Philosophy
a way, not the way.
“Embrace what is.”
Image: Dawn patrol crossing from LI to CT, 2025.
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
Image: Mount Superior, Utah. Final ascent before the descent. 2025.
“We go where the hunt takes us.”
Image: Booting up Suicide Chute, Utah 2025.
“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”
Image: Bike Across New Brunswick, 2024.
“In life you get the test, then you get the lesson.”
Image: Hiking the bikes across beaver damns in New Brunswick, Canada 2024.
“Every moment free from fear, makes a man immortal.”
Image: Block Island swim crossing from Montauk Point, 2024.
“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.”
Image: Predawn hike out of the Pioneer Mountains, Idaho 2023.
“They go inside a building to talk to their god. We go out into the natural world - and our Creator speaks to us.”
Image: On the saddle of Hyndman and Old Hyndman Peak. Idaho, 2023.
“Everything is difficult until it becomes easy.”
Image: Long Island Sound Crossing, 2023
“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction…”
Image: Alps Crossing, 2023. It’s all mental.
“The whale ship was my Yale college and my Harvard.”
Image: Tents pitched. France, 2023. Lisbon to the Black Sea Mental Health Tour.
“When the wind fails, take to the oars.”
Image: In the thick of the swim from Gardiners Island to Plumb Island, 2021.
“Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’”
Image: Appalachian Country. Northern U.S Bike Tour. Anacortes, WA to Sag Harbor, NY.
“Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.”
Image: Midwest US. Ride for Recovery: Bikepack Across America, 2021.
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
Image: Great Peconic Bay Crossing, 2020.
“There are some old ones and some bold ones, but there are not a lot of old bold ones.”
Image: Jerry showing the way of the backcountry telemark skier. Utah, 2019.
“You’ve got to line them up to knock them down.”
Image: Arizona, 2018. United States bike tour. San Diego, CA to Sag Harbor, NY.
“Do less.”
Image: Mike Semkus at Sagg Main in the days of yesteryear.