Journey

🚲 I started cycling this year, and some friends introduced me to the idea of bikepacking—bringing all the essentials for camping on my bike and finding places to stay along the route. I did my first trip later in the summer, and the day’s prompt got me thinking about the history of bikepacking.

That led me to the incredible story of Thomas Stevens, an Englishman who, in 1884, set off from San Francisco and ended up pedaling all the way around the world to Japan on a penny-farthing! The story is pretty wild, and over the course of the two years, Stevens faced numerous geographical and political challenges and was even chased by an angry mob in China who mistook him for French due to an ongoing war between the two countries!