March 28, 2024

Travels with Bob Downes

The Great Outdoors Everywhere
April 15, 2016

Want to get outdoors? How about getting outdoors in as many countries as possible? Now add your favorite sporting activities and you’ve really got a unique adventure. Traverse City’s Robert "Bob" Downes is the guy to talk to about such excursions; the former Northern Express owner/editor has been traveling for years, both domestically and abroad, with an emphasis on seeing the world from the ground level of the great outdoors.

The Starting Line

Downes has been a writer for longer than most realize, even those familiar with his work at Express.

"I wrote several fiction books when I was just out of college, but they never went anywhere," Downes said. "Then I got involved in journalism and that became my focus."

Even when Express quickly became a staple on the northern Michigan scene, Downes always kept up his outdoor activities. He started bicycling in the mid-"˜80s and has completed about 45 triathlons to date, as well as two Iron Man triathlons.

"As a result of doing those, I’d ride thousands of miles in the summer," Downes explained. "A 50- or 75-mile bike ride every Sunday was nothing. I had all kinds of routes I’d ride."

He carefully planned both sporting excursions and other trips around his Express work, but by 2007, Downes was ready for an even bigger escapade.

Planet Backpacker

Taking a five-month sabbatical from Express, Downes headed to Europe to travel solo with his 20-year-old mountain bike named Dulcinea, his guitar and his backpack; the result was his book "Planet Backpacker," which both chronicled his trip and offered travel tips for fellow backpackers.

But, this wasn’t a typical trip where the traveler with backpack merely flies in and then walks about big, familiar cities. Downes started his trek biking across Ireland and the U.K., then down The Danube River in Europe.

"Then I left the bike at a hostel in Prague, so others could use it, and continued on to India, Southeast Asia and Egypt," he explained.

He took notes for his book as he went, using scraps of paper or whatever he could find. "Say you’re sitting in a bar in Bangkok and you’re struck by inspiration," Downes said. "Well, you grab a napkin, just like Jack Kerouac did!" He also traveled with an iPad and keyboard in tow, transferring the notes later; he wrote blogs as he traveled, ensuring the information would remain safe. The notes and blogs became the foundation for his books.

Travels with my wife

A second major trip, this time with his wife Jeannette Wildman along, was the inspiration behind his book "Travels with My Wife." The couple spent seven months traveling together, beginning with camping in Australia and Tasmania.

"In Australia, it was nice, as we had a four-person tent and a car," Downes said.

From there, they proceeded to Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, where they stayed for a month, even though Downes called India the "most challenging" country he’s ever visited.

"It’s just so different from everything we know in the Western world," he explained. "It’s like another planet and it can be grueling at times – more of an experience than a vacation. But, one plus is that you don’t really camp in Asia, as hotels are so cheap; our place in India was $6 a night."

Then the pair traveled onward to Turkey, Croatia and Italy.

"We were together every single minute.

Well, except when one of us needed the restroom," Downes laughed. "But traveling like that brings you closer, because it’s the two of you figuring out the world."

Last fall, he and Wildman took another trip to France, England and Ireland, where they hiked around Mont Blanc and biked along the Loire River, staying in little $40-pernight hotels and taking in the landscapes.

Both Downes and Wildman have camped throughout their lives, he explained, and both are passionate about fitness, so they’ve got plenty of stamina for these excursions.

"Jeannette does yoga and strength classes daily, and walks an additional four to six miles every day," Downes said. "And I do cycling and weight training."

Biking Northern Michigan

Which brings us to Downes’ third book, "Biking Northern Michigan," which is quickly becoming a favorite resource for both local and visiting cyclists. Drawing on those aforementioned Sunday training rides, Downes just expanded the book for its latest edition, with seven added routes and 400 more miles for avid cyclists to traverse.

"There are new routes from Grand Rapids to Cadillac, from Cadillac to Traverse City and from Alpena to Traverse City, for people who are really serious about biking," Downes said. "For all my traveling, my favorite place of all really is here in northern Michigan. Mile for mile, we have more outdoorsy things here to do than anywhere else. I mean, I’ve biked in a dozen countries, and this really is the best place to cycle in the world."

He also has a fourth book, "Windigo Moon," ready to go, but this one’s not a travel tome. It’s a fictional romantic/adventure story about the Native American Ojibwe set 400 years ago, and he’s just snagged a New York literary agent to help him lock down a publishing deal.

"They get something like 5,000 submissions a year and pick five or six books to work with, so I feel very fortunate," Downes said.

"¦.. And Beyond

While there will probably be more future writing from Downes, you’re most likely to see him at the Traverse City Public Library, where he enjoys settling in with his laptop next to the view of the Boardman River.

There will definitely be more traveling.

He and Wildman just returned from nine weeks in Mexico and Guatamala ("It’s the third winter we’ve spent that way; that’s my writing and reading time," Downes said) and he’s planning a schedule of speaking tours about biking in northern Michigan that will include stops in Ann Arbor and Rochester, Mich., and he’s got yet another major jaunt in the works for this summer.

"I spent my younger years doing international travel and now I’m actually looking forward to seeing North America," Downes said. "I kind of saved it for my later years."

While he’ll admit he’s still got an eye on Scotland, Sweden, Cuba and Ecuador, for now he’s content with his plan of attempting to cycle from Seattle, Wash., to Traverse City this June.

"I’ve already bought my plane ticket," he said, "and I’m scheduled to speak at an event at Missoula, Mont., halfway through, so I’m hoping to make that entire ride – through three mountain ranges and the Great Plains – if my knees hold out. I’m not a kid anymore, but I think I can do it!"

For more from Robert Downes, including book and travel information, as well as travel tips, visit his official website, planetbackpacker.net. His books can also be found at local bookstores region-wide, and on Amazon.com.

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