I've had mine setup in about an inch of water on the ground, heavy downpour, didn't get any runoff or rain in the tent. Good tub floor. the eaves stake out quite far to prevent splash up. Reasonable sized beak to keep your packs/boots etc dry.

Great to see JayP up there!

The Contrail is a single skin - picture a tarp above you, a footprint under you, with some no-see-um mesh joining the two. The fabric is waterproof, but single layer tents are prone to condensation on the inside. They are light, simple to erect, with material where you need it. Seam sealing is pretty straightforward.  Another vote for the Contrail. 

Add in a sidetrack through Malibu Creek state park via the old M.A.S.H. site, some great trails through there. I'm sure you could even piece together something through Santa Monica mtns to link up with the south end.

For me it's a nightly cleaning routine, and time in the saddle. Wipe down with a baby wipe, apply talc powder, maybe dab nappy rash cream on the chocolate starfish as required. Get your body used to riding in dirty clothes. Buut, we're all different - best way is to experiment and see what works for you.

Wish I could be there

Iditarod Trail / Yentna River 2013:  Fat Bike made by Quiring Cycles.  Frame Bag:  Barking Bear Bag Works
This web site rocks !!   

Hey Stickboy! race starts tomorrow...

If you take a sharp knife to the back corners of the std 705 mount, it will slot right into the circle of the barfly or similar out front mount, then just cleverly zip tie it in to the wings of the barfly.

Eric, they are freakish. Robotboots.

I lost faith in my Lakes, so managed to get some hammers in time for AK, very happy with them and we had 25 below on ITI camp. Wore an injinji performance coolmax liner, with a generic wooltek sock for insul with no problems. As well as the standard aerogel inner sole, I added a shimano heat mouldable innersole to improve the contact area and reduce contact hotspots, improving circulation. I ride 44 shoes for road and mtn, wide foot. I bought a 46 hammer, fit very well with room for a generic neoprene VBL. I tried a VBL, but my foot sweated so badly in it (like saturated the liner and foot was dripping) that I skipped using it, the boot did a reasonable job venting moisture, except around the toe box. Drop in a hand warmer first thing, then transfer it to pogie. Toe box is voluminous. I can ride with the boots in just the liner sock as well, feels a bit weird when compared to thick socks, but not impossible.

One thing about cold feet - you only have to walk maybe 5-10 minutes to warm up your feet (YMMV) but not in all conditions...

I'm hearing ya, bike theft at the top of my mind. I'll be on a ti fatbike now, fargo is staying home. Basic route will be Portland - west along Columbia - south when east of Mt Hood - Bend - Crater Lake - Klamath Falls. Dirt every day.

Doing my grocery shopping has me worried the most - far more than animal encounters. Amazing how far an aussie accent can get you, when asking if I can park the bike for a minute or two in a shop...

Local Knowledge in stores was going to be my most trusted source of info. IMBA maps sound perfect.

I'm planning to catch the Coast Starlight from Klamath Falls back to Portland. I'll have an 18" fatbike with hudus on, will the bike boxes they sell fit a fat in it? Any other local knowledge to share about the train?

So, tech me up on this stuff, where do you get it (edit - just found it at REI), can you fly domestically with it in the US? Wondering whether I get it in AK or OR.

Solo for me, concur with what is already said. I find it heightens my awareness of my surroundings and enhances the enjoyment factor - you notice and appreciate the finer details in flora and fauna due to this hyper-sensitivity. In a world that gets smaller and smaller with the digital/information age, going solo with little or no support does seem to make the world a bit bigger again, putting this human back into his place as just another dumb animal on this rock in space.

Here, the critters won't eat you (edit - the salty crocs will), but they still have ways to take you down. Dusk, dawn and right through the night, kangaroos will dart onto the trail and collide with you - not intentionally, but they are flighty, top heavy and the big males can be aggressive. Possums are like raccoons, very skilled and with a pre-hensile tail, can scale up and down things to get to food - some are clever enough to open zips on packs. Knowledge is key to gaining an understanding on the animals that inhabit the areas you are travelling through.

Animals you can sort of understand and respect their POV. Humans however, can be a worse risk. Go see a movie called 'Wolf Creek' to get an understanding from an aussie perspective. Animals can be scary, but I think humans are scarier.

Build up to it. Start small and increase your experience base within your boundaries, then challenge yourself regularly to raise the bar. Of course you'll make mistakes, and risk is part of the challenge, so calculate the risk and only expose yourself to potential mistakes/risks you can recover from. Keep your head logical.

Rough guide some use is 33% of rider weight (total package, bike and gear), but so much can depend on bike setup (racks or softbags, weight distribution, dual suspension, wheel strength) your singletrack experience and expertise on techy stuff. Not an easy answer.

When you say mallet durability - bearings, cleats, springs, wings?

How about mallets? Has anyone used them?

I'm evaluating my options now - was going to use my aging M545s and found a seal missing during a prep service for a coming trip. Was thinking mallet 3 with the needle bearings. For use in AK and OR (winter, of course)

Porcelain Rocket.

Excellent, thank you.

Saves me a bit of time - less time wrenching, more time riding.

Yep, the 605 takes micro SD, 8Gb card replaced the stocko 2Gb, plenty room. I agree, for this trip it will be secondary reference. Getting lost is part of the fun...

So I'm now down to basic route planning, I have a question about flora - specifically the spikey kind. I've ridden in Arizona and Socal and had my fair share of incidences with goatheads and cactus. Tell me - is there a need for tubeless in Oregon from the context of goathead type of puncture? Bike I'm planning to build for the trip is a fat with Husker Dus (folding bead) and need to know if I really need to go tubeless. No stranger to tubeless, more than likely would be a ghetto tubeless conversion in a hotel room (I'll buy the tyres in Anchorage and finish the build there)

Is there a goathead prickle issue in OR?