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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

DIY carbon repair

Backstory

In 2016 I crashed my 2013 Sworks with 2km to go at Masters 50+ Nationals when someone slid up between me and another rider and took my rear derailleur off. The major problem from that incident was tremendous sciatica, which turned me in to "The Falls Church Night Weirdo" for the entire summer. But in addition to my piriformis muscle , the seat stay was also damaged. The drive-side seatstay crack had been growing for years, while I  monitored it. By Spring 2021 it was large enough to affect the shifting, and I retired the bike. I had already had it repaired once before in 2015, after an Artemis guy chopped me at the Tour of Page Valley, and either my heel or the heel of the guy I fell on cracked the chainstay. 



broken seat stay
The crack in the seat stay extended about 2/3 of the way around.

Since the frame was a writeoff at this point, a repair attempt seemed like an entertaining retirement project. As everyone does, I watched about twenty youtube videos on DIY carbon-fiber repair. I ended up buying a kit from Predator Carbon: https://predatorcycling.com/products/carbon-repair-kit , mostly because their videos had seemed useful. I actually bought the individual components instead of their pre-packaged kit, because it was only 3/4 the cost. 

All the repair kits I have seen from various sources are similar. Mine had three components:
  1. a strip of 2x2 twill-weave carbon fiber 150 mm x 1300 mm,
  2. 75 ml of resin with catalyst, and 
  3. 2 m of industrial heat-shrink tape.
The third component is the "secret sauce" that makes the whole process work for the neophyte end user. The heat-shrink tape provides the compression over the fiber layup to squeeze  out the excess resin and compact the layers.

The kits represent a big markup over the marginal cost of materials, but most carbon fiber suppliers only sell in much larger, and ultimately wasteful, volumes. My experience was that the 75 ml of resin is sufficient for four or five repairs. And it has a very finite shelf life, so buying a 4 liters just means that 3.9 liters will go to the solid waste transfer station.

I practiced once using Marc Klein's Cannondale that Pete Lindeman had given me. I smashed the top tube on the concrete steps and then patched it.  After the resin had cured, I sawed a section of the tube out from the repair and verified that the patched area didn't contain unconsolidated fiber/resin. 

For the Sworks Chainstay repair, I opted for a simple three-layer overwrap, instead of attempting to create a scarf joint. The resulting repair will be a bulge like a recently healed broken leg, but more layers seem safer than a more attractive repair. 

The Repair

First I removed the clearcoat by hand sanding 5 cm on either side of the crack. 

Crack with the clear coat removed.
The crack with the clear coat removed, and prepped for an overwrap. 

Mixing the resin and catalyst is straightforward by weight: 3.5:1 . I used the triple-beam balance that I rescued off the loading dock of Bard Hall 35 years ago. 


The twill-weave carbon fiber cut to size, and the components ready to weigh out. I mixed them with a recycled Trader Joe's popsicle stick in a used a carry-out sauce container . 


I masked the area of the seat stay with painters tape and electrical tape, and I wrapped the entire frame in newspaper and garbage bags, which is important, because the resin runs out and drips everywhere.  One of the videos suggested tacking the end of the carbon fiber sheet in place using partially cured (40 minutes) resin, so I did that.  

Before wrapping, I staged the the correct length of heat shrink tape by taping it to one size of the repair area, so it would be quick to just wrap it around. 

With the resin and catalyst mixed, I painted the whole exposed section of the seat stay with resin using a plumber's acid brush and started wrapping the carbon fiber sheet, while simultaneously painting more resin onto the new layer. The entire repair was three layers of sheet, which makes a repair about 1.0 mm thick.

With everything in place, I spiral wrapped the heat-shrink tape like a handlebar, overlapping about 50 % of the tape on each wrap. Then I taped the end with electrical tape and hit the whole area with the heat gun for about 90 s. As the tape shrunk, it squeezed out the excess resin, which I (mostly) wiped up with a shop towel. Some dripped on the floor, unfortunately. 


The repair after the tape had shrunk

I let the resin cure for 48 hours before stripping the heat-shrink tape and then lightly sanding it with 320 grit paper. I plan to just clear coat the repair with automotive clear coat, because the resin is known to be UV sensitive. 


The completed repair before clear coating. 

Postscript

Of course, the proof will be whether it survives being ridden..

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

2023 Vermont bike tour


Overall impressions

Very few breathtaking views presented themselves, but almost every minute of every day was tremendously scenic. Or maybe everything Vermont was just so green and beautiful that no low points existed to make beautiful parts seem spectacular.

The parade of tiny towns represented a dramatic contrast to Northern Virginia, with its year-on-year and fill-in development. Some population and geographic data really illustrate this conclusion. Essex County has fewer residents than my neighborhood in an area 1.5 times the size of all of Fairfax county.

No real low points really occurred. Day four was tiring, but not anywhere near the despair level. 
Population changes 1972-2021
County/State Area Population Population
mi^21972 2021
Vermont 9616 460K 646K
Fairfax County 406 454K 1.14M
Caledonia County 658 24K 30.5K
Essex County 675 5600 5900
Essex county peaked at 6500 in 2002

The Crew


Left to Right: Bill Erickson, Bill Luecke ("green bill"), Gil Menda, Vanessa McCaffery, Bob Nunnink, Ernie Bayles.

Tech

Bike


I used the same 40+ year-old racing frame with cantilever brakes that I have used on trips for the last decade. I was the only participant on cantilevers. Loaded, the bike was almost 50 lbs. 

I splurged for some "gravel-specific" Ortlieb Gravel-Pack front panniers so that I didn't have to pack everything waterproof bags. The front rack was also a new low-rider Axiom Journey DLX. The old rack made the panniers hit the arms of the cantilever brakes.
Gearing was  26-38-48 with an 8-speed 13-30. I used the 26/30 frequently. Because 8 and 9-speed cassettes are the same, a useful upgrade would be to go to 9-speed, which the 90's-vintage bar-end shifters could still handle it. For this trip, I removed the drop-out adjusting screws, which allowed me to squeeze in a 38 mm Specialized Trigger sport tire, albeit with only about 3-mm clearance to the chainstays. Broken spokes would be an existential threat.
Equipment upgrades for the future
  • Switch to a 9-speed 11-34 cassette.
  • Retape bars with double tape or silicone padding. 

Gear

Not including the bags, the gear plus Clif bars and Gu weighed about  18 lbs. I can't think of any way to reduce the weight without sacrificing important equipment. Fully loaded the bike came in at 50 lbs.

This time I remembered to bring a two-port charger.
I used every piece of gear I had in the bags.
I replaced my stinky, crusty moccasins with some ultralight Xero Z-trail sandals. They only weigh 284 g/pair, and they seem like you could walk some distance in them. The tread tended to pick up mud, though.

Gear limitations and replacements

Some gear should be added or replaced, including
  • a proper, consumer-grade, battery backup. The freebie I stole from Sandra would not charge my phone,
  • a free-standing tent with a proper fly. The amount of condensate on the flyless Sierra Design tent did not fill me with confidence that it would function in the rain,
  • a lightweight down jacket for mornings and evenings. The gray fleece I added at the last minute was barely enough.

Performance

The day-to-day performance degradation was not as severe as on the 2021 Catskills trip, but every day the maximum HR decreased. What would happen on a ten-day trip? I might be dead at the end...

Day HRmax Vmax Distance Elevation
bpm km/h km m
0 162 73.2 53.7 724
1 159 73.8 105.4 1084
2 156 68.2 93.4 1392
3 152 68.3 107.4 1325
4 146 67.8 115.6 1561
5 142 61 49.1 981

The camera doesn't lie: I've developed quite a beer gut this year...

Day-by-Day Reports

Day 0: Poultney, Vt to Poultney, Vt

After lunch we stopped at Poultney High School for a shakedown ride that was primarily characterized by map checks and wrong turns. After one long and wrong descent, we found Ames Hollow Rd,  our first Class 4 road. 

Vermont defines a Class 4 road as one that is not maintained by the town. This one was pretty much all rideable.  
We stayed at the Greensboro camp of Ernie's sister Jenny, which the family had built starting in about 1964, and now comprises several A-frames and a two-story house. 

Link: Day 0 Route

Day 1 Greensboro to Lake Carmi




We followed the Revolutionary-war Bayley-Hazen Road for much of the day, including a trip over Hazen's notch. The Bayley-Hazen road was the first road in northern Vermont. The route over the notch follows Vermont Rt 58, which is a dirt road. Amusingly, while I was waiting at the top, I chatted with a driver with New York license plates who stopped to complain that "How is this a dirt road!?" 
After Montgomery, we had a bit of dissent at the Longley bridge, and we bypassed the dirt road for a straight shot to the Missisquoi rail trail, the former Central Vermont RR,  in East Berkshire.
Dinner was at a food truck in Enosburg Falls.
I never felt terrible during the ride but I also never felt great. 
Campsite: Lake Carmi site 11 on the lake. 
Fun fact. Sometime between 1922 and 1926 Lake Carmi was upgraded from being named "Franklin Pond." 

Day 1 Route


Day 2 Lake Carmi to Newport



The US/Canada monument on Richford Slide Rd. We're in Canada now!



We headed out north from Lake Carmi, and then along the US/Canada border for most of the day. Some fraction of all the traffic we encountered comprised US Customs and Border Protection jeeps. We stopped for lunch in Richford, and then spent the next 1/2 hour riding back and forth on the two roads in Richford trying to find the proposed route. One consolation was the road fingernail clipper (#3 of 2023) I spotted on the second pass, although Vanessa got the quarter I passed twice.  In the end, we went down Corliss Rd, which unfortunately did not connect and had not connected for at fifty years. So it was back to Richford for the third time. 
On Richford Slide Rd we made a 300-yard detour into Canada when the road crossed the border and then reentered the US. The only indication was a 3-foot granite monument inscribed with Canada and United States. Apparently the border was a lot more chill in the past.
I perked up on the climb over the pass north of Jay Peak. Ice cream in North Troy also helped, but I was still glad to get to get to the Prouty Beach campground in Newport. Weirdly, we traded our reserved, expensive, not-ideal bare site with lake view for a less-expensive wooded site.
Dinner was at the only open restaurant in Newport. 

Day 3 Newport to John McGill's cabin in Victory


The Border Station in Beebe Plain (photo credit Bob Nunnink)



Our gracious host, John McGill ready to ride on Day 4

John's primitive cabin



Back in July, I had reached out to John McGill about routes in the NE kingdom. John and I had met twenty years before, mostly racing at Greenbelt Park in the middle of the week. He offered the use of his primitive cabin at his camp on Victory Hill. It was a bit of an unknown--we only had some interior photos to judge. John created and administers a private foundation mountain bike trail system, which was just adjacent to his cabin. He also suggested some routes to the east of Victory Hill. 

The day started with a bit of chaos, as some wanted to stop at the Wendy's for breakfast sausage and more coffee. Apparently only the drive-through was open, but that situation was not obvious for almost twenty minutes. Only Bill E. and Gil managed to activate the sensor and order. I just jammed down a Clif bar. I suppose that this staffing problem is part of the "great resignation." None of the delay really bothered me, which I think is a good sign of my much-more-chill outlook on time and dates.

We rode north out of Newport on the Newport-Derby rail trail that was part of the Boston and Maine RR, to Derby.

I didn't realize that once we left the trail for the road that we were only a few hundred yards from the Canadian border. and the
border station. 

The border station in Beebe Plain  was also curious. Getting in to the US was like going through the Wendy's drive-through, but the way out of the US was blocked by a drop-down metal security barricade. I wanted to take some pictures, but thought that it would just get me in trouble. The postoffice lady yelled at me for blocking the ramp, as if I couldn't figure out how to get out of the way.  A post-ride map check showed that all the houses whose driveway onto  "Rue Canusa" in Canada are all actually in the US, and the border goes down the middle of the road, but on the other side of the border station.

On Derby Line Rd I managed to run into Bob while trying to steer around him.  Shortly after Bob and Vanessa took the Vt highway 111 route to Morgan, and the rest of us took the dirt Town highway 38. they saw a bear. We saw a lot of Vermont dirt road. We resupplied at the Morgan Country Store, where Fox news was playing, and the cashier seemed a bit surly. Found $0.01 in the parking lot!

Lunch was in Island Pond from the supermarket. Because we were unsure about the exact situation at John McGill's cabin, we stocked up assuming that there would be no resupply until Thursday night. The planned route included a climb up Radar Rd followed by a descent to Gallup Mills. The Radar Rd, which we would briefly use the next day, goes to an abandoned Cold-Ware distant-early-warning radar site on the top of East Mountain. We chose to stick to the paved road, because the climb on Victory Rd
was only 300 m (vs. 400 m) in about 1.5 km less. And Victory Rd was challenging enough. 

The last ten miles on River Rd was quite scenic, with views of Umpire and Burke Mountains, and the wetlands along the river. After a short climb up Victory Hill Rd, I sorted out where to find John's caretaker, who said "Oh, he's there, just go to the end of the road and through the gate." I found John's car, complete with bikes, but no sign of him. He arrived later, on his mountain bike with a brush lopper in his backpack--trail maintenance. He had also dropped off some corn and bread, and provided burgers as well! 

Links: 
Victory Hill Trail Club: https://victoryhillmtb.com/

Day 4 Victory Hill to Victory Hill to Lyndonville




The Ithaca contingent's friend Cory Baclawski, would would be hosting us at his house at the end of the day, came to ride with us. He brought his friend Ben Deede, who had taken the day off work joined us. Ben actually knew the route and provided expert guide services.  John McGill rode with us until we reached Paul Stream Rd route through the logging area by Mitchell Mountain.

We cached the bags at the start, and would return to collect them later. 

We backtracked the end of the day before, north on River Rd, and then took the Radar Rd north before turning off onto a side ride. The west-to-east transit of the logging area was on absolutely pristine roads. It was hard to understand how they stayed so perfect--the brush was all pushed back, indicating that they were routinely used, but the clay surface was smoother than pavement.

I was fading by the lunch stop, and the 1-km bushwhacking on Hall Rd made me nervous--nothing in the tank. We turned west off North Rd and went through two gates onto a two-track that wound through the bogs. I was really confused about our location, and was really flagging, even though I had strictly stuck to eating something every hour. A push on a recently regraded and repair stretch of Paul Stream Rd really demoralized me. But shortly after I found a second wind, and got rolling again. We recovered the bags at John's cabin, and recovered Ernie, who had inexplicably turned on Masten Rd instead of following the road back to the cabin. Cory took all the gear in his van, so we had the whole day unloaded. 

The ride over Kirby Mtn Road was steep and hard, but I felt fine. On the descent I foolishly tried to follow Vanessa, who had a head start, but I took two serious hits in a row, which shook my confidence, so I backed off. I was completely dead by the time we got to the end at Cory and Lisa's house. Two beers didn't really help the alertness, but were very welcome anyway. I nearly fell off Cory's deck when I leaned against the railing and it cracked. Much bouncing of small children occurred. Their oldest, Silas,  and I spent some time trying to re-sort his rock collection, which tickled all of my organization needs. It seemed very similar to one that I had 55 years ago, though his had twice as many specimens. 

Sleeping indoors got us out of the overnight rain.

Day 4 Route

Day 5 Lyndonville to Greensboro


Staging in the drizzle. Photo credit Bill Erickson


Walden Mtn Rd. Impassible without pushing.

Top of the Mountain Farm Stand. Breakfast sandwiches in the clouds.

The forecast was for 60F and rain, and we left in the rain. We passed "Vermont's largest corn maze" on Burroughs Rd. The thin, wet layer of mud really sucked at the wheels, and I was glad that we were chopping off the southern half of the planned ride. On Walden Mountain Rd, Ernie chatted up a crusty old local (COL) for intel on the pass. He opined that we would be pushing, which just sounded like
a challenge to me. But COL was correct, and about ten minutes of pushing followed, on a class 4 road that had been destroyed in the flooding in June--it was basically a stream.

After a rolling bit on a barely drivable road, Top of the Mountain Vegetable Farm appeared out of the cloud: coffee, sandwiches, pet goats.

After that it was a quick run through Greensboro Bend and on to Greensboro, where Jenny treated us to killer tacos and wine.

Sandwich report

Our 2021 Catskills trip included some  of the best sandwiches I have eaten. This trip was notable for my poor choices. I should have followed the lead of Bob "The Sandwich Whisperer" Nunnink, who apparently enjoyed his.
  • Day 0 Mandy's Pizza and subs, Hudson Falls, NY: uninspired meatball parm
  • Day 1 Parkside Grill (Food truck) in Enosburg Falls: two hotdogs that had still be in the fryer, even though I wasn't excited about that
  • Day 2 Italian sub Main St. market in Richford. High point, but really only acceptable. 
  • Day 3-5 No sandwiches.


Friday, June 11, 2021

2021 Catskill Bikepacking trip

The concept

Bob's concept was to follow the 255-mile Catskill Bikepacking Route , over six days, or about 45 miles per day. The video made it look like it had some rideable single track, but we really found out that  some selective editing had been done. Much of the single track was not ridable--at least by me. 
The crew was organizer Bob Nunnink, Ernie Bayles, Bill Erickson, and me. 

Day by Day

Day 1 Ellenville to Kenneth Wilson Camp

I was up at 3:50AM and backing out of the driveway at 4:03AM for the 5.5 h drive to Ellenville. My dread and anxiety were at their normally high pre-event levels. Would I be the weak link? Would my car get towed while we were riding? Too much obsession. 

We were loaded and rolling around 10:25. Bill E. and I immediately overshot the first turn and got in a couple extra miles. But soon we were climbing up Mine Rd, which looked promising. But it rapidly devolved into an extremely steep, boulder-covered hiking path.

Mine Road outside of Ellenville (photo credit Bob Nunnink)

Sometime in the 19th century, Mine Rd took carriages from Ellenville to hotels of the Shawangunk ridge. The first eight miles took more than two hours. 

Ernie Bayles at the end of Mine Rd. I can assure you that we hiked to the top

The trip through the Minnewaska State Park Preserve was astounding. The former carriage roads  are immaculate and the Shawangunk Ridge vistas and escarpment are indescribably beautiful.

In the park. Bob Nunnink photo.

We worked out way down the the park and through the Mohonk Preserve at the base of the escarpment past the rock climbers and down into New Paltz. There Ernie and Bob replaced their non-functional water filtration systems. I admit to having some more anxiety, since it was already 4PM, we had gone 30 miles, had 35 miles to go, and the skies were rapidly darkening. 

We waited out the thunderstorm under an awning, and worked our way north on the rail trail. I was firmly in the throes of "Let's get this over with," and kind of fell apart after an hour. After a long climb in the drizzle, and a stretch along the Ashokan Reservoir we came out on the depressingly busy NY 28.  We opted for indoor dinner at the Santa Fe Restaurant, which pushed our arrival at the Kenneth Wilson campground until after 8PM. I got the tent up as quickly as possible in the fading light, wishing all the time that it was a free-standing model instead of an ultralight with a zillion guy lines and stakes. I collapsed into the tent, even though the campground had showers.

Fun fact: The NYC water supply is fed by gravity from reservoirs like the Ashokan, and is not filtered, though it is UV-disinfected.

Map

Total Distance: 63 miles

Day 2 Kenneth Wilson to North/South Lake 

We enjoyed a great 2nd breakfast at Bread Only, a very unexpected pastry/food truck on NY 28 in Boiceville. Even their chickens were entertaining!


Chickens at Bread Only

At Mt Tremper, the road turned uphill on pavement until we reached the entrance to the Primitive Bicycle Corridor/Overlook Mountain trail at the Zen Monastery. 

The entrance to the Overlook Mtn trail--the "Primitive Bicycle Corridor." It doesn't look so bad now.

The PBC was 2.2 miles of 11 % gradient. In itself, the gradient wasn't so bad, but I was out of gear and only pedaling 60 rpm, so I frequently stalled after hitting rocks and ruts. 

The PBC was the carriage road access to the creepy ruins of the early 20th-century never-completed Overlook Mountain House at the summit. 

Ruins of the Overlook Mountain House.

The ruins are a reminder that the Catskills were a destination resort area in the late 19th century.

We lunched at the summit, but the clouds enveloped us and obscured the promised views of the valley around Woodstock. We actually rode right past the goat path down the other side of the mountain. The first mile or so of single track was eminently ridable and fun, but after that we were reduced to pushing downhill in a stream bed. It was more than two hours and 4.5 miles until we came out other side.

Bridge at the end of the trail at Platte Clove Rd.

The route back down to the Hudson River valley and West Saugerties was Platte Clove Rd, made famous as the Devil's Kitchen climb in the 1990 Tour du Trump. Sections of the descent were more than 20 %; I did not like the way the front end squirmed in the turns. 

We made good time into Palenville, and I began to think that the day was nearly over. I ate the best sandwich of the trip at the Circle W market in Palenville. Unfortunately, the day was far from over, as the route departed the road, and returned to the eroded carriage roads. 

As at the entrance to the Harding Rd Trail, the NYS employee who was tidying up the parking area asked "Are you going to ride up that? I wouldn't do it." Our local intel from the Circle K was that the first segment was ridable, but after crossing the falls, the path turned rocky and narrow. We started at the same time as a woman out walking her dog. She consistently outpaced us on the ridable sections. After 1:15 of pushing, the trail finally leveled out. We proved the locals wrong and rolled into camp at North-South Lake, after a short detour to the Kaaterskill falls (and another abandoned hotel).

More information on the Overlook Mountain House.

Maps

Total Distance: 43 miles

Day 2 is broken into halves because I was trying to save Garmin battery. 

Part 1


Part 2

Day 3 to North-South Lake to  Diamond Notch Lean-to

Everyone was ready for a rest day after two solid days of late-evening finishes. We all agreed to skip the trail section in the middle of the route near Windham especially because the day was going to end with another uphill trail section to the Diamond Notch lean-to. 

After leaving North-South Lake campground, we descended on the rail trail (complete with the original ties) that once brought visitors to the Catskill Mountain House resort, which NYS burned to the ground in 1962.

After leaving Hunter, a spoke on the rear wheel broke, which put an end to the bombing of single-track and gravel segments for the rest of the trip. The wobble of the rear wheel was almost 20 mm. 

Early in the afternoon, we arrived at the base of the final climb up to the Diamond Notch lean-to. After the roadway ended, the trail appeared pretty ridable.

The base of the Diamond Notch trail. Looks pretty ridable! photo credit: Bill Erickson 

The ridability ended quite suddenly, and we were once again reduced to pushing. The situation deteriorated significantly at this portage.

Our first significant obstacle.

The only way to get up was to remove all the gear from the bikes and ferry it up on multiple trips. Crossing and recrossing the stream in MTB shoes was pretty sketchy. And I really feared that we would cross and recross the stream farther up the trail. We were fortunate that although nothing beyond the portage was ridable, it was a steady gradient with no more crossings. We reached the overlook after only about 50 minutes of pushing. Several groups of hikers were quite surprised to see MTBs on this section of the trail. 

Dinner was dehydrated Chili-mac, which was surprisingly good for a product whose "sell-by" date was in 2050. 

Links:

Maps

Total Distance: 33 miles

Day 4 Diamond Notch Lean to to Bloomsville, NY

After a long downhill, some gratuitous uphills to avoid the highway, we arrived in Prattsville, and the famous Pratt Rock. They should really advertise this as "New York's Mt. Rushmore.' 

Some of the carvings on Pratt Rock. He was proud of having sponsored the legislation to create the "Bureau of Statistics." And he liked the working man. One might interpret this tableau as "Workers smashing part of the government," though.

Zadock Pratt founded the town, ran the largest tannery in the US in the mid-19th century, and served in the House of Representatives. He also survived four of five wives, two sets of whom were sisters. 

Lunch was at the Prattsville Diner, where I ate another sandwich (roast beef on toast), and recharged my Garmin. 

The afternoon was hot, and we fought a 20 mph headwind on the Catskill Scenic Trail, a railtrail that parallels 23 to Stamford and Hobart. As the afternoon wore on, I started to come unglued. I had one speed. Sometimes it was faster than everyone else, and sometimes it was slower. We had no fixed end point for the day. The plan was to find some public land (undoubtedly tick-infested), push off the road, and camp there. Fortunately, the world is populated by people who are much nicer than I am. Bob chatted up a gentleman on the path in Hobart, who invited us to camp on his property, which was literally on the route we planned to take. We refreshed at Sal's Traditional Meat Center (#2 rated sub of the trip!) and ground out that last 2.5 miles. 

Our host's property was like a living landscape architecture magazine photo essay. 

Our host on Bramley Mountain Rd. The landscaped gardens extend down the hill to the right. 

Maps

Once again the day is broken in two to save battery. 

More information

Day 5 Bramley Mountain Rd to Little Pond campsite

This section of the trip was the closest to what I envisioned it would be like. The hills are not as high, and the roads were perfect gravel. We stopped for second breakfast at a diner in Andes. 

The remains of second breakfast in Andes, NY

The climb out of the Pepacton Reservoir was long and hot.  I'm pretty sure that I rode past here in 1983 on my insane "Making a plan is planning to fail" ride from Ithaca to Poughkeepsie to visit Maria Laurendeau. 

The Ithaca guys had arranged for some friends from Ithaca to meet us at the campsite, so there would be real dinner and beer for a change. Since the day was short, we were in camp, after the world's longest lecture about the campground rules, by 2:15. 

Little Pond campsite and one of our saviors, Ruth Sherman.

Maps


Day 6 Little Pond to Ellenville

We had explored having Jim and Ruth ferry us to Ellenville, but in the end we made the right decision and rode the 55 miles. Again, the roads were empty, especially the segment on Pole Rd after Willowemoc. Using the original route was a non-starter: it contained a 1 mile segment that was not marked on Ernie's hiking map, followed by 5 miles of snowmobile trail. The modified route avoided the big climbs by adding miles.

I did find a road bra just outside of Parkville, NY. (#90 of all time). 

We arrived in Ellenville and our untowed cars around 1PM, had a quick lunch, and I hit the road. 

Maps


General observations

Riding a MTB felt painfully slower than riding a touring bike. It was hard to get used to going so slowly. Given the amount of pushing we did, I'm not sure that I wouldn't have been better off on my CX bike. 

My fitness was really poor. Usually on a multi-day tour the first couple days are rugged, but then the fitness comes around. On this trip, my recovery degraded from day 1 until day 3, and then plateaued. 

The grips on my MTB were designed by a sadist. I was worried that they might be bad, but they were awful. Even a week later my right pinky finger is still tingling. I really needed the 1990's bar-ends.

Camping is fun. But I don't want to do it on every trip. 

Fifteen years ago I would have been stoked about how epic some of the segments were. Now, not so much. 

Apparently no one lives in the Catskills. Even on the numbered county highways we saw almost no vehicles. 

The number and variety of abandoned buildings was quite notable, especially compared to Northern Virginia, where they are quite rare. 

Sandwich rating system

I ate a lot of sandwiches during the day. I've ranked them from best to worst. 
  1. Italian Sub. Circle W Market Palenville, NY. Best Italian sub I have eaten in several years--better than the Westover Italian Store. The roll was critical and awesome. The second half of it even tasted great after riding in my jersey pocket for 2.5 h. 
  2. Italian Sub. Sal's Traditional Meat Center, Bloomville, NY. Pretty good, but maybe I expected more from a guy named Sal. Good banana peppers. 
  3. Italian Sub, Arianna's Restaurant, Ellenville. Uninspired, but acceptable. 
  4. Roast beef on rye, Prattville Diner. It was very OK. 
  5. Roast beef on rye, Hensonville Food Lockers, Hensonville, NY. Meh. I was going to get an Italian sub, but the guy making the sandwiches seemed overwhelmed, so I just had him make what Bob was having. 

Other food

  • Pecan sticky bun. Only Bread, Boiceville, NY Great chickens, and a very sweet sticky bun, served from a food truck that had an air-conditioned trailer mounted portajohn. 
  • Rossili's diner, Andes NY. Tremendous oatmeal. Google lists this place as Woody's Country Kitchen, but that sign was definitely gone.
  • Steak Burrito, Santa Fe, Woodstock NY. It was fine in the way that Chili's is fine. 

Gear

I forgot to weigh the bags at the start of the trip. Bob totally outdid me with his to-the-gram spreadsheet of gear. But at the end, everything weighed 19.7 lbs. I ate about 3 lbs of food. The bags alone were 2.5 lbs. 

Bike

  • 50 mm Panaracer Gravel King tires @50psi.  I felt totally confident on these tires on the rare occasions that it was possible to ride the trail sections. 
The Stumpjumper on day 1, while it was still clean.

Bags

The Revelate frame bag made it impossible to pull bottles out of the frame, and I even broke one of the cages at some point while wrestling a bottle in and out. Next time (?) I'll strap the bottle cages to the fork legs. The size of the frame bag made it too tempting to over-fill it, which frequently caused it to  rub my calf, which was pretty annoying.  Other than those small problems, the bags were bomb-proof and problem-free. 

The Revelate Terrapin seat bag system that Bill Erickson used seemed to sway less, probably due to the plastic housing for the dry bag. 

Very little room remained at the start of the trip. 

Food and Clothing



Although the composite image above doesn't show it, I ended up taking two jerseys, and two Craft white base layers instead of the gray baselayer. I used every thing I took, except the Castelli leg warmers. I wish I had taken regular synthetic cycling socks instead of wool socks, because the wool socks took forever to dry. I was risking a case of trench foot for a while. 

By the end the only food that remained was the freeze-dried Kung Pao chicken.

Stuff I should have taken, but did not:

  • a tiny line for drying clothes and hanging the anti-bear food bag,
  • a chamois cloth for drying off after showering,
  • a trail spoon (I lost mine and had to borrow one from Bill E.),
  • duct tape,
  • spare spokes (it turned out that I had them at home).
I had bought some Al bar stock to make adapters to drop the bottle cages down the frame more, but I never got around to making them. 

Health

The grips on the MTB were punishing. My hands fell asleep every time we were on a road section. Even a couple days later both hands are still tingling. On two successive days, I nearly gave myself an upper back spasm while trying to wrestle my sleeping bag into the handlebar bag. That back weakness is certainly related to the hand problem. 

Usually on bike trips, the day 1 and day 2 are a bit rugged, and then the fitness comes around. This time I felt progressively worse each of the first three days, and then just plateaued at a low level. 

The ride was hard--much harder than I expected it would be. 

Monday, January 1, 2018

2017 Year-end analysis of racing in MABRA


This post is just an advertisement for the 15th edition of my year-end analysis of bicycle racing in MABRA. You have to get the full (47 page) report on-line: Link to PDF

Some visually interesting plots from the report appear below. 
Distribution of ages of all racers in USACycling.

USACycling membership since 1970.
Attendance at popular MABRA criteriums since 2012.
Racer retention in the US. Plot shows the fraction of racers remaining as a function of the number of years since they first took out a USACycling license.

Friday, November 24, 2017

Tom and Bill's Appalachian Trail Death March


Background

In the fall, Tom and I usually try to do a long-weekend bike tour, but this year we indulged his dream of through-hiking the Appalachian Trail with a four-day backpacking trip. I'd never been overnight backpacking before, and the trip gave me the excuse to research buy a lot of gear. 

Summary

We hiked 46 miles over two full days and two half days, from Harpers Ferry to just north if I-70 and back. 

Impressions

The unanswered question from this trip is why do I turn every endurance activity into a death march? On Day 2 I wanted so badly to make it to Annapolis Rock, even though it was at least 18 miles, and not just because I thought it would be a nicer campsite than the Pine Knob shelter. What is so appealing about finishing an event completely on fumes? On this trip, it was not about the speed--I was more than happy to stop at the overlooks, but I definitely wanted to have every day be a stretch.

Maybe I'm addicted to that level of exhaustion. Maybe I it's that "we can always do a little bit more."

After trying to turn every day into a death march, I was struck by how much harder the days were than I expected.  After our diagnostic hike in September, I thought it would be within our capability to do at least 15 and probably 20 miles per day, which would have allowed us to get to the Pennsylvania border and back. I was never tired at the end of the day, but my legs felt like someone had beaten them with a stick, and my feet were in real pain.

Did I need to carry so much food? I never really saw Tom eat anything substantial. I would be gnawing away at a salami and shoving pecans into my mouth, and he would be quietly sipping a Cup-o-soup.

Day By Day

Day 1  Harpers Ferry to Ed Garvey Thursday 2017-10-19

We ended up parking at the National Park visitor center around 12:30 and hiking down to town, which added another couple miles. The day was spectacular, and first three miles are on the towpath were delightful. 

The trail from Weverton was rocky and vertical. We slogged on with our heavy (to us) packs. As the afternoon wore on, we began to wonder if we had missed the Ed Garvey Shelter, though it seemed impossible that we could have simply walked by it without noticing. We stopped for a nature break, and Tom noticed that the shelter was visible through the woods.  Neither of us felt like pushing on to Crampton Cap, so we stopped.

The shelter already held five more people: 2 late-middle-aged guys who disappeared pretty quickly, a lone middle-aged guy, and a 30-something with his 4-year-old son, whose backpack was large enough for him to get into. Amusingly, the 30-something turned out to be a bike racer. 
The lone-middle-aged guy was a snorer, and I slept poorly. 
Ed Garvey shelter. Day 1

Day 2 Ed Garvey to Pine Knob Friday 2017-10-20

I really thought we could make it to Annapolis Rock. The segment near Lambs Knoll really slowed the pace down. The path was so rocky that you could never really take a stride. Instead it was all half steps, staring at the boulders and making sure you didn't fall over.
We came first to Gathland State Park, home of the National War Correspondent's arch. I've been to Gathland many times, mostly on rides, so I didn't know the history of the place. It's basically the failed estate of a famous Civil War correspondent/essayist. It's the 19th-century equivalent of visiting Dan Rather's home. 


Obligatory photo of the National War Correspondent's Arch at Gathland state park

Our quick lunch was at the White Rocks overlook, which is probably the only trail-side overlook on the entire 20+ mile section.  We then bushwhacked trying to find the map-listed Lambs Knoll Lookout tower, which I later discovered was closed to the public in the 1980s. So much for accurate maps. The descent from Lambs Knoll was pretty grim, with lots of boulders.

Next on tap was Reno Monument, which memorializes Union General Jesse Reno who as killed at the battle of Fox Gap during the 1862 battle for South Mountain. 

I guess we're still in the south. Jesse Reno monument at Fox Gap. Note that Reno was a Union general, and the CSA general killed here has his own monument down the road. But apparently somebody felt it was important to claim this site for the noble cause as well. 

Shortly after Reno Monument, we came to the original Washington Monument, which was originally built by citizens of Boonsboro to honor GW himself. The CCC completely rebuilt the derelict monument in the 1930s.
Tom on the original Washington Monument, first built in the 1820s, and then completely rebuilt in the 1930s by the CCC.

By the time we hit the I-70 bridge, I was pretty sure we were not going to make it to Annapolis Rock. My feet were killing me, and I had to call a short halt so I could take my shoes off.  My aching feet meant we were camping at the Pine Knob shelter. We had it to ourselves, since it's a terrible shelter. The constant whine of traffic going downhill on I-70 acted like a white noise machine, though.

Tom and his 250 calorie "cup-o-soup"dinner at the Pine Knob shelter. 


Day 3 Pine Knob to Crampton Gap Saturday 2017-11-21

My legs and feet recovered for Day 3, and after a quick breakfast we were off back across the I-70 bridge.  Tom stopped for a shower at the Dahlgren campground, but I opted to stay dry. Since it was Saturday, the trail was positively crowded with people, compared to the day before. The day sped by, possibly because were covering ground we had already seen, and we reached the turnoff for the Crampton Gap shelter around 4PM.
Lunch break at the White Rocks overlook. We're avoiding the guy behind me, who was wearing a kilt.
We shared the Crampton Gap shelter with three millenials. They were carrying an impossible amount of gear, including a shovel. They played some kind of monster-themed card game. The shelter was completely unbearable, since one of them had sleep apnea. Initially it was like sharing the shelter with a demon, but as the evening wore on the snuffling became more feline. It was like sharing the shelter with a mountain lion. I gave up and pulled my pad out of the shelter and finally got to sleep.

 Day 4 Crampton Gap to Harpers Ferry Sunday 2017-11-22

We pretty much hauled through the last day to get back to the car, since we were covering ground we'd already traversed. 
And we rescued a tiny turtle!

Gear

  • Pearl-Izumi trail running shoes. These were too light, and beat up my feet.
  • Since I was paranoid about weather, I had a gore-tex jacket. I was prepared to spend days outside, soaking wet at 45F. 

Lessons Learned

  • Water is heavy. I was worried that the water sources were well off the trail. I was completely wrong, of course, but I started the trip with 4 liters (8lbs) in two camelbacks. 
  • The shelters are full of snorers. I thought the first night was bad, but our companion Devon on the third night was unbearable. In the future, I'll just use the one-person tent. 

By the numbers

With 4l of water and the food, my pack weighed 34lbs--too heavy.

Distance

DayDistance (mi)Segment
17.8Harper's Ferry Visitor Center to Ed Garvey Shelter
215.5Ed Garvey Shelter to Pine Knob Shelter
311.8Pine Knob Shelter to Crampton Gap Shelter
411.5Crampton Gap to Harper's Ferry Visitor Center
46.6miles

Food

My food supply. 
Weight Calories Description
32 oz 3200 cal 4 salamis
28.8 oz 3000 cal 12 Clif bars
16 oz 2700 cal bag cashews
8 oz 1600 cal salted pecans
12 oz 1760 cal trail mix
5.6 oz 800 cal Kind bars
16 oz 1100 cal Prunes
5.25 oz 860 cal chocolate bars
123.65 oz 15020 cal
Final
16 oz 1600 cal 2 salamis
2.4 oz 250 cal 1 Clif bar
8 oz 1600 cal salted pecans
1.4 oz 200 cal Kind bar
1.75 oz 267 cal chocolate bars
29.55 oz 3917 cal
Consumed
94.1 oz
11103 cal