{"id":58,"date":"2009-04-20T21:42:10","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T01:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/?p=58"},"modified":"2013-12-16T16:31:57","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T20:31:58","slug":"trial-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"Trial Run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"All<\/a>

All Loaded Up For The First Time<\/p><\/div>\n

This weekend we loaded up our bikes for the first time with the gear we plan to use on our cape trip and had a trial run. This was our chance to evaluate lightweight hammock shelters, bike packing techniques, and our ability to achieve the required distances.\u00a0 It was a successful and enjoyable weekend, but not without challenges …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I packed my panniers with extra clothes, a bag of toiletries, my usual assortment of spare gloves, and the contents of my pants pockets.\u00a0\u00a0A hammock shelter and my sleeping bag were strapped to the top of my rack. Isaac carried his winter sleeping bag, a hammock, and a sack of extra clothes. Clear plastic bags worked well to bundle items and provide rain protection while bungee cords and ratcheting tie downs held it all together. The good news was that with a little creativity, the narrow rear racks hold a lot of gear! The bad news, and lesson 1 of the weekend for me, was that the weight of all that stuff adds up fast. Once we packed up, my bike nearly required two hands to get the rear wheel off the ground. Isaac’s was onnly marginally better.We rolled out mid-day on Saturday destined for a campground in New Boston, NH.\u00a0 Overlooking some apprehension regarding the effect of the weight of our load and Isaac’s limited time in the saddle, I was excited for the ride<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Screwed\"<\/a>

Screwed<\/p><\/div>\n

The duration of this excitement was not to exceed two miles at which time we picked up a screw with Isaac’s rear tire. As I’ve misplaced my tire levers, the flat tire plan had been reduced to returning home or calling for help for this weekend’s adventure. Feeling more than a bit sheepish about the haste with which our first breakdown was precipitated, we turned back and headed straight to the bike shop<\/a> for a quick fix to get rolling again.\u00a0 They were graciously helpful and two hours later we made our second start. We were slightly more seasoned and significantly more determined. That attitude came in handy when the final third of our ride turned out to be climbing through rural foothills. We encountered a few miles of dirt road and a very appropriately named “Purgatory Road” ! The entire route added up to over 1000ft of climbing, mitigated by 700ft of descent, and gave rise to lesson 2: include topography in all route planning<\/em>. Still, we persevered, and were rewarded at dusk with a campsite full of friends.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our First Hammock Setup<\/p><\/div>\n

At the campground, experimentation went much smoother. The lightweight Hennessey Hammock shelters went up successfully in the dark on the first try. My tree-securing knots held steady for two nights and the fly held off a light midnight rain. Entering and exiting the hammock is convenient and the asymmetric sleeping position of these hammocks is much easier on the back than a traditional design. As anticipated, the elevated position removes the insulation of the ground. In the cool evenings, plastic coverings and additional sleeping bags were required to stay warm. Lesson 3, for our final packing list, is to ensure we are adequatley prepared for nighttime temperatures in the hammock<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A memorable weekend.\u00a0 Can’t wait for the pain in my quads to subside enough to hop back on the bike :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend we loaded up our bikes for the first time with the gear we plan to use on our cape trip and had a trial run. This was our chance to evaluate lightweight hammock shelters, bike packing techniques, and our ability to achieve the required distances.\u00a0 It was a successful and enjoyable weekend, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devonfernandez.com\/bike09\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}