Category Archives: Camping

Bikepacking – Misquamicut Route

Instead of being conservative for our first-ever touring trip, we went all-in with a very aggressive route.  We wanted to do something fun, and our first thought was a day on the beach – so we decided to ride to/from Misquamicut State Beach in Westerly, RI.  To break up the ride and allow ourselves as much time at the beach as possible on Saturday, we reserved a campsite at Wilderness Lake Campground in Willington, CT for Friday night.  The original plan was to leave Hartland around 2pm, but we were late – partly due to work that day, but also because it took us much longer than anticipated to pack everything (and worrying that we were forgetting something).  Once we were finally ready to leave the house at 4pm, we weighed our bikes… mine was roughly 83lbs and Rachel’s was 70lbs… next time we’ll distribute the weight more fairly (good for Rachel, bad for me).Route map 2.1Day 1: West Hartland, CT to Willington, CT (~55 miles)
4pm-9:30pm, 30 min rest – 5 hrs riding

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Gearing up…

Bike Setups:

  • Rachel’s
    • 2014 Surly Disc Trucker
    • Planet Bike ATB Cascadia Fenders
    • Blackburn Outpost Front World Touring  Rack
    • Blackburn Outpost Rear World Touring  Rack
    • Arkel GT-18 (Front) Panniers
    • Arkel Dry-Lites (Rear) Panniers
    • Shimano PD-A530 Pedals
    • Forté Contour XFC Women’s Saddle

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  • Chris’s
    • 2014 Specialized AWOL Comp
    • SKS P50 Chromoplastic Longboard Fenders
    • Blackburn Outpost Front World Touring  Rack
    • Blackburn Outpost Rear World Touring  Rack
    • Arkel XM-28 (Front) Panniers
    • Arkel XM-45 (Rear) Panniers
    • Arkel Tailrider Trunk Bag
    • Shimano PD-A600 Pedals

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Casey’s bachelor party

IMG_0004I’m sure it’s no surprise that I brought my usual games – cornhole, polish horseshoes, and giant jenga.  I’d say it was cornhole or giant jenga that got the most attention, but Casey, Corey, Jaime and I had a great game of polish horseshoes Saturday afternoon.  You can see most of our site in these pictures, also.  It was perfect for our group… plenty of space so that every person could have their own tent, and then still enough room for games and a bunch of cars.  We even had our own water spicket and a huge fire pit!IMG_0007After scavenging for some firewood the first night to supplement the small amount of firewood we purchased from the campground (which wasn’t a very good deal per usual), which turned out to be super wet.  With that wood, our fire the first night wasn’t very awesome.  On the second night though, we got creative for our source of firewood.  One way was to drop a few trees near our site, one of which you can see me working on below.  It was so tough to get down, though, that I had to use my 3rd arm!

IMG_0010As a result, the fire the 2nd night was much more exciting.  We had fun melting plenty of beer cans and even some bottles.  And we had some near-empty citronella candles which provided some very high flames.  This picture below was funny because Casey had fallen asleep, and then we got the fire huge and he was still sleeping for a while despite being so close.  At one point, he was sleeping and Jaime lit up a small firework and dropped it directly underneath his chair.  When that went off he was startled and jumped up instantly… we were lucky he didn’t jump into the fire.  Everyone else got a good laugh at least, though.IMG_0012Unfortunately, there were no pictures taken rafting – but as you can see below it was very tiring!!  Casey’s shirt was compliments of Charity & Cameron, and he wore it all weekend.IMG_0014All in all, I think the party was a success.  Definitely not as glamorous as Julie’s, but I really think everyone enjoyed themselves.  It was just nice to get everyone together to hang out and have some fun.

Turn Down for What?

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Best buddies:
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Max thought he was being artsy taking pictures with his rad camera, but I was being even artsier, taking pictures of him taking pictures.
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Best quote of the weekend, you to me on the ride home: “You think I’m being mean, but I’m just being honest.”

Even though Max and I planned everything, and even though I forgot charcoal despite making a list of what to bring, you and Liz were great participants this weekend at Lake George. Thanks for still being cheerful after getting rear-ended on the way home from PA on Friday, and for still making it to your house in time for us to get to Roger’s Rock Campground by 9:03pm.

I enjoyed our hike, even though we went beyond the top of Five Mile Mountain. I almost pooped my pants when that grouse attacked Liz, and she screamed. She thought it was an eagle, but my first thought was a bear! It’s also pretty cool that we saw a timbler rattler; I didn’t even know that there are rattlesnakes in the ‘dacks!

Overall, great weather and even greater friends.

Summer Breeze Century Ride For Autism

We did it! Our first official 50 miler! And I didn’t even get hangry… luckily, they had those delicious pb & js, watermelons, oranges, and bananas at that pit stop.

In my new cool shorts and my awesome new gloves (not pictured here) with my sweet new bike computer!

The “fat tire” kids, as a few of the other bikers referred to us as. Maybe we will get lucky and win one of the radical road bikes they are raffling off.

Thanks for carrying everything 🙂

Also, I’m excited to “inadvertently” match you in our new shirts… muahahah.

The camping beforehand was fun, too! I’m glad we got to go to the Fish Tale and get dinner and ice cream, and also that we made it to Cohen’s in the morning for some delicious bagels.

Thanks for bringing the jiffy log and the s’more supplies: