jump right in
How did you plan out your first bikepacking trip? [i]carefully, my carefull planning changed along the way, changed a lot.[/i]  Did you stay close to home or jump in head first with a crazy trip?far from home, very. Did you just go for 1 night to test everything out and see how it did, or multiple nights?multiple nights Did you wish you had planned differently for your first trip? all plans change along the way,  just go.  there is no one right way, just go.
 

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took a while to learn how to mount some tires tubeless.  I never could do it with a floor pup.  finally got them on with a compressor


29er rims which ones to buy?  I'm going with hope hubs, dt swiss spokes,  and _______ rims
anyone logged long hard Miles one some rims

I just had some s&s couplings    http://www.sandsmachine.com/    instaled.  now I can fold my bike in half
 and put it in a case. 

The chore of discovery

A bicycle chronicle

 

February 15, 2008.  Welcome to New Mexico the land of enchantment.  For 10,000 years and more, people lived on this land, the Ancient Ones.  Who were they?  How did they live? What would they say, if they could see my bicycle, my polyester shorts, 8% spandex? 

 

There is a storm coming, a big one.  The wind is already blowing me side ways.  Sometimes my saddle bags catch a big gust, and stop me dead in my tracks.  My newly chosen route is south of the mountains and away from the higher elevations.  I found a short cut on the map.  I’ll save a day, maybe two. 

 

The recommended bike route goes through some beautiful mountain passes.  The Gila cliff dwellings, the houses of the Ancient Ones, are only a day’s side trip.  The weather man promises a foot of snow in the higher elevations.  I’ll take the boring low road.  Away from my one planed side trip, away from the snow, away from history.

 

By evening the storm starts to grow. What are the little white things falling from the sky? They sure sting my face.  I know it’s not hail, hail falls down, this stuff is blowing sideways.   

 

The map doesn’t show my short cut as a gravel road for 90 miles.  I can’t take a gravel road for two days, not on a fully loaded bike.  I’m turning back, back to the main road. 

 

On a pitch black moonless night, I’m pedaling north into a violent wind storm. The rain is coming harder now.

 

The ancient Ones made it. They had no rip stop nylon. How will I pitch my tent in this wind?  What did the Ancient Ones eat on a night like this?  I have a can of beans.  My multi fuel camp stove doesn’t burn well in a gale.  The Ancient Ones lived their whole lives without nylon rain pants.  Were they warm and dry on a night like this?     

 

A side road leading to a sand quarry, and I’m off the highway.  I see a hill and some tall grass fenced off from the rest of the quarry.  Looks like my campground.  Maybe I can get out of sight, and find shelter from the howling wind. 

 

With a mighty effort, I drag my loaded bike over a sand mound, past the gate, and into the unused area.  The view of Elpaso is spectacular from this ridge.  Like a city sized snake, the lights follow the other side of the Rio Grand.   A puff of wind powerful enough to push me brings the urgency of finding shelter back to mind.

 

Those 50’ high rocks were not visible from the road.  They sure are in the right place to block the wind.  The rain lets up just long enough for me to pitch my tent.  I’ve found a sandy spot next to some wind blocking rocks.  There is brush, tall grass, and thorn bushes all around.  I should be safe from prying eyes.  My sandy spot is not the low spot, I wont get flooded during the night.. I’m not so close to the cliff a falling rock will hit me.

 

Did the Ancient Ones know something I don’t?  I’m a long way from the cozy warm isle at Walmart, where the choice between red and blue seemed so important.   As I pound the last tent stake into the ground, the rain returns, harder than before.

 

I’ve got some of those damn fruit bars, and some peanut butter.  Just incase I couldn’t cook dinner in a storm.  What were the Ancient Ones doing on a night like this?  Were they toasty warm, snug next to a fire?  Nice bit of jack rabbit roasting on a stick?  Did the Ancient Ones consider the tempest a normal part of life, nothing to worry about?   

 

The Ancient Ones had no synthetic sleeping bags.  I wish I knew how to live my life without Walmart.  They did, for 10,000 years.  As I drift off to sleep, the sleep of a person who pedaled 14 hours into a gale force wind, I dream of the ancients.   

 

I should get up. It’s getting light out.  A dream stage sweep through the night before tells me I'm safe here.  I searched far into the night for a place to make camp.  I haven't slept past first light in weeks.  My sleeping bag is warm, the only coddle I'm going to get.

 

As the vission of the flute playing cliff drawing gives way, to the sound of a diesel powered quarry truck, I unzip and roll out.  I didn't see that house last night, And it's only 50 feet away.  My eyes focus.  Three of the four corners of this adobe house have crumbled back to the earth from which they came. 

 

With the light I see that I'm in a small aryo. I've spent the night in a small bottle neck canyon.  The narrow entrance is guarded by a hundreds of  years old crumbled house.  From all sides it looks like a grass covered hill.  Inside the cliffs are 50 feet high, solid rock.  A few shallow caves about half way up the rock walls make natural cliff dwellings.  The natural shelter isn't big enough for an entire tribe.  I'm in a 10,000 year old camp ground.

 

20 steps out of the arroyo, the wind blows my hat off.  As I turn to pick it up, I take one last look.  all I see is a grassy hill.  Welcome to New Mexico, land of enchantment.

Any one no of a resource comparing reliability of bike components?  I didn't say lightest or fastest.  I said most reliable.  I bought a Fargo frame, (touring bike with 29er wheels),  so I can travel in remote places. 

Simply put; which components will not let me down some where near Bolivia where the nearest bike shop is to far to walk too?

 You don´t need a gun in the woods, unless you have a premeditated urge to kill something.  If your caught killing a grizzly bear, more than likely you will get jail time.  No handgun is a good weapon against a grizzly bear.  A 12 gage and a slug works.  Many a person  has unnecessarily  emptied a 44 into a charging grizzly, and been killed by a now angry bear for doing so.  Sometimes the bear dies of the wounds later, sometimes not.  A 44 shell will not penetrate the thick skull of a adult grizzly.  Black bears leave people alone.  It takes a lot to get a black bear to attack.  A hand gun can kill a bear with a shoot through an open mouth, at an upward angel, so the bullet penetrates the brain.  Few people can do that with a trembling hand

 

Don´t feed bears human food, a feed bear is a dead bear.

bears and other carnivores hate the smell of smoke.

burn all food trash

don´t run from a bear stand still and talk in a confident voice

carry bear mace, (different chemical than people mace.)

I,ve used a zippo to light a very dry tree branch and touch it to a grizzly bears nose, (works with a trembling hand).

As a last resort hold a rock in the bears mouth as it tries to bite you, they have very small brains and think your to hard to bite.

Make plenty of noise as you travel through the woods,  bears will hear you long before you see them. a surprised bear may attack, a for warned bear may seek privacy.

The United States Forest Service has much useful info on forests.

If you fear wild animals, and think you need a gun in the woods, go back to your bar stool.

I fear city slickers and may buy a gun before I go downtown.  I walk the forest alone with no weapon, and feel safe. 

Find people with experience in the out doors to travel with.  If you think guns are necessary for protection against wild animals,  you have no experience in the woods. 

EXTINCT IS FOREVER 200 years ago 150,000 grizzly bears roamed North America.  30 years ago less than 200 roamed. 

water is quite important!  distance betwen water holes? hard pack or sand trails?  are there cows standing in the ground water?