Jawn finishes just under 30hrs. Proceeds to ride back to Seattle.
Edit:NVM I see this is covered in the bike blog thread.
Also a run-in with the law. That’ll play well at the next poetry slam or whatever he does between rides.
[quote=Miguel]Just finished
And for the thread name, I puked. Exerted myself to the max.
[/quote]
Nice. My friend uploaded his GPS and photos:
http://app.strava.com/activities/146407050
https://plus.google.com/photos/107091452908396055762/albums/6017614843221851825
God that looks awesome.
Braden, when you decide to do it, let me know.
So, uh, is anybody still out there? Cuz I would be.
Yeah, my friend’s photos are amazing. I can’t wait to hear about it.
there were some that were planning for 6 days. im not sure how the weather is doing but it’s been raining the last ~18 hrs in portland. i dont know if i could handle being outside for that long…but then again im a whiny baby complainer who doesnt like to camp as much as i like nice hotels and restaurants
edit: a benchmark for 60-80 miles a day would be really enjoyable now through mid june, weather permitting (like, no torrential rains or blazing desert heat) as long as you could haul as much water or gear as needed
Yeah, if you were rough camping it every night for 6-7 nights I think that could get rough. If you had a route that would take you past campsites with showers and water that would probably work better, but you’d lose some of your rustic appeal (if you can’t tell, my brain is still trying to twist this into Dirt RAGBRAI)
i guess i dont know what ragbrai is? ive seen people in ragbrai kits that look like weekend warriors/charity riders.
somebody may say different (where is fred and andrew?) but #oregonoutback was difficult. for a while i contemplated the #bendbailout but then what fun would that be? by difficult i mean the terrain was tough, the services were far apart, and direction/logistics/mapping was somewhat a guess game if you didnt have a gps ( i was wearing a garmin/cervelo hat). there were stupid bonus miles and shortcuts that ended up more difficult than the original route. the cue sheet wasnt exactly right and if your non gps computer wasnt calibrated right it was a guess game for some of the turns. fortunately we were pretty solidly mid-pack and could see the tire tracks of people in front of us.
RAGBRAI is a week long bike ride that is nearly the exact opposite of what you just described.
As far as I can tell RAGBRAI is mostly people getting wasted and partying as they ride across Iowa.
Both of these experiences sound pretty worthwhile to me.
I’ve heard it’s a bunch of middle aged people eating turkey legs.
2 nights or 7 nights aren’t really that much different. Once you have a system in place to make yourself comfortable for a single night (be it tarp, hammock, whatever), that same system will see you through many other nights. The only thing that really changes is the amount of food you carry, your gear load is basically static. (add fuel, patch kits, blister care)
What you have to do is get good at your 2-night game. Get to where your are not limping home on day 3 with dirty pans, soaked tent and sleeping bag, ripped clothing. Instead you are rolling home and could simply re-stock on foodstuffs/water and roll right back out again having barely touched your bike.
Water sounds like the kicker for OregonOutback. Adding a full day into the middle of one of the no-water stretches adds a fair bit of weight.
Work to get past the camping-as-survival mindset. It should be much more enjoyable than mere survival.
[quote=jimmythefly]
Work to get past the camping-as-survival mindset. It should be much more enjoyable than mere survival.[/quote]
This is exactly why I got an RV atmo.
Speaking of RAGBRAI, i used to have a coworker who, whenever someone would bring up bicycling, would say, “when I did RAGBRAI…”
Have you ever camped much? Eventually the sleep deficit is going to accumulate.
I beg to differ. Eventually, you get tired, and used to sleeping rough, and you just sleep. I’ve gone on plenty of multi-day backpacking trips where after the first two nights, you sleep like a baby as soon as the sun goes down. Walking or riding all day does wonders for helping with the discomfort of sleeping rough. Jimmy is right about the 2-night game: if you can do 2 nights in comfort, you can do 10.
I’ve got no problem with the actual camping. “When I did RAGBRAI”, my wife was begging me to take showers because I DNGAF (though I’ll admit they were nice when I had them). I think Jimmy’s right that supplies are the biggest thing. I figure just in cages on my touring bike I can have about a day’s worth of water, but that’s presuming I’m not sweating my balls of (which I would be). The second biggest hurdle for me would just be the athleticism that I don’t have that appeared to be required.
Outback still sounds like a real one-of-a-kind ride but if I were planning my own trip like that I’d still be hitting a couple gas stations per day if just for KYBO ATMO
I’m with Jimmy and eric_s. I often sleep better in the woods than I do at home. Add in 50-100 miles of riding a day, four of five beers at night, and I roll off to sleep instantly. I have a Neoair pad, the most comfortable pad I have ever used, and wake up refreshed. Since I rarely use a tent, I just sit up and cook up some coffee, still in my sleeping bag.
Did nine nights last summer and never felt uncomfortable. The biggest problem is the pervasive filth, but a wipedown + jump in the lake cures it well.