I used a the same Terry Butterfly saddle for a year and a half - probably in excess of 10,000 miles after Tour Divide. I loved that saddle - 18 months without a single application of chamois cream, and only minimal saddle sores. My only complaint about that it is that a huge chunk of foam broke off the front about 400 miles from the border and I had to tape it together with duct tape, thereafter fearing the possibility that any big jolt might render me infertile.

So too old is a bad idea. But I think the common wisdom is use a saddle you're comfortable with.

Yeah, I'll bet that by itself it's not too serious a hike.  I suspect it's the sudden shift from pedaling 600 miles to backpacking that causes the grief, but also the intrigue.

Good point. The first time I hiked rim to rim in the Grand Canyon, in 2004, I was certain it was going to be the hardest single day of effort I ever embarked on. Ha ha ha.

If I try to conceptualize the Arizona Trail Race, from what little I know about the Arizona Trail, I feel like bike-portaging through the Grand Canyon would be a highlight. After a few hundred miles of intermittent but frequent hike-a-bikes skirting that frustrating edge of rideable, I know I for one would be grateful just to throw the useless thing on my back and walk free. But that's just me. :-)

I always wondered if it would be legal to carry a bicycle across Grand Canyon National Park ... even on one's back?

35-50 pounds of dead weight aside, the North and South Kaibab trails are pretty mellow hikes. Even if they do lose and gain ~5,500 feet of elevation, I'm doubtful that this is even close to the worst this sufferfest will surely dole out.

Have fun, ya'll!

I think the insulting part of this matter is the fact that Specialized trademarked the word "epic." The word has been part of the common vernacular since "extreme" fell out of fashion, probably around the time Mountain Dew latched onto it in the late 90s. I don't know the legal background of trademark laws, but I don't really see a difference between trademarking "epic" versus trademarking "cool" or "awesome" or "super sweet." Expect the Specialized was able to do it, perhaps because the denizens who launched the term "epic" into the mainstream were too busy hucking off cliffs and downing Red Bull to sue first.

I'm not calling into question Specialized quality or business practices. I just think it's annoying they "own" a common word.

I brought a pair of polar fleece liner gloves and lost one in Helena. After that I just had fingerless bike gloves. I don't recall that ever being a problem except for a couple of cold thunderstorms in which my hands went numb, which the fleece gloves would help curb. I agree with Chris. Bring a light pair of warm gloves and tuck them away when it rains. I think you'll be surprised how much you don't care about dry hands given everything else that's going on.

In Juneau, those deluded types who can't stand having wet skin buy thick rubber Helly Hansen fishermen's gloves. The Lower 48 equivalent would be plastic dish gloves. Pick a pair up at most any store and toss them when no longer needed. Sure, they don't breathe, but you'll never convince me that any breathable fabric can keep out moisture indefinitely (or even for more than a few hours), no matter how techy it is. Just my opinion on the matter. Warm and wet. That is the key to cold-rainy happiness.

I sent Specialized a letter about Epic Designs recently. It would be great of a lot of people in the bikepacking community took the time to drop Specialized a line and told them how they feel about big corporations bullying small independent companies that pose no threat to their sales. Small grassroots letter-writing campaigns have worked in the past. Companies hate bad publicity. Be sure to emphasize that you have lots of sway on other cyclists - i.e. if you're a sponsored racer, etc. I told them I was a newspaper columnist. Can't hurt. Might help.

http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=36601&id=1656886970&fbid=1012578728863

This was my rig for the 2006 Sustina 100. It's a 2002 or 2003 Gary Fisher Sugar with standard rims and 2.1" Kenda studded tires. The thing stuffed in the triangle is a Bell handlebar bag strapped to the rear shock. It was chock full of Power Bars and chemical warmers ready to be activated for purposes of thawing. Strapped to the handlebars is an old sleeping bag sack stuffed with random things I don't remember. The back rack is a very cheap REI seatpost rack with a lightweight drybag full of one of those -20 synthetic sleeping bags you can get for $60 on eBay, a thermarest, and a whole lot of down and wool clothing that did me a whole lot of no good when it was 37 degrees and raining overnight.

Yes, some of us were very knowledgeable when we entered this sport.

Another interesting angle to the SPOT debate - the idea of making such devices compulsory. Although this is delving farther into the mountaineering realm (which is obviously different than bikepacking), it does go to show how expectations are changing in regard to this sort of thing. As more and more people embark on certain "adventures," naturally the adventurous part of the endeavor - i.e. risk - is slowly going to be carved out of it. Lawmakers and others are going to demand laws to limit personal choice in favor of an (often false) perception of safety. Thus, you get quotes line this: “When are you going to stop the carnage on Mount Hood?” said Jim Bender, a commissioner in Clackamas County on the south side of the mountain.

After climber deaths, Oregon faces beacon question

By TIM FOUGHT
Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When a rescue team came on Luke Gullberg’s body at the top of a Mount Hood glacier and tried to figure out what had become of his climbing partners, they looked up at a forbidding rise of ice and snow.
They saw no sign of Katie Nolan and Anthony Vietti on the 1,500-foot Reid headwall, no gear in bright color standing out from the monochrome, no trail. And they heard no radio signal.
Had Nolan and Vietti rented a $5 locator beacon and had they been able to activate it after whatever misfortune ended their climb on Dec. 12, the searchers below might have been able to pinpoint their location. The two are presumed buried beneath several feet of snow and ice.
It’s the second time in three years that a search and rescue operation on the 11,239-foot mountain has failed to turn up climbers who went up the mountain without signaling devices and got into deadly trouble.
So, politicians, rescue crews, mountaineers and others are debating once again whether to require such climbers to carry locator beacons.
The recent rescue mission has raised the question, “When are you going to stop the carnage on Mount Hood?” said Jim Bender, a commissioner in Clackamas County on the south side of the mountain.
“People are dying for no reason,” said Bender, a longtime climber who said he had been up Mount Hood several times. “We need to find a way to protect them and we need to find a way to protect the people’s resources.”
A bill to require Mount Hood climbers to carry beacons on winter expeditions failed in the Oregon Legislature in 2007. Bender hopes the Legislature will revisit the question, or the state’s congressional delegation will take an interest.
He said the county commission will take another stab at a requirement that climbers carry locator beacons. Commissioners have previously run into a restriction on the kind of agreements they could make with the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the mountain.
It’s a mystery to many who don’t venture above timberline why the stiffest opposition to requiring beacons comes from the elite mountaineers who volunteer their time and put themselves at risk to get people off the mountain.
Beacons can be useful, but climbers should have the freedom to weigh the safety benefits of any piece of equipment against its weight or how it might impede their agility on a mountain that can rain down ice and rock at any moment, said Steve Rollins of Portland Mountain Rescue, a leader of Mount Hood search and rescue operations.
Mountaineers also warn that requiring the devices can lead some climbers to take undue risk, figuring on a rescue if they get into trouble, and that beacons aren’t always going to lead to rescues.
Even as they found Gullberg’s body, Rollins said, the snowpack beneath the feet of the members of the mountain rescue team was “shooting cracks” and making a “whumping” sound.
It was, he said, Mother Nature screaming about avalanche danger. That only rose during the search.
“I do not believe that we could have gotten there even if we had a beacon,” said Rollins.
One state official argues against such a requirement on grounds of personal liberty.
“The land is public, and I’m not a real big fan of mandating what people have to take with them when they want to go for a walk,” said Georges Kleinbaum, search and rescue coordinator for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.
Besides, he said, enforcement would be impossible. “It’s a big mountain,” he said. “Are you going to put a ring around it, or force everyone through an entry point?”

Pretty sure cruise ships aren't equipped to go to the pole yet. But, if you think about it, a nice, three or four-month out-and-back would mitigate the need for a flight out. Those early 20th-century explorers did it.

Bottom line is; Preperation and experince on your own will gain you the tools you need to complete the TD, not somebody else's.

Speaking of basics, we are surounded by them on the trail, use them to your advantage and face them or let them hinder you and hide from them. Sun, wind, bodies of water, shade, firm dirt, trees, precipitation, mud...

Life on a bicylce is way basic and easy compared to our everyday complicated lives (at least for most people). You gotta love it...

Here here! I don't know that it's possible to put it more succinctly.

Eliminate the 'tough' choices and you have no choice but to be tough--because ultimately we all have that capacity. And therein lies the beginning of the 'heightened experience' and one of the more beautiful elements of racing a grand tour. Ask of yourself earnestly with faith to go bigger than you've ever thought possible. When/if you respond and break through to the next level, the possibilities seem endless.

This is a good thread. It's making me really wish I had signed up for the Iditarod Trail Invitational this year. With all the talk of staying fast, some of those "other" reasons for participating in a multiday bicycle race are cropping up. Being forced to be tough can be a wonderful thing.

I'd love to hear more about your route as you figure it out. Don't know as much about Southern BC, but I think you'll find in Northern BC/Yukon, there really aren't any through-routes that aren't the Cassier or Alaska highways. Like you said, the highway is pretty remote, but it sees its fair share of regular traffic, even in the off-season. Someday I'd to do one of those Prudhoe Bay-to-Seattle tours, probably just sticking to highways, but if you find some good dirt links, please share them.

Hotels - if you're gunning for the typical 100+ miles a day routine, the answer is most every night. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I only camped four nights in 24. I intended to camp a lot more often, but I started to really crave comfort to the point were I was willing to stop early or go late into the night to get a hot shower, clean clothes and a bed.

You can also be super fast and sleep indoors every night - John Nobile times his races so that he never has to sleep out. He doesn't even carry camping gear, just an emergency bivy. Of course, this strategy involves a lot of planning, quite a bit of confidence in your own abilities, a few off-route stops and the occasional 200+ mile day.

It's also true that hotel stops tend to suck up a lot more time than camping. I was never more efficient than when I woke up to a 33-degree morning, ate a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans for breakfast and packed up my bike. I tended to dawdle a lot in hotels, especially if they had a washer/dryer or one of those waffle-making buffets.

I'm with Chris. iPod is key. I had two and a plug-in charger. I never had too much trouble keeping the 4 GB one charged. One of my pods also had AM/FM radio, although I could never get any reception every time I tried it, even at night, when AM is supposedly far-reaching (could have been a crappy device, however, but I think non-XM radio is pretty much nonexsistent in most places on the route.)

Having access to 1,500 songs was enough for me though. I definitely didn't have it going constantly, but fairly often. Lifesaver when you end up spending 2+ weeks all alone, especially when you are extra tired or sick, the silence tends to drive me into weird head spaces. Don't let the pod haters talk you out of it! :-)

Scott's GPS track was amazingly accurate - it only missed the official route changes from the last few years (i.e. Ovando), wasn't very helpful in some of the tight town stretches (i.e. Silverton bike path) and of course doesn't include Canada. But Chris is right, there's not a whole lot else to do out there so you find yourself scrutinizing every aspect of those maps. Combine that with constant observation of the GPS track (including zooming in and out and in and out to make yourself look closer or farther to your destination, depending on your mood) and it is actually very hard to wander very far off the route without realizing you're doing it.

Dealing with overflow: I used trash bags in 2008 and they failed on me, partly my fault, but trash bags aren't very durable and can fail easily. If you don't mind a little extra weight (9 oz), Wiggy's lightweight waders are tough and waterproof when worn for short stretches. I've only tested mine in streams around Juneau, never used them in a real-world situation, but I've heard from people in Western Alaska who swear by them. I plan to haul them to the White Mountains 100 next March.

http://wiggys.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=5

This is one of my favorite stories, precursor to the Iditabike: "Max Hirschberg's 1900 Bicycle Ride to Nome"

"The day I left Dawson, March 2, 1900 was clear and crisp, 30° below zero. I was dressed in a flannel shirt, heavy fleece-lined overalls, a heavy mackinaw coat, a drill parka, two pairs of heavy woolen socks and felt high-top shoes, a fur cap that I pulled down over my ears, a fur nosepiece, plus fur gauntlet gloves.

On the handlebars of the bicycle I strapped a large fur robe. Fastened to the springs, back of the seat, was a canvas sack containing a heavy shirt, socks, underwear, a diary in waterproof covering, pencils and several blocks of sulfur matches. In my pockets I carried a penknife and a watch. My poke held gold dust worth $1,500 and my purse contained silver and gold coins. Next to my skin around my waist I carried a belt with $20 gold pieces that had been stitched into it by my aunt in Youngstown, Ohio, before I had left to go to the Klondike."

Story found here: http://www.icebike.org/History/HistBroken.htm

People were so awesomely tough back in the day.

I have a little backpack that I received for free during a 24-hour race, no support but really light, that even with quite a bit of water fits nicely beneath my coat (the bladder is the only thing that goes in it; usually I'm only carrying 2-4 liters although I can fit six.) It does require removing your coat to refill, but if you keep a liter bottle, you'll probably only have to do this a couple times a day. Keeping stuff you don't want to freeze as close to your body as possible is key. Water, camera, and lighter should be buried beneath your coat at least; even better if you can get them close to your skin.

Interesting water issues coming up. Water was one form of "trail magic" that I refused. I had it offered to me on two separate occasions in fairly remote places in Wyoming and New Mexico by men in trucks. (I should note that I was more concerned with what might be in their offered water than running out of water.) But it also felt strange, so I said no.

I'm not a fast racer; I'm an Alaskan not used to riding in temps above 60 degrees and therefore a water hoarder. I left Atlantic City with nine solid liters of liquid and didn't even need to resupply in any way across the Basin. I also put in about ~24 hours between Abiquiu and Cuba with no resupply. I'm not saying everyone should do this, but it's certainly possible.

Non-commercial ban. Wouldn't this also apply to all trail magic food? Therefore, wouldn't a non-commercial ban effectively be a trail magic ban?

Ha ha! That's great. You clipless types try so hard.