New York morning & Flight home to London

I had a deep and long sleep in the hotel. It was comfortable there.

and am now awaiting my shuttle to the airport.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my 65th birthday, so here is the picture from that.

Big Ride - The End : Flight to New York

This morning at 05.40, I flew from Missoula to Salt Lake City. AB kindly took me out to the airport at 4am. What wonderful hosts they have been to me in the last month.

It was a two and a half hour stopover in SLC and then another flight to New York JFK airport. I found the 4 hour flight on a cramped aircraft rather demanding. I was glad to get off. 

I found JFK airport overwhelming.

As my London flight was cancelled by Virgin and moved to tomorrow, I've had to book an overnight hotel in New York. But actually, it does break up the long journey and I can have a good lie-in tomorrow before getting the shuttle bus up to JFK airport. 

In my niaevity, I thought I could leave JFK airport and walk to the hotel which is only two miles away. I found it was impossible to walk - there were no facilities for it. So I had to get a yellow cab.

The hotel is good, but the area is rough and unsightly. But nothing compared to what I've seen in India.

This is my first time in New York - such as it is.

My overnight flight to Heathrow leaves at 18.30 tomorrow Tuesday 7th. It will be nice to have a bit of space after a month of so much travel, so much cycling and hiking, so much packing and unpacking.

All being well, I should arrive at London Heathrow at 06.45 on Wednesday 8th, and then get the train back to Cambridge.

This has been an incredible month in the USA. The trip of a lifetime.

Just to remind you. I finish off my cycle travels in Scotland next week. On Tuesday 14th May, I travel by train to Inverness. From there, I finish my 3-part Lands End to John O Groats cycle ride. It's 155 miles from Inverness to John O Groats. It will take me a four or five days as I am cycling it on my Brompton folding bike (very easy to take on the train, but slow). Then that's it, I've cycled the whole length of the United Kingdom which, with detours amounts to 1100 miles. I have raised around £83,000 for Triratna development project in Kolkata and Bhopal and also for the Arthritis Action charity.

In 2021, I cycled from Lands End to Shrewsbury. In 2022, I cycled from Shrewsbury to near Inverness. Now this is the final leg, after so much cycling here in the USA, I am in the groove. So pleased keep checking out my blog.

Finally, I wanted to say that the John O Groats ride next week is my last big bike ride. It really is. I don't want to do any more big rides.

I am 65 now and my rheumatoid arthritis makes these long rides hard to do for much of the time.

I love cycling, and will continue to ride bikes every day. It is good for me on many levels. However, day rides and weekend rides will be my limit now.

I can hear my son Barney saying "Yeah, Dad, we've heard that before...." But honestly, USA and Scotland are the last of the big rides.

In the New York hotel

Return to Missoula

It was a pleasure waking up in the chalet this morning, and having breakfast. The weather was wet and overcast, which makes yesterday's weather even more fortuitous. 

We loaded our bikes and gear on the car and headed back through Whitefish town and onto the North Montana freeway towards Missoula. Great mountain ranges were there in front of us. 

AB and I both feel a great sense of achievement with the last month and this epic bike ride. Utah, Idaho and Montana - we've seen some amazing country and ridden through incredible places.

There have been challenges in the last month, but we've achieved what we set out to achieve.

Tomorrow, I get the 05.40 flight out of Missoula, then later that morning fly on to New York. Thankfully, I have to stay overnight in New York and not Salt Lake City, I was informed by the airline this morning.

I'm hoping for a smooth and hassle-free flight, and will probably get to see a little of New York.

Big Ride Day 14: The Ultimate Cycle Ride

Today is hard to describe. It was so wonderful. We woke early in our chalet and got onto the road for 8am. Reached Glacier National Park for 8.45 and were cycling by 9.15. the landsape was stunning. The most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. We cycled a road through that was closed to traffic. We had it all to ourselves. After several miles we parked the bikes and hiked 3 miles up to Avalanche Lake, a glacial lake in the mountains. Very beautiful and quiet. We had lunch there. 

Unfortunately the hike was too much for my right arthritic knee, and I was in pain from a knee twist. By this time the beautiful weather was getting warm. 

Hobbled down through the forest to the bikes in the afternoon. I only managed a few more miles on the bike through the park. Cycling up the mountain hills became to much for my knee so we headed back to Macdonald Lodge, where we were parked up. Got back for 3pm to the car. 

I have now soaked my knee in the bath and taken painkillers. Knowing my knee, It'll be alright once it gets a rest. If I had carried on, though, I'd have risked a sieze-up. 

I find I can cycle as long as I like and my knees are OK. But doing uphill hikes are another matter. I really can't do that anymore. In this case, I was making an exception, because Avalanche Lake was so beautiful. But... I paid the price.

Incredibly on the ride back we encountered a grizzly bear on the road!

The weather god were smiling on us today - the last ride of this amazing American cycle journey. It has been a total success, despite some health challenges and logistical hassle.

It has clouded over now and rain is forecast.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we head back to Missoula. Monday morning, I get my flight back to Salt Lake City. All being well, I'll reach London Heathrow for 06.45 on Wednesday May 8th.

Right now, we are heading into Whitefish town for a pizza. 

Last trip and plane hassle

Today, AB and I did the five hour car trip north to Glacier National Park. It is close to the border with Canada. We have the bikes with us. 

The plan is to do our last Big Ride through the National Park tomorrow (Saturday). Then we return home on Sunday, and I get ready for my flight home to the UK on Monday. The weather looks promising and the experience is likely to be wonderful.

We have booked a small condo to stay in for two nights. We are staying in a town called Whitefish. It's a lovely little cabin in the woods with all mod cons.

For some reason, my American SIM has run out (it shouldn't have). I will need WiFi to send reports of the journey. Thankfully we have that in the condo. 

I've discovered there are upcoming problems with my flight back to the UK. It will take two days and not one. Virgin have cancelled my flight from Salt Lake City to New York on Monday. This means I have to wait 24 hours in Salt Lake City and get a flight the next day - an extra hotel expense, which Virgin refused to compensate me for. I think I can handle a footloose day in Salt Lake. Thankfully I have no pressing reason to be home for a certain time.

The drive around Glacier National Park today was magnificent and beautiful. I can't wait to cycle through it tomorrow - our 14th and last ride of this odyssey.

What a fortunate man I am.

Big Ride Day 13: Lewis & Clark Trail

Today's ride had some local history attached to it.

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were American explorers of the early1800s. They crossed, recrossed and mapped the newly acquired but unknown western states of USA for the first time. They took their female and celebrated Native American guide Sacajawea, and twenty three men. They travelled by canoe, horseback and on foot over eight thousand miles. Lewis and Clark were the first white people to see Montana.

Much is made of them in this area as they are very much part of local history.

Today I rode out to a park that Lewis and Clark camped at over 220 years ago.

It was a great ride through some stunning landscape of mountains, rivers and a railroad line. There was a good cyclepath all the way. 

The park has a visitor centre and a lovely Lewis & Clark Trail to walk or cycle around - which I did. 

The camp is called Travellers Rest - the name given by Lewis & Clark.

I found it easy to tune into this piece of American history.

Today was also the last session at the gym of the University of Montana. 

I feel lucky to have access to this facility - a whole week just for 20 dollars. I was very much the oldest person in the gym.

Tomorrow, we head north to Glacier National Park. This will be our last Big Ride, and then I'm flying home on Monday/Tuesday.

Glacier is close to the border with Canada.

Big Ride Day 12: Braving the Weather

Today, I headed out north west to the Grant Creek Trail, which looked good. It was a few miles of cycling to get there. I looked forward to riding the trail.

Unfortunately, I didn't get there. I gave up three quarters of the way there. The route meant cycling along some of the busiest roads I've ever seen. There wasn't a better way there. 

Technically, I was in no danger. There was a designated cycle lane. But the reality was there were four lanes on each side of monster trucks and pickups thundering by me. I thought "What am I doing here? It's not worth it". I felt intimidated by such a level of traffic and noise and I turned around and found my way back into the city. 

I then cycled the Milwaukee Trail and some more of the Kim Williams Trail. That was a relief.

It is currently very cold in Montana. For much of my later ride, I was drenched with icy sleet and hail, but I had the appropriate gear.

It was time for an early bath. 

I would have liked to have ridden the Grant Creek Trail, but it looks the kind of trail you drive to with your bike and then go from there.

I keep forgetting that USA is a car culture, and everything is designed around that. I'm so lucky living in Cambridge, where I don't need a car to get groceries, go to the gym, meet friends or buy a cafe latte. In America, you need a vehicle to do all of those things.

Last session at the University gym tomorrow, then Friday we travel to Glacier National Park.

Milwaukee Trail (West Side)

Setting out to Grant Creek Trail

Milwaukee Trail (East Side)