Stage 1--Short trip

For my first real test run I have chosen a Thanksgiving weekend ride to Brown County State Park and back.  The plan is to ride to the park on Black Friday; stay at the campground, explore Nashville and the park on Saturday, then ride back home Sunday.

So far I plan to use a route I found online here.



The trip is short, just under 43 miles one way, but should be long enough to test out my bike, trailer, gear, and legs/heart.

To many a trip of this sort at this time of year may seem a bit extreme considering the weather, but for me trips like this are usually taken at this time of year.  Since the death of my wife the holidays have been a little depressing, so over the years I adopted a habit of taking the children on various climbing, camping, biking trips to occupy our time and minds.  Now that the children are young adults they aren't quite as interested in spending time with Dad in a tent at the base of some cliff somewhere, so I have started doing my trips solo.

I still have a couple of weeks to tweak things a bit, but for now the following is a list of what I plan to take on the trip:

• Bike (duh)
• Bike repair--tubes, flat repair, multi-tool, spokes, nuts and bolts, cables, etc.
• Nomad
• Tent-I'm hoping to be able to get an REI ASL tent because I don't think my MSR Hubba Hubba will cut it in the cold.  But, if the finances don't pan out for it I can borrow a friend's North Face VE-25.  The VE-25 is an ideal tent for cold weather, but is a little overkill in altitudes under 14,000 feet and it weighs almost twice as much as the ASL tent.
• 15 degree North Face sleeping bag
• REI self inflating sleeping pad
• Foam sleeping pad
• Jetboil stove and coffee press
• Katadyn water filter
• Nalgene 48 oz water bladder
• 2 Nalgene bottles
• Voltaic solar charger with the USB battery charger and LED light
• Assorted stuff sacks and dry bags
• On bike clothing-pants, jacket, base layers, gloves, rain gear, etc.
• Camp/casual clothing
• toiletries
• First aid kit w/ medications
• 4 meals (some meals will be covered by Restaurants in Nashville)
• Camera, MP3 player. phone
• Misc. items--Clif bars (don't leave home without 'em), gel packs, Nuun tablets, spare rechargeable batteries, etc.

Obviously some of these things are completely unnecessary for such a short trip, but my plan here is to test out some of the equipment as well as get an idea on packing and carrying/pulling these things around on the road before I commit to longer trips where they will prove more useful.

I will, of course post updates to the plan and details of the trip.

Also, I haven't expressly stated this, but I am VERY open to critiques, comments, suggestions and encouragement, so feel free to engage in such things.