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.
« Read the rest of this entry »Michaux March 2024
December 8, 2024 § 1 Comment
This will not be the post I thought it would be, because this was not the trip into the woods that I thought it would be. It certainly started out like the trip I thought it would be, and for the most part Friday night was almost a repeat of any Friday night spent in the woods with friends. As it so happened the only friends in the woods with me that night were my Brother-in-law Walt, and my friend Dan, as no one else was able to make it out on this weekend. The reason for this early outing was that Walt was being honored as an Outstanding Alumni by the College of Engineering at Penn State, and he proposed that we do a weekend in Michaux prior to his “Big Day”, and since I was planning on going up early anyway, I was automatically a “Yes”. I have rarely observed any camping request in which Dan was an automatic, however that was where it ended. For awhile that is. It seems Walt chose an old email thread that was devoid of a few key members of our clan, and since, like most people probably, no one actually looked at the list of recipients to see who was there and who wasn’t.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – Segment 3
November 17, 2024 § Leave a comment
Strava
Panoramas
Relive Video
Relive Interactive
This post will over the last 2 days of our Transverse of the Zion Wilderness. If you have been following along, you will know that we are camped on the East side of West Rim mesa/plateau at what is probably one of the best sites in all the National Parks. It is Jed, Paul, Jim and myself, minus Mike who is hanging out in Vegas, we awake early, around 6:30 to get up and see what the sunrise brings us this day. We are in Mountain Time, on the West edge of that timezone, so Sunrise is about 7:21 with first light appearing at least 30 minutes prior. When I emerged from my tent there was the hint of a glow on the Eastern horizon. I grabbed my chair and moved down to the trail junction where we had a clear view. Unfortunately the sky was clear which meant that there would not be any colored clouds, and it would just be a clear sunrise. Anyone who chases Sunrises or Sundowns knows that the best versions involve clouds. We ventured from our viewing site looking for other opportunities I believe Jim got a Raven to pose for him a wee bit down The Grotto trail.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – Segment 2
November 10, 2024 § Leave a comment
Strava
Panoramas
Relive Video
Relive Interactive
The second segment of our Zion traverse includes what I have called Death March 1, and Death March 2 based on how I felt at the end of each of those two days, which was exhausted. Just to be clear, this is not like a Solzhenitsyn march where you know from the start what kind of day it will be, but rather each day began just like any other day when you backpack and have to move camp pretty far along the trail. Don’t sleep in; Pack your sleeping bag, and deflate and stow your air pad before you exit the tent; Breakfast on oatmeal, and coffee drinks, water up, and pack the rest of the things; Groan while raise the potential energy of the pack, and start walking, a smile on your face, and nothing but happy “What will today bring?” expectations ahead.
We compared “steps” at the end of each day, where Jed and Jim were scoring around 3-4 thousand more steps than me, who marks out a fairly decent stride. More, when I go up hill. The two “Death March” days were 24,951 and 28,985 steps, and I still backpack in fairly traditional leather boots made by Zamberland (“Zambies”) that weigh in around 4 pounds so 2 pounds per foot. Jed and Jim wear something more like trail shoes that are a lot lighter. Mike is also more traditional, and I can’t remember what Paul was wearing. I think you see where I am going here. Each step moves that 2lb boot further along the trail, and as they add up, fatigue starts to set in, so that by the end of the day, you just want to get those damned heavy-assed boots off your feet and let those feetsies recover.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – Segment 1
November 6, 2024 § Leave a comment
The Grand Escalante Staircase. I am sure that most people have heard of it, but I am not really sure that most people understand what it means. Yes, its an area of the country, mostly in Utah, but it has importance in Geology terms when it comes to the age of rock. Now, though there are people that would like you to believe that the Bible has dictated the age of Planet Earth, the fact it is that it is much older. Orders of magnitude older. Bible Age is 103 and actual age is 109, but we are only talking about the last 120 million years. Over that time frame, the undersea plain that had collected 100’s of millions of years of various sediment layers began to be pushed upward, and over the course of time, rose out of the water, and continued its ascent as a flat plain, however once it was above the level of the sea, it began the process of erosion. In Physical terms, it was probably very light at first. The potential for erosion is dependent on the number of feet above sea level, so not a lot of erosion at first, but of course, the uplift continued. Today Bryce Canyon sits at 9000′ above sea level. That is more than 1 and 1/2 miles. Water boils at 193 degrees at 9K instead of 212 at sea level.
« Read the rest of this entry »Zion 2024 – It isn’t 2011
November 3, 2024 § Leave a comment
The last time I went to Zion National Park was to do the Trans Zion Trek. Not the entire trek, as few people ever do the Eastern portion. It was one year after I joined my Brother-in-law Walt E for a 4 day Grand Canyon adventure that I joined him and his friends in Zion for a truly wonderful 4 days in early May 2011. I didn’t own a digital camera then, and I recall borrowing one from Ed who, for some reason, brought 2. In those days you applied directly with the park staff for permits, and the permit process was pretty simple. You submitted a request with your dates, group size, and preferred campsites as most of Zion had fixed campsites and only 1 at-large area. I think the queue was FCFS, and if the sites were available, then you got your first pick, if they weren’t, then they’d suggest alternatives, and give you a day to respond.
Today it is a wee bit different. First of all, almost everything in Zion requires a permit now, especially the famous Angel’s Landing. A certain number of sites were opened to long term planning back in March, which is when I would have had to apply to get both the back country permits as well as an Angel’s Landing permit, but I didn’t get the date straight (again) and was left with the second option which was to be ready at 2AM Mountain Time on September 5th to see if I could get a permit for up to 12. I was staying in Bend, OR with D2 and her husband Will, and you may recall my adventures in the Three Sisters the previous weekend, so I was an hour behind, and I set an alarm for 12:50 am.
« Read the rest of this entry »Three Sisters Loop – 9.1 9.2
November 1, 2024 § Leave a comment
The first part of this story went on a wee bit longer than I felt could be covered for a 5 day trip. I left off where we had blundered our way into a shortened day camping in a burn-out along Soap creek. I may have missed that we were the first ones to throw stakes into the soil, but as we the evening wore, others moved into the area as well, so there was quite the little community there by the time the sun set.
Will and I put our heads together, and using my paper map, and his online map, which basically looked like the same map, using the mileage between marked points, we were able to determine that it was 9.8 miles to Matthieu Lake, which was high up and right along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). We both felt that if we got up and didn’t dawdle, we could make the lake by noon, where we would take a nice long break, and then we would shoot for a water camp somewhere on the West side.
« Read the rest of this entry »Three Sisters Loop 8.30-8.31
September 5, 2024 § 1 Comment
Last time I was in Bend, which as it so happens was actually my first visit to Bend, I was here for 3 weeks staying with Daughter #2 and her husband Will. One day, Will mentioned that he would like to do the Three Sisters Loop, a local loop hike, in the Three Sisters Wilderness, and he’d like to do it with me. A little background. Will’s brother has done some backpacking, but Will has only done car camping, and knowing that I do a fair amount of backpacking, he wanted to give it go. I don’t think Will had any idea how big the loop was, but maybe it could be done in a weekend.
I love a challenge, and so I immediately brought up the area in AllTrails, and I quickly found a route that might be the route, and so I queried the loo[ and found this page which verified that the All Trails route was indeed the route. With the distance being shown as almost 48 miles, I quickly realized this was more than a weekend hike. More that is for me. Even with an afternoon start on a Friday, it would mean two 20+ mile days, and there was no way I was going to lead my son-in-law on death march weekend when I think it would be better for him (and me) to have a pleasant 5 day journey, and not hate backpacking when we were done.
« Read the rest of this entry »Cycling the Pyrenees – Part Five
August 4, 2024 § 2 Comments
I had joined two friends for an epic ride across the French Pyrenees in October 2022, and 3 days into the ride I tested positive for the Covid 19 virus. I convalesced for a few days, and then rode to Bordeaux and then caught a train back to Paris where I then rode West to Plaisir to join a family friend on a business trip to Caen. This should be the final installment in this series as I recall what went down, and how I remember it.
« Read the rest of this entry »Cycling the Pyrenees – Part Four
August 3, 2024 § Leave a comment
As of my last write up I had just tested positive for Covid, my mates, as agreed to, have continued on their way, and I am convalescing in a 2 star family hotel in Argeles France for 71 Euros a night which includes breakfast and dinner. I don’t know why we don’t have these kinds of places in the US, but this was quite a deal. I was staying in my room, I didn’t allow house cleaning in, and if I left my room, I was masked, though I didn’t communicate to my hosts, my condition. I was the only one wearing a mask, so maybe they figured it out. They always put in a corner for dinner far from any other guests, and no one else dealt with me.
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Big Bird's Adventures 