TD'11 Race Discussion

[29singlespeed]

Do we know why he skipped the section through Cora leading into Pinedale? I was making my lowly exit at that point and was worried he might have a problem, but there was traffic and no where to stop the car. Good on him for being out there 

The turn was missed by a couple folks

[sigma7]

A short question to the veterans: Is credit card accepted by the majority of the shops/lodges etc. at the GDMBR? Or is cash required? How many cash would you carry?

-- sigma7

[ronref]

Kurt's dad here.  I just spoke to Kurt; he's still a bit north of Abiquiu.  He got a slow start this morning, and Jefe caught him soon after that.  Apparently they have been riding together all day.  Jefe had no idea his SPOT wasn't working, and they laughed at the speculation going on here.  Looks like it may go down to the wire.

[brunch]

A short question to the veterans: Is credit card accepted by the majority of the shops/lodges etc. at the GDMBR? Or is cash required? How many cash would you carry?

-- sigma7

I don't recall ever having a problem. There's a few places in NM that wouldn't take a CC but most of time you're good with a card. Some of the small inns along the way shut off their computers and such in the evening and therefore appreciate cash if you are knocking on their door after dark.

I kept $100 in emergency small denomination bills in my seat-post though, you never know.

[chainagent]

The ironic thing is that my wife unknowingly created this monster when she gave me Paul Howard's Eat Sleep Ride for my birthday this year.  She thought it was just another book about bike touring but little did she know that she has become a modern day Dr. Dividestien “it’s alive”.

Welcome to the club. My wife gave me the book "Cycling The Great Divide" for my birthday in 2009. Now she is complaining that I want actually start in 2013.

[woody]

Kurt's dad here.  I just spoke to Kurt; he's still a bit north of Abiquiu.  He got a slow start this morning, and Jefe caught him soon after that.  Apparently they have been riding together all day.  Jefe had no idea his SPOT wasn't working, and they laughed at the speculation going on here.  Looks like it may go down to the wire.

Thanks for the update. They will be probably be laughing for hours if not days..

Woody

[ridingman1]

A short question to the veterans: Is credit card accepted by the majority of the shops/lodges etc. at the GDMBR? Or is cash required? How many cash would you carry?

-- sigma7

Use American $$$ in Canada. I bought Canadian currency only to find out when I got to Banff, they accept $$$ on par. Let your bank and CC companies know you are traveling so they don't cancel your cards when transactions show up in small, strange places. Carry small American bills. When you pass a $50 or $100, they check for counterfeits and some places don't want bills over $20. A Discover card is one of the safer/better CC cards to carry.

Safe Travels my friend.

[ridingman1]

Apparently they have been riding together all day. 

I saw them hanging out with Justin Simoni in Banff learning the words to Kumbaya.

 

[ComoDepot]

The Euro Train stopped briefly, mechanical problems with a front brake.

Markus did not stop, I did see him cycle by.

Mike was in a bad way, thigh strapped up and ankle problems. He had a shower and a cup of tea. With milk. Pictures on the web site.

Next in David.

[6thElement]

In Seeley Lake the BBQ hut and the ice cream store opposite were the only places I ran into that only took cash or cheque/check.

[ridingman1]

Looks like Josh Shifferly is headed home?? Off route in Gunnison 

[AmyL]

There have been a few questions about SPOT and battery life...  AlanD and I wrote an extensive article about the SPOT2 for BackpackingLight.com
If you want too much info about the SPOT, you might want to read the article:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/spot2_personal_locator_review.html

Here's the excerpt about battery life:
Battery Life Lithium - BPL Field Testing

In warm to hot weather in the Pyrenees, one new set of lithium batteries lasted twelve days for a total of 120 hours in Tracking mode, plus twelve OK messages, in total approximately five days of operation. This is right between the minimum and maximum operation time claimed by SPOT. Almost perfect delivery of six data points per hour was consistent until the unit shut down completely. The red low-battery warning came on after about ninety hours in Tracking mode, however, the unit continued to transmit data successfully until the batteries were completely dead.

In a combination of field testing in Peru finished up with testing outside Alan’s home (fairly benign transmission conditions) the SPOT2 lasted approximately 140 hours in Tracking mode until exhausted (including two OK messages per hiking day). In combined use in Alaska and a southern Utah canyon system, with a new set of lithium batteries, the red low-battery warning came on after about 100 hours of operation.

Battery Life Alkaline - BPL Field Testing (not a Manufacturer approved use!)

SPOT clearly specifies to only use lithium batteries. However, on a long walk where battery resupply is from small shops (for example on the Haute Route Pyrenee), lithium batteries are not available. As such, Amy used four sets of alkaline batteries over 31 days.

On average, the alkaline batteries gave approximately 40 hours of reliable delivery (at or near six data points per hour) followed by approximately 40 hours of degraded delivery, degrading to as low as 50% success. The red low-battery warning light came on after about 40 hours of use, roughly concurrent with the start of the degraded delivery. When delivery rates were low, the delivery pattern was often to show a couple of hours of data points at ten minute intervals, followed by a couple of hours with no data points. We cannot substantiate this speculation, but the pattern in the data suggests that when the alkaline batteries were low, delivery would fail if any conditions were not optimal (for example if the device had slipped into a vertical orientation, had less than perfect sky view, or less than optimal satellite configuration), but if the conditions were optimal, then delivery would still be consistently successful. Note: The battery expiry date/freshness was unknown as they were bought from tiny shops in fairly remote locations.

[29singlespeed]

Josh's right quad was going out on him, and hitched back to Gunnison and was in a friend's front yard.  He will call in. Bummer.

Jefe with Kurt, very interesting. Ethan still could find some wind in his sails but a day behind.

[JF-mtnbiker]

Man, the last couple days are tough. You have seen and experienced great things, worked your a## off and now it's all mental. Yep. Still some pretty country but it's hot, your sunburned, thirsty for a BEER and you're are ready to be finished. It's anyones race right now though. KR and JB have to stay focused. There really isn't enough cushion miles for either of them to relax. Although they want to cruse in, I don't think it will happen that way...

[DesertDog]

I was checking InciWeb to see the status of the Pacheco fire outside of Santa Fe and ran across this at the bottom of the bulletin.

"The Santa Fe National Forest will be implementing Stage III Fire Restrictions across the Forest beginning Friday, June 24. Stage III Fire Restrictions will restrict access to/use of certain parts of the Forest, yet there will be recreational opportunities available. A detailed list of what will be off limits (restricted) and what will remain OPEN will be available, Wednesday, June 22. Open areas will remain under Stage II restrictions."

Here is a link to the Pacheco page:  http://inciweb.org/incident/2344/

Haven't seen the level III statement yet on the SFNF site.  Hope this doesn't cause the course to get closed.  Once it's posted, the closure order should be able to be viewed from one of these links.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/sfe/conditions/index.html

http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/sfe/index.html

[mtbcast]

Dylan Taylor called in from Steamboat Springs. Stephen Huddle called in from Cincinnati to say he’s headed to Banff for his ITT on the 24th! Ray Porter called in from below Rawlins. Sheila Torres-Blank called in to say “The Sheila’s” are in Jackson! And Franck Gimard called in from Pinedale to say he’s OUT.

You can get the audio here, via RSS,  or on iTunes!

[mtbcast]

Use American $$$ in Canada. I bought Canadian currency only to find out when I got to Banff, they accept $$$ on par. Let your bank and CC companies know you are traveling so they don't cancel your cards when transactions show up in small, strange places. Carry small American bills. When you pass a $50 or $100, they check for counterfeits and some places don't want bills over $20. A Discover card is one of the safer/better CC cards to carry.

Safe Travels my friend.

Yeah, when I went to Banff I was told don't convert any cash. I didn't even carry but a small amount of American dollars. Using your bank card or a CC is the best way to go. Though, as you note, having some American cash may be a good thing. I was not racing, just there for the start. So essentially just a tourist.

[TamaraD2010]

Ross Delaplane texted to say his frame broke but was now fixed.  From watching his spot it seems it broke a bit North of Steamboat and he backtracked to have it fixed in town. 

[SlowDave]

On the fire stuff Gov. Martinez spoke today on the issue and said to expect more closures by the end of the week.  These closures tend to have a cascading effect.  The Santa Fe fire puts it right in the state gov's face.  I was speaking to a friend in Santa Fe today and she said it was so bad she was almost in tears.  I read it was about 5,000 acres and only 5% contained.  The Santa Fe fire is no where near the route but it is drawing firefighting resources from all over the area.  With fire fighting resources being strained I think more closures are likely.  After the Los Alamos fire people in Northern NM are pretty fire sensitive.

I am holding off a trip to my place near Magdalena until the fire stuff settles down a bit.  I cut through the area of the Wallow fire to get there so there isn't much point in doing that right now.

The guys at Beaverhead and TC are good for info south of HWY 60 but I am not so sure of that north of 60.  BLM has a large office in Santa Fe and each of the NFs in Northern NM has a web site with up to date info on restrictions and closures.  My understanding is many of the NFs are at Stage Two and Stage Three is a complete closure.

[ZackR]

Yeah, when I went to Banff I was told don't convert any cash. I didn't even carry but a small amount of American dollars. Using your bank card or a CC is the best way to go. Though, as you note, having some American cash may be a good thing. I was not racing, just there for the start. So essentially just a tourist.

In a former life as a tour bus driver, I went to Canada several times. We would always stop and exchange some cash since back then credit cards were not so pervasive and you couldn't use them just anywhere. I think the exchange rate back then was 1.26 or so Canadian dollars to the US buck. One guy I recall bragged about "making" them take his US money, since he wasn't going to trouble himself with their "funny money." I don't think he ever caught on that the Canadians just gave him the proper change, sometimes doing the conversion and sometimes not. What a doofus.

Don't know if it's still that way, but any hotel or lodge in a US National Park would do a currency exchange into US dollars. I had a fair bit of cash from a trip to Canada that I carried around for a couple of months before I learned of that service. They didn't charge a fee.