Bicycle Camping at Middle Creek Fishing Lake

7 brave participants this time: Keith, Randy, Richard, Gene, Stephanie (Gene's daughter) and myself. 
Unfortunately, I didn't get nearly as many photos this year as I'd have liked. I was too busy trying to keep up with the pack. My decreased amount of riding this year really killed my speed. I made it. I had a good time, but I was Lanterne Rouge for most of the trip. That's okay, though, because Richard was on a Rockhopper, so I had company most of the time.

I got my panniers put together the night before. With a non-trivial chance of rain in the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I eschewed the high-powered bicycle mobile ham radio setup with the Yaesu FT-90. I did still want to haul the 12V gel cell and solar panel, though. I had APRSDroid running on my phone, beaconing my location for the ride out. I had it rigged to the battery and solar panel. I used my VX-7R this trip, since it's waterproof. I figured the extra weight would be fine, as the rest of my gear was lighter than I've loaded on some previous bicycle camping trips by just as much. As for the tent: I found a really cheap mosquito net at a local sporting goods store, so I ditched it. Also along for the ride: My backpack fishing stuff, a tiny canvas stool, bedroll, ponchos, rope, my penny stove mess kit and water filter. Food: Freeze dried lasagna (I will do that again!), ramen and instant oatmeal. And coffee. Can't forget coffee. Gatorade powder, beef jerky and mixed nuts rounded out the fuel for the road.

I went to bed insanely late, but still got a good night's sleep. I woke up later than I'd wanted to, and ravenously snagged a granola bar on my way out the door. I was going to meet Richard in Olathe anyway, so we met at Perkin's for a quick brunch, then pointed our bikes south toward 179th St to get to the arboretum.

There, we met up with Keith, Josh and Randy.




As always, the variety never fails to disappoint. Richard is on a hardtail mountain bike with a minimalist setup in a backpack. Randy is on his LHT with front and rear panniers, Josh is riding a flipping-insane folding bike with a rear basket and front panniers (with a 3-speed internally geared fixed -- as in "not able to coast" -- hub). Keith is on his Kogswell and his loading strategy is similar to mine: Stuffed rear panniers with the bedroll strapped down to the rack.

I noticed I had missed a call from Gene, who was battling flat tires and running late. He told us to go forth.So go forth we did.



There's not much I can say about the trip between the Arboretum and Louisburg, KS. The rest of the riders moved onward at my request, while Richard and I kept our slow pace. Keith and I kept in contact with the radios, operating on 446.000 MHz. UHF is usually pretty good out in the open.

Richard hasn't lived in the area for very long, and he'd only seen most of the little townships we went through on maps: places like Stilwell, Aubrey, Bucyrus, Wea -- and later on, Rutlader. Most of these are remnants of railroad towns or military road towns between Forts Scott and Leavenworth. These days, the townships either look like the fringe of suburbia or nothing but farm land. Approaching Wea, I was already starting to get a headache as well as cramps in my calves and quads -- likely a combination of heat illness and just being undertrained for this kind of trip. I gulped down 32 ounces of gatorade, which helped with the cramps a bit. 

Getting to the convenience store in Louisburg took what seemed like an eternity, but upon our arrival, there everyone was. We decided to move around the corner to Sonic, grab a quick bite, and refill out water bottles. I snagged some electrolyte tablets from c'Dude, which helped quite a bit. I called Gene to ask where he and Stephanie were, figuring as slow as Richard and I had been traveling, they were certain to be hot on our trail. Gene had another round of flat tires just south of Wea township, and was pretty sure the cause was crappy rim tape. I called Dad for a SAG while Josh ran across the street for electrical tape. Gene and Stephanie arrived, bikes on the back of Dad's PT Cruiser, soon thereafter. In a feat of heroic blister-inducing madness, Keith gorilla'd the flat tire off, then I went to work taping up the rim ghetto-style with electrical tape. Hey, it works pretty well if you use a few layers!

The whole group of seven was finally on the road in the same place at the same time. That didn't last long, as Richard and I fell off the back of the peloton again a few miles south of Louisburg, and eventually out of radio range with Keith again. Eventually, we trudged past Rutlader Outpost.


Then we found the awesome camp site that the group had picked out: Shady, far away from obvious idiots, and not too far of a ride on gravel.


Commence unpacking!


I set my shelter up using the bug net. I'd initially thought of sleeping with my head toward the bike, but thought better of that plan later. I used my little tripod with only one set of legs extended to hold the head end of the net up. With a yellow poncho on the ground, my bedroll, and the bug net, I stayed really comfortable all night. This photo was actually taken Sunday morning.


Food came out, war stories were told, and a good time was had by all. More than half of us brought fishing poles, so it was off to the lake for some relaxation by the water's edge.


Randy and Gene reeled in a few small panfish, catch and release style. I got some solid nibbles, but couldn't bring any fish to shore. That's fine, though, because I had a blast.  While fishing, we all watched as distinct thunderheads started building high in the atmosphere, trying their best to form a line of storms.

As the sun set, the thunder started rolling, the breeze picked up, and the once-isolated clouds coalesced. I packed up my fishing gear and wandered back to camp. It wasn't clear whether or not we should be prepared for rain. Looking at the sky, there was rain coming from the storm, but it was hard to judge where it was going or how it was building. I opted to put my Poncho Tarp plan into action. Wind was coming from the north, a bit of an oddity this time of year. I battened down the north face of my shelter with tent stakes, then ran rope through the southern grommets, and connected the poncho to my tripod along with the bug net. I tied the hoods of the ponchos shut, then anchored the west end of the poncho shelter to my bicycle wheels with the same bungee cords I held the bug net up with. It was ugly, like something you'd see in Survivorman, but it looked like it should work. By the time I was done setting up, it was completely dark, and the ominous storm was still building, without a drop of rain on our campsite.





We sat at the picnic table in awe, watching the light show. With the first sprinkles, we all decided to pack in for the night. The rain was light and came in waves, and I stayed dry. With a torrential downpour, my feet probably would have gotten soggy, and I don't think I'd trust this shelter in strong winds, but it did work. I had two "windows" with the poncho tent, one toward the lake, looking through the tripod, and the other toward the campsite, looking through the bike. There wasn't much to see, though. I left my VX-7R plugged into the battery overnight to charge, and had it scanning the weather band in "Weather Alert Radio" mode.



I drifted in and out of sleep for a while, and when I started seeing stars overhead through the tripod window, I got out and rolled the poncho tarp off the bug net. The breeze felt awesome, and I actually got chilly enough to tuck into my flannel bedroll, then I was sound asleep. Apparently, I missed out on the pair of lumberjacks that decided to chop down a tree near our campsite at Ass:30 in the morning, all the way down to yelling "TIMBERRRRR!" before dashing out of the woods, dragging with them an entire tree. So much for not camping near the idiots, eh? I slept right through it, but it was the talk of the campground over breakfast.

I was rudely awakened at 6:30 AM, not by rowdy idiots, nor even the sun, for my head was under my bedroll. No, it was the cicadas that woke me up with their hideous hemipteran hubbub. I'd exhausted my supply of drinking water overnight, so it was time to fill a few bottles with lake water and filter that stuff. My headache, acquired some 15 hours prior, was still lingering.

We partook in our morning nosh, packed the things away...


...then headed back north. Riding didn't help my headache any, but we were just 7 miles away from a convenience store. More of the same with me being slow.


Richard and I caught up with the rest of the crew at BP in Louisburg. I bought some excedrin and some insane caffeinated crap to rinse it down with. I dumped a bunch of ice into all my water bottles, and went back outside. Randy, Keith, Josh, Gene and Stephanie were talking about a gravel tour to get back home. Richard and I decided to stick mostly to pavement. We parted ways with a farewell all around.

While Richard was pumping his tires up to their maximum PSI, I snapped this picture of his Garmin Montana handlebar mount, which I believe he made out of a car mount. Richard works at Garmin, and the Montana has a lot of stuff from his team inside.


Richard and I pressed onward toward Stilwell, stopping for shade a few times along the way. The headache went away quickly, and that raised my speed and morale quite a bit. Another water bottle top-off at Stilwell Station, then we made our way west to Pflumm. Pflumm is gravel, but north of 199th, there's only a mile of the stuff. Right after we hit pavement, we ran into the rest of the group one more time:


Unfortunately, the circumstances weren't that great. Gene had flatted twice more. Keith, close to home, darted north to pick up the SAG Van for Gene. We all parted once again. The rest of the riders were up the road long before Richard and I even got on our bikes. We made our way north again, saw Keith coming back with the van before we even got to 159th. Richard splitted off at 159th, then Keith and Gene passed me in the van at 151st.  From here, it was going to be a solo ride, and I was hurting all over.

I ducked into QT at College and Pflumm for a bathroom break and a V8 juice, and saw another bikey friend of mine, Bill Burns as I was rolling out. Keith texted me that he'd arrived back at home safe and sound, and with 4 miles or so left to cover, I pretty much had this trip in the bag.

I made it home at a little before 3:00 PM, so this was not a 'by the book' S24O. And despite all the suffering I was doing in the saddle, I needed this, and if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't change a thing. Now I just need to get back into shape, because there WILL be another bike camping trip this year. Stay tuned for the fall edition.

Bicycle Lean-To Shelter

I usually camp early or late in the season. This bike camping trip is going to be among the hottest camping trips I've gone on, period. We're also going to be on bicycles.  My parents live very close to the route, and I've arranged for dad to be on standby to provide SAG, water, an air-conditioned vehicle, or anything else we may need in the case of some emergency. All of the folks who are apparently still in for this weekend can do this. They've ridden in heat like this before. That said, they aren't riding fully loaded bikes, and they usually have an air-conditioned home to look forward to at the end of the trip. Here, we're just going to have more heat, sun, and EVEN MOAR HEAT.

My usual backpacking tent is a junior dome tent my grandmother got me more than half my life ago. I just never grew to 6 feet in height, so I can fit in it with most of my gear very comfortably. It's got a ventilated top and a ventilated door, but they don't do very good at keeping the air moving. When it's above 80 degrees overnight (like it will likely be for a good part of the night Saturday into Sunday), the thing feels like a sauna. I contemplated using a hammock and mosquito net for this trip, but trees are kind of sparse near the campsite, bug screens are expensive and I would have to buy one. I'm looking for something lightweight that will give me some shade during the day, cover from rainfall if it rains at night, and mostly something that has lots of airflow for sleeping under.

I'm going to improvise.

I have a few rain ponchos that came equipped with brass grommets at the corners. They were $5 or so: cheaper than good silicone-impregnated nylon ponchos and better than those "trash bag" ponchos you find for $2 each at the sporting goods stores.

With 2 ropes, 2 bungees, 4 tent stakes (simulated by heavy objects on my patio), a bicycle and a poncho, I made a lean-to shelter that should give me shade in the day, rain cover (just in case) and a pack weight of way under 1 pound. Well, except for the bicycle part. The edges can be brought down to ground-level to form a back wall/roof and two enclosed sides, with a little finagling. I have two identical ponchos like this, which can also be used together. That obviously takes up more pack space.




I'm still debating whether or not I'll use this setup with my bedroll on bare ground or just go with the tried and true dome tent I've always used. Part of me likes having a shelter that keeps the creepy crawlies away, but it's likely going to be roasty no matter how we camp.

Hot.

Home-bound heat index today: 105. Wind: travel-speed tailwind. Not a good combo. Fortunately, I keep Gatorade mix at the office, and got it nice and cold for the commute.

I got to scope out Middle Creek Fishing Lake over the weekend. This is where we'll be camping on July 30th. I can only imagine that it could be just as hot that weekend as it was today, or worse. I went fishing out there on Sunday morning, and caught a whole cooler full of bupkis. Mostly, I was checking out to see how viable it would be for a bike camping trip. I think it'll work great, but like I said last week: we'll actually be roughing it.

The whole park is gravel. But that shouldn't put too much of a damper on things.


Toilets: Brick shelters with a roof. Urinal and a hole in the ground. Wasps abound. Bring your own TP and hand sanitizer.

Sinks and showers? What sinks and showers? "Adult Skin Cleaning Cloths" -- essentially grown-up baby wipes are a favorite among commuters that don't have showers at the office. I can't imagine it'd hurt to bring some of those along. You can find them at the drug store.

Water? There's lots of it, but it's all in the lake, and the stuff I saw had twigs, algae, spiders and mosquito larvae in it. I will try to call Rutlader Outpost (a nearby RV park) and ask if they have water we can use (or buy?) but I decided it was high time to pick up a backpacking filter system of some sort.  I went with something similar to this Sawyer Water Filter (but with a transparent blue bottle) that I found at Walmart for half the price of anywhere else. How's it work? How about I show you with my mis-aligned camera, stammering case of the "umms" and fidgety hands?



That was some 36 hours ago, and I'm not sick... yet...

Honestly, it tasted just like the Brita filtered water I drink at home. I really should have boiled it first, but at 0.1 micron, there are only a few things that can make it through with the water, and most of those things aren't a problem here in the United States, even in grimy lake water. I'll probably properly boil the water at camp before filtration. I also found a way to pump water through it by pressurizing the bottle through the ventilation hole. I'll be more than happy to share while we're at camp if others need some purified water.  I'm sure others will also be willing to help.

Random Tunage:
The Prodigy - Fire
Andain - Promises (Myon & Shane 54 Summer Of Love Mix)

Bicycle Camping at Middle Creek - July 30, 2011

Well, that was fast. I mumbled the words "bicycle camping" and a few folks had jumped on it. Mark your calendars.

We're going to be roughing it this time. Middle Creek Lake in Louisburg, KS has no showers, electricity, flushing toilets or drinking water on site. There are some convenience stores on the way out and back, but nothing really close to the campsites.

People will be coming from various parts of town, but I propose those who wish to convoy to the lake meet at the Overland Park Arboretum just west of US-69 on 179th street at Noon on Saturday.  I plan on riding east from the arboretum to Metcalf, then heading straight south almost exactly 20 miles to the campsite.

Other than that, there's no defined route, no actual "start time" or anything of the sort, so feel free to join us later in the day. Just get yourself and your gear to the lake on July 30th and camp with other cyclists. It sounds like some participants may enjoy an "extended" gravel detour (maybe not as hardcore as last year?) on the way to camp, while others head straight to the lake.

We'll begin our return trip after breakfast on Sunday morning.

These things are always awesome, because there are many different ways to prepare the bike, shelter, food, cooking, and entertainment and everyone has a different technique. People learn cool tricks from the other participants on trips like this. I'm actually looking forward to overcoming the drinking water challenge and seeing how others do it. You may want to think about bringing several extra bottles for water at the camp site, or peruse the various backpacking options for acquiring safe drinking water. I'll probably go the "filtered water bottle" route and boil the water before filtration.

If you've never done anything like this before, don't worry. It's easier than it looks, as long as you have a bike that can carry food and shelter. Feel free to ask questions and discuss the event in the comments. Invite friends. The more, the merrier. We had 11 folks at a similar event in 2009.


I'm calling this a rain-or-shine event. I don't mind camping in the rain, or riding in it this time of year.

Off-roading, Bike camping

Before I continue, I should mention that we spent most of our time yesterday with our heavily-loaded bikes pointed South, into an 18-25 MPH headwind. Keep that in mind as you read this.

It wasn't exactly an S24O trip. I left at 8 in the morning to ride to church yesterday, since it's close to the Price Chopper. Locked up at church:


At about noon, though, I left for Price Chopper, went inside and scored a quick lunch at the deli. Shortly thereafter, Randy pulled up. Randy wasn't going to be able to camp with us, but he's going on a week-long bike tour soon and wanted to shake down his new gear, namely his front rack and pannier setup. His plan was to ride to Hillsdale Lake with us then return home. Soon, commuterDude showed up. This was who RSVPd. It'd be a small group, but it would afford us a lot of flexibility on route, schedule and whatnot.



I recalled a shortcut through Spring Hill that Randy showed me last time we went out this way, and asked him to take us along a similar route outbound. We'd end up taking Ridgeview to 207th, then west to Woodland, before winding through some residential stuff to get through Spring Hill. We'd barely touch the main drag through town (Webster) before hopping on Victory Road, which turns to gravel just south of town.


Victory doesn't cut all the way through, though. The first time I did this S24O, I made a quick stop by the railroad bridge on 239th which was about 1/8 mile out of the way, then went West on 239th. Our group stopped for a quick break in the shade by the bridge.


Overhead, we heard something. We thought it may have been a railroad maintenance truck. It certainly wasn't a train. We walked up to see what was above the bridge. Lo and behold, there was an un-used railbed alongside the existing track. We may have heard a four-wheeler, for all I know. At first glance, this railbed looked a bit like a rails-to-trails path, maybe a bit rougher. We decided to go for it. We took a little access road to get to it, and didn't see any signs or gates stating we couldn't use it. Randy is using a Long Haul Trucker with 1.95" tires. He's The Dirt Bum, for crying out loud. He does this all the time. cDude and I, though, were quickly descending into a habit of pushing the limits of our bikes. Modern bicycle marketing being what it is, we were using "the wrong kind of bike" for this stuff. It's not so apparent in this photo, but as we got further south, we'd encounter track ballast on the railbed, made of large chunks of flint, slate and limestone. Our skinny little tires would wobble hither to yon, searching for solid ground below the boulders as our high-pressure road tires launched some of the smaller rocks out like bullets with god-awful noises. Ping! Thwack!


After a few miles, we ended up at a dead-end railroad crossing near Columbia Rd. No idea what it was there for, but we crossed the tracks and hit more gravel.


There was an interesting abandoned bridge just off Columbia Rd that appears to be a historic bridge for the same road from God-knows-how-long-ago.


A little better picture of it, but I should have backtracked up the road a bit to get a better shot.


We continued south to get to 255th St in the heart of old downtown Hillsdale Kansas. We'd stop at the convenience store to fill our bottles up, and that's when "Underbiking" happened.

Usually, we'd head west to the lake, but we continued south on Hedge Lane (old KC Road) and found more gravel on 271st. We rode that out to Woodland Rd, which featured some not-so-subtle hills. In these parts, there are maybe 20 people who have any legitimate need to use the road. It's all farmland.


Once we got to 287th street, Woodland ostensibly ended with a "Minimum Maintenance Required" sign. As cDude put it, "Their idea of maintenance was to put that sign up a long time ago and forget about it." - I'm paraphrasing a bit, probably, but however it is he said it, I couldn't have put it any better.


I didn't get any pictures of the sloppier parts of this road. It continues on for about a mile, and parts of woodland are impassable for any 4-wheel vehicle not purpose-built for mudbogging. We, on our trusty two-wheel steeds were able to navigate around the behemoth mud puddles, but both cDude and I found ourselves stopping a few times to clear mud out of our fenders and low-clearance road brake calipers. 3 or 4 times, my own bike completely clogged up and neither front nor rear wheel would spin at all. The muddy trail turned west, placing us on a ruttier and rockier section of "road" that is supposed to be 295th St. These vestigial roads have long out-lived their usefulness. They go nowhere and are needed by no one. They're enjoyed by off-roaders of all types, though. Yesterday, that was us. We'd hit Victory road, where suddenly the gravel was even again. After the previous section, it might as well have been the Bonneville Salt Flats for all I was concerned.

We veered south to 299th St and went west, crossing the southern dam of Miola lake, where lots of people were enjoying the long weekend. I was already completely out of water and had borrowed a bottle from cDude. We stopped at an RV station and used their drinking water refill nozzle to refill our bottles and hose our bikes off to clear out enough of the clay mud from our brakes and fenders to allow our wheels to spin freely again. I was also burning up and covered in salty sweat crystals. I took the liberty of hosing myself down with the nozzle. Might as well, right? I think Randy got a picture of that.

We hopped over to Hedge lane, then weaved our way through various rural byways and another stretch of minimum-maintenance stuff that doesn't even show up on a map, featuring a weathered, repeatedly repaired creek bridge that's obviously failed more than once under the weight of crossing vehicles. My wheels clogged once more, and we finally made it to Lake Rd, where the entrance to Hillsdale State Park was waiting for us. Randy parted ways, while cDude and I forged onward to the camp site, where both of us leaned our bikes on the first available lean-worthy structure, and ceremoniously cracked open the beer we brought along. Somehow, his was still cold. My Boulevard Wheat was in a pannier water bottle holder. It was warm and covered in dust, but it was still the best beer I've ever tasted.

My wife showed up to hang out with us at the camp site for a while just as we finished setting up our tents and locking the bikes up. We unloaded a few more cold beers from the cooler, and settled in for supper. Me? Reconstituted freeze dried stuff. Dude made bean burritos. We both used soda-can alcohol stoves.


As night fell, we found some abandoned fire wood to set up. I carved a skewer, and we roasted some marshmallows I'd packed away.


We had some good conversation, cleaned up and hit the sack pretty early. I never touched the fishing gear I packed, and kind of wished I had packed a camp pad in its place to go with my bedroll. Lessons learned for future trips. It didn't bother me much last year, but I must be getting old. This is a 64-second-long exposure of our galaxy's core, as taken with a cheap point-and-shoot camera.


Breakfast was two tylenol, french-pressed coffee and scrambled eggs. cDude fashioned a brew basket out of a PBR can, and used a drip filter and coffee grounds he brought from home. Once coffee was made, he did oatmeal. Why didn't I think of oatmeal?!


By 9:00, we had everything packed up, and rolled out shortly there after. To say we took a different way home is an understatement! A quick stop by Lake & Dale again, and we bee-lined it home from there. You can still see the clay mud on my tires. I wrapped all of my dirty clothes up in my commute towel and lashed it down. They were muddy and damp, no sense in putting that stuff in my panniers.


A carbon-riding, camelbak-wearing roadie blasted past us on old KC Road, and I exchanged greetings with him. He was thankful for the tailwind heading north. He got up the road a ways, and I started taking my pull. We had a pretty good clip going, but when I ran out of steam, the race was on. I watched cDude reel the poor guy in. I really wish I could have been there to see the look on his face, being passed by a guy on a loaded steel bike.

I eventually caught up with Keith in Spring Hill. From there, it was an easy ride back with most of the hills behind us and a good push from the south winds. At 159th and Ridgeview, Keith and I bumped fists and parted ways and I continued home, using a good part of my usual commute route.

Stats:
Pack Weight: 27.2 pounds
Distance: 82.8 miles
Elapsed Rolling Time: 7h 17m 14s
Average speed: 11.36 MPH
Max speed: 28.1 MPH

June 26th - Family Friendly Bike Camping

This is just a new post, since things changed.



Mark your calendars: June 26th. This will be another caravan-style bicycle camping trip, but with a twist! The family's invited, even if they have to drive. Especially if they have to drive, although I encourage car-pooling if it can be arranged. I'll leave that up to you.

Cyclists should plan to depart from Lenexa Senior Center at 2:00 PM.
Depart from South Olathe Price Chopper at 3:30 PM.
Likely arrive to Hillsdale sometime around 5:00-5:30 PM.

We will try to snag the campsites near Crites Boat Ramp again. It's walking distance from real bathrooms and showers, and spitting distance from running water and "Brick Outhouse" style facilities.

This is not a rain-or-shine event, though. If it looks like it'll be stormy beyond gentle rain, there won't be a Plan B. It'll simply be canceled.

Basically, I'd like this event to be one your families can come along for, even if they don't ride. Accommodations could be a bit more lavish if you'd like your non-cycling relatives to bring out the propane camp stoves, the coolers of beer and hamburger patties, the bigger tents, the kids and the dog. If the family's not interested but you'd still like to ride out, you're welcome to show up solo, too!

If you want to haul some stuff on the bike and have the family haul the rest, go ahead.

If you'd rather ride your racing bike with no cargo, that's cool, too.

If you want to ride down with us, then throw your bike on the back of your team car to get home, do it!

Stay all day Sunday if you want. Go fishing with the kids, try the walking trail or hit the swimming beach. It's your choice, but I'd like a focus on family fun with bikes in the background.

The return trip may be less convoy-ish than the ride out to Hillsdale. My guess is that many of us will be riding our bikes back to town, though, if you feel better riding in a group.

P.S. a more minimalist trip is in the works for the first or second weekend in September. It will be much more focused on the self-support and S24O aspect, like the last Hillsdale trip I planned. Venue, date, and times are still kind of up-in-the-air on that one. Suggestions welcome.

Who's in? Please RSVP by emailing me (contact form at the right side of my site) or by commenting here that you'll be going.