This blog will focus on touring lighter and less encumbered. I am not an expert; I only know what works for me. I’ve been into ultralight backpacking for many years and now that I am beginning to tour more by bicycle I wanted to apply some of the same ideas. There’s very little information and resources out there specifically for ultralight bike touring, but plenty for backpackers. Fortunately, much of the same gear and techniques work well for both. I hope you enjoy and visit often. Please send any links, pictures or ideas you would like to share to velohobo@gmail.com Thanks, Jack

Skills: How to Poop in the Woods

Picture this.  You’re struggling up some mountain pass or cruising down some country road when you are overcome by that all too familiar, twisting screwdriver stabbed in the gut pain.  You, dear friend, have got to go potty, and soon!  You frantically look around for a service station or a trusty Mickey D’s, but no, nothing but woods on either side. 

Not to fret, with a little training and some basic equipment you too can poop with confidence in the most primitive of settings.  Called ‘Wilderness Pooping’ by some (or X-Pooping: see ESPN’s 2011 summer X-Games line up), pooping in the woods is nothing new to avid hikers, hunters and the few holdouts for indoor plumbing. 

Without being too graphic, here’s how it’s done.  Find a secluded spot at least two hundred feet from any water source, stream, pond or lake.  Why so far from water?  Because poo can kill ya, or at least make you very ill.  It seems in God’s infinite wisdom, he put deadly bacteria in our gut.  Besides, pooping next to water someone might drink is just nasty.  So don’t do it. 

Next you will need to dig a cathole at least six inches deep.  Similar to what cats do in their litter box; hence the term.  A lightweight but sturdy plastic garden trowel is perfect for the job.  Try not to scatter the dirt.  Make a pile of dirt next to the hole.  You will need it to fill in after.

Now you are ready to poop.  Imagination fades to black. Fade in. Great, you’re all done.  Just cover the hole and walk away.  If a car passes as you’re walking out of the woods, look around innocently, as if you’d stop to bird watch or admire the wild flowers.

Here’s a list of the basic equipment needed:

• Garden Trowel
• Bio-degradable toilet paper
• Hand sanitizer (also doubles as a fire starter)
• Stuff sack

Basic Stuff

Featured Rider: Peter van Glabbeek ~”The Cycling Dutchman”

Where is he now?  Last March our drought stricken corner of the world was blessed by the sky gods with a torrential deluge of the wet stuff.  With it, a Dutchman named Peter washed up at our doorstep.

Peter and Raquel

Our soggy weekend house guest, world traveler Peter Van Glabbeek was from Holland (and still is I suppose) and had been bike touring South America for the past two and a half years. Before his tour of South America, Peter toured Australia, Asia and parts of Europe. He had been on the road for over four years! Peter found us through WarmShowers.org. Peter mostly camps but occasionally takes a respite from his tent by taking shelter with Warm Showers hosts. We were fortunate to get a break in the weather long enough to take Peter out to ride one of our favorite local routes. Peter left early the following Monday morning to cycle the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive on his way to New York City. From there he planned to fly back to Holland and visit family before heading back out to tour Africa. 

Peter traveled very lightly carrying his kit in four very small panniers.  Many miles and years on the road had pared Peter’s kit down to only what was necessary.  All my planning and obsessing over gear weight and traveling less encumbered does not compare to four years of constant experience.  One of the great things about opening your home to Warm Showers guests is the invaluable experience they bring with them.

Peter was a great house guest and he kept us entertained with stories from the road and lessons learned from touring by bike. He was our first Warm Showers guest and the experience was rewarding. We have since hosted several other riders as they made their way to the Parkway and the beautiful Appalachian Mountains.  I’m unsure in what exotic far-flung place he is pedaling as I write this, but I hope he is safe and having fun.

 Visit Peter’s website:   Peter van Glabbeek .

 And if you’re considering becoming a Warm Showers host, go here:  Warm Showers   

 Thanks for reading, Jack

Skills: How to Throw a Rock

Stealth camping can be a fun, free and adventurous part of bike touring.  It’s a great way to save money and avoid crowded campgrounds and expensive motels.  Bear bagging is a necessary skill for anyone spending a night outdoors, but before you can hang your bag, you will need to learn to throw a rock.  People have been throwing rocks for fun and profit since the dawn of man and you’d think we would have perfected it by now.  But no; we are still plagued by the same pitfalls that our hairier ancestors faced.

This video illustrates what I’m talking about.

 

I’ve hung many bear bags over the years and here are a few tips to make the task easier:

•  Set reasonable goals.  Choose limbs that you have a reasonable chance of throwing over.  The limb doesn’t need to be the highest one in the tree.  It does need to be big enough to support the weight of your food, be clear of branches you may get tangled on and higher than a bear is tall.
• Choose smaller rocks.  The rock only needs to weigh more than the line attached to it.
• Put your rock in a glove or sock and then tie the line to the garment using a half-hitch or slip knot.  This makes attaching the rock much easier.  If you camp alot, consider sewing a small pouch just for this purpose.
• Use a water proof bag.  Not only will it keep your food dry, it will help mask the scent of your food.

 Please share any tips or experience you may have.

 Thanks, Jack

Hanging a bear bag

2009 Year in Review

a few 2009 photos 
2009 was a busy year. We toured the Outer Banks of North Carolina and 400 miles of the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway in Virgina. In between were numerous organized rides, bike camping and some cool bike excursions with friends. We hosted some incredibly interesting bicycle tourists as they passed by our way.

I started The Velo Hobo in August and almost 1,500 people have visited.  Thanks to all who have contirbuted with either an entry about yourself or a comment. I’m looking forward to a new year. If you would like to be featured or would like to promote your blog or website, just e-mail me at velohobo@gmail.com

Jack

Photographer’s Light Box

Okay, so I’m sitting here snowed in, waiting out the final few hours of my EBay auction. I’m selling all my skydiving gear, the symbol of my reckless and carefree youth, to the highest bidder.

Boredom has inspired me to do this totally off topic post. More of a ramble than a post. I’m restoring a 100 year old straight razor and I wanted to document the process with before and after photos. I needed to photograph the razor with all its warts, rust and pits in a setting with a neutral background.

The internet told me I needed a photographer’s light box. Actually the internet told me to enter my credit card number and it would send me a light box, but the internet is a tricky devil, so I built one for nothing. A cardboard box, some tissue paper, poster board I stole from one of my kids, two old spot lamps and, as the French are fond of saying, voilà!

Geneva Cutlery Corp. Pyramid Brand

Light Box

Grounded!

Coming in for my last landing

I’m officially ending over twenty years of skydiving. I know, many of you are reading this slacked jawed shaking your head saying “I’d never jump out of a perfectly good airplane” but if you saw the planes we jump from you’d be saying “I’ll never land in this piece of junk and I’m sure I smell liquor on the pilot’s breath. Let me the hell out!”

Perhaps the more sensible thing to say is, “I’d never get in that crate to begin with”.
Well anyway, it’s over. Just as soon as someone buys my rig on ebay, I’m calling it quits. Not that it hasn’t been fun. I’ve made over 1400 jumps with only 1 reserve ride. No injuries. No regrets.

Slow Down

A great apologist for capitalism, Ben Franklin, offered the world a horrific maxim: “Time is Money”; a phrase used by factory foremen to drive workers to stamp out more widgets per hour. Our language regarding time has devolved into financial terms such as “you’re wasting/saving/borrowing/spending/budgeting your time”. We can spend (sorry, couldn’t avoid it) our time mindlessly rushing to some imagined destination in the future.

How much of life do we do mindlessly? Driving, brushing our teeth, eating, “listening” to our loved ones. As cyclists we can do the same, just putting one pedal stroke in front of the other with our attention focused inward, glued to some silly schedule we’ve imposed on ourselves. Cycling can be as much an exercise in mindfulness as a mode of transportation, but it takes effort to break old habits of thinking.

I’ve taken my computer off my touring bike for just that reason. My focus was on numbers and not the experience. I was casting judgments on my performance and labeling myself slow, unfit, behind schedule. Time wasted (damn it, there I go again) looking at my computer and making calculations and not fully engaged in the wonderful experience of moving through the world under my own power. I was not being in relationship with the other people around me, in cars, walking or on bikes, and certainly not in relationship with the world I was moving through.

Here is a wonderful lecture by author Carl Honore on the topic of slow.

Enjoy, Jack

Thanks Everyone Who Has Visited

(or the one guy who has visited over 1,000 times)

If you would like to be featured on Velo Hobo, e-mail me a picture or two and a short paragraph about yourself with a link to your site if you have one.

Thanks again, Jack
E-Mail me at: velohobo@gmail.com

Funky Bike Shorts

Most cycling clothing serves only one purpose, to get you from point A to point B efficiently. Bicycle touring clothing must serve two purposes, of course the A to B thing, but also to get you into and out of Bubba Dukes Feed and Seed Store without getting beat up or offending the local church ladies.

Having clothes that can be rinsed out by hand, dry quickly and pack away in a small space is a plus as well. Bike shorts can be a problem. Chamois dry slowly and if not rinsed after a sweltering eight hour day in the saddle can turn funky. On our last tour I carried three pair of bike shorts and one pair of baggy nylon outer-shorts. That combo seemed to work well for me. Each chamois had two days to completely dry and the nylon outer short was thin enough to dry overnight.

I also carried two long sleeved quick drying white camp shirts from Campmor. They offered great sun protection and had vented backs for good air flow. A pair of thin packable hiking pants and a pair of sandals finished my touring wardrobe. I easily could have done without the hiking pants and sandals, but it was nice to have something to change into at the end of each day.

We crossed paths with a few tourists who were touring in spandex shorts and jerseys (both on and off the bike). They seemed uncomfortable and out of place in convenient stores and restaurants. I like to blend in as much as possible when I get off the bike and I think I’m more approachable if I’m not decked out like a bike racer.

I’m not saying there’s isn’t a time and place to wear more technical clothing for cycling, just that when we deck ourselves out like a spandexed version of a superhero (bananas sticking out of secret pockets, high-tech wrap around eyewear, unsightly bulge in the crotch area, aerodynamic Styrofoam hat) and walk into the local coffee shop we are sending an unspoken message: “I’m different than you, so approach with caution”. For me a big part of touring is interacting with the folks I meet along the way.

Thanks for reading, Jack

The Perfect Ultralight Bike Touring Cell Phone

Samsung Juke

I’ve been obsessing about a replacement phone for my Samsung Juke. My wireless contract has expired and the folks at Verizon will give me a free phone if I re-up with them. So I’ve combed through the Verizon website looking for a phone that fits my bicycle lifestyle. The Juke has been a great phone; small enough to fit inside a saddle bag or a pocket and weighs next to nothing. I never ride without a cell phone (although it is almost always turned off). I consider a phone to be the most important item in a first aid kit.

I’ve looked at the Casio G’z One Rock, an armor-plated water proof flip phone with some cool features that I would never use like low and high tide indicator and moon phase something-or-other. I live in the mountains so I’m hardly ever bothered by the tides and I can usually tell if the moon is full by looking at it. But still, the phone looks manly and rugged and that’s the persona I try to put out there. The Juke screams metro sexual louder than clear nail polish and face glitter, but it’s so tiny it’s easy to conceal.

It seems the current trend in cell phone technology is a move towards bigger and more complicated. I really don’t want to surf the web or watch movies on my phone. What I do want is the smallest, lightest most unobtrusive phone I can find. Unfortunately, Samsung is no longer making the Juke or at least Verizon is not offering it as an option and nothing comparable is available. So for now, I’ll hang on to my old Juke and hope Apple decides to develop an IPod Nano phone.

Jack