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Messages - walks.in2.trees

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31
Gear Talk / Re: GPS bike device for the Trans Am
« on: March 12, 2017, 04:18:47 pm »
If you have a newer Android smartphone or tablet, they're much more efficient than they used to be at conserving battery if you leave the GPS receiver turned on but don't light up the screen. Since all you care about is tracking, you can turn on the history feature of Google Maps and it will track you and use hardly any battery. My old Galaxy smartphone, I had to turn off all of the receivers or it would be nearly dead overnight... My newer Galaxy Tablet though, without ever turning off any of the receivers, will only have used 2% of battery overnight, and if I don't need to use it for work, it'll still be over 95% after work too.

I just think it's silly to carry two devices that do the same thing, especially if you're going to have to charge them both anyway when you stop. Plus, as far as that goes you can bring a Goal Zero Nomad7​ and charge while you ride on sunny days... Granted that's more weight to carry, and it's only useful while the sun is out, but the option is there. The was a similar kit mentioned by someone else once, and you should be able to find it if you search the forum for my previous mentions of Goal Zero

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32
Photos? Pretty sure lots of folks will love that they can fit a six pack in there ;)

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33
Sounds like you might want to try a camping hammock.
I don't like hammock tents! and I live in Southern California and Stealth Bicycle Camping/Bicycle Touring in Southern California and very little trees to no trees
Sounds like you might want to try NoGround Poles with a hammock!

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34
Gear Talk / Re: Keen sandals for 2 month crosscountry trip
« on: March 06, 2017, 04:21:12 pm »
I've seen a few mentions on posts about SPD by folks that only wear sandals if you want another place to look.

I did use sandals myself for a long time at least in summer, but I decided that the materials they're made of don't hold up well, and there's many times I want to wear shoes anyways as opposed to sandals, so for me, I'd end up bringing both anyway and use the sandals for camp... I considered Crocs, because I've seen that some use them for camp shoes, but sandals look to me like they pack better.

I have a pair of Pearl Izumis that I don't even use anymore since I bought my Shimano's... They're winter shoes but I wear them year round because they're waterproof... That's not to say I haven't drenched them in a hard rain while wearing shorts from water running down my legs right into them, but for lighter rain, or if wearing rain pants that extend past the shoe tops, the work great

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35
General Discussion / Re: Transamerica trail temperatures
« on: March 06, 2017, 02:20:01 pm »
If you aren't already aware of it, most sleeping bag ratings are overly optimistic.  (Except for military equipment.)  My 45F bag is useless below 60.  Had to stop at a Wallymart and buy a fleece bag to put inside of it.  It's a good thing I did that, we had frost on the bags the next morning.
I'd adjust this statement to say "most big-box store sleeping bags" I think they also go for a "survivable" rating as opposed to a "comfort" rating.

I likewise had a suposedly 0° degree rated bag that I had to supplement with a liner and clothes below 40°

However my 0° Goose-down UGQ quiltset has been adequate to -13F, and still hasn't hit bottom of it's performance yet... Also pretty expensive gear, but worth it


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36
Gear Talk / Re: Advice for long underwear while riding?
« on: March 06, 2017, 02:08:02 pm »
Thanks for all the responses. I have some showers pass rain pants....Do you think those would add a lot of heat over my regular pants when riding???
It will add wind protection, which helps preserve your heat, but also condensation inside the pants, which is not so good if you stop long enough to cool down while you're exposed

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38
General Discussion / Re: Cycle the Erie Canal Event
« on: March 06, 2017, 01:58:19 pm »
I just signed up for this 8 day trip put on by Parks & Trails New York.  Buffalo to Albany.  Has anyone here done it?

Daily miles are somewhere between 40-60.  75% of the canalway is dedicated off-road trail and flat.  The other 25% is local, lightly traveled roads.

Looking forward to arriving in town each night and being able to go out and find a couple of cold ones.

The best part is that the group that PTNY carries your gear to the next overnight stop so you can ride without hauling all of your camping gear.  They also feed you breakfast and dinner, provide snack stops along the way, and they arrange for concerts/meet-up/tours each night, etc.  Just not carrying my gear will be a nice change of pace.

I was originally going to do the Erie Canal on my own later in the summer but saw this event and jumped on it. 

I just wanted to see what people's thoughts were about it.  This looks and feels very much like a GAP/C&O Canal type trip. 

I have to say I'm excited and looking forward to it.  I'm from the Pittsburgh area and looking forward to meeting others.

John
A while back I posted a short documentary filmed by a buddy of mine who did that ride, unfortunately I forget the post's title

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39
Gear Talk / Re: Advice for long underwear while riding?
« on: March 03, 2017, 07:11:34 pm »
I DO wear pants: right now, I'm wearing the Marmot hiking pants with the half-zip cuffs (a useless feature, since you still can't get them off without taking off your shoes, and you don't NEED them unzipped to get them off over bare feet.  The important part, if your like me and aren't into the "tights" look, is the articulated knees and a form-fitting leg, not a loose fit that will get caught in your chain like a lot of hiking pants are... Below 25°F I'll add a base-layer under the pants (which is essentially tights) but I don't like the way they bind against my knees as I pedal, so I only wear them if I need them.

Similar to the previous response, I start to sweat after about 15 minutes of riding, and so far I haven't found a good way to mitigate that... The best I can come up with is, I start off dressed for full conditions: top base layer, shirt, micro fleece pull over or vest (depending on conditions), down jacket, water proof shell with helmet compatible hood. The pants don't matter so much because my legs can go a lot colder than my core, hands, and feet can for some reason. After my internal furnace is fired up, I stop and remove some layers... Quickly as possible so I don't cool off too much. It's really important not to let the down get wet in case you need to stop long enough that you'll lose your heat, in which case you'll want to put it back on... You don't want it to be soggy or even frozen when you NEED to put it on.


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40
General Discussion / Re: Transamerica trail temperatures
« on: February 26, 2017, 04:34:46 pm »
Seat-of-the-pants weather knowledge is why us westerners have to rescue easterners all the time.
Seat of the pants is a short-term thing. You can't base gear for months worth of travel on tomorrow's weather at your own house. Especially not if you'll be in the mountains where things can change in a matter of hours. Most 3-season people plan for a 20° Low... I'm a 4-seasoner so my winter kit is 0°, overstuffed, and I bring my 50° summer kit to supplement it (it's supposed to be a 45°, but functionally it's 50°)  I don't wait for the temp to drop down to 0° though before I add my summer kit to it though, I add it on at around 20°, that way, if it drops under during the night, I don't wake up shivering, already having lost a lot of heat, try to put it all on while shivering then have to wait for my body warm up before I'm comfortable enough to sleep again.

As Dave said.  Plan on a week of 100F, and it'll freeze at least once in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming.

Those web sites will give you historical averages and possibly the extremes.  They will tell you almost nothing about what will really happen while you are there.   

There is a saying called "The Traveler's Rule" which goes; "It will be hotter than you think, it will be colder than you think and it will rain more than you think."
only meant for LONG-TERM planning... that's why I said NOT to use the extremes... extremes are once or twice in a life-time events and extremes on the warm side don't matter for cold weather prep, while extremes towards the COLD side happen so rarely that it's overkill to bring gear for it everywhere...Plus, with global warming, those past extreme cold events are getting rarer anyway.  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be aware of what the extremes have been or that they can't happen again, only that you don't want to base your everyday kit on it.

If you have to pick ONE setup, you err on the side of safety, or don't go at all... if you go anyway, thinking you can supplement with whatever else you bring, maybe it works and maybe it doesn't, however that works out, well, that's on you.

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41
General Discussion / Re: Application for keeping a journal
« on: February 26, 2017, 10:20:23 am »
I'm planning a ride from NJ to Anacortes this summer.  I have most of my questions answered, much thanks to this forum!  Now I have more trivial issues.  My question is "What application do you recommend for keeping a journal when on a longish bike ride?".   CrazyGuyOnABike?  I'm only bringing an Android phone. 

I've been section-hiking the AT and just use a NotePad on my phone to keep a journal.  Since I'll be gone for 2 months, I wanted to use something my friends could access.  I've never used FaceBook - it seems to be too much of a "time sucker" - but do others use it for creating a trip journal?
I'm more of a digital guy, but I like the postcards idea if you want to save battery... Helps keep the entry short circuit you not to ramble, limits the time spent doing it, you don't have to carry it with you— just mail it home, plus getting postcards along the way gives you excuses to stop when you otherwise might not have.

In terms of apps... Just start a page on Google Sites... It's easy to set up, easy to access from any web browser, you can add anything to it from anywhere on your Google account, plus you can add someone you trust to edit if you want, or even use it as a way to communicate with the public without giving out your personal contact info.  Plus you can set up behind the scenes pages that only you can access to do things like trip planning, spending logs... Or any other lists, Spreadsheets, calendars and have it all in one place

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The other nice thing about Google Sites is that you can have as many as you want, so you can play with the concept, try different layouts, delete it and start fresh, whatever.

The way I'm doing it, I have a back-end, that only I can get to, for all of my trip planning: tool lists, parts lists, gearing chart, packing lists, meal plans, contacts, etc.
The front end is a blog page which has a link for adding a new entry, click it you get an empty page with a time & date stamp... add a title, then the text body, you can add photos or video to it, whatever.

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42
General Discussion / Re: Transamerica trail temperatures
« on: February 26, 2017, 07:33:05 am »
Wunderground.com from a WEB BROWSER (not in the App) on any device
Click on the history tab... From there, you can select locations and specific calendar dates to see the stats for each (or maybe you have to choose the location before you start... It's been a while since I used it) but that's how I decided what level of cold weather gear I should buy

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43
General Discussion / Re: Application for keeping a journal
« on: February 20, 2017, 04:55:59 pm »
I'm planning a ride from NJ to Anacortes this summer.  I have most of my questions answered, much thanks to this forum!  Now I have more trivial issues.  My question is "What application do you recommend for keeping a journal when on a longish bike ride?".   CrazyGuyOnABike?  I'm only bringing an Android phone. 

I've been section-hiking the AT and just use a NotePad on my phone to keep a journal.  Since I'll be gone for 2 months, I wanted to use something my friends could access.  I've never used FaceBook - it seems to be too much of a "time sucker" - but do others use it for creating a trip journal?
I'm more of a digital guy, but I like the postcards idea if you want to save battery... Helps keep the entry short circuit you not to ramble, limits the time spent doing it, you don't have to carry it with you— just mail it home, plus getting postcards along the way gives you excuses to stop when you otherwise might not have.

In terms of apps... Just start a page on Google Sites... It's easy to set up, easy to access from any web browser, you can add anything to it from anywhere on your Google account, plus you can add someone you trust to edit if you want, or even use it as a way to communicate with the public without giving out your personal contact info.  Plus you can set up behind the scenes pages that only you can access to do things like trip planning, spending logs... Or any other lists, Spreadsheets, calendars and have it all in one place

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44
General Discussion / Re: Bike security - Southern Tour camping trip
« on: February 07, 2017, 07:42:45 pm »
Interesting question.  The ST ( Start 3/1) will be my 4th crossing and I am fairly trusting and pretty casual about locking my bike but for whatever reasons my gut tells me to be more careful and lock up..especially at night..for the ST.  I plan to lock it at campgrounds for this trip. We usually leave one person outside at grocery stops etc.
Other security concerns:

Aside from locking up the bike itself, I wear a waterproof fanny pack with add-on toolbelt pouches. In the pouches I keep my wallet, keys, pen, knife, cellphone, USB brick and charging cords. In the fanny compartment, are the most commonly needed tools, so I don't have to dig through all of my gear... And if it rains I move my wallet and cellphone into there too. Primarily, this is so I don't have to remember to take it all with me, and maybe have it all stolen while I'm in a store... Instead I'm already wearing it. If I get a flat, everything to fix it is right in my fanny pack.

I got the idea while looking for pouches for my work belt. I do retail inventory for a living, and didn't want to leave my wallet laying around or carry in bags that have to be checked at the end of the event, and I normally keep everything I need for work in there too. So yeah, it's my man-purse!

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45
General Discussion / Re: Bike security - Southern Tour camping trip
« on: February 06, 2017, 06:55:53 pm »
Hi all,

We're from the UK and planning to bring our nice Co-Motion tandem to cycle camp the Southern Tier starting early March.  In Europe we always end up taking a good D lock and cable - these weigh a ton and it always pains us to carry them but gives us peace of mind and I'm sure we will again.....

But as this Forum is full of wise and experienced tourers...  we're interested in what do you do for bike security on cycle camping tours in the USA?    And Is this route more or less average in terms of risk (compared to say Europe, or other parts of the USA?).

Thanks,

Ian
Here what I use. A coated steel dog-tieout cable. I forget how long it is, 12 ft maybe? I split the clips off that came attached to it originaly... Bought it for maybe $5.00!
I used to have a more robust key-lock on it, but that froze up on me.

Here what you see in the photo. I pass one end loop, through the frame and around the seat-post then through the loop at the other end. I secure the trunk bag to the rack with it by passing the end through the rack, over the top of the trunk, around the rear light mount then back over the top and back through the rack.

When riding, I store it coiled up inside the loop of the trunk bag's handle, and around the rear light mount and the D-Ring that a shoulder strap would clip to, the end loop locked to the D-Ring in a way that prevents it from uncoiling as I ride.

When I deploy it, I snake the loose end first through the rear wheel, then around a tree or sign post, through the frame, through the front wheel, back through the frame, put a loop through the slot in my tire pump pass the end through that loop on the other side then wrap the cable around and around (see photo) and finally loop through the seat.

Why all this trouble? Because yes, people might steal ONLY your seat (I've seen it), people will steal your wheels (had it happen) and leave your bare frame hanging from a tree. I assume they'd steal an air pump if they'd steal a seat.

Moreover, my goal is to make it as much of a pain in the butt as possible. If they've got the tools to cut a cable this size, then that same tool will probably also cut the bigger cable... So why carry the weight and not be able to secure your bike completely when you're an entire continent (or further) from home?





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