I know what you are thinking: The decor is to die for!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Bikes and bits
Trystan has done a top job introducing the background to this epic adventure, the trip vision, and the team. Now it is my turn to introduce you to the stuff that really counts – gear and gear philosophy. After all this is the real reason we do this sort of stuff - it is the perfect excuse to go out and buy more gear!
Bear with me if this gets a little technical in places as I fill the top half of this blog page with great stuff about bikes and trailers.
The trail will be predominantly off the paved road and is often rough or badly corrugated, not to mention remote. For this reason bikes suitable for off road are a must. For most of us that means a good reliable and sturdy mountain bike. But for Ryan, adventurer extraordinaire, this means a cross bike (a bike that looks much like a road bike but with beefier wheels, tyres and brakes). We all mulled and researched and mulled some more over bikes. At first it seemed that a full suspension bike was the best way to go. Then we started to hook onto the idea of riding 29ers (the latest mtb fad with road bike size rims) which roll a bit better over the rougher stuff. I also seriously considered a carbon hardtail. In the end both Trystan and I settled on standard 26” hardtail (front suspension only) steel framed (retro-cool) mountain bikes. Ben and Simon will be riding 29” alloy hardtails. And Ryan has his Specialized Tri-cross.
Staying with the NZ bikes for just a moment. Many thanks must go to the Top Gear team www.topgearcycles.co.nz , especially Mark and Nigel, who run hands-down the best bike shop in Taupo. Always offering great advice and outstanding service, and hooking Trystan up with a killer deal on his Jamis Dragon Pro bike – a Reynolds 853 steel beauty looking resplendent in pearl white and ghost [fancy name for baby] blue. Also many thanks to Oli of RoadWorks fame www.oli.co.nz , for a killer set of wheels and his knowledgeable advice; and Paul of Essence Bicycles www.essencebicycle.co.nz , who distributes the Cotic brand in NZ – and I have found out for myself why these Cotic bikes have such a strong following!
Bike selection wasn’t quite as simple as described above – because so far I have neglected to mention another, very important element of this trip. This trip is not supported, and as such we will have to carry pretty much all our gear – clothes, tents, sleeping bag and other camping equipment, water, up to 3-4 days of food, bike spares and tools, and the odd heavily scrutinised luxury. So how to carry all this gear?
Racks and panniers are the most common means of carrying gear for bike touring. However, as far as the GDR goes, advice seems to lean towards towing a trailer for a whole host of reasons. The most common and best regarded is the BOB Yak trailer, and this is what we have ended up with. If the idea of towing a trailer sounds weird, have a look here to see what they are all about: http://www.bobgear.com/trailers .The Bob can carry up to 70 pounds of gear, and attaches at the rear dropout of just about any bike. On the other hand, panniers work best on bikes designed to take them – which excludes most modern mountain bikes. Test rides of the Bob over the local W2K (Whakaipo Bay to Kinloch) trail, loaded with firewood and rocks no less, proved to be a pleasant surprise with the trailer not overly detracting from the experience and feeling of freedom of riding a bike (though they are not gravity cheating devices by any stretch of the imagination!).
Taking into account we will be travelling quite light, and we can try and squeeze in longer days where necessary as to carry less supplies, we will be able to get away with one trailer between two. Trystan and I will be sharing one, Ben and Simon another. Ryan, Mr Ultralight, is going to show us that a trailer is actually unnecessary and carry everything he needs on his bike - I haven’t even met this guy yet but I sure admire his style. The trailer sharing will clearly result in some interesting day-to-day group dynamics. We hope that the burden of towing a trailer for two will be more than offset by the feeling of freedom the remainder of the time. Being able to swap trailers at (mutually agreed) will, will no doubt lead to some interesting and creative bartering on the trail. The trailer-less bike will never be totally burden-free though - to give us a bit more trailer space each bike will also have a rear rack which will be used to carry some of the bulkier/ lighter items.
I must mention one more thing which I think is pretty cool: The drift box (bounce box). This is a nifty device used by adventurers like ourselves to post items ahead on the trail. It involves posting stuff to ourselves at post offices along the trail. If we don’t open a box it is even free to forward onto the next post office of choice. The biggest downside of this technique is making sure we get to the post office when it is open – which is far from guaranteed in the small towns we will be passing through. We will be using the drift box to post the likes of critical spares, hard to come by food, new reading material – that sort of thing. I have already bought a weighty quantity of Whittakers chocolate for just this purpose.
So that is the brief (really, it is, believe me) summary of our bikes and load carrying gear. There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, like spares, camping equipment, food, and safety measures – but that can be left for another day.
Bear with me if this gets a little technical in places as I fill the top half of this blog page with great stuff about bikes and trailers.
The trail will be predominantly off the paved road and is often rough or badly corrugated, not to mention remote. For this reason bikes suitable for off road are a must. For most of us that means a good reliable and sturdy mountain bike. But for Ryan, adventurer extraordinaire, this means a cross bike (a bike that looks much like a road bike but with beefier wheels, tyres and brakes). We all mulled and researched and mulled some more over bikes. At first it seemed that a full suspension bike was the best way to go. Then we started to hook onto the idea of riding 29ers (the latest mtb fad with road bike size rims) which roll a bit better over the rougher stuff. I also seriously considered a carbon hardtail. In the end both Trystan and I settled on standard 26” hardtail (front suspension only) steel framed (retro-cool) mountain bikes. Ben and Simon will be riding 29” alloy hardtails. And Ryan has his Specialized Tri-cross.
Staying with the NZ bikes for just a moment. Many thanks must go to the Top Gear team www.topgearcycles.co.nz , especially Mark and Nigel, who run hands-down the best bike shop in Taupo. Always offering great advice and outstanding service, and hooking Trystan up with a killer deal on his Jamis Dragon Pro bike – a Reynolds 853 steel beauty looking resplendent in pearl white and ghost [fancy name for baby] blue. Also many thanks to Oli of RoadWorks fame www.oli.co.nz , for a killer set of wheels and his knowledgeable advice; and Paul of Essence Bicycles www.essencebicycle.co.nz , who distributes the Cotic brand in NZ – and I have found out for myself why these Cotic bikes have such a strong following!
Bike selection wasn’t quite as simple as described above – because so far I have neglected to mention another, very important element of this trip. This trip is not supported, and as such we will have to carry pretty much all our gear – clothes, tents, sleeping bag and other camping equipment, water, up to 3-4 days of food, bike spares and tools, and the odd heavily scrutinised luxury. So how to carry all this gear?
Racks and panniers are the most common means of carrying gear for bike touring. However, as far as the GDR goes, advice seems to lean towards towing a trailer for a whole host of reasons. The most common and best regarded is the BOB Yak trailer, and this is what we have ended up with. If the idea of towing a trailer sounds weird, have a look here to see what they are all about: http://www.bobgear.com/trailers .The Bob can carry up to 70 pounds of gear, and attaches at the rear dropout of just about any bike. On the other hand, panniers work best on bikes designed to take them – which excludes most modern mountain bikes. Test rides of the Bob over the local W2K (Whakaipo Bay to Kinloch) trail, loaded with firewood and rocks no less, proved to be a pleasant surprise with the trailer not overly detracting from the experience and feeling of freedom of riding a bike (though they are not gravity cheating devices by any stretch of the imagination!).
Taking into account we will be travelling quite light, and we can try and squeeze in longer days where necessary as to carry less supplies, we will be able to get away with one trailer between two. Trystan and I will be sharing one, Ben and Simon another. Ryan, Mr Ultralight, is going to show us that a trailer is actually unnecessary and carry everything he needs on his bike - I haven’t even met this guy yet but I sure admire his style. The trailer sharing will clearly result in some interesting day-to-day group dynamics. We hope that the burden of towing a trailer for two will be more than offset by the feeling of freedom the remainder of the time. Being able to swap trailers at (mutually agreed) will, will no doubt lead to some interesting and creative bartering on the trail. The trailer-less bike will never be totally burden-free though - to give us a bit more trailer space each bike will also have a rear rack which will be used to carry some of the bulkier/ lighter items.
I must mention one more thing which I think is pretty cool: The drift box (bounce box). This is a nifty device used by adventurers like ourselves to post items ahead on the trail. It involves posting stuff to ourselves at post offices along the trail. If we don’t open a box it is even free to forward onto the next post office of choice. The biggest downside of this technique is making sure we get to the post office when it is open – which is far from guaranteed in the small towns we will be passing through. We will be using the drift box to post the likes of critical spares, hard to come by food, new reading material – that sort of thing. I have already bought a weighty quantity of Whittakers chocolate for just this purpose.
So that is the brief (really, it is, believe me) summary of our bikes and load carrying gear. There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, like spares, camping equipment, food, and safety measures – but that can be left for another day.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Adventure Cycling Association
Here's the link to where the original idea spawned, and some more information on the route etc...Were been using their maps, guidebook and publications to get geared up...so to speak.
http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/greatdivide.cfm
http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes/greatdivide.cfm
The Trip VISION
Being a pretty large group, it became pretty evident that coming up with some sort of 'vision' would be pretty important, so communally, we came up with and agreed on one to stick by for the trip...so here it is:
- Four leave Banff, five arrive in Antelope wells in the allotted time
- To always realize that the team is stronger than the individual and to stick together and support each other through the trip
- To soak up the opportunity to be living the dream in the outdoors
- To have good times with good people and meet some characters along the way
- To take advantage of being in the Great Divide by not only cycling through, but by taking epic side trips, having cultural experiences etc.
- To ride sufficiently long days to allow for the above to happen in the allotted time
- To grow individually and as a crew and to answer those unanswerable questions
- To leave with a ton of stories to tell your grand kids on a rocking chair
- To leave the trip wanting to undertake more BET’s (Big Epic Trips)
- To promote self-propelled adventures
- To get a picture of Grant (our token Kiwi) with a bear
- Four leave Banff, five arrive in Antelope wells in the allotted time
- To always realize that the team is stronger than the individual and to stick together and support each other through the trip
- To soak up the opportunity to be living the dream in the outdoors
- To have good times with good people and meet some characters along the way
- To take advantage of being in the Great Divide by not only cycling through, but by taking epic side trips, having cultural experiences etc.
- To ride sufficiently long days to allow for the above to happen in the allotted time
- To grow individually and as a crew and to answer those unanswerable questions
- To leave with a ton of stories to tell your grand kids on a rocking chair
- To leave the trip wanting to undertake more BET’s (Big Epic Trips)
- To promote self-propelled adventures
- To get a picture of Grant (our token Kiwi) with a bear
Introducing Trystan
Trystan, or Twisty, is the Godfather. Sort of like those mafia circles where nobody knows each other except for the head guy...yeah, just like that. As the team is spread across the Pacific, nobody knows everybody...except for this guy... feel the power already?On the trip, Trystan is the go-to guy for taking photos, and lots of them. Described by a concerned team member as the 'Hubble Telescope', Trystan's camera equipment will be pretty crazy... but it's a small price to pay for sensational 'hero shots'.
Likes: the elusive Swedish Tramping Team, smiley faces, mountains, Denny's, Americans
Dislikes: Soapy dishes, burnt porridge, bad moods, corned beef, Vegemite
Introducing Ryan
Ryan, of 'Bougie', is a walking example of living-the-dream. This man's CV includes walking to Mexico from Canada on the PCT, biking across Canada and pretty my always finding epic adventures. In fact, Bougie will be joining late, somewhere in Wyoming as he's skiing back country on big terrain in Alaska.On the trip, Bougie is the go-to guy for ingenuity and getting back to the basics. Bougie goes ultralight and promises to teach the group to cook dinner with a beer can, antifreeze and a pot...
Likes: Skies, snow, mountains, beer cans, his truck, 'paperwork'
Dislikes: Bad attitudes, snowmobiles, j-rooting.
Introducing Simon
Simon, or Simmons, is an international man of mystery. While being terrible at 'staying in touch', answering emails and pretty much anything involving communication, this guy prides himself by unplugging from the grid...so to speak. In addition, I'm not sure if anyone on the planet can thrive on cramming as well as Simon can, but we'll let his transcript speak for itself...most people don't hit triple-digit percentages.On the trip, Simmons is the go-to guy for ditching the bike, and climbing up...mountains. Just look at those glasses. Simmons will re-define the boundaries of the 'rest day.
Likes: Other redheads, freckles, Tricycles, trees, test tubes
Dislikes: The sun, his cousin's farts, Dutch ovens, email, neighbourhood bullies
Monday, June 8, 2009
Introducing Ben
Ben is a chick magnet. This is the only man who can successfully pull off pink jeans, and the ladies love it.On the trip, Ben or Benbo, is our go-to guy for babes. Ben is in charge of picking up 43 year old cougars named 'Thelma' in back-state Montana...Ben is also our source of music. When it all turns to custard, Ben will carefully unwrap his harminica and play like Bobby D. to take the edge off the situation...
Likes: pink jeans, hemp, things that make sound, couches and red wine...
Dislikes: Back country skiing, having his buttons pushed, having his dad take photo's of him in embarassing situations.. 'Peace! Dad...'
Introducing Grant
Grant was born to ride, loves riding, loves wheels, cogs, bits and Bobs...as long as there are hills to climb, Grant will be happy.On the trip Grant is our go-to guy for bike maintenance, tuning, etc...anything to do with our rides, this is our guy.
Likes: Road bikes, mountain bikes, nice bikes, dark chocolate, the Saturday newspaper, routine, order, efficiency, bears (although he's never seen one...yet)
Dislikes: Stacked up dishes, crappy bikes, his flatmate...
The Journey of 3000 miles must begin with one single entry...
My name is Trystan, and this trip is my brainchild....
But in all seriousness, it's a bit challenging and daunting to begin a blog, a shameful rant sent into cyberspace...to be read by...errr...anyone? Regardless though, I suppose, as with any good story, one must start at the beginning...
The idea for this trip was born just over 5 years ago, in the small Sherpa village of Phortse at 4000 m elevation, in the Solokumbu region of Nepal. I was teaching English at the time with my brother at a small elementary school there during the pre-monsoon season. Some of the climbers heading to Base Camp camp would have stopped off at the guesthouse where we were staying, and one of them must have dropped of a yuppie copy of Outside Magazine. And on one fateful May afternoon, after a long day teaching undoubtedly subsidized by coconut cookies and milk tea, I stumbled upon this magazine, and more specifically, an article outlining the 5 greatest bike trips of all time. That is when I first read about the Great Divide Mountain bike route: the longest off-pavement route in the world, that follows the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Alberta through BC, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico...some 4400 kms and 60,000 m of cumulative elevation gain later.
The Trip promptly made it to the 'List of Must-Do Adventures' in the back of my journal, where it lay dormant through an Engineering Degree, some work in the Arctic, Vancouver and travelling in New Zealand, until a Saturday afternoon in November of this past year. Over a casual beer with my Kiwi flatmate Grant, I casually pitched him the idea of embarking on this trip as he had been getting itchy to spread his wings in an 'overseas' trip, but he wanted to do something epic, crazy and memorable. Something a little different than the standard Overseas Experience, or OE as they say here...
But I had been pitching this trip to various people over the past couple of years, and there was always the 'yeah, that would be epic', or 'can you imagine?' or 'are you crazy?'...but this time was different, Grant said 'I'm in', and I knew he was serious. Now I should add that Kiwi's are a pretty 'straight-up' people, and they call a spade a spade, so I knew he was rock solid. I should also add, that while Grant had been racing as a roadie for years, my debut into the word of cycling happened just some 4 months prior and everything about me screamed 'hack'. What I lacked in riding experience though, I knew I could make up in wilderness experience.
So we had a team of two. And we had the will. And everything else just fall into place right? But wait a tick, oh yeah, we were both working full time as engineers for a power company, how could we take that amount of time off? And again, in typical Kiwi fashion Grant pitched the idea to his boss immediately on the Monday morning...for my Canadian personality though, it wasn't quite so easy. Asking my boss seemed as embarrassing as asking out a really hot girl, one that you knew the chances were stacked against you...but, with a bit of gumption it just sort of came out and with a bit of time, we were both given conditional-'go-ahead' which we were (are) very grateful for.
So then, a couple questions still needed to be answered, first off, when? We knew it had to be in the North American summer, and the preferred direction seemed to be south....so we'd have to leave late enough to allow for most of the snow to melt in the high passes of Colorado, but not leave too late by hitting the derailleur-breaking sticky bad weather in New Mexico. So we planned for July-August as the ideal time....
And then, how long should we take? After a bit of research, the route has been raced in 15 days and change, and the 'suggested' riding days by the guidebook is about 67...so, we knew we didn't want to race it, but we had limited time at our disposal, and we wanted to plan for lots of 'rest days' to climb mountains, go fishing and do other things to take advantage of the surrounds....so we narrowed in on about 50 riding days and 10ish rest days.....making for average days of about 90 kms with a little over 1000 metres of climbing....yikes. But, as they say in NZ ...'she'll be right'.
And finally, who else? Other potentials were my good friend Pablo and my brother John, neither of which could make the timing of this adventure in the end. But my two cousins Simon and Ben were both keen as...and so was a good friend Ryan....So with 2 to start, and potential numbers up to 7, the final number is now at 5 (we'll, 4-1/2 but I'll get to that).
So just who are these jokers that think they can do this anyways? Stay tuned to find out....
But in all seriousness, it's a bit challenging and daunting to begin a blog, a shameful rant sent into cyberspace...to be read by...errr...anyone? Regardless though, I suppose, as with any good story, one must start at the beginning...
The idea for this trip was born just over 5 years ago, in the small Sherpa village of Phortse at 4000 m elevation, in the Solokumbu region of Nepal. I was teaching English at the time with my brother at a small elementary school there during the pre-monsoon season. Some of the climbers heading to Base Camp camp would have stopped off at the guesthouse where we were staying, and one of them must have dropped of a yuppie copy of Outside Magazine. And on one fateful May afternoon, after a long day teaching undoubtedly subsidized by coconut cookies and milk tea, I stumbled upon this magazine, and more specifically, an article outlining the 5 greatest bike trips of all time. That is when I first read about the Great Divide Mountain bike route: the longest off-pavement route in the world, that follows the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff, Alberta through BC, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and finishes in Antelope Wells, New Mexico...some 4400 kms and 60,000 m of cumulative elevation gain later.
The Trip promptly made it to the 'List of Must-Do Adventures' in the back of my journal, where it lay dormant through an Engineering Degree, some work in the Arctic, Vancouver and travelling in New Zealand, until a Saturday afternoon in November of this past year. Over a casual beer with my Kiwi flatmate Grant, I casually pitched him the idea of embarking on this trip as he had been getting itchy to spread his wings in an 'overseas' trip, but he wanted to do something epic, crazy and memorable. Something a little different than the standard Overseas Experience, or OE as they say here...
But I had been pitching this trip to various people over the past couple of years, and there was always the 'yeah, that would be epic', or 'can you imagine?' or 'are you crazy?'...but this time was different, Grant said 'I'm in', and I knew he was serious. Now I should add that Kiwi's are a pretty 'straight-up' people, and they call a spade a spade, so I knew he was rock solid. I should also add, that while Grant had been racing as a roadie for years, my debut into the word of cycling happened just some 4 months prior and everything about me screamed 'hack'. What I lacked in riding experience though, I knew I could make up in wilderness experience.
So we had a team of two. And we had the will. And everything else just fall into place right? But wait a tick, oh yeah, we were both working full time as engineers for a power company, how could we take that amount of time off? And again, in typical Kiwi fashion Grant pitched the idea to his boss immediately on the Monday morning...for my Canadian personality though, it wasn't quite so easy. Asking my boss seemed as embarrassing as asking out a really hot girl, one that you knew the chances were stacked against you...but, with a bit of gumption it just sort of came out and with a bit of time, we were both given conditional-'go-ahead' which we were (are) very grateful for.
So then, a couple questions still needed to be answered, first off, when? We knew it had to be in the North American summer, and the preferred direction seemed to be south....so we'd have to leave late enough to allow for most of the snow to melt in the high passes of Colorado, but not leave too late by hitting the derailleur-breaking sticky bad weather in New Mexico. So we planned for July-August as the ideal time....
And then, how long should we take? After a bit of research, the route has been raced in 15 days and change, and the 'suggested' riding days by the guidebook is about 67...so, we knew we didn't want to race it, but we had limited time at our disposal, and we wanted to plan for lots of 'rest days' to climb mountains, go fishing and do other things to take advantage of the surrounds....so we narrowed in on about 50 riding days and 10ish rest days.....making for average days of about 90 kms with a little over 1000 metres of climbing....yikes. But, as they say in NZ ...'she'll be right'.
And finally, who else? Other potentials were my good friend Pablo and my brother John, neither of which could make the timing of this adventure in the end. But my two cousins Simon and Ben were both keen as...and so was a good friend Ryan....So with 2 to start, and potential numbers up to 7, the final number is now at 5 (we'll, 4-1/2 but I'll get to that).
So just who are these jokers that think they can do this anyways? Stay tuned to find out....
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