Bikepacking in 2025 – Prep Ride
May 19, 2025 § 2 Comments
I have signed on to a ride starting just prior to the Solstice with a couple of people I have met through a local Hiker/Biker group that operates out of the Morris/Essex counties area of New Jersey. I was introduced to this group via my friend Paul that has joined me on some of my backpacking adventures and now that I am nearing the end of my working career, I am looking for bikepacking adventures as well. This particular adventure will be 2 northern sections of the GDMBR (Greate Divide Mountain Bike Ride) from Kalispel MT, to Jackson Wyoming. My plan is to leave them 1 or 2 days prior to their destination, and jump on the Adventure Cycling’s Parks, Peaks and Prairies ride and try to get to Orange City Iowa in time for this year’s Ragbrai (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) which some other friends I have are doing this year. I did the 50th anniversary edition of Ragbrai in 2023 and at the end of that ride we all agreed to try again this year. Once I am done with Ragbrai 2025, then the plan is very fluid. More than likely I will simply keep going and work my way back home to New Jersey, however I will probably try and work my way up to Buffalo to get onto The Empire State Trail, and ride to Manhattan and home. In 1981, with my buddy Frank, we rode fairly straight across the states from Iowa, so I am not too keen to repeat that. Another possibility is to head North, and then West and ride to Bend Oregon. That seems very unlikely, but it is not out of the question.
That is the plan, and while I am getting miles in on the bike, I was, thanks once again to Paul, invited to join a Memorial Day 4 day bikepacking trip from New Brunswick NJ to Jim Thorpe PA and back again. I have accepted that invite, but instead of turning around with them on Sunday, I will continue NNE through Wilkes Barre and Scranton towards Hancock NY, where I will turn East and ride through the Catskills to pick up The Empire State Trail near Kingston, and ride that down to Manhattan Pier 11 where I will get onto the Seastreak Ferry to Highlands, and finish my loop by riding home from there. I have allocated 1 week for this adventure, and I really should force myself to take the full week. I have the full collection of routes saved in RideWithGps, though this collection contains 2 alternate paths I just mapped out, and I didn’t break up the Jim Thorpe to Hancock ride into two segments. These kinds of adventures are very fluid, and open to change along the route.
This prep ride is broken into 2 parts: The first 3 days, and then the rest. Since I am leaving from my home, and because I don’t want my first day to be nearly 100 miles, I reserved an AirBnb on the edge of New Brunswick near the start of the ride and will stay there Thursday the 22nd. Everyone is camping at Ringing Rocks Family Camp Ground near Upper Pond Eddy PA on Friday, and some of us are camping at 100 mile view campground near Jim Thorpe. After that, I really only need some place off the trail/road and out of sight that is flat, and I can “camp” anywhere. There are some campgrounds along the way, but they are all “reservable” drive in campgrounds, and those are very hard to get a reservation for, so I will play it by ear. Rural PA, and Rural NY are heavily Trump, and I am not taking any chances with those people, so I will not simply try to “Ask people” if I can just camp on the edge of their property. I don’t really need to be near water, because I will have water on the bike. So, just a flat piece of ground, off the road, back beyond the sightline from the road should be more than adequate.
If I plan my stops well enough, I don’t really even need to bring much food with me, as I can always stop along the way and grab bites to eat. This all falls into the gray area that is called “Winging It”. I will carry food, and if I have the water, I will have my stove to boil the water. In the morning, I can boil more water for coffee and oatmeal, or I can hit the road, and ride 20-30 miles before looking for food. The whole purpose is to put miles into the legs for Montana, and basically a cross country trip, as well as to flush out the gear. In 1981, as the Stein half of the Frank and Stein duo, I spent the summer riding from San Diego to New Jersey, riding my Fuji S10S carrying a lot of stuff with me which included a home-made shelter, my Svea 123R stove, enselite pad, sleeping bag, and a bare minimum of extra clothing. The bike was solid, saddle bags were adequate, I had excellent gearing, and with a lot of luck and the kind hearts of many people along the way, rode for 89 days and managed to get across the country in one piece. This time, I will be on a modern titanium gravel bike with equipment that rates about as close to “The Best” as you can get. Everything is lighter and better, so I am not anticipating any issues, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any issues. Of course, in 2025 I have the benefit of modern GPS devices, where in 1981 I was carrying road maps that you could get at any filling station. Those maps did not list all the alternative routes, and since I am on a gravel bike with 44 tires, I have a lot more options for routes. That is where Adventure Cycling kicks in as they have researched a lot of various routes and they do their best to keep you on “The Road less Traveled (by car that is)” while at the same time taking you through enough towns to get supplies etc.
So, that is the plan. Tomorrow I have a colonoscopy scheduled, and then I can dot the i’s and cross the t’s and get everything settled before I head out Thursday. The forecast for Thursday is not a lovely one, but hopefully it stops raining by the time I head out the door. Most of this trip is rail trail and as you can see in the image below, I have fenders!!
I should have cell service most of the time, and I will be recording my daily tracks using RideWithGps, which will autopost to my Strava. In addition, I will carry my Garmin Explorer+ which will allow my friends and family to track me at http://Share.garmin.com/BigBird9591. There is a password to enter, and if you want to follow me a little closer, then reach out to me and I will share the password. My Strava account is https://www.strava.com/athletes/175680 if that level of tracking is sufficient. On this prep trip I might make some posts, but I am not sure I want to carry my laptop with me. I can, but I am just not sure yet. I have a small keyboard that works with my phone, so I could just do that. We will see.
Equipment:
* Lynsky GR300 Titanium Gravel Bike 1 by 40x 11/44
* Ortleib 20L (each) City Roller bags
* Apidura 17L under seat bag
* Apidura Frame bag
*Ortleib Handlebar Mounted bag
* Shimano SPD pedals
Big Bird's Adventures 
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