Day 11 of France 2023 (53km)

August17

53km / 3 hours 35 minutes / 346m gain

Today was magical.

It was also hard, the trail was incredibly rough, and I only made about 15km in the first hour. I was biking through deep grass, which requires twice as much power for half as much distance. Then I hit deep sand. Lots of fun :)

The national park in the middle was AMAZING!

Huge rocks and boulders jutting out of the ground; it was a magical place. I had to bike hike some of it as it wasn’t ridable. Fantastic day.

I think I accidentally killed a little snake yesterday. I was on a single-track trail and saw him at the last minute. It was a little baby black snake. I instinctively shouted, “Oh shit, sorry, bud,” as I rolled over his head. Which I felt was a weird thing to say.

I tried to avoid him, but when my brain realized I couldn’t, I decided to roll over his head. It was insane how fast my mind told me it was better to roll over his head than the tail so he doesn’t whip around and bite you. There is a small chance he was already dead. I didn’t stop. He might have had friends. I apologized to the forest, and I slept easy, knowing that I probably helped the snake population from an evolutionary standpoint, as you can’t freeze as a snake on a well-ridden trail. It does bug me that I am improving their tactics from an evolutionary standpoint though. How many millions of years until they are dropping from every tree onto bikers?

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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