Today’s accomplishments:
1) Packed everything (except tent and a few misc things) into panniers and stuff bag. Total weight?
20.6 pounds
Probably add another 3 pounds with the tent and misc things. That’s 7 pounds less than I was hoping for!!!
I’m only using 75% of the panniers’ capacity. More room for food!
20.6 pounds
Probably add another 3 pounds with the tent and misc things. That’s 7 pounds less than I was hoping for!!!
I’m only using 75% of the panniers’ capacity. More room for food!
2) First use of a Camelbak. At the outset, I’d like to state that I don’t like having anything on my back while I’m mountain biking. Not so much that it strains my back, but that it prevents cooling.
With that statement out of the way, I like my Camelbak. It’s nice to just grab the hose and suck down some water without having to dig out a water bottle. What’s not so nice is the water in the feed tube heats up in the blistering Colorado sun so the first gulp is warmer than the rest. Not the end of the world.
6 pounds of water on my back …
With that statement out of the way, I like my Camelbak. It’s nice to just grab the hose and suck down some water without having to dig out a water bottle. What’s not so nice is the water in the feed tube heats up in the blistering Colorado sun so the first gulp is warmer than the rest. Not the end of the world.
6 pounds of water on my back …
3) Water management. At the last minute, I’m changing my gear with respect to water: rather than carry another 3 liter bladder, I’m going to use water bottles as backups to the 3 liter Camelbak. Since I can only carry 2 water bottles and the largest bottle is a mere 26 oz, I’ll only carry an additional 1.5 liters. For the 55 mile section in the Great Basin of Wyoming where there is no water, I’ll probably buy a couple additional liters of bottled water. Environmentally unconscionable, I know, but I’ll modify the water bottles to create solar powered water purifiers for the third world.
I tried out the Sawyer water filter. Works as advertised. I used the filtered water from the refrigerator and I’m happy to report that, after running through the Sawyer water filter, it tasted just like water.
I tried out the Sawyer water filter. Works as advertised. I used the filtered water from the refrigerator and I’m happy to report that, after running through the Sawyer water filter, it tasted just like water.
4) Did shake out ride to Matt/T’s. About 26 miles round trip, 2 ½ hours. There was a hellacious wind coming out of the northwest which slowed things down a bit (unless, of course, the wind was at my back).
The added weight required riding in maybe 1 lower gear than normal but that could also be due to the hellacious wind noted above.
I need to raise the height of the bike rack because the left pannier hits the top of the disc brake housing when going over bumps. I had hoped to hang the panniers as low as possible to keep the center of gravity lower, but it’s looking like the panniers will be thigh high …
I may have gotten lung cancer on the ride: the particulates from the Washington fires have filled our formally pristine Colorado skies with super fine ash. Our upwards of 60 mile visibility was down to just a couple miles this afternoon. Even as I type this, it smells like someone is burning leaves down the block. Pray for rain to put out those fires (but pray for NO rain where I’m riding: mud is a b*tch!).
The added weight required riding in maybe 1 lower gear than normal but that could also be due to the hellacious wind noted above.
I need to raise the height of the bike rack because the left pannier hits the top of the disc brake housing when going over bumps. I had hoped to hang the panniers as low as possible to keep the center of gravity lower, but it’s looking like the panniers will be thigh high …
I may have gotten lung cancer on the ride: the particulates from the Washington fires have filled our formally pristine Colorado skies with super fine ash. Our upwards of 60 mile visibility was down to just a couple miles this afternoon. Even as I type this, it smells like someone is burning leaves down the block. Pray for rain to put out those fires (but pray for NO rain where I’m riding: mud is a b*tch!).
5) Got Spot™. Matt lent me his satellite tracker. I learned that it has 4 messages that I can predefine before I start the trip. Message 1 will say something like, “I’m starting/ending the day” so you’ll know that I survived the night/day. I can’t think of what I’d say for message 2. Message 3 takes more manipulation to send, but the gist of the message is, “I’m in trouble, but I can wait for someone I know to come help me”. Message 4 ups the ante: “I’m in deep trouble and I need help now!!!”. If message 4 is sent, the good folks at Spot™ will contact the appropriate rescue squad nearest my location and send them my latitude and longitude values. They claim they’ve responded to 3500 request for serious help.
There is a website you can call up to follow my track. This is the link.
There is a website you can call up to follow my track. This is the link.
6) Fire. Really, the best part of the day was testing a fire starting technique that Matt (or was it Therese or Garry?) told me about. Essentially, you take a cotton ball and coat it with petroleum jelly. To start a fire, you stack tinder around this little blob and ignite the blob. The cotton ball acts as a wick (like a candle wick) and the petroleum jelly burns for maybe 5 minutes. That’s a very light yet powerful fire starter!!!!
Plus, you can use it to remove make up.
Is it stereotypical that men like to play with fire?
Plus, you can use it to remove make up.
Is it stereotypical that men like to play with fire?
7) Mapping. Continuing to do the map inversion. When I get it done, I’ll send out the spreadsheet so you can better understand how I’ve spent so many hours doing the inversion.
Tent did not arrive today. I talked to REI and they said it won’t arrive until next Saturday!!!! Wait a minute! I have in my virtual hand an email that says it was shipped Monday: how can it take nearly 2 weeks to get here? T said that shipments to stores only arrive on Fridays … if she’s right, I screwed myself by being so clever, shipping it to the store. The REI rep said that the tent would arrive via UPS and Monday would be the next day it could arrive, suggesting that ship to store packages do not all arrive on Fridays, but maybe she doesn’t know how it works.
Given the uncertainty, I’ve asked Matt if I can borrow his tent which he has already offered to lend to me. I wanted to get my own tent because A) I could use it in the future and B) no chance that I would destroy Matt’s tent, but I don’t want to wait a week before getting this show on the road.
Gads …
T-1 …
JK
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