The Sasquatch

Being a bike guy witnessing how bike tech and variety has grown over the years, it's pretty awesome to now have the ability to ride in the winter. For my entire life, the dark, cold months had always been the official 'no-go' season for exterior 2-wheeled exercise.

Well, I just pulled the trigger on this 2015 beast from Norco - the perfectly named 'Sasquatch'. With its almost comically massive 4.8" wide Schwalbe Jumbo Jim tires and monstrous Bluto front suspension, this brute keeps me saddled up and riding at home when the snow flies, and in the forests of the North Bruce during the rest of the year.

Grawr

Stone Leviathans

I frequently come back to the pages of a book that my aunt gave me that nudged me towards my Scottish bike odyssey 20 years ago.

'The Lighthouse Stevensons' by Bella Bathurst was and still is a great read about the relatives of Robert Louis Stevenson (author of classics like Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Kidnapped, etc) who erected these beacons of stone & light for safe navigation around Scotland's treacherous coastlines in the 1800's.

The Scottish engineers designed and built these incredible sea-towers before calculators, power tools, hydraulics, aviation or even reinforced concrete.

Their enduring presence exhibits a stunning grasp of mathematics, craftsmanship and engineering.

Some 200 years on, these towers still withstand ceaseless torrents of the Atlantic ocean and the untold tons of angry water being hurled at them.

Bell Rock Staircase

Skerryvore Kitchen

This day marks the 180'th anniversary since Alan Stevenson completed Scotland's tallest lighthouse - and later proclaimed by his nephew RLS as "the most noble of the extant deep sea lights" - 'Skerryvore' was officially lit for the first time on Feb. 1, 1844.

Photo props to Ian Cowe who took these amazing snaps that I couldn't.