bakerjw
Posts: 464
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« on: June 23, 2016, 07:23:58 AM » |
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A litany of what to do and what not to do. What worked and what didn't. Kind of long but the people here understand these things.
I ride a lot. Mostly paved and gravel roads. I am not in the "A" group on road rides but I can keep up at a strong moderate pace. Ironically, before heading north to Banff, I had never ridden over 100 miles in a day. The most was Memorial Day when I had my Karate Monkey fully loaded and rode 77 miles with 5800 feet of climbing here in the Appalachians.
I flew into Calgary on June 15th and headed over to Banff early in the afternoon. If you've never been there, be prepared to be astounded by the mountains.
The morning of June 17th, I rode out at 5:00 with another guy. Going in, we had an agreement, if either of us was much stronger than the other, then the stronger rider would be free to ride at their own pace. As it was, I was a bit stronger rider so after a mile or 2, I opted to pick up the pace.
the ride to Elkford was slowed down as I was stopping every 15 to 20 minutes to take pictures. It is an unbelievable beautiful area.
Luck was with me as it was relatively cool and dry; however, the road to Elkford got real dusty. 12 hours and 110 miles later, I pulled into Elkford and was pretty tired. It was my first 100+ mile day ever on a heavily loaded bike so I was in pretty good spirits about the entire day. I had hoped to make Sparwood but the tourist in me caused that to not happen. The next target would be to get to WigWam campground the next day so I grabbed a hotel.
Things done right - Had enough water to Boulton Store. Made it to Elkford.
Things done wrong - Water got short right before Boulton Store. Didn't eat enough while out riding. I just wasn't hungry.
Day 2, I headed out into a crisp morning. I opted to deviate from the 2016 TD route and take the ACA map route. Yeah, the one with the washout. Iohan navigated the washout with his bike in the "See the World Part 2 - TD in Winter" video on youtube so I had an idea of what to expect. It was a great ride even though I had to navigate a herd of cows. The bull was amiable but one cow bluff charged me when I passed her and her calf.
I also had to deal with a big black bear on the trail ahead. One of the trails cut into a hill side where there isn't much of a place to go. Loud singing finally got it's attention and it shuffled off of the trail.
The washout was what I expected. I managed to get off the road and down to the river easily enough but banged my knee a bit. It didn't seem to be much of an issue. Along the river, I stumbled a few times but eventually managed to get my bike up the other side and rolling along.
Shortly after the washout, a herd of elk started across the road ahead of me. That was really neat to see.
I made one wrong turn, but finally got situated and before long was rolling into Sparwood. 33 miles or so in 3 1/2 hours. I was content.
When I got off of the bike to get a picture of the big green truck, I took a step with my right leg and it hurt. The bruise on my knee was a bit worse than I expected. This put my plans to get to WigWam into question. I knew that there would be hike a bike sections and doing that with a bum knee would be a problem.
After the obligatory pictures were taken, I headed into town to get some breakfast. As I pulled up to a restaurant, I spotted another bikepacking bike. It belonged to the guy who I departed with the day before. We had breakfast and discussed how to continue. He was planning on taking the Fernie alternate and I opted to go that route in order to get to Eureka and lay up for the night to see how the knee felt. There was also a rain system getting ready to move into the area.
On the way to Eureka, the backside started getting sore. Not the contact areas with the saddle, just middle areas in general. We made Eureka in decent time and I took a night to recover and reassess. In the morning, the knee felt good, spirits were high and I continued on to WhiteFish.
A good day. 10 hours saddle time with 107 miles. Two 100 mile days in a row!
Things done right - Plenty of water. Ate plenty of food.
Things done wrong - Fell. Didn't deal with rash issues when I should have.
Day 3 started well. The rain system had moved through, the temps were mild and it was expected to be dry. The knee and rash were under control, so on to Whitefish. The only bad spot was that my USB battery unit somehow had died. This acted as a cushion between my dynamo and USBWerk. It also afforded me a few charges for my cell phone.
Near the top of Whitefish, my knee started getting cranky. Halfway between Whitefish Divide and Red Meadow, the rash started getting annoying again. I dealt with the rash and it was content for a while. I got a message to my wife to book me the cheapest room possible in whitefish so that I had one less thing to worry about when I rolled into town. I finally made Whitefish after 11 hours and only 97 miles. the room was at a Hampton Inn for WAAAYYY too much money.
Things done right - Plenty of water.
Things done wrong - Didn't eat like I should have but I was not hungry.
The morning of day 4, I couldn't sit on a bike seat at all. The knee was fine, but darn it hurt to sit. My wife was at work so I didn't have anyone to talk to for advice and I wasn't sure what to do so I packed up gear, boxed the bike and booked a flight home. I couldn't see myself being able to sit on a bike seat for a few days, so I just bailed. Three days, 33 hours in the seat with 320 miles or so was respectable for a first attempt but nonetheless disheartening.
Looking back and analyzing the situation, I see many things that I did wrong. I see some things that I did right too and I learned a ton for next year.
Wrong things.
The bibs that I was using were new. I've worn new bibs many times and never had an issue although I haven't been in them for 12 hours straight before either. I also should have washed them every night when I had a chance.
PRIORITIZE day end activities. Food might seem like #1 and beer #2, but what are the charge levels in your electronics?
Desitin... Make damn sure than you have some. Chamois creme too. I had hydrocortizone creme and antibiotic creme, but no desitin.
Right things.
Day 1, I felt seat trickle down my back into the natural funnel that we all have. Day 2, I took a washcloth, folded it into a triangle and stuck it in my bibs right at the base of my back. All sweat that trickled down was absorbed and didn't make it to areas prone for rash development.
Although I am not what would be considered a strong rider, not one time did I have muscle or joint pain (knee bruising excluded) from riding. After 97 miles into Eureka, other than the rash, I could have easily put in another 50 miles.
Equipment.
The good...
Steve, my Surly Karate Monkey was a fantastic machine. It might sound weird, but I have a bond with that bike. He was rock solid the entire trip. He does weight more than I would like so next year will be a different machine of choice.
My Rogue Panda Picketpost seat bag was unbelievably stable. Easy to pack and no wobble. Highly recommended.
My DIY frame bag was solid as could be. Stayed tight and was never an issue.
My DIY roll bag hung on the bars tight and never loosened.
Jones H bars afforded a lot of real estate for GPS unit, headlight, camera, etc...
Garmin eTrex 30x. Worked like a champ. Easy to use and had long life on batteries.
DeLorme InReach SE tracker. I never dropped a location point and was able to reliably send and receive text messages.
Garmin Edge 500 cycle computer. Great for tracking mileage, cadence, etc...
The bad...
Shutter Precision PD-8X. Shutter Precision produced a very good dynamo hub. Some units had problems with bearing slop and were not pulled once it was determined that there was a manufacturing defect. If you've seen a loose cup and cone hub, this is like that. I found out that mine was bad a day before flying out. I have to jump through hoops to get it covered under warranty. So far they have shown terrible warranty support.
USBWerk??? I am not sure what to do think about this. If you maintain a good speed, it will charge a device; however, my cell phone battery went from 40% charge to 8% in a matter of minutes when I wasn't maintaining sufficient speed. I know it is a good device but I need to investigate it a bit better.
I didn't use a tent or bag but they were both a bit heavier than I should have had with me.
I took too much clothing, I could lose half of it. It was a dry trip, but I did have rain gear with me.
The higher altitude took it's toll on me. I normally ride 2,000 to 3500 feet in elevation. I expected it to have some effect, but it was worse than I had expected. Especially day 1 to Elkford.
Although my conditioning wasn't terrible, I do need to kick it up a notch or two.
Eating while out on the route is still a mystery. Nothing sounded good and I wasn't hungry. I normally eat very healthy and rarely eat junk food so going into a gas station or small mart and finding something calorie dense proved to be more difficult than expected. Just something to work on for next time.
Next year will be different. I know what I can do physically and how to address issues that I faced. I am still down in the dumps about bailing as quick as I did but that will pass with time.
Se la vie.
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