The Journey

In 1992 I began a journey that was to last seven years and span 40,000 kilometers travelled by bicycle and on foot around the globe.

The main purpose of my travels was to step out of the rat race that tends to make up the majority of American life, and to remove myself from the endless cycle of consumption and waste that plagues modern society today. I wanted to minimize my own contribution to the rampant abuse of natural resources: oil, paper, fossil fuels, and others that we use up in staggering amounts each day without thinking twice.

I also wanted to experience the world not via a textbook, Discovery channel, or behind tinted glass, but as up close, personal, and real as I could. I figured a bicycle was the perfect medium for doing this, as it was the primary mode of transport (other than walking) throughout the world, was entirely dependent on personal power, and in some ways could serve as a common denominator linking me with the masses of humanity in a majority of countries.

I dubbed the journey Pedalling the Planet for People Power, trying to bring this message of resistance to our addictions to speed and instant gratification which we foolishly term as progress. I was fortunate enough to be able to live and work in Japan, Nepal, and India during the journey, to see how the other half lives, and to see alternative solutions and methods of living to those we so often take for granted as the norm back home.

I covered more than 42,000 kilometers by bicycle, on foot, and occasionally kayak or canoe, visiting thirty countries en route. I depended on airplanes or boats only when there was large water to navigate, went through five different bike rims, a plethora of tires and inner tubes, and drank thousands of cups of tea provided for by hundreds of incredibly kind people. I did not eat in one fast food restaurant, McDonalds or otherwise during the entire seven years.

Odysseus’ Last Stand is the story of my journey. Adventures and misadventures on the high roads of Asia and elsewhere. I hope you will enjoy it, and have a few fires stoked to live some of your own dreams.


The Route

I started my journey in North America, doing a “tune up” ride through the Rockies, on to Vancouver, Canada, and down to San Francisco, from where I flew to Japan. I spent almost three years living in Japan, in the Northern Alps, where I met my partner, Hitomi Sumita.

Leaving our home, we cycled over the Alps and onto the Kansai plains, through ancient Kyoto and then to Osaka, from where we sailed to Shanghai, China.

In China, we sailed up the Yangtse River, and then began cycling, through Szechuan, Gansu, and Qinghai provinces on our way to Tibet.



From Lhasa, we made a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in western Tibet, then returned to our bicycles and crossed the Himalayas to Nepal.

Nepal being more suited to walking, we spent several months trekking through the Annapurna and Solo Khumbu regions, and then took a stint off the road, returning to Kathmandu for teaching jobs.



From Nepal, the land routes east are closed to bicycles, so we flew to Thailand, and worked our way down the Malay Peninsula.

From Kuala Lumpur, we flew to Auckland, New Zealand, and spent three months trekking and cycling on the north and south islands. We continued to Sydney, Australia, by plane, and then cycled to Cairns in northern Queensland, and along the MacDonnell Ranges of the central Outback before moving on to Indonesia.

In Indonesia, we made a journey on foot through the highlands of the Baliem Valley in Irian Jaya, and then bicycled across Bali, Java, and on to Sumatra, from where we returned to Thailand and Nepal.

On the subcontinent, we cycled through the foothills of the Himalayas, down to the holy city of Varanasi, and across the Ganges to the deserts of Rajasthan. Spring found us heading north to the Himalayas again, taking some time off the road in Dharmsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan government in exile.



Hitomi and I parted company on the Indo-Pakistan border, and I continued alone up the Karakoram Highway. I returned in mid-summer to India, to ride the highest roads in the world from Manali to Leh in Ladakh, and then onto Srinagar, in war-torn Kashmir.

Returning to Pakistan, I went over the Khunjerab Pass, and back into China and the Pamirs, in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. From Kashgar, I crossed the Torrugart Pass into Kyrghyzstan, and then picked up the ancient Silk Road, crossing the Central Independent States just as they had opened up to foreign travel; visiting Kyrghyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and (ferrying across the Caspian Sea) Azerbaijan, into Georgia and the Black Sea.



I wintered on the isle of Crete in Greece, and then spent the following spring and summer cycling across Turkey, and back to Georgia, where I made a side trip into Upper Swanetia and the Caucasus Mountains. From Georgia, I returned to the Black Sea and Turkey, and made my way to Eastern Europe; Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia, pausing to travel on foot through the Carpathians and Transylvanian Alps.

In Western Europe, my route went via Austria and Switzerland, through the Alps and the tiny Federation of Liechtenstein, on to France, Belgium, and finally the Netherlands.



I flew from Amsterdam to the United States, and starting in St. Augustine, Florida, rode across the Deep South; Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and finally California, reaching the Pacific Ocean on New Year’s Day of the Millennium, January 1, 2000, and laying the journey to rest.


Odysseus

My bicycle, Odysseus, was a Trek 950 Single Track, with a lugged steel frame and Shimano Deore components. The bike was used when I bought it, and went the first 15,000 kilometers of the trip without a tune-up. During the ride, I installed a new set of sealed hubs and bottom bracket, which lasted the entire journey. Hitomi rode a Trek 850, a slight grade down, with similar results.

I started with Avocet Kevlar belted touring tires, and managed over 13,000 km on the front one, before replacing. The rear tire lasted over 7,000 km, which became the average life of most of my rear tires. Most tires would split on the sides after excessive mileage, mostly due to the weight carried on the rear of the bike (over 60 pounds of gear). Other tires used were Continental Town and Country, Ritchey Z-Max, and $2 Indian heavy tires, which lasted about 3000 km’s, a far better value for the money than their overseas counterparts.

We broke no spokes on the entire journey, which I found to be quite amazing, nor did we have any other sort of mechanical failures, other than broken rims.

I broke my rear rim in Thailand, my front rim in Uzbekistan, a second rear rim in Austria, and then had the new rim kicked in by vandals a few weeks later. That replacement lasted until Alpine, Texas, where I purchased my final rear rim to make it home.
The only other significant equipment failure was that of racks. I started with Blackburn racks, and needed to replace the front rack in Europe, after having it break in seven places. Hose clamps turned out to be the most useful piece of gear in the repair kit, as they held that rack in place across most of Central Asia.


Gear

We started the journey with REI Novarra panniers, which I replaced about halfway through with Ortlieb saddlebags. I also carried a North Face climbing pack across the rear rack, which housed my tent, sleeping bag, pad, and trekking boots.

Sleeping Bags were REI Nod Pods, rated to about 30 degrees. I still use that sleeping bag today, despite the fact that it does not have one inch of loft remaining.

Other Gear Carried Consisted of:
Thermarest Sleeping Pads
MSR Whisperlite International Cook stove
Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight II Tent, later replaced with a Northface Cirrus
PUR water filter, replaced with MSR Waterworks: both filters ultimately failed in the field and were replaced with iodine (Lugols solution, 2%), cheaply and conveniently available in many places.
Burley Ultrex rain suits, and booties, which in my opinion, are the lightest, most breathable, and water resistant rainwear out there. I still have the same suit today, and commute with it year-round.
REI fleece jackets
Patagonia polypropylene tops and bottoms
Fleece hats and gloves
Tecnica Cascata Boots, later replaced with Asolo GTX 520’s for trekking. I believe we walked almost 2000km with the first pair.
First Aid kits: the most useful item ended up being Norofloxacine, which is an antibiotic for treating bacterial diarrhea, which we suffered more often than flat tires.

Bike Gear:
We carried plenty of spare tubes, and usually one extra folding tire, in addition to a spare pump. We left Japan with spare chains, freewheels, extra spokes, and even a replacement axle, but eliminated most of these things once we reached Nepal. Outside of the standard items needed for repairs: tire irons, patches, spoke wrenches, needle nose pliers, freewheel removal tools, spare cables and duct tape, we carried little else. Excellent bicycle shops and mechanics were to be found everywhere, especially in Malaysia and Turkey.