TDR 2012

[candrus]

Some additional comments on safe water treatment:

Chlorine dioxide and iodide also need the the water free of particulates in order to kill all (most) of the harmful bacteria.  The bacteria can get inside soil and organic particles and thereby be unaffected by the treatment.  Even with clear water, chlorine dioxide and iodide need about four hours to do their thing.  So, for the weight of a water filter the trade off is hauling around multiple water bottles up and down hills as the treatment occurs. 

A friend of mine did a study for the Park Service trying to figure out why so many people were getting intestinal infections in Rocky Mountain National Park.  He interviewed the victims and most swore that they hadn't consumed untreated water out of streams.  However, they had scooped up water draining from the downhill end of snow fields and consumed it untreated.  His field testing indicated that the contamination came from the feces of small mammals that lived at the snow/soil interface.  Couldn't blame the cows on that one.  Anyway, what I came away with is that any surface water is probably suspect, no matter how long it has been above the ground.  I lived in Nepal for a while and got Guardia multiple times (hard to avoid there) and I learned that you can't ride a bike until you take your medicine and wait several weeks to recover.  The Guardia medicine available here can be as bad as the Guardia -- it can give you hallucinations and paranoia.  So, don't get Guardia!  Lecture over.

[candrus]

hmmm... someday I'll learn how to spell Giardia on the first try.

[krefs]

Chlorine dioxide and iodide also need the the water free of particulates in order to kill all (most) of the harmful bacteria.  The bacteria can get inside soil and organic particles and thereby be unaffected by the treatment.  Even with clear water, chlorine dioxide and iodide need about four hours to do their thing.  So, for the weight of a water filter the trade off is hauling around multiple water bottles up and down hills as the treatment occurs. 

Interesting info from your friend's study in RMNP. As for the 4 hours, that's solely for cryptosporidium cysts. Giardia will be killed by an appropriate amount of chlorine dioxide or iodine (i.e., higher concentrations for silty/organic-laden water) within 30 minutes. If you wait 4 hours, chlorine dioxide should also kill cryptosporidium cysts. Iodine will never kill cryptosporidium, but those cysts are large enough that filtering will easily remove them.

So pick your poison or haul water from town to town...they're never that far apart. I know plenty of people who swear by one method or another, including the 2 drops of bleach, saying "I've never gotten sick!"

[Christopher R. Bennett]

OK. So rather than a DIY kit, you should use something like the Katadyn MicroPur water treatment tablets which handle viruses, bacteria, giardia, and cryptosporidium. Or do you recommend something like a SteriPEN (which also requires batteries and weighs a lot more).

[krefs]

Yup, I'd recommend any of the chlorine dioxide tables on the market. They're definitely more expensive than bleach, but I've had good luck with them (and only waiting 30 min rather than 4 hrs). The Steripen works nicely, but for the few times you'll treat water on the Divide, it's not worth the weight or bulk in my opinion.

[jryter]

and don't forget vit C (in drink mix or whatever) neutralizes the iodine/chlorine for taste.

[febikes]

So I am 5'11" and 157 pounds.  My BMI is 22 and my Tanita scale reports 11% body fat.

What do you guys think?  Is it a good idea to intentionally put on a few pounds prior to the event by over eating for the next couple of weeks?

[Thumby]

Febikes, I think the same weight strategy worked for me.  I put on about 5 running up to the start, up to 145, 5'11". At the end, I looked super skinny, but actually had gained 2 lbs.  I think it does pay to have a little fat stored away.  I was super hungry out there at times, barely surviving.  I can only wonder what my body would have done without the backup. 

[Thumby]

A thought on cyclocomputers:  It seemed to be that our computers were dependent on the accuracy of the original riders who mapped the route.  It was rare that my readings matched the map cues, despite a careful calibration.  Be prepared to calibrate your unit on the fly.  This means knowing how to punch in new mileage numbers and new tire diameters. For example, you might notice at a lunch stop that your unit measures 1% off the maps.  Knowing how to adjust your computer, you can make an appropriate guess to put you on track for the rest of the day.  Otherwise, your mileage cues can be very off by the time you reach the south end of your map section.  Also note, if your calibration seems to be dialed in well on map 2B, it may be a different story on map 3A, for example.  I found it very handy to carry two computers.  One stays on the bike, the other lived in my kit and I could play with it away from the bike. 

[the tortoise]

Some facts I pulled up on Bear Attacks:

    You are 12 times more likely to die of a bee sting than a bear attack (120 times more likely compared to a black bear)

    You are 10 times more likely to die from a dog attack than a bear attack (45 times more likely compared to a black bear attack)

    1 person out of 16,000 commits murder but only 1 grizzly bear out of 50,000 ever kills someone and only 1 black bear out of one million does.  So people are much more dangerous than bears!   Fear people and respect bears.

    There are about 750,000 black bears in North America and on average there is less than one black bear killing per year.

    For each person killed by a black bear attack there are 13 people killed by snakes, 17 by spiders, 45 by dogs, 120 by bees, 150 by tornadoes, 374 by lightning, and 60,000 by humans.

So I guess you could use the the mace for dogs and humans too, which seem to be the biggest risk out there. I got some bear repellant and when I applied it, it stung like heck. Is there stuff out there that doesn't sting??

[BobM]

Some facts I pulled up on Bear Attacks:

    You are 12 times more likely to die of a bee sting than a bear attack (120 times more likely compared to a black bear)

    You are 10 times more likely to die from a dog attack than a bear attack (45 times more likely compared to a black bear attack)

    1 person out of 16,000 commits murder but only 1 grizzly bear out of 50,000 ever kills someone and only 1 black bear out of one million does.  So people are much more dangerous than bears!   Fear people and respect bears.

    There are about 750,000 black bears in North America and on average there is less than one black bear killing per year.

    For each person killed by a black bear attack there are 13 people killed by snakes, 17 by spiders, 45 by dogs, 120 by bees, 150 by tornadoes, 374 by lightning, and 60,000 by humans.

So I guess you could use the the mace for dogs and humans too, which seem to be the biggest risk out there. I got some bear repellant and when I applied it, it stung like heck. Is there stuff out there that doesn't sting??

You could try bacon or salmon. 

Remember, the best defense against being mauled is to travel with someone slower. 

[the tortoise]

Me and my brother and a few other boy scouts were camping in a large tent and a bear was outside getting ready to attack. I started putting on my running shoes. My brother said, "you will never be able to outrun that bear!" I said "I don't have to outrun the bear, all I have to do is outrun you!" 

[mtbcast]

New Episode is up!
MTBCast: Episode 601 – TD 2012 Prep
Tour Divide 2012 show prep and a call in from Dave Nice as he prepares to head NoBo on his ITT-TD June 2nd!
MTBCast.com

[Cheyou]

Thanks for the podcast   I will be touring on the divide durring the race . Will get to see them suffer as they go by .   This is going to be a great summer .

Thom

[mtbcast]

Thanks for the podcast   I will be touring on the divide durring the race . Will get to see them suffer as they go by .   This is going to be a great summer .

Thom

NoBo or SoBo?

[phil_rad]

Joe, just wanted to thank you for all of your efforts at posting the call ins from the races like TDR, AZT, CTR etc.... Folks back home really appreciate it. :-)

Phil

[mtbcast]

Joe, just wanted to thank you for all of your efforts at posting the call ins from the races like TDR, AZT, CTR etc.... Folks back home really appreciate it. :-)

Phil

Glad they enjoy it!

[Cheyou]

NoBo or SoBo?

South bound . From Whitefish

[THE LONG RANGER]

GO DAVE!

So I am 5'11" and 157 pounds.  My BMI is 22 and my Tanita scale reports 11% body fat.

I put on about 5 running up to the start, up to 145, 5'11"

I'm either completely ripped, or this beer belly isn't my imagination. Careful with those Great Basin headwinds!

A thought on cyclocomputers:  It seemed to be that our computers were dependent on the accuracy of the original riders who mapped the route.  It was rare that my readings matched the map cues, despite a careful calibration.  Be prepared to calibrate your unit on the fly.  This means knowing how to punch in new mileage numbers and new tire diameters. For example, you might notice at a lunch stop that your unit measures 1% off the maps.  Knowing how to adjust your computer, you can make an appropriate guess to put you on track for the rest of the day.  Otherwise, your mileage cues can be very off by the time you reach the south end of your map section.  Also note, if your calibration seems to be dialed in well on map 2B, it may be a different story on map 3A, for example.  I found it very handy to carry two computers.  One stays on the bike, the other lived in my kit and I could play with it away from the bike. 

What I did last year is just calculate the mileage between cues - or realistically, cues that had a turn - and reset my speedo's distance, every time I made a turn, so even with the fact that my speedo (and path) wasn't going to match up with the map's stated mileage the deviation was then slim. Different speedo's seem to work better at this, but usually you still have a odometer and 2 distances recorded to play with, so you can still have a total mileage, a day's mileage and the mileage to match the next turn on. The ACA narratives don't have that distance between turns, but you can calculate that easily before hand, or on-the-fly, although mental clarity seems to get a bit foggy while on the route.

Also when I did a section of the route last week, it came really clear that some of the route's cues are ridiculously verbose, so do look and see what cues are about changes in direction and what cues are about landmarks that you may see along the way. Perhaps it makes sense to print everything except turns in a smaller font, to save space and mental RAM when out on the route. The part I did going NoBO was from Del Norte to Hartsel - I remember the terrain in Del Norte being complicated, but re-doing it revealed the route to be very straightforward.

[DenisVTT]

Couple of things about the TD Start List spreadsheet:

- Several of you have entered an N (No) in the ‘Emailed TD Site?’ column. If you haven't yet, please email tourdivide@gmail.com as soon as possible. I won’t do it for you and unless you want to ride stealth (no Spot tracking), TD needs to know who you are. If you have contacted TD and you still have an N, please change it to a Y.

- To Chris Bennett: You have a Y in the aforementioned column, but someone highlighted you as TD having no record for you. If you haven't done so yet, please contact tourdivide@gmail.com. If it’s all done, let me know and I’ll remove the comment.

- If you have contacted TD but haven't listed yourself in the TD Start List, feel free to do so at any time. There's nothing mandatory about it, but it gives us some cool stats (at least I think it’s cool)

- When you enter your name, enter yourself at the bottom of the spreadsheet (last row below the last name). There are several blank rows just for that.

- Do NOT enter your name at the top of the spreadsheet. Column titles are there and it’s not for new names.

- Do NOT attempt to sort the spreadsheet, ever! It’s the 3rd time in about a week that I have to do some major cleanup because someone attempted to sort the spreadsheet and messed it up badly, and it's a lot of work. Enter your name at the bottom and I’ll sort it for you. Thanks.

- To The Lone Ranger: Sorry, no fictional characters in the Start List. You're welcome to stay anonymous, just do not enter your name in that spreadsheet. Maybe some other spreadsheet, or do your own. This one kind of copies the Tour Divide model, and from what I can see, it’s only real names of real people who live in real towns that are in that list. Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ami9kLAhoE7GdHNKN2xQSTA4T0JiRmMxaUJlc01UbEE#gid=0