Offroad Explorer... On My Bicycle

It was 1973, I stepped into a bicycle shop in southern Michigan and bought a Motobecane Grand Jubilee. Battle Creek Bicycles was partially owned by my best friend from grade school who'd just returned from Vietnam and wanted to marry my sister. Yes, he gave me a special price because it was my twenty-third birthday and I had just graduated from Cal State Fresno and, he wanted to marry my sister. I took that bike and a duffle and hitched back to California. I set up camp at the south end of The Sierra Nevada, found a small cabin that I traded for ranch hand labor on Erskine Creek. Winter was not very serious that year at 2,000ft. I put a rack and a sleeping bag on the back of that French steed and explored the dirt roads within a twenty-five mile radius of Bodfish, Kern County California. Kelso Valley, Saddle Springs, Sherman Pass, Breckenridge Lookout. I was curious, healthy and enjoying self-propelled adventuring. My tires were narrow and the roads were rough but dumb-luck was with me, I had a pump and a patchkit, never once did I flat.