T minus 5 days and counting

Well this morning was spent torturing the legs. Did about 70 miles on the road unloaded which I think roughly approximates 35 miles offroad loaded I'll try to cover each day. Of course elevation gain/loss will also greatly determine how much ground I cover.

Spent the afternoon packing up my drop ship boxes.

Dirt Squirt International Tour Lauch Party

Thanks to everyone who attended the launch party last Saturday. The tshirt were great as were the jello shots. Whoever has the pic of me with the the "cycling girls" please forward it on. I wanted to add that one to this post.

$1000 of Dehydrated Food

Finishing up my drop ships of which there will be approximately 15. Each care package will include 3-4 days of food. Specifically items that are hard to come by in the middle of nowhere.

The list included:

168 powerbars
168 balance bars
15 lbs of gorp (nuts, fruit, reeses pieces)
5 lbs of oatmeal
Handiwipes
Mini TP rolls
Lithium batteries
5 lbs beef jerky
56 freeze dried dinners (beef stroganoff, lasagna, chicken with rice, etc)
40 freeze dried breakfasts (eggs mainly)
Suntan lotion in travel size containers
mini toothpaste

Working my way home

Finished my first 14 teener at pikes yesterday. Drove back to Dallas today. Headed to Austin tomorrow to start final prep. Enough friends have voiced their concern over how late I'm starting my ride that I'm going to upgrade my sleeping bag to give me a little more margin for the cold.

2 weeks till departure.

Alive and Well in Denver

Staying with my friends Tiffany and Jamie north of Denver. Planning to do some Yoga around noon and get a ride in this afternoon. They live in Broomfield which has 50 miles of paved riding and running path. Love the infrastructure in this area.

Back from the Hills

Testing is going well. The bike is holding up with the total pack load. I'm a bit suprised by how much water I'm using in a day. Rode up Tuesday with about 200 oz of water, which weighs about 12 lbs. Within 24 hours I drank all of it. Some of it was used for cooking dinner (freeze dried lasagna) and breakfast (oatmeal and coffee). Yesterday morning, I stopped at a stream and filled up my bottle and added a few drops of aqua mira water purification. I guess it worked because I didn't get sick drinking it. It looks like I'm going to need to get good at finding water sources in the woods, since 1 day of water is about all I can reasonably carry given the weight.

Headed to Denver tomorrow to stay with friends and train. Planning to hike pikes peak on Monday morning.

Heading to to the Black Hills National Forest Tomorrow

Tuesday night and Wednesday night, I'll be camping out in the Black Hills National Forest. Some final gear testing before heading to Denver on Friday.

I'll be sure to log some gps tracks.

My current challenge is trying not to get overloaded with tech gadgets on this ride. Already have camera, mp3, gps, cell phone, and SPOT transmitter. So roughly 2 lbs of gadgets, plus another lb of batteries and charging paraphenalia.

I'm hoping to eliminate the GPS and cell phone for my Peru trip in January. I'd like to get my total pack weight under 8 lbs for Peru. So I can trail run with everything on my back. But I digress. One trip at a time.

First GPS test track successful

Take a look at the "where is Scott" link at the top of the page. I took the tracker out this morning on my ride to Mt. Baldy south of Spearfish, SD. The unit is supposed to send a signal every 10 minutes. Looks like it was sucessful almost 70% of the time. I was out for 4.5 hours which should have been 27 hits. But it looks like I got about 20. Not great, but better than I was hoping for given some of the reviews of the product.

The other nice thing about the SPOT transmitter is that it has a 911 feature which will allow me to transmit a distress signal in the event of an emergency. It also comes with an international extraction policy (probably need to read the fine print on this) which will be nice when I'm in South America early next year.

Rough Schedule

Town Population Mileage Target Date Post office Food
Banff, AB 7135 0 9/3/2008 yes yes
Elkford, AB 2589 109.4 9/6/2008 yes yes
Sparwood, AB 3812 145.9 9/7/2008 yes yes
Fernie, AB 4611 165 9/8/2008 yes yes
Elko, AB 163 185.9 9/8/2008 yes yes
Grasmere, AB 150 213.4 9/9/2008 yes yes
Roosville, MT 220.9 9/9/2008 no yes
Eureka, MT 1017 231.1 9/9/2008 yes yes
Whitefish, MT 5032 322.3 9/12/2008 yes yes
Columbia Falls, 3645 332.4 9/12/2008 yes yes
Big Fork, MT 1421 363.9 9/13/2008 yes yes
Condon, MT 406.9 9/14/2008 no yes
Seeley Lake, MT 1436 465.6 9/16/2008 yes yes
Lincoln, MT 1100 527.2 9/18/2008 yes yes
Helena, MT 25,780 589.8 9/19/2008 yes yes
Basin, MT 628.7 9/20/2008 yes yes
Butte, MT 34,606 657.3 9/21/2008 yes yes
Wise River, MT 709.9 9/23/2008 yes yes
Elkhorn Hot Springs, MT 742.5 9/24/2008 no yes
Polaris, MT 749 9/24/2008 yes yes
Grant, MT 778.6 9/25/2008 no yes
Lima, MT 242 847.3 9/27/2008 yes yes
Lakeview, MT 899.5 9/28/2008 no yes
Macks Inn/Island Park,Mt934.6 9/29/2008 yes yes
Ashton, ID 1129 977.8 9/30/2008 yes yes
Moran Junction, WY 1040 10/2/2008 yes yes
Pinedale, WY 1412 1174.3 10/6/2008 yes yes
Boulder, WY 1190.1 10/7/2008 yes yes
South Pass City, WY 1260.8 10/9/2008 no yes
Atlantic City, WY 1265.2 10/9/2008 no yes
Rawlings, WY 8538 1399.2 10/12/2008 yes yes
BLM3422-map end 1429.6 10/13/2008 no no
Slater, CO 1471.6 10/15/2008 yes no
Steamboat Lake, CO 1508 10/16/2008 no yes
Clark, CO 500 1516.5 10/16/2008 yes no
Steamboat Spring9815 1534.3 10/16/2008 yes yes
Kremmling, CO 1578 1611.3 10/19/2008 yes yes
Silverthorne, CO3196 1661.8 10/20/2008 yes yes
Frisco, CO 2443 1667.7 10/20/2008 yes yes
Breckenridge, CO2408 1679.3 10/20/2008 yes yes
Como, CO 1696.2 10/21/2008 yes yes
Hartsel, CO 1728.2 10/22/2008 yes yes
Salida, CO 1774.7 10/23/2008 yes yes
Poncha Springs, CO466 1780.3 10/23/2008 yes yes
Sargents, CO 1817.7 10/24/2008 yes yes
La Garita, CO 1910.3 10/27/2008 no yes
Del Norte, CO 1705 1928.1 10/28/2008 yes yes
Platoro, CO 1977 10/29/2008 no yes
Horca, CO 2000 10/30/2008 no yes
Vallecitos, NM 2088.1 11/1/2008 yes no
El Rito, NM 2104.5 11/2/2008 yes yes
Abiquiu, NM 2122.5 11/2/2008 yes yes
Cuba, NM 590 2200.9 11/4/2008 yes yes
Grants, NM 8806 2321.5 11/8/2008 yes yes
Pie Town, NM 2408 11/10/2008 yes yes
No Town Name 2447 11/11/2008 no yes
Mimbres, NM 2564.2 11/15/2008 yes yes
Silver City, NM 10545 2587.2 11/15/2008 yes yes
Separ, NM 2638.4 11/17/2008 no yes
Hachita, NM 2665.1 11/18/2008 yes no
Antelope Wells, NM 2711.1 11/19/2008 no no
Hachita, NM 2757.1 11/20/2008 yes no
Deming, NM yes yes

GPS link is up and working

You can now track me via satellite. I zoomed in on my current location (Wade's Place) and not only did it locate the right address, it even nailed the location down to the backyard. Try using the gps view which shows pictures (abeit a little outdated). Wade's house was built 12 months ago, but it's still showing just the pad.

I'll be riding in the black hills next week with it on so you can see some mileage. I may also take it for a run tomorrow morning.

Quick Schedule Summary:
I'm Flying to Calgary on 9/3/08 and catching the shuttle to Banff. Starting the ride on 9/4/08. At 35 mile average per day, I'll be to El Paso by the middle of November. Then I'll grab a rental car one way back home.

Preparations Have Begun

Preparations for my ride are now in full swing. I'm currently in the Black Hills of South Dakota staying with friends and testing out my gear. It looks like everything is going to fit on the bike.

My hope is that I can maintain my running training while riding the course. To do this I plan to ride without a trailer and keep my gear list minimal. The idea is that 2 or 3 days a week I'll run 15-25 miles of the course and ride the rest. We'll see how that goes.

The link to my current location should be up by next Monday or Tuesday, so you can keep tabs on my location.