adventure daily.
I have a special place in my heart for this bike. I will never get rid of it. Evan built this bike for me shortly after I started mountain biking again in 2013, with a small frame that had been sitting around the shop where he worked at the time and a lot of random …
Evan and I have three days off together, in a row. This is a rare occasion. We had originally planned to go on a touring trip on our tandem, but the week snuck up on us and we failed to make some important arrangements, like finding someone who would take care of our very needy dog …
A couple weeks ago, we had a taste of spring. Not a rainy, sort of chilly spring, but full-on sun and warmth. More like summer, really. Tank top weather. It's been a weird winter. One week we'd get a foot of snow, the next, it would be all gone. Temperatures fluctuated between zero and seventy. …
I like to be outside. I like to ride my bike. I like to run. But these things are more than just hobbies. They are necessary to my existence as a happy human being. I wouldn't call myself "naturally happy." It seems like happiness comes so much easier to other people. Despite the fact that …
I'm going to risk sounding like an egocentric, self-obsessed, narcissist for a minute here. I love this photo of myself. Of all those that exist, it's remained a favorite ever since it was taken in November 2013. Evan and I had decided to ride from our cabin to town via the shoreline of Raystown Lake, a …
I woke up at dawn, on the ground in a sleeping bag, the warm down surrounding me like a fluffy cloud, the trees reaching for the sky above, the first rays of sun glinting through the branches. The evening before had seen the thrill of flying through the darkness on a bike, the peacefulness of …
I recently came across the following as a draft of a post that I originally wrote 3 years ago, when biking with any regularity was new to me, and I was a total rookie on two wheels. To someone who had ridden geared bikes all her life, the concept of a singlespeed was a little odd. …
Greenwood Furnace State Park is 7 miles from our house. The park offers a network of trails which were originally designed for cross-country skiing (though most of them seem terrible for that activity), but have more lately fallen victim to neglect, as skiers are few and far between and there was never much of a push …
Fall is just about here. My favorite season, for so many reasons---the crisp air and clear skies, warm days and cool nights, the turning of the leaves, and, probably most importantly, the end of the busiest season for those of us in the business of outdoor recreation. Fall means I get to go on adventures …
At the beginning of this month, I returned from Colorado. I was gone for 10 days---not so long, but longer than I've been gone since Japan 2 years ago. This trip was spurred by an invitation to the annual Singletracks Editorial Staff Meet-Up (I write for Singletracks.com) in Salida, Colorado. The idea was basically to …
helena kotala 