Messages

16

Mid-Atlantic / Re: New Jersey Wolf Preserve & Campground

« on: December 12, 2012, 01:49:24 pm »

The Lakota Wolf Preserve is a great place!  If you are a hiker, you can take the red trail up Mt Tammany from the trailhead and hike up to
the ridge right above the Wolf Preserve and howl.  The Wolves will howl back if you're good/loud enough!!! I've done it before when I was in NJ.

Jay

17

Gear Talk / Re: Bike Rack Advice

« on: November 21, 2012, 12:15:50 pm »

I second the advise of a hitch mounted rack if you have a hitch.

I use a roof rack because I also am a sea kayaker...

jay

18

Gear Talk / Re: Salsa Vaya rack advice

« on: November 17, 2012, 10:36:09 am »

Yes, I bought the front rack from Salsa and use it on my Vaya, I find it works nicely with the fork (it better!) and with my set of Carradice panniers...  I have gone on a few short tours with it.

Jay

19

Routes / Re: Emergencies on paved rail-trails??

« on: September 24, 2012, 04:12:14 pm »

I've been on some newer railtrails here in the northeast that have barriers to prevent cars from going down the path (which is wide enough for a car) but the barriers obviously can be lowered so it is certainly feasibly for an ambulance to get through in an emergency.  Some rail trails though have permanent structures so there would be no way for a car to get through.

Jay

20

Routes / Re: Here's some Green Mountain Loop tips

« on: September 10, 2012, 04:28:20 pm »

Speaking of the Green mtn loop, might also check out the Cross VT trail, which I think is informally known as the Rivendell trail, but it runs from Burlington to NH, around St Johnsbury (VT) area...   It's still I think a work in progress and a bit of it is still on roads but some of it is on MUPs, etc... and they have maps of the current CVT on their website...

http://www.crossvermont.org/

Jay

21

Routes / Re: Here's some Green Mountain Loop tips

« on: September 10, 2012, 06:58:22 am »

Regarding Kingdom Trails, you can also camp at Burke mtn itself, which has tentsites and leantos and is very popular on the weekends... However, most of the trails right from the campground are more downhill related, but it still is possible to ride to where most of the X-C trails are (Darling Hill).    I got cell coverage at the campground (AT&T), YMMV.

Good stop at the ice cream place right on the road that goes up to Darling Hill, which has Giffords.. 

Jay

22

Routes / Re: NYC to Baltimore?

« on: September 04, 2012, 08:30:42 am »

I believe there was also a MS tour that used to ride (over 2 days) from Sandy Hook to Cape May and back so poking around the MS folks might be an option...

Jay

23

New England / Re: North Atlantic Coast Camping????

« on: September 03, 2012, 12:40:55 pm »

Not really, $25 is about the standard tent price I have seen.  The other option is warmshowers.org and possibly doing a lot of research beforehand on places that you may be able to camp for free.   However, these places might not be terribly close to the Atlantic Coast route.  There are places in the catskills, the Adirondacks that are free but not really close to the Atlantic Coastal route which goes through the Shawangunks but not exactly through the catskills which are further north.

You might be able to find some free spots in NW CT if you can find where the Appalachian Trail goes through and if any of them are close enough to the road to get to but as you can see, there isn't anything that you're going to come across that will scream "Camp here!" unless you do a lot of research beforehand.   I think your best bet is warmshowers.org and places like that, contact the local police station/church/ in your intended area and network, network, network...

Jay

24

Routes / Re: Great Divide Route Conditions

« on: August 29, 2012, 04:49:34 am »

Ride the Divide is also on Netflix (streaming). I recently saw the second movie "Reveal the Path" by the same folks but it's not about the CDT and more about europe/alaska MTB touring..

Jay

25

Gear Talk / Re: Tent fly

« on: August 26, 2012, 10:14:49 am »

Look up silnylon and then see if you can find it in the color you want, camo, dark green, etc.  You might be able to find a distributor for the material in limited fashion. Maybe a place like Campmor or like another outdoors store that you can work with...   

Silnylon is very light and there are single wall tents that are made out of it like Henry Shires...

26

Gear Talk / Re: Salsa Vaya rack advice

« on: August 15, 2012, 07:08:06 pm »

The straight blade fork in the front may affect a regular rack so the Salsa one will obviously avoid the problem with the front.

For the rear, I use an Old Man Mountain Red Rocks rack because I took it off my old commuter/touring MTB. It's not the lightest of the bunch but is build super well and is a solid rack. 

Jay

27

Gear Talk / Re: MAss reduction for supported touring events

« on: August 15, 2012, 07:06:18 pm »

I backpack and kayak camp ,etc.. I use a singlewall tent from Black Diamond which is barely over 2lbs.. 

REI makes a small tripod chair that I got on sale for $14 that is surprisingly comfy. I've used it kayak camping before and bring it to outdoor concerts, etc.

Jay

28

General Discussion / Re: Can someone recommend an inexpensive hotel/motel/hostel in Las Vegas ?

« on: August 01, 2012, 04:06:44 pm »

Have you tried the online hotel search engines? it's an option especially in a busy travel destination like Las Vegas, you should be able to find someplace fairly cheap and with transportation to/from the airport...    (which isn't far away from "downtown" in any case)..

Jay

29

General Discussion / Re: Transporting a bicycle

« on: August 01, 2012, 04:05:16 pm »

If you do not know if you are going travelling with your bike a lot, it might be worth it just to pay a good bike shop to pack and ship your bike for you. Rather than buy a $150ish+ bike case that you might only use once...   

I've shipping my bike with a Trico bike case to Alaska, france, Utah, etc. and so far so good, no problems so far.  Use plenty of pipe insulation and extra clothes as padding...   Or you could use a cardboard box from a bike shop, not as protective but not as expensive either. 

Jay

30

Routes / Re: New Vermont Bicycle Map

« on: June 28, 2012, 08:30:13 am »

i got a good sized package in the mail yesterday filled with VT goodies, including the bicycle map.

The bike map looks like it was taken from the same GIS data that you comes from their free VT State roadmap, which means it is mostly highway/county level with a few FRs and smaller roads tossed in.  Cerrtainly wont provide you every route.  It is marked for paved vrs unpaved and even includes a few marked suitable roads in eastern NY State.

Definitely not as good or detailed as say the old Rubel bike maps were for MA but Rubels weren't free either.

You can definitely map a route to different regions in and around VT and the routes are probably more of a guide than an end-all because I would ride a bunch of the roads that aren't marked as a "safe corridor".

Anyway, its not earth shattering, if you've ridden in VT for a long time or live there, I doubt it would be anything new to you, but for those not from the area, it will provide great information to start planning a VT tour or so. 

It also came with the free Road map and also a free camping/lodging guide... 

I hope to actually use the bike map in helping with a weekend bike tour...

Jay