TD newbie qs

[BigPoppa]

These lights are pretty sweet too.

http://www.ledlenser.com/product/h7

[mmeiser]

velcro straps: http://www.rei.com/product/794899/rei-sport-wrap-package-of-2

I use these for everything from bivy roll on the handlebar to holding gear onto salsa anything cages. Extremely handy.

I also use re-useable zip ties. Indeeed I find re-useable zip ties best for smaller things like holding my light on my helmet.

Am curious about what some of you think of my new light:

http://www.rei.com/product/794899/rei-sport-wrap-package-of-2

Just used this on a two week 1100 mile trip exploring the North Country Trail here in Michigan. Road most of the lower peninsula portion.

3AAA
220 lumen@ 4 hours
100 lumen @ 8 hours
220 lumen strobe @ 72 hours
nice adjustable focus beam

Love the light. Next time I won't bother with the handlebar mount, which I don't entirely trust but worked well enough with a zip-tie around it.  Instead though I prefer to just zip-tie it to my helmet.

The stribe mode is freaking awesome. It's so fast it doesn't seem to mess with my eyes. I road using it exclusively all night one of the nights.

BTW, have always loved the night riding thing and make it a point to ride all night on tour, but I really think I'm getting good at it.

I find the trick is for me to power nap 2-3 times whenever I get the chance between the hours of midnight and 4am.  This helps me avoid that psychological low point I usually hit between 2-3 am.

I'm starting to wonder if I can't work a jeffersonian sleep schedule into my tours so I can ride with even more reckless abandon day and night.

And by reckless abandon I mean without fear or worry about where I'll eat, or rest my head or get water or.... anything but riding.

On the eve of my last day of the trip I slept in, cooked breakfast, took my time breaking camp. Got on the trail about noon. Did 20 or so miles of singletrack, explored more backroads and singletrack along the NCT, ended up hiking about 10 miles at 5am in heavy fog on a trail along the St. Joseph River and then emerged from the darkness in 25 degree weather riding hard (in between photo ops) until I got to an open breakfast place around 8:30 am where I stuffed my face with two breakfasts and took a power nap for 15 to 20 minutes with my head on my hands in a corner booth where noone seemed to mind.

Other places I power napped... a picknic table in a small town park... an all night gas station with a closed subway.

Didn't sleep again until I got home at 2pm and had a shower and lunch.

170 miles of hiking, singletrack and dirt road greatness.

I even managed to crank it up to 25 miles on an open stretch of dirt with a tiny bit of tail wind.

I find I don't ever really fall asleep on the bike... but my interest and attention does wane a bit if not engaged by changes in the riding conditons and my mind does sometimes go to unhappy thoughts.

Music.. music is another option... but I rarely, rarely use it.

[LyndaW]

These mounts look great (but $$). 

http://shop.trail-rail.com/product/v3300-single-light-handlebar-assembly

[bikpdlr]

You just have to be creative with how you mount the Fenix lights.

For what it's worth I'm running an LD20 and a TK21 on these mounts...

http://www.vio-pov.com/products-mounts/double-hook-and-loop-mount.html

I just ran this helmet-mount set-up on CFiTT and it was steady and balanced.

... and you can't beat the $7.95 price.

[zahgurim]

 For the guys that rode the TD, what temp did it get down to at night in the mountains and what did you use for sleeping setups?

[sheilar]

Ok if girls respond?
Think the coldest night was at the Holland Lake (Montana) campground, near freezing.  Highest elevation camped was Luder Creek campground before Del Norte (Colorado), 10k ft, temps maybe low 40s. 
REI Minimalist bivy, Western Mountaineering Summerlite (32F), Therm-a-Rest ProLite pad, Sea to Summit drybag.
sr

For the guys that rode the TD, what temp did it get down to at night in the mountains and what did you use for sleeping setups?

[BigPoppa]

For the guys that rode the TD, what temp did it get down to at night in the mountains and what did you use for sleeping setups?

Ok if girls respond?
Think the coldest night was at the Holland Lake (Montana) campground, near freezing.  Highest elevation camped was Luder Creek campground before Del Norte (Colorado), 10k ft, temps maybe low 40s. 
REI Minimalist bivy, Western Mountaineering Summerlite (32F), Therm-a-Rest ProLite pad, Sea to Summit drybag.
sr

I lucked out with a room for my night at Holland Lake, so I'm not sure about how cold it was there.

My coldest night was about 60 miles before The Basin. I woke up with the worst shivers of my life every 20 minutes the entire night and my bag was frozen to my bivy in the morning. I had tested my sleep system below freezing before the race and it had worked well. I didn't realize how much weight I would loose, and thus 'insulation' loss, during the race. I ended up buying a wool base layer just after The Basin and I had plenty from there on out.

Sleep system: Western Mountaineering Highlight that I custom sewed into a quilt, custom torso length neo air, backpackinglight.com bivy.

Weight in the stuff sack:1 lb 14.3 oz

[zahgurim]

Good info. Thanks!


One more question: How are the bear/animal encounters when camping in the middle of nowhere?
People stringing their food up with ropes/bags when sleeping?

[BigPoppa]

Good info. Thanks!


One more question: How are the bear/animal encounters when camping in the middle of nowhere?
People stringing their food up with ropes/bags when sleeping?

I would say that caution should be exercised. I personally rode until I was within safe range of a town to sleep. Or, I rode until I found a place I could sleep (i.e. I rode to holland lake lodge and stopped an hour early one night because I knew that I wouldn't make it to the next town before I needed to sleep. Also, I ran into a bear half a mile before the lodge. That definitely solidified my decision to stay the night at the lodge!)

If you do decide to sleep, I would go with big time bear protocol. Keep in mind that every little nook and cranny of your gear is going to smell like food. (I.E. Remember that burger you stashed in a jersey pocket for 50 miles? Yeah, your shirt smells like dinner to the bears.)

[Climb On]

I'm working on the total carrying weight for the TDR. How much fluid do most people carry? I realize this likely varies along stretches of the route that don't have resupply, so I'm also wondering where these might be. I have the recommendations that accompany the GDMBR maps, but they appear to be for a touring pace and suggest more water than I had planned to carry. Lastly, I'm planning on half of my liquid weight being water and the other half being electrolyte drinks. This formula has worked for marathons, so I thought I would use it. Any thoughts on either question?       

[BigPoppa]

6.5 liters is the amount that I have seen thrown around more than another. I personally took capacity for 6 and then carried an extra chocolate milk or OJ in my jersey pockets.

The hardest stretch for me was from the work center in the Gilia to Silvercity. I left with 6 liters and two cans of lemonade. I was out before I even made it to the Mimbres cutoff. In my defense, it was about 112 degrees. But, that new CDT section between adds a SIGNIFICANT amount of trail time before one hits Silvercity. I think only 1 or 2 riders had enough food and water to make it to Silvercity. I had to find a way to get water in Mimbres before I even thought about hitting up the CDT section.

Keep in mind, it is a real trade off. Water is freaking heavy. A few sections I carried more than I really needed and it slowed me down significantly. I started off the Basin with about 7 liters. I dumped 2 liters before I made it 10 miles. I really ended up only needing maybe 3.

[phil_rad]

Where exactly is the new single track section in NM?

[BigPoppa]

It is the ~10 miles before Silvercity. Beautiful, amazing, brilliant and completely different than any other section of the trail.

[phil_rad]

Sounds nice, just after 2500 miles maybe not what a divide racer wants. How long is it?

Just looking at the services available in Mimbres; looks pretty bleak. Looking at the ACA maps the section between Pie Town and Mimbres is the longest stretch of route without services. Besides the coke maschine at the Beaverhead Work Center is there anything else available?

[woody]

Ladies and Gents,
Did you ship resupply gear or whatever to different towns down route? If so, how did it work out for you? Meaning if you shipped resupply gear to whatever town did you hit in during the day? Still trying to figure out that whole "general delivery" thing. I would hate to hit the town after the post office closed and then need to wait till it opened the next day. Or is it better just to plan on buying supplies such has jersey or shorts/bibs if needed.

Thanks,
Woody

[BigPoppa]

Sounds nice, just after 2500 miles maybe not what a divide racer wants. How long is it?

Just looking at the services available in Mimbres; looks pretty bleak. Looking at the ACA maps the section between Pie Town and Mimbres is the longest stretch of route without services. Besides the coke maschine at the Beaverhead Work Center is there anything else available?

The single track section isn't too terribly long. It's the CDT section before that really kills. It was super steep, mostly hike a bike, and pretty hard to find your way through. Then again, I was hiking at night with a pen light from a gas station to guide me... so maybe I was the only one who couldn't ride it.

You can get water at the church as you cross the highway before the Gilia. (About 60 miles or so before Beaverhead.)

Mimbres is a total freaking crap shoot. The only place that I could have made closed at like 3 pm and they were only open random days of the week (like monday, wednesday, friday or some such lame schedule). Yeah you guessed it, I was there on a day they were closed.

Pie Town can be a crap shoot too. The toaster house tends to be a reliable stock supply. But, I'm not sure I would rely on that. There are two restaurants but the locals said I was lucky to find one of them open. (I might be making a bigger deal out of the reliability of pie town than should be made, it's just my experience.)

Next time I will leave Grants with a crap ton of calories and rely on the stops for water only. The climbing is pretty easy between the two places (at least once you are in tour shape) so the weight penalty would be worth it for me.

[BigPoppa]

Ladies and Gents,
Did you ship resupply gear or whatever to different towns down route? If so, how did it work out for you? Meaning if you shipped resupply gear to whatever town did you hit in during the day? Still trying to figure out that whole "general delivery" thing. I would hate to hit the town after the post office closed and then need to wait till it opened the next day. Or is it better just to plan on buying supplies such has jersey or shorts/bibs if needed.

Thanks,
Woody

I shipped one box to Rawlins. I purposefully choose that spot because I KNEW THERE WAS NO WAY I WOULD HIT IT ON SUNDAY BECAUSE I'M TOO SLOW TO MAKE IT THAT FAR THAT FAST.

Yeah... I hit it on Sunday. I just kept riding and did the entire rest of the race in the one pair of shorts.

Next time I'll ship two or three boxes to a few different cities and hope to hit them during an open day. At least that would up the odds in my favor.

[mikepro]

Ladies and Gents,
Did you ship resupply gear or whatever to different towns down route?

Did not ship anything.  Not worth the hassle, coordination, timing in my mind for the pace I was trying to achieve.  Turns out that the route passes through plenty of big towns that have everything in close proximity.

In my opinion, the method of shipping supplies/gear to points on-route is necessary for a through-hike of the PCT, but not a through-ride of the GDMBR.  Or in other words, for the PCT it's a "need", for the GDMBR it's a "luxury".

I did, however, ship a small package home from Steamboat to lighten my load (passport, cue cards & maps not needed anymore, small extras not used).

[sheilar]

General answers (note this is from the back of the pack)

Water - able to carry 5 liters, only did it twice, never went dry.
Resupply box sent to Steamboat.  I work pt in a bike shop and saved considerable $$ by sending my own replacement parts (tires, chain, brake pads, cables and 1 fresh jersey).  Sent only a small amount of food as a perk.  Did not rely on resupply for any nutrition.
Pie Town - Toaster House a godsend, have cash for donation.  Only Pie Town Cafe was open and while the pie was everything we thought it would be, it is a long hot f'n haul to get there on crappy roads and the only thing on the menu that day was a hamburger or hot dog.  That's it.  Dissapointed to say the least. 
sr

[phil_rad]

Besides the restaurants, is there anywhere else to resupply in Pie Town? Or do you just order up 5 burgers and hot dogs to go? Oh, yeah, and some pie ;-)