Parco Abruzzo in the Italian Apennines filmed a single beech tree for a year.

I walked, camped and bothied through these mountains a while back. Didn't see any wolves or bears though.

Dog infiltrates Street View of entire island by following the camera operator around.

Click here to view for yourself

I found myself signed up for the 3rd time to join the group ride of the Capital Trail, a 250km, 5000m of ascent, bikepacking trail. The route takes riders from the beach (literally....it starts on the sand!) at Portobello, Edinburgh around a big loop which encompasses some of the best riding and trails in Scotland. Although never too far from the nearest town, the route at times feels remote, and the high open hill tops certainly need to be respected, especially in bad weather.

It's a tough ride, the climbing would be hard enough without the added weight of overnight gear that most people carry. The inclement Scottish weather also means riders need to be prepared for the worst it can thrown at you, adding even more to the bike weight.

I always liked this song.
The words originated from an article written in the Chicago Tribune by Mary Schmich in 1997. It had the title of: "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young"

Soon an urban legend rose which attributed the text to a commencement speech by Kurt Vonnegut, the author famous for his novel "Slaughterhouse-five" published in 1969. He never made a commencement speech, but said he'd have been proud of this one had he made it. For a long time his lawyer was inundated with requests for copies of the text.

Early in the year, I signed up again for the 2nd Dirty Reiver event, a 200km gravel race ( I rode the first one, which you can read about in my book). This is not really my normal type of ride, but I enjoyed it last time (funny how memory gets skewed over time) so thought I'd give it another go.

The date of the event was almost upon me as I realised I probably hadn't been doing enough riding. I also had a bit of a bug and wasn't exactly feeling brilliant. Still, this was no time to be mouping around, I checked my 29 hardtail bike over, oiled it up and drove myself over the hills down to the remote village of Kielder where I'd booked myself a spot in the camp-site for a couple of nights.

Some balls escape from others in a great story involving a Rube Goldberg machine.

Played on children's instruments. Filmed in Uckange in France

And here's the start of their interesting documentary: The art of protest:
"Arguably the most provocative band of the last 20 years, Rage Against The Machine have since their explosive debut, been the group most associated with the American protest movement. "

Doing this in a couple of weeks!

Dirty Reiver trailer from Orange Trike Media on Vimeo.

Ask your doctor if Impeachara® might help with your symptoms of T.I.A.D.

Impeachara ® from Sam Friedlander on Vimeo.

Some friends set out on a trip to explore the glaciers of Alaska. Instead of adventure, they found a man named Rick Brown, and a story of how climate change is drastically altering our landscape before our eyes. The glaciers that Rick calls home are now disappearing at an alarming rate — it only takes one month for them to recede the same distance that used to take hundreds of years.

GLACIER EXIT from Raphael Rogers on Vimeo.

Here's a interesting website giving a 3D view of the main route up Mount Everest

Click here

A dream-like bike ride.

DreamRide 2 from Diamondback Bicycles on Vimeo.