Bikepacking for Nerds

Tag: Bikepacking

  • Middle Fork Snoqualmie River – May 9 – 10, 2025

    Middle Fork Snoqualmie River – May 9 – 10, 2025

    Sub-24 Hour Overnight First Ride of the Season

    After a winter of too much travel, not enough exercise, and too many unhealthy food choices, I finally got a chance to escape into the woods and remember what it feels like to move under my own power. No difficult routes or grand adventures, just a chance to get outside, ride for a few hours, camp overnight, ride back, and return home. All in less than 24 hours, aka a Sub-24 Hour Overnight (S24O) (what’s an S24O?). Just me, Hobbes, a trimmed-down kit, and a route up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River to shake off the rust.

    That’s a lot of travel in Q1/Q2 2025…

    The Plan: Low Expectations, High Payoff?

    I hadn’t been on an overnight trip since last summer. I’ve spent more time looking at my gear and my pack list than actually using it.

    Over the winter and early spring, I made a few creature-comfort improvements to my bike. I swapped out the 170mm cranks with 155mm cranks. At 5’7″, the 170mm cranks always felt long, so I took a shot on the shorter ones and I’m glad I did. I can spin nice, tight circles without feeling like I have too much knee bend at the top of the stroke. A shorter lever arm means that I need to put out more power to make the cranks spin, which means I’m working a little bit harder, but it feels like more of the pedal stroke is within the range of movement where I can make sufficient power.

    With shorter cranks I need a slightly higher and more setback saddle. I traded the aluminum seat post for a Salsa Guide carbon 18mm setback seat post. I’ve moved my seat back by about 10mm, which was a significant improvement. My body feels like it is sitting more naturally aligned with the saddle now.

    Last, I changed out the Jones Bars and stem, choosing the Jones Double Butted Riser bar and a Whisky No 7 Mountain Stem (50mm, 0-degree). Using these tools I was able to visualize how to bring my bars up about 30mm and back by 20mm. This puts me more upright in the saddle, taking pressure off my wrists and reducing the pain I was experiencing. I also added a set of Ergon GS1 Evo grips and moved the brakes and shifting further outboard on the bars toward the grips. I don’t move my hands as much in this configuration as I did with round grips and the controls closer to the loop of the bar. However, I am very comfortable and in control.

    Earlier in the year I marked off a few days between work obligations for a possible quick trip… Finally, the schedule and the weather both cooperated.

    Middle Fork was an easy choice since it’s only 75 minutes from home. About seven miles into the route, cars are no longer allowed, making it low-traffic and remote enough to feel like I’d actually gone somewhere.

    The Setup: Lighter, Tighter, Slightly Dumber?

    I over-plan. And I over-pack. Every. Single. Time.

    I have packing lists galore, but they never really worked well for me. Over the winter I imported all my gear into PackWizard to help me plan future trips. Designed for hiking, it’s not a perfect tool for bikepacking, but it gets the job done. (Seriously, I’d love to organize gear by type and by where it lives on the bike or body via different views into the data.)

    You can poke through the full gear list for the trip here: PackWizard Setup. I brought as few clothes as necessary—they’re both heavy and bulky and a common place for me to say, “well, let me add that JUST IN CASE.”

    Highlights:

    • Patagonia Thermal Hoodie: My favorite lightweight hoodie. When combined with a windbreaker like the Patagonia Houdini and a merino baselayer, it kept me warm into the night before bed. Swap the merino for a lightweight T-shirt and I was warm on the descent to the car.
    • Firemaple Petrel heat exchanger pot and Hornet II stove. Sorry, Snow Peak, but this is so much more efficient than the stove and pot I was using last year.
    • Insta360 X5 camera to capture all my questionable decisions in detail. I’m still learning how best to use it and edit the video output.
    • I really, really want to love the Firebox Nano in the field. But I was too wrecked at the end of the night to bother setting it up for a tiny campfire.

    The Ride: Straight Up. Straight Down.

    At 3:10 PM on a Friday afternoon, I started spinning up the trail. The first 7 or so miles were on a somewhat rough forest road. “High clearance vehicles” apparently includes the occasional Honda Fit.

    The weather was warmer than expected, about 70F. A mile in came the first short, steep climb. I was already gassed. Not great!

    After that, the forest thickened and the temps cooled off. The first six miles passed quickly with the occasional car or camper along the way. (Note to self: There are some nice dispersed options here if you’re car camping.)

    After that, no cars. From here on out it’s hikers, bikers, and horses only. Thankfully I saw no horses, nor did I have any horse apples to dodge.

    Dingford Creek Falls. Mile 6.4 on day 1.

    Just past the road closure, I reached Dingford Creek Falls. I stopped for a bit to admire the falls before knocking out another ~5 miles. The first 11 miles and 1,152′ of climbing took me 2 hours 20 minutes. The next 2.5 miles to camp took another 1 hour 10 minutes and 850 more feet of climbing. There was a lot of hike-a-bike and muttering “WTF am I even doing?”

    Hey duck!

    But the payoff was worth it. I arrived at the Hardscrabble Horse Camp around 6:45 PM to find a pair of bikepackers lounging in their hammocks. They pointed out where to access water—not easy despite being right by the river. They also casually mentioned spotting a bear earlier that afternoon. Cool… I think?

    After filtering water (nothing better than cold river water after a hot climb), I set up camp and made dinner. The celebratory beer I brought—Wiley Roots Brewing Company, “Briny Bois: License to Dill” Sour Ale with Pickled Cucumber, Pickle Brine, Dill, and Sea Salt—wasn’t as cold as I hoped, but it hit the spot.

    After sundown, I crawled into my tent, fiddled with editing Insta360 clips on my phone, and passed out to the sound of the river.

    Sleep was cool but not cold. My pared-down kit did the job, though I’m still not in love with the Nemo Tensor sleeping pad. I may have to admit a thicker pad is worth the trade-off of both volume and weight.

    I also need to figure out better ventilation for the TarpTent Double Rainbow DW. My riding clothes didn’t dry overnight and the rainfly was soaked with condensation.

    The Descent: Gravity Is Your Friend

    I skipped the hot breakfast I’d packed and went with a protein bar, Coba chocolate, and a camp mochaccino (freeze-dried coffee + cocoa packet).

    Changed into cold, damp riding clothes. Yuck.

    Packed up and rolled downhill. The return trip was so much easier. Downhill for about 12 quick miles, then a short climb, and then back down to the car. It reminded me of BMX rides as a kid—but I don’t bounce back like I used to, so I kept it controlled rather than take unnecessary risks and hurt myself.

    No heroics, no mechanicals, no major faux pas. Just a solid overnight to get back into the PNW bikepacking season..

    TL;DR

    • Route:
    • Gear List via PackWizard
    • The Middle Fork Snoqualmie River route is a solid early-season ride if the weather cooperates. The final few miles to camp are tough, but the sites near the river are worth it. Bear poles, tent pads, and the sounds of the rushing river.
    • Mosquitos? Absolutely, but they didn’t bother me much because it was cold enough to require long sleeves and pants in camp.
    • My trimmed-down pack list worked. Still room to trim: If I’m not riding at night, the headlight can stay home in favor of a headlamp.
    • I still pack too much food that I don’t eat.
    • Hobbes is dialed. The upgrades made a noticeable difference in my overall comfort.
    • I need more time in the saddle to gear up for bigger adventures this summer. Sustained steep climbs are my enemy.
    • Solo time in the woods is the best way to recharge after a long, busy beginning of the year.

    More video once I’ve had more time to practice editing.

    Want a deeper dive on the camera or gear list? Let me know in the comments or find me on BlueSky.

  • Late Spring Bikepacking

    Late Spring Bikepacking

    After a crazy first half of the year with work taking me to Madrid, Brisbane, Osaka, the Bay Area, and Las Vegas, I haven’t had as much time on the bike as I would like. But I’m itching for an adventure and some alone time on the bike. So I’ve planned a three day adventure before summer arrives.

    My plan is to catch the Victoria Clipper ferry to Victoria, BC so that I can ride the Cowichan Valley 8. I plan on riding the route in 3 days/2 nights, returning on the evening Clipper on Day 3.

    Although the ride is non-technical and I could take my gravel bike, the Pink ‘Rona, I’ll be riding on Hobbes since I find it’s upright stance to be more comfortable overall. I recently upgraded the wheels on Hobbes to a set of Hunt Trail Wide MTB 29 along with the 2.6″ Vittoria Mezcal tires. I expect to have a nice and cushy ride.

    Packing is still a work in progress – I’m definitely taking a lot less gear than I did in Mexico. I haven’t exactly gone ultralight, but I did minimize my gear for this trip. I recently started using PackWizard to manage my gear, replacing the overly complicated spreadsheet that I had been using. While I can manage my pack in PackWizard, it doesn’t allow me to tag items with where I plan to store them since it’s designed for backpackers, not bikepackers. Oh well.

    One of the benefits of this loop is that I’ll be able to spend two nights at the same campsite. Although day 2 of the ride has less climbing and mileage than I’ve planned on day 1, it will be nice to ride mostly unladen.

    More to come soon…

  • Day 3: Sierra de la Laguna Mountains to Todos Santos – 28.1 mi/45.2 km +2375 ft/724 m

    Day 3: Sierra de la Laguna Mountains to Todos Santos – 28.1 mi/45.2 km +2375 ft/724 m

    Sunrise in the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains

    I woke up early this morning to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. After a quick breakfast, I loaded up Hobbes and we headed off for the day’s first challenge – a 4 mile/6.4 km climb up 1100’/335 m before dropping back down toward the Pacific Ocean on the other side. The climb took about an hour of riding, with a few delays along the way.

    Waterfall next to the roadside.

    The first thing I noticed was a noise coming from the rear end. I forgot to tighten down a strap, it was hitting the rear wheel which caused the noise. As I corrected the loose strap, I noticed one of the bolts holding the rear rack to the seat stay was also loose. Unfortunately, these bolts are on the inside of the seat stay. To tighten it properly means removing the rear wheel. I must not have tightened them completely when I put Hobbes together in the hotel room two days ago. Using the pliers on the Leatherman, I was able to tighten them sufficiently for the day.

    One of many ranches found in the mountains.

    Within another half mile, I was experiencing noise when in the granny gear. Thankfully, I had seen (heard?) this behavior before on Hobbes. For some reason, the B-screw on the rear derailleur seems to loosen on rougher terrain, causing the chattering and, eventually, poor shifting. I was able to improve the shifting with an adjustment to the B-screw, but I didn’t recall how to measure the adjustment properly, so I couldn’t dial it in 100%. This would continue to give me a bit of grief, and something to worry about, for the remainder of the day.

    Eventually, I crested the pass, and was greeted with the sight of the Pacific Ocean in the distance, followed by a long downhill with many streams crossing the road. I continued riding to el Aguaje, a small ranching community where I refilled my water in the flowing stream, drank as much as I could stomach, and sat down under a broad tree to have lunch in the shade.

    My first view down to the Pacific Ocean.

    I made the decision to head toward the coast highway (MEX19) instead of following the route along mostly dirt roads all the way to Todos Santos. This was in an effort to avoid what I had read was a difficult, sandy section. Looking back, I should have continued further north on the backroads before heading west to the coast at el Pescadero or continued all the way until Todos Santos. Lesson learned.

    The route to the coast road was nice, not too washboarded, and not too sandy except when it crossed a dry arroyo. Thankfully, I crossed the arroyo immediately before a large group of off-roaders came tearing through, creating a huge dust storm all around them. No wonder one ranch had signs in Spanish and English asking off-roaders to drive slowly.

    My route took me west to Rancho Nuevo, and then north along the highway MEX19 toward el Pescadero. I don’t enjoy riding on the highway. It’s loud, dirty, and uncomfortable with traffic passing by at 60 MPH/100kph+. 

    I stopped at the first tienda I came to where I bought a Coke and something to snack on while sitting in the shade. With the derailleur still making noise, I hopped online and found a bike shop in el Pescadero that I could ride to before dusk. Hoping to get a quick repair before heading onward, I arrived to find out that there wasn’t a bike shop there at all.

    Climbing the hill just west of el Aguaje.

    Dejected, I managed to find a ride the last few miles into Todos Santos. I checked into my AirBNB, had a well deserved shower, and went out for tacos. 

    Today was difficult. I couldn’t keep hydrated even though I had plenty of access to water. Worse, I wasn’t hungry. Not a bit. At dinner I ordered some tacos, an octopus tostada, and some guacamole. I couldn’t eat everything that I ordered, even though I had been pushing hard all day.

    After food and rehydration, I cleaned up Hobbes, fixed up the derailleur (thanks for reminding me of the measurement I needed, internet!) and went to bed unsure of tomorrow’s plan.

    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. 
  • Last Minute Route Updates

    Last Minute Route Updates

    As I get closer to departing for Mexico, I’ve made a few route updates. The first update is to route around a planned closure on day 1 just north of the San José del Cabo airport. Recent reports say the route is unridable due to deep sand and it may be closed to traffic soon. I can’t say I’m sad about skipping unrideable sandy roads, but cycling alongside the Carretera Transpeninsular heading north from San José del Cabo isn’t all that appealing, either.

    With some extra time on my hands – I’m planning an off-route detour after my rest day in La Ventana. Instead of taking the highway east toward Los Planes and the coast, I am planning to take the Cardon Corridor trails and work my way east along the coast at Playa Turquesa out to the lighthouse at Punta Arena de la Ventana before heading south along the coast road. I’ll end the day at Enseneda de Muertos, hopefully with a beer and dinner at the one restaurant located along this section of beach, Restaurant 1535.

  • Fully Loaded Test Ride

    Fully Loaded Test Ride

    I’ve packed and unpacked my bike twice now – I’m feeling confident that I have the tools, padding, etc. that I need to pack safely for the trip to and from BCS. Over the weekend, I put the bike together again, mounted all of my bags, water storage, etc. and headed out for a ride through the neighborhood to see how my bike handles fully loaded. As expected, my Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV is a great platform for riding weighed down with racks, bags, food, water, clothes, and camping gear. Unloaded, the bike weighs ~30#. Fully laden with 5L of water, I estimate the loaded bike is ~70#. (Update: 74 pounds / 33.5 kg on my travel scale… yowza.) That’s a lot of weight to move uphill! My granny gear (30×52, 0.58 gear ratio) is going to get a workout on steep climbs.

    Fully loaded Bombtrack ready to tackle the Cape Loop.

    Over the next two weeks, I’ll be doing a lot of fully loaded hill climbing around my neighborhood. Although North Seattle doesn’t have any long climbs, there are plenty of short, steep climbs, and a few longer sustained climbs such as Golden Gardens Drive, . A few can be strung together for a ride that has very little flat terrain. Too bad the weather in Seattle is likely to be cold and rainy until I depart. The only thing I can’t prepare for is the heat and sun in Baja California Sur. 

  • It fits!

    It fits!

    Last weekend I took some time to try packing my bike in it’s new travel bag, an Evoc Bike Travel Bag XL. Packing my bike taught me a few things. First, use only the tools you plan on bringing with you. If you cannot pack and unpack with those tools, you need more tools. My Crankbrothers M19 tool is sufficient to pack and unpack, it rides in my toolkit on every ride. A set of Wera L keys, Wera bicycle set, and a 15mm wrench are MUCH easier to use and faster, too. The Park Tool ATD1.2 torque wrench is a nice to have. Latex gloves to keep from getting dirty are always a good idea.

    Second, the order of operations is important: Pedals come off first, then wheels. Thru axles are replaced front and rear to protect the fork and frame. Spacers are placed in the hydraulic brake calipers. Handlebars are removed last and strapped to the frame. Rear derailleur is removed (optional, but desirable). Finally, the seat post is lowered. At home I can do this in a repair stand which makes it convenient. On the road I’ll be working on the floor.

    Placing the bike in the bag has a specific order, as well. The rear wheel is placed in the bag (on the side opposite the bike) first. Pedals are placed in an interior pocket along with tools. Next the bike frame gets mounted and strapped in place inside the bag. Any other gear is loaded into the bag and the side is zipped up, allowing the front wheel to be stored. As long as it’s under 70 pounds with everything is secured inside, it’s ready to fly.

    There are a few items I still need to work out. I didn’t expect to have to remove the rear rack given the small size of my frame, but it did not fit as mounted. Next time, I’m going to try to tip the rack forward so that it stays mounted on the frame and only needs to be rotated back into place and secured. I’m still debating whether to remove the disc rotors before travel. They appear well protected in the bag, but a bent rotor could end a trip if I can’t fix it or find a replacement.

  • 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.