Tent Practice

I have been telling myself for weeks to practice setting up the tent I will use on the bike trip. Today turned out to be the day. In the photo below is the tent (on the left--it is very small and lightweight, even though it's a two-person tent) and the ground cloth (made out of Typar--a custom-made gift from my son).

See my helper? Even though I thought I was being vigilant in keeping Bear away from the tent, he still managed to put a small hole in the tent screen before I was done. Aargh!

3 Especially "Helpful Hints for Tent Set Up"--from the tent's set up instructions:

• Our tents are easy to set up but we suggest you practice once at home before using them for the first time to avoid late night bickering with tent mates while fumbling around in the dark.
• Big Agnes tents are all freestanding, but we recommend staking them out to increase space and keep your tent from becoming a tumbleweed.
• Hang onto your stuff sacks or they'll blow away and create backcountry litter.

I didn't actually stake out the tent, but I set it up enough to determine that: 1) it is easy to set up compared to other tents I have owned, and 2) it came short one stake, even though it is brand new. This is good to know, but not a problem, since I was planning all along to add some great titanium stakes I own to the tent bag anyway.

By the time I had the tent all rolled and packed up again, all three cats were in attendance. Yes, three cats. Bear, George, and the mystery cat my brother has dubbed "Clueless." I haven't been friendly with Clueless, even though he has tried hard to snuggle up; I don't want him to think we will adopt him. He doesn't look like he's homeless, but he is hanging out here like he is. Can you find all three cats in the photo below?

And the ducks are returning to the river now that the water is open and flowing!

Shake-Down Ride

Busy day. My road bike had been overhauled by a bike shop (new chain, new hard-case tires, re-packed bottom bracket, cleaned, tuned); the raw, pouring-rain weather of the last few days ended, and the sun came out; and I have to ship my bike to Mobile tomorrow--so this was my one day to do a shake-down road ride.

My fantasy that I was going to pull off a 50-mile ride today proved to be...just that, a fantasy.

After my workout at the gym, I took time to document that the river was flowing with open water today--first day! Yes, it was great to see the blue and the movement. What I loved the most, though, was the sound. The sound of lapping water, and the sound of the birds returning. It all made me breathe easier and feel brighter.

Next, I installed the roof rack on my car. Even though I have a rack that hangs on the back of my car to transport my fat bike, the aerodynamics of my car ensures that all kinds of schmutz (especially from my dirt/mud road) gets thrown on the back of my car, including any bike that is hanging back there. I far prefer to carry my bike on the roof, away from all that schmutz.

I had a difficult time getting the bike tires fully inflated. I struggled for quite some time with my brand-new bike pump. It's smaller than the old one and packs more easily, but it takes superhuman strength to use it to get 120 pounds of pressure in a tire. I finally gave up and switched to my old bike pump. Lesson learned: I better take my old bike pump on my trip if I intend to keep my tires inflated--or maybe both pumps, since I've been worried that my ancient bike pump will just die at some point.

Finally, by late afternoon, I started my ride. My fantasy that my bike--all tuned up and looking great--would also ride great proved to be...just that, a fantasy. From the start, I could tell I had major gear/shifting issues. Such an awful grinding noise! Turns out that my front derailleur was not adjusted anywhere near right. Whenever the chain was on the largest chainring in the front, the chain rubbed continuously and loudly on the front derailleur. I had to give up all my best downhill gears and just not use that chainring. I didn't stop to try to make adjustments; I wanted to get the ride in before the day was over, so I adapted. It slowed my pace down considerably that I could not pedal on the downhills, but that was okay.

It was warm (47 degrees F! amazing what difference a few degrees can make). And such a joy to ride on skinny road wheels--with great gliding and coasting! I felt strong and, even though I headed for as many steep hills as I could find within a 15 mile loop, none of it felt overly daunting. My butt and my hands didn't hurt as much as they do when I ride my fat bike, which is the opposite of what I expected. I did decide, though, that my new riding shoes are enough thicker in the soles that I should probably raise the seat a smidgen.

I stopped and took a few photos along my ride. My fantasy that I would figure out how to snap photos while riding (and without crashing, of course) has proven to be... (everyone with me now, you get the drill) ...just that, a fantasy. I thought I was stopping to take a picture of a beaver lodge and was stunned to see a huge beaver out in the open, working on the lodge. Did I get its picture? No! of course not. I didn't move quickly enough.

When I first saw the beaver, it was swimming in the open water to the left of the lodge. Then it climbed up on that side of the lodge to work on it. By the time I had my camera ready to shoot, the beaver had disappeared.

Open, gushing water. Ah, another joy of spring!

Finally, I looped back around to the river again.

I noticed this shadow on my way home:

Below is my first experiment with illustrating my route for the day. I like that color gradients show the change in grade/elevation along the route.

Below is a different view of the elevation (and speed) changes along the route. Where the blue line shows that my speed dropped to 0 mph--that's where I stopped to take photos of the beaver lodge and marsh.

Another busy day tomorrow. I need to make adjustments to my bike and then box it up and ship it off to Mobile!

Predator Drama

On my bike ride today, some birds were acting strangely, which had me looking up in the trees more than usual, when I saw this! I nearly crashed into a snowbank in my scramble to stop pedaling and get this shot before one or both eagles flew off.

On my next lap around, only one bald eagle was still in the tree; I didn't see the other one at all. Then, on my next trip around, one eagle flew two low, lazy loops before landing back in the tree, while the other one called/talked to it the whole time. On my next trip around, both eagles were flying low figure-8 swoops, right overhead. When I left them behind, I figured nothing would be in the tree, but there was a third large bird there! At first, I thought it might be an immature eagle. But, then, I realized it looked larger than an eagle--so maybe it had actually chased the eagles out of the tree. I'm not sure what kind of bird it was; it had a white chest, but most of the rest of it was mottled brown. As I tried to take its picture, it flew off (of course!); I thought I'd caught its flight in the following shot, but I guess I missed it. (I think it's out of frame to the right.)

I missed the bird drama on the rest of my ride; when they were around, they helped distract me from how cold I was. I froze out there today! Without the birds for distraction, I thought a lot about how many things I must have missed these last few years when I didn't spend much winter time outdoors. I also wondered how much I will fat bike during a future winter when I don't have an upcoming epic tour as motivation.

On my last loop around, in a totally different spot from the eagle spot, there was a huge black bird with a red head sitting in a tree. A turkey vulture maybe? Didn't get a photo of that one, either.

I was surprised to find this photo on my camera when I got home. Apparently I managed to capture my own shadow when I was scrambling to photograph the flying bird.

It's Cold!

How is it possible that it feels colder to me in March than it did in February? I have become accustomed to having my feet turn into solid blocks of ice while I'm biking--and having that limit my riding to an hour or an hour and a half at a time. Yesterday, not only did my feet freeze, but my hands did as well--and I only lasted half an hour on my bike. (I admit that it occurred to me about 10 minutes into that ride that I had bought the moose mitts for a reason [so why wasn't I using them?] but I was too stubborn to go home and retrieve them.)

Today I took a smarter approach. First, I actually used the moose mitts for the first time. They work great! My hands stayed toasty warm.

I also wore my rain covers over my shoes for the first time because it occurred to me that they might serve as a wind break. My feet still froze, but I managed to ride for an hour and a quarter, so I think the shoe covers helped.

When I left the house to go to the gym today, I scared a bunch of turkeys in my yard. They scrambled up the hill, acting all spooked and stupid. They are the oddest creatures.

First Wipeout

It appears there was some kind of turkey convention at the bottom of my driveway this morning.

My ride today, again on my road, was quite different from yesterday's ride. We had received about an inch of snow overnight, so the world was newly white and fresh.

I thought I would be more comfortable on today's ride. After all, it was 22 degrees F--warmer than yesterday. LESSON 1: It's not all about the temperature. I actually felt more cold today. There was no sun and the wind was blowing at 11 mph. During much of my ride, there were big, fat snowflakes falling. Quite pretty.

I have renewed respect for winter athletes. It is really challenging to work this hard when the bitter cold is assaulting your muscles and everything else as well.

When riding on snow, the tires of my bike make such loud squeaky-crunchy sounds that I keep thinking there is traffic approaching from behind me. Today I was taken by surprise when a vehicle passed me. LESSON 2: Just because the bike tires give me false warnings sometimes doesn't mean I can stop paying attention entirely.

I was surprised to discover a couple of spots along the road where my bike unexpectedly fishtailed. LESSON 3: Until tire chains are purchased and used, this is probably the deepest snow my bike and I can handle.

About three miles into my ride, I had my first wipeout. It happened so fast, I went down on my side with the bike--like I was glued to it.

Do you see anything here that is particularly troublesome or concerning--that might cause a wipeout? Exactly. LESSON 4: When headed for a spot at which your bike has fishtailed twice already, it might be wise to avoid riding straight through that spot again. LESSON 5: This experience reaffirms my decision not to ride on regular roads; this wipeout on a regular road would have put my head right under a car. LESSON 6: Any doubts I had about needing a full-face helmet have been laid to rest.

I didn't get hurt in this fall. (Correction: Turns out that I ended up with a large, deep bruise just below the outside of my left knee. It was in such a weird place, though, that it didn't prevent me from continuing to train.) Notice that my first inclination, while still on the ground, was to get up and take pictures! LESSON 7: Falling in the snow is way better than falling on pavement. (This time, there were no bruises or scrapes and no torn clothing.) LESSON 8: Those very wide, straight handlebars serve a good purpose during a fall. They protect the cockpit; it's almost like having a roll bar.

When I stopped riding because of this fall, my glasses immediately fogged over and I had a devil of a time getting them functional again. LESSON 9: Always carry a good glasses-wiping cloth.

I may have just fallen, but check out this great view looking south downriver:

I finished the rest of my ride without incident. Needless to say, I stopped carving out new ground through the snow and stuck to the well-used tracks.

I used the Road Bike app on my phone to record my entire ride again today. I kept the phone in an interior jacket pocket this time, though. When I finished my ride, my phone still had a 65% charge. LESSON 10: Keep the phone protected from the worst of the brutal cold.

Isn't it great when a simple hour-and-a-half workout yields so many educational opportunities?

[Update: The photo below doesn't illustrate it as well as I'd hoped, but it turns out there was a very deep rut buried by snow--right where I had my wipeout. I think a tire either got caught in the rut or fell into it. Needless to say, I've been avoiding this rut ever since.]