My big news: after 3.5 years in Mexico, I’ve made it back to the US! My head is reeling with the emotion of it all and my heart’s full of gratitude for friends and family that I’ll be seeing soon. When I crossed the Mexican border in February 2020, I figured I’d be away for a few months, no more. What a turn of events that proved to be…

After bidding Huesos a teary farewell in Oaxaca and negotiating a medley of transportation – a crack-of-dawn taxi ride, two planes, and a couple of car rides – I’ve made it to Burlington. Sage and I will be spending two weeks together in almost-summery Vermont (our planned bikepacking routes are here). Thank you Seth and Nancy for getting me here so smoothly and seamlessly, and with such fabulous food in my belly!

Along the way, we even found time to put together a new bike with old parts. Truth be told, I only partly built it up, as Seth was responsible for the majority of the actual wrenching. And of course, as soon as the last bolt was tightened up, we were blasting around Bostonian woody and rocky trails, chopping and changing between my new bike and his Tumbleweed Prospector (with delicious Black Sheep ti bars) and pared-down titanium Stargazer. Sampling other people’s steeds is such fun! I’ll grab some photos of those setups when I next pass through the city; we’re hoping to get out on an overnighter with his two dogs and maybe a longer trip too.

My first stop is Burlington. Here, Sage and I are basing ourselves out of a 1970s snub-nosed Winnebego with a gold livery, permanently parked up under an oak tree on the edge of Red Rocks city park. Thank you Ron for providing our quirky accommodation! I love tiny home life: the indoor/outdoorsiness of it all, and the way it brings a heightened awareness of water use and electricity consumption (there’s a solar panel), and the requirement to pare down and organise belongings. Such a clever use of space and resources.

Also, we both now have a set of wheels to get us around town. I’m aboard the aforementioned Jones (a steel LWB, I’ll get granular on it later) and Sage is riding a legacy Surly Troll, size small, which has seen many miles of dirt road action, in a number of countries, over the last decade. Thank you Jen and Daniel for the loan, it’s perfect.

Home and transportation the next week.

Through no particular intention, this colour combo has turned out great!

For the bike nerds:

• Glamorous, shiny purple Klampers by Paul.
• The frameset is a steel Jones LWB with truss fork, size M, in a limited colour called Jones Orange.
• The long and elegant ti seatpost is by Erikson and the monster pedals by Pedaling Innovations (I’m loving these).
• Rack and panniers are by Tailfin (so quick and easy to remove).
• A Buckhorn stem bag and Wizard Works splatter framebag tie it all together with function and panache.

The components were mostly transplanted from the Jones titanium SWB I’ve been riding over the last few years (which is now in a boxed and ready to return to its maker), bar a few additions, including the Shimano Linkglide drivetrain that I’m reviewing for Bikepacking.com. I’ve gone for my carbon rim wheelset, as I love these wheels for trail riding, shod with a Crux Duro 29 x 3.25 up the front, and a 29 x 2.6in Specialized Butcher at the back. Any questions? Fire away!

Cruising the bike path and ogling bikes (ours and others).

Sage now fits almost fits a Surly Troll Size S! (head explosion emoji). He loves to race me the last 100 metres to the trailer, and I admit that I have trouble keeping pace. I’m chalking it up to the way 26in wheels accelerate (-;

Some impressions of Burlington thus far:

• It’s so green!
• There are so many bike paths!
• There are so many bikes! It’s super fun ogling them all, including the older timer tandems and hip retro builds/
• There are e-bikes everywhere! And EVs, which swoosh ever-so-softly around, a far cry from the cantankerous and belching Oaxacan traffic.
• Everything in the US is even bigger than I remember. The head-high trucks seem to have grown taller too…
• It’s so quiet and the city roads are so damn smooth. No honking, firecrackers, or potholes to dodge.
• I love all the access to water. Oaxaca City is bone dry right now.
• The temperature is perfect; warm and sunny but crisp and cool at night.
• Swimming in Champlain Lake (one of the Great Lakes) is bracing! But the water is clear and beautiful. Once you pluck up the courage to get in, it’s euphoric magic. I wasn’t expecting Oaxacan prices… but still, the cost of living seems to have risen in the US.
• We’re a mile away from a great co-op and there’s a low-traffic bike path all the way. Shopping in a US store is overwhelming though (30 varieties of granola?!) and I miss the down-to-earthiness of my local market.
• It’s great to have access to bulk peanut butter!
• Huesos would love it here, but I’m not sure he’d be super into all the dog laws.
• Speaking of which… where are all the street dogs?!
• And, where are all the topes?
• Someone asked me if it’s “rough living in Mexico” when I mentioned I’ve been based there. I told her I eat mangos every day from the market, Oaxacans are super friendly and cook up fantastic food, and there are endless dirt roads… The US perception of its southerly neighbour is a complex one.

Some aims:

• At least a daily cold plunge in frigid Lake Champlain. Sage called his first a Near Death Experience. I managed to swim out a ways from the shore, before my ears started to hurt…
• Play vintage arcade games (Sage’s request).
• Ride our bikes in some form or other every day to get our blood pumping and our spirits soaring.
• Avoid getting ticks (or Lyme disease). Eek.

Some spots in Burlington that we like:

• Nomad Coffee – good coffee & chill vibes.
• City Market Co-Op (5 per cent discount once you pay $5 to Bicycle Benefits and turn up by bike).
• Outdoor Gear Exchange. Amazing deals on second-hand gear, I picked up a wardrobe for Sage for a fistful of dollar bills. Friendly workshop folk too.
• Old Spokes Home Bike Co-op. I’ve always wanted to visit this place. It’s an Aladin’s cave of vintage goodness. Their website has some great resources too.

Now I understand why the nearby Green Mountains are so named… I love spring and all its fluoro-green leaves.

Welcome to the land of bulk kombucha and a head-spinning cornucopia of choice. 8 varieties on tap, in re-fillable bottles!

The fabled Old Spokes Home. Best name ever for a bicycle co-op that rehomes elderly and forgotten steeds?

We joined the Bicycle Benefits program, which garners a number of discounts in town, including Vermont-based Ben and Jerry’s…

Our lakeside ‘commute’ and kid-hauling e-bikes galore.

Locomotives, velo-mobiles, and a (very) cold plunge!!!

Treat Attack! Maple creemee…

What a spot for an afternoon swim, once we pluck up the courage to get in. This inlet is a few minutes walk from the Winnie the Winnebego, via a stroll through a woodland. That range of mountains you see there is in uptown New York.

Love the Leash! Not sure what Mexican street dogs would say about that… jajaja!

Day Rides

Sage and I share a love of hobby-grade RC cars. After a few days finding our feet and poking around town, we enjoyed a fantastic 50km day ride – in which we incorporated an RC shop into the route! Bike paths on the way out, road, trails, and gravel on the way back… perfect.

I’ll post about that separately. But suffice to say for now that we enjoyed ourselves so much in the area, that we returned for a shorter loop the second day, hiking over to Rock Point for a swim (and because I left my Opinel under a picnic tree and wanted to find it… which I did!)

Photos and RWGPS map below.

Cruising the Intervale Trails, along the banks of the Winooski River.

Rock Point. Cold and glassy and bracing and beautiful.

This fella acted like he was the local lifeguard. Watching him jump in, swim, and ‘save someone’ was pretty cute. By coincidence, his owners know Ron in Oaxaca!

The bike path back into town. What a mellow way to wrap up a day.

That’s it for now. Time to get out there and hit the lake again. If you have any recommendations for things we can do in Burlington, or people we can meet and ride with, please let me know!

Thanks for reading!