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How Wandrer Reinvigorated My Love of Biking
We’ve all been there – for whatever reason, the thing that used to bring you joy no longer does. What to do?
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What Kind of Wandrer Are You?
If you’ve stumbled your way onto this blog post, chances are you’re already a Wandrer yourself. You probably already know the sweet satisfaction of pedaling down an unfamiliar road, knowing it will soon be another line on your ever-expanding Big Map.
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Traveling with a baby for a mountain biking vacation
Craig and I hesitated about having a baby for a long time because we weren’t sure it would be possible to continue having adventures once we were responsible for a little one. But we haven’t stopped! We bike toured in Taiwan from age 4 to 6 months and spent almost a month at my family’s home in Maine at age 11 months. And last week we took a road trip to Bentonville, Arkansas, primarily to mountain bike with a group of riding friends while also hanging out with our 13-month old baby. I wanted to share a little bit about what we found in Bentonville and our experience traveling to mountain bike with a little one in case the info is helpful to anyone else.
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Bike touring with a 4-6 month old baby in Taiwan
We had a wonderful time on our bike touring adventure in Taiwan with our little 4-6 month old baby. Our confidence to try touring was very much inspired by two mini-guidebooks (Cycle Touring with a Baby/Toddler, Cycle Touring with Two Young Kids) written by Maya and Gili on the Life in MAGIc Land blog. Since we learned so much from them, I wanted to share our thoughts here, in case they can be of interest/use to others.
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Wandrering the winter cycling capital of the world
Craig and I have very much enjoyed learning more about winter cycling from Wandrer Pekka Tahkola, an urban planner and well-being engineer who lives in Oulu, Finland. We recommend following him on social media (Instagram / Twitter / YouTube). Oulu is the the winter cycling capital of the world and this BBC News short video and Pekka’s head-to-head Winter Safe Cycling Showdown make it clear why.
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March is Sign Appreciation Month at Wandrer!
During our bike tour of Taiwan, Craig and I have spent a lot of time looking at and chatting about all the great signs we see. We decided that it’s high time to celebrate signs, have some fun with all you Wandrers, and give out a few prizes too!
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Scooters of Taiwan
Curated by Craig, our favorite scooters of Taiwan. Shortly after we arrived, Craig noticed that there are many, many delightful scooter names and mottos all over the city. There are also a TON of scooters. It’s pretty common that we’ll be out walking and I’ll go to say something to Craig, only to realize that he’s giggling to himself about 30 feet behind me at a new scooter. Don’t worry, we’re not done with the trip and I’ll keep updating these as we go! Cheers, your diligent scooter documentation team.
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Wandrer on the Singletracks podcast
Craig sat down with Jeff from Singletracks and talked about all things Wandrer: where it came from and where it’s going. And of course, he had to give a shout out to the most skilled mountain biker of all time, Chris Akrigg 😘
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Ten thousand cans
Erik is cycling every road in Tucson, Arizona (all 3280 miles of them), trying (without much trouble it seems) to collect 10,000 aluminum cans along the way, and discovering adventure and new places close to home. Once the 10,000 cans are collected, the plan is to melt/process them in to a functional piece of art, (like a bike rack). Lots more info here and here and definitely worth a follow on Twitter / Instagram. Prepare to see lots of cans and lots of ridiculous giant trucks.
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Learning Your City, For Better and Worse
Jon describes his adventures riding > 90% of the roads in his hometown of Wigan, UK on the Wet, cold, and angry blog. This description is an entertaining read for those of us who live in an area with many Low Traffic Neighborhoods (extensive cul-de-sac neighborhoods) and have attempted to systematically ride a significant portion of said neighborhoods. Deeply learning about your city isn’t always roses and cherry pies – there’s bad (or nonexistent) cycling infrastructure and depressingly poorly maintained neighborhoods (we’ve observed both of these in Atlanta, too). Jon points out some of the good consequences to this type of completionist exploring, such as knowing the best route from any given points A to B. A highly recommended read and congrats, Jon, on your Wandrering accomplishment.
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Hidden cowboy
A fun consequence of working at Wandrer is getting to see lots of different maps of where wandrers have ridden. And sometimes those maps have hidden surprises contained within!
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It came from Wandrer Earth
Craig and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video from OPE! Cycling showing an attempt to ride a century on city streets without backtracking while maximizing new roads. There are so many classic Wandrer-ing moments captured here – unexpected no trespassing signs, climbing over fences, paths that are on the map but disappear into a huge pile of weeds, dead ends at a river.
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Kentucky Wandrers featured on Kentucky Cycling
Nathan from Kentucky Cycling invited a group of the top Kentucky Wandrers to gather and discuss their exploration of the state.
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Interview with Craig on Kentucky Cycling
Our friends at Kentucky Cycling invited Craig to chat about Wandrer in this video. Nathan and Craig discussed the origins of Wandrer, the details of the data and how the game works, as well as personal details like how Craig got into cycling and how many bikes he owns (an ever changing number).
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