June Bug

Alexandera is regrouping at the Lodge on Pinedale! It's snowing/raining/sleeting in Vail and other parts of the Colorado Rockies, but that weather seems to be heading off to the northeast.

Can it be taken orally? I've been really creaky lately.

I know, and they've been keeping this monster pace going since they started a week ago today. Also, the north bound folks will start seeing the southbound folks in a day or two.

Kato is 42 miles behind Sehili at the moment. Alexandera is knocking out about 160 miles/day while Lael Wilcox is averaging 180 miles/day.

Done and done for the early show!

I was doing a social ride with friends on the Drippin' Loop last year and we ran into a guy on a fattish bike fully decked out for bike touring. It was Dr. Mike McElveen, Payson McElveen's dad, doing a training ride for the Tour Divide. I don't think he did it last year, but did complete the Tour Divide route in 2013 (https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?doc_id=12850) Also, Don Schwieters (60+ Cat 1 TMBRA racers), who lives just north of Walnut Creek and rides there almost daily, completed the Tour Divide race in 2016. He also has completed the AZ Trail race.

Well yes. Comfy, puffy recliner chairs are recommended for the demanding and prolonged sitting required to follow some of these racers.

Armchair mountain biking definitely has its place.

It was my understanding that her previous races were geared with front suspension, but don't know about her fat bike. There are only 12 single speeders in the entire Tour Divide field, and single speeders must maintain the same gear ratio from start to finish.

Might be King Many Thing Cage You just put whatever fits in there and cinch it down, from stuff sacks to water bottles. The cage is also in use to attach bags on the fork legs. Both Lael Wilcox (female) and Sofiane Sahili (male) have set Tour Divide records in the last 24 hours. Alexandera is holding at 15th place overall out of 167 riders. If Sahili can maintain his pace, I don't think he can be beat by anyone. The daily mileages of the serious contenders are beyond savage and would shred normal humans. As far as I can tell, these people have a "you can sleep when you're dead" thing going. Pics of Rigs of the 2019 Tour Divide from bikepacker.com My sense is that the serious contenders are minimalists. They aren't carrying an ounce more than they need for the basic survival on the trail. They aren't setting up a camp at night; they're throwing down a sleeping bag (if that) to grab a few hours of sleep. Again, you can follow along at trackleaders.com/tourdivide19 Keep in mind you can filter out the few people starting from the south.

Holy Crap! We're three days into this, Alexandera is already just south of Helena averaging 186 miles a day on a single speed with 652.7 miles total and 15th overall. And then we get to Lael Wilcox, the lead woman, 6th overall, who is averaging 200 miles a day. She's at mile 720. The leader, Sophiane Sahili, is almost at 790 miles. It'll be interesting to see who can maintain this insane pace.

I'll keep this in mind. I do a social ride every Tuesday morning and we re-group at the turnoff to the tennis center before continuing on to the end by Decker Lake. We're seen a rat snake or two there, but no danger noodles so far.

Yeah, the kids are all right! Plus, school mtb racing programs are cranking out a lot of fast kids.

Angel Fire is offering a discount to Spider Mountain riders. Angel Fire Bike Park Lift Tickets

Leanderings are the routes taken by Leanderthals.

Gravel/sand deposits are from ancestral meanderings of the Colorado River.

Spicewookie and Ridenfool, Hope y'all are riding out this current storm and are staying safe and dry! We're kind of between two huge cells here in north Austin and it's still bad. There was a warning of straight-line winds, rotation spotted on radar in the Lago Vista/Spicewood area; Smithville looks to be getting slammed as well.

Chumba Bicycles and Wanderlust bikepacking gear (their house brand?) sponsored a talk last night at the Patagonia store on Congress Ave. They showed some Chumba videos and then Alexandera Houchin, the first woman finisher for the 2018 Tour Divide and a sponsored Chumba rider, gave a talk. I had a lot of assumptions about what she'd be like and how the talk would go and all that got turned upside down. She's a member of the Ojibwa tribe and that identity is strongly part of who she is. Her talk was a story teller simply telling the story of her life in the third person, and how she came to discover bikes and riding everywhere, slowly discovering her city, her county and expanding out from that. She weighed almost 300 pounds in high school, lost half her body weight at some point, was 20 years old the first time she rode a bike; she's 28 now. She's not a hard body. She doesn't do lycra shorts. She goes to college full time for nine months out of the year (double major in chemistry and Indian Studies) and is focused on getting into dental school. She does train in the winter, going to the gym, riding fat bikes and doing fat bike events. Some running. She was raised mostly by her grandmother. She lived out of her Honda Element for awhile relatively recently when the living situation with her grandmother was no longer viable. While going to school. In the winter. In Minnesota. She said that was kind of like bike packing. And her bike set up for the race is....minimal. This year she's taking an 18 degree sleeping bag and a tarp. Not a high tech Dyneema tarp. This is a brown 6' by 8' tarp that you can buy at Home Depot for about $8. I didn't see a sleeping pad on her set up. She said if it's raining she'll find a sheltered place to sleep...like under a bridge... and noted that when you've been riding for 150 miles, you just lie down and you're out. She carries a little speaker attached to the shoulder strap of her backpack and listens to music, podcasts and audio books as she pedals along. Her bike for this year's Tour Divide is a Chumba titanium hardtail Stella with a dropper seat post (!), with Industry 9 wheels, Crossmark 2.1 tires, flat handlebars. The front wheel has a generator hub to keep electronics charged up. She talked about how you resist the siren call of towns by stopping before you hit a town and eating up the last of your food and drinking lots of water. While you're wolfing down the potato salad you bought at the deli of the grocery store, you start making sandwiches out of the cheese, salami and bagels that you just bought, knock back a Mountain Dew and then just get the hell out of there STAT, because it's so easy to lose time in a town. I hope the ride goes well for her. Snowpack in the west is simply epic this year. It was still snowing in Telluride and other areas as recently as a week or two ago. I don't know how many streams riders will have to ford, but like the snowpack, the runoff will also be epic, so that might be a daunting challenge. During the question and answer session, someone asked her how one could train if they don't have mountains or time to do long distances. She suggested riding to the event -- that you'd be in pretty good shape after riding all day for four or five days. Anyway, I'm still pretty blown away by this woman and will be following her progress on the Tour Divide. A bit more about her: Local Duluth paper: Cloquet woman wins Tour Divide From the Chumba website, she's the first rider: chumbausa.com/riders Outside Online: She Learned to Bike at 20. Now She's a Champion Her blog: alexandherrastro.wordpress.com/ (She has a post up about her drive to Austin this week.) Edited to add: Her bike is rigid single speed for this year's Tour Divide -- no suspension, no gears.

Sad to see a king of the forest brought down in a storm. That is truly a monster tree. Pecan?

I didn't realize that Wingnut packs are still around, but yes, yes they are. They are a Camelbak/pack de derrière mashup, with a recent enduro design with more storage space. wingnutgear.com/

Just came across this on bikepacking.com Who knew Texas Tech up in the Panhandle plains of Lubbock, has an Adventure Media class: CMI 4313 Offers students practical, creative, and strategic insight and experience in assessing and producing media associated with outdoor adventure....and the class would go bikepacking in Big Bend Ranch State Park, and because it's an outdoor media adventure class, made a short film......TERROIR (FILM) AND THE DESPLABADO TOUR to promote Oveja Negra bikepacking gear. Great article.

Loved the Grindstone Trail system in Ruidoso. New-ish and IMBA designed and built, utilizing the watershed for a new reservoir. Has a fun flow trail you can take once you do the long, well designed climb to the top.

The regular Rogue Hoe is an awesome and beautiful tool, lightweight, balanced and a true beast, especially when sharpened regularly. The Rogue people know their stuff and create beautiful tools. You might want to try out one of the regular Rogue Hoes in the ARR tool inventory. McLeod? Heavy, clunky. There's no art or joy in a McLeod.

It's hard to know which bike to pick, but you have to get On One or another and not be Surly about it, or have a problem with Enve when someone gets a bike with nice wheels, Orbea meany about it.

We thought about doing that last Thanksgiving but the towns and citizens along the way have to step up and start doing maintenance. I've read a trip report or two by people that have attempted it and it's not maintained well enough to be a predictable experience. The maintenance will happen when towns and locals realize the potential (or actual) economic benefit. It could be a wonderful experience in the fall and spring and easy enough to get to from a large population center like Dallas or Longview. We did the Mineral Wells rail trail (starting at the Weatherford trailhead) in the spring as an out and back in anticipation of our trip four years ago on the Great Allegheny Passage/C&O Canal (first week in June). It was a pleasant first mile or so until we all started getting flats. A new guy had just mowed the verge and thrown up all sorts of stickery things like little mesquite branches ONTO the trail instead of off to the side. We had to track down the WalMart in Mineral Wells to stock up on tubes. We had 7 or more flats between the six of us. It would be fun to camp at Lake Mineral Wells and ride the rail trail as an out and back from that end. Could be an enjoyable family outing. It's a longish but not unpleasant drive on Hwy 281. AB, here's to a strike-free Spain for the rest of your lovely holiday!