Ep. 1170: Wild West Bikepacking Route - Keagan French Revisited

You're listening to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Thanks for adventuring with us as we discover

what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast. This is Caleb.

Update on my dad Kurt. He did it. He successfully summited the tallest peak in Africa,

one of the seven summits, Kilimanjaro. And as I'm recording this, he is on his first of three flights

back home. So congratulations to him on a safe and successful journey. Completing a lifelong

dream of his Kilimanjaro and even better that he was able to do it with such a great group of

guys and for such an excellent cause, the organization we see hope. As a quick reminder,

if you've been meaning to but you haven't yet, you can donate to the fundraiser for this trip

via the description below for we see hope. It's a fantastic organization it helps so many people

in Africa and I know that my dad is absolutely thrilled to be able to partner with that organization

for his trip. And now on to today's episode. Today's revisited episode is Mason interviewing

Keegan French and it's an episode about a still fairly new bikepacking route called the Wild West.

It's 2700 mile route. It goes from Canada to Mexico and it took Keegan two months to finish.

And in this episode, we hear Mason interviewing Keegan about the adventures he had on that trip,

what went right, what went wrong. So I hope you enjoy this episode. Here's Mason.

Welcome to the Adventure Sports Podcast. Today we're talking to someone who's done a route that I've

really been interested in a bikepacking route called the Wild West, the Wild West route. Yeah,

dang, that's a, that's on more of a tongue twister than you think, but we're interviewing Keegan French

who just recently got off the trip. So Keegan, how's it going? Hey, pretty good. Thanks.

Awesome. And where are you coming from today? I'm here in Golden, Colorado. I'm home coming from

the living room. Oh, nice man. It's, did you just recently do the trip? I know the email was back in

July. Was it this summer? Was it? Yeah, it was, it was this summer. I started right in the beginning

of June and finished right at the end of July. So I've been home about a month and a half.

Oh, sweet man. And you know, we were talking a little bit before. You were mentioning that you

worked for Avid for Adventure. You've done some climbing. You, you, you climb, you know,

they've done some guiding for them and stuff. But this was your first bikepacking adventure,

so what, what is your background in Adventure sports? Where, where, where'd you grow up?

What'd you kind of do growing up in? And what is kind of your traditional your sports that you were

into? Yeah. Oh, man. Well, it could be a long story. I grew up in Western New York. I guess

she could say I came by it honestly. Both my parents were outdoor guides in some fashion as I was

growing up and kind of spent my younger years traveling around with my dad and other family members

adventuring. But to be honest, as a teenager, I was pretty set that I was going to be my own

person and a swore that I didn't like canoeing, didn't like hiking, you know, all of that. I was

going to do my own thing. So got into snowboarding and you know, anything that my family didn't do.

Wow. So they were the ones that were kind of instilling it in you. What did they do? Just kind of

that those things you mentioned canoeing and hiking and all that? Yeah. My dad still kind of

owns his own adventure guiding business. So canoeing, kayaking, hiking, biking, rock climbing

skiing, kind of the whole gambit either locally or internationally. So kind of grew up around

most of that stuff. And I was, you know, I was, I was interested in it. I got pretty into rock climbing

when I was about 16, 17. Again, had a, had a father who was afraid of heights. And I was like,

cool, climbing, I'm going to do that. Wow. Ended up kind of deciding in college and, you know,

moving into the years beyond that. Obviously, these were still things that were important to me.

And I like to do them. And ultimately ended up following them and moving to Colorado.

Doesn't it? Oh, man, with the, the, the mecca, one. Exactly. Right. Me and everyone else.

Yeah, we, we actually, listeners probably sick and tired of me always just telling personal

facts, but I just moved from the golden area like two months ago. And so, yeah, was there for,

for a while, miss it for sure. But yeah, it was definitely like, oh, wow, everybody else is here too.

Exactly. But still it's, it's, when you're there, it makes sense, you know, you know,

it's, you understand why it's so impressive. So, so you eventually came back around. And I,

and that why I find that so interesting because we hear from so many people who, you know,

they, they didn't have that influence growing up or maybe it was hunting or fishing or something

only in the, you know, the other things outdoors were a little more peripheral or really not

there at all. And then they discovered it later on. So the fact that you were in it,

went away from it and came back. You're like a, you're like a preacher's kid, you know, coming back

to the pulpit years later. Exactly. You know, it's definitely something I liked, but I was a

challenging kid to say the least. So anything I could do to pretend like I was my own person,

that was, that was a good thing for me. That's funny, man. So, so, well, you know, you got into

bikepack. And so, you know, you, you, you, you're doing something. I don't know, your dad might do

that too. But it sounds like it was at least new for you recently. Tell us about what you just did.

How did you have the time off? Was it just because with work and everything COVID going on?

Did you have some time or was this something you were planning to do for a while?

Yeah, it's a good question. No, I definitely wasn't planning it for a while. I would say I got

the idea in March and left in June. Oh, man. That's awesome. So, you have never, this is my first

bikepacking trip. So kind of got that idea on my head and had been working pretty hard. I'd

been working for Abbott and also going back to school to get my masters and social work on the

side. So, I've been working pretty hard for the past couple of years. I'm looking for a way to

have an adventure. And it actually just kind of lined up. You know, I graduated in May.

Abbott was looking for some folks to take time off, you know, do to COVID and just

having a smaller team for the summer. And I got the opportunity to do that and it came around.

And I was like, yep, would love to take some time off. Here's what I'll be doing.

Sent my boss a link to the bikepacking route and said, yeah, if it's okay with you,

this is what I will be doing with my time off. And so, it all kind of lined up perfectly to

allow me to do that. That's incredible. So, why this route, what was the inspiration to choose

this route? And also to bikepack where you just wanted to get into that in general.

Yeah. So, yeah, I've never bikepacked before. My cousin did a bikepacking trip last year.

He did another one with a plateau passage through Utah. And he'd been talking about it forever,

you know, how great it was. And actually, he had this absurd experience of like going by himself

and there was so much snow and he had to push and carry his bike and hitchhike into town because

he ran out of food and like all of this crazy stuff. So, he was kind of into the bikepacking

scene. I always wanted to do another one. And he sent me an email around March with this route

in it. Just like, hey, look at this. They just finished it. And so, I looked it up and I somehow

adventures just grip you. You know, you get the idea kind of stuck in your head that it would be cool.

And I started looking at the website. And to be honest, immediately what I did was

look at the website to see if there was anything that seemed either longer or like more rugged.

And there wasn't. This was like the biggest longest put together route I could find.

And I was like, that's it. We should do that one. And that was just a couple months before we left.

So, how did you prepare in two months? Like, you obviously did you have a bike? Did you have to

get one? Like, what did all that look like? Because you know, there is, it's a lot like backpacking.

Anyone that's not familiar with bikepacking. But there are some specific things, you know,

to the bike itself and in bags and stuff that aren't that aren't cheap.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I felt pretty familiar with the, you know, the camping or deal on the

adventuring part. But no, I had only mountain bike. I had a I still do. I have one mountain bike.

But it's more of an Enduro bike. Got into mountain biking a couple of years ago.

Mostly wanted to ride a downhill. I wasn't really that into pedaling long days.

Prior to hitting trail, the most I'd written was 30 miles in a day.

That was like a downhill ride, a full enchilada kind of thing.

That is funny, dude. So, so you, you, I mean, did you change that? Or did you stick to relatively

short days? And, you know, how long did it take you? Yeah, on the trip. Yeah. Yeah, we,

well, so again, looked at the website and people who had done it and was like, oh,

if you go 50 miles a day it takes roughly two months. I was like, that sounds reasonable.

So we'll just hit 50 miles a day. And so that was what we ended up doing for the whole time.

But yeah, I, the first day was, was rough, started, started out in the Arizona border and the

bike north. And it's 108 degrees. And it was the first time I'd ever biked with a loaded bike.

Because I was like working right up until the last day before we left. So I'd like,

ridden my bike around town and experimented with different parts. But just before we put it in the

car to drive to the border, we like packed everything onto our bikes. And I rode it around the

neighborhood here in Golden for maybe 10 minutes. And I was like, okay, everything stays.

It's like biking a, biking a moped, you know, exactly what it was like. Oh my gosh,

this thing so heavy. It was so heavy. That is wild, man. What's what's interesting is we've

talked so much about the tour divide and the great divide mountain bike route. This is

legitimately parallel to it. Just, you know, everywhere from like a hundred to maybe a few

hundred miles west. Yeah, I'm even like, hey, it's like it's even closer in places. That is

crazy. This is incredible. What a cool route. Yeah, you know, and I looked at that. The,

obviously, the great divide kind of came up in my research of looking at this. And this route,

it's super cool. It's put together by a nonprofit bike backing routes. I think they finished it in

2019. So pretty new in the world of bike backing routes. And I kind of compared the two side by

side. And this one, it just has less pavement and less, less people, less busy places. It's like

80% on public land, something like that. Almost entirely off pavement. And just looked a little more

rugged and a little bit more wildernessy, which is kind of what I was looking for. Did it prove

to be true? Yeah. It was, it's pretty out there sometimes. You know, it's not, it's not too crazy.

There's, you know, you can resupply every three days at the most. But you know, parts in Arizona,

you're a hundred miles between water. And so that was a whole new experience for me. But I just

wanted to get out there in the desert, you know, see less people and see all of kind of the amazing

places that American West has out there. And it was great. I mean, it's, I slept out every night

for, for two months. Stars were incredible. I didn't even bring a tent until I got to Salt Lake City

for the first, first month. Again, trying to stay awake. I don't know how heavy my bike was.

50, 70 pounds. I have no idea. It was hard to pick up.

Yeah, man, what a, what a culture shock to leave on day one from the Mexican border. And if I'm

not mistaken, it looks like it bikes along the border for just a little bit. Yeah. Oh, it's so

weird. So we, so yeah, I finished work, got in the car the next morning, drove straight to Arizona,

the Mexican border, slept in my truck, and then got up the next day and you, you bike out four

miles to the border and touched the wall and turned around and started biking north. And it's,

I mean, there's nothing there. It's just the middle of nowhere. A bunch of border patrol

coming along. Actually, did they like ask you what the heck are you doing, man?

No, it's pretty weird. You know, they, well, this totally ignored me. Like, it was a normal thing

that I'm coming to the wall with my loaded bike, taking pictures. God only knows what those

bags were full of, you know, I mean, a little, little privilege there of just showing up at the

border, turning around, going back the other way. But I, so it was also the first time I'd ridden

in clips. I rode around a little bit prior to that, but it keeps getting better. Yeah, really just

went for it. So in my clips, the first time was like feeling pretty good, practiced a bunch,

and we biked on this like tiny double track desert road past the border patrol,

tried to pull over and get out of the way. They're coming down in their truck and I like stop

and just couldn't unclip. So right there four miles in, just tipped over, stuck underneath my

bike in the middle of the road. They had to slam on their brakes, just like looking at me shaking

their head, like scrambling to get out from under my bike, pick the cactus out of myself.

They just look over the sunglasses and keep driving along. That's it.

So was there a moment early on where you thought, you know, what have I gotten myself into?

Was that it or was there one at all? Yeah, no, there definitely was. It was the first day actually.

So we planned, so I started the trip with my cousin and then my dad had actually driven us down

to the border and had planned on just like biking a day or two with us and then driving my truck

back. So we were going to bike from the border to Tombstone, Arizona. It's like touristy little

town down there with stage coaches and all this. It was only 35 miles. It was like this is good.

It's a good warm up day. Like let's do that. We'll rest and you know, we'll start big the next day

and it's super flat. You like leave the border. You're right along a river. Well, not really

river. It's like a sandy mess with no water in it, but you go along this river bed and it's

totally flat until you get almost a town. And then there's, I mean, in the scale of the wild

western super small uphill going into it, maybe 400 feet. And we left a little bit late and I was

going a little slow and it was about one in the afternoon. I definitely hadn't drank enough water

and we're only like 30 miles in and I was just laying on the side of the road like 108 degree

heat, getting kind of dizzy and weird thinking, oh my god, like I cannot bike my heavy bike up this

hill and it's day one of 50. Like what did I get myself into?

Thankfully, you didn't, you know, you maybe you didn't have a heat stroke or anything.

Yeah, but man, he's just seeing it just laying on the side of the road under a tiny,

you know, desert tree, dumping water on my head and just trying to keep it all together. I mean,

physically, I didn't feel very good, but mentally, man, I was like, wow, I'm not ready for this,

but from there, I mean, you get into some pretty, I mean, from just looking at the map, it just

lots and lots of desert, lots of heat, make your way up to the grain canyon. What, what,

was that first portion light going through Arizona? Like it must have changed a lot.

It did. You know, people ask me all the time about like this trip and what was the most

surprising part? And I think that was it, just the state of Arizona. It's so diverse, you know,

you can go from the Sonoran Desert down super low. It's like I said way over 100 degrees,

big cactus, no water, but you climb up into the mountains and it's incredible. There's big pine

trees and lakes and streams and you're down to, you know, 30 degrees at night. So like our third

day, we climbed about a Tucson 110 degrees in the valley. We woke up, it was 34 degrees in the

morning. Like all bundled up and our sleeping bag and there's these huge pine trees and rivers

and small ponds and all of that kind of stuff. And so it was incredibly diverse and also incredibly

challenging. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip overall and I think it was because I

just started and it was so so new and wild. You know, every day seemed like a week. It was it was

incredible. That's a that's a truth with adventures like this. Every day feels like a week and every

week feels like a month, you know, yeah. And every month feels like a year. It's it's it's just so

jam packed with new experiences. And then you get to what from what I can tell in the map looks

like the Grand Canyon. You went to the South Rim. Have you ever seen that before? So I paddled

the Grand Canyon in 2010. Oh, geez. Yeah, that's awesome. But I hadn't been back there since then.

But yeah, it's pretty wild because you're biking across this flat desert north of Flagstaff.

And the whole day, I couldn't tell if I was just seeing like a red band or the Grand Canyon. And

I still don't really know, but you climb up on these mountains north of Flagstaff and your

hundreds of miles away. And you can I think it is vaguely see this like giant canyon ahead of you.

This is actually the Grand Canyon was an interesting area. A lot of this was a little bit of a

challenge, you know, with COVID and all that happening. For the most part, not a big deal. You're

not around people. But some of the some of the root required things to be open, you know, for food and

water and camping and all of that. So we bike to the north or the South Rim like get there.

Everything looks good. You know, go take the picture on the rim. And then our plan was to bike

to the campground there. And I just could not get through on the phone or really figure out what

was going on on the website. And like the park itself was open, but like was the campground,

but like maybe not. And so we were either going to camp there or continue on. But it was about

three, four in the afternoon, four, five. And we got to the campground there on the South Rim and

everything is closed. And we needed water. I mean, you're in the middle of nowhere. There's not

a ton of water around there. So that campground was our water source. So we're totally out.

We each have like half a liter left. All of the buildings and things in the parking lots are closed.

All the waters off. And so there's a big roadblock on the road there.

And so I mean, there's not really another good option. We weren't going to turn around and

bike a hundred miles in the other direction. So we're there at like five p.m. pushing our bikes

like through the woods around this roadblock to like go to the other side to see if there's water

in the campground and we like bike in trying to be all quiet. And we're like, we'll just fill our

water bottles and leave. It's not a big deal. And we got to this campground and everything was

shut off. Like all of the water spickets. All of it. We're like going around the whole thing.

The bathrooms are locked. And finally, somehow at the behind like one of the maintenance buildings,

there's like one sink. It's like dishes only when we turn it on. And I've never been happier to see

water. Hey friends, I want to take a minute to tell you about campfire ranch. My friend Sam started

campfire ranch several years ago in his goal, his mission is to energize places by creating

meaningful human experiences in the outdoors. And all of the campfire ranch locations from their

campgrounds to trailside lodges to backcountry huts. Their goal is to help you stay in the place

and in the way that you want so that you can spend more time getting out there and getting

after it. Campfire Ranch Little Sugar is a trailside lodge located in Belavista, Arkansas,

just north of Bentonville, the mountain bike capital of the world. The lodge features seven

private bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and communal spaces for gathering, meeting with others

and relaxing after a long day on the trails. Little Sugar has immediate access to 160 plus miles

of public trails designed for mountain biking, gravel biking, trail running and hiking.

And it also has easy access to the food, art and music scene of downtown Bentonville.

So grab some buddies and go to www.campfire Ranch.co slash ASP. That's not.com. It's.co slash ASP

and you'll get 15% off nightly base rates at Little Sugar in Belavista, Arkansas.

And this opportunity is valid all the way through 2026. But you know how these things go?

Your weekend is going to fill up quickly. So go right now to campfire Ranch.co slash ASP

to plan your big adventure. Oh my gosh. What would you have done? I don't know, man. We were

bike a lot of pavement to a town or gone back 50 miles. I don't know. It was

I was glad there's water. And so we filled up and just biked, biked out of the canyon or out of

the National Park that day. Just kind of passed their roadblocks and I mean no one was there.

So we just biked and so we hit National Forest Land and camped for the night. Very,

very happy that we found a little bit of water. This is the best time to move to the mountain town

of your dreams. COVID-19 has changed the way the world works and probably the way you work. I know

that I work more remotely now. Now that all this has happened. So why not live somewhere that you

want to in a mountain paradise that you've always dreamed of? Well the Gunnison Valley in Colorado

is that perfect place. It's nestled right between a bunch of mountains, all sorts of things to do.

There's over 750 miles of biking and hiking single track. Crested butte right there in the valley

has a world-class skiing and the whole county has an award-winning school system. So imagine

waking up in your ultimate destination every single morning, no traffic, no crowded trails, no more

wishing you lived in the mountains. Like I do. Work where you play in the Gunnison Valley. They'll

be able to help you make that mountain dream come true at icelab.co. That's icelab.co. Consider

the Gunnison Valley your new home. My goodness, man. And then I mean, yeah, there's those times

where it's like, you know, it just creates a good story. You know, it's like the last thing we

checked and obviously the last option had what we needed. But you know, it could have been a totally

different story if it wouldn't have been open and who knows what adventure would have led to. But

you kept going, you found your water and y'all kept moving. Quickly after you leave the

green king and it just, it looks like it just keeps like more and more desert, more and more

bizarre landscapes. Yeah. And what I know about those areas, but you know, was that enjoyable to you?

Did you enjoy all this change and the climbing that was involved? What was the experience as you

kept going like? Yeah, I actually did learn to enjoy the climbing. It was about day four when we

realized that maybe not mileage, but time wise, 80, 85% of the time for two months would be spent

biking uphill. So decided pretty early on, you know, that, well, we'll just enjoy this. And

it's pretty funny. You get really in tune with the elevation, you know, after weeks of

biking up and down, especially in deserts where it changes so dramatically, you go up 500 feet,

you're like, oh, wow. Yeah, there's, there's a ponderosa pine like we must be getting up there.

Like you go up a little more in the Aspen start, you know, you can probably start to look for water.

So I thoroughly enjoyed that, but directly after leaving the Grand Canyon, the traditional route

goes through the Navajo Nation land, which looks incredible. It's like along these canyons and everything,

but they were totally closed because of COVID again. So it couldn't get a permit for the backcountry

area. And also, everything, you know, motels, campgrounds, all of that was closed. Technically,

you weren't supposed to sleep anywhere in their like land. So trying to be respectful of that,

but also wanting to continue on our bike route, like the roads through there are still open,

the state roads. And so directly after the Grand Canyon, that day had been like 68 miles. It was

my biggest day ever. We did a 118 mile day to get through the Navajo Nation so that we could sleep

on the other side, which then was definitely my biggest day, almost doubling my previous record

from highly long shards. So where'd you go? Was it the like Glen Canyon area from there?

It was actually. And then the other thing that happened around there was that everything was on

fire. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was having a crazy wildfire at the moment. And so,

you know, I didn't really have that much service, like calling family to check in, you know,

the different authorities on the fire and like trying to get on Wi-Fi here and there to look at it.

And it basically made it down to the very day we were going to be there that the route we had to go

through there evacuating everyone from. So decided that was not the best bike route. And so we

ended up biking. That was why I was 118 miles kind of around, past Lake Powell there,

and up into Utah right over there by the Glen Canyon Dam.

That is wild. Yeah, so many things. We're going to kids here. You can't go on the job at all feel

like maybe we shouldn't be doing this. Man, yeah, I mean, to be honest, like multiple times from

not being in shape or just like ready to like being so nervous to go through Navajo Nation and

trying to decide if I would be able to bike that far and, you know, what will be closed and will

the gas stations be open and then everything was on fire. And then sometime around this time was

when my cousin Cameron who was with me got a call that he actually wasn't going to be able to

bike the whole route because he had to start his job and Salt Lake. And so he actually left right

after we finished Arizona. So we were like approaching the end of him biking with me and I didn't

know if anyone else would join me. And it was, it was quite the the mental ordeal to be honest.

How did you take the news of your cousin not being able to join? What was going through your head

and what ultimately how did you decide to keep going? Yeah, it was tough, you know, I mean,

it was a very humbling trip in many ways. But that was one of them. You know, of course,

I understand. We kind of knew this was a possibility. Again, due to all the stuff happening in

the world and the pandemic, he wasn't sure when his job would start. He talked to him and they

were like, Hey, it doesn't sound like it's going to be soon. You should go adventure. And then they

had had someone quit and he ended up having to start, you know, a month earlier than expected.

And it was, it was tough because it was, we got the news pretty early on in the trip. And so we

completed, you know, two weeks out of, out of like seven. And it seemed like a pretty daunting

task to keep going. But, you know, I kept telling myself, well, a number of things. One, I hadn't,

I've done a lot of adventures, but I wouldn't say I've done many extended adventures alone.

You know, I've camped a night here or there, but I haven't ever just gone off by myself for a long

time. And so that's something I wanted to do kind of, you know, theoretically. Yeah, I would like

to say I've done this, but actually going through it is a totally different thing.

Totally different. So it was, you know, it was interesting. And I kind of would try to get

myself excited about that. But really what I kept coming back to is I'd taken all this time off

work. And I mean, it's like, what else would I be doing? So I would tell myself that every day,

like, yeah, you could stop and go home. But like, what are you going to do at home? Like ride your

bike around golden. Like, don't do that. Just keep biking. What else are you going to do?

And even the day is when I would not want to keep pedaling. Like, well, what else are you going to do?

Sit down and just like, hang out. You should just keep biking. And that was kind of my

monster to get through the harder times. Now, it's a lesson right there, man. Like, what else?

You know, when you're just sitting there in a terrible sort of, you know, not great situation,

you know, you got to get out of there some way. What do you do? You're not, you know, broken,

you know, you're not broken in half. Your body's not broken. Your bike's not broken.

Yeah, just keep going. I mean, that's a great lesson. So, so, so, did your cousin leave like

when you hit the Utah border? How did that work? He did. No, it worked out really well.

The whole trip really came together in an amazing way. It, you know, started itself kind of nerve

racking. But so my dad, who secretly, I think, had wanted to do this entire trip with us,

he biked across the country coast to coast in the other direction. He was in, I don't know,

in his 20s. Wow. And so I'm sure that he was just wanting to do this. So we were on the phone

talking to him about this. He's like, oh, well, actually, I've been riding my bike twice a day

for the past two weeks, like just in case. Like, do you want me to come bike a section? And so,

luckily, I have a super supportive family all around. And so he ended up flying into Salt Lake,

getting my cousin's car driving to Arizona. And then they just like swapped. So he didn't bring

any gear. He just jumped on Cameron's bike, like with all his gear sleeping bag and everything.

And then started biking north with me. I can take his car back to Salt Lake. And there's one of

those adventure plans that they really just kind of comes together, you know, and then I biked

close to Salt Lake. And then Cameron was able to bike a couple of weekends here and there.

The route went pretty close to his house, luckily. And so he was able to get a couple more days in.

And it ended up working out, you know, really great that he could come out then and my other friend

and girlfriend came out a little after that to meet me and Idaho. And my mom ended up coming out

closer to the northern part and just driving along and, you know, camping for a week with me as well.

So there was a lot of alone time, but there was also a lot of time where it's just super lucky to have

such a supportive family and network to, you know, come out and even if it was only biking two or three

days, that's a lot. Give me something to look forward to. So, absolutely. You made it a family

or deal, man. That's really cool. Yeah, you know, always get false.

That's so cool, though. I mean, who wouldn't want to go see these places? I'm not going to lie.

Like the tour divide is awesome. But as I, I'm just literally looking up and down the map as we

talk and I'm looking thinking like that's an iconic place. That's an amazing place. The variation

in this scenery is just unbelievable. You go by Bryce Canyon National Park. I mean,

you're going by all these, and you could quickly easily add even more to it.

This is a total tangent. But did you go by Pando the Aspen Forest?

I did. It's the largest, largest Aspen. It's the largest living organism.

Yeah. It's by Fish Lake, right? Yeah. That's so cool. I slept there.

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That's the largest living organism on Earth is the Pando Forest.

Yeah. That's really cool, man. I mean, that's just another random thing that's really

incredible to see. That's just right on the route. That's a good way to describe it.

And there were a lot of things like that. I didn't really know about Pando prior to going.

Right. I would, I would two days ahead of time be looking at a little root guide or,

you know, reading stuff. You're there talking to people and like, oh, cool. I guess we'll go see

the largest Aspen clone in the world. Yeah. Let's camp there. And then we'll learn about that.

Man, my wife and I drove hours through a snowstorm just to see Pando.

I was like, is this it? I see Aspen. I had to like bike around until I found a sign.

Yeah. It's definitely not anything special. If you don't see this sign, it's just an Aspen forest.

But yeah, so it seemed like there's a lot of stuff like that. What's a, I don't know, maybe

between the, you know, the border of Utah and Salt Lake. What were some of the things you

had to look forward to? What was the scene or did you enjoy that part? Pretty, pretty well.

Yes. For one, it allowed me to bike during the day. So I didn't even mention this. So the,

this route really should be either be started in like early May and then you finish earlier or

you should wait and start coming south or north to south. Maybe end of July. So you finish in like

September, October, down in Arizona. So really June 6th or whenever I started, it's like the worst

time ever. But it totally would lined up with the time I had available. So we were getting up at 4

and we would bike until like 10, 30 or 11 and it would be well over 100 degrees and then we would

lay under a tree like all day until like 6 pm when it would dip below 100 degrees and then bike

until like 10, 30 pm and then sleep and then wake up and do it again. And that's like how I made

50 miles a day through the first two, two and a half weeks. And so yeah, I definitely enjoyed

the Utah section because I was able to just bike during the day and just have a normal, normal

schedule. So the logistics alone, we're, we're a really nice change of pace. But yeah, you go

through there and it's, it's incredible. It's a lot of like high desert area. So you know,

you're kind of biking along and some of its, you know, like Bryce Canyon and that kind of desert,

but it goes up and over a lot of plateaus. The route does a really nice job of never really

keeping you at the same elevation for too long. And so you bike up and there's wild flowers and,

you know, pine trees and little ponds and lakes you can camp by and then it'll dip you back down

and you kind of do that all the way until you get just south assault lake. It goes on Skyline Drive,

which is this four-wheel drive road, takes you up into Soldier Summit. If you've ever been up there,

it's just a gas station. But it kind of climbs the mountains just south assault lake and that part

is so incredible. You get up onto this big plateau and you can see like the Wasatch range and the

UNOs and kind of all of those mountains and you finally feel like you're done with the desert.

Which you're not really, but you're done with the Arizona desert at least. They're like crazy,

you can't bike during the day desert. Just from there, what, what were you experiencing as far as

like with people? Were you interacting with a lot of people? Were people asking you what you were

doing? Were you even seeing that many people? Like, what was that like? Yeah, hit or miss. So

people, I would see them usually on the weekends. You know, some of the places are a popular weekend

destination. A lot of like four-wheelers and ATV users were around for this part of the route.

And so I would say I saw some and I would go into town, you know, every day or two to to

resupply, but but not a lot. You know, it's not like when you just go hiking somewhere on the

front range here and you see all these people. I mean, there would be full days where I wouldn't see

anyone. Absolutely. But it's, I don't know, I would say it was a good mix, especially when you're

by yourself. Adventuring all alone in the wilderness is really cool, but that one's definitely

better shared with someone else. Adventuring on your own is really awesome when you can interact

with other people. I think that that's kind of my takeaway from this trip is you experience

things a little different when you're on their own. And it's a really it's a really good and powerful

thing. But you can only do so much beautiful scenery without sharing it with someone.

You know, that that that that's funny. You say that I've had that thought people on this show.

We've had so many people that do things for multiple years or adventures. I just in the middle

of, you know, nowhere we've had folks that that have sailed around the world alone or biked for

decades alone. Right. And I think like, man, like it's all there in your head. You know, obviously

you forget a lot, but it's also like that is that's a lot of stuff in that head and just your head

and just that picture of yours or that camera of yours. And in one hand, it's awesome. One

hand is it is ashamed. No one else is getting to see it. Totally. Yeah. That was kind of my

my takeaway. You know, not to take anything away from doing adventures alone. I mean,

that's incredibly powerful experience. But yeah, it was nice to see people and, you know,

I would say when we started and you are biking along, like, oh, what are you doing? Oh,

we're on a bike trip. Where are you going? Canada. Like, oh, okay. In the middle of like Tucson,

okay, sure you are. Like good luck. But you get farther north and there's a little bit more of an

eventually crowd. So it's fun to, you know, get to the summit or the mountain pass and there's

someone else up there on a on a hiking trip or whatever. And you can kind of share that moment.

That's pretty cool. Did you mean anybody going southbound? So very few people. So there were not

a lot of people doing this route that I encountered. So there are only two other people that I know

that we're going northbound this year. And I caught them at the very end of the trip. They started

about two weeks before me. But I only saw one other one other party of bike packers until I got

to Montana actually for the entire route. And it was in Utah. It was near near Pando actually. It was

the day before we got there. And we were camped kind of among these rocks. And I was just sitting

there eating a hot pocket actually, watching the, watching the sunset. Good times. Totally. I'll just

strap them on my bike and put them on a hot rock at the end of the day. And yeah, there's these two

bike packers that were biking down the road. And I like got up and jumped out of my chair and

like ran down in my flip flops and chased them down the road. It's like, are you guys bike packers?

What are you doing? Are you doing the Wild West route? Wow. I was so excited. It was the first

bike packers. I'd seen the whole time and I had to chase them down. And they ended up just doing

a section. They were just doing the Utah section. But those were the first folks that I found. And

man, I was so happy to just see someone else that was doing a similar activity because it had

been three and a half weeks of seeing no one on a bike. Oh my gosh, man. That's too funny.

You're just instant connection. Totally get that. That, you know, anyone who's been out there

can relate. Geez, man. So this route, you know, you can tell me if I'm missing something, but

between Salt Lake City and kind of Idaho, it looks like you go through parts of Wyoming. You get

fairly close to like the T-tons. You probably couldn't see them. I wouldn't imagine, but you're

relatively close. Yeah. And then you go to craters of the moon. What could you tell us a little

bit about that segment? Yeah, of course. So you go through Salt Lake. I actually go around it.

There's an alternate there. I went up over near Mirror Lake Highway and it brings you down into

Evanston right along I-80, which is about halfway actually. And so you feel like you're about halfway

there. Salt Lake just beyond kind of dips in and out of Wyoming. I think you go into Wyoming

five times in two days or something. It kind of rides that border. And it's like what you would

expect Wyoming to be a little more flat, a little bit more kind of high plains area.

But then it cuts over and goes into Idaho. And there's this giant lake. Was it Bear Lake? Yeah.

And it's awesome. It's like there's a beach where they're on the 4th of July. It's like a party

going on everywhere, which was cool at first. And then immediately you're like, I kind of over

people. I'm ready to be somewhere else. But it's the beauty of bike packing is I had a couple

of other friends join me for that part for the weekend. And my girlfriend was there as well.

And we biked up to the lake, got a note with all the people and then just biked along until there

was no parking for cars and then just pushed our bikes through the bushes and found this awesome

section of beach with no one around and spent the day splashing around and making avocado

sandwiches on the beach to celebrate. So that's super cool. And and then you bike kind of north.

And again, the route doesn't you can't see the T-tons, but you go through some smaller mountains.

The route again does a really good job of going up over kind of past some abandoned and active

mines. And then it goes down into soda springs and then over into Blackfoot where I stayed with

the super nice family. I was able to bike along the and what's the river there. I guess it's

the Blackfoot River for kind of a change of pace as well. And then you bike back across the snake

river plain, which is pretty exciting. It's when it gets wet. It's totally impossible. It's like

that crazy mud clay that gunks up your bike. So luckily everything was fine. Didn't have to do

with that. But you bike it was about 80 miles across the plane and there's nothing. So you just

you just bike across it and I stayed with this family in Blackfoot the night before. They were

awesome. Random fellow bike packers that like found me that found the fact that I was doing this

route and reached out to me of their own accord to offer me a place to stay, which was incredibly

kind. But had just the craziest experience there. They had an elderly neighbor that lived in Blackfoot

forever. You know, and he's talking to me and he's like, you're going out on the plains? Yeah,

yeah, I'm gonna go tomorrow. You gonna sleep out there? I was like, well, maybe, maybe not. I'm

gonna try and make it to the next town. But you know, we'll see. Well, there's not water out there.

There's one well. It's like, yeah, I see that. Yeah, I'll carry some. And he's like, you know,

there's snakes. Yeah, I know I'm biking through the desert. But like, I'll be okay. Like,

we can't sleep out there with rattlesnakes. Here's what you do. You got to bring a big rope. You got

a rope. I'll get you one. Bring a big rope. You're going to soak it in diesel. And then you're

going to lay it in a circle right around your pad. The snakes won't be able to catch you. Like,

I appreciate the concern, man. I'm not carrying a diesel soaked rope. Like, it's not the organ trail.

I think I'm going to be all right. I don't know. You know, totally genuine. He offered me his gun to

take with him. He should have to take with me. I'll come get it later. No, don't need a rope,

and a gun. But thank you. Thank you for carrying. Got to be fine.

Locals, man. Locals are funny. They totally are. Everyone's got a gotten opinion about what you're

doing and the route you should take. So if I'm part about bike backing, oh, you're taking that

route. Don't take that road. You should take this one. It's way better. You know, we're, oh,

you're looking for a spot to camp? Well, I know a spot camp at the orchard. And then you look it

up. And it's like 30 miles away. You know, I probably won't make it there today. But

in the opposite direction, it's, yeah, man, locals, I have a theory about that. It's like,

you're there. They want you to, you enjoy it. And they want you to see the best places. But they're

also embarrassed if they don't know the details. And so if it's more than 10 miles away from their

house or right where they're standing, it's like I doubt that they know the nuances of the road.

They'll be like, oh, yeah, it's flat the whole way. And I'm like, there's a mountain between here

and there. Like the road goes over it. Clearly, you just driven it in a car for the last 40 years.

So you don't know. But you feel it all on a bike, you know? Yeah, I mean, I think you meet someone

who is intimately familiar with what it's like to mountain bike a road. It's like so slim.

No one knows. Right. Exactly. And even then, it's like, it's just, it's so few and far between.

Yeah, exactly. Oh, if anything, headwinds were brutal in that section. Nothing feels worse than

having a headwind on a day when you think you should be making miles about a month in, you know,

starting to feel strong. Oh, yeah, 80 miles. No hills. No problem. It's like 25 mile an hour

direct headwind. I couldn't pet a more than four miles an hour. It's like so brutal and humbling.

Oh my gosh. That'll drive you crazy. Yeah, it will. You like stand up, yell,

bike into the wind as hard as you can. That lasts about 30 seconds. And then you sit down and

you haven't gone anywhere. And you're still biking for another eight hours.

Going four miles an hour. Yeah, that's, uh, I've had many days like that. And then right after

that, it looks like you climb right up into the mountains. So that's fun. Yeah. That was my favorite

section. Sweet. So, so I was going to ask, the solitudes are a mountain range that I feel

I've heard good things about, but I personally don't know a whole lot about. And I feel like it might

be like a hidden gym that isn't quite discovered like the front range, for instance.

Uh, you tell me what was it like to really go through the heart of them?

Yeah, no, you couldn't have said it better. Um, yeah, don't give me started on that. My,

my girlfriend's already on my case because I want to buy a, buy a house in Sun Valley.

Now that, that's an incredible area. I mean, you come out of the, the snake over plain in the desert.

And then you climb into these beautiful mountains. And it's their mountainous enough

in their streams that it's green and there's plenty of water. But you're not so far up north

that it's humid or that it, you know, is wet. So it's easy to sleep out without a tent.

But it's plenty of water that you don't have to worry about it. You can, I mean, they look crazy. The

sawtooth is like the best name for those mountains. They're just these like jagged peaks that

go for miles. Um, there's hot springs everywhere. It's like super volcanic. There's all this

thermal activity going on. So, you know, I'd hit like three to four hot springs in a day,

camp next to them. And yeah, I just loved that area interacted with a bunch of, a bunch of people.

My newest theory of how to travel is when you talk to the locals, you should ask questions

pretending like you're going to move there. And you find out what a place is really like.

Have you ever gone through all the hassles of getting on the plane, security, luggage,

shoot long waits at the airport, all that kind of stuff. And then when you finally arrive at your

destination, not only are you worn out, but you also might feel a little bit disconnected. I know

that I do when I hop scotch around the planet on a plane. That's one of the reasons why I love

the great American road trips where you get to drive from one place to another and connect all

of those dots. You get to experience the changes in the terrain and the weather and the people

and the communities. This is one reason that I am excited to present to you our new sponsor,

Outdoorsy. Outdoorsy offers a different way to travel. Without Dorsy, you can rent an RV or

a camper and turn the drive into part of the vacation on your schedule with your people and with

way more flexibility. Listen, most trips focus on getting somewhere. Outdoorsy is about the part

in between. Without Dorsy, you can rent an RV or a camper and travel on your own terms,

no TSA lines, no strict schedules, no rushing through airports. And for extra convenience,

Outdoorsy even offers RV delivery and setup in many locations so you can enjoy the experience

without having to worry about the logistics. Outdoorsy connects travelers with trusted RV owners

across the country, making it easy to find a rig that fits your style and budget. And I might add

that also fits with the people and the pets that you want to take with you.

So when you're ready for a trip that actually feels like a break, head to Outdoorsy.com.

Outdoorsy is currently running a special promotion for listeners. Use the promo code ASP

at checkout to take advantage of this limited time offer. That's Outdoorsy.com

promo code ASP. That's interesting. Yeah, what do you mean by that?

Oh, what's the housing market? How was your kid's second grade teacher? What do you do in the month

of January? What is the weather like in the mornings? Do you get to bike to work? What is it like

during shoulder season? All these random questions that you normally wouldn't ask just

and someone I was generally interested at the moment of like, man, I can see myself living here.

And so I started to ask those questions and I kind of carried it on through the rest of the trip

of checking in with people and everybody loves to talk about where they live.

You know, so they immediately like you, but also you get these weird intimate details.

Oh, yeah, there's, you know, the greatest ice cream stand down the street, but you have to go

on Tuesdays. Of course, it's like Sunday. All right, maybe I'll come back.

That's too fun, man. But yeah, I bike like 150, 200 miles along the salmon river. It's just

incredible. You know, just a really special section. And I would imagine not many people as well.

Yeah, definitely definitely less and easier to get off the beaten path the farther north you go.

And so it kind of goes right from there, right into Montana and the across the border, maybe five

times between Idaho and Montana right along the squiggly edge there if you're looking at a map.

And I mean, that's it's all the same country. You're into like big, big mountain Montana country

with pine trees everywhere and no more like open mountains, you know, no more deserts, no more

plains. And you kind of quickly get into that and finish the route. I'm looking at a terrain map

from really from Idaho Falls all the way to Montana. It looks like just a crinkled up piece of paper

with a line through it. And I just can't imagine some of the beauty that's out there. Any time

you see that, you just know it's going to be interesting and fun and gorgeous and wild and

forested. Oh my gosh, it gets me so excited. But you get to the border. Did you have a group

waiting on you? You know, it seemed like there was a lot of people involved. So I'm sure someone

was waiting for you. Yeah. So we so my mom had laughed. She, you know, came to hang out.

I was biking alone for a couple of days. Cameron, of course, my cousin was, you know, still

wanted to get in on the adventure. So he ended up coming up to pick me up from the border,

which was super awesome. But of course, he was like, yeah, I'm going to bike a couple of days.

I was like, okay. So then we had to figure out how to like shuttle his car. So then he had to call

his friend Dave and Dave like wanted to bike too. And I was like, yeah, you should. But also,

we're going to be doing these huge days. Like, okay. You know, and so it's like calling this

person and then someone else is going to shuttle the car. So again, after two months,

amazingly, all these logistics come together that I like meet him at this tiny town in the middle

of nowhere, like two, two little stores. We arrive within 20 minutes of each other. And we ended

up biking the last three days to the border. I wasn't originally I'd plan like four or five days

to finish, figuring out, just go slow and enjoy it. And you know, it got within striking distance.

And I was like, well, I can bike 60 to 70 miles a day. And that I can get there in three days.

And that's 100% what I'm doing. I was just way too excited. There's no way I wouldn't have

been able to slow down. No kidding. All these people. So we, yeah. Exactly. So we bike to the border.

We got lost like 20 miles from the border after this like, you know, almost 3,000 miles of finding

our way. We were too excited, took a wrong turn and ended up in a little town, looked at our map.

Dang it. We're not on the route. So we just dipped into town, got ice cream again,

till that's the theme never never pass up ice cream. And we ended up biking to the border. And

yeah, my cousin was ahead of me and we're just biking along a flat road. And you can see the

huge mountains in Canada. There's not much up there. There's one bar and like a border crossing.

And you're just biking on this flat road. And the Canadian mountains are huge in front of you. And

even after two months, you like feel all this energy build. And my cousin started to bike in ahead

of me. And we're like fully tucked on our mountain bikes, right? It's just like four arms resting

on the handlebars, not the best position. And he like keeps biking faster. I was like, my God,

he's going. And so he's pulling me down the road on our bikes at like 20, 22 miles an hour on

flat ground, just like flying into the finish. We were so sore the next day. We didn't realize

that we'd spent the last like 45 minutes to an hour just biking as hard as we could to like cruise

into the border. And that you get there and that's it. Then like no one is there and nobody cares.

Like we sat on the border, expected someone to come, you know, yell at us. No, no one's around.

Like set up our chairs. I'd carried a chair the whole way. It was my one luxury item. So we like set

up our chairs, sat by the border, took a picture, had a snack, like wandered over to the bar where his

car was and like walked in. Bartender is making fun of us for wearing a mask and you know,

immediately called out that we weren't locals. And she's like, well, I can make anything you want.

But I don't have anything fancy. It's like, oh, can you, you know, can you make like Poutine?

It's like in your Canada. Everyone in the bar just looks at me, you know, like props on the floor.

No, okay. What can you make French fries? Great. We would love some French fries. Like what?

And yeah, that was that was it. And we as all adventures and just loaded bikes in and on top of the car

with too much gear, too many people drove Cameron's friend back to his car late at night,

laid in the middle of a park and just slept and thought about it. Really weird.

It's really weird. That's a great, great way to end it. I've been to Roosevelt once,

doing the Tour de Valle actually. And so it's funny that they kind of began an end in the same

places, but go a totally different way or near the same places. But, uh,

dude, yeah, what a beautiful area and what a just amazing adventure.

How do I mean, you know, it's not been that long since you've been home.

What, what, what, what, what is kind of, how have you readjusted being back and what,

what's kind of your thoughts about it looking back now? Just something obviously you're glad you did.

But I don't know. What's, what's, what are you thinking about it in regards to the trip?

Yeah. How am I doing being back at medium at best? I would say, you know, it was pretty weird

coming back. I took a while to come home, went back to Salt Lake, stayed with my cousin for a day or two,

girlfriend came, picked me up. We like adventure to the mountains on the way back. So kind of had a

soft reentry. But, um, for probably the first three weeks, I had to bike every day or my brain

and my body would hurt. Like, if I wouldn't go bike, my knees would hurt. It was so weird. I spent the

whole trip worrying about my knees, my body holding up. Everything was fine. I came home and stopped

biking and I would be so like stiff and sore. I didn't take any rest days. I took one, took one

rest day in Salt Lake, um, and had biked for two months straight and I would feel so bad and I would

get on my bike and ride for 10 minutes and immediately feel better. So for the first three weeks,

just rode my bike a lot, you know, go out, spend a quick 40 miles around town, try and readjust

a sleeping inside. It didn't rain the whole trip and so I'd seen the stars every night.

No way. It didn't rain. It rained one day before my planned rest day in Salt Lake. It was this

crazy like hail storm, rain storm. And I just went into Salt Lake and exploded all my gear.

And then bike the next day. But like I said, I didn't even bring a tent before I got there and I

slept without the rain fly every night in Idaho. I had it because of the bugs, but I'd seen the stars

every night. So it's a little, a little interesting to readjust, but it was good. I started work again

in September and so I've been readjusting to that. Came home and just rode my bike a lot because

that's what made sense. Dang, man, have you had any weird experiences of like, I don't know,

after an experience like that, you might have something remind you not this, not PTSD or anything,

but I remember having a trip one time where like water and food were not that available and we got

back to this airport and this person was like losing it over this pizza that wasn't right at a

pizza shop and I was just like, I can't believe you're complaining. It was my first reaction.

So we had been starving. So I don't know, do you have any experiences like that coming home?

Yeah, it was, it was any time I would go into a store. It would like freak me out. Like there was

so much food. I mean, I'd been in stores the whole trip, but I would go in and like watch people

like selecting their food and like there's all these choices and they're like so much stimulation

and I would walk around for like five minutes and be like, I can't. I don't want to be in here anymore.

Well, let's just get a gallon of milk and go. So yeah, I don't know why stores were so weird. I just

think the stimulation and then the over, over whatever you want to call it. You got 150 feet

cereal to choose from. That's a lot. That's a lot. And you're looking at it different. You're not like,

wow, I, okay, I don't need to eat a whole box of cereal for breakfast. Like that could last a

week. Great. Gosh, that's funny, man. So what is, you know, what can you tell somebody who,

you know, obviously a lot of things lined up for you, but what can you tell someone that doesn't

feel necessarily prepared for a big adventure or what have you learned about just kind of jump

in into things? It seemed to work for you. Yeah, it always does in some fashion, depending on how

you look at it. But, and, you know, anyone could do this, right? And I know it's a pretty cliche

thing to say, but it was really hard. I learned a lot on the strip. I was very humbled every day,

but it's also really confidence building. You know, you get strong and you can bang out another

30 miles when you didn't think you could. And I think anybody can feel that, right? Like I took,

I had a bike and I'd done some camping so I had a leg up, but I had no idea what I was doing.

You know, I just strapped things to my bike with ski straps and then like everything fell off

the first day when we went downhill. And then you figure it out and everything squishes and

explodes in your bag and then you figure it out. And so I think as long as you're in it for the

adventure and not in it for doing it right, whatever that means, when you start out, I think that it's

truly something that anybody can do. I mean, bikepacking is great. It's my first bikepacking

adventure and I'll never backpack again. This was so much better. Man, why is that? Why do you think

for you specifically? Why do you say that? Two reasons. Well, three, one way more fun. You get

like a fun aspect as well as the hard aspects. So you get to go downhill, you get to, you know,

bike fast, you get to do all of those like exciting parts of it. You can carry a lot of

things but not hurt your body. So once your legs get strong, it's not like you're carrying a heavy

pack every day. And if you want to carry, who knows, a gallon of ice cream into the desert or,

you know, strap a two liter of orange juice to your bike. Like who cares? Like just strap it to

the front fork and go out in the middle of nowhere and like drink a whole gallon of orange juice.

Like you don't do that when you're backpacking at all. But I think for adventuring and seeing

new places, like if you were going to, you have always been kind of interested in like walking

along distance trail. But like if you're walking the AT and someone's like, hey, there's a cool

waterfall. It's five miles away. That's a big deal. If you're going to walk five miles out of

your way to come back, it's like a whole day. But biking is something five miles away. Who cares?

So you might like, let's go this way. Let's go that way. So I think there's a certain freedom to it

that really allows you to to play it by ear and see a new place in that way.

Well, Keegan, you have totally convinced me to put this on my list of rounds to do because it

just looks incredible. I absolutely love that the tour divide. But this looks even more,

it obviously is more rugged, more desolate, less people. And you know, there's more and more

routes like this popping up all over. And I can't agree with you more. I'm definitely partial listeners

know that for all the same reasons you mentioned, my knees, you know, are big deal and being able

to carry an entire, you know, jar of peanut butter, you know, I want to be able to do that in my

coffee, you know what I mean? And all these things, it's like, I don't want to drill holes in my

toothbrush to save half a gram, you know what I mean? Like I just want to carry a freaking toothbrush

and this cool rock I found, you know, so for sure, just stuff like that. I want to be able to do it

and the bike or a kayak or something like that is just a great medium to have to get that done.

But you know, all respective folks doing it all on foot, you get to go to some great places. But

you know, I think these roads out here and these these these forest roads and trails are

that you can take a bike under still incredible, incredible to go. But dude, well, so you know,

to wrap this all up, you know, what do you have to look forward to? What do you what do you got

ahead of you? And also how can people find you if that's something you want people to even do?

Well, when I cut back, no, but yeah, yeah, coming up, I have to go back to work. Just, you know,

adventuring is a lifestyle, but not a job per se. And so I'm excited to get back into another

season with Abbott, have some other adventures, you know, plan. It's funny. I came back and bought

a motorcycle. So I don't know what that says about the trip. But you like two wheels, that's for sure.

Yeah. And you know, just been trying to get after and stay fit and I've been getting up on some

ridges here in the front range. But I think looking forward, I just found the other day a bike

packing route in North Dakota. It's one of two states that I haven't been to. I have that in Hawaii.

And I feel like North Dakota would be not a cool way to finish my 50 states. So I'm going to go

there next and then Hawaii. But I found a quick one. But it's fun to kind of have the know how and

have all the gear to go up. I think it'll be like a four day route. And the kind of the southwest

corner there. And I'll go up and do that when I get along weekend. And who knows? I think I would

do another long trip again. I don't know if I would do like a two month bike pack, maybe,

but it depends on the situation. But I'll definitely be bike packing in the future. And in the

meantime, planning, planning other adventures, I don't, I don't know that the year has gone by when

I haven't come up with some crazy scheme like this. So I'll just let the next one hit me when it does.

Oh man. Well, Keegan, dude, thank you so much for joining. I think I heard a few stories of

maybe some future adventure sports podcast episodes just for you.

I don't feel like this is not the craziest thing you've ever done. So

or at least there's a lot more other things as well. So maybe we can get you back on again. Your

great storyteller. This was really fun. And yeah, man, thanks for, thanks for jumping on. Thanks for

reaching out. Yeah, of course. No, I really appreciate it and appreciate everything you do here.

I listened to a bunch of podcasts as I was going. And man, there's nothing to help you keep

biking, like listening to someone do something that's way harder than what you're doing when you're

feeling bad. I'd be like, wow, it's so hard. Today was awful. And I listened to someone who,

you know, walked across Siberia and I'm like, wow, okay. So I'm going to be fine. I'm going to go

get ice cream. It's going to be totally okay. So now thank my mom and two days. Exactly.

She's going to make me dinner. Yeah. No, I make it funny, but my trips are the same way.

It's like, yeah, yeah, I definitely, I definitely think my life is hard. And then I listen to someone

on the show and think, you know, I'm, I'm fine. I can, I can tough up. All right, man, we'll be in touch

when this thing as this thing gets closer to coming out. It should be a couple weeks from now. And

yeah, I'll tag you and do all that and we'll go from there. All right. Well, I appreciate it, Mason.

Thanks for doing all you do and hopefully you can get out on your bike soon. Yeah, absolutely.

Man, I'll let you know next time I'm in Golden. All right, man. Have a great night.

Thanks. All right. See you. Bye.

First of all, thank you so much for listening. It means the world to us that you

choose to listen to this show. If you'd like to help us further, you can leave a review on iTunes,

share us with your friends, your family. It goes a long way to grow in the show. You can also

support us financially through patreon.com slash adventure sports podcast. Link is in the show

notes. And also if you have an idea of who could be a good guest for the show, we're always looking

for people to tell their story about the outdoors or adventure. So if you know someone, please

reach out, email us at info at adventure sportspodcast.com. And until then, get out there and have some fun.