Bikepacking Wimpout #2.

So here I am in spring break, not much to do, except ride bikes. You may remember my first bikepacking effort last September, and how I only lasted one night of two or three, well, it happened again.

Although the calendar says that it's the middle of spring, we've had a serious cold snap lately, and right in the middle of that I decided to try bikepacking again. I'd made a slight improvement to my rack which I've been wanting to test, and I also bought a new, super-duper ultra mini/compact/lightweight tent last summer that hadn't yet seen the light of day and was due for a run in. So with things to test and try combined with boredom and a burning desire to ride my bike, I loaded up again and headed off. Expecting cold, I wanted to take my winter-rated sleeping bag, but it was just too big to fit on the bike so I decided to tough it out with my compact summer bag. Mistake #1. I figured I'd be in a real tent this time, which surely would help....wouldn't it?

Here's the setup as I left home about 2pm on Saturday:

In hindsight I should have put more warm clothes in the orange backpack. A LOT more warm clothes. Including a beanie. Mistake #2. This time I tried carrying my water on the bike instead of mostly on my back in order to leave more room/weight capacity for warm clothes and food. Why, oh why didn't I use it? The backpack was less than half full and only weighed 4.5kg...another two kilos of clothes would have meant the difference between...well, I'm getting to that bit.

Anyway, I headed off up the same way I went last time, with a slightly different goal in mind - there's this lovely little dam that I've been to a few times now and that kinda has a little bit of a special significance for me now, and I wanted to camp there. Less climbing to get there than the peak I stayed on last time too. Nice and sunny, and a few cherry blossoms were out to brighten up the day for us travellers:

From here I just climbed up on roads I used last time, so I didn't get any pictures as last autumn was much more pretty. From home to here the roads featured pretty gentle (albeit consistent) gradients and I was able to make great time - I felt like I was zooming along. In about two hours and I think around 30km from home, after one last steep grind of a hill I reached my destination and home for the night:

It was only 4pm when I got there, as you can see it's still very bright, but it wasn't warm. The wind was gusty and chilly too. This is a little panorama I made from about ten photos using autostitch - great program. There are some really smart people out there.

Knowing I was going to have a lot of time, I'd packed a book, so after wandering around collecting firewood I sat on the edge of the dam and read for an hour or so while munching on sweet potato chips. Fully of yummy calories. Around 5:30 the rapidly dropping temperate started to get me a bit concerned, so I pitched my tent and got everything ready for retiring early. Here's my little tent, I spent a while faffing around with the setup as it was the first time:

Great and roomy for one, two would have to be really good friends...and although you can't see it in the photo, the guy ropes attach to the poles, which is really cool and makes it really solid in the wind. I'm such a geek, but I love it! I found getting in and out of this tent nice and easy too - the door shape and smooth zippers made it much faster and less bothersome than my old tents.

By the time this was done, I think it was near six and cold, so I got the fire going, which was OK, but due to lack of decent wood it was a smoky, high-maintenance fire. Still, better than nothing! I like this photo - it tells a story (at least to me..) I just noticed too, you can see the smoke disappearing DOWN over the dam wall in the top left corner there - the cold air was really moving downhill quickly. First time I'd seem this so clearly, it was groovy.


I had a cup noodle and a coffee a bit later, which turned out to be Mistake #3. I should have eaten a lot more - I was going to need those calories to stay warm throughout the night. Two tranquil hours in front of the fire were a balm for the soul - I really should do this more often. About 8:00 I tried to burn out my fire, it was finally going well so took longer than expected, and I got into bed at 8:30.

Read until 9, then crashed. Looking back, I slept pretty well until midnight, a few tosses and turns, a little bit cold, but the time passed quickly until I woke up - COLD. I put on every single item of clothing I was carrying, sadly NOT my beanie as I FORGOT IT. Stupid. I had a midnight snack of a high-calorie shortbread cookie pack, and read a few pages and then tried to sleep again. I was definitely less cold now, but still too cold to sleep deeply, and so by the time 5am came around I was feeling pretty crap.

About 5:30 I made some instant soup and ate it with an English muffin, such an awesome combo that I had a second muffin, and then a cup of hot coffee, and the warm food and drink combined with the heat of the gas burner warming up my tent made things quite bearable. The thermometer on my watch said the temp rose from 5 degrees inside the tent to almost ten, at which point I felt very comfortable. I take some consolation from the fact that this was the kind of temperature I was expecting, and what is normal for this time of year, so I was prepared reasonably, but I should have had that "just-in-case" stuff too.

I stayed in bed until 8, I think, dozing and watching the temp rise as the morning warmed up, and after a stockman's breakfast (without the smoke) I packed up, adjusted my new home-made rack attachments, fiddled with the bike a bit and hit the road. I half rode/half pushed my bike up the singletrack for half an hour until I hit a road I had to cross, and where I suffered a bit of a dilemna. From here I could keep going up, further into the mountains where it'd be colder or I could take the only other option which was to roll all the way down and back home. I just wasn't feeling it, a sign of the lack of sleep, I think, so home it was. It was also a grey, boring and cold-feeling sort of a day - not the sort to inspire adventuring. The fast downhill was incredibly cold, I was actually happy when it finished and I had to pedal on the flat road as it allowed me to warm up. No photos form the home trip is a sign of my mood, I think.

The only saving grace was that I wasn't in a rush to get home anymore, so I explored a little bit and found a hidden 2km of singletrack that had been lurking right under my nose all year (and could have been worked into my commute if I had known)...better late than never. It was a lot of fun and cheered me up immensely as now I had gained at least something from piking again.

The good news is that my tent is great, it's easy and light to carry on the bike, my other gear and DIY rack is solid and I'm learning what stuff I need to do these trips. My beanie and a pair of nice, woolly socks would have made a big difference this time too. I think the next one, especially in warmer weather will be a big success.

Thanks for reading!