From micro adventure to big adventure

Every Monday evening throughout the year, we go on a micro adventure. 

In the summertime, it stays light enough for us to just ride, and as autumn approaches, we strap on lights and carry on in a little bubble of light in the dark woods.

The adventures are a great little break from the everyday chores, and has brought together a good group of people from many different backgrounds. New friendships, more adventures.

As weeks go by, conversations and dreams start pointing towards a longer and deeper adventure. Coordination begins, the date is set, and we’re moving towards the first bigger adventure. Then, the final group of riders is set, the route is made, plans are finalised. We’re ready to go.

We meet up in the early morning, with the only real deadline being a table booked at a restaurant 12 hours later. There's roughly 200km of open adventure ahead of us. Everyone’s excited and smiling. Some more nervously than others, worried that they've got in too deep on this one, as 200km carrying all your gear through the woods seems like a task.

The mission is to stay in the woods and on the backroads all the way, stop for coffee somewhere, stop for a good lunch, take the ferry, eat a good dinner at a restaurant, set up bivuaks and hang out with good beers and laughs by the beach to end the day.

Setting off with an open day means that you have some sort of expectations towards the schedule you have set, the gear you have brought and perhaps a general picture of how good shape you are in compared to the rest of the group. The great thing about adventures is, that things just happen and take place, rarely in a fashion you had planned or expected. And you just have to go with that.

12km into the ride, a small branch put an end to a rear derailleur, leaving us stuck in the woods with no escape. Lifelines used, we had the help of my wife come swap bikes, a commuter bike was set in place, and off we were. Crew still intact. A few flat tyres were all the challenges we had from there. Fantastic scenery, great laughs and loads of unexplored trails lead us to our end destination. I had cheated and dug down a bag of good beer at out camp spot, which seemed to be a feature everyone was into.

The end of a great day finished on a restaurant with stories from near and far, laughs and stinky feet - and good beer of course. 

What more could you ask for in a days adventure?

Let’s go again soon, boys.