I was one of the last few to finish the AML400 last October, and I remember seeing your laminated map cards in the mud on the ridge alt.  I was hoping whoever had lost them had some kind of backup.

The pinion p1.18 looks like it could be a contender against the venerable Rohloff hub.  Mi:tech makes a good looking frame that can run the pinion and the gates belt.  Might be worth a look.

Not sure when hunting season is, but factor that into your decision.

@ryansigsbey
According to the owners manual, it looks like the elevation plot is only available on the etrex30.

Why not go straight 44mm headtube instead of tapered, and you'll be able to fit any fork/headset combo you ever want.  (until the bike industry comes up with another "standard")  Personally, I've always hated the look of tapered, and thought it was an unnecessary stop in the evolution of headtubes.

On the Edge, another feature which I found awesome for motivation was the elevation profile, which thanks to the trackleader's course wizards gave you an accurate and scalable picture of the profile ahead. Nice to be able to look down and see you had x climbs left between you and your goal, much better than a dark road or trying to interpret contours from a map. As far as I'm aware no other GPSs have this feature.

Not to take away anything from the Edge, but I do know the etrex 30 has this feature.  I agree with Ollie, this is definitely a nice thing to be able to know what you are in for.

Love my etrex 30.  I used it on the TNGA and more recently on the AML400.  I left it on 24/7 and with good lithium batteries, got over 24hrs worth of runtime.  I'm sure if you left if off for long stretches, you could easily get 2 or 3 days of runtime on a pair of AA's  Rain and dirt were non issues.  I also used it as my alarm clock, which I find is a very useful feature when you are conserving phone battery.  I consider my etrex and my porcelain rocket bar bag indispensable gear.  Everything else is subject to change.   

On an extended adventure, I'd want something simple and reliable instead of something I needed to babysit at every stop to recharge.  Personally, I know I'd forget to charge up at some point, and end up in the middle of the night/nowhere with dead electronics.  Not sure that it matters, but I am an engineer, and I prefer simplicity and reliability.  Remember, K.I.S.S.

As I sit here nursing some seriously stiff knees, I was reflecting on the ride and wanted to give some shout outs.  I know they call this "self-supported" but I think that is something of a misnomer (at least for me).  There were several individuals who helped me along the way to make my completion of the ride possible and/or less miserable.  So here it goes (in order of appearance):

Thanks to:
-The lady in the Ford pickup who helped me with directions and then gave me a pack of starburst candy and the best pear I ever ate in my life
-The guy digging up taters in his garden who refilled me with water, told me where to get a burger, and offered to make me a ham sandwich.  (I hope your shoulder heals up quick and you can get back out on your stumpjumper soon)
-The old rancher who let me use his compressor to pump my tires back up after I found out my tire pump was broken.  You saved me some serious rolling resistance.  Good luck on restoring those old wagons in your barn.
-Phil and the gang at the lake moomaw campground.  The spaghetti was crazy delicious, the hospitality was amazing, and the space heater was a godsend (y'all probably saved me from near hypothermia).  Good luck with getting the dock completed and I hope your shoulder heals up enough to get back to some serious mtb'ing out there in CO.

Thank y'all for the good info.

Another excellent read, and can't wait for the next installment(s).  I'm also considering this useful information since anything past Helen will be uncharted territory for me when I tackle the TNGA next year.

I'm planning on doing this ride in Oct. and I have a few questions:

Parking: Is there a good spot to park the car for a few days?
Water: Are there plenty of potable water sources along the way, or are people having to filter water?

I'm one of the Scott's...actually I think I'm the only scott that didn't finish.  Just got done reading your 'Helen Back' post.  I certainly don't suffer from Type A-ism, and was late to the party at the bridge by about 30 minutes.  I passed the pack going down warwoman rd. as they were coming up.  I did meet up with Chris L. and Andrew Sunday morning.  I ended up dropping at Helen due largely to time constraints and somewhat to a knee that did not feel like pedaling anymore and somewhat to having almost no front brake pad left.  In fact there's another lesson I learned: Sintered metal pads > Organic.  Won't make that mistake again.

Nice read.
I personally would never leave on a ride like this without a chaintool though. A broken chain/derailleur is always a possibility and ride ending without a chaintool. You didn't need it BECAUSE you brought it, karma! 

So true!  Maybe the chain tool isn't the best thing to leave behind, but for me, statistically at least, not having one is low risk.  Just don't tell Murphy I left it at home.

Just thought I'd put down some thoughts while the events of my stint on the TNGA route are fresh in my head.  I figured I'd put these thoughts down here so I can find them again later... and maybe somebody else will find them useful ...or not.

Disclaimer: The TNGA was my first attempt at an Ultra and, due to several factors, was not able to finish.  So, you can take my advice/lessons with whatever sized grain of salt you'd like.

In no particular order of importance:

1) Fitness.  My endurance was there (I truly feel I would have finished if I hadn't had the time constraints I did), but my speed suffered horribly because I wasn't conditioned for the long climbs.  Living near the water on the east coast for the last several years has not given me the opportunity to ride the kinds of hills found on the TNGA.  I knew there would be climbs, but I took the height and duration for granted figuring my endurance abilities would make up for it.  Not totally true.  I could keep going, but I had to spin my two easiest gears which made progress very very slow.

2) Don't take the climbing for granted.  There are some seriously hard climbs on this thing.  I ended up walking a lot more than I'd care to admit.  See lesson 1.

3) I took too much stuff.  I'm sure this is a classic rookie mistake, if not THE classic rookie mistake.  I honestly thought I was only taking the bare essentials to cover any mishaps that might happen.  And maybe I was, but I realized that I had to get the weight of my gear down somehow.  The way to do that, I think, is to not try to cover all possibilities, but to carry the gear that will get you through the likely scenarios while assuming the risk of the less likely scenarios.  For example: I have broken one chain in all my years of riding bikes, yet I packed a small chain tool.  I could have left that at home and just assumed the small risk of having a chain failure.  I will approach my gear list with this mentality for next year.

4) I was way too concerned about missing or taking a wrong turn for the first several hours of the race.  I was stopping at every intersection and double checking cue sheets with the gps.  Cumulatively this cost me a good deal of time, and I eventually stashed the cue sheets and only pulled them out when I was confused.  I pretty much just followed the gps for the rest of my ride.

5) Do some test rides with gear.  Due to my schedule and my amazing abilities of procrastination, I never did a shakedown ride to get my luggage sorted out.  Each bike is gonna  have its own nuances in this respect.  I spent a good bit of time stopping to tighten straps, rearrange straps, ziptie things in place, etc.  It wasn't till the second morning of riding that I got my gear really sorted.

6) Pack all gear a few days ahead of leaving for the race.  I was packing last minute and left some items at home that I really really wished I had brought.  Luckily zipties came to my rescue.  See lesson 7

7) Pack plenty of zipties.  Having zipties saved me on several occasions

Gear:
Stuff I would take:
-200 lumen Hi/ 100 lumen low light  On the climbs you don't need a ton of light, but on the descents which can get pretty fast, I was glad for at least 100 lmns.
-Dumonde tech chain lube (I would try to put a smaller amount in a different bottle...I took a normal sized bottle that was 2/3 full.  I could have shaved some weight here)
-SOL escape bivvy.  This performed well even in the damp conditions I slept in, but I could have carried a lighter bivvy and given up the breathability.  Choices.
-Porcelain rocket and revelate gear.  All performed really well, except my Pika seatbag wanted to wag a lot.  It could have been my packing method, seat post, or seat rails that didn't agree with the mounting straps.  Oh well...I just put it behind me (pun intended).  Next time I'll just put less stuff in these same bags.
-Gummy bears!  I was wishing for more gummies almost the whole ride.  Gummy bears were great for times when I needed some sugar energy, and a cliff bar just wouldn't metabolize fast enough.
-Rain jacket.  For obvious reasons...but I also wore it for warmth.  It was all I needed in the clothes dept. besides the jersey and shorts I was wearing.
-bash guard.  I bent a tooth on my chainring and had to spend some time with a rock filing down the bent over tooth.  A light guard would've been cheap insurance

Stuff I wouldn't take:
-Thermal shirt, thermal tights.  These could be replaced with arm and leg warmers if needed, but I think I could do without anything in this department.  I only got cold in the very early morning when I woke up.  The cure for that is to just get moving.
-chain tool
-as much food.  I had a ton of lara and cliff bars along with some instant oatmeal and some other stuff.  I feel like I could get to resupply points faster if my weight was down, and thus wouldn't need as much food at all times.  This is a balance that I erred well on the side of too much.  Food is very dense and heavy, and I carried excess up and over a lot of hills.
-as much water.  Even as slow as I was going I never emptied my 3L reservoir completely between water sources.  I know the stretch from Dalton to the border can be dry though.  Another balancing act.

whew.

Carrying capacity for the first 2/3 of the race can be 2 bottles. Water is available on route pretty easy.

After Dalton, that's a different story. Your speed, the heat, & fitness all come into play.  A guess is 5 liters at least after Dalton. Probably more.

Thank you.  I'm not too worried about route finding, my fitness (although I'm not expecting to set any records, bears, bugs, sleeping, etc...  the big unknown is where I'm going to get water and how much to carry.  At least I have some sort of info to go on now.  Much appreciated.

Anybody want to chime in with how much water capacity one should be able to carry for this thing? 

What kinda tires are ya'll planning on running?  I'm thinking of going with some semi-slicks.  Probably stupid.

I'm not sure I'd be running semi-slicks...but, admittedly, my opinion doesn't mean much.  I think I will probably be running geax saguaros.  They roll pretty well, but you do give up some traction in loose corners and you have to be ready for the rear to slide out on you over slick roots.  I plan on trying the geax aka before the race and using whichever one makes me look the sexiest...err...rides the best.

I have a small bivvy-ish tent that I'm none too fond about carrying due to the setup, but I'd like something to cover me from the creepy crawlies at night.

As an alternative to the full tent you could get a military issue insect repellant jacket.  They stay effective for a long time against ticks and mosquitoes if you use a DEET+Permethrin repellant and keep it in a ziploc bag.  It is important to use the military jackets over most of the nylon no-seeum jackets because they use cotton in the fabric that absorbs the repellent.  It is a good option for those that are leery of the critters and not too concerned about the chemicals.

I'm guessing for something like the TNGA (@ race pace) the main thing to be concerned with is food and water, with the bare necessities for clothing, tools/spares, sleep kit, and maps & gps slotting in behind in some order.  It seems like more a sprint mentality is needed, rather than a tourdivide type mentality.  With that mentality, I'm planning on forgoing a good bit of comfort with the tradeoff being less crap to haul from border to border. 

I was thinking for sleeping kit I'd just go with an emergency bivvy sack and nothing else.  Tools are pretty straight forward.  I haven't narrowed the amount of clothing down yet but I'm thinking along the lines of 1 pair of shorts, 1 jersey, 2 pairs socks (wool), stuffable rain jacket, and a long sleeve shirt and light shorts for sleeping.   (I'm sort of debating whether or not having two pairs of riding shorts would be smart or a waste of space).  Beyond that stuff it's just lights, cue sheets, gps, batteries, food, and liquids.

I'm basically just thinking out loud here, but any comments/suggestions are more than welcome since I'm completely new to the whole bikepacking endurance race thing.

I'm in the same boat as Sthig; this will be my first long distance race, and I'm a little trepidatious about water/food supply points.  I have no way of scoping out the trails before hand, so my resupply point planning is going to have to be by map alone.  I'm not too concerned about the bugs and critters since I've been backpacking in the south all my life.

Look forward to an update on how well it deals with condensation in actual use.  I may have just found my next project.  thanks for posting this.