John Darling

My beautiful wife, Theresa, is an avid bike rider who has ridden up to 100 miles in a day.  While I  follow far behind in her wake even though I ride a Felt Verza Speed.  I am more of a casual rider. 

We are both members of the Channel Islands Bicycle Club which publishes a newsletter called Chain Chatter.  When the editor discovered that I am a writer she asked me to write a few articles on biking. 

 I hope you enjoy these stories.  I will be writing more in the future and I will post them here after they are published.

I was asked to write an article about the Trans Canada Trail that stretches across Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans.  While researching the project, I discovered that America has its own transcontinental bike path in the works.  So, instead of writing about one trail, we wrote about two trails.

Several years ago, Theresa and I visited Yosemite National Park, which is one of our favorite places on the planet, but instead of driving or walking around the park, we took our bikes with us to use as we toured the park.  It was fantastic.  Now, with the emergence of e-bikes, I was asked to write an article about the use of them in national parks.  As I researched the topic, I discovered that e-bikes are now allowed in all national parks.  So, I wrote the following article on the subject.

Several of our Channel Islands Bike Club Members are in their 70's and 80's, so some of them have taken to riding e-bikes.  When I told them that I was thinking about getting one, I was told that at 68 years old, I was "too young" to have one.  Well, that didn't stop Theresa and I from trying one for the first time on an e-bike tour of beautiful Morro Bay, CA.  

We enjoyed our e-bike tour of Morro Bay, CA so much, we decided to take another tour a little further up the coast in beautiful Monterey, CA.