Adirondack Rail Trail Tupper Lake to Lake Placid

 Wednesday Morning sept 24th

I woke up after 6, but stayed in bed until 7a.m. so I didn't wake the neighbors.    They didn't keep me up, so I wanted to be respectful and not make any noise before 7.

At 7a.m., I did the walk of shame to the bathroom.   Remembering to lock the truck first and I threw my tablet and phone into the safe in the back of the truck before going to the bathroom.   I feel like it's those "I'll only be gone a minute" moments where you get robbed.   

Anyhoo, at the bathroom, I dumped the contents of my 1.25 gallon/4.7liter waste water jug down the toilet and did my business.    I have a large funnel for the jug so after doing dishes I pour the dirty water into that, and if needed, I'll empty my 1 liter pee jug into the bigger jug to avoid an extra trip to the bathroom.    I usually only have to dump the big jug once a day, pretty convenient.    Camping is easier for guys in that respect.  Sorry ladies.    I don't have to walk into the woods or to the bathroom every time I need to pee.  Nice!

 For breakfast, as mentioned in the previous blog,  I reheated some peanut protein oatmeal, and drank a protein shake.    Then it was time to add the bags to the bike and ride up rt 30 to the rail trail from the campground.

 Following the route on my bike computer it was ~7 miles up rt 30 before I could get on the rail trail, but rt 30 is marked as a bike route per NYS.   the shoulder narrows to just 1 foot wide a lot and the shoulder is pretty rough at times too.   Thankfully, it wasn't too long for the temps to get above 50F/10C so I could start taking layers off, but it was chilly for the first hour or two of pedaling.   I had my wool cycling cap that covers my ears and a short brim to keep the sun out of my eyes.  I also had my cold weather, full fingered biking gloves too; they're for cool temps, not freezing.

 It wasn't full leaf season yet, but close to peak.   The leaves along the trail were pretty.  There were so many old farts out biking though.    Like a lot.

The ratio was easily 10:1 ,   over 50 somethings vs 20-30 year olds .     Normally when I go biking, it's the opposite.

I have to admit, I find rail trails kind of boring after awhile.    The quiet is nice, but rail trails are flat,  straight, and there were a ton of other riders.   Still, the scenery was nice.   I have so many photos of pretty lakes and ponds I didn't take any shots of that.     Just a few interesting trail shots.    I took a couple shots of the olympics buildings in Lake Placid too, because there's an ironman Rouvy route I ride on my indoor bike trainer that goes by those buildings; fun to see them in person. 

 I got a beer and burger in Lake Placid  (I still indulge in meat 1-2 times a month).    I did have to bike up a steep hill or two to get to the little brewpub to get to downtown Lake Placid, but it was worth the effort for better food options.    I also liked the lane markers on the lake in town.   For scull racing I'm guessing; you'll have to enlarge the photo see the markers.

 

 Some of the bridges were impressive on the rail trail too.     Snowmobilers pay for it all.  I bet at some point they'll have to charge cyclists too.   Seems fair.

 After getting back to my truck camper at Fish Creek, I had the same evening routine I described in my previous blog, but before dinner and a campfire, I biked down to the showers building while wearing my ugly bright green crocs.   Got a few odd looks but some smiles and waves too.   Life is more fun when you stop caring what other people think.

 

Thursday... 

Slept better.

I was quicker getting ready to make sure I had enough time to bike to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake to meet my parents and older sister.     I left at 8:30 almost an hour earlier than the day before. 

In the morning it was foggy on rt 30, but it cleared up after getting away from the ponds.   On Rt30 and Rt3, it was about 10 miles to get to the big i at the bottom of the map.  Took me about an hour.   The i is the Wild Center at Tupper Lake.

 

After my sister and I saw all the Trolls at the Wild Center, I biked over to Raquette River Brewing, while my sister went off to find my parents to drive them over.     They'd only need 5 minutes to drive there, but I needed at least 20 minutes to bike, so I needed the head start.   We timed it well.   I got there before them, ordered a beer, and I sat for maybe 5 minutes at most before they arrived.   We had a nice lunch together, said our goodbyes, and I biked to the nearby rail trail to bike back to Fish Creek Ponds Campground.   

On the map above, the red/white trail is the rail trail, looping back to Fish Creek 

 Sadly you do have to go a little out of the way to get back to the campground, there's no way to cut across the water when you get far enough North.   C'est La Vie.   More biking, not complaining!   But it did add another 6 miles of road biking.      I only did 36 miles total Thursday.   16 on the trail, 20 on the road.

 Having done all the rail trail, I will say the first day's ride was more scenic, and had more food options.   So if you don't have time to do it all.  I'd recommend just doing between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid if time is limited.     Also, I think heading from Saranac to Lake Placid, you're going up hill more, but wind is usually coming from the West.   Balances things out.

Plenty of food options along the way, I can see why it's so popular with people.   Very safe to ride, good road crossings.    Very little road noise most of the ride.

Photos from day 2  

 

2026 late September Fish Creek Ponds camping

I drove up to Fish Creek Ponds Campground after getting my semi-annual skin check Tuesday morning at the dermatologist.   All clear, yay!   My dorky sun hat and arm sleeves ftw!   I think after one more year, I can just get a skin check annually, if I don't have any more skin cancer spots found.   I do use Sunscreen on my face, but I keep covered otherwise.   Lightweight upf coverings work better than sunscreen imho,  sunscreen sweats off too easy, and it makes cleaning up at the end of the day harder.   From my VTXL rides, if you remember my filthy leg photos, I'm pretty sure the dirt stuck to my legs because of the sunscreen I put on.  

Anyway, back to camping.

As expected, lots of us old farts camping at Fish Creek.    Reminded me of the old Simpson's episode, "Wild Barts Can't be Broken".   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3-Nm7mXg2I

It's the episode where the old folks in the retirement home get annoyed with the noise in town waking them up all the time, so they somehow win a ballot initiative to put a ridiculously early curfew on everyone < 70.   With the curfew in place,  the old farts have a great time partying in town while everyone else was stuck at home.    Not a huge Simpsons fan, but that episode just stuck in my mind.   Anyway, that's what Fish Creek feels like after kids go back to school, especially Monday-Friday.

I picked site 109, which during the Summer would be a horrible campsite because it's right by the playground area, but I took a guess that with kids in school it would be quiet and give me more space to myself.  I was correct!    I also didn't bother getting a waterfront site.  I knew I'd be off biking/hiking during the day, so why waste the money for a more expensive site that's just colder at night anyway.

I've developed a good dinner/evening routine when camping solo with the truck.    Before heating up dinner, I setup the solo stove, pour in some wood pellets, spritz some charcoal lighter fluid on the pellets, light it, and put the UFO, heat deflector dish on top.   I don't have to mess with it again, the fire builds on its own.  

Also, I've learned adding less pellets works far better.   Make a ski slope of pellets inside the solostove leaving some of the bottom vent plate uncovered, and the pellets burn great!   Nice big flames and you can add more pellets/wood later.   Just keep some of the bottom air vents uncovered.

It only takes a couple minutes to start the fire, and because it's all self-contained, I can just walk off to the truck to fish out food from the fridge, reheat it, and set up my camp chair by the stove to eat dinner.     It usually takes about 20-30 minutes for the fire to really start throwing heat, but I eat early, around 5-5:30, so it's not that cold out yet.   I usually have plenty of time to eat and do dishes before having to mess with the fire again.   I often eat by the tailgate, because the solostove is a little smoky at first.

I also bought some bags of firewood from the nearby store across the road from the campground.  Be Warned.  they charge a lot  Nearly $10/bag.  Almost twice what everyone else charges, but with gas prices I didn't feel it was worth driving around to find cheaper firewood.

I also brought my 42" long fire tongs for tending the fire and I've figured out a way to use them for lifting the UFO dish off the top when I need to move things around inside the fire.   I'll have to make a short video someday to show off my technique.   It's very safe IMHO.   I put the tongs under the lid parallel to the ground, holding the tongs' metal lengths halfway down each bar, squat down, keep the tongs in an open X shape and carefully stand up, lifting up the UFO as I stand up.    As I lift the UFO, the ends of the tong handles push up under my forearms, counterbalancing the UFO lid.   Like I said, a video is probably needed.   You do need to be able to squat though, so my technique won't work for everyone.    They make a handle you can attach to the middle of the UFO dish, but it must get super hot.   I'd rather not risk lifting it that way

 

Anyhoo, after dinner and dishes, I just tend the fire until 8-9p.m. while I sit in my camp chair reading or watching tv/movies on my tablet.    I have a little folding camp stool to put my legs up on too.   The heat from the fire keeps my feet and lower legs toasty.   

Before bed,  I remove the UFO dish one last time via my squat technique, add an ember shield over the top of the stove, and put the heat deflector back on.     With the ember shield in place, I can safely let the fire burn itself out overnight.     There's so little ash left the next day just letting it burn everything down inside.      Also, you CANNOT pour water into the solo stove to put the fire out.   it would shatter/warp the metal.   I'd have to somehow dump the fire/coals out of the stove before dousing the burning wood/coals with water.    DANGEROUS.     

Anyway.    I flossed, used my portable water pik, and brushed my teeth and off to bed.  I also had my dental cleaning the day before (monday).   The hygienist was very happy, so my nighttime routine is worth it, but I don't bring the waterpik bikepacking.    When I'm cleaning my teeth before bed, I often wonder if nearby campers wonder what the weird noises are (electric toothbrush and waterpik).  LOL    Away from the fire, standing by the tailgate it felt chilly for September.    It got down to 33F just before dawn, but most of the evening was in the 40's, 1-6C for my european friends.    40's makes for good sleeping weather.

First night I tried wearing just my thick flannel over a T shirt with my separate synthetic down hat/hoodie, but it was a tad chilly if I'm honest.      This hoodie  

 

Usually,  I sort of sleep on my stomach or side but I often push one arm above my head as I sleep.  I refer to it as sleeping "superman style", like I'm flying.    

 

 So my one arm sticking out from under the quilt with just the flannel covering my arm would get too cold and wake me up.   After waking up, I'd pull my arm back under the toasty quilt (the quilt is comfort rated down to 20F/-6.6C), but as I slept, I'd move an arm back up to the  Superman flight pose and I'd wake up in an hour or two.   I don't push the arm straight out, it sort of wraps around the top of my head, but you get the idea.  I also wear wool gloves when I sleep, so my hands stay warm; it was just the arm getting cold.

 I brought a cheap down jacket too, so the next 2 nights I wore that over the flannel and slept much better.     The downside of the down jacket's hood is that it's quite loose, and because it's a cheap jacket, it doesn't have cinch cords to tighten up the hood around my face/head.     The hood doesn't stay in place well while sleeping.   Slips right off my head making it useless.    But I also brought my new, home made ear muff cover gadget.    I used some parts from making duffel bags and some 1" wide elastic webbing I got off Amazon that has silicone grip material on it.    I sewed the d rings to some black webbing.    Riveted the strap assembly to the ear muff, and sewed on the elastic webbing to keep it on my head.

 

It was far more comfortable to wear the single ear muff while I slept.    I normally don't toss/turn much after I fall asleep.    So leaving it over my left ear wasn't an issue.   Sometimes I wake up just before dawn feeling the need to roll to my other side, so I just move the ear muff to the other ear.   I usually have to add an eye mask at that point due to the dawn waking me up too.  If I'm lucky I get 1 more hour of sleep.

I fully admit, it sort of looks like I made a weird jock strap for my head, but it's far more comfy than the original metal head band it came with.   Combined with some soft foam ear plugs, I fell asleep super easy.   There were some noisy loons on the pond, and the added ear muff completely blocked out the racket they were making; it also kept the loose hood of the down jacket on my head too, so my head was kept warm.   Win Win.    For cool weather bike touring, I think i'm bringing the down jacket now and leaving the separate hoodie at home.   The down jacket is loose now that I've lost so much weight, but it packs small and keeps me warm down to 32F/0C with another layer or two under it.

 

The white straps were so much more comfortable than the original metal head band.   When I used it with the headband, I'd always wake up having pushed the ear muff off while sleeping.   The metal band did kind of squeeze my skull, not enough to prevent falling asleep, but uncomfortable enough I'm sure that's why I'd push it off while sleeping.

 

 

In the morning, I got up and made myself a protein smoothie (with a NutriBullet I keep in the truck), and I reheated some pre-made oatmeal I had in the Dometic fridge.   The last day, I splurged and made some pancakes before my hike up blue mt.   More on that later.

At home, I made oatmeal per this recipe before heading out.    Also the day before leaving for Fish Creek, I cooked some indian red lentil dal, mexican lentil soup, and Italian lentil meatballs with carbe diem pasta.   A lentil bonanza!.      Lentils are great sources of potassium and magnesium.   Good source of fiber, carbs and proteins too.    

It's nice being able to go hike or bike all day knowing I have yummy food ready at the truck and I just have to zap it 3-4 minutes before I can pig out.   I know lentils don't sound appetizing to most people, but I spice the bejeezus out of my food, to the point I find normal recipes kind of blah.    Very bland.   Sadly, I think that's a Vegan thing.     I'm not vegan, mostly vegetarian.   But you start to crave plant based food by spicing it more, if that makes sense.   And I don't necessarily mean hot spicy, I mean flavor spice.    I often add 2x the suggested amounts on recipes.

Anyway, I'm going to do separate posts on the biking, hiking, and Tupper Wild Center Trolls.

 

 

 

 

Next year's bike trip (maybe)

I'm thinking of doing the northern route next year.    It actually has less climbing overall than what I just did in Vermont.    25,000ft of climbing spread out over 3,765 miles vs the 30,000ft of climbing I just did over just 300 miles through Vermont.

I'm leaning towards leaving mid May and heading West.  I'd get more of the trip done before the scorching hot late July/August months.     I'd also edit the route to start in Mass, not Maine.

If I started from the West in Washington State,  I'd I have to wait until mid June for the snow to be clear of the mountain passes.  

 https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48699094

https://ridewithgps.com/clubs/562-new-england-randonneurs/routes?

 

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

My collection of the VTXL ride

https://ridewithgps.com/collections/11401638?privacy_code=zW2gIbpp29g9PxBeelMkuBEa4v7ztdac 

 

 

 

 

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.