Tag: touring

Matilija Creek S24O

This past weekend I was able to coax a couple of buddies out for a quick s24o camping trip up in the mountains behind Ojai.  Not an easy feat for most of us to pull off as life gets too busy, but a few emails, a month of lead time and I had two out of 6 invites along for the ride, thanks Mike and Mike.  We headed out Saturday afternoon towards the Murietta Camp near the end of Matilija Creek Rd.

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Weather down on the coast was foggy all day, and I was looking forward to getting some time in the sun.  About 6 miles in we could see the end of the clouds, and then it was clear all the way to camp.

6.9 MC T WP-2 6.9 MC T WP-3 6.9 MC T WP-4 6.9 MC T WP-5 6.9 MC T WP-6Up around Lake Casitas and through Miner’s Oaks we stopped in at the Farmer and the Cook to pick up some last-minute energy snacks (peanut butter cookies) and then it was out of town an up HWY 33 into the Santa Ynez mountains

6.9 MC T WP-9The turn off for Matilija Canyon Rd comes up quickly.  Mostly uphill to get past the most useless damn in the region, and then down into the canyon.  This is some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever been through.

6.9 MC T WP-11 6.9 MC T WP-14Just over 5 miles of empty rolling hills heading back to some dirt and creek crossings.  The sun would be giving us light until 7:30 or 8, so we were taking our time getting to the trail head

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I theory we were almost there.  The campground should be less than a mile up and easy to spot.  Twenty minutes of single track, and a creek crossing and it was becoming painfully evident that Plan A was not going to be as easy as we thought

6.9 MC T WP-17The trail was well marked, and a heck of a lot of fun, but the campsite was a bit elusive.  Plan B was to head back towards Matilija camp, and or the first workable flat spot before it got too dark.  Two miles back the other direction, one dry riverbed, 3 creek crossings and a whole lot of hike a bike and we found our home for the night

6.9 MC T WP-18Tired, hungry and needing a rinse in the creek the camera went away until morning.  While the Matilija camp sees a fair amount of traffic, it was fairly quiet this summer Saturday, there were a couple of other camps to the south, but by no means crowded.  The night was clear with bright stars and no moon.  Sleep came easy.  Fog had rolled into the valleys by morning, bringing some chill with it.

6.9 MC T WP-19Dinner Had made it evident that I had left my spoon at home.  There is a good bit of humor to be found in that in consideration of all the camera gear and other stuff I had dragged along.  It was not that big of a deal, by morning I had thought of a work around for my oatmeal.  Have I mentioned how much I like my Soma tire levers?

6.9 MC T WP-21The sun was starting to break through, it was time to break camp and enjoy the ride out.  A mix of single track, and hike a bike, with creek crossings, plenty of poison oak, and did I mention poison oak?

6.9 MC T WP-266.9 MC T WP-246.9 MC T WP-25 6.9 MC T WP-316.9 MC T WP-226.9 MC T WP-32The time in the sun was short lived and we were flirting with the edge of the fog the rest of the way back towards home and the ocean.

6.9 MC T WP-33 6.9 MC T WP-35After a look back we crested out of the valley and back out on the HWY 33, tempting us to head north for a bit.

6.9 MC T WP-37At least it was tempting me.  The rest of the afternoon committed for all three of us though, it was back to town.  Trips further North will have to wait for another time.

6.9 MC T WP-406.9 MC T WP-39The trip was a success, even had a little adventure thrown in.  Total time away was under 19 hours with about 60 miles of riding.  All of this is just to the North of the comforts of home.  Everybody wants to do it again.  Time to start planning the next round.

 

 

 

New Tools Shedding Grams

It has been a busy run here, and this week had some more incoming tools I want to test out.

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The easy one is the new silicone folding coffee cone.  I have been looking for something a bit more portable that does not weigh a ton, and can squeeze into my cook kit. we will see how it goes.

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The other tool is a bit more interesting.  The Fix it Sticks are an interesting twist that I hope to have replace my long carried Alien tool.

4.18 tools WP-1120648They ran a successful Kick starter campaign to get these things out into the world.  They have even more tool options, but I stuck with the basic 4/5/6 since that is what I needed.  Hopes are high for these.  The tool bits are press fit with an epoxy as backup.  the body of the tool is aluminum and lighter than you night expect.  For the range of torques needed on the bike they should be more than robust enough, time will tell.  They take up about as much room as a set of tire levers and pack up neatly and rattle free in a upcycled tube

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Thinking about how light they felt, and how heavy my decades old Alien tool felt I decided to pull out the scale (a task reserved only for shipping around here most of the time)

4.18 tools WP-1120649 4.18 tools WP-1120650 4.18 tools WP-1120651 4.18 tools WP-1120652Comparing the pile of tools to the alien it looks like I will shave about 38 grams.  While that is just a little bit, there were a ton of redundancies between the Alien and the rest of the tools in that pile I often carried any way.  Whey these neat little sticks will really do is convince me to jettison the 305g multi tool and eventually the backup allen keys, shaving almost 3/4 of a pound in the long run.

While that may sound like no big deal in a world of weight be damned bike touring, it means that I can effectively add my camp stove and cooking kit to the bar bag at all times with no weight penalty.  That is the point of counting the grams!  it is possible to carry the things you want and need without massive panniers and or a super stout bike.  With careful selection of your gear you can quite possibly have you comforts and not need a sherpa (or a car) to haul it around.  I am not cutting the handles off of my tooth brush, yet, but I am starting to think more about the stuff I haul, and what it weighs.

Enter the Rambler, light weight touring, and some fun.

Cooking Outside

I recently picked up a new stove to lighten my outdoor cooking load a bit.  I have been wanting a Trail Designs Ti-Tri Caldera cone for years now, but prefer a wider pot, and it is primarily meant to work with mugs.  In the last year or so, the TD guys came out with the sidewinder and a was back to dreaming.  With a bit of extra cash I splurged and bought myself the Sidewinder kit.

1.12 stove-1110072The kit comes with the alcohol stove, windscreen / cone, tent stake / pot supports, fuel bottle, fuel measuring cup, pot lifter and a basic aluminum 2qt pot.  The whole package fits neatly into the pot.

1.12 stove-1110073The cone acts as both a windscreen and pot support with the ventilation optimized to get the most from their stove.  It is in credibly simple to use.  load the measured amount of denatured alcohol into the stove, light with a match, set the cone over and then set the pot on top.

1.12 stove-11100761.12 stove-1110078I headed out early this morning to start putting it to good use.  I was able to bring about 1qt of water to boil with 35ml of  alcohol in a little over 15 minutes.  This was with the sea breeze just starting to pick up.

1.12 stove-1110088I brewed up a bottle of tea for the road and enough left over to enjoy while things cooled off.  I am impressed with what is really their most basic stove kit designed to boil at least a quart of water.  Simple to use, quiet, clean, light weight and efficient with the fuel.  The stove will also work well with Esbit fuel tabs.  For a bit of a bump in price their titanium kits can burn wood as well.

The only down side to this kit is the size. While quite clearly described on their website, it is bigger than I envisioned.  That is not really a problem, just what it is.  I am sure that this stove is going to see a ton of use.

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Low Tide

Yesterday was starting off pretty normal, the task list was more than a day could hold, but the plan as always was to bite off as much as possible.  One thing I was not giving up was my regularly scheduled errands ride around own.  With all the short stops I can usually get it all done in the same amount of time as the car, and the bike is just a hell of a lot more fun.

DCIM100GOPROThe skies went gray for the first time in few days and the fog was rolling in on the coast.  With temps in the 50’s it was crisp, but still pretty perfect to ride and barely break a sweat.  Everything was going pretty close to routine, and I decided to swing by the beach  on my way home.

DCIM100GOPROThe tide was super low and dropping fast.  I knew this was going to happen, but not so early in the day.  This was a perfect chance to seize the moment, do something not on the schedule and grab back 30 minutes of pure fun, and yes you can almost see the idea forming in my mind above.

DCIM100GOPROAnd so the diversion started, I figured it would just be a quick toodle on the sand.  It turned out I had over a mile of beach for an out and back.  Even with 20lbs in the panniers the 38mm tires did just fine on the hard packed sand.  I found a few small pieces of green beach glass, crossed paths with dogs and their owners reveling in the extra playground space, and had a fantastic time

DCIM100GOPROAs always, getting there by bike is highly recommended, and always make a little time for the detours, you will never regret it!