May 3, 2004

• Well, this weekend I did my first bicycle camping trip in over a decade.

  We did pretty light mileage – just over 40 each way, but my bike was pretty darn heavy and going through both the Mississippi and St. Croix river valleys meant quite a bit of hills.

  It was a prep trip for next month’s trip to Siren, WI which promises longer days, bigger hills, and (in some sections) harder roads. It went pretty good, so I’m feeling OK about the longer ride. I can feel that my muscles have been used, but nothing’s dying, so I think it’ll be OK.

  TheGirl hurt her knee a bit, but we’re not sure if it was from dumping her bike at an intersection or pushing the weight. I’m hoping it was the dump, but we’ll see. The weather was awesome – no rain, moderate wind, moderate sun – but it was a wee bit chilly. Fortunately, the snow storm that hit Madison WI didn’t get to us!

  STILL without my motorcycle. At this point, the Hitching Post is going to have to do some phenomenal work to recover their reputation in my eyes. I mean my bike better be spotless with platinum and titanium detailing and get 100 mpg and have a really comfy seat in order for me to feel like the hassle has been worth it. Enh. Tink, Tink, Tink, Kaboom, and all that.

  Last Friday was Critical Mass – which turned out to be quite difficult on a 7′+ bike – I didn’t realize how unstable my bike is under 8 or 9 mph because other than on big hills I seldom go that slow. Got a lot more experience with that this weekend (big hills * heavy loads / relative strength = slow speed), but I’ll be using the commuter from now on for mass.

  Unfortunately, it turns out that some of the people behaved pretty poorly and made the lot of us look like a bunch of jerks. The original complaint that brought it to my attention inspired this response on my part.

  Well, I’d better get the nose down to the grind for a couple more hours.

  • 4:39 pm
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