On 26 January the newsletter for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute had an article on our trip “A novel way to appreciate the rainforest.”
Note this picture is from Camino de Cruces trailhead, not Pipeline road as the article suggests.
Posted in Uncategorized
Hi, we have made it out of the jungle and have the Pacific ocean in our sights. Just as we left the jungle, and got into cellphone range, we did an interview with Public Radio International’s (PRI) the world show. We will be featured in their geoquiz which should air tonight (15th Jan) so tune in!
The link is live now
The show will then be archived on their website here.
off to the ocean!!
Posted in Uncategorized
We had a sligtly longer day of rest today and decided to reivew some of the video. Here’s some teaser footage from Day 2.
More when we return and have time to cull the rest of the footage.
– Perry
Posted in Uncategorized
Today we started at 7am with a boat ride to Buena Vista Penninusla and ended by riding our unis down Pipeline road into Gamboa at dusk. This day included extensive riding on small footpaths and a dirt road, as well as a bit of jungle bushwacking. By the end, a long day marked by lots of highlights (and a few lowlights). These will have to wait for elaboration as I’m going to bed so I can get ready for crossing the Chagras early tomorrow morning to ride the Camino de Cruces!
-Roland
Posted in Uncategorized
A few more pictures and a post from Marcos, who was scouting our trial head yesterday.
Early in the morning, the sun will light up the “San Lorenzo Castle the Real of Chagres river”. That light is the same that pirates and explorers saw in 1595. 
Here is where the ride start, ocean to ocean, trails to trails, The Gold Route…
Famous pirates and corsairs have started their crossing here. Francis Drake was able to conquer it in 1596; Henry Morgan attacked it with violence between 1668 and 1671 and started his trip to destroy Panama from here
This is a great place to visit to enjoy of the sea-landscape and the Chagres River – the only river in the world that has seen more gold than all the other rivers of the world put together.
Posted in Uncategorized
Marcos Garcia is a friend in Panama who is helping us with our ride. Here is a post from him about the trails.
Today we started clearing parts of the Camino de Cruces road because the forest was winning, trying to take back the trail. I went with park guards to look at the section from Madden highway to Chivo Chivo road, the last part of the trail crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Panama’s nature ministry, ANAM, gave me a tour of parts of the trail to check its condition. They are very interested in the unicycle crossing and are giving their whole support to help us with this activity.
However, about 3km of the trail are not now open, and other parts are partially overgrown. Therefore, we are immediately starting to clean the trail with a team of machete-men. We should complete it by Sunday, so that the trail will be ready for the unicycles to ride through Camino de las Cruces National Park next week!
Posted in Uncategorized
Riding up the steep hill by the labs, Panama Canal in the background.
When early explorers took their boats past Barro Colorado on their way up the Chagres river it was just a hill on their right. Nowadays the hill remains but it is surrounded by water on all sides, flooded by the lake created when they flooded the Chagres river to make the Panama Canal. On one shore of Barro Colorado Island, or BCI, sits a research station run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute where I have a research project on interactions between plants and mammals. Active since 1923, BCI is the best studied tropical sites in the world.
Our ocean-ocean ride will include a stop here next week for one night before we head into Soberania National Park across the canal from BCI. I’m here now to work, live-trapping agoutis, working with graduate students, checking camera-traps etc… But, of course, I have my uni with me and had to take a spin today.
Although the island has many miles of jungle trails, its been made clear to me by BCI management that these are off limits for unis. This leaves a small big of pavement and docking around the labs. Still, this was fun, with plenty of hills, stairs, and other things to play on.
A great study break.
Henry Morgan, and all other pirates and gold runners of his day, took the Chagres river up from the Caribbean as far as they could until heading overland on the Camino de las Cruces to reach the Pacific. Retracing this route on unicycles we’ll have to cross water a few times. Today I set up our last crossing with the Embera Indians who will take us across the Chagres to the trail head for the Camino de las Cruces. Elvira said her father could take us across in a big motorized cayuco.
The Boat Landing in Gamboa
Posted in Uncategorized
“Get those mother%$#%$ unicycles off my mother%$#@ plane”
You never quite know what you’ll encounter when you attempt to bring a unicycle on a plane. In the last year I’ve had the fortune of taking a uni on planes to California, Amsterdam, London, Zurich, and, yesterday, Panama. There are no official regulations about unicycles on planes, and the general rules about what luggage you can bring on seem to change every week anyway. My strategy is to roll it up to the desk with a smile and hope they wont charge me any extra. Usually they look at me, look at the uni, smile back and give me no problem as they check my uni (unboxed) as a piece of luggage. One grumpy attendant from Swiss Air decided I should pay an extra fee equivalent to 1/2 their bicycle fee. Another time they decided they wanted to put it in a big plastic bag.
I knew I’d have to smile extra wide for this trip to Panama because I already had 2 large bags full of research equipment (radio-collars, camera traps, etc…) and I was trying to sell my 29″ uni as the ‘extra item’ Continental says you can bring, such as car seats, or ski boots. The desk was busy, and the lady was grumpy after being yelled at by the guy before me, so my smile never really took with her. She told me I couldn’t take the uni, it wasn’t a car seat. Then, after a few more smiles, told me I could take it for $200 ($100 extra bag fee + $100 bicycle fee). Frown
I told her no thanks and took my smile and my wheel up to security as a carry-on. They all smiled back and I checked it at the gate along with strollers and other bags that were at least as big as my uni. On to Newark where I connected with my flight to Panama. The lady at the gate got a bit pissy, and threatened to charge me extra, but in the end they just decided I needed a pink check slip instead of a blue one.
I’ve got some research work to do here in Panama this week, and will help Marcos nail down some last minute route logistics, then meet the rest of the team at the Airport on the 10th.
Hopefully they’ll arrive smiling!
-Roland
Two big bags plus a 29" uni coming out of customs in Panama. The pink tag that satisfied Newark's gate check
We hit the trails around Albany on a regular basis. Usually we just ride, but this time, inspired by the beautiful fall colors, we brought a video camera along. This was a fun set of trails we recently discovered up by the Mohawk River. Its a nice bit of windy single-track with enough obstacles to keep it interesting.
Team Rollercoaster Travels to Panama 