Best of luck Keith! Was great to see you and thanks again for your help on the initiation!

Thanks Susan. Continued safe journeys to you as well.

Wishing you all the best on your journey, Keith. I look forward to following along

I'm still a relative neophyte in the arena of fly-and-ride touring. Thanks for the pro tip, borne of obvious experience.

Hi-

Well spotted sir, and correctly diagnosed. My seat mast removes for packing but has no hinge. It's the 2007 edition of the New World Tourist; IIRC (which is a stretch) I think the folding seat mast was specific to the Pocket Rocket / Pocket Llama models in those days.

The NWT isn't really targeted at the daily commuter / living-in-a-small-space crowd so it's not designed for easy foldability to minimum compact size so much as it is designed to be able to fly with a minimum of at-the-airport drama.

I haven't paid enough attention to your journals to be able to recall whether you're on NWTs as well, though Ihave noted the drop bars. Yours are newer than mine because I don't think disc brakes were an option 15 years ago; had they been I'd almost certainly have signed up for them.

An IPA works better in my experience.

I puzzled over this photo for awhile trying to figure out what looked odd about it. It’s your seat mast, which isn’t hinged so that you can just fold it forward when the bike collapses. Is this new? How long ago did you get your bike?

Hi Kelly

Seven days to the start of riding. I am already in Bend this week for a family reunion. When it ends next Saturday I will hit the road.

I see you are seven days out from the start. Is that a riding start, or a traveling start?

I bet you are excited to get going!

Done.

Caffe Mingo! Tell me more.

I have friends who carried what they called "a breakfast lock", similar to what you describe. They help honest people stay honest in the face of what might otherwise become temptation.

Honestly I'm waffling about whether to carry a lock at all but believe in the end it would be better to do that than be inconvenienced by finding myself stranded because someone had made off with my clown bike.

Camping on ten pounds of gear? Their shelter must've been made of spider silk and dreams, their sleeping gear of gossamer and dandelion fluff. Hell, my panniers alone weigh eight pounds empty.

I can't add a photo in the comments section - so can't show you my skinniest of skinny cables. On my first long tour, one of the other participants pulled out a thin plastic coated cable with a tiny padlock (suitcase style). John said that it was strong enough to stop the casual thief and that a thief who planned to steal a bike would have the means to cut a much more substantial cable, so why bother carrying one. I had to think about that for a minute, then had to agree with him. I have often been laughed at for my very lightweight bicycle security system. You know what - that's a good story. Good memories. I will take a photo of that and put it in my journal.

I'm totally in with you on being the weight ninja. I've enjoyed touring far more since I quit carrying a camp chair, etc. The less weight I carry uphill, the more fun it is.

I have to have full disclosure - I often give Jacinto things to carry for me. He carries all of the breakfast fixings, the spare tire, the chain cleaning stuff (even though he has a belt drive).

At one point I weighed my gear and it was 11 pounds. I was shooting for 10. I had read a journal that year of two guys doing the TransAm, camping. They carried less than ten pounds each. I don't know how. They inspired me to really watch my items on the bike.

I'm rambling. You can tell it is my day off. I'll go photograph that lock and cable now.

Kelly

Hi Kelly-

Since I ride an upright, I can protect the seat with a regular plastic shopping bag, if it comes to it.

I too have made Tyvek footprints for each of my tents; I'll make one for the new tent by cutting down the one I just made for my Half Dome, probably, and make a new one for the Half Dome later when I want to use it again. Or there's still time to try to scrounge a fresh scrap of Tyvek from an obliging construction site, of which there are many in my area.

I'm currently on an anti-weight anti-bloat jihad, as you know from reading my various entries here and elsewhere. Leaving the big tarp behind is part of that purge; here's hoping that it turns out to be a decision in my favor. I don't want to immediately reverse the gains and momentum I've got by starting to add back in things that I elected to eliminate, and which helped me cut the weight to begin with.

My current projection is that I'll have 37 nights (out of a total of 86 planned) sleeping outdoors. The majority of those will be in the tent but it's also possible that I may sleep on the picnic tables in a town park pavilion for a few of them. Assuming that I do not get rain on every one of those nights, the importance of having a tarp as supplemental cover diminishes in direct proportion to the number of dry nights.

It's not on the gear list, but I will be carrying a cable lock so I can secure the bike when it's either left unattended or when I'm sleeping (which amounts to the same thing, given how deeply I tend to sleep). That reduces the need to conceal the bike, at least in my mind.

On my Alaska trip I carried a 5x7 silnylon tarp to cover my bike in the rain. I was concerned about my recumbent seat getting wet. My recumbent is 8 feet long, I should have purchased the larger size, but it was significantly more expensive. I did not have long enough guy lines, so was only able to use the tarp a couple of times. It did rain plenty.

We've carried the tarp on a couple more trips, when we anticipated rain. It's also good for covering the bike away from prying eyes looking for easy opportunity.

Those might be other uses for your Tyvek.

I had a self made footprint for my tent that I cut a couple of feet long (still under the vestibule) on the entry side. That was perfect for entering and not getting the tent dirty.

I'm really looking forward to reading your journal!