In light of recent developments (monetary shortage, please send cash!) Abe and I have temporarily postponed our quest to bike and surf through Central America, and headed back to the states via a 28 hour bus ride from Cabo. We both agreed that the bus ride was far more dangerous than our bike ride on the same roads. Our bus drivers cruised over 80 miles an hour on the steep dirt roads that we precariously climbed on our journey. I closed my eyes, prayed and woke up in Tijuana unscathed.
Sad to see our journey come to a temporary close, Abe and I ventured back to South Lake Tahoe and Montana to work (Snowboard mostly) for the winter season. Without snow in Montana, I agreed to a bike-and-soak adventure to Norris Hot springs, 40 miles from Bozeman. Typhoon (Man, myth, or legend/my dad) and I left Bozeman in nice 35 degree sunny November weather, expecting a cruiser 40 mile ride to Norris to join my mom and grandma for a nice soak in the hotsprings. 20 miles in, as we approached the Madison River, we began to experience a pretty bad side headwind. We slowed down to a frustrating 10 miles an hour going down a hill. I realized as we approached the river that we were about to turn 90 degrees directly into a strong headwind. Sure enough, we made the bend and were hit instantly!!
On our trip, people often gave me puzzling looks after I told them I was from Montana. “How is the surf in Montana?” People would joke. I would joke with them and respond, “I have to get back soon, there is a swell about to hit bozeman!” Little did I know that truth to my own words. We turned the bend and were blasted in the face with 30-40 mile an hour winds, sending me directly into the ditch. “Holly shit” I thought as I got back onto my bike. Struggling to stay moving, we put our heads down and cranked for 20 minutes, occasionally getting a gust that would put us back into the ditch. We approached a bend in the road, and felt the wind subside. Without wind, I was finally able to hear my dad. I biked up next to him and said, “Wow that was Fn intense!”. “Its not over yet” He said. He pointed at the river ahead of us and exclaimed, “We are in the Eye of the Storm!!! Look out!”
Sure enough, from our calm cove on the side of the road, we watched as gusts of gail force wind picked up entire sheets of water from the river and hurtled them at the road. We could tell by the ghost like sheets of 80 mile an hour water that we were about to get annihilated. We exited our hiatus into the heart of the storm and continued our battle with the wind. At first we were able to ride, peddling full force to achieve 2 miles an hour. Since the wind was coming slightly sideways, you had to lean into the road to avoid being sent into the ditch. Typhoon (I’m convinced is a super human) was leaning at a 45 degree angle into the road while peddling. While watching this unbelievable feat, Typhoon pointed ahead at the river and yelled, “Its coming, look out!!!” 200 yards away, we saw a silver wall of water hurtling towards us, indicating an impending attack from the wind! WHAMMMMM! Immediately I was blown off my bike and tangled into a bush. Typhoon, who had remained on his bike, was slingshotted by the wind demon off the road and up an ungodly steep hill (Unclimbable by mere mortals). From this point we tried pushing our bikes in the ditch, traveling less than 100 yards in ten minutes, getting sprayed in the face by the river. The next big gust nocked Typhoons bike 10 feet out of his hands and lifted my bike straight up into the air with my holding on with one hand. WTF
On our trip, Abe and I would always curse steep hills and exclaim, “You will never win hill!!!” With 2000 miles of biking under our belt, Abe and I never encountered a road too steep, too sandy, or tooo dangerous to pass!! Typhoon and I had met our match. We hunkered down in the ditch and waited until a Ford 250 stopped in the middle of the road to our rescue. With their help, we were evacuated 10 miles up the road to Norris Hot springs, where the wind was a mere 20 miles an hour and let out a big sigh and got into the steaming hot water!
Today, our speculations of wind speeds were validated by the news, which reported over 90 mile an our gusts of winds and a wind warning advisory for the Madison River Basin. Laughing about our experience, my dad exclaimed, “Life is always an adventure! Thanks for staying posted at Bikensurf.wordpress.com for our adventure and I hope that you can get outside and have an adventure of your own. As I said, the end of our adventure is only the beginning, as should all of life’s journeys. We will be back on the road in the distant future, biking, surfing and loving life as always!! Thanks, and stay posted for the full length video of Abe and I’s Baja adventure sometime late January!! Much Love!
Abe and Bob
bikensurf 
wait SERIOUSLY!?
😦