Bike Touring Kit (Part 2)

Titanium camping gear might be light but at least it's expensive. This little piece of kit, two pots and two frying pan/lids set me back about a hundred bucks 10 years ago. I will admit, it's lighter than a pound of feathers but, considering how little I generally care about weight on my touring bike, it's not something I would pay extra for now that I'm no longer a taker-teacher sucking at the public teat but a taker-retiree living on a state pension. And a pound of feathers might be about as useful.

Nice non-stick pans that I only really use for boiling water or for eating out of.

These two Snow Peak items in mesh are well disguised. I'm being coy for a reason: embarrassment perhaps? The other item isn't titanium and weighs more than double the two titanium pieces.

So, there you have it: titanium double-walled mug, titanium coffee press [sic], and an acrylic imperial pint glass (never mind what the beers weigh). Also, Mug+ press: $100.

This is what I used to do for camp coffee, a cute little mini espresso maker with it's darling enamel camp cup (watch included for perspective). This whole setup weighs about as much as my entire titanium collection.

And last but least: titanium silverware. Pretty unnecessary, but what else am I gonna spend $20 on? The spoon is handy for making black and tans in my acrylic pint glass.

The whole titanium kit & caboodle weighs in at about one pound.

By comparison, my new camp chair weighs about two pounds. Thank the gods I have all that titanium so I can splurge on a camp chair.

Bike Touring Kit (Part 1)

This 25-year-old MSR Internationale 600 stove is perhaps my most important piece of camping gear besides my tent. It runs on white gas, regular old unleaded gasoline and, if you find yourself pedaling through Uzbekistan or West Virginia, kerosene. It's completely field serviceable and I've taken it completely apart to clean it. Simple and reliable. I only use it about once, or at best twice, a year but it never fails me. Well, that's not entirely true. During my 2013 trip from Pittsburg to D.C., somewhere along the 190 mile  Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park, my plunger and pump failed. Luckily, it was only the leather pump cup (see below from image I stole from the internets) that needed replacing. It had dried out over the years because of my negligence, and even the supplied pump cup oil couldn't revive it. I pulled out a spare from the parts kit, oiled it up, and I was back in the business of making our morning coffee. About all I use the stove for is heating water for coffee and for quick boiled meals (Chinese noodles or those wonderful indian meals in boilable bags). I often joke that my only reason for camping is the morning coffee.

No, that is not a bottle of beer keeping cool in my lower water bottle cage, ...

...it's my 11-ounce MSR fuel bottle, nicely disguised and protected from the elements.

I'm a little out of practice (I let a little too much fuel into the priming cup and so had to contend with too much flame and carbon soot to clean up).

But, after a little sputtering, I got a nice purple-blue flame and feel it's ready for July's trip.

Iowabama

Let me see, how to tie my new t-shirt (gift from Patty) to this blog? Perhaps, a touring T for the Vermont bike tour in July. Iowa just passed the nation's most restrictive and clearly, for now anyway, unconstitutional anti-choice legislation. The Troglodyte Iowa GOP, who hate women of all kinds (except perhaps The Dark Pence's wife, Ofmike) no doubt hope to provoke a Supreme Court challenge to this 1950's law.

Bike Touring by Train: The Vermonter

The Vermonter, which runs daily between St. Albans, Vermont and Washington's Union Station.

This will be my third bike tour using trains to get there and back, for at least part of the journey. In 2013, my biking partner Pat and I took the Capitol Limited to Pittsburg back from Washington, D.C., after riding 300+ miles on the Great Allegheny Passage and the C.&O. Canal towpath trails from Pittsburg to Washington.

Somewhere along the C&O Canal towpath, May 2013. The trail was quite rough in spots, with protruding rocks and tree trunks, a condition exacerbated by the park closures caused by Republicans (who else?).

Somewhere along the Great Allegheny Passage trail, probably in Ohio, May 2013.

The second such tour happened in 2014, when Pat and I rode the Empire Builder from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Portland, Oregon and back for a week-long 500-mile tour. That trip included a trip down the Oregon coast, a haul over the mountains from Florence to Eugene, and a return to Portland up the Willamette Valley. Both times we were required to take off our pedals and bags, turn our handlebars 90 degrees, and box up our bikes. That has all changed as Amtrak now allows roll-on service on nearly all of its routes. And I must say, the Empire Builder, which shares the track with freight trains, was quite late both out and back as we people had to give the right-of-way to cargo. Ain't capitalism great?

After arriving in Portland, Oregon, we waited a couple hours for the bus to Astoria, on the very northernmost coast, to begin our tour the next morning.

One of the $5/night hiker-biker campgrounds that dot the Oregon Coast. We were the only campers that night. The jam-packed RV campground next door (where we showered) was luckily out of earshot, especially with the sounds of crashing waves that lulled us to sleep.

During our trip from Florence to Eugene, about a 90 mile day, before we hit the mountain climbs.

This trip, we'll board the train in Galesburg, Illinois (my buddy Dean lives in Bettendorf, an hour north)  and switch to the Capitol Limited at Chicago's Union Station. We'll spend an overnight in Washington, staying with relatives in Bethesda, Maryland. Then, the next morning early, we'll ride back down to Union Station, hang our bikes in separate cars on the Vermonter (one bike allowed per passenger car for a total of three per train), and enjoy the 12-hour+ ride to Essex Junction (Burlington). I hope to get a lot of reading in on this trip.



The return trip will be on the Vermonter to Springfield, Massachusetts, where we switch to the overnight Lake Shore Limited into Chicago.

We did spring for business-class seats and sleeper cars for our overnight legs. An admitted acquiescence to age.

Vermont Bicycle Tour 2018

Returning to my old stomping grounds for a little bike tour in July. I haven't biked in Vermont since attending Middlebury College in the 1980s. Some killer hills going east-west over the Green Mountains. The loop we're taking starts and ends in Burlington, with forays into Quebec, New Hampshire, and New York. About 400 miles spread out over a leisurely seven days. We'll mostly be camping but for two nights. This nerdy post is mostly about my infatuation with the new Adventure Cycling Route Navigator App that allows you to navigate all their routes with your phone and Google Maps.

This is the overview from Adventure Cycling. I bought the detailed map set, but their new app renders that somewhat obsolete.

The app, which works on a phone or a tablet, shows campgrounds, cities, hotels and B&Bs. bike shops, grocery stores, etc. This can be turned on or off as needed. Above, I have only campgrounds showing for less clutter.

You can also select two points on the map, mark them with the green and red push pins at beginning and end. Then you can get an elevation gain profile and distance, helpful for the lazy hoping to avoid a mountain or two.

Clicking on an icon brings up a tag with a name and distance from the route, in this case, a bike shop.

Clicking on the tab brings up a map, address, a phone number, and a link to dial it.