Montenegro

Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania

hi ST, it looks like you applied the same edit to all the images. The slightly warm tone and desat aesthetic (for me) actually fits with the whole ex Soviet State feeling -- my visual take on it anyway.
cheers

Danville, PA.

Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania

Cantons de l'Est / Eastern Townships, Québec. September 10-19 2025.

Canada in the foreground, United States in the distance.


Endless hills. This region was a real workout for me who had trained only on the flat, and no more than 30 km at a time, though several times a week.
Especially with 75 lbs load on a 35 lbs bike.









Still lots of flowers in the fields.




National parks have a special deal for cyclists - 10$ for the night, no reservation required.


Montréal - the beginning and the end of the trip.

Is that Vermont?

That's a good question, one I tried to answer for myself before posting the picture.
I'd say probably, with Mont Sutton, Quebec, the nearer mountain and Jay Peak, Vermont for the one in the back, though I would have thought it'd be closer.
New Hampshire (White Mountains) should also be visible from this viewpoint, but it would be off picture to the left.
The picture is taken pretty much due south from between Waterloo and Orford.

Probably Jay Peak. The Canadian side in that area is much flatter. When I did ACA's Cycle Vermont in 2010, one option was to cross into QC at Richford, head east, and re-enter at N. Troy to avoid the climb up Jay. I never got that email, so I didn't bring my passport. I did Jay east to west in 2021 after leaving Newport. Nasty headwind the entire climb.

Nice photos, it's a pretty area to ride through that's for sure.
At some point, consider reducing the weight you carry, it really makes a difference.

nice, how many month have you been on the road?

For the moment, I'm down as far as I want to go and I have some out of the ordinary requirements.
The 75 lbs includes water for the day and food for two days.

I carry a CPAP machine with powerbank, charger, etc, that's 6 lbs right there.
I still consider myself to be in rehab / rejuvination so I also carry some workout equipment.
It didn't rain, so the several pounds for that didn't serve, but would have been nice had it rained.
I've lost 25 lbs since my last tour attempt two years ago.
Two person tent (not the lightest due to cost) to have my panniers in the tent with me.

I was pleasantly surprised at how in shape I am now, compared to two years ago.
The hills weren't really that much of a problem and I only walked maybe 4 steep ones, and only near the top.
I used my lowest gear (16.8 gear-in / 22-34) a lot. I would have pushed a lot more without it.

My bike may be heavy, but I also consider it ideal, espcially now with my rigid fork.
Handles like a dream and rock steady going down a hill at 45 km/h.

I wish ! Only ten days, my first 'real' tour in 50 years.

After injury and rehab / training for over a year I considered myself just barely in condition to go, but I didn't want to wait till next year. I'm happy, though, as I now tell myself if I can do ten, I can do forty. And more.

I had to turn around this time because temperatures were expected to dip below freezing on the night after I got back and I only had my summer equipment. Next year I'll be able to head out at soon as it's warm enough and stay on the road as long as I want to.

great, enjoy it and don't stop. seeing the tons of bag volume I thought your on the road for a long time.

On top of what I mentioned previously, I also carry quite a bit of survival and bike repair / maintenance related stuff, not because I need it now so close to civilisation, but because I want to see what it'll be like to carry what is needed for a much longer trip further away from services.

Just a couple of hundred kilometers from here there are vast expanses of complete wilderness that I'd like to explore. For the moment, I am very much in the trials and errors stage leading up to an eventual expedition.

Well it sounds like it was a real success, and you enjoyed yourself--that's the most important thing.
Again, the eastern townships really are pretty, a great place to spend 10 days getting back into this activity.
And sounds like you have the right gearing, that's pretty much my setup. It's great to have that low gear.

Come on! There’s always next year.

Seriously…I know the feeling after enduring a serious health setback a couple of years ago. Last week I abandoned a trip across PA after six days when I started experiencing some pain and swelling in my left Achilles thanks to really steep grades. It was a tough decision. Perhaps I could have soldiered on, but I didn’t want to end up with mobility issues. Been there. Done that.

It all worked out in the end. A very old friend who has a place about an hour away from where I was camping was doing a favor for someone 10 miles away from my campground. He swung by and picked me up. We spent Friday and Saturday at his country place then drove back to the city on Sunday.

if we want to be prepared for any eventuality’s we have to bring rims, spokes, saddle rails, all what could maybe maybe 🤔 break. a bike hanger full of spare parts. so i bring nothing, just two chain locks and piece of chain. not even shifter cables, i make sure that my shifter cables are not 20 years old before leaving.

Reminds me of a few weeks ago when I was hiking a mountain with my daughter and we kept being passed by people with only running shoes and a cellphone in hand. I wondered out loud what these people did if something went wrong and my daughter replied "they phone for help". It's a new world :-)

In my small day backpack I have a complete first aid kit and I could spend the night in the forest if I had to. Where I intend to go cycling there's a good chance there won't be cell service (unless things have drastically evolved recently) making phoning for help a bit difficult.

I know that if you have a recent iPhone you can reach 911 and text preset emergency contacts even in areas with no cell service. You send the message vis satellite, similar to certain emergency contact devices that backpackers and the like have had for some years now. From what I’ve read there are few places in the world in which you can’t connect.

There's the rub... I'd heard that iPhones are now satelite equipped. My android, alas...

But the idea has merit. It might be an idea (not sure how costly) to have a satelite phone when I wander into the great unknown.

I imagine android isn’t far behind, if not equipped with something similar already. In any event, garmin and similar companies have been making devices that do just this for years. I am a backpacker and have been meaning to buy one myself for some time, but may just upgrade my old iPhone at this point.

I believe this in the iPhone feature referred to.

yes, a small first aid kit is cool.
I broke my elbow on a trip, in the woods, I think it was 2012, no phone reception, no city close, it was late, spent the night in the tent with Ibuprofen,
some serious pain after the Ibuprofen effect was gone. In the morning I took two more and cycled aprox 3h to a city and hospital.

My friend broke his femur on a trip in Rumania, some serious pain, in the woods, no phone reception. I cycled aprox 2h to get phone reception, and waited there for the ambulance. attach a picture of his hip left after surgery in Romania. Right 5 years later they replaced the screws.

Anything can happen anytime.

There is also this stuff, I used it for some years, when being alone for a long time off civilisation.
https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/pro...ices/spot-gen4

Sardinia!