Introduction Thread

[Luis]

Hi fellas...another wannabe here.  Looking to take the next step in mountain biking evolution.  Base camp is Tampa, FL...my soul is in the mountains though.  This site is inspiring. Keep up the good work!

mtbr screen name: ingluis

My blog: www.mucaromtb.blogspot.com

[gray rider]

Hello, my name is Tommy.  I'm an old guy (47) but don't wear helmet mirrors.   I've been mountain biking for about 5 years, used to do a few races but discovered I just like to ride.  I'm based out of Jackson, MS but like the previous poster, long to get up to the mountains.  This site has inspired me to start planning my first bikepacking trip. 

[Carney]

Hey-O, Andrew Carney here. I'm originally from the corny fields of Iowa, but now reside in Fort Collins. I've been riding/racing bikes through different disciplines for 9 years. It's always been about endurance for me and testing the limits of my legs and mind. I do have some bikepacking experience and touring experience. Nothing super long distance on the dirt, but I did tour cross country on the road with my little brother one summer on a shoestring budget and no real plan...just head east everyday and ride until it gets dark    Anyway, that's who I am.

[SandLizrd]

Tim's the name, riding is the game!  I'm no racer, just an Arizona boy who loves to camp and ride bikes.

The first distance ride was San Diego to Yuma, a twin century.  Tough on a 14-yr-old kid but I pulled it off.  Did some pretty good backpacking trips - Sawtooths in Idaho, Sierras in CA, Havasupai and Grand Canyons, Black River, East Clear Creek, the list goes on. 

In my 30's I gave up cigarettes and bought an MTB.  Nice change for a city boy (now I'm in Chandler).  And a new road bike.  And another MTB.  And a SS.  And a better road bike.  I thought quitting smokes was going to save me money?     I started nailing some centuries, and pretty soon I'd pegged a couple of doubles, and this summer I ended up with lots of time (two months) and enough money so I bought a 29er & started the GDMBR from South to North.  Made it to Jackson WY before running out.

I suppose I'll still be all over the map as far as riding goes.  El Tour de Tucson is still a lot of fun, this will be my 7th I think.  A good full-suspension ride does things the loaded 29er can't do (like move quickly!) and everyone knows some SS riding teaches a rider respect.  I'll be out there cranking out the miles, hauling my zero-degree bag because I'm an Arizona boy and that cold just sucks!

[sendoodoo]

My name is John Benson and I am the Product Manager for VooDoo Cycles here in Flagstaff, AZ.  I have been working for VooDoo along side the 'Leg'end Joe Murray for 4.5 years and riding MTB's since the mid 80's where I grew up in Boise, ID.  Race MTB and road from 1995 to 2005 or so and now look to start more bike packing and touring.  Joe has started his own custom bike company called Sendero Cycles and he is currently showing me the 'ropes' while we build a new touring bike for me.  It will use the Surly Endomorph or fat 29'er tires and be ready for any adventure anywhere!

Plans for the future are:
- Colorado Trail, self supported, Summer 2009
- section of Great Divide for gear shakedown and recon
- Full length Great Divide route Summer 2010
- other ideas: coastal tour of Baja, getting into Sea Kayaking, touring South America, exploring AZ, UT, CO, and NM.

[cartographer]

Hi folks.  I'm a long-time periodic biker (a few years on, a few years off), getting back into it again.

I've done a limited amount of mountain bike packing, and a bit of distance touring with a trailer and/or panniers.  I really like the idea of putting a limited amount of junk on the bike and covering some serious ground, though.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences and plans.

[Rob]

Great Site! 

My name is Rob, I'm a bike mechanic at Rock N Road Cyclery in Mission Viejo, in Southern California.  I grew up racing BMX and then got into Mountain Biking when I was 22.  Im 26 and have been commuting by bike for the last 3 years. 

My only touring experience is a 2 day jaunt down the Pacific Coast on my road bike.  I took the train from Irvine to Santa Barbara in the morning and rode to Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu and camped there, then road a century the next day back to my home in Laguna Hills.  I used a 1 person tent and a blanket I packed into a pair or compression bags I bought at Sport Chalet for 15 bucks each. It was a great ride and I met some cool people along the way.

We have a lot of good trails here in So Cal and I plan to do some bikepacking in the local mountain ranges on my days off as well as some road touring too. 

Bikes in the stable are a Cannondale R3000 road bike, w/Dura Ace group/wheels, a steel nashbar mtb, w/Surly instgator fork and built for trekking. Planning on getting a few bikes in the next few months- 2009 Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon 29er, a 2009 Specialized SX Trail II.  I'm also planning a custom built 26er with S&S couplers, that could be used for a future round the world bikepacking tour after 2010.

Thanks for the great site. 

[AmyL]

I'm Amy L, that's Amy59 using Dave's protocol.  From Palo Alto, near San Francisco.  I travel with my partner Jim49.

Our background is primarily wilderness backpacking, on and off trail - between the two of us we have been backpacking for ~85 years.  Our favorite backpacking areas are the southern Sierra Nevada, Southern Utah, San Francisco Bay Area.  In the last 7 years we have taken annual hiking trips in the UK and France.  We switched to light-weight packs (10-12 pound base weight) ~7 years ago, and now we preach the gospel - it's made such a huge difference in our happiness and range.  I rely on backpackinglight.com extensively for info about lightweight gear options, and I'm a big fan of the quality and quantity of info on that site.

I took 4 self-supported bike tours as a teenager in WI, MN, MI, IL, but for the next 30 years stuck with hiking.  Jim and I both commute by bike, but neither of us had ridden recreationally for 25 years.  Unfortunately, Jim's feet are getting so arthritic that it's not clear he'll be able to hike forever.  Therefore we decided to take up bike touring as a fall-back position.  Neither of us is particularly interested in technical riding, but we dislike cycling with cars so much that we are sticking with dirt roads as much as possible.  We rode the GDMBR last year (gdr07.blogspot.com) and had a great time.

I'm looking forward to sharing route ideas on this site, particularly for dirt road routes >500 miles in length.  For example, I believe that the Pacific Crest route that ACA is developing (Canada to Mexico) is going to be all paved - I'd like to get those maps (when published) and expand it to include dirt-road alternatives to pavement where possible and viable. 

We just completed a 14 day ride on the terrific ~800 mile Northern California Loop that Andreas Vogel describes on his site:
http://home.pacbell.net/hillmann/NorCalLoop/index.html
This loop is mostly on very quiet paved roads, but includes 20-25% dirt roads through USFS and private timber lands.  I'll post a trip report when it's ready.

Thanks to Scott for taking the initiative to get this site up and running.

- Amy

[WillyK]

Hi- I'm WillyK on here and a few other places............willygoat on mtbr.

I started riding dirt at at the age of 6 or 7, chasing my older brothers and their friends around on local trails. I grew up backpacking (among other things) with my brothers and dad. We did some great trips, including down the Grand Canyon and back out when I was 9 years old. Thanks Dad!!

In 1985 I bought a Specialized Rockhopper, and later that year a Blackburn rear rack and Kirtland Panniers. I stuffed my backpacking gear in there and went out for 3 days-2 nights. I've done a lot of bikepacking trips since then, but none longer than 5 or 6 days. I always go self-supported.... and single-track or off-road as much as possible, often times solo. I also did some mtb racing from '86-'90, but never took it or "training", too seriously. I've used front and/or rear rack and panniers, with and without framebags. I've borrowed b.o.b. trailers several times, and in the last couple years have gotten into the ultralight thing.

I also road ride/commute quite a bit, and have been a bike mechanic since 1986.

[chuckc1971]

chuckc1971 on mtbr.com as well.

Been riding off-road for years and have always had a passion for seeing what's around the next bend, but have yet to really apply it to bikepacking to any significant degree.

I came upon this site researching the vacations & destinations forum and saw the link to this forum in Krein's sig.

Anyway, I am researching how to make the next leap in mountain bike touring for myself. Thanks to you all so far for some really great info.

[z rocks]

HI.. The names Gabe but i go by z rocks on the forms.  On and off bike junkie since my first real mtbike in '89.  Live in SE AZ.  Just a few miles from the Southern start of the AZT.  I spend my free time on a bike, either my roadie, ss roadie (commuter bike), or a ss Niner.  Great options here whatever biking you like.  Plus riding year round riding keeps me here

Planning some extended bikepacking (so far i've jst done a few overnighters) in the years to come.  Even if i have to quit a job or two.  Currently i work as a construction supervisor for a landscaping firm.  My mind wanders alot at work......to all things bike. 

[tackhammer]

Hey everyone, I'm Dave (38 yrs old, married, 4 kids) and go by Tackhammer on MTBR as well. 

I've been riding regularly for 3 years and I can't get enough!  Unfortunately, my wife can   But seriously, I love mountain biking and bikepacking just seems like the thing I've been looking for.  I discovered this site reading Scott's Oregon trip on MTBR a while back.  And then that trip through Denali in Alaska with those 3 very courageous folks (Into the wild) on MTBR also.  So now I'm officially hooked and can hardly wait till spring (even though I have to).

My oldest son and I already have our 1st route picked out, but it won't materialize until May probably, I live in Upper Michigan and the snow clogs the trails longer than I'd like.  Although, it gives me time to gather the stuff we need and plan.

Thanks Scott for this site.

[Slim]

Hi , My name is Tjaard, which is my user name on MTBR. I live in Minnesota. I am very happy to find this site and very gratefull to Scott for setting it up. I have tried to have bikepacking discussions on other forums (backpacking light, MTBR) but it doesn't seem to gel.

I am from Holland and when I lived there I have certainly packed some stuff on my bike (like a kayak), but not for fun

I started backpacking about 14 years ago, and got my own MTB about 4 years ago. I was hooked on the MTB immediately. At the same time I was getting more and more into the lightweight backpacking concept. It ocured to me that that would allow for MTB packing on actual singletrack. Together with a friend we put this to the test, on the Maah Daah Hey. I was hooked! One of my favorite things about MTBing has always been the downhilling and the thing I hate most about backpacking was the descending!
Unfortunately there  has not been another option for a trip due to a wide range of interests and a lack of time and partner.

[alpenzorro]

I'm Stefan and I'm doing this bikepacking stuff (great name invention btw) back over in Europe. It's a bit different here though when you're just doing the usual (and very popular) one-week-alp-crossing. There's so many places to sleep and eat along the way that carrying overnight and cooking gear is a bit pointless.

Two years ago, I started to do things differently. Sleep outdoors, do longer trips, check out new places. Like a three-months-trip from Sicily to Munich in 2007 or five months from the Canarian islands through a bit of Africa and most of Europe in 2008. The goal is still maximum single trail fun along the way, as well as travelling from place to place like a trekking biker.

You can find the reports on http://www.alpenzorro.de/ if you're interested. They're all in german though, maybe babelfish helps. Might be a bit hard to read, since i'm more or less doing those reports live. Take a few self timer shots on a great trail, sit down with a smile, grab the PDA and post away. That's actually great fun, especially when you get lots of user feedback and when readers reply with great ideas on where I should cycle the next day. If you just want pictures whithout chatter, http://www.alpenzorro.de/thesnake/ works in any language.

I was looking for info on long-distance-mountainbiking in other places of the world and just stumbled upon bikepacking.net... great site with a wealth of information. In fact i've read so much now that maybe I'll do my next long-distance-trip on the CDT or some such... time to ride that beast in full-length S-N and then maybe go on through Canada and Alaska .

[Duncan]

Hello - i'm Duncan and I am a Bikeaholic.
This is my 21st year on MTBs, with almost every form of cycling having occpied my thoughts at one time or another from track to BMX or downhill racing. I've raced a bunch, but prefer to mellow my way along.
I am hoping to do a trip starting from Whistler, BC this summer with my wife. Hence my interest in your forums. I am primarily based in western Canada.

[Chad B]

Chad here. I have been mountain biking since I started in Mexico about 4 years ago. The past 2 years I have been using every second I have to be on a bike. I, like others in this forum, am slowly buying gear and knowledge to switch over from endurance mtbing to bikepacking/ultra racing. I live in Tucson, Arizona

[brian t]

hello, I've been a Lurker for a while here. I have just never posted anything. I do ride alot. Never bikepacked though.
I ride a ol' Trek 6000. I think its a 01. Slowly upgrading.

[jobes]

I'm Jobie

     I'm 37 and I live in tucson.  I've never bikepacked and just trying to get in shape,  I just did my first longish ride today.  46 miles, but only 20 was trail.  I'm pooped,  so I'd say I am the noobiest of the noobies.  I'm gonna try to do a one or two day trip within the next 3 months.  Hopefully it goes well.  I'm trying to get some gear together.  I just had Eric from alaska start building me a Frame bag, seatpost bag, and gas tank.  If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm happy to listen.  Jobie

[neve_r_est]

My name is Dennis Grelk, I go by Nonconformist on MTBR and Neve_r_est everywhere else. I started my biking spending days exploring the state forest and gravel roads surrounding my home in SE IA. For the last ten years I've been racing ultra distance road and mtb, standard XC, road, and CX, triathlons, HPV races, gravel enduros, and recently caught the snowbike bug. I've hosted an HPV race for the last three years, and I've made more than a few bike components from scratch, to say I'm a bike nerd is likely a bit of an understatement. I feel like owning a bike shop is an unavoidable future. Most recently I've rediscovered riding for fun and have reverted to exploring gravel roads and forest trails. I've become obsessively overprepared for rides and camping trips. With the help of Bikepacking.net and Backpacking light I'm learning how to do more with less, and hope to get my camp kit reduced to a size and weight that will allow a few multi-day bikepacking trips next year.   

Many thanks to Scott for putting together an excellent resource for the adventuresome.

DG

[S. cerevisiae]

Yo.  Stopping in for a check-out.  Crashed last summer in PA.  Monocular vision now...looking for alternatives to hard core ST riding.

Goals include big tour of midwest headed SE to the Carolinas summer '10.