Alright!  My new sleeping bag arrived today--a Western Mountaineering Summerlite.  Waiting on one last piece of gear to arrive and I'll be hitting the trail for my first over nighter.  ETA, one week.  Can't wait.

Very nice Tom.  I'm hoping for my first off road overnighter in the next couple of weeks as well...waiting for a few critical pieces of gear to show up though. 

What where your best lessons learned?

Thanks guys.  I was looking at the EOS but wasn't sure if it would be enough light for even slow riding.  But if it works for you guys, I might give it a try.  Do you rig up your own harnessing system to strap it to your helmet through the vents?  I figured putting a velcro strap on it inplace of the elastic headband would work. 

I was also looking at the Corona and Apex too.  I like the Corona's wider beam and both of their higher lumens, but I'm not sure how the external battery pack would work out.  Any experience with such set ups? 

Pieter, thanks for the site.  There are so many options on there...and cheap... it makes my head spin.  Are there any particular lights they have that you'd recommend? 

Hey all,  I've been thinking about adding a light to my outfit to occasionally extend my riding time a couple hours in the evenings and mornings and am looking for suggestions.

Maybe these aren't all practical but here are the specs I think I need/don't need.  Let me know if I should think about other specs and if you know anything that will fit the bill.

- cheap, under $100, well under if possible.
- I need enough light to ride along at only up to 10 mph or so...not for racing.
- helmet mountable
- variable light output for camp use
- durable...withstand rain and the occasional snag on a small branch
- litish so as not to weight down my head
- option to use AA or AAA batteries so I can pick up new ones about anywhere when touring
- enough life span to ride for a few hours per day for days...not weeks and use around camp at low setting
- not something I have to make because I don't know how

Any suggestions?

Scott,

I thought you might recommend TopoFusion   I've obviously never used it, but have seen the results from some of your write ups and others.  I don't know if this is the place to get into this, and I may be showing my ignorance with these software applications but I'm wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of TopoFusion are over the National Geographic TOPO! product.  I know I'd like to trace trails/Forest Service roads/paved roads/etc into a track on a computer then upload that track into a gps and vis versa...among other things. 

I have a Garmin eTrex Venture.  I use it occasionally but really only to record points that I occasionally upload into an ArcMap project or more often to pinpoint my location so I can find where I am on a hard copy map.  It doesn't seem to get good reception when I'm under leaf canopy, which is most of the time out here except in the winter.     

~Shaun

I know Mike well.  We've talked about it a bit, but both of us are pretty busy it seems and won't have time to start hitting some over nighters until this Fallish.  I'll keep you posted.

We, that is south easteners, have a lot of trail miles but there doesn't seem to be any long, bike legal routes laid out.  It's been shown that we can fairly easily ride a 200+ mile route but you would never be more than about 15 miles, by the way the crow flies, from a central point.  That doesn't interest me too much.  Though, I'm half thinking that with some more work I may be able to link up a bunch of stuff in a semi interesting way utilizing the Blue Ridge Parkway to get from single track to single track.  Starting this Fall I'll begin to find out.

The software experience is where I'm really lacking.  I have a lower end gps, plenty of trails, lots of maps, I even us ArcMap 9.2 a lot, but no gps tracking experience nor uploading tracks to a trail capable mapping program.  I probably just need to get some software and start figuring it out. 

I'm working on a route but frankly I don't want to put anything out there until it's ready. Half assed is no good.

Hey Pivvay, do you want some help with an East Coast route?  I'm interested in the south east and particularly involving western North Carolina, but could branch out a little ways.

Hey all,

I'm looking forward to being part of this forum.

Any long WNC routes laid out?  I'd like to link up something in the 150+ mile range with out looping all over the Davidson River/Turkey Pen area.  How feasible is linking up some Wilson's Creek/Buncombe Horse Ridge/Heart Break/?/Bent Creek/North Mills/South Mills/Davidson/??? utilizing a lot of the BRP to get from single track to single track? 

I've looked at a lot of the maps but any convoluted route I've seen is just that...convoluted.  I need to get some mapping software to start laying something out.

~Shaun

Ah ha!  Here's what we've been waiting for on MTBR, good job!  I wonder (rhetorically, because it doesn't really matter) which came first, the beginning of the development of this site or the requests piling up and being ignored on mtbr?

Scott, I've been inspired by you and Mike C's stories along with following the TD, GDR, and CTR and the Alaskan guys!  I'm gearing up for some bikepacking and am looking forward to learning and sharing here.

And I'm really looking forward to seeing some East Coast routes being put up on your route matrix...maybe a southern Appalachians loop someday. 
 
~Shaun Moore