My time in Palestine ended with a ride from the Golan Heights in occupied Syria at the headwaters to the Jordan river down to the Red Sea at Eilat–400 km away. I cycled from the mountains to the Dead Sea and continued south through the Negev desert.
Start of Palestine Bikepacking Tour
End of Palestine Bikepacking Tour
Jordan Valley
Red Sea
Camping by the Dead Sea
Negev desert, 172 km to Eilat
Dam, Wadi Rum
Above Wadi Rum Camp
Wadi Mujib
The American Bedouin
Wadi Rum, Lawrence Spring
Petra Monetary
Moses Hess
Petra to Amman
Chicken Rock, Wadi Rum
Shisha
The Treasury
After Eilat, I crossed the border into Aqaba. I hopped a bus to Wadi Rum and traded some time for free lodging & food at a Bedouin camp. After 2 weeks, I hopped back on the saddle and rode up to Petra. I spent 2 days wandering Petra’s remains before continuing North. I felt that my legs were finally strong enough, so I decided to stick to the King’s highway in the mountains for the rest of my ride to Amman.
Where to begin? Should I start in the Sequoias–my time wandering through the largest trees in the world? Or stumbling into what felt like an unofficial rainbow gathering in Mendocino? Or Yellowstone, where I spent a week amongst the bears and elk–getting snowed-on and walking though basins where the earth’s crumbling crust gave way to pools of scalding-hot water?
I spent a week amongst the bears and elk — getting snowed-on and walking though basins where the earth’s crumbling crust gave way to pools of scalding-hot water
Alas, I’ll start with the present. At the time of writing, I find myself in Madison, Wisconsin. My preoccupation as of late is no longer my next backpacking trip through some US national park.
Casual Earth Steam
In less than a month, I’ll be boarding a plane one-way to the Middle East, and I don’t plan to come back to the US for over a year (closer to two).
Indeed, my current preoccupation is selling my car, getting back to NY, and finding some clever way to fit my folding bicycle into a checked bag that’ll go under the bike-fee radar for the German airline on my flight to Israel.
Thunderer Campsite in the morning
My last major stop was Yellowstone, and my what an adventure that was! For the record, if you visit Yellowstone in September, all the backpacking permit fees are waved. And there’s at least 3 campsites that are entirely accessible by bicycle. But, even if you just visit Yellowstone by car, it’s quite an experience. There’s fewer awe-inspiring vistas than other national parks, but looking across a low-lying basin with huge plumes of water vapor rising from patches of pools stretching out to the horizon offers a unique sort of inspiration in it’s own wright.
I have 2 days left in Santiago, Chile. This weekend, I’m taking a 54-hour bus to Lima, Peru.
On Friday I’ll wake up at 05:30 to walk myself and all my possessions to the bus station. The bus goes north up the Chilean desert, through the Chile-Peru border just past Arica, across the Peruvian mountains that hug the Pacific Ocean, and down into Lima, Peru.
After I graduated college, I sold or gave away most of my possessions. As a young US American following the footsteps of many before me, I headed west to California.
ho·bo / ˈhō-(ˌ)bō / (n.) a migratory worker
With just a few duffel bags of cargo, my 21-st century move from Florida to California lasted only a few hours on an airplane. My destination: San Francisco — where, in a few weeks, I’d begin a new job as a software engineer.
Mikey looks North across the Golden Gate from Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Bicycle Rack in Lothlórien
Mikey and J outside the Grassroots House in Oakland showing letter to Barbara Lee in wake of Operation Protective Edge
Jason King arrives in SF after cross-country run for Bitcoin & Homeless
Mikey’s bucket-and-door, work-from-home desk with linux, windows, and mac laptops. And an Android phone.
Mikey’s desk at work
Mikey’s fully-loaded bicycle on BART for ride to Santa Cruz
During my time living in California, I visited Yosemite National Park and went on my first-ever overnight trekking trip. This experience taught me much about self-sufficiency and packing light–something that I later refined to an art.
Bicycle ride from Merced to Yosemite National Park
Top of half-dome
Mikey’s first overnight backpacking trip. In Yosemite.
The cables of half-dome
I was in San Francisco for just over a year, but I never spread my roots too deep. Before my second year, my feet were itching for something new, and I found myself on a plane again — this time destined for New York. With Guthy’s voice singing through my earphones, I flew from the Redwood forests to the New York islands.
Bicycle boxed-up and ready to be shipped from the West Coast
Brooklyn Bridge, NYC
Stonewall Inn
Winter in Brooklyn
After some time, I was off again, heading down the US east coast back to Florida, and I hopped a plane to the furthest city in America that had an international airport — Santiago de Chile.
