Some big rides planned!

Hey Biker Dan fans! It might be the middle of winter, but there is no rest for the retired and obsessed.

Skiing at Stratton on January 2, 2024

I’m still riding as often as my schedule, road conditions, and skiing will allow. As a practical matter, I have ridden only five times so far in 2024, including today (low 50’s and all the ice is gone). I would have liked to have ridden the last few days, but there has been too much snow and ice on the roads and shoulders. I’m comfortable riding down to about 10 or 12°, but black ice scares the hell out of me.

Riding in Carlisle, MA, on January 14, 2024.

I have also been skiing quite a bit (9 days so far), mostly by myself, but also 4 days with daughter Ronia. My Ikon pass is giving me my money’s worth! I try to go at least once every week, but never on weekends. Although we have very little natural snow, the skiing has not been bad. Just make sure your edges are sharp!

With Ronia at Sunday River, Maine, on Christmas Day, 2023

Physically, I have once again been feeling fairly decrepit, although there are good days, and I am mostly able to stay active. About 6 weeks after returning home from my Michigan bike tour in mid-September, I had an acute flare-up of lower back pain, which has been diagnosed as spinal stenosis. This is not surprising, since I have had this sort of pain for decades, and it is what kept my father from walking the last several years of his life.

I started with physical therapy, which at first was miraculous. However, I stopped going too soon, although I tried to be diligent about doing the exercises, and I regressed. So now I’m back to PT. It absolutely helps! Along with that, I find that the more active I am, the less stiff I feel. It’s worse when I get up in the morning or sit for a while, but it eases as I start to move around. In addition to PT and exercises, I’ve been trying to go to the gym for CrossFit and other classes. And although Ernie is no longer with us, I frequently go on long walks. The best news is that it never hurts when I ride. It turns out that the riding posture is good for the ailment.

The second best news is that I have been able to ski. I wear a weightlifter’s belt while skiing, which helps tremendously. Some days when I ski, my back feels better at the end of the day than it did at the beginning. I also try to do a lot of stretching before, during and after my ski day.

But enough about that! I’m writing as Biker Dan, not Skier Dan.

I have three big rides lined up in the next several months!

1. In June, with my good friend Jerry (who has been mentioned frequently in my ride blogs) and 2,000 other riders, I will be doing an organized ride called Ride the Rockies. This entails 400 miles over 6 days in northwest Colorado.

This is a Sherpa ride. In other words, I do not have to carry my own luggage. Instead, a luggage service will transport our bags from one hotel to the next. Instead of being like my normal bike tours, where I carry everything with me, this will be like six consecutive day rides – no luggage or panniers, and I will be able to wear my contact lenses. I am very excited!

We could have chosen to camp in each of the towns, but we’re going to go the lux route, and share a hotel room. The ride begins in Steamboat Springs, CO, and concludes in Fruita (where I actually stayed overnight during my ride across the country five years ago).

2. My next big ride will be the first weekend in August, when, after a 5-year hiatus, I will be participating in the actual PMC weekend. The Pan Mass Challenge is a charity bike ride to raise money for cancer research. This will be my 19th consecutive year, although I have not ridden the actual PMC weekend since the year before my 2019 ride across the country. It should be great fun!

This will be a 2-day ride. On Saturday, we ride (several thousand strong) 112 miles from Sturbridge, MA, to the Mass Maritime Academy on the ocean in Bourne, MA, where there is a huge and wonderful party. I will be staying in a dorm room. On Sunday, we start before the sun rises, riding out to Provincetown on the tip of Cape Code. If the weather cooperates, it is a magical ride. If not, it is still magical, but miserable as well. I will begin my PMC fundraising later this spring. If you want to get a head start, go to PMC.org to donate. 

3. The final big ride I currently have planned is another solo bike tour, this one to Key West, Florida. However, I’m not going to ride the whole way there and back. My plan is to leave about the middle of October to drive to southwest Florida. There I have several options for where to leave my car (including on Sanibel Island) for the 3 weeks it will take me to ride across the Everglades, down to Key West, and back. Then I will drive home. My overriding goals are to ride the ocean bridges to Key West, drink where Hemingway drank, avoid hurricanes, and be home in time for Thanksgiving with Jennifer.

Key West Route

That’s it for now! I will update you as things come up.