2015 TD

[gotchile]

Next question is on sleeping shelter.  Bivey, tent or something else?  I know everybody has their preference and each rider must decide why works for them, but would like to hear what you use, and why.  I've been using a 2 person tent, but it takes up lots of space.
Thanks

[sthig]

I used a three wire bivy because I hate things on my face.  It works great during field testing but the best bivy sack I found on the Tour Divide was a set of keys to a hotel room so I could shower, elevate my legs, dry my clothes and crank the heater up to 2000 degrees to stop freezing.

I know, this makes me a wimp... but I caved so many times to the hotel vs bivy.  So I could have just had a lightweight bivy for the times I did camp.

[dp]

I'm going with a one-man tent.  Bivy's have never been my thing.  I like a little more room for moving around, changing clothes, privacy, and to keep the bugs (and rain) out.  There are some super lightweight ones out there by zpacks, six moon designs, tarptent, and others. 

Be sure the tent you choose meets your criteria - some of the ultralight shelters have condensation issues, often because they're single-wall; some are merely "water resistant" - not waterproof - to save weight. 

I'm planning on getting a tarptent Moment DW.  It's not ultralight, but light enough, and super quick to set up (only two stakes).  However, Pablito recently put me on to the Big Agnes Fly Creek Platinum 2014: about the same packed weight as the Moment DW, but free-standing.  Also nearly twice the price.  Decisions decisions...

[THE LONG RANGER]

Although I went with just a bivvy for my TD's, I've been carrying a ground cloth from a two-man tent I picked up at a sport's recyclery for a song. I weathered some incredible thunderstorms under that thing, this summer. Just another option - one of the advantages is that if you don't need it, you don't have to put it up and if you do need to put it up (Personally, when I'm so road-drunk, the last thing I want to face is setting up a shelter), it's pretty flexible on where and how you wanna do just that. Sometimes on really cold nights, I would just wrap it around me for another vapor layer. For the TD, I think after Salida, you could even just mail it back to yourself, as it would be overkill.

[sthig]

What Justin said (and actually anything he says. Period.  He's great advice!!!)

[SlowRide]

I took a Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 this year and it did phenomenally(those who followed the race know how the weather was, extremely wet and cold). After the race I came home and lived in this tent full-time for another month weathering torrential rains almost every day here in Steamboat and never got wet. At just over 2lbs this two man tent gave me great shelter, great protection from rain, bug/critter proofing, the ability to bring my bike bags in my tent on especially rainy nights, and weighs in near what some bivvy shelters do, it also has a very nice option to fast-fly setup where you only deploy the footprint, the pole, and the fly giving you a nice shelter without setting up the body of the tent.

[gotchile]

Thanks for all the advice on shelters, lots of great advice and opinions, all good.

[gotchile]

Lone Ranger you mentioned mailing back the tent after Salida.  That brings up sending supplies to post offices along the way ahead of time, food, spare parts (chain, tubes etc)  Is this something normally done, or are the shops along the way enough?  I know it depends on what breaks and where it occurs. I'm guessing its tough to coordinate your progress with the PO hours also, going through a town after hours.  Are racers starting with all the maps and sending home the used maps?
Thanks

[THE LONG RANGER]

Yeah, Post Office pick ups can be useful, but like many niceties, it can be a double-edged sword. If there's a particular type of food that you love, or something that you need semi-daily (Meds! Insulin!), then a large amount of PO drops makes sense. If you miss one, it's not the end of the world.

The problem is exactly as you describe: if you don't hit the PO at opening times, you're SOL for your required things. I had a drop in Salida waiting for me, but I hit up town on a Sunday. Thankfully, there wasn't anything I absolutely needed, but just things I kinda wanted: another pair of pedals (crank bros. you know...), another pair of bibs, some sun covers for my arms, another water bladder, chocolate - that sorta stuff.

For a mail drop, perhaps think of somewhere half-way (Steamboat? Salida?) for bike-maintenance and self-maintenance. A new chain (easy to put on yourself - have the length already set up for your rig, but don't do this too late!), or perhaps a tire for your bike; a new pair of bibs for your body sure sound nice. Batteries can get expensive in small towns - especially lithium ones for your SPOT or gps or whatever - they wanted $14 for a 4 pack of lithium AAA's at the lodge near Yellowstone - no thanks. Buying them in bulk online in the beginning and mailing some out to you isn't the worst thing idea, since if you miss the drop, you just miss out on a good deal on batteries.

The bike shops in Steamboat and Salida are well-stocked, and well-stoked on TD riders, I sincerely doubt they won't have what you're looking for - or at least will work pretty well, and will get you in and out of the door, as fast as they can handle everyone. But, if you need something weird, or have a big pref on gear, send it along. You'll pass through Frisco and Breckenridge as well - Summit County has everything from a Target to a Whole Foods these days.

Well-tempered TD riders have a really good idea on what day they're going to hit each town, and can plan drops accordingly. Matt Lee knew within an hour of when he'd hit Salida for a burrito at Mama's (so legends from locals go!)

Sending *back* stuff, imho, is better than throwing it away, and perhaps a little better than giving things away. But again, if it's not convenient, it's a big eater of time - maybe better to wait for the next town's PO? I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes in any of the small town PO's, to be honest. Gah, but careful if you're sending it to your own PO BOX: this summer, mine expired and all the things I sent back to myself, were thrown away by the Post Office. Sigh. Lost my base layer (guh, big mistake), a camera I wasn't using an all the accessories that go with it (battery, battery charger, sd cards), and spent running shoes.

On the TD, I def. sent my maps back, since they're really beautiful things, and it's fun just to look at them. Another thing I did, though was take xerox copies of the maps, and use the copier's ability to decrease the size of what I want to copy. Seriously easy way to drop a little bulk and weight and you get to keep your maps at home, and in nice condition. Once you're down with that part of the route, recycle the paper! Even if you're going with a GPS for nav, I'd (imho) still keep either the maps or the cues with me, for a backup - and if it's a backup, it doesn't have to be the best copy of anything - keep it in a very much waterproof bag (double ziplock!) in the way back of your saddle bag. Keep another copy of the cues/map/and gpx on your phone, perhaps? Email all the rest to yourself/put it on drop box. Many of the towns will have libraries with places to print things out. I've done the TD twice with cues and maps, I'd seriously consider just using a GPS (eTrex 20 - takes AA's!), as making a mistake from the cues is costly in time. I burned through hours and hours because of dumb mistakes.

I mention Salida, since it has (still?) the last incredible bike shop(s) on the TD, if you're going N -> S, and they're into the race. If you're in need, you'll need to stop, and get your bike tuned up to make it through NM. They'll know what that means, and probably have tried and true strategies about your drivetrain and wheel selection.

[dp]

Great insights Justin.  Re: the photocopied maps, have you (or anyone else?) ever used something like MapSeal to protect your photocopied maps?  http://www.aquaseal.com/map-seal.html  Might help prevent damage in case of wet weather.  Not like that would ever happen, but ya know, just in case.

[Christopher R. Bennett]

Hi,

The spreadsheet has been munted and we can't see the first 11 entries. Rather than revert to an earlier version is there some bright spark who knows Google Docs who can sort out the problem?

Regards,

Chris

[megand]

Is it fixed now? I just hit "Turn off filter", and all the data reappeared for me.

[Christopher R. Bennett]

Thanks so much 

[hikernks]

Lone Ranger you mentioned mailing back the tent after Salida.  That brings up sending supplies to post offices along the way ahead of time, food, spare parts (chain, tubes etc)  Is this something normally done, or are the shops along the way enough?  I know it depends on what breaks and where it occurs. I'm guessing its tough to coordinate your progress with the PO hours also, going through a town after hours.  Are racers starting with all the maps and sending home the used maps?
Thanks

I sent out 4 small USPS boxes to post offices that had 9-5 hours in towns that didn't have bike shops for general delivery.  This way, if I needed something, I could get probably get it, even if it meant waiting a day.  If I didn't need anything, I just bypassed it, and they would return it after 30 days.

You can fit a lot of stuff in a small, box, btw. I raided my other bikes, spare parts bin, and even talked the bike shop into loaning me a few things.  In each box, I had a tube, a tire, a set of pedals, extra tire patches, a jersey or shorts, extra socks, set of brake pads, a small bottle of Stan's, chain lube, a few chain links, extra spokes, extra batteries, travel bottle of body wash, etc.  Altogether it cost me around $35 for all four boxes.  To me, that's a whole lot of insurance for not much cost.  I think the towns I sent them to were Seely Lake, Pinedale, Del Norte (?), and Grants. 

[sthig]

Be aware - fatigue had me get my towns mixed up and what I thought I'd mailed myself to Salida (a new bike kit and lotsa yummy foods) was something I mailed to Steamboat.  This was pretty defeating and a grossly huge error on my part.  My advice, MAKE NOTES because you'll be tired, really really tired and will make mental mistakes.

Also, just to spam/plug again... my book is now available for physical order! You can order it by clicking here (or my snazzy image posted below).

[hikernks]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3nm71wwhvsa6gi8/AABF5OuFIpEFD-y1pBM0tGcEa?dl=0

NOTE!!!  The GPX track is NOT current, but the town lists and distances should be close.  I stored both of these plus the GPX track in my iPhone for reference/backup. 

[dp]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3nm71wwhvsa6gi8/AABF5OuFIpEFD-y1pBM0tGcEa?dl=0

NOTE!!!  The GPX track is NOT current, but the town lists and distances should be close.  I stored both of these plus the GPX track in my iPhone for reference/backup. 

Great resource! Thanks!

-dp

[RobD(NZ)]

Hi all. Just finished Scotts book - Trail Magic - Kindle Version - Great read. Really showed how individual this experience can be. We had a tough start this year but the weather was relatively kind to me later in the race. Someone a little ahead or behind may have experienced a completely different ride. Scott definitely got smashed here and there and all on one gear...

[gotchile]

OK, now a tough question. 

What's on you playlist for listening on TD?

[sfuller]

OK, now a tough question. 

What's on you playlist for listening on TD?

Thinking that one through as the days get a little shorter actually. I have been hearing some new/different things lately that are going to get added. Also toying around with having each one of my friends submit a song to me for a "surprise" playlist to use when I'm feeling a bit down.