rons bikes blog dot com

hi everyone. remember when I used to camp 200+ nights out of the year off my bike? maybe you don’t, it was years ago at this point, but it was my lifestyle on the cheep for nearly a decade. it is also how I garnered enough of a following to be able to now squeak out a living off of my portfolio of bike businesses. that portfolio and a few other factors have certainly cut into my camping time … I am embarrassed to say that I can’t even remember the last bike camp I went on.

my bike camping pro friend and scholar of many minds, Joe Cruz, had made a 90 mile route in the zone of the D2R2, but with less ridable terrain. with the limited daylight available this time of year, doing it as an overnight would be a perfect way to not feel rushed and truly enjoy ourselves out there. well looks like I was going camping!

earlier in the week I had 4 of my bikes out in the yard and I was marveling at how they were all functional at once. I seemingly have a bike for every day of the month, but truth is they are rarely in working order. very rarely. so 4 working at once was a real “wow” moment for me. what one would I take on my first camping trip in so many moons???

well as it turns out it was a rough week on my bikes — “stick season” they call it around here, where/when all of the freshly fallen leaves and other debris cover the trails and less traveled roads — stick monsters under the leaf litter just waiting to take your derailleurs/spokes/soul/etc. at the end of the week I was left with one operational bike… ever stalwart, my Rivendell Rondini. hadn’t used a basket in a while, so I mounted one and went for a pedal down by the beach in Old Saybrook. its a comfy bike, and I’d used it on all sorts of terrain — even before the canti stud addition. despite the report of some single track and unimproved roads, I figured I’d give it a go on my fav underbike.

as you can see here it was a fine move. I was never too far behind or too far in front to take a few photos of my camping comrades — one of my very favorite activities. it was a crisp day in the mid 40s, the first all day outing of the year with temps that would soon be the norm, but those first few rides in the 40s amiright?? brisk.

Josh was also underbiking, but he really underestimates himself. since moving to our area a few years ago he has become as strong and as good a rider as anyone! nice going Josh!

the daylight was sopped up pretty quick, and we still had a big hunk of bread to finish. 35 miles in 6 hours seemed like an easy day, but the terrain made slow going of it. suppose slow going is savoring in this instance. it is that beautiful out there! but it was getting cold. Lows this night would be in the 20s.

annnnd to camp! it ended up being a lean-to shelter off this leafy road at the top of a hill (mountain for us) at 1200ft. suppose it would be a solid 20 degrees that night, but eureka! the shelter was stocked with split firewood! this would be a party. we looked at our watches and it was only 5:00… time to get the fire going!

we had the most delightfully nerdy fireside chat and lol about the bike industry, our dream bikes, and racing the New England NORBA circuit in the 90s. what else is there to life?? lol. such nerds. as it turns out, Ed, Joe Cruz’s cycling mentor from when we was getting into this stuff in the late 80s as a student at Williams College (where he now teaches), was a real old HED of the scene. he was around for it all, and he even know myyyyy mystery cycling mentor, Geo Bullock, who briefly gave me a few pointers back in 1993. we talked bikes, and then the subject changed to more bikes.

I slept verrrrry well that night. until 8! at home I am up at 5:30 usually, unable to fall back asleep no matter what time I’d gone to bed the night before. I haven’t always been like this … I blame 2020 for making my life legit.

after a few instant coffees around the fire and some oatmeal, we thawed ourselves enough to start pedaling. today would be 10 miles longer … but we had an early start, so figured there was no way we’d be pedaling in the dark later on… and pizza awaited us at Treehouse brewing in Deerfield. that place is the size of a college campus — even in the dark we wouldn’t miss it.

we slowly packed up and started …ahem… pushing. maybe 42 miles today would be ambitious. these tracks are sooo damn good though! Joe Cruz really strung together a mixed terrain Stradivarius. a good friend to know.

we had a nice lunch in Charlemont — love this little town — before a rather steep climb back on up and up to the catamount state forest. it was in this forest that we all became separated from one another and after some time wandering and pushing alone, came back together in 2 separate groups unbenounced (sp?) to one another since there was no cell service. this was really the end of our hopes of completing the route this day, and our pizza timers were on.

what you are seeing here is last light — we were half way into the ride. time to bail on the road!

just a little bog hopping first though

we dumped out in Shelburn falls (another lovely town) and took a very quiet and flat primary road along the Deerfield river all the way back to Deerfield in the dark.

we made it! thanks Joe, for putting this route together, and we will be doing it again before we post the route cuz we want to finish the other part too when we have more daylight. Joe will have it all up with details on Bikepacking dot com.

okay I gotta go camping more!

Ronnie