Bike Packing s280

On Friday around 11am, I left on the Pugsley for a quick overnight camping trip. These trips are usually referred to as an "S240" which is a quick way of saying a Sub 24 hour bike tour. Mine lasted a little longer, hence S280. The Pugsley was fully loaded with all my new bikepacking bags, part of my Xmas spoiling this year. Fully loaded with all my gear, water and food the Pugsley was about 60lbs.

I left from my house and headed to the Centennial Trail, where I ran into Ted, my father in law / friend who I always seem to run into when I head out biking on a non standard route for me. Always a pleasure, Ted!



I continued on to the I&M canal trail and discovered that the trail was CLOSED and fenced off with a lock until 3/20. So I took a detour to High St and then to Archer Ave which eventually dumped me right back to the I&M canal trail in Lockport. Once there I enjoyed one of my favorite sections of trail from Lockport to Joliet Iron Works.





The trail "ends" there and you have to take a road route through downtown Joliet for about 5 miles, which really isn't all that bad of a ride. Its a little shady at times, but it goes quickly. There was one moment when 2 guys who looked like trouble pulled up next to me when I was in a residential area and just started smiling and giving me the thumbs up.

Pugsley does that to people.

I just waved and rode on. Once through Joliet the trail returns and I headed to Channohan State Park to meet up with CK. This is another incredible section of trail. CK had gotten our backcountry camping permit ($6) and we took off riding to figure out where we were going to camp. I had spoken with a Park Ranger about a month ago and she sent me a map with hand drawn locations of the class "D" campsites, so we worked off that. The first site we came up on was just fantastic! but we kept riding on. My other friend from college, CL had parked in Morris was was riding the trail to intercept us so we stopped at Aux Sable Lock and hung out there while we waited for him to meet us.





Once CL got there we headed back to that first campsite we found. There were a bunch of great wildlife sightings while we were riding. A lot of beavers who were really busy. We saw 5 of them I think swimming but the amount of trees that had been sharpened into a pencil was pretty incredible. We also saw a few vultures flying over head. The most exciting sighting we had was a BALD EAGLE flying over the trail. It was very cool.

Once we got to the campsite we got all set up and then cooked up dinner, which was some skirt steak with ancho orange sauce, avocado's, beans and tortillas. A pizza roll that CK's mom made. Those pizza rolls have been a special treat for me since college. It was always great when one would show up. This one went fast and it was good! We drank a little bit of whiskey, some of which tasted like kerosene and hung out talking and listening to some music.

CK's set up

CL's set up

my set up

shelter

campground even had pit toilets!

my cook kit

I woke up around 6:30am and it was just starting to get light out.  The temp was about 30 degrees? and my bivy sack was completely covered in frost as was my winter hat which I slept in.  I got up and wrapped my sleeping bag around my shoulders and made some coffee to help me stop shivering and enjoyed the sunrise on the river.  I got packed up by the time CK got up and we had some more coffee together.  CL got up right when I was about to leave to head home.

Its about 50 miles to get home and I was pretty tired physically from pedaling a 60lb bike with 4" tires so I knew it was going to be a long day back.  Those first 5 miles were pretty tough, my left knee hurt and I was pedaling at about 7 miles per hour.  I knew I couldn't ride at that speed all day as I would have gotten home in the late afternoon and for sure would have run out of water.  So I stopped and took some advil, ate a cliff bar and drank some more water.  Once I got moving and the advil kicked in I was able to get back up to about 13mph. For those of you who aren't used to riding a bike with 4" wide tires that weighs 60lbs, it feels like you are putting out about the same amount of energy as riding at over 20mph on my cross bike.

I got through Joliet pretty easily and then stopped at The Public Landing  for lunch which was really good.  I look forward to going there again.  After lunch I ran into a couple who were biking and they told me that the trail was not closed up ahead so I didn't need to do the detour that I had ridden on the way out.  I pretty much just motored towards home at this point.

I checked in with Katy and she wanted to meet me and ride a little with me so with about 5 miles to go on the Centennial trail we were reunited! and we rode back to the truck.  It was nice to ride together as it had been a while.  This also meant that I didn't have to ride on Willow Springs rd to get home, which is my least favorite part of the trip.

I already want to do it again! but back to the real world I guess...........

Pugsley does it

I spent a day riding some unexplored singletrack near Batavia recently and got to really play around with the Pugsley in some river beds. Love this bike!

Sunday = Bike and Bears

Katy and I met "Bike" Tom and Dominik from Masters out at Palos this morning for some Bears Pre Game riding.  Even Tom's primary concern was the Bears game, so you know how important the Bears game was today!  We road some of the regular routes today while Katy did some cross country skiing.  There were a TON of riders out there today and the temp was below 20 degrees for sure.  I had more technical problems today, FRONT FLAT, but we got it dealt with relatively quickly.  Side note, 3 CO2's per Fat tire, but we didn't have enough CO2 so I did some pumping.



I got Dominik to ride the Pugsley today and I heard him laughing a few times while riding it.  It really is that fun.  Great to have him out riding today.  Probably the craziest part of the day was at the end of the out and back trail we were chatting with about 10-12 other riders when someone found a cell phone laying in the snow.  It was Katy's!  Evidentally it fell out of her pocket while skiing.  What are the odds of actually recovering a lost phone at Palos in the snow??  I guess there goes all our luck for winning the lottery.  Damn it!

DA BEARS WIN!  DA BEARS WIN!

NFC Championship game next week! against the Packers........Its going to be a battle!

Saturday = Bike Day

After Masters this morning, Katy and I headed to Palos so she could check out some cross country ski trails and I could ride some trails. I got about .75 miles into my ride and the bolt for my seat clamp broke putting me dangerously close to an uncomfortable situation. After spending some time looking for the tapered nut, I gave up as it was long gone somewhere in the snow. So I called Katy on her cell and told her to return to the truck. I rode "out of the saddle" back to the truck and we left. Not really what I was looking for. So when I got home, Katy headed into Bemis and I headed to the bike shop where I picked up a new cheap seat post to get me by until I order a Thompson post for the Pugsley. This is a mandatory upgrade!
I then headed out to meet up with CK to go ride Fermi for a while. It was CK's first real ride on his fat bike. It was a great day out, but bitterly cold by the end. I actually called our ride short because I couldn't feel my fingertips anymore or at least I was on the verge of the pain going away......it was in the teens and very windy out there.  We rode a total of about 12 miles.  It was a day totally dedicated to riding, the good and the bad.  My kind of day!

Fresh Snow @ Palos

On Tuesday I "clocked out" around 2:30 due to the weather.  6-8" of fresh snow!  How can I be expected to work!? Tom came and grabbed me and we headed to Palos and rode about 12.5 miles of fresh snow.  Tom likes to ride fast and I am pretty sure he said that exact phrase at one point in the day.



I just tried to hang on his back wheel as much as possible.  We rode the main trail from Bullfrog lake to Turf 1 and then checked out the new XX trail.



We continued on past Saganaski Slough, past the "Throne Room" and then I was in completely uncharted territory for me.  It was a great to check out these new trails, which I guess see quite a bit of ATV and dirt bike traffic.

It gets dark pretty early and the sun had definitely set by the time I got back to Tom's truck.  He was already there since my legs by this point were barely working.  I learned a lot about what the Pugsley can do and how to ride it properly.  Thanks Tom.  Great day out at Palos!  I have never had this much fun on a bike.  I love my Pugsley.

Pugsley Adventures

After screwing around on some of the dirt trails near Bob Mann Woods, I rode from the shelter on the main trail to the bridge by Brainard along the shoreline of Salt Creek. It is/should be completely unrideable, but the Pugsley makes it TOTALLY rideable.

I don't even know where to begin

Wow I can't believe almost a month has passed since my last post.

Sadly, I have not been able to coordinate another lake swim yet.  Now with January here I think the lake conditions are even more hit or miss or should I say frozen or not frozen.

Luckily there has been plenty other activities to keep me busy!

Since the swim in the lake, my schedule of projects and coaching had really kept me away from things, but then came Christmas.  My wife Katy is the greatest wife in the world.  We had talked about keeping our Christmas pretty modest this year, but she evidently had other plans.

We spend Christmas Eve with my family.  It was great fun having a new member attending these festivities.  Emmy, my niece, really added a nice new twist to our family fun.  We exchanged presents and everyone was really spoiled.  I love Christmas spoiling, its my favorite!

Katy and I returned home around 8:30pm to our house.  Looking back, she really seemed to get out of the car quickly and hurried inside while I brought a bunch of presents in.  When I finally got settled, I yelled to her to find out where she was.  She was in the living room, so I went in there and she yelled "MERRY CHRISTMAS".

I about died.

There sitting by the tree was a giant box, which I immediately recognized as a bike box with "SURLY" on it.  I was in a total state of shock and totally thought it was a bike frame that I have been pretty interested in building up into my new commuter bike.  BOY WAS I WRONG.

Instead of that commuter frame, a Surly Troll 

it was a Surly Pugsley!!! 

SOMETHING I NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGINED OWNING PERIOD.  A TOTAL PIPE DREAM.



UNREAL.  Did I mention that my wife is the greatest wife in the world?

So I ripped open the box and started building it up.  and at about 11:30pm, when it was nearly all together, a friend of mine showed up who also owns a Pugsley and helped me with the final install work that I didn't have the tool for (Star Nut Tool).  Once competed and with about 8" of fresh snow on the ground we went out riding for a little bit.  I rode him home and then came home changed into some more appropriate clothing and rode around until about 2:30 am.  I felt like a total kid again.  This bike is the most fun bike to ride that I have ever experienced, not to mention capable of riding in any conditions.  Fresh snow has now become my favorite riding conditions of the year.  HOW STRANGE IS THAT!



Christmas morning Katy and I spent together.  I guess the really big news of Christmas this year was that we opened an envelope up and discovered that we are having a boy!  (a new bike is REALLY hard to compete against in my warped world!)  Things are a little more real now......gulp

We are going to have a son.  HOLY S#$T!



The rest of the day was spent with Katy's family.  The spoiling continued and it was a great day of family fun.  More on the spoiling in a future post......

With all that fresh snow, Katy and I spent a lot of time playing in it, day and night.  She would cross country ski and I would ride my bike.   I can't wait for more snow!