Bikepacking for Nerds

Category: Bikepacking

  • Day 2: San José del Cabo to the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains – 19.9 mi/32 km, +2270 ft/692m

    Day 2: San José del Cabo to the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains – 19.9 mi/32 km, +2270 ft/692m

    Adventure ho!

    After a quick breakfast at the hotel, I headed off to the mountains. But first, I had to navigate about 8 miles through the San José del Cabo suburbs and along Mexíco 1, the highway between San José del Cabo and La Paz, to the north. Thankfully, there’s a dirt road running parallel to the highway for much of the route, so I was able to minimize my time on the road itself. (Note: the official route has recently been reported to be closing/closed. I’m not sad that I missed multiple miles of deep, unrideable sand.)

    Adventure begins here, at the turn off from MEX1 on to the Camino Las Naranjas

    From here, the route starts a steady uphill climb, crossing arroyos that cut through the mountainous landscape. The road has a fair bit of traffic, mostly ranchers (I assume), but I did see a few families out exploring and playing in the cool water of the arroyos.

    I stopped at the first arroyo I came across for a quick break. I spoke to a local family out enjoying the day, they let me know that many of the arroyos have active streams now because of the late fall hurricane that hit this area. I headed off up the road, only to be passed by their car a few minutes later. We met again at the second arroyo. They stopped to play and make lunch, while I stopped to eat my cold soaked couscous before continuing onward.

    The first arroyo.

    Continuing a steady climb into the Sierra de la Laguna I finally reached a downhill stretch where I came across the Buddhist retreat, Tsegyalgar West. This community owns a significant amount of land in the area, signs on both sides of the road notified visitors that the area is private property for miles. About a mile after the entrance to Tsegyalgar West, I came across a beautiful arroyo with a fast flowing stream. Sometimes called, “las pozas budistas,” or, “The Buddhist Pools,” I took the opportunity to cool off in the water and refill my water supply for the evening to come.

    Las pozas budistas

    I continued on another mile or so before finding a great campsite next to another arroyo filled with flowing water. A steer laid down on the other side of the arroyo and watched me set up camp for the night. Once the sun set, about 5:45 PM, the clouds rolled in and darkness settled over everything. The heat of the day quickly faded and I went to bed before 8:30 PM.

    My campsite for the night.
    Dinner! Bagged beans, tortillas, an avocado, olives, and tequila.

    Ride With GPS route

  • Day 1: Seattle to San Jose del Cabo

    Day 1: Seattle to San Jose del Cabo

    On January 1, I left on the morning flight to San José del Cabo. I was incredibly anxious about my bike – will it make it on the flight? Would it be damaged en route?

    When I arrived in Mexico, I noticed the bag had been opened. The TSA had searched my bag. I’m fine with the bag being searched, but I’m displeased that they tried to remove my framebag, and broke a few pieces of padding between the franebag and frame, and left the bike unsecured in my bag. I have no idea what they were looking for – nothing was removed. Thankfully, nothing was damaged in transit.

    I called the Cactus Inn Hotel where I was staying, they directed me to the area just outside the terminal where the rental car agency folks wait. They had a representative there for their car rental business (Cactus Rentals) who drove me a few miles to the hotel. I checked into my simple, bare bones room before heading off to buy groceries and get dinner.

    Tacos at Taqueria el Fortachon.

    Well fed, I headed back to the hotel to rebuild my bike, repack my bags, and head off the next morning. Tequila was involved, so building the bike took longer than expected. (More on this in two days…)

    Off to bed early for my first day of riding in the morning!

    (Nota bene: All posts for this trip are being back dated to the date that they occurred, even if I’m writing a few days later.)

  • Packing List

    Packing List

    Here’s my final pack list, excluding food items:

    Sleep System

    • Appalachian Gear Company alpaca quilt liner (soft, comfy sleep sack for inside a quilt, or without it on a warmer night. 100% a comfort item!)
    • Kammok Bobcat Quilt 40F
    • Nemo Fillo Pillow w/ Pillow Strap
    • Nemo Tensor sleeping pad
    • Tarptent Rainbow DW w/ freestanding poles, tyvek ground sheet, stakes + sand stakes
    • Helinox Chair Zero & Footprint (my other comfort item!)

    Clothing

    • Long & short finger gloves
    • Outdoor Research baseball cap
    • Patagonia NanoPuff jacket
    • Patagonia lightweight pants
    • All-Packa alpaca hoodie (comfortable, warm, cozy)
    • Outdoor Research Sun Shirt
    • 2x short sleeve shirts (REI & Showers Pass)
    • lightweight, long sleeve Smartwool baselayer
    • Bedrock Sandals
    • Xero Scrambler shoes
    • Columbia shorts
    • Under Armor Compression shorts (used for riding, no pad)
    • 2x socks for riding
    • 1x wool socks for sleeping
    • Halo Sweat Headband
    • 1x underwear
    • Lightweight merino wool Buff

    Cooking & Water

    • 1/2 Swedish dish cloth
    • Camp Suds dish soap in dropper
    • Bandana
    • Bic Lighter
    • Fire Starter – Cotton balls dipped in Vaseline
    • Firebox Nano w/ grill plate and Trangia alcohol stove, bottle of 80% ethanol hand sanitizer for fuel
    • Folding Plate
    • Snow Creek Ti Low Pot & Tall Pot w/ Hot Lips
    • Stasher Bags – Large, 2x Small (for cold soaking, or in bag cooking)
    • Ti Tongs, Toaks long spoon, fork & knife, Spyderco Knife
    • Ziplock Freezer Bags (trash, misc.)
    • Hydrapak 2L bladder w/ Katadyn BeFree filter & drinking hose adapter
    • 64 oz Klean Kanteen (w/ 2 Voile straps for mounting below the downtube)
    • Hydrapak 3L bladder w/ drinking hose (sits in the framebag)
    • Aquamira Tabs
    • 28 oz cycling bottle (for electrolytes)

    Tools & Safety

    • 20’ microcord & 4 Loop Alien line locks
    • Leatherman Pliers (thanks, John!)
    • Ottolock & lightweight cable lock
    • Whistle
    • 2 oz Stan’s Sealant
    • Altoids tin tire kit – Patches, Boots, Schrader adapter, needles, thread, shoe goo, extra tubeless darts
    • Racer Dynaplug & extra preloaded plugs (rides in my framebag for accessibility)
    • Chain Lube
    • Chain rag
    • Crank Brothers M19
    • Extra Tube
    • Latex Gloves
    • Pressure Gauge
    • Pump
    • Tire Levers

    Electronics

    • Garmin inReach Mini satellite communicator
    • 120V AC dual USB-C charger
    • AirPods Pro
    • 2x 10,000 mAH Anker battery packs
    • Fenix Front & Rear Lights
    • GoPro Hero 11, 4 batteries, charger, & GoPro Tool
    • NiteCore Headlamp
    • Kindle Paperwhite
    • Mini Tripod w/ iPhone and goPro mounts
    • Cables
      • USB-C – Lightning
      • USB-C – micro USB-B
      • USB-C to USB-C (2x)
      • USB-A to Apple Watch
    • Wahoo GPS
    • Fairy lights (I strung up a short strand in my tent for light. They run off my battery pack, consume minimal energy, and I can trim the strands to reduce the brightness if needed.)

    Personal Care

    • Chamois Butt’r
    • Dr. Bronners soap
    • Ear plugs (noisy campsites suck)
    • Eyeglasses cloth & cleaner
    • First Aid Kit (ibuprofen, naproxen, immodium, bandaids, leukotape, etc.)
    • Gear repair tape
    • Glasses case w/ glasses (to store either sunglasses or prescription RX, whichever is not on my face)
    • Hand sanitizer
    • Shit kit w/ The Deuce trowel
    • Lotion bar
    • Prescription medications
    • Pack towel
    • Suncreen stick (2x)
    • Toothpaste tabs & travel toothbrusth
    • Wipe pucks (lightweight and compact, they rehydrate with a few drops of water for your face, body, or butt.)
    Everything that’s going with me, except clothes, the 3L Hydrapak, and the Lezyne pump. The light green bag (top, left of center) and purple bag (top left) are food, the red bag (bottom left) has personal care items. 
  • Teanaway River Linkup

    Teanaway River Linkup

    What goes up, and up, and up, must come down… I spent about 2 hours climbing to the top of the ridge and about 10 minutes descending the other side all the way to my car. Forest roads, single track, banked turns, and steep drop offs – this was exactly what I needed after a hard climb.

    I apologize in advance for the NSFW language toward the end of the video. I smashed the fork into a rock, chipping the paint beneath the thru axle as I tried to navigate between a gate and some rocks. This is simply the first of many stories that will be told by the wear and tear on my bike. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • A shakedown ride, and lots of travel

    A shakedown ride, and lots of travel

    The past six weeks have been a whirlwind. I’ve been from Seattle to Orlando, Atlanta, Seattle, Mountain View, Seattle, San Diego, and back to Seattle.  There hasn’t been much time for biking.  

    I did sneak away to ride part of the Teanaway River Link Up in mid-September.  The winds were challenging, as were the climbs, but the part of the route I did was worthwhile.  I learned a lot about how my bike handles with a full load.Overall the fit and ride were dreamy – I was comfortable during two days in the saddle.  There may be minor tweaks in the future to the fit, but nothing significant.

    Bike in the middle of a fork of the Teanaway River
    Bikepacking the Teanaway Community Forest

    Since then I’ve been refining my camping kit and rethinking how and where I store things on the bike. I’ve purchased a Rockgeist Loop Bar Harness – my original plan didn’t work out, so I didn’t carry anything on my handlebars during the Teanaway Link Up. 

    Looking at the size and weight of the tubes that came with my bike I realized they are twice the weight (almost 450g) and size of a Schwalbe SV19F tube.  I replaced the spare tube mostly for the space savings. Riding a small frame mountain bike means I have limited framebag space. With a 3L Hydrapak Seeker bladder in the framebag, I can now fit a much smaller tube and mount the Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HV pump inside.

    I have also spent time thinking about my packing strategy. I always overpack for bikepacking trips. I need to reduce the volume and weight of my gear, especially since so much never gets used!  I’ve trimmed down my clothing for Baja to a little more than half of one 13L Rockgeist Microwave pannier, leaving the remaining space for toiletries, and first aid.  The other pannier will primarily serve as a food bag, with the hydration kit (filter, 2x 2L empty Hydrapak bladders, etc.), and an electronics kit (Kindle, battery pack, cables, 120V USB charger, GoPro charger, headlamp).  Ultimately, I’ll try to balance the weight left to right in the pannier bags, nothing is fixed in place.

    The heavier food, such as bagged cooked beans, peanut butter, etc, will sit on a fork leg, with the cooking kit on the other fork leg.  My cooking kit consists of a Snow Creek Titatnium Mini Solo, Trangia alcohol stove, Firebox Nano X Case Kit w/ stainless grill grate, Toaks titanium cutlery, and a pair of titanium tongs. This set up allows me to cook over the alcohol stove using the Firexbox as a windscreen, or with sticks, twigs, or charcoal to build a fire inside the Firebox Nano to boil water or grill on top of the fire. Or I can just make a fire because I want to sit by the fire and enjoy the evening.

    Finally, I’ve made a few route updates.  I met a former bike industry executive through Facebook.  She lives in Todos Santos and has offered me a place to stay for the night with a shower and hot breakfast. Bonus: She runs a dog rescue… lots of cute doggos!

    My proposed route, starting from San José del Cabo working clockwise. Each color represents a planned riding day.

    Second, I’ve decided to cut out the trip to La Paz, saving myself ~30 miles of highway riding. Instead, I’ll route from el Triunfo via Los Divasaderos to La Ventana, where I’ll spend two nights to get cleaned up and restock the bike.  I found a cute AirBNB there which should be perfect for my needs.  Then I’ll to Enseneda de Muertos (it has been renamed by entrepreneurs as Ensenda de Sueños to appeal to property buyers…) for a night, before starting down the coast past Los Barriles, through Cabo Pulmo, and back across the mountains to San Jose del Cabo.  

  • Getting Organized

    Getting Organized

    My new bike arrived from The Pro’s Closet in late August. For months I had been eyeing the Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV. When I saw it on sale for 50% off MSRP, I couldn’t pass it up.

    Since receiving the bike, I’ve built it up with a mix of on-hand and newly purchased parts: 1

    Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV in front of a barbed wire fence and barn in Roslyn, WA.

    I’ve ridden ~50 miles or so, including about 7 miles of trails at Big Finn Hill / St. Edward State Park. The trails were a blast! Riding on 29X3″ tires reminded riding BMX bikes on the dirt trails along Cypress Creek, jumping makeshift jumps, riding up, down, and around dirt berms on the edge of our developing neighborhood. This is going to be fun!

    1. List updated 11/17/2023 based on changes/additions since initially writing this post. ↩︎