50voltphantom

I left early Saturday morning to get my 65 miles of road, gravel, and horse trail.


Just about 30 miles in my chain and gears were so covered in grit it was making my chain artificially tight. I had to stop and slacken my chain and spray it with a water bottle so I could continue.



Also, it rained for about 4 hours of this 4-1/2 hour ride.

50voltphantom

This road/path looks amazing.

TimothyH

Silver Comet Trail.

96 miles long. One of the longest in the US.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/15354351

SpeshulEd 

I want that in my life.

TimothyH

Most of us here have a love/hate relationship with "The Trail."

One the one hand, motorists think we should stay on the trail. It isn't uncommon to hear "Get on the trail!" shouted from a car. Some riders also tend to ride only on the trail and never find the beautiful roads nearby nor experience real road riding. Then there is the bump, bump, bump of expansion joints ever 12 feet in some sections, same scenery every day, dog walkers in the more crowded parts, etc., etc., etc.

On the other hand, many group rides use the trail to get to really interesting placed to ride. Bathrooms every 10 miles or so doesn't hurt.

The real benefit I get is just people. Saturday afternoon I took my fixed gear bike the other way, toward Atlanta and rode just for fun, met some really nice people. Was talking to a guy on a sweet Ritchey Road Logic. Struck up a conversation with a pretty triathlete, stood in a tunnel during a thunderstorm with a guy who grew up right near me, and met a couple from Mumbai, India who had just ridden the entire trail over a two day period - on townie bikes! I also saw two dogs get into a fight at one of the trail heads - that was pretty intense.

Every once in a while I ride the trail to remind myself why I hate it. But then I always come back.




-Tim-

SpeshulEd 

Most of our bike paths that cut through the city are next to canals full of garbage and shopping carts. I've seen bums pooping on the side of them on more than one occasion.

There are still awesome areas, but lush green overgrown areas don't happen around here so much, haha.

50voltphantom

This is exactly how I feel about my local trail. Could not have said it better. I loathe it, but I'm also glad it exists when I just want some miles, and not an adventure.

SpeshulEd 

Here's a quick video my buddy put together from our bikepacking trip...


We spent the majority of day one on the trail, until the thunderstorms rolled in. The first 5 miles or so were super easy and we were all laughing about how easy this was going to be. Then easy turned into tons of climbing on a trail so narrow you couldn't even push your bike easily at your side. My friends weren't prepared for it, they were beat, nearly out water and we still had about 5 hard miles to go before we got to camp. When we hit a main road, we just took it into town to escape the rain and get some food. Knowing we had about 4 miles of climbing in the dark and rain to make it back out of town and into camp, we decided to stay at a hotel the first night. The shower was 100% worth it.

SpeshulEd 

On day 2 we decided to just take the main road to the lake that we were going to try camp near and skip the majority of the trail. Our plan was to ride the bikes on the trails around camp and have an easier day. Unfortunately, the main road to the lake was pretty much all uphill. My friends spent the better part of the morning pushing their bikes up the hill, I spent the better portion of the day waiting for them to catch up. Ha! We did find a great camping spot on the top of a mountain about a mile off the road. My buddy's cousin lives up near there and he brought us a case of cold beer for the night. By this point, we pretty much realized that we suck at bikepacking but were still having a blast.













Waiting for beer on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere...

SpeshulEd 

When morning came on Day 3 and we still had about 20 miles of dirt before making back to our car, we decided our best bet might be just heading back into town for breakfast and getting back home in a timely matter. So again, we cheated and took the road we climbed the day before back into town. This time at speeds upwards of 30-40mph. 40 on a road bike is fun, 40 on a mountain bike full of your belongings is a bit dodgy, but is still pretty fun.

SquidPuppet

@SpeshulEd

That trip look great. So does that chow!

TimothyH

Guy in the back ain't waiting for no pictures.

ausfix

A friend of mine experienced a giardia infection. His description of the experience he went through sounded worse than when he stepped on a stingray (his "worst pain ever"). Apparently the beezelbub-ish smells you emit after consuming giardia parasites will teach you a lifelong lesson.

Mumonkan

the feels are felt on this one. i know them well.


quite sure every motel in arizona has the same sheet thing on their beds

this is how it goes man, its hard and thats half the beauty of it. if you truly sucked you wouldve all died out there

vid was great, i need to go back!

SpeshulEd 

We're already plotting our next trip, it was honestly one of the best experiences of my life.

You also realize how important the little things in life are, like cold water.

Mumonkan

told you! its really grounding, shows you how much bull**** nonsense we take for granted every day

since i was out there i barely find myself dicking around my phone at all anymore and i only spend a couple hrs in front of the computer a day outside of work

SquidPuppet

And toilets

Mumonkan

toilets are overrated.

SpeshulEd 

Toilet paper tho, not overrated at all.

TimothyH

Interesting discussion...

ultralight backpackin' tips: Liberate yourself from Toilet paper

TMonk

As much as weight weenie-ism can be obsessive in cycling, in backpacking circles it gets downright weird! In backpacking there are some survival and self-preservation undertones that I dig, but still, that **** cray.

Mumonkan

baby wipes are the jumpoff.

i would never voluntarily use grass and rocks to wipe my ass unless i was forced to from running out or losing my wipes. those people are ****in nuts.

SpeshulEd 

Haha, for the record, we didn't carry tp either, but we strategically mapped things out so we were never that far from a bathroom, especially when we camped.

IFPCL

the sci guy 

NOPE.
Burn it down.