Hopefully, you’ve already made you plans and reservations for this summer’s trips.  If you haven’t, what are you waiting for?

Over dinner the other night, my kids and I started talking about trips and places we would like to explore.  Yes, these are the dinner conversations we have, especially when my wife is out of town for a few days.  In the end, we dreamed up a couple of multi-day trips that we could do next summer.  This summer has already been scheduled with other events and trips, but it’s never to late to dream of future trips.  It sure is fun to talk through trip ideas, especially when your kids get excited about it too.

My oldest was all about bikepacking.  Last you we did an overnighter on the Colorado Trail and now we want to do more.  As a family, we keep talking about going to see Mt. Rushmore.  What better way to get there than ride from Denver?  Sure, it’s a bit ambitious, but it’s doable and there are towns spaced fairly evenly along the route.

My youngest is in hiker/backpacker mode rather than cycling mode.  Hey, that’s ok because it still means we’re outdoors and camping.  Knowing his brother did some Colorado Trail time last year, he is set on doing some miles of his own on the trail.  We are already planning an overnighter for this year, but it would be nice to spend several nights on the trail and hike through multiple segments.  There are a lot worse things than spending a few nights on the Colorado Trail.

Why Dream?

Why not dream?  For some of us, that’s what keeps us going.  If you don’t have some big dream, it’s easy to let time drift by.  It’s not just me that dreams of camping trips with kids.  Here are a few others doing some incredible trips of their own.

The Camping Project – 40+ Nights Baby! - Tanya has quite the plan this summer, but it’s a great plan.  By using the RV Trailer, they can keep gear organized which makes it easier to go out weekend after weekend.

Week-Long Camping Trips with Kids Are Easier Than You Think! - It takes a lot more work and gear, but you can do long trips with kids, even toddlers.

Section 1: Border to Deming - Peter has recently begun his CDT solo hike.  He’s just a regular guy that decided he wanted to change things in his life and he has made it happen.  Great to see someone following their dreams.

These dreams are really more like desires.  We want to be outside to enjoy the trails, the views, and the beautiful scenery.  If you can share that with your kids then it becomes even more beautiful.  Multi-day trips with kids will have their tough moments, but in the end it will all be worth it.

Plus, if your kids actually dream up this stuff with you, how can you not go through with it?

If my wife had made it to this point, I’m sure she’s thinking “here we go again!!”.  But thanks for understanding or at least tolerating all of my crazy ideas.  I could have gone for riding the Tour Divide with the kids or hiking the Appalachian Trail, but I held back a little and went with trips that are a week or less.  On second thought, those longer trips sound like a great option for the following summer.  I better go write those down and start planning!

Can we make these multi-day trips a reality?  Yes, as long as we set aside the time and plan ahead.  If you have any tips on multi-day adventures, especially with kids, please share them.

Don’t let people tell you that you can’t go bikepacking with kids.

You can.

They certainly can.

And it’s fun!

Taking your child out on the trail presents a few challenges, but there are many more positives than negatives.  Here are three things to keep in mind when planning a bikepacking trip with younger kids.

Kids Don’t Care About Distance

If you ride 2 miles or 10 miles, kids don’t care.  They are much more interested in gummi bears, wildlife, slides, splashing water, and what’s for breakfast.  It’s a different mindset from our typical adult outlook, but it sure is a lot of fun once you adjust.  Prepare yourself for lots of stops, slow riding, and lots of laughs.  If you know this going into the trip, you won’t be as frustrated with potty and snack breaks every 3 minutes.

Kids do care about having fun and part of that is based on the gear you carry.  DO NOT go ultralight to save a few pounds.  One bad experience can turn a kid off from bikepacking.  A fun trip on the other hand can keep them coming back for more adventures.  Packing a heavier tent, a pillow, and an extra stuffed animal is well worth the weight.

Food Is You Friend

When my kids were toddlers, I planned our routes to start in town and end at a state park a few miles away.  Before leaving town, we always stopped at Chipotle to fuel up on burritos.  Sometimes we at there and other times we packed up the burritos and ate them one we setup camp.  Again, the kids are not concerned about mileage, but they sure do get excited about having a fun meal before “roughing” it for the night.

For breakfast in the morning, bring out the full cook kit and make some killer oatmeal or some other hot breakfast.  It’s a great way to enjoy the quiet of morning (with toddlers, they might be the first ones awake in the campground), warm up a bit, and get the day started off right.

Reward At The End

After the trip, a little ice cream might be in order.  What better way to finish the trip than to make a special stop on the way home?  Let’s face it.  We do this ourselves with our burger and beers stops after our own bikepacking trips so why not let your kids enjoy an after trip splurge?  This stop might have more sprinkles and sticky faces, but they earned it.

It’s All Worth It

I’ll repeat it one more time.  Kids don’t care about how far you rode, how fast you rode, or the gear you used.  It’s all about the fun, the food, and the experience for them.

Hopefully, these tips can help you have some enjoyable bikepacking adventures with your kids.  You won’t regret it once you embark on the adventure.  Keep the plan simple but flexible and you’ll do fine.

“If you’ve never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame” – Counting Crows

It’s a subtle difference, but it’s not about where you have taken your bike.  It’s really about the places your bike has taken you.  And those places are some incredible places.  Instead of focusing on the next ride or next trip, it’s a good idea to occasionally look back and think about the variety of rides your bike has allowed you to experience.

Oh, The Places You Have Gone

When first thinking about the places my bikes have taken me, I began to list out the various location.  Turns out that I have ridden in a lot of different places, but only in a few actual US states.

Even within the states, my riding places has been in two main areas. The first is the states that surround South Carolina where I grew up and started my mountain bike adventures. The second is a group around my current home of Colorado. For good measure, there is Wisconsin, California, and Hawaii mixed in as one-offs.

If you’re interested in making your own map of states visited or states biked in, you can visit the US map maker at http://diymaps.net/us_12.htm.

Do you have a similar pattern of riding in states close to home?  Or would your map contain blocks of states that you rode through on a long tour or cross country ride?  Maybe you’ve competed in lots of races across the country.  No matter the situation, it’s nice to step back and look and the many places the bike has taken us.

If your map doesn’t include enough states, it’s time to add to the list.  Personally, I’d like to add Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to my list.

The Top Three

Out of all of the states, roads, and trails the bike has taken you, can you choose your top three rides?  Would they be based on an awesome trail, the people you rode with, or maybe one of those perfect days we experience on the bike?

For me, the top three come from North Carolina, Colorado, and Hawaii.

Coolest Ride- Haleakala in Maui.  Cycling from sea level up to 10,000 feet while passing through several different climates and seeing the view from the top is cool enough.  But then you get fly back down to sea level and enjoy some sweet swoopy switchbacks that don’t require much braking.

All-time Favorite - Sycamore Cove outside of Brevard, NC.  It’s not a long or hard trail, but it’s loads of fun.  The trail has a great flow and it reminds me of my early days of east coast riding with trees, creek crossings, roots, tacky dirt, and a little mud.

Most Rewarding - Bikepacking with my kids.  Does it get any better than being able to share a bike adventure with your kids and then have them ask to go on more trips?

What’s Next?

Stepping back to look at where we have been is a great exercise to inspire us to move forward.

There are a lot more trails and roads waiting to be explored.  Where will the bike take us next?

Maybe it’s the continual barrage of Monday night snowstorms hitting Denver lately, or maybe it’s just me being crazy, but I’m still writing about bikepacking clothing choices.  After three posts, hopefully everyone gets the idea that it’s best to have lots of layers that work in a variety of conditions.  If you can be comfortable in rain, snow, and wind, why wouldn’t you want to look like this?  Alright, I admit that it may not look good, but it works and it’s lightweight.

The previous posts covered how the layers work together for a wide range of temperatures and how the full clothing system works down to temperatures well below freezing.  This post will focus on the weight of the layers and how all of the clothing gets packed onto the bike.

Weight Watchers

A 3 season lightweight clothing system cannot be complete without a full weight listing for each item.

In my opinion, the standard layers don’t count towards the total weight of items on the bike since they are being worn all of the time.  This approach is fairly common for weight weenies in the backpacking community as well.  You’re gonna be wearing socks, shorts, and some sort of shirt when riding.  I don’t think naked bikepacking would be very comfortable for lots of reasons.

On a mild summer day, all of the layers would stay packed away, except maybe for arm warmers early in the morning.  The additional layers weigh in at just over 2 pounds which is about the same weight as a liter of water.  For all of us non-metric people, that’s 33 oz of water and yes, I had to search for that conversion.

Pack It In

When arranging my gear for bikepacking, I prefer to keep similar items in the same bags so I don’t have to think about where specific items are located.  My entire sleep system goes in the handlebar bag.  All of the clothing items go in the seat bag.  If I need to store or pull out an item of clothing, I always know where it is located without thinking about it.  This technique works as long as the seat bag and handlebar bag are fairly evenly weighted.

Being a numbers person, I like to see how all of the gear adds up in weight and also if it’s distributed evenly.  The gear list template can help you figure this out, and it also serves as a handy checklist when packing for a trip.  Click the spreadsheet picture below to open the gear list for my clothing system.  For a real trip, I would leave off the standard layers and only include the items that would pack on the bike.

Clothing Is Not Optional

At least when bikepacking it’s not.  Being warm and dry when out in the woods can be the difference between an enjoyable trip and a miserable trip.  Experiment with various options to find a system that works for your conditions, your types of trips, and your preferences.

Three tips for finding your own system:

1. When experimenting, pack a few extra items and keep track of what wasn’t used on your trips.  For the next trip, determine if there is something that can be removed from your setup.
2. If you have the choice between wool or anything else, wool is usually the better option.  It’s pricey, but it works great.
3. Test your clothing system on shorter rides before heading out on a bikepacking adventure.  On a rainy day, go for a ride in your rain gear to see how long it keeps you dry. On a cold and windy day, put on all of your layers and see if you stay warm enough.

With good rain gear, an insulation layer, and a few other layers, it’s easy to enjoy bikepacking in almost any conditions.

In the midst of tragedy and loss, can anything good come out of it?  That is a question that has been on my mind since Monday’s horrible events at the Boston Marathon.  We have probably all gone through so many emotions from shock, disbelief, anger, sadness, blessed, vengeful, hurt and many others.  Instead of dwelling on the bad and returning the hate that caused this tragedy, I’m trying to find something positive to hold onto.

While trying to remain positive, we need to keep those affected by the events of Monday in our thoughts and prayers.

Embrace Each Day

The past is done and we don’t know what tomorrow brings.  The only real effect we can have is on today.  So make each day the best it can be.  Do good.  Don’t do harm.

This is the message we can take from Monday’s events and other tragic events that occur throughout our lives.  Of course the events are painful and no one wants them to occur, but they do happen.  We can choose to triumph in these trying times and still work towards embracing each day and realizing the blessings we have in our lives.

Warren and Betsy Talbot’s “Married With Luggage” podcast from this week is about this topic of dealing with loss and coming through it as a better person.  In the episode, their guest Michelle Steinke serves as an amazing example of how we can triumph even when we face a terrible loss.

Do That Which Makes You Happy

We don’t know what tomorrow brings, but we can’t crawl into a cave and do nothing.  We have to find those things that make us happy and drive us towards our dreams.  Once found, we have to embrace them and live life to it’s fullest each and every day.

For about a month, I’ve had the picture below taped inside my notebook at work to remind me of what’s important in my life and also to make me laugh when things are not going smoothly.  My family, getting outside, and cycling are what make me happy.  The visual reminder makes it easier (not easy, but easier) to determine if an activity is part of where I want to go.  If it’s not part of that, I’m learning to not let it have a negative effect on me and my day.  Sure, I still have to finish those items, but I don’t have to let them control my thoughts and cause me to become frustrated.  Instead, my energy can be focused on my goals and what can make today a good day.

Find what makes you happy and pursue your dreams.  Take every day and do something that gets you closer to your dreams.  It can be as simple as thanking someone who has helped you, or going on a bike ride to train for an event.  Don’t wait until tomorrow.  Do it today.

Life is short, keep working towards your dream.

In it’s most basic form, bikepacking is nothing more than combining cycling with camping.  I have even used that description on the Bikepacking 101 page to introduce people to bikepacking.  But that simple definition leaves out some of the best parts of the bikepacking experience.

Yes, bikepacking will always be centered around cycling and camping, but there is, oh, so much more.  Have a look at just some of the other reasons you might want to join the world of bikepacking:

If asked to pick my favorite topic from that list, it would be tempting to select “coffee”. Coffee, bikes, and camping.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

In all honesty, it’s not coffee that’s the best part.  It would have to be friends and solitude.  Bikepacking allows you hang out with your cycling pals, enjoy the quiet of an evening in the woods, and then get up and do it all again the next day.  That is the true essence of bikepacking, and it’s what keeps me dreaming of more bikepacking adventures.

Bikepacking means something different to each of us, and my list of topics is far from complete.  What does bikepacking mean to you?

My fashion sense is a little whacked.  Ok, a lot of whacked.  I have no problem wearing cuben fiber knickers or a short sleeve down jacket.  For bikepacking, my mantra is definitely function over form.  If there was a great wool baselayer that only came in purple with red polka dots, I’d have no problem wearing it.

The clothing system I use for bikepacking is detailed below.  It consists of multiple layers to work in conditions ranging from 15 degrees and snowy to the hottest summer days.  This is meant as a guide for anyone looking to start out with bikepacking or refine their bikepacking setup to reduce the clothing items they carry.  There is no right or wrong clothing system.  If you have a very different system, leave a comment and share how you came up with your system.

The key for a versatile yet lightweight system is layers.  That’s why the clothing is listed by temperature rather than by type of item.

70 and above

At this point, it’s all fun and games just riding along and soaking up the sun or at least enjoying the warmer temperatures.  Wear whatever you ride on a normal summer day.  For me, that’s bib shorts, a sleeveless base layer, and jersey.  For gloves, I prefer the old school mesh backed variety.

In the  60s

As the temperatures drops, it’s time to add more coverage to the arms.  Arm warmers are one of my favorite pieces of cycling clothing because they make a huge difference in your comfort level.  Your legs stay warm with pedaling, but the upper body needs a little help.  Wool is a good choice here, or you can stick with traditional lycra based warmers.

45 – 60 degrees

Time to add more pieces to the ensemble.  On go full fingered gloves with the Nashbar Polypro gloves being my favorite.  It’s also time to add knee warmers and maybe even toe warmers.  Anything with “warmer” in the name is one of my favorites because they take the edge off of the wind and cooler temps without being bulky.

Just above freezing

As the temperature drops, keep adding layers.  It’s time to put on the rain jacket or wind shirt.  My jacket of choice is a GoLite jacket.  It doesn’t breathe at all which keeps in all of the heat you generate while riding.  This is both good and bad.  Great to keep you warm, but you have to be careful not to sweat too much causing you to chill when you stop.  It’s a delicate balance and I have never figured out this issue perfectly.  A breathable jacket with pit zips would probably be better, but I’ve never shelled out the cash for one.  The final layer for this temerature range is my trusty wool cycling cap.

The bottom drops out

Now it’s a matter of trying to keep everything warm, not just your toes, hands, and head.  On go my fabulous cuben fiber rain pants and the knee length wool socks to completely cover the legs.  I also pack an extra wool base layer which can be used as a standard layer or tied as a neck gaiter since I don’t bring a neck gaiter on bikepacking trips.

Remember the wool cycling cap?  Thank goodness it’s a winter one that has ear flaps to keep my ears from freezing.  The final piece of the frozen temperature puzzle is an outer layer of gloves.  My current favorites are a pair of cuben fiber mittens from ZPacks.  I like to layer my gloves like this because then you can take off the mittens to work on your bike or adjust clothing but still have the thin polypro gloves to prevent your hands from freezing.

Thoughts?

This system of thin layers added as the temperature drops or precipitation falls has worked for me over the last few years.  Like most bikepacking/camping items, it’s a constant work in progress to try and minimize weight while maximizing options.

So what do you think?  Is this system close to what you pack or do you have a much different philosophy to your clothing selections?

Spring has sprung which means summer bikepacking trips are on the mind.  But before winter disappeared, I decided to give my bikepacking clothing an extreme shakedown on a recent snowy, windy, and cold afternoon.  Even if your bikepacking trips are in the summer, you never know what kind of weather you might encounter on the top of a mountain.  It’s a good idea to know how your clothing choices will protect you and keep you warm.

The Test Environment

It was 15 degrees with light snow and steady wind from the north.  The roads were mostly clear of snow.  The trails had 6 inches of fresh snow from the day before.  I’d call this a perfect day for a bike ride

Clothing Setup

For this year’s bikepacking adventures, my clothing selections have changed just a little bit. The first addition is a pair of knee high Smartwool socks for cold weather coverage.  Also added was a pair of cuben fiber mittens from ZPacks to layer over my gloves.

Clothing list for the extreme shakedown:

1. Bib shorts
2. Sleeveless base layer
3. Jersey
4. Arm warmers
5. Knee warmers
6. Toe warmers
7. Knee length wool socks
8. Wool winter cycling cap with ear flaps
9. Waterproof rain jacket
10. Short sleeve down jacket
11. Cuben fiber capri length rain pants
12. Polypro full fingered gloves
13. Cuben fiber over mitts

Test Results

During the ride, I was never cold, and actually spent more time trying to prevent sweating than I did trying to keep warm.  All items in the above list were worn during the ride except for the down jacket.  It was brought along as an emergency item in case the other layers didn’t keep me warm enough.

Riding generates a lot of body heat, especially when you are climbing and your outer layers don’t breathe.  It would have been nice to have my wind shirt instead of the full rain jacket because the wind shirt doesn’t trap in as much of the heat.  I probably would have started with the rain jacket and then switched to the wind shirt once I started to sweat or started a long-ish climb.

Another item I could have used was the long sleeve wool baselayer.  It would have been perfect to use as a neck gaiter to take the sting off of those cold descents.  Hey, you gotta think multi-purpose when you are bikepacking and trying to limit what you carry.  Why bring a neck gaiter when you can just tie your extra wool shirt around your neck for the same effect?

The knee high wool socks worked perfectly to keep my lower legs and toes warm.  Even when the socks got covered with snow from me walking one section of snow covered trail, they still insulated well.

Speaking of new items, the cuben fiber mitts did an excellent job of keeping my hands warm.  The mitts are super lightweight while keeping wind and moisture off of your hands. Layering the mitts on top of thin polypro gloves works even better than a heavy insulated glove.  If you need to stop and adjust clothing, get a snack from your backpack, or work on your bike, you can take off the mitts but your hands are still protected from the cold by the thin gloves.

Final Thoughts

Wind is still the hardest aspect to manage when cycling.  If it’s in your face (either on a downhill or uphill), you will get chilled.  When it’s at your back, you’re going to heat up in a hurry.  The only way to manage this in cold weather is to have lots of layering options.  I’d rather have several thin layers than one thick fleece or heavy baselayer.

The ride ended with a long climb to my house with the wind at my back.  By the end of the climb, I had taken off the rain jacket was was riding in just my jersey, baselayer, and arm warmers even though it was 15 degrees.  It was a little too chilly (again, it would have been nice to have that wool layer), but it was better than sweating like crazy and being soaked when you stop.  Sweat and cold do not mix.

Overall, the clothing setup worked very well and the test was a success.  As long as I bring the wind shirt and wool baselayer, I can comfortably bikepack in temperatures ranging from 15 to 100.

This is the final post in a three part series on reducing the stress of personal finance. Each post details a simple technique to reduce financial headaches.  Previous posts discussed using a personal escrow account to help smooth out yearly or irregular payments and using the envelope method to smooth out monthly spending.  This post focuses on unexpected spending.

Emergency Fund

Unexpected things happen.  That’s just life.  A well stocked emergency fund can make those events easier to handle from a financial perspective.  The sting of a broken down car, lost job, or last minute travel for a family crisis will still be there, but paying for them will not add to the stress of the situation.

An emergency fund is exactly what it sounds like. Money set aside in a separate account to deal with emergencies, real emergencies.  When an emergency happens, you’ll be prepared and can say “I got this“.

When an emergency does occur, don’t feel bad about using the money in the fund.  This is a hard one for me to accept because I don’t like seeing money leave my emergency fund. However, this is exactly why you save the money.  Spending from your emergency fund is much better than charging to a credit card and then having to pay off the debt.

As usual, money topics relate to bikes, right?  And it’s not for saving money to buy that new bike you want.  Suppose you have been saving (in a separate account) for that dream bike trip later in the year, but then your car has some major issues and your fridge dies.  Here is where Mr. Emergency Fund steps in to pay for those unexpected expenses instead of using the money you had saved for your dream trip.  In the end, the emergencies are handled, you are still riding that dream trip, and you have no additional debt.  Success.

How Much To Save?

This is a very interesting question.  Experts suggest anywhere from $1,000 to 6 months of living expenses.  My suggestion is to aim for that magic $1000 in savings first, just like Dave Ramsey suggests in his baby step 1.  That amount will cover basic emergencies, but maybe not a job loss or multiple emergencies back to back.

Don’t stop saving after reaching the $1,000 milestone.  Setup an automatic transfer each month to keep building up the fund.  The final goal should be a fund that can cover multiple months of living expenses and multiple emergencies back to back.  Some people make their end goal 6 months of expenses while others may aim for a nice even number like $5,000 or $10,000.  To choose your goal, use Caleb Wojcik’s advice of picking what makes you comfortable.   Everyone is different, but the key is saving to be prepared.

When setting up your emergency fund, keep it in a separate savings account so that it can be easily accessed.  Some people even setup the account at a separate bank to resist the temptation of using the money for non-emergencies.  Finally, don’t worry too much about the interest rate of the savings, especially with the puny rates accounts are earning these days. Your focus is on having the money available for emergencies, not to earn and extra few dollars of interest.

Less Financial Stress

And that concludes this series on reducing your financial stress points.  Whether it’s envelopes for monthly spending,  a personal escrow for irregular yearly expenses, or an emergency fund for unexpected expenses, the key is always “spend less than you make”.  With that commitment and the three techniques from this series, hopefully your financial stress will be greatly reduced.

Or as my kids would say – Epic fail!!  Making the dots was easy, but actually using them for toothpaste was the hard part.

Some experiments in lightening your camping setup result in failures and that’s ok.  They either become too lightweight and don’t hold up, or they are too uncomfortable.  For this attempt, the toothpaste dots were uncomfortable enough that the weight savings were not worth it.

At this point, you may be thinking, “who in the world tries to make toothpaste dots”?  Good question.  The first place I saw them was in Mike Clelland’s book ‘Ultralight Backpacking Tips‘ which is a great book with a lot of lightweight tips.  The topic has also been discussed on ultralight forums and there was a post at It’s Tactical earlier this year.  Yeah, I’m a little bit crazy but there are others that are crazy enough to try and actually enjoy toothpaste dots. So I think that makes me almost normal if you think about it.

Anyhoo, back to the dots.

What are toothpaste dots?

Instead of carrying a ginormous travel tube (sarcasm) of toothpaste when camping, why not come up with something smaller and lighter.  You could transfer toothpaste into a smaller container, or you could lighten up even more with no container at all.  That’s the real motivation for the dots – less weight by removing the container.

Making them involves nothing more than squeezing out dots of toothpaste onto wax paper and waiting for them to dry out.  Once the dots dry for about a week and become “not too sticky”, you can package them into a small bag.  Then it’s time to hit the trail.  At teeth brushing times, pop a dot into your mouth, and chew it up until it returns to it’s original toothpaste consistency.  Then you brush your teeth.

Why did they fail?

For me, chewing up the dots and trying to get them back into a paste was not a pleasant experience.  It’s one of those texture things we have with food.  Some people don’t like tofu or cottage cheese because of the texture.  I don’t like toothpaste dots because of the texture.

My camping dental care will continue to contain real toothpaste in a tube or a small container. I’m more than happy to take on a slight increase in weight for comfort in this case.  We’re talking about a half ounce or less in weight here.

The real lesson here is not about toothpaste or even small weight savings. It’s about continually refining your setup to find that optimal balance of comfort and weight.  Over time, our preferences change, gear materials change, and even our goals change.  What worked on the last trip or last year may not work this year.  It’s ok to try something new.  It’s even ok if that something new doesn’t work out.

That’s certainly the case with toothpaste dots, and you dot lovers can keep them to yourselves.  Yuck.