Butte to Pinedale Trip Summary

 

All of the photos from the trip are here.

The three of us survived the trip from Butte to Pinedale with no injuries or serious mishap. Doug's recounting of the trip is on his blog (July thru September 2020 postings). Dave is off hiking in Isle Royale and I'm back in Boulder. 

Here are some random Facebook posts from the trip:

Other junk:

I met Karen and Allen from Durango on the next-to-last day. I am the "Mike from Boulder" in the last paragraph of this blog post. 

Document with the trip planning information

Doug's photo album

What would I do differently?

I was pretty cold at night, so I would definitely bring a warmer bag and a jacket with a hood. Since I was sleeping under a tarp, I should have brought a slightly warmer bag anyway. Also, a thicker sleeping pad would have given me more sleep and warmth. I would also trade out my relative tough and heavy pants for a pair of lightweight wind pants and a pair of warm tights. I really didn't like the bike shoes I had - they were heavy and took a long time to dry out. Next time, I'll use standard clip-in pedals and more breathable mountain biking shoes. 

I didn't really appreciate how many bags, straps and technology end up on or around the handlebar stem. Mine was really short causing a traffic jam. I'll put in a longer stem next time. 

My clothing was fine, but there were times I would have liked a windbreaker. I could have put on my rain jacket, but it is dark in color (not very safe for riding) and isn't very breathable. Next time, I'll either add a light vest or windbreaker or I'll get a brightly colored, very breathable rain jacket. 

All the Junk I Sent Home

 As it turns out, bikepacking bags are pretty small. The morning of day one, I was stuffing as hard as I could to get everything to fit. The bags were bulging and the bike was kinda heavy. After just one day of riding, camping and eating, we came across a post office in Wise River so I packed some unnecessary stuff into a box. I had already lost one of my sandals so, for no apparent reason, I put the remaining one into the box. I had brought two phones, one loaded with podcasts and music. I realized that I didn't really need it, or the second book that I had packed. My primary phone looked like it would last five days on a charge, so I decided to just rely on my battery pack for the rest of the trip, allowing me to send home the phone charger. I pulled the coverings from my tool kit and Leatherman, and sent home two of the four masks that I had along with some straps. Not sure why I had two spoons and two cups, but those went home too. This wasn't a big load of stuff, but it did free up some of the precious space in the bags. 

Day four in Lima and it was time to really unload a bunch of stuff. After four nights camping, I had a better idea of what I needed and didn't need and it was time to get serious. I decided that I only needed one pair of bike shorts and one spare tube. None of us had had a single flat tire, and I could rinse my shorts every night. It is so arid out west, everything was dry by morning. I wasn't using my spices because the freeze-dried food was sufficiently spiced already. It hadn't been cold enough for gloves I had sent myself too much food, so I sent some back. The blue cotton T-shirt for sleeping turned out to be an unnecessary luxury. A few other odds and ends made up the rest of the box. 

With all of this stuff sent home, packing the bike became much quicker and easier. Everything could fit without sweating and swearing.