on the road for almost two weeks!

My partner’s grandmother was turning 90 in early May, and since the airport was frozen and prevented us from visiting for Christmas, we decided to combine a trip to Georgia to surprise Grandma on her birthday with a visit to Luke’s uncle Jay and aunt Michelle in New Jersey, and a few days in New York City. So we flew into Jersey and hung out with Luke’s very expressive aunt and uncle — they are Broadway stars who are playing the leads in Wicked!

I have tried to keep skiing as my budget allowed, but the groups I skied with have always been predominantly men. That’s all fine and good, but on a ski trip a few years ago I got really sick of being constantly underestimated and left out of the route planning while skiing with a group of men.

A few shrimpy gals and I circumnavigated the Olympic Peninsula and in our first few days of the trip, we stayed in Joyce at the lovely Camp Epona. On that trip, we were sheltering in the barn because it had started to rain after dinner. While I was unpacking my bike in the barn, I noticed that there was a small pottery kiln in one of the barn stalls. I have been a ceramic sculptor and potter since I was in high school and it’s something that I miss a whole lot.

I got a call from the scheduler on a Thursday, was scheduled for my pre-op appointment the following Monday, and had my surgery that Friday. My doctor, partner, family, and friends asked me if I was nervous and I only felt euphoria and disbelief. I literally could not process what happened until after the surgery.

My sister had accused me of being a serial monogamist before this breakup, and it really hit a nerve but I needed to hear it. One of my most intense anxieties around relationships is a loss of self and independence, but once I did not have a romantic relationship to occupy myself, I had to actually wrangle with the issues that made me a codependent serial monogamist in the first place.

Sometimes a friendship doesn’t serve one person or the other, or you have grown in different ways. Maybe there is a hurt that is difficult to forgive or needs time to heal. It can be easy to take friendship for granted, we have friends that we have had since before we were able to talk or came out of circumstances for which we had little control. Friendships are relationships, and relationships take work.

Even though my grandmother told me about the discrimination my father experienced from his teachers being a brown kid…

Even though I have heard the stories from my Asian and Pacific Islander girlfriends about being fetishized and demeaned by men…

Even though I saw the sinophobia, anti-Asian racism, and xenophobia at the beginning of 2020…

Dialectical behavior therapy is particularly good for people with suicidal thoughts and those who want to learn how to regulate their emotions. The therapy takes place in several skills-building modules, aided by a series of exercises. I got myself a cute pink and gold binder to hold all of my homework and to get myself excited about doing the work.

I knew about Corn Nuts, but I never knew Corn Nuts. My friend Danielle was snacking on Corn Nuts during our tour around the Olympic Peninsula, and I must thank her deeply for awakening me to this incredible snack.

I have been thinking a lot about trauma and how we can repress or relive it during periods of stress. I wanted to write something to encourage non-black people who are feeling intimidated by anti-racism work, especially people with cognitive disabilities or neurodivergence that can make stressful or violent topics really overwhelming. I am not writing this to promote myself as an exemplary anti-racist or advocate. I am rather trying to honestly convey the things I have learned in my personal anti-racism, privilege, and trauma work.