Shake Down Efforts

After loading up my bike and taking it out in a city park near my home, I decided that I rattled so much, there would be no need for a bear bell. To remedy this, I put vinyl tubing on the rear rack and wrapped the front rack with electrical tape and inner-tube at the point of contact with the panniers to take up the extra space in the pannier hooks. I also created a mounting bracket to bolt to the top of the front rack for a headlight. Fenders may elude me, for I can find no acceptable way to mount one to my suspension fork.  The rear tire needs one less, for the rear rack will take most spray. I have also been combing the stores to find foods which might be procured while on the GDMBR, to see how they might be seasoned, how much they make per cup of dried, whether reducing the required water has much impact, whether not draining noodle dishes is possible and whether dehydrated vegetables and mushrooms were practical. More on this in the Vermont Report.
I ventured to Vermont for 5 days to meet up with a friend and try out our gear for the GDMBR.  It was colder in Vermont than Buffalo, so my plan to spend the first night near Killington in Gifford State Park, in the Northern portion of Green Mountain National Forest, was unsuccessful.  There was still quite a lot of snow on the ground and temperatures were expected to drop to 18 degrees.  Instead I slept in a church parking lot on the West side of the park at a much lower elevation. It still dropped to about 27 degrees, but the car served as a bit of a buffer.  Note that I was still cold in my 15 degree bag on my original Thermarest, sleeping on a board suspended between the rear seat and a milk crate; ie, there was just air beneath the board. Inside the bag, I kept my Foxwear tights and Patagonia R1 fleece on, with a hat, gloves and heavy wool socks.
The next morning I tried to cycle around Chittenden Reservoir, but snowmobiles had packed the snow on the trail such that 95% had to be walked. I turned around after about 1/2 mile.
My next excursion was to return to Rutland, where volunteers have worked on the Pine Hill Park to make it a mountain bike haven.  I only spent about 1 hour there, but was quite thrilled to have such a beautiful asset available.  Pine Hill could occupy almost a full day of mountain biking. For me.
When I met up with my friend, Jamie, she began by taking me out to kill me on frozen roads.  Unfortunately whenever I see a new opportunity for taxing my rather poor mountain biking skills, I always accept fate and charge ahead. Twice I went down due to getting caught in frozen ruts.  The nice thing about crashing on ice is the total lack of road rash. You can come away with some fabulous bruises, but the ice tends to be kinder to both rider and bike.  Two things I took away from those crashes: the Patagonia down sweater did tear or show any signs of abuse, even after I decided to roll over and lie on my back as I was sliding down the hill, using it as a sled, and the extra long skewer used with Old Man Mountain rear panniers, should be cut off so it does not protrude beyond its knob.  When I got home and tried to first bend the 3/4 inch extension back and then use a hack saw to remove the bent portion, failed catestrophically. The skewer is so bent that the outside plastic of the skewer's knob broke away from the metal nut inside.  When I used vise-grips to get the nut off, the skewer was still so bent, it can not be pulled through the axle.  I will have to cut off the skewer further, thereby totally ruining the skewer. A new one is $18. Sigh.
One of the foods we tried at Jamie's house were quinoa, into which we mixed dehydrated vegetables and dried mushrooms I had powdered.  The 2 tablespoons of mushroom powder were un-noticeable, and the vegetables would required us to carry large quantities, since the chance of resupply would be slim. Next we tried a vegetarian chili mix, into which we mixed a can of beans and tomatos. Canned goods are good if you don't have to carry them far, but 2 cans for one meal gave us too much food for one sitting.  Maybe a can of beans and a tiny can of tomato sauce.  We put the resulting chili on tortillas and ate it as burritos.  The vote: forget anything we need to carry in its entirety from the beginning (dried veg), tortillas are fabulous (already knew that) and spices/hot sauce would be valuable.
We picked up Jamie's new Surly Ogre and waited while a great mechanic at Onion River Sports configured the bike and attached various parts, including a rear rack.  Fully equipped, we headed back for Green Mountain National Park.  A ranger had done a little research for me to find winter camping opportunities and trails open to bikes, but not to snowmobiles. Silver Lake CG is accessible from a trail head near Branbury State Park.  A one mile closed road takes you up to the CG, closed to motorized vehicles. There were a couple of icy patches, which were difficult to get over/around, but less than 10%  of the road was in that state. More of the road had soft, previously frozen slushy old snow.
We got up to the CG, scoped it out a bit, then pitched our tents in the host site. Dinner was two of those Lipton noodles and sauce meals.  It was nice to have a hot meal, since the temperature was dropping quickly. We cut the liquid requirement of the Lipton meal by half and it was still great.  We also boiled it and then turned it off, covered.  Still fine.
At around 7pm, we jumped into our tents, because the temperature was dropping so precipitously. At about 10pm, I told Jamie that if SHE wanted to go back to the car, we could do so at any time.  Needless to say, I was voicing my own worries.  Even with all the clothing I brought (minus my rain pants) I was cold in my 15 degree bag.  I don't know exactly how cold it got, but might guess 27 degrees, since that was what was forecasted.  On several occasions in the night, I woke up and had to rock myself to produce heat to keep warm.  When sleeping, I was warm enough.  Jamie apparently had similar problems; we were in two tents and climbing into one would have been our next resort.  We agreed that one major problem (believe it or not) was that when we slept in all our clothes, we had nothing to use as a pillow and this caused us enough discomfort to keep us awake at times.  Maybe if we had been pedaling all day, we would have been tired enough to just collapse without a pillow.
We did make it through the night, but jumped out of the tents as soon as it started to get light and went for a warming walk.  We had to break through ice at the edge of the lake that the evening before had been open water.  The walk down was now treacherous, because all of the slushy snow had frozen and unrideable. Not only was it unrideable, but it was slick and for many parts we had to bushwack through the woods with fully loaded bikes to get around sheer ice.  Only a mile. Only a mile. Only a mile.
We spent the rest of the day at Pine Hill in Rutland; dry, warm, fun.  While Silver Lake gave us a chance to test out the camping side, Pine Hill gave us a chance to try out our bike setups (without panniers). I got many chances to fall off and Jamie and I swapped bikes to see how the other half was living.  Her Ogre has 29" wheels and no suspension.  My Troll has 26" wheels, a thudbuster seat post and shock fork.  Some observations: the 29" wheels make the front suspension less necessary (but I would still want it) and probably negate the need for the Thudbuster seat post. You sit higher up on the Ogre (further for me to fall- can you believe she let me ride her brand new bike, given my history?). She has flat bars and I have butterfly bars- I didn't see any advantage either way. She has a very small tolerance between her front derailleur and tire- not sure it will ever matter.  I bought my bike thinking 26" tires are more common worldwide, but 29" are gaining ground.  In 3rd world countries, it might still matter...  Final thought- two excellent bikes.
Lastly, I will broach front lights.  I had made the mount for my light, but the guy at Onion convinced me to get a headlamp.  I have often thought of this, but didn't want to carry 2 lights, one for the bike and one for my head.  He presented a slight alternative.  Tiny LED front and back lights, which are amazingly bright and would be adequate for letting people see you.  They are light and require very little battery power. AND a headlamp for reading or doing night tasks.  Forgot them for Silver Lake, so I haven't tried them out, but I have faith...

Winter Geek
Having become more focused on my 75% travel miles by bike challenge, I did invest in one winter item to make travel more comfortable.

New purchase: booties (very dorky looking)- these are just heavyduty waterproof nylon covers; they have no insulation, but paired with my waterproof pants, they keep my feet dry. There are no solid bottoms on these, but they are extremely effective. MEC $28

In Buffalo the weather generally hovers around freezing in the winter, with February temperatures sitting in the mid-twenties. Temperature is rarely a problem. On my way out of the house w/bike, one of my children's friends asked me if it wasn't currently too cold to be cycling. I told him, "if you are cold you aren't peddling fast enough". Leaving no skin exposed is vital and insulating extremities keeps frostbite at bay.

Old purchase- reuse: Ski mittens; why people use gloves for sports which don't require fine finger control I don't understand. When your fingers are together, they keep each other warmer. I will look for/design myself new mittens; my ski mittens (though they had zippers to open the sides up) made my hands sweat. Something to keep the fingers warm, while allowing the palms to cool would be perfect. Think pit zips for the palms : ) Also, a pair of safety goggles- I priced out clear glasses made for cycling and they approached $100. The safety goggles don't look too weird, I can attach my mirror, and they cover my exposed face and eyeballs (see above). They work great.

I also now have a rescue bike. It is a low end Trek mountain bike, which was left locked to a fence about 1 week too long. Devoid of wheels and its seat/seatpost, my spouse bought me parts and now it is a happy functioning bicycle again. The bike shop told him it would be cheaper to buy a new bike... but he saw the environmental cause and rallied in time for Christmas.

For the most part, this winter has been mild. Although the temperatures have hovered around freezing, there has been little precipitation sticking on the ground. For about 9 days I was forced to take a bus, which it turns out picks me up 1 block from home and drops me 1 block from work. It is kind of nice to listen to my podcasts on the bus.

There are so many reasons to bicycle and every time you ask another commuter or bicycle errand runner (?) you hear another. I have decided to try to use a bike for 75% of my single person, non-huge item travel. This relegates the car to hauling lumber, multiple children and vacations. I do, however, use the car when getting all dressed up for a night out on the town.

Most errands can be accomplished on a bike. I have a trailer, which can be used in the summer for grocery shopping, but not in the winter. It is a Burley double. The hitch is superior to anything else I have seen, but it is made of rubber and may become brittle and snap in the cold.

A couple of years ago, I went into my local pet supply store and purchased a 40lb. bag of dog food. I had my helmet on, but the clerk asked me if I wanted him to put the bag in my car. I told him that if he didn't mind walking about 10 blocks, that would be very nice. We still laugh about this, though recognize that sometimes we are also oblivious to what is going on around us.

So how did I get it home? I have my panniers and if you lay the bag across the panniers, the weight is supported and balanced. It was very stable.

Lately I have been cheating on the 75% miles by bike by picking up the groceries on the way home from a regular deployment of children. This allows me to shop less often, because I don't have to rely on getting everything in the panniers. The big grocery store is exactly on my way home. Still cheating I suppose.

Cold and dark.
iz commented about the dark. Dark when we leave home, dark when returning. How do people handle it?
I alter my route to one even less traveled by cars. I assume that cars will not see me and ride in a way that they don't necessarily need to see me. Occasionally I ride on the sidewalk for short spells, especially if I am in a low night-time pedestrian area.
As for lights, since the city is already moderately well lit, the lights on my bike serve to alert, not brighten my way. Both front and rear lights are made by Blackburn. Both have a flashing mode, among others. The front light's steady-on mode is an excellent flashlight, a great asset if something goes wrong (also good when touring, instead of bringing one more thing).
My bike has reflectors all around, improving my visibility from the side, and I wear a pants tie down, which has reflective tape as well. Adhesive reflective tape can be purchased from car parts stores and sew or iron on tape can be purchased online from BikerHiway at a very reasonable price. You can even cut the stuff into cool shapes.