VTXL 2026 ride links

I'm super happy I did the VTXL, but I don't think I'll do it again.   Other places to see, other rides to do.   The next one might be the Vermont Gravel Growler.   It's a loop you start near Burlington, you stay at Bed & Breakfasts, and it hits a dozen breweries on the loop. 

I really enjoyed the wild camping on the VTXL.   No hotels or B&B's, just 2 nights at a state park, and wild camping the rest.   Food options were limited but doable.    The VTXL was almost night and day different from the Erie Canal ride I did last year.    I was either climbing or bombing downhill on the VTXL, and food stops were 1-2 times a day at most.   The Erie was non-stop flat and dozens of food options during the day.    Just funny that I accidentally went from one of the easiest bike tours to one of the hardest (for week long trips).

No regrets, I feel super happy to have done a personal bucket list item.   And it's made the hard work of going from 291.6lbs June 2025 to my current weigh-in of 214.6 even more satisfying to me.    The climbing was hard enough at 214.   I just weighed in at home post ride at 213.3, and I ate as much as possible at the food stops.    Remembering the climbing will keep me motivated to stay lean.

With a few small tweaks, I think I can bike cross country next year.   time to start planning. 

VTXL planning 

VTXL Day 0 Truck travel and truck camping with Jacqui at Brighton State Park 

VTXL Day 1 bike ride from Canaan VT back to Brighton State Park

VTXL Day 2 Island Pond to Danville Covered Bridge camp  

Day 2 VTXL evening camp at Greenbanks Hollow Covered Bridge

Day 3 morning Covered Bridge 

VTXL Day 3 Danville to Chelsea, West Topsham General Store  

Day 3 Campsite after Chelsea 

Day 4 Sharon Trading Post rage baiting nutjob encounter, swimming

 Day 4 night camp site screwup 

 Day 5 lake swim, South Londonderry food, climb to Green Mountains

Day 5 worst camp spot of trip, my fault

 Day 6 ride back to Mass 

 Day 6 State Border Stone Marker and Jacqui meetup 

 

Review of Gear I used.  Things to keep, replace, fix, or leave at home

 

Started at the green arrow, ended at the red square

 

 

 

 

vtxl ride end

Finished the ride!  Back in Mass at the VT and Mass stone marker.     

 

 

 riding back in the car with Jacqui driving.    Just riding at 50+ mph  feels too fast to me right now, LOL.   She brought me my 1 gallon/4 liter stainless double walled jug filled with hot/warm water.  I used that water to fill my Geyser sponge shower gadget.   I plugged it into her car's cigarette lighter port to run it's water pump.     She also brought my bag with clean clothes that I'd packed before leaving.     Yeah, I just showered in my shorts standing by the car in between the passenger side doors., but we found an out of the way spot without onlookers.  Before showering, I put my bike bags and gear into trash bags into the trunk of her car and loaded up the bike.   After cleaning up, we headed home.   

 

I talked her ear off the entire 2.5 hour drive home.   Sorry Jacqui.    I hadn't talked much for a week.  If you don't count my voice to text dictation to my phone.   

 

 

 

Btw, after getting home and searching online, Google's latest pixel 11 phone has Rambler which is supposedly amazing for voice to text.   I'll wait a few months for the price to drop, it just release August 20th.   Supposedly, you don't even have to provide punctuation commands.   It just does it, fixes grammar errors, makes your dictation readable.   The Pixel 11 has a built in AI chip so the voice to text would work offline too.   My current phone is a 2020 Samsung model, so if I do bike cross country, I'm going to upgrade before that trip.  I want the Pixel's better camera lenses too.   Has satellite messaging as well, but I might have to switch cell plan providers to use that.   Keeping the Garmin InReach would be cheaper most likely.

 

 

vtxl pros cons gear to improve

So when this VTXL ride is over, I like to do a concise (for me)  review of my trip's gear.  What I loved, what gear I need to change.   Stuff I didn't need.   Anything I wish I brought

Things I need to replace to lower the weight of my bike and gear. 

• An Enlightened equipment or outdoor vitals Rain jacket would save half a pound.    I also need smaller, lighter goretex pants too, which would save weight.   
• The double wall stainless steel food container I brought weighed 13.5 ounces empty!   Not worth the weight at all, I'll replace with a small used peanut butter jar.
• I brought the insulated stainless jar with the idea of saving warm/cold food for dinner at camp later.   But food stops were often a half day earlier or more.  
• no more bluetooth keyboards, they break too easy while bike touring
• more fitted long pants for cycling that are ventilated
• trying a pair of pine colored vent lightweight slim fit xl pants from https://ketlmtn.com 
• if a new phone also has satellite messaging leave garmin inreach gadget at home 
• leave my sleeping earbuds at home, didn't use/need them  

Things I wish I'd had

• the single ear muff hearing protector for sleeping
• a selfie stick tripod for the camera for photos/videos. 
• my cycling windbreaker vest with mesh back (will see what it weighs).    Perfect for cold downhill runs, but prevents getting too hot on long uphill climbs during cold mornings
• metamucil?    I was burning an extra 3,000 calories per day.  So pizza, burgers, fried chicken will be needed.  I need a way to get fiber when bike touring. 

Things I liked

• my bike!  the new seat and suspension post were awesome!   (new vs the Erie Canal trip)
• bringing my protein powder mix really helped soothe my muscles.   A scoop with water before bed and again with breakfast.
• my uv arm sleeves.   worked well in the morning.    
• the front rack with nano panniers.   might do a different front rack truck bag
• the crazy creek longback ground chair.   comfy spot to sit, snack, and monitor the water filter
• the tent on the handlebar cradle, don't change it
• the rear rack  bag system. Awesome!
• carrying the long tent poles on the rear rack worked well  
• the ursack kevlar bag kept critters out of my food.   A smaller one would be nice 
• the cnoc bag, sawyer squeeze water filter and backflush syringe
• the Shokz open fit 2 earbuds.   great for music on quiet backroads and useful for voice to text writing 
• my Sleep setup, the air mattress, usb air pump, pillow and quilt
• the 20,000 mah battery bank
• but once a week, I'll have to stay at a hotel to charge it overnight.   all portable batteries take 5-8 hours to charge via usb C.     
• my little red plug usb wall charger for quick charging phone/bike computer at convenience store stops.

 Things to buy, fix, or make

• The second one liter bottle doesn't work on the downtube holder I have.  It squeezes the bottle too much leaking 1/3rd of the water out of the screw on top     
• get a dictation app that works offline or a new phone with the functionality built in.
• chop up ridewithgps routes into 2-3 days at most.
• fix garmin edge 1040 barometer port or replace it 
• buy a new weather cover for garmin edge if barometer is fixed. 
• get a new one if it stays broken
• orange crocs for better visibility with drivers coming up behind. 
• lighter rain jacket and pants 
• smaller kevlar food bag? 
• make a new fanny pack with lighter fabric 
• metamucil or similar fiber powder.    
• my idea of bringing beans to cook for fiber won't work.  I need too many calories when biking all day 
• bring 2 long usb c cords for using the wall charger,  not 1 long, 1 short 
• the ear muff, make an elastic band to keep on head when sleeping, integrate with eye mask? 

Things that were just ok

 

• the Kindle.   nice to have, but could I just live with my phone?    Saves phone battery a lot though. depends on how much time I want to spend pedaling each day I guess.    I like reading when wild camping, keeps me off the phone saving its battery
• my spd bike shoes/pedals.   I think I was getting numb feet.   improve it 

vtxl Day six last day

I survived my last wild camp out in the woods.   Unfortunately I ran out of daylight yesterday and used a rough Non-Designated spot with barely enough room to pitch my tent, but it worked.   Probably the worst sleep of the trip, because the ground was so sloped, but oh well.   Next time I'll book a site at Grout Pond, but I didn't know what kind of mileage I could do, so it was hard to plan ahead.  I also could have pitched my tent at the end of that long monotonous Vt7 route.    Would have broken the 200ft rule, but I figure if I'm setting up at dusk and gone by 7a.m. who cares?      You're suppose to camp 200ft off trail, would have been more like 50ft on VT7.

 

Video showing the downsides of the spot I found.   The weather was good for the night, or I'd have kept searching down the road, i had a headlamp.   I was just exhausted after almost 8,000ft of climbing; the most in one day for the whole trip.

 

After packing up this morning, I had one 700ft climb, then it was all downhill into the town of Sunderland.  But sadly the Corner Market is out of business!    My dream of a warm breakfast died.

So I have to ride another hour to get my first warm food of the day.   I decided to eat some of the snacks I found from the unlucky biker that lost them (yummy Trader Joe's chocolate nut bars and cookies, all still sealed in their mass produced packaging).   While eating,  I got in touch with Jacqui and sent her a link to my plan for her to use her car to get me.   Easier for her, and my truck's front driver side tire has a slow leak.   A year ago, I'd added sealant to that tire.  It must have dried out and the small crack on the rim's edge was letting air out again.   I'm getting the rim replaced.    

She's going to pick me up in North Adams Mass, so that's all settled 

Hopefully I'll be there by 1:30-2p.m. this afternoon  (ended up being closer to 2:30p.m.)

She's bringing my sponge shower gadget and a change of clothes so I don't make her eyes tear up from my current stinky self during the ride home.  

I guess that's all for now.  I've got 40 miles left, two 650ft climbs with 3500 ft of climbing total.   After 55-60 mile days with 7000+ft of climbing, it's nothing.   Yesterday, I pretty sure I did over 8 000 feet, most in one day on the whole trip.

I also stopped in North Bennington.   There's a shop there that does french stuff.  The ham and gruyere crossaint was damn tasty    The oatmeal cookie was spot on too.  But the peach cobbler crossaint treat was way too dense/buttery for me.   Jacqui may like it, so I'll keep for her.  (future note, it was Jacqui approved!)

Food was inhaled before photos, sorry.

a weird modern mansion I think, the siding was like a weird wood/brick

Found the house via GPS coordinates photo I took off my bike computer, 

I think it's just a weird, modern mansion.   Not a business or university

264 Mattison Rd, Shaftsbury Vt 

 

 

 

Cool train station at North Bennington Vermont

How many covered bridge photos can one take in Vermont?

I will note that the last two 600ft+ climbs felt tough, but I was tired.   If I do bike cross country I need a rest day once a week, and I was due.     I finished the 50 mile ride today in just 5 hours.    It has been taking me 8 hours to do 55-60 miles.    But I only had 4,000ft of climbing today not 7,000+

A lot of the climbing I was only going 2-4mph, so less climbing means a much higher average speed.      On the downhills, I'd do 20-30mph, riding the front brake.    I saved the rear brake for quick stopping.  I should probably replace the brake pads, but they lasted so I'm happy.

When I finally got back to pavement in Mass, I felt dead slow.   Then I remembered to air up my tires, so my mini pump was put to use finally.    Not one flat on the trip.   It took fifty pumps per tire to go from lower 20psi back up to 35psi, but it has a long hose you connect to valve, there's a little flip stand you use to hold it down with your foot and you can easily pump against the ground.   50 pumps were quick.   The up and down stroke is a foot long at most probably less.

 

 

VTXL Day 5 journey to the Green Mountains

 

Today will have more food stops.

From my stealth spot near the tiny Albert C. Lord State Forest in Cavendish, it was only 8 miles into town to eat at Singleton's grocery store in Proctorsville.   I edited the route to just bomb down Vt 103 for 3 miles instead of doubling back to the gravel roads after eating.

I got a kind of pricey sausage, egg, cheddar, hash brown english muffin sandwich for $11 at Singleton's.   It was tasty, but dang!  $11 for a sandwich that I could easily hold in one hand?     Bought a few homemade brownie/blondie options for the ride.   I've been burning 3,000 extra calories per day biking, so I need riding fuel to get up the hills.    By the heft, I could tell there wasn't a ton of oil/butter in them.   Will see how much they help energy-wise.

after the morning fuel up, it was onto  Lowell Lake for a swim

 

I'd learned to wipe out the inside of the tent with the blue towel in the morning before packing it up.    My tent is made out of Dyneema, which is totally waterproof,  so it gets coated with condensation on the inside in the mornings.    I never had time to let the sun take care of drying out the tent, or to set it up the tent during a food break.  Besides, I usually took a break in the shade somewhere.  The towel would dry after a few hours spread out on the rear rack, and I'd pack it away.   I think I'm going to look for brightly colored Crocs, so drivers can see me better.

Here I am at Lowell lake, doing the dirtbag yard sale, cleaning up my gear.    Maybe the angry guy at Sharon Tradepost was right!  I'm a homeless dirtbag!   LOL   The lake water was clean, so I gave my bike clothes for the last day's ride a proper wash.

First bucket with water and Dr Bronner's soap.   Manual agitation.    

dumped the soapy water in the woods, then got two more buckets to fully rinse off the soap (also dumping the rinse water in the woods), and then I used the sun baked rocks for drying the clothes, while I went for a quick swim.   I used my towel to take off my padded cycle shorts and then slipped my running shorts back on.   The water was spectacularly warm.   I only swam for a few minutes, but it felt great!   The jogging shorts I wear over my cycling padded underwear make good swim trunks too.       I waited for the people launching their canoes/paddleboards to clear out before swimming.    After my quick swim, I ate some snacks, packed up and headed on to my next food stop in South Londonderry Vt.   Talked to an older paddler for a couple minutes after offering to help him load his kayak, but he had a short 8-10 ft white water kayak he managed just fine on his own.

 

At South Londonderry, I probably had the best food of the trip; although the croissant place in North Bennington was a close second.     The Corner Market's Gobble Gobble turkey sandwich was top notch, as well as the raspberry crumble I bought to eat later.    You know a crumble cake is good when the paper bag they put it in is completely soaked through from the oil/butter an hour later.   Also got a powerade drink and chips.   I saved more than half of the chips for dinner later.   Dumped them into the stainless container I brought, which worked well; it's air tight.   Still I won't be lugging that 13oz/368g container again.   Dumb in retrospect, but I like it too much to throw away.  I'll lug it to my meetup with Jacqui. 

 Continuing on.    There's a rail trail that's nice from the South Londonderry corner market to a State Park with overnight camping,  Winhall Brook Campground.   It's <  4 miles and easy pedaling.   If I got Jacqui to try camping there, I'd try to get her to bike into town for food with me.   Dangle the carrot of yummy baked goods.

I've thought about one of these for her bike too, https://bimotal.com/products/elevate  to upgrade her bike.  And I like you can store the motor and battery inside your locked car so the bike isn't a theft target when stored on a rear hitch rack.

Anyway, back to pedaling!

Before getting to my next food stop, I spotted Stratton Mt in the distance.  Here's a short vid of that.  I like my snarky, "oof! " at the end.

Stratton Mt in the distance (mt Doom to me, lol) 

 

 

I stopped at Rawsonville's convenience store.     Jeff and I often drive by it when we move from camping in Somerset to the dispersed sites on Forest Road 10.    In retrospect, I should have gotten their pre-cut cheese and pepperoni but didn't see it until I was walking out, it was by the entrance in a open air cooler there.   I'd already bought the slim jim version.    Sigh next time.   I got a small ice cream while I was there and some cold water.    Filtering water takes a long time.    

As I was leaving, I also spotted Honeypie, but I'd just eaten that Turkey sandwich an hour or two earlier.   https://www.eatathoneypie.com/     My friend Jeff used to do roadtrips with his wife all the way from Central Mass just to eat there (they've found new fav spots since then).

After Rawsonville, you pedal on a river road away from the main road.   More climbing, but almost no car traffic.    There was a state/county fair thing going on in town when I had to cross the main road to get to back road route I'd climb up to camp on.  I should have snapped some photos, but uggh people!

Loved this old stacked stone fence, I wonder how old it is?

 And this final shot shows the 8 mile climb I had.   I loved the shade and peace and quiet at first, but it did get monotonous after awhile.  It lasted for 8 miles,  3/4's of it was uphill, and it was bumpy.   The green growth made it hard to spot rocks at times.   In the winter it's a xc ski trail I think (per signage I saw).  With a couple feet of snow on top, rocks don't matter.   Might have to share with the Snowmobiles too.  There were VT7 signs

But it reminded me of the saying that unless you're the lead dog, the view never changes; that's what it felt like.       On funnier note, during the pedal up, I kept finding snacks that must have bounced out of a bicyclist's bag that was going downhill, doing the VTXL from South to North.    It was like the bikepacking version of Hansel and Gretel.   I kept finding snacks and if I didn't lose too much momentum, I'd stop to pick them up.   I actually ate them the next morning, more on that later.    I also finally used one of the LMNT salt packs I'd brought as I started to feel muscle cramps approaching.   W orked perfectly.   My legs felt rejuvenated a half hour later.

 

vtxl day 5 morning

I made it to the camp spot I wanted. I might technically be on somebody's land but I'll be gone before 7:00 a.m.   [later update: yup, I was accidentally on private land, but escaped without anyone knowing]

If all goes well I'll make it to the Green Mountains today. And then I have a somewhat easy pedal the last day into North Adams. I haven't decided yet if I'm biking all the way back home or having Jacqui pick me up.   With the coming rain, I'm leaning towards a pickup, and I don't feel like wasting $150 per night on hotel rooms for at least 2 nights in Mass.    We'll see how it goes. So far I'm surprised how good my body feels. No joints hurt and my butt is doing really well. My muscles get tired as you expect after pedaling 8 hours per day. The last two days I've biked from about 7:30 to 7:00 p.m.,  but I take food and water filter breaks throughout the day.

 technically my Camp spot should be in the green Square to be on public land.   I was the dark blue dot. Oops lol

I couldn't take photos because I set up the tent just before dark in the dim light just after sunset, and I packed up at 6a.m. in similar dim light.  I was off to the side of their little used atv trail.   Slept ok, got about 2 hours of REM and deep sleep.  Was laying in bed from 8:30p.m to 5:30a.m.

 

VTXL Day 4 riding

I was a dirty boy again today, more about that later

One of the things I learned yesterday is my tire pressure has been way too high based on the type of tire I have and the road conditions.  I have Teravail Washburn tires.  In the center of them, there's a half inch wide smooth tread which make them great on pavement.  As you go to the sides the tire gets more knobby.   Before starting this trip, I had looked up what PSI I should run the tires at for gravel road.   You input the total weight of the rider, bike, and gear you're carrying. It said 30 PSI, but at that pressure, I was only using the center of the tire.    https://silca.cc/pages/pro-tire-pressure-calculator

I've been slowly taking out a little more air out, so the tire bites better on the gravel roads.    When the roads are wet, they get more slick too.    I didn't expect that on gravel roads.   More greasy than pavement.  Aired down, I noticed it really helps a lot when climbing on the gravel roads.    I think I may take a little more air out of the rear tire because I still slip on the super steep sections when I have to stand up to power up the hill.   When I stand up on the steep hill, more weight comes off the back tire as I lean forward.    With weight off the back wheel, I lose traction, the rear tire spins out, and I have to dismount and walk until it's flat enough to start pedaling again.    However, if I take too much air out, I could damage the rim hitting a protruding rock on a fast downhill descent.   So small adjustments until I get the balance right.

I think in general though this is why I like biking.   I actually enjoy having to tweak my bike so it works for me perfectly. And everyone has different anatomy.   Different limb lengths, Different strengths, Different sit bones,  Etc. It takes time to figure out what works for your specific body.    Speaking of adjustments, I tried adjusting the seat a little more forward yesterday, but it was starting to rub my butt raw.   I realized the problem early enough to change it back, and my butt feels fine today, but in the tent last night, it felt a bit raw.   I applied neosporin to the tender areas.   I was trying to see if I could get more power by tweaking the seat position, but it's not worth a sore butt.    This morning I doubled the amount of butt butter lotion i've been using, and I reapplied halfway through the day.

 

Anyway, this morning, the ride to the Sharon trading post store is 16 miles from where I camped.   Here are some photos from the morning ride

 

  

 As I dictate this to my phone via my earbud microphones,  I'm only four and a half miles away.   The garmin's time estimate says about 40 minutes.   Looking forward to some warm food.  That's it for now

 

My legs got filthy again on the ride this morning.   I think the sunscreen attracts the dirt.

 

 

I need to take photos BEFORE I devour the food, it's hard when you're super hungry. 

 under the table I have my charger

 

For an early lunch (10:30a.m.), I had a cheeseburger, fried chicken sandwich,  and a slice of cheesecake. I don't think I'll be stopping at any stores before I camp tonight, so I'm going to get some pepperoni and cheese again for dinner

 

There's a strong 5G in Sharon Vermont, so I did some ridewithgps route planning for the ride. 

 

I think I may ditch my mini folding Bluetooth keyboard. As well as the long khaki pants I wear when biking out in the sun. Most of the time I'm in the shade and with all the climbing they're way too hot to wear. And they've gotten kind of big on me so time for new ones anyway.

 

After I let my electronic stuff charge a little bit more, I'm going to buy more food and then hit the road.   About 18 miles from here is swimming, and only about a thousand feet of climbing between here and there too. I need to wash my clothes from yesterday, not that it helps.   It ends up smelling like body odor and river water.   

 

The tale of a rage-baiting jerk 

 

An hour later after leaving the store, I've had time to mentally process things.   As I was leaving the  Sharon Tradepost convenience store, an argument started outside between a guy my age pumping gas, and a 30 something father carrying his 8-10month old baby boy in arms that had just parked behind me on the street in front of the store.  I was caught in between.   

 

The father walked over to the gas pump guy, and they were arguing back and forth.  It became obvious there was something mentally off with the guy pumping gas.    He was losing his mind, taunting and yelling, I'm recording you! with his cellphone out.   The father gave up trying to reason with the guy and just went inside the store. 

     

I found out later, they were arguing because the angry guy had been driving super slow on the highway doing 45 in the left lane on a 65mph highway in his crappy old rusted out small truck. Because he was driving so slow, a car zooming north in the fast left lane swerved around him at the last minute almost hitting the dad's truck.   The car swerving forced the dad to cut in front of the irate guy to get out of the way.   The nutjob blamed the dad for it all, because of course it couldn't be his fault for starting the whole mess by driving slow in the fast lane. 

 

At some point, when the nut realized everyone was ignoring his public temper tantrum he started going after me.   I was closest, and I was keeping an eye on him in case he swung at the dad holding the baby.    He accused me of being homeless and a drug user and that the country is going to Hell.   I just sighed and kept an eye on him.   He kept pestering, saying worse and worse things, until I finally snapped and yelled,  "Dude ! I'm just bike touring F$@k off!"    He then tried to pearl clutch about How Dare I say the f word in front of women and children in the parking lot.    I laughed, "Like you care about them,  you've been scaring everyone since you got here!"   

 

He got even more angry at the pushback and hurled more insults at me.     So I changed course, and using a loud but calm voice,  I cut him off saying "dude,  life is too short to be so angry.  How about you try being Happy?".   I'd used an exasperated,  calm,  sincere,  caring,  tone.  I remember the onlookers swiveling their heads back and forth like it was a tennis match between us and a few cocked their heads at me when I made that switch.  I made a surprise move I guess.  

 

My switch in tone got him to stop escalating.   He was still grumbling and angry and throwing insults at me but at a much lower volume.   I actually chuckled to myself when he called me stupid looking in my snoopy-ear hat (funny! and true!)   Maybe he realized he wasn't going to get the confrontation he wanted, so he left.   Didn't even peel out like I expected, but probably because his sh!tbox couldn't do a burnout.      The others in the parking lot looked at me after he left.   I shrugged, with my hands lifted halfway up and went back to packing up my bike.   People realized the show was over and moved on.

 

After he left, the father with the 1 year old came back out,  I told him I didn't think he'd done anything wrong.  It had rattled him.  I explained that the nutjob  had started calling me a druggie and homeless after he'd gone inside.   He either had mental health issues or he was trying to get a reaction that he could record and post on Tik Tok to make money.   I suspect the latter.   It was too calculated.   

 

If you google the question "why are people rage baiting in public now?"    It's a trend sadly.     The jerks have figured out how to make money verbally abusing strangers in public, while causing the scene that makes their victims look bad online.   What a world.  

 

I think the dad felt better after hearing he was a jerk to me too.    We talked about my trip for a minute and then they left.  I told him that I hoped that was the last lunatic he had to deal with today, which got a laugh.   The baby boy laughed copying his dad.   A nice baby giggle.  That's what I'll focus on remembering from the incident.   He was a cutie.   The whole thing must have been scary for the little guy, but he didn't cry.   Brave little dude. 

 

Anyhoo, enough of that,  the jerk-wad at the gas pump doesn't deserve to be a highlight.   Good or Bad.   He didn't ruin my trip in the slightest.   If anything, I feel sad for him.    Pathetic, manipulative behavior on his part.   Just a sad loser wasting his life.    Being nice to people is far more satisfying and rewarding.

 

So..... back to my biking adventure!

 

Before leaving the store,  I did throw out my bluetooth keyboard and khaki pants I wear to keep the sun off my legs.   It probably saved me at least a pound and a half.  Maybe more when the pants were soaked with my sweat.

 

Anyway, after the store, it was an uneventful 16 mile bike ride to the swimming hole spot.    The river water was bright green, so I didn't jump in.    I just wet my microfiber rag, and wiped the worst of the dirt off my skin.   I also did a bucket rinse/wash of my riding clothes from yesterday.    I scooped some water to filter drinking water too.   In my clear filter bag, the water looked far more clear.   I reapplied sunscreen and butt butt'r lotion and pedaled on.

 

My cover shorts got wet as I washed up, so I strapped them to the front of the bike to dry out.  I'm just wearing the skin tight padded cycling shorts as I pedal on, but they look like normal biker shorts, even though they're technically more like padded underwear.  I have figured out that wet clothes dry fastest on the front of the bike.   Makes sense.  More sun and wind up front.   I'm drying out my riding shirt on the back, but it's a lighter material that dries quickly.   I have my thin wool cycling socks for tomorrow on the side of the front food bag.

 

I'm now doing a four mile long climb with 1000 feet of elevation gain.    It'll be the last big climb of the day.    I have four or five shorter climbs after that but none are more than 200-300 feet.   I love how I can look ahead to see what climbs are coming using my bike computer; it's also telling me it'll take me three hours to get to camp.   Fingers crossed,  it's accurate.    It has my biking history, but with the loaded bike I'm going slower uphill and faster downhill than normal.  It throws off the estimates.

 

Back at the swimming hole I noticed that my left biking shoe's cleat was getting loose when I was putting my shoes back on.   I need to get in the habit of checking stuff like that once a day.   The bolts on the racks too.   I don't want to lose a cleat; it affects how strong I can pedal.   

I did air down the tires more and it's helping .   One of the problems I have is there's a lot of weight on the front tire with how I have the bike loaded (as you're supposed to do).  So when I stand up to pedal short steep sections, the rear wheel skids.    After airing down the front tire more, there's traction when I stand up to pedal now.   

 

I should also point out it's too humid for my long pants and arm sleeves, so I'm just using sunscreen.   In a hot dry climate, the sleeves and pants would help, but not here with the humidity.   The sweat doesn't dry off, making me hotter.  I'm carrying the sunscreen anyway so might as well use it.   I'm not throwing out the arm sleeves; they're nice in the morning when it's cold, but not cold enough to wear my goretex jacket on the early morning climbs.  Oh well, time to stop yapping, and focus on climbing.   I need to get to camp before it gets dark 

 

7p.m.   

 

I'm about 5 miles from where I can camp. I have cell signal so the voice dictation actually works pretty well. I think the one thing I keep thinking but don't want to jinx by saying it out loud is that I'm feeling super thankful how relatively good my body feels right now.   I started biking at 7:30 this morning and I go until 7:30 at night and my knees and back are fine.   Yes, my muscles get tired as you would expect, but at 54, I feel pretty damn lucky my body is cooperating with this sort of adventure.  

 

And I'm happy to report my butt is fine today.  I was worried I might have rubbed something raw when I tried to adjust the seat fore/aft position yesterday.    I was worried it would just keep getting worse, but it actually got better as the day progressed.   Weird!   Anyway, enough for now.  I still have about 700 feet to climb, the bike computer says I'll be there about 5 minutes before Sunset.   Gives me time to clean up a little, set up the tent, inhale some food, and climb into bed.   But overall a damn good day