Just a few of my favorite moments from 2024.
It would impossible to characterize a year based on numbers alone but they give a picture of how this year shaped up. 2024 was devoted to curiosity, connection, and exploration.
In a nutshell …
🎉 21 miles backpacked through the Norwegian tundra
📚 18 books, 5,821 pages read – half of those with a smart group of friends.
🚲 3,273 miles, 292 hours and 151,067 feet of elevation gain biked
⛵️ ~32 summertime sailing regattas. 2024 is the year I finally nailed my bowline.
🎆 four states, five countries visited
✏️ Fourth – and perhaps most rewarding – semester teaching at my alma mater, though I say that every semester.
We made it. Finals are done, grades submitted, commencement ceremonies kicked off. While I’ve worked in higher ed for five years, this semester was by far the most personally rewarding because I worked with students for the first time as a lecturer. I’m incredibly grateful to have had such kind, curious, bright students who I’m sure will go on to contribute to this world in meaningful ways.
If this trip had a smell, it would be sweet hay and runny fromage. Belgium was beautiful, challenging, exhausting and exhilarating.
In numbers:
-242.77 miles biked
-17,160 feet of elevation gained
-6 days spent in the saddle
-9 breweries visited
-4 cross country trains taken
-8 cities slept in
-9 new friendships made
-3 books read
-1 velodrome sent
-2 countries (technically) visited
-countless bugs eaten
It was an experience of a lifetime, in more ways than one.
Our first road trip as a family of three (or six, depending on how you count) is in the books. We hiked, mountain biked, read, scrambled over some granite boulders, and spent plenty of snuggle time in with Mateo.
And here I thought Rock Cobbler would be the most exciting, memorable thing I’d do in 2025.
At the start of the year I couldn’t have imagined bike touring ~250 miles through Japan during consecutive 90+ degree days while three months pregnant (or pregnancy at all for that matter); buying a new house and moving the day we got back from Japan; bikepacking 75 miles across Catalina; a full season of sailing and my first hours-long island race; and of course completing a Rock Cobbler.
Not pictured are the dozens of hours indoor rock climbing with friends and about a dozen books read with the best book clerb.
I guess 2025 was the year of calculated risk, committing to a new, unexpected path and hoping it pays off. The results so far have been better than I could have imagined.
10.17.25 💕
We had an intimate ceremony acknowledging our connection and vision of a life together.
I’m so grateful for the small community who made it come together. It was more romantic and meaningful than I could have imagined.
Photos by @joey.es
Officiating and flowers by @hello_nancy
Hair by @hairbyyaniz
Ring bearer @jjjjoshfongggg
Japan August 2025, on film.
We biked more than 250 miles while in Japan, down the east coast from Tokyo to Kyoto. We didn’t see the iconic city scenes but miles of bamboo forests, dozens of rivers, long stretches of Pacific Ocean, past fields of lilies, sunflowers and farms and through industrial stretches of rural Japan.
Most days we started biking well before 6 a.m. when the day was coolest, but it was often already close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 75% humidity for the duration of the 40+ miles we biked each day. We ate our weight in ramen, gas station onigiri, and visited the gyoza capital with the best tour guides @cassady_sakura
To say it was incredible and exceptionally challenging wouldn’t begin to capture the experience.
Q2, spring into summer 🌼 🌸🌷☀️
Catalina two weekends in a row, first racing on a sailboat then bikepacking with the @thelocalbikestand crew.
These past few months included plenty of time on trails including trial maintenance as part of a collab between @lowelifesrcc and @wildwolf.cc . Also a Sulfur Mountain and San Luis Obispo visit.
The inaugural moveable feast by bike in Long Beach and first of many DirtDazies to come.
Trailwork photos courtesy of @aaaaaaaaaaargh 🙏🏻
My first ever race to Catalina Island aboard the Espirit de Mer, a 1981 Beneteau First 35. We sailed 30 nautical miles in about six hours both days. Conditions on the way home were sporty and breezy – the start of the race notwithstanding – at times we got pretty close to 10 kn. My second time climbing the mast to fix something, a 45 foot mast this time. On the last slide you can see my not-so-graceful descent. We stayed at Cherry Cove with a rich kelp forest along the coast. More than the wildlife, wind or cloudless sky, this weekend was made pretty special by a spectacular, knowledgeable, kind crew of eight sailors.
A few shots from the inaugural DirtDazies ride in Turnbull Canyon. 🌼 Ten riders braved the heat to learn some skills; teach other riders about riding on dirt; appreciate ridge line views; and smell the cowboy cologne and other coastal sage scrub. 🌿
A spectacular initial collaboration between @queercicles and @sun.dazies – hopefully one of many.
I’m so appreciative of how these riders show up for each other.
📸: @rosieontheriverbed
