Beautiful and Necessary

Pure, capitalistic fruitlessness might be the most important component of adventure for me. Meaning, there’s no viability for business, no personal financial gain, no sponsors, no logos, and nothing can come from the journey except one’s own fulfillment. And there’s no more complete example of that than the camping trip I did in 2009 on specially fabricated bicycles made to wiggle down singletrack and then quickly convert into outriggers intended to glide down the tracks of the lesser-used and abandoned rail lines of Northern California.

These special machines were made by my good friend Rick Hunter, a builder who’s earned a name for himself in the custom bike business as one of the most original, if least profit-minded, craftsmen. Rick didn’t invent the concept of a railbike—the first patent for one was granted in 1869—but he had a dream of making a modern machine that could ride trails and rails in equally trustworthy fashion. After ten years of hearing about his dream but