Recap of bikepacking at Mt Laguna

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💩 Shit I forgot:

☠️ Major mistakes:

• 💧 Water bladder for frame bag (ran out on second day, despite carrying an extra 3/4 gallon)
• 💧 Water pouch (big gray hanging bag, could’ve refilled at either campsite and even showered with it)
• 👕 Long sleeved shirt and/or hoodie (arms got cooked in sun and froze at night, plus feasted on by bugs around camp)
• 🧢 Hat (got cooked without it, had to wear hot ass helmet on hours-long climbs)

👎 Minor annoyances:

• ⛺️ Tent stakes (almost blew away during setup but strapped to tree)
• ⌚️ Watch charger (could’ve used more data for the ride home)
• 🕷️ Bug spray (got bites but not too many)
• 🍳 Cooking stove (can always eat the ramen raw and tuna straight from the pouch, but the dehydrated potatoes are valuable fuel and electrolytes)
• 🧂 More electrolytes (ran out halfway through but never cramped up)
• 🍽️ Utensils, plates, etc (got some free stuff from a restaurant)

🛒 Maybe new stuff?

• 💧 Water filter (didn’t really see any handy refill sources when I needed it during the hot ass climbs but wasn’t really looking, plus would’ve given peace of mind at the campsite about potable water sources)
• 💧 More Nalgene bottles (strap them all over the bike - down tube, front forks, and back rack should give between 3-5 extra, could even carry them all in my green lightweight cooler after freezing them the night before)
• 🐑 Wool socks (toes, feet and calves got surprisingly cold, even with sleeping bag)
• 👓 Better glasses (Not enough wind and bug protection on downhills)

📝 Lessons learned:

💡 Meg had so many great tips!

• Two in particular stood out that I put to immediate use on my 3rd and last day:
• 🌅⇢🌄 Ride from sunrise to sunset: it’s the key to racking up big miles in a mentally sustainable way because of the padding in the schedule and how I made it home at all.
• 🥶 How to get going on a cold morning: start packing up in the tent. Warms you up and then builds momentum.
• 🧠 I’ll have to rack my brains to think of more because I was dead exhausted when we hung out around the campfire.

🎉 Samer’s Advice

• Do more fun rides, even short 30 minute jaunts. Don’t fall into the trap of overoptimizing and being constantly disappointed. Then rides become punishment. Type 1 fun is cool too.

😴 Sleep system

• Don’t give away your sleeping bag ever again! Not even the liner, you ended up needing both in the end.
• Also, this is the second time Cesar packed too light and you let him borrow your stuff. Remember the cold night at mission trails? So maybe make sure people have their sleep system dialed in before they do anything like that again.
• My sleep system might be a good place to save weight, size and setup time. It might be time to give a solid foam pad and bivvy combo a try, since they’re so cheap at Walmart. The bivvy might be claustrophobic and just backup for stealth camping emergencies, but the foam could be especially useful because setup and takedown for the inflatable pad was a real bear.

💧 Water

• DIDN’T BRING NEARLY ENOUGH. Mountains get surprisingly toasty 🔥
• Calculate how much water you actually use, not just general advice for others. Get this as dialed in as you are about carbs and electrolytes. Track it on your next long hot rides.
• Rough estimate from this trip: I go through at least a gallon or 4 L per day, which also means I don’t have enough water storage with my current bottle system. I need to buy a bunch of Nalgenes and strap them all over, or dig up my old water bladder, something.

📱 Gadgets

• IPHONE UPGRADE. Finally fix the old piece of shit or give in and swap in the 12 Pro.
• GET A MOUNTING CASE (quadlock, fidlock, etc) and maybe glass screen protector.
• Also mount the Garmin like Martin did on the stem cap, that thing is great. In addition to communication and location, the downloadable GPX files work fine as a bike computer for now until you get a dedicated one.
• Also case and glass protector for the watch, even though it’s already scratched.

💰 Cheap Deals

• Scout the camping section at Walmart and Dick’s. Could be a cheaper alternative to REI.

📍 Maps

• The downloaded maps on ridewithgps were clutch. Don’t track your ride on the phone though unless plugged into an external battery - the satellite tracking burned through juice. You can always update the app later, either from importing in GPX files from the Garmin or by copying the map in the Apple Fitness app by manually recreating the route.
• Download more of the eastern bits of the map to the Garmin, so you can scout satellite images for things like tree cover.
• Buy paper maps for the area from the general store
• You can get to know the trails in stages, or the “arterial vs capillary” as Mac put it.

🚙 Car

• Give in and get a 2nd car. You’ve really milked the whole “my bike is my car” thing for years now but you gotta do it if you want to ride more dirt and get to know these trails that you want to camp on. These getaways are great for day trips and solo training, overnight adventures, and even a friend hangout.

❌

• Find out what your personal Type 3 redlines are. For me it’s sleep deprivation and hydration, for others it might be cold or bugs.
• Also don’t reflect on whether something is Type 2 or 3 until later. It’s just upsetting and unproductive because your perspective might change. Calm your temper or irritation in the moment by telling yourself that you’ll analyze afterwards where to improve vs just learning to deal with it.
• “Bad decisions make great stories.” Don’t worry about blame for yourself or others, treat it all as resilience training for when you’ll have to deal with things that will happen that are out of your control.

🧶

• Bring bungee cords and a packing cube or plastic bag. Or go fancy with motorcycle-style Rok Straps. You never know when you need to strap something to the front or even rear rack, like with the giant plastic jug with a gallon of water.

👕

• Always bring a long sleeve shirt, even if it’s not cold. You end up needing it in situations you wouldn’t think of, whether for keeping bugs away or sun exposure.
• Speaking of clothes, they were so much heavier than I thought. Just get nasty and rock the same shit, that’s why the fancy synthetic materials dry quickly anyway.

🏋🏻

• Overall it feels like the weight and size of my entire pannier setup is more for flat road touring than it is bikepacking.
• Then again, I did sleep well when I had all my own stuff and I liked pulling the food into the tent to keep it away from critters. And still haven’t fully tested out being self-sufficient away from cars, friends or campgrounds.
• Do more solo rides fully loaded to get stronger and used to grinding out hard miles. Save the fast and light set up for group rides or shopping runs.

🫸

• I really, really need to restore my old road bike. My wrists are killing me and it’s time to find out whether drop bars are a better solution, before then experimenting with an even more relaxed setup with Nitto bars from Rivendale and cushier grips.
• That also means I need to get off my ass and act on that referral for occupational therapy to help with my wrists. And the nutritionist to help with my weight.

🦶🏼

• My feet are killing me, even with these extra wide Vans. A long-term solution is to get wide toebox shoes, and a quick lesson learned for the short term is to carry my sandals with me. (insert Meg’s recommendations for pedals and shoes)

🗓️

• Ride more. Get shattered at least once a week.
• Do more solo bikepacking. Or even any. You get too annoyed at other people’s mistakes or being slow, just do it yourself and go at your own pace.
• Create a 4-6 week plan for building strength and going on big rides or trips, with recovery weeks built in. The mini 3 week training schedule before this trip was a nice start, so now it’s time to dial in the system.

🏃🏻

• Also hike more. Beasts like Karlene love hiking and it’s such great sneaky way to zone 1 endurance building because you’re having fun.
• That reminds me of an older resolution to get 10k steps in on rest or light days. Mix it up!

Message to Cesar 💤 Notes on sleep system

Hey bud, can I give you some constructive feedback? I think you might be going too far in trying to pack ultralight, especially when it comes to your sleep system.

It occurred to me on the ride back that this was the second time in a row that you had to borrow some of my stuff. Remember needing my sleep liner at mission trails?

I get that you wanna experiment and try new things, I’m like that too. But I think this is something foundational that needs to get dialed in. I’m pretty happy with my system and getting sleep last night is the only reason I’m able to make it back today, because I was so shattered yesterday that I was hating life and trying to figure out how to get home, even if that meant skipping the fun campfire time with friends. I even had a fever dream that Melissa and Arturo had showed up on their bikes in the morning and were trying to wake us up!

It could be a little lighter and I might try a foam pad, but at this point, I’m just tinkering around the edges and improving something that already works. I hope you get there soon too.

It’s not like I’m always gonna be there to warm you up with some cuddles 🤗

Also, because I learned a lot about myself and what constitutes type two fun for me, versus what is a type three red line. I guess I didn’t think sleep deprivation would be a big deal because I’ve done it so many times for work and pulled all nighters and done startup weekends and and hackathons and all kinds of other stuff but when it comes to a multi day bike rides, this was a bridge too far.

If you’re worried about weight and size, then I think you should get the one that I have. It’s pricier than a normal sleeping bag, but it’s worth it for being so ultralight.

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Hope you take this in the spirit that was intended and don’t take offense because otherwise I really enjoy riding with you! You’re resilient, flexible, and always up for a good time.