Non bike notes

Frank is letting me write in his blog (whoo hoo!) so I thought I'd take advantage of it. :-)  I have a few notes on my non bike list of things to consider for the next trip. If you backpack, our lists should sound very familiar. Here we go:

With only one set of maps, we'll copy them for the other person to have and follow. Frank has the originals but I miss having a set of my own

Bring state maps along, maybe with appropriate sections cut out. Sometimes we don't know where we are in the grand scheme of things.

Bring my foldable backpacking bucket for washing clothes

Ova Easy egg crystals, instant eggs! Thanks Evelyn!

Binoculars!

We've had trouble finding dehydrated vegetables in the stores, so for the next trip I will dehydrate more vegetables (hopefully from our garden) along with cooked tuna, chicken, and will try dehydrating cooked hamburger.

Lastly, we're considering bringing a back up stove. Does that sound familiar, Leilani? ;-) Each would have different fuel--one solid fuel, one canister or an International Whisper lite which uses white, car or kerosene gas

Next bikes - wish list

Both of us are riding bikes that have been modified for touring. We're ready to make the jump to dedicated touring bikes. So, here's stuff we'd change.

Correct bike fit: 

Trudy's bike is a men's frame, so she may be a little more stretched out and lower than optimum for touring. Maybe flat bars? She doesn't ride in the drops much at all.

My bike is a 'cross bike, so the frame angles are for quicker handling. I want more neutral handling and a more upright riding position.

Front rack and panniers for me. As much for organizing stuff as for weight distribution. There's stuff like cold weather clothing that I've only used two or three times that takes up room.

A bigger gear range for Trudy. Mine's a pretty standard mountain bike set up with a triple up front and works well for me. I don't know the numbers, though.

Disc brakes. 

Pedal choice?

Internal cables to solve problems with handlebar bags?

Maybe couplers to make shipping bikes easier.

Bike stuff- repairs

Here's the stuff we've fixed, so far:

Me:

3 flats, two from road wire & one defective valve (it happened at a bike shop, so one new tube!)

Right cleat got loose, so I stuck it back on with some Locktite and it hasn't moved. It did get me thinking about pedal / cleat choices. If I'd lost the cleat, I'd be pedaling with one leg for oh, 2000 miles.

I bought another water bottle and cage, so I could redistribute weight and have water easier to reach.

Trudy:

Replaced both tires in Fresno - she had some miles on them already when we started.

Moved her handlebar bag to rear rack. We thought it might be affecting her shifting because it pushed down on the cable housings.

Both:

We've both had our derailleurs adjusted.

We've lubbed the chains, but don't have a way to clean them.

Day 56 - relaxing layover day at Big Bear Lake! 10/2/15, Friday

No hills to climb!

Trudy's note:  we had a very leisurely morning, breakfast, organized stuff, then walked down to the much lower and smaller lake and sat, relaxed, read for a couple of hours. Frank did his blog and I napped. A well deserved day off! Frank then volunteered ro ride 2 miles (4 r/t) to buy chips, bean dip, a beer and wine. What a guy!

Day 55 - Crestline to Big Bear Lake, 10/1/15

34 miles, 3857 up

By now, you may be thinking: "that Frank, every day he writes about the same distance, the same elevation gain, has a photo of some distant mountains and a picture of Trudy riding up some steep hill - the bum is probably sitting at home, making this stuff up!"

Not so!

We're sitting at a picnic table at Big Bear Lake right now, pecking away at our phones - 6000 ft elevation here, so 38 degrees tonight (long johns on already!), having a glass of wine...

We seem to be gaining 1000 ft or so every 10 miles, so we must be going downhill sometimes... The trouble is the downhills go by so quickly and the uphill so slowly! Sigh!

You may have also noticed that I started adding the date and day of the week. That's for me, thanks! It's all becoming sort of a blur... Get up, make breakfast, pack up, ride bike about 50 miles through beautiful countryside, meet interesting people, find place to stay, drink beer & eat bag of chips, set up camp & eat dinner, go to bed when it gets dark (read and/or blog), sleep, repeat. What a lifestyle!

Anyway, here's today!

We stayed last night in a hotel near Gregory Lake in Crestline. It was a really nice place with more pillows on the bed than there was bed. 

The climb from the lake to the highway was a... No polite words...

Anyway, we got to our route and were scratching our heads because the highway signs seemed to point 3 directions... A local bike rider came to the rescue!

We rode along the "Rim of the World" highway and it was... Beautiful!

We spent a bit of time debating where in the great state of CA we were... Our maps give us a small window on the world - that's San Bernadino below and Ontario airport way to the right- you see that, don't you?

Here's the mountain range from above for the day... I have to say that now, when I see a road off in the distance to the south, I think I may be riding on it soon.

See that tiny white line? That's our road?

So, here's the road ahead - level or slightly downhill... Optimism prevails!

No shots of Trudy tackling yet another hill - every time I looked, she had big ****** grin!

Day 54 - Wrightwood to Crestline - 9/30/15, Wednesday

33 miles, 2914 up

We wanted to make it a short day today because we're planning a layover day at Big Bear Lake tomorrow and 70 miles was too far to ride with a lot of climbing.

It turned into a short day with really tough climbs at the end.

The downhill in the morning was nice!

Some strange rock formation along the way.

Then, we passed this... It was big and noisy - we haven't seen anything like it in quite a while. Interstate 15.

Silverwood Lake

Trudy's tired of climbs like this!

We're staying in a hotel tonight because the campground was closed for the season.

Day 53 - onward, to Wrightwood - 9/29/15, Tuesday

47 miles, 5872 up

We weren't finished with the hill yet.

37 miles into the climb, we ran into this.

No alternate routes - we could A: go back to Palmdale (84 miles), then figure out another route B: return to a place where we could descend to L.A. and figure something out from there... Or C: duck under the gate and hope we could ride to Wrightwood, about 20 miles!

So, we had the highway to ourselves for about 10 miles.

We were down there two days ago.

We finally made it to the top.

Lunch!

The views are really good from here!

Onward, and downhill to Wrightwood!