Tent-ative Plans

I've known how to ride a bike since I was a kid, but I didn't really fall in love with it until about 5 years ago, shortly after I moved to Philly. In those 5 years, I've logged thousands of miles and packed in too many incredible experiences to count, with too many wonderful people to name here. Still, I've not even come close to "seeing it all," and I was reminded of that when I took my very first bike camping trip this weekend: 

It's in tents. 

It's been one of those things that's been on my "to-do" list for quite some time now, but for whatever reason, things never materialized. I found out on Wednesday that I had a free weekend, and my friend Jason from Roll Bicycles just happened to be hosting a bike camping adventure (not affiliated with the bike shop), so it worked out in the most random way possible. Sometimes those are the best experiences, right?

Before we even rolled out on Saturday, I was pretty stoked because I'd get to try out some new gear. My girlfriend and I have been meaning to get some backpacking equipment for awhile now, and this seemed like the best excuse to splurge. Jason was going to let me borrow his extra tent, so I initially only intended to buy a sleeping bag, but REI had this amazing deal on a complete backpacking setup for less than $200 that was too good to pass up:

I sleep here tonite?

We picked it up on Friday evening, and as you can see, I set things up in the living room to make sure all was in working order. You'd hate to ride all the way to a campsite to find out your tent had a huge hole in it, right?

 I mean, other than the holes that you use to get in and out of it...

Everything was hunky dory, so I packed up and got ready to roll out Saturday morning. Minx the cat has this habit of trying to stop anyone from going away, even if just for a nite, so he "camped out" in front of my gear the morning I was getting ready to leave:

Pun intended

I chose to use the milk crate not only for storage purposes, but also in case I wanted to have something to sit on once I got to camp. It looks a little awkward propped up on the bike, but my old school approach worked out quite well:

The crate escape

Plus, Jason stressed that the point of these rides (yes, there will be more) is to do what you can with what you have, not to go out and spend thousands of dollars on outfitting a touring bike. This definitely fits that mold, despite spending $170ish on camping supplies the nite before. I kinda had to. There was no way I was fitting my old Coleman sleeping bag on my bike.

Anyway, due to work commitments and other dilemmas, most of the expected crew backed out, so Jason and I were the only ones who made the trek to Scioto Mile on Saturday around Noon:

We really couldn't have asked for a better day for cycling, with no clouds, no precipitation, and very little wind to speak of. Our destination was London, OH, about 30 miles to our West. Our route made use of a section of the Ohio to Erie Trail, a trail I've been meaning to explore ever since I arrived in Columbus:

 There are no bathrooms at Lilly Chapel. Be warned!

The route mostly follows lands that had previously been railroad beds or canals. As a result, it's mostly flat in this section of the state, so you can click off some serious miles in relatively short order. The above pics were about 12 miles into our ride, which we'd accomplished in about an hour.

The trail is also connected to several Metro Parks along the way, including Battelle Darby Creek (the name Metro Park is a bit misleading - this particular park is about 20 miles outside downtown Columbus):

One day, I'll get to visit all of them. We didn't stick around here for too long because we wanted to make sure we got to our destination with enough time to eat, set up camp, and so on before darkness.

This ride was the first real long distance ride I've attempted since last December, and all things considered I think I did quite well. But 40 additional pounds of gear on the bike combined with just the slightest of head wind did eventually start to wear on me, and we had to pause for a minute about 5 miles from our destination. Thankfully, stops like these are plentiful on the trail:

There are no bathrooms here, either 

If you look closely, you can see a full set of bike tools attached to the pavilion post. A nice security blanket to have on a trail out in the middle of nowhere. Well done.

A short few miles later, we reached our first stop in London, to eat DINNER:

And finally, we reached our home for the nite, billed as "primitive camping" right off the trail. With a fully functioning bathroom with running water and electricity, I wouldn't call it primitive. It's a pretty neat little slice of heaven for a cyclist who might be riding the trail from start to finish, or for someone making a weekend adventure out of a bike ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The only drawback? No campfires. That meant we would be heading into our tents a little early in the evening for warmth, with temperatures expected to dip into the mid- to lower 30's. It's just as well, because I was ready for bed by 9. You can't blame me. All told, I logged more than 40 miles from home to tent:

Surprisingly, I woke up early and quite refreshed. There's truly nothing like sleeping outdoors, and no kind of sleep like the kind you get after a long bike ride. We rolled out nice and early around 9:30 on a much grayer, colder Sunday:

As such, we kept most of our layers on until we got about 10 miles into our trek home, when we both decided we were finally getting to warm to handle the extra weight. I also made an adjustment to my cargo setup:

I ignored my gut when I left my house the previous day, and brought a backpack. If you've ever tried to do this on a long ride, you know it's not the most pleasant experience, even if the bag weighs less than 10 pounds. I started to feel irked by its presence about halfway through the ride on Saturday, and by this time on Sunday I was done with it. I couldn't just leave it in the middle of Ohio, so I strapped it to my sleeping bag:

It worked well for the most part, other than needing to take turns as slowly and vertically as possible, and not really being able to tilt the bike when lifting over obstacles like train tracks:

Hey, we had to stop to get a picture of the mural, right? 

I rode with that setup most of the way home until I stopped to eat lunch on the Olentangy Trail near Clintonville:

I toughed out the last 5 miles with the backpack on, and the crazy crate survived as well:

And with that, I'm looking forward to the next one, whenever that may be. Jason plans to do one of these every month. I'll do what I can to make it to as many as possible. My first experience was everything from fun to exhausting to inspiring to educational and everything in between. Speaking of, some lessons I learned:

1. Travel lighter. I always fail at this and end up bringing 3 or 4 things I don't need. In this case, just about everything in my backpack could have stayed home.
2. I'm actually out of shape. Riding to and from the grocery store every day is fine and all, but not doing a ride over 10 miles for 3 months made me lose all my leg muscle. Never thought I'd see the day.
3. Two person rides can be just as amazing as 40 person rides, if not more. Jason's been around cycling a long time and shared some great information and old stories (including some from his Randonneuring days - read about that if you think some of the adventures I go on are crazy). I'm not sure I would have learned all that if we had a larger group. Random side note: he used to work at a bike shop in Philly. Small world!
4. Biking is my spirit animal. I already knew this. I feel so much better today than I did on Friday.

Spring is here, and this was the best possible way to spend its first weekend. Oh and, by the way, 30 Days of Biking starts in just over a week. I think I'm ready for some more firsts...