2026 Plans
For my big adventure this year, I am planning on bicycling from Paris to Istanbul. This is the Silk Road Tour offered by the tour company TDA Global. It is fully supported, similar in style to the Trek Cross Country trips I have taken. The tour should have between 20 and 30 riders. The cycling starts on July 5, but Kate and I have a wedding to attend in the evening of July 4 in Boston. Consequently, I will be joining the trip 2 days late, beginning my adventure in Troyes France about 100 miles east of Paris. We reach Istanbul on August 24.
My trip will be 37 days of riding with 11 rest days covering about 2275 miles. This is a considerably slower pace than my 2019 Cross Country trip which covered 3400 miles in 37 riding days with only 4 rest days. The Silk Road trip has an extra 7 rest days and each riding day is about 62 miles rather than 92 miles. Frankly, the slower pace is a good thing since I was a much stronger cyclist 7 years ago. In addition to all of the extra rest days on this trip, I will be cycling about 2 hours less each day, allowing for added stops along the route or exploration at the end of a day. I will be bringing my good camera, so I hope to be able to take some great photographs of birds, wildlife, and landscapes.
To help get myself back into some semblance of riding shape, I will be traveling to Solvang CA for 6 days of riding in mid-March. In early May, I will be hosting a group of my cycling friends in Chatham for a couple of days of riding. Finally, I might throw in a cycling trip in April to Arkansas for some gravel riding, but that is uncertain.
In addition to my cycling trips, Kate and I have a trip planned to Croatia in May. We will start by flying to Split where we will do a 1 week walking tour with Trek Travel ending in Dubrovnik. Once we reach Dubrovnik, both our daughters will join us for a week of hanging out enjoying the Adriatic. In June, Kate and I will have a short trip to Aarhus Denmark to celebrate Becca’s graduation for her Masters degree.
Currently, the fall looks rather clear on our calendar except a few days visiting friends in NH to do some gravel cycling and hiking.
This year will be a much more quiet year for my bird photography having had such an intense focus on birding last year. The big news on the bird photography side is that I will be doing a show of my bird photography at the Cutter Gallery in Arlington MA during August and September of 2027. I find myself both nervous as well as excited by this opportunity. The good news is that with a lead time of 17 months, I can procrastinate for quite a while and still have time to put together my show. As for this year, I do not have any bird centric trips planned. However, I will be opportunistic, looking for interesting bird photography throughout my travels.
I hope 2026 has started off well for everyone.