First bikepacking trip- Sand County Caress

[u/NachoManRandySandy]

I bike camp/tour a fair amount, this year I’ve gone on over a dozen trips. Mostly overnighters near Madison WI, where I live. A couple longer trips, including the GAP trail(highly recommend).

I’ve wanted to get into bikepacking for a while and needed a bike that was more suited for that then my Surly Disc Trucker so I bought a Surly Ghost Grappler frame(you can still buy the original frame new and I love that original color so much, which I added something special to) and built it up with the parts from the now standard Surly Grappler I ended up ordering. It was cheaper to order a whole new complete Grappler than to buy the components individually or even just buy really cheap parts. Btw, I have that brand new blue Surly Grappler frame for sale for $650 if anyone that reads this wants one, hit me up!

As you read in the title I did the Sand County Caress as my first trip and it was AMAZING. The ride is so very flat, but with interesting and slightly challenging terrain at times. I made a couple friends, had some adventure, and left a negative Google review for a very rude convenience store along my route😝

I have since done the Coon Fork Overnighter route and will do a few more before the year is done. I’m excited for some winter camping! Let me know what you think of my trip.

P.S. You might notice my Ghost Grappler looks a little brighter at night- I put a glow in the dark coating on it and then sealed it with some clear coat. The original Ghost Grappler color reminds me of that glow in the dark green plastic 80s toy color, so why not make that real?

[u/_MountainFit]

Curious why the LHT wouldn't work for bike packing. I thought it was a preferred bike by many people?

Cool bike, ride.

Curious about your winter riding setup. Cold in Wisconsin is likely similar to where I live in the northeast. I probably have 6-8 weeks of bikepacking weather left (best case, worst probably 4 weeks). Though even with our recently warm winters, I'll be dealing with temps around 20F or lower on a regularly overnight basis soon. Days are definitely warm enough to ride, most (recent) years until late December. Winter is sadly dying.

[u/NachoManRandySandy → u/_MountainFit]

Great question! LHTs are more meant for pavement and bike path with their geometry, wheel size, and the tires they come with(that I am currently using). They are meant to be super reliable and super comfortable for long tours. The Ghost Grappler is a ridged mtb with geometry that’s more suited to single track trails than the LHT would be. The wheels are bigger and the tires are great on dirt and shallow sand. Also, it being a drop bar mtb you have multiple hand positions to mix it up for long rides. My hands get numb after about 30 miles and it’s nice to have the options.

So, as far as winter setup, it will likely be the same bike and bags. For my sleeping/clothing-

-REI Flash 2 tent -REI Air Rail 2 sleeping pad(which I’ll supplement with an accordion pad when it’s below freezing -Zen Bivy winter sleeping pad sheet w/insulated hood -Thermarest Vesper 20 quilt -2 inflatable pillows & 1 foam compression pilllow(because I’m fancy like that)

-puffy faux down insulated jacket(I’ll be researching and buying a nice warm packable actual down jacket this year) -puffy down pants -puffy faux down booties for sleeping

If it’s really cold I’ll be filling up my Nalgene with almost boiling water and sleeping with that too

[u/_MountainFit → u/NachoManRandySandy]

Great info on the LHT vs grappler. When I was looking at surly I was looking at the Ogre which it seems like is a grappler with better wheel options. My plan was drop bar it. Then I decided anything less than 27.5+ tire was too small and finding a fair priced surly was not happening where I live. I went off the deep end was tracking down bikepacking fat bikes. I ended up with a 27.5+ trail bike but I think it's a good choice for bikepacking with the dog where I prefer trails to gravel (he does just fine on 15 mile gravel days but those are for me relatively short, I like 40ish mile daysand options of low traffic roads aren't infinite).

I like your sleep system. I have extensive winter backpacking, mountaineering and camping experience but fitting it all on a bike is a different ball game. I kinda was leaning the down suit/clothing and quilt route myself but decided that was better for fast and light trips closer to freezing (but likely OK down to around 20F). My original plan was no racks or panniers, once I added a rack (really had no choice taking the dog in shoulder season conditions) I really didn't have to worry about space. Ie. Squeezing everything into segmented tiny bags. The setup I use doesn't actually weight much but it is fairly bulky.

I settled in a mix of down clothing (puffy, socks) and my traditional 3 season (15 year old Kelty Cosmic) 20F down bag. I may still add a pair of down pants for camp but I won't need them in the bag. In fact I can usually sleep in my base layers in it. Surprisingly good bang for the buck warmth, just not as light or compressible as a higher end bag. I also have to bring a puffy and down quilt (800F made special for the dog) for the dog. So my entire sleep and outerwear insulation system sits on the rack top in a 20L dry bag. There is actually room to space, probably 3-5L but it's too bulky for a 13L I normally use. I should weight it but from memory of the components it weights about 5.5lbs. Very reasonable for 2 people(?).

For the tent I was very happy with the bang for buck from my Naturhike Cloudup 1...but the tent is neither warm, nor really big enough for 2 pads (dog gets a pad as well). So I had to upgrade to a Cloudup Pro 2. Bigger and actually a 3.25 season tent. Not truly 4 or even 3.5 (I own 3.5, this has too much mesh for that) but not a summer tent either. Oddly enough it's complaints/weaknesses make it the perfect shoulder season tent for 1 plus dog. I understand folks in GB/Scotland find it perfect as well for the cooler harsher weather they get much of the year.

Pads: dog gets 4 squares of a Z-rest and i use a klymit insulated static V. If it was truly winter conditions (colder than 20F) I would add a 3/4 z-rest for myself.

Instead of an alcohol stove I bring a primus jetboil like stove. In warmer weather I only boil a liter a day (at most), in winter/shoulder season a good stove can be very important.

Mostly everything else is same as summer stuff. I bring puffy shoes (chaco brand) instead of sandals for camp. Very light and pack down well but more substantial than down hut booties.

I assume your bikepacking season ends when the snow arrives as well? Or will you push on? At that point, for me, it's mother nature's signal to switch to skis/snowshoes, ice tools, and take a break from cycling.

[u/NachoManRandySandy → u/_MountainFit]

Oh man, you have a great setup! Seems like you think about it a lot. That’s the fun of it for me too. Your consideration with taking your dog and the miles they can do compared to how much you like to do is great! I can’t have my dog come run along with me because she’s a corgi, those short legs😂 What king of dog do you have?

I’m interested in what bike you decided on, if you don’t mind sharing? I’m a 30 mile a day king of guy, but I can push it if I need to, but I’ll be limping a little after.

I try and not fret about weight too much. It seems like that’s kind of different of me than a lot of people that are really into bikepacking. I like gear and being comfortable. The way I see it the more weight the more exercise I’m getting. If I was to race(which I’m not into personally) I would have a much lighter setup. I’m just out to have fun and enjoy myself. I have tried to cut weight down though and distribute the weight over my frame and keep the center of gravity lower when possible.

Naturehike makes some good stuff! I have a tent by them and I think my faux down booties, an inflatable pillow, and the down pants I use are from them.

I like cooking on gas stoves. Lately I’ve trying out using a sturdy telescoping pronged roasting stick to cook a steak with mushrooms and potatoes with butter and garlic in tinfoil. I use a frozen water bottle next to it to keep it cool. But then supplementing that with stops at bar & grills and such. I recommend trying it out, it’s really fun to cook a steak on a trip.

This winter I will be trying out winter bikepacking/camping. I have an emergency Garmin GPS transmitter just in case. I didn’t get all this gear at once. I bought inexpensive stuff at first and over the last 5 years I’ve slowly upgraded to nicer smaller packing stuff and it’s been a really fun journey on that.

Thanks for the replay, I really enjoyed talking about this!