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.

Friends on Bikes began as a way to foster community with trans, women, intersex and gender nonconforming BIPOC, and it is so fitting that our sibling chapter in Portland reached out to do a joint ride! It was a short and sweet trip — in and out in a weekend, no gear packing, just car camping and a sweet day ride.

I was looking for an medium-intensity backcountry route for the fall and I found the Fire and Ice Cave Loop by Molly Sugar. It seemed to have the sweet spot of being close-ish to home, having lots of camping options, and not being super punchy.

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.

My friend Katie is a very intrepid cyclist and most of the cool stuff I do can be attributed to how cool she is, especially since she’s so much faster than I am. She invited me to ride the Red Meadow Pass Loop in Montana in July with some other bike friends from the Pacific Northwest.

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 LOVE hot springs. So much. I used to live in Colorado and would be out finding hot springs several weekends a month. Since I moved to the Pacific Northwest I have been in search of nice natural hot springs, but it has been tough. Most of the nice springs in the Pacific Northwest are concentrated in Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia which is more convenient than going all the way to the Southwest, but still not as nice as having it close to home.

Something really incredible happens when you find people that know how to listen, feel, and work as a team with an attitude of abundance. Every time I am able to get even a few of my wonderful shrimpies together it is usually nourishing and uplifting physically, spiritually, and emotionally. This trip to Whidbey, Fidalgo and Lopez Islands was no different!

I have been really fortunate to be learning, growing, and organizing with Friends on Bikes (FOB), a cycling community for trans, women, intersex, and gender nonconforming Black, Indigenous, and People of the Global Majority. The group started in Portland with Molly Sugar and grew to include sibling chapters in Seattle and Toronto. In July 2021 FOB hosted its first bike camping trip since 2018, when the original organizer, SJ Brooks, passed. We are fortunate to carry on their legacy of organizing for underrepresented genders and racial/ethnic/cultural backgrounds in cycling.

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.

I was first made aware of the Capitol Forest, located on the west side of Olympia on lands historically stewarded by the Coast Salish peoples of the Squaxin, Nisqually, and Cowlitz, because of the Evergreen Gravel Grinder.

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?

Fall has been closing in on Seattle: The sun is coming up closer to 8am and setting around 6pm, rain is falling and the gray sky is not letting up. In search of better weather, we went south to Northern Paiute and Tenino lands (Eastern Oregon) to complete the route we had attempted last year.

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.

I felt to nourished by the rhythm of our days. It felt so natural to be moving on a bike all day with some of my best friends, helping one another make food, work through feelings, and tackle mechanical issues. It felt good to sleep under trees, pack up my bike bags every morning, and bathe in lakes and rivers. Eight days was all it took to adapt enough to a different type of life that I didn’t want it to change. Maybe I would get tired of this pace of life? If the weather was bad? If I couldn’t find good food? If it wasn’t as scenic? Whatever the case, I felt inspired to tour for longer, to keep going, to develop a new frame for cycling in the future.

Four goofy friends decided in early July 2020 that they would circumnavigate the Olympic Peninsula at the end of July. We planned to go counter-clockwise and take the Olympic Discovery Trail for as long as we could. It was personal for two of the group since they had attempted the route a few years ago but mechanical issues and a serious rainstorm in South Beach made them call a ride.

I conducted a survey of Seattle bike shops called SPLAIN in the fall of 2019, and worked with the Seattle Bike Blog to publish the results to a wider audience. The blog’s editor Tom Fucoloro kindly invited me to do an interview about the survey and its results. I get into more detail about my process and intention with the survey. Tom asked so many great questions and although I don’t have many answers, I loved getting to hang out and chat!