Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project #199: Preparing for a Solo Bike Tour of the C&O (mp3).

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A Solo Bike Tour of the C&O Towpath

Going fully self-supported on the C&O
Intention is to carry everything I need for 4 full days
Round trip to my cabin in WV and back – about 65 miles per day
Will have a roof over my head for night 2

Why this?
I had previously scheduled vacation for 3 days, but I’m going to knock it to 2 and go into the weekend
I will be starting in DC and given a few factors, ending in DC is easier on family dynamics than ending in WV and having Kimberly drive out herself with all the dogs and cat
We’ve been doing essentially long weekends at the cabin, but are looking to shift to be in WV more than DC for the near term… and this helps facilitate that

What’s the C&O looking like?
Great question. I haven’t been riding it much  but it’s been an exceedingly mild winter so trail conditions are likely solid
There’s a low-level water crossing at MM52 that by all accounts is just fine
Rain hitting the trail before I ride so I expect it to be a little wet, but nowhere near the mud bog it could have been
Water is out at the campsites so I’ll need to haul my own and fill at the limited taps along the way
I expect the trail to be unusually busy by day users near DC, Great Falls, Brunswick and Hancock but very, very quiet otherwise. Could be wrong, but  I’m guessing I’ll be the only camper out there.

What gear?
Tuned up the Safari and it’s good to go. It needs some work after, which I’m looking forward to getting at my LBS.
I’ll be riding heavy for three reasons

• I’m bringing my big stove because of the emphasis on cooking and cleaning (huge green propane cylinder – the “green dragon” I’ve called it)
• Lots of food and water to avoid needing to go to the limited options (Point of Rocks and Brunswick are the only truly easy access points in this section of the trail after leaving the DC area
• Layers and wet weather gear – looks like I will definitely have rain and the temp swings from early morning to late afternoon mean wool layers and full rain gear

Two panniers
Probably two dry bags (why not!)
Considered dragging the trailer for this one, but the low water crossing makes that a hassle. Maybe next time.
No Belle Starr for this one… looks like conditions are a little too adverse for her narrow comfort range!

Pack List

tent
sleeping bag
pad
pump
spare tube
multitool and tool bag
spork
Cook kit and Green Dragon stove
Camp soap and cleaning towel
Coffee kit (aeropress or drip? Not sure)
Bandannas x3
Camp towel
Wool layers
Puffer vest
Rain jacket and hood
Rain pants
LS shirt
Rain gloves
underwear x2
socks x2 (smart wool and waterproof)
toiletry bag (incl. ibuprofin, caffeine and electrolyte pills)
hats (cold hat plus ball cap)
helmet
batteries and cables (new wireless charging battery)
Headphones (wired and Airpods)
iPhone
water bottles x3
water bladder
adult beverages
Ottolock
wallet
Sleep clothes
Flip Flops

Food
Knorr sidekicks
Block of cheese
Pop tarts
Trail mix
Tortillas
PB

What are the rules on this one?
Barring emergencies or mechanicals I can’t overcome, I’m not going into towns or shops – I think one could in these social distancing times but reducing to zero is best across the board.
If I run into folks on the trail I’ll interact as usual, just from a distance. Especially in camp.
Night 2 will be at the cabin, particularly if the ride ends up being wet.

While it’s no Missing Link tour of Southern CA, this is a trip I’ve always wanted to do… a round trip to my cabin using no fossil fuels, and just my two legs and a bike.

SprocketShift Happy Hour

Hey, let’s have a drink together! The next SprocketShift Happy Hour is TBA. More information on how to join here and watch the last two we’ve done.

Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project 197: Xtracycle Touring with Kids (mp3).

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

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Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

Housekeeping

Yeah, I won’t be going to CA as planned, and The Missing Link tour is postponed (but will happen eventually). Pedalshift 199 will include the process that brought me to this decision and reveal my plans for that time. I think there’s a responsible bike touring alternative, and if it’s happening I’ll reveal it on that episode.

SprocketShift Happy Hour

Hey, let’s have a drink together! The next SprocketShift Happy Hour is FRIDAY 3/20 at 8pm.ET/5pm PT.

More information on how to join here.

The Interview: Maggie Lonergan on Bicycle Touring Norway

Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project 197: Xtracycle Touring with Kids (mp3).

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

Housekeeping

Hey, sadly the  event-cancelling-virus struck the National Bike Summit and I won’t be presenting. To be clear, this was absolutely the responsible choice. Hope to present next year!

Fellow Star Wars nerds! I have the Disney audio but need some time to distill it. Look for that later this month.

The Missing Link bike tour

Hey, tour-cancelling-virus-willing, I’ll be flying to southern California with my Brompton to ride the one piece of the California coast I missed in my 2014 tour! Possible meetup opportunity in San Diego – it would be a Friday night 3/27 probably in the Gaslamp area. If you’re interested check out the details at pedalshift.net/sandiego and give me a heads up so I can be in touch. Not a late night because this guy has a stupid early train!

The Interview: Cyrus Farivar on Xtracycle Touring with Kids

Cyrus [“suh-ROOS”] is an investigative tech reporter at NBC News in San Francisco.

In addition to being a radio producer and author, Cyrus was most recently a senior tech policy reporter at Ars Technica. He was also previously the sci-tech editor and host of “Spectrum” at Deutsche Welle English, Germany’s international broadcaster, from 2010-2012.

Cyrus is the author of multiple books, including Habeas Data (2018) and The Internet of Elsewhere (2011). Praised by The New Yorker, among others, Habeas Data takes a look at legal cases that have had an outsized impact on surveillance law in America. His first book focuses on the history and effects of the Internet on different countries around the world.

In 2019, Cyrus and Olivia Solon won the Technology Reporting award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter for their coverage of Silicon Valley, including reporting on privacy, facial recognition, and more.

Two years earlier, Cyrus and Joe Mullin also won the Technology Reporting award from SPJ NorCal for their August 2016 story: “Stealing bitcoins with badges: How Silk Road’s dirty cops got caught.”

Cyrus has also reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, The Economist, Wired, The New York Times, Slate, and many others.

He received his B.A. in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

He lives in Oakland, California.

Twitter: @cfarivar

Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project 196: The Kessel Run takeaways and The Missing Link bike tour (mp3).

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

Live Video Replay

Housekeeping

Hey, I’m presenting at the National Bike Summit’s Active Transportation Leadership Retreat March 14th. National Bike Summit is the biggest collection of bike advocates and it happens in DC. This will be the first time I’m lawyering it up in the bike advocacy space, so it’s going to be fun.

Fellow Star Wars nerds! I have the Disney audio but need some time to distill it. Look for that in March.

The Kessel Run: A Central Florida Bike Tour Takeaways

Reminder to check out part 1 in PSP 194 and part 2 in PSP 195.
1 – Central Florida doesn’t expect a bike tour, but I’ve found it to be better cycling than its reputation

2- Urban riding is great training for bicycle touring amongst motorized vehicles

3 – Disneyworld and Airports: not super bike friendly unless they are

4 – Ride With GPS is a fantastic tool for riding in “new to me” places, but spending some time with Google Streetview can demystify spots that look gnarly on a map

5 – I don’t think I’ll ever stick to one style of touring and Florida proves me why

6 – Four seasons FTW

7 – Ultralight does not mean ultrastupid – I got lucky with the way the rain went considering I forgot my rain pants. Double check and use a pack list, don’t just assume everything is in your bags like I did!

8 – Off-road opportunity in Florida appears to be abundant

9 – Bromptons are great, and require less maintenance but I got very lucky on the seat post (broken clamp before, itty bitty screw after)

10 – Yes, you can absolutely ride with a lightsaber on your rear rack.

Unveiling The Missing Link bike tour

I’ll be flying to southern California with my Brompton to ride the one piece of the California coast I missed in my 2014 tour and connect two dots between Anaheim and Oceanside that I bypassed by train. It’s a short link in an otherwise uninterrupted chain. It’s the missing link.

2014 ride was dominated by camping but towards the end there is a long stretch of southern CA with limited camping. Combine a dwindling budget with a reticence to deal with a question mark of Camp Pendleton access, I decided to bike inland for a cheaper hotel stay, add some miles through Los Angeles, and take the train past Camp Pendleton to get to  the next campground.

Camp Pendleton access has been an issue since 9/11 and in 2014 the system was practically a day-to-day assessment I didn’t want to deal with.

Now, the system in place is arguably worse, but the way around the base is clearer – Interstate 5 is legally available for the 6 or so miles. Permits are available at the south gate, but I’ve decided to just go with the flow and ride 30 minutes rather than get a ride down to get the permit and go back north again. Arguably a minor challenge—the cycling should be easy, but the zooming cars are a concern— but with wide shoulders I feel comfortable with the choice.

On my train ride down in 2014 the views from the Surfliner made me regret the decision to be on a train. Now I get a chance to ride the coast along  a truly iconic stretch of beaches in Orange County and south.

Will be riding the Brompton and forgoing camping again (there aren’t great options in this stretch).

Will tackle this in two days of about 50ish miles each. First stretch includes a lot of trail time along the Santa Ana River to the coast to rejoin the Pacific Coast route. Then I’ll be sticking on that for the ride south.

I plan to wrap up in San Diego but the link completes well north of there in Oceanside, which gives me an out via a fast forward if the need arises. Whether I wrap up in SD or Oceanside, I have a train to take me back up to Burbank to fly back, because LAX is apparently a disaster these days

I never considered my 2014 ride to be incomplete—ride your ride I always say. But I do look forward to completing the missing link.

Possible meetup opportunity in San Diego – it would be a Friday night 3/27 probably in the Gaslamp area. If you’re interested check out the details at pedalshift.net/sandiego and give me a heads up so I can be in touch. Not a late night because this guy has a stupid early train!

Episode 200

• You may have noticed the numbers of the show are getting tantalizingly close to 200.
• Episode 200 will be Part 1 of The Missing Link.
• Considering the earliest episodes of the show were preparation and execution of my 2014 ride, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate 200 episodes of the pod than this tour.
• Look for it in early April.

Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project 195: The Kessel Run Florida Bike Tour Part 2 (mp3).

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

The Kessel Run: A Central Florida Bike Tour, Part 2

Hey it’s the direct download link for  The Pedalshift Project 194: The Kessel Run Florida Bike Tour Part 1 (mp3).

Subscribe/Follow The Pedalshift Project:
RSS – iTunes – Overcast – Android – Google Podcasts – Stitcher – TuneIn – IHeartRadio – Spotify

Reach out to the show via email, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget to join the newsletter too.

Have some bike touring or overnight stories to share? Send your pics, audio or a quick tweet – all welcome. Email the show at pedalshift@pedalshift.net or call the lightly-used Pedalshift voicemail line at (202) 930-1109

The Kessel Run: A Central Florida Bike Tour, Part 1