I thought I would take a couple of days after getting back to Boulder to reflect on all the experiences that accompanied biking from British Columbia to Baja to launch SWAE Sports before penning my magnum opus. It’s been an interesting couple of days as I’ve readjusted to civilian life. My initial realization was that most importantly, the 2-½ months on the road helped to solidify our team and define the direction of SWAE Sports.

After getting off the plane and driving back to my Rocky Mountain home, I immediately began to miss the other four guys that I’d spent just about every waking moment with since mid June. After feeding off one another’s excitement, sharing the hardships of the road, and waking every morning to the team immediately talking SWAE, life as it was began to seem, well, rather quiet.

When I separate myself from being a part of this whole expedition, it seems truly amazing that a group of five highly dedicated young men would undertake such an endeavor to launch a company.  As a consumer, it would hardly matter to me what it is SWAE was selling because if anyone was really that motivated, odds are that it was something I should be a part of.  I’d rep their shirt. It would get even crazier for me as I started to explore their website and realized that the reason those boys were so psyched was because they held in their hands a truly paradigm shifting business model for the adventure sports industry.  Of course they’d cycle 2,500 miles to spread the good news. It would all start to feel quite logical.

Whenever I return from a big trip it’s always a bit weird to think about the places I just was.  Sailing through the waters of the San Juan Islands, biking through the primordial Redwood forests of Northern California, and camping along the rim of Crater Lake begins to feel like a dream, or clips from a movie I watched before falling asleep. But they are my memories, my life experiences, the way I became a part of an organization that will undoubtedly shape the course of my life.

The greatest thing I’ll take from this trip is being witness to the fact that my actions along the West Coast will not only benefit my own life, but every outfitter, guide, and outdoor adventure school that sat down with us and subscribed to the dream that is SWAE.  I can only believe that they saw in our eyes the motivation to make our company’s principals a reality and that that kind of excitement was something they wanted to attach themselves to. When looking back over my notes, its almost ridiculous to see that the only companies we didn’t partner with after a meeting were those that didn’t want more business.  That’s crazy and yet it’s the truth.

The way people get outside is about to change, and I’m truly humbled to be a part of that shift. It’s happening because the team that comprises SWAE is actually our targeted customer. We live and breathe this lifestyle and we’ve somehow figured out a way to make a career out of doing the stuff we love. I don’t think I could be more stoked.

We were peddling back up the hill towards Friday Harbor when I got a call from Dan who wanted to meet up for lunch at this awesome little café where we had been working out of earlier.  He had just signed this great sailing organization named San Juan Classic Day Sailing and they had asked if we wanted to go out on one of their boats for the rest of the afternoon. Long story short it was a great ride out into the harbor and really my first time true sailing experience.  Capt. Morgan (seriously) was a purest and refused to drop the outboard motor into the water either when leaving the dock or coming in, which made it really cool to sea how traditional sailors “tacked” back and forth until they could safely dock their ships.

Morgan and her boyfriend Jonah invited us to stay at their place that evening and so we packed up the bikes, bought some brats to bbq, and took off across the island.  We rolled through some incredible countryside that felt like being in a foreign country. Freshly cut fields of hay were silluted between quaint farm cottages and the sea, which stretched out until being dramatically interrupted by the Olympic Mountains like the Fjords of New Zealand. Their home rested safely in forest a few hundred yards away from False Bay and had the quenisential woodsy feel of a north western home with its cedar shingles and well-manicured vegetable garden. They we’re as hospitable with their home as they had been with their boat and we had a wonderful evening of conversation. To top things off, while getting dinner ready, a double rainbow swept across the island and landed into the ocean.  This is a gorgeous part of the country with even more beautiful people.

 I’m writing this on a ferry heading towards Orcas Island. We’ve got a couple more people to meet with in the morning, plus we hear that its one of the most beautiful places to visit in the San Juans. From Orcas it’s back to the mainland but I’ve got a 9-mile ride from the port over to Deer Harbor that I’m sure promises to be another amazing ride.

In the meantime we went and had lunch at this amazing little fish and chips place that served food out of an old double decker bus like the kind you’d see giving tours around Trafalgar Square. I finished by battered cod deliciousness  and then left Elliott to go meet Daniel and the good folks over at the Alpine, Institute. I was super excited because one: they are one of the best guide services in the world and two:  because I had been speaking with then back and forth on Twitter and was stoked to put a face to the person I had been having two sentence conversations with.

When we got to the Alpine Institute we were met by Emily Znamierowsk and Ruth Hennings who were super excited about what we were doing. It turned out that Emily was the person I had been talking back and forth to and was totally stoked about the power of social media and what was going on with SWAE Sports. AI’s director, Dunham Gooding, greeted us and then we got in to what it is that SWAE does and how we’ll be able to drive more traffic to their door. You could see a light bulb go on kin Dunham’s eyes and within 30 minutes they were starting to post trips on SWAE. RAD! Looking forward to working with these guys for years to come. I mean come on, John Krakuer once said that they are “the best all around climbing school and guide service in North America.”

So afterwards I jumped back on my bike and started peddling south to meet Sharmon and Moondance in state park south of town. She was so accomodating and even allowed me a small intro to the journalists about our bike trip and the launching of SWAE. We then unloaded the sea kayaks and proceeded to paddle around the bay. Let me tell you, its not as simple as I had thought but it was a blast to be out there on the open water and picturing orcas swimming below us. I was paired with this really cool guy name Michael McCarthy who writes for the Vancouver Sun and runs a website called the intentional-traveler.com. He had some interesting insight into intentionalism and a nice dry sense of humor, which is always refreshing.  After that, Sharmon greeted our arrival to shore with fresh local strawberries  and chocolate covered truffels – nice touch.

I met Daniel and Elliot back up on Chukanuat Dr  and we then biked about 20 miles through some of the most beautiful shoreline I have ever seen until we reached Bay View State Park. We decided that instead of camping there we should go up the street and see if it was alright to put our tents down in the backyard of this beautiful lawn that sat on a bluff overlooking the bay. We knocked on their door and this little old lady came out who was as hospitable as if her grand kids had just shown up. Not only did she let us stay, but she brought us out chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies to go with our meal. The perfect end to and amazing day.