Micro Adventures // Brian Perich Expeditions by Mountain Bike

 Himalayan Blackcat MTB Expedition is back together for 2013.

 Custom rear wheel rim is a DH Jalco DD40. 

Using a 9-speed 36-spoke Shimano SLX rear hub laced with steel spokes to brass nipples.

 South Korean stone carving markers for this village.

 Custom $25 front rack, Thanks for your help AN DAE GI @ Gangneung Bike Mart

Massive Ortlieb Rollerback panniers

Winter is finally here in South Korea. Tomorrow it's time to head outdoors for an annual Snow Bike in the mountains around Pyeongchang-gun. Last year around this time, I camped at -20 and 1000 meters above sea level on drifts and a farm field covered in 5 feet of snow pack. I remember the night ride from Gangneung City, Gangwon Province on the northeast coast to the top using Daegwallyeong road (Highway 35 to Hwy 456). It's a nice course for cycle touring. Actually, that night I routed completely on the Hwy 35 past the Coffee Cupper Museum for a warm, toasty java and a free shot of expresso in my Camelback podium bottle on the refill. Adventure cycling is good in rough weather, cold or hot conditions, preferably dry heat or dry cold with snow as precipitation. Sub-24 Hour Overnight (S24O) Adventures are also known as Micro Adventures. If you are tied to work, family, other tasks at hand - the S24O is often the best solution for planning an intense, albeit short expedition of a day. I've experimented with this a few times in Korea, with a family and work - often I have no other option. These short Micro Adventures have been amazing, great positive experiences for sharing in social media, and just to be outdoors - it's a great reason to travel too. So, with little advanced planning involved, apart from reassembling a winter MTB, I'm using the old, aluminum Blackcat frame again, same components from MongoliaX2012 - to do a little more exploring up in the 1000 meter hills.

Looking back on past tours - These photos are highlights from Sichuan, China where I rode into the Himalayas from Chengdu. Exploring western China was the first and biggest expedition of my life. It was also an excellent change from the Korean peninsula. Sampling pictures, you get to taste the adventure of bicycle touring fully loaded, in a land as vast and empty as it is populated in the East.

So, there are many options for bicycle touring. You can either play if safe and adventure for 24 hours S24O - and still have great experiences in the elements - wind, rain, sun, snow accompanying you. Or you can plan bigger, longer and potentially more wild and vivid journeys through browsing the internet, reading blogs and buying Lonely Planet guidebooks like I did. Fortunately, time is on your side.

Adventure cycling is about going outdoors, experiencing nature first hand, carrying the right equipment to play safe and expedition more. The better planned, balanced and budgeted, the better the memories that will likely last the rest of your natural life on Earth. Our planet is beautiful and should be explored and protected. The natural landscapes, the empty spaces, no quarters, and friendly faces when you finally come across them on the road - are all positive and inspirational moments to keep for a lifetime.

Multi-day Canadian Mountain Bike Adventure :: Matt Hunter - The Lone Wolfe.

[Repost: Adventure MTB Rides] - Keep Matt Hunter company on a solo

(except for the grizzly bears) two day ride-adventure through the Canadian wilderness.

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You might also enjoy reading the HimalayasX Journals (Coming soon!!!)

Eric Larsen - Polar Explorer Rides South Expedition with Moonlander Fat Bike 2012

Currently on the ice. Polar Explorer Eric Larsen is using a Fat Bike to ride to the South Pole. This expedition follows up on his triple grand slam in 2010 Save the Poles Expedition, where he skiied to the North Pole with fellow Polar Explorer Antony Jinman (Education Through Expeditions), climbed Mount Everest and skiied to the South Pole in 365 days. Using a Fat Bike as Polar expedition equipment is a first, although, Fat Biking is already popular across the Arctic, especially in northern US States and Alaska, Canada, and sections of Europe. Fat Biking is the next level of adventure cycling. 

HimalayasX2011 - Sino-Tibetan Yak Herders camp, 4028 meters, south of Jolong

                               South bound in Sichuan Kham China

 Maps: the key to communicate.

                                                        Lone cow in the Himalayas.

Narrow trail that solved a huge struggle around
the Himalayas. I would continue south towards
southern Sichuan.

 He slipped on a sheer drop over the river, 

we are walking on the the avalanched 

mountain side where the road was buried 

4 months ago in earth quakes.

  Help came from a rural doctor and friends.

2008 Blackcat Expedition Touring MTB

 

HimalayasX2011 - Sino-Tibetan Yak Herders camp, 4028 meters

 from Brian Perich on Vimeo.

from Brian Perich 10 months ago / 

Creative Commons License:

 

by

South of a landslide, Jolong, Sichuan, China. I met a Sino (grandfather) Tibetan (grandmother) and their daughter and grnadchildren on their yak herd camp. We were situated at 4000 meters above sea level. This was part of my HimalayasX2011 expedition project for western China.

Video is raw, unedited. 20 minutes into the filming, the grandmother is preparing her hand churn, which separates the yak butter milk and the cream, the latter is turned into a sour dough yak yogurt.

I support IDEAS, Intestinal Disease Education & Awareness Sociey, Canada
nogutsknowglory.com

In partnership with, ETE, Education Through Expeditions
etehome.org

Inspiration is living, breathing, walking, running, riding out there. Enjoy your next adventure. Explore!

Immerse yourself in culture in new terrain, topography and endurance and try something brand new. I left Canada in 1996. These photos are a sample of bicycle expedition touring in western China in 2011. More adventures are opportunities not to be missed. So Explore!

 "Inspiration and genius--one and the same."

Victor Hugo

 "Every artist was first an amateur."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 "Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, over steep ways to the stars, fulfills itself."

W. C. Doane

"Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great."

Orison Swett Marden

 IDEAS and ETE - Foundations I support through Adventure Cycling

 "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Wayne Gretzky

"First say to yourself what you would be;

and then do what you have to do."

Epictetus

"Men do less than they ought,

unless they do all they can."

Thomas Carlyle

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit"

Aristotle

 "If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes."

St. Clement of Alexandra

I enjoy solo cycling most of the years in South Korea, then when I launch expeditions, I give myself enough time to enjoy cycling with new friends, take on new adventures, acquire new languages, while immersed in culture. Traveling through new terrain, topography using endurance. When I am home now in Korea, I actually enjoy long walks...quiet, simple, no equipment except shoes and warm clothes. I never cycle for 10 weeks before these expeditions, another fact, I walked many kilometers. 
Explore and experience the world in front of you. 

Exploring takes some planning, budgeting, deadlines, then it's your postcard to a whole new adventure. (: 

My blog is a source of my own and many others adventures through links, enjoy! 

Happy 2013...Year of Adventure (or walks, relaxing, hard working, family, friendship, challenge, and of course, what is needed most to accomplish it - Inspiration.)   ---  If you enjoy the blog, please feel free to use the PayPal link [right navigation], make a contribution, send email if you need some free advice.

Because it is there...Find your Inspiration. Share with others. Dig deeper into Adventures Because it is there.

Inspiration is a part of life, an ingredient to the best recipe to enjoy it all. GoPro creates some HD (High Definition) video and collectively the landscape of Adventure on Earth recreates it, share your inspiration and epics with others, big and small. Why journey, why take risks, why sacrifice to get there, why try so hard, why fight the forces of boredom?

Because it is there. Find your own inspiration. Share inspiration with others.

 MongoliaX2012, 2499km of Adventure Inspiration Travel

Dream and find Inspiration for your next Great Journey on Earth.

George Mallory -  "Because it is there."

George Herbert Leigh MalloryBorn: 18 June 1886,  Mobberley, Cheshire, England
Died: 8-9 June 1924 (aged 37), The North Face, Mount Everest, Tibet