16 posts tagged “s24o”
Here's an impressive video of a big climb using a very bike bike. The Xtracycle is a wonderful way to haul a lot of gear and luxury items when you're out camping and exploring by bicycle.
So Long January from the top of the mountain!
Sweet escape. I ran the halls of the office getting things filed, gathered, ready for a quick escape for an s24o. The usual protocol is to cut work at lunch on a Friday in order to make it to some distant location, but with short days and busy jobs, 4PM was the only choice. Nick was doing his own breakaway from his law office downtown. We checked in via cell phone and I could hear him shuffling papers and logging out of his various work gadgets.
It was 5 when we met up. By chance, the beginning of this ride happened to be at Nick's daughter's pre-school. So we got the opportunity to visit with Nick's daughter and wife before heading up the mountain.
Compared to the, say, the Rockies, the Santa Ynez range is nothing special. But for a couple of guys with loaded touring rigs trying to make it to a friend's land at the top, it it plenty challenging.
Here's a link to the relative zone where we started. You can follow the road up the mountain to get an idea of what our climb was like.
Lucky for us, we have a friend who gives us access to a little piece of land up near the top.
As the light was starting to vanish and the moon and stars were getting brighter, we tossed our bags onto a bed of clover and surveyed the views that span from downtown Santa Barbara to the Gaviota Coast. The views are magnificent and, with a couple of big gulps from the water bottles and a sip or two of good whiskey, things got better and better.
Doing an s24o with a long and trusted friend is a wonderful thing. We've had conversations going on that we pick up and put down over the decades. A few words and a smile are all the leverage needed to trigger a memory of the great ocean adventure involving Stubby, Gary, and the shark. A few moments of silence and we're both thinking about our families and our roles as fathers. Along with the conversations, we took turns plugging our iPods into some speakers and shared our current life playlists. Two songs for Nick, two songs for Don. This went on for longer than an hour until it became hard to keep the eyes open.
Nick teased me about having my tent and I ended up not using it. We woke up to a curiously warm morning (probably above 60 degrees) and no moisture on our bikes and bags. GREAT.
Nick, is one who NEEDS nature. He works in a demanding job, he's a good parent, and all this means he needs to get away every so often to "sleep on the dirt" and think about life.
I'm going to invite him out for an s24o. The weather is cold in Santa Barbara right now, but there's no ice on the ground and I'm sure we'll be cozy in our respective tents.
The thing I'm looking forward to on this tour is music. My pal has recently been listening to a LOT of music. We went to college together and were roommates for two years. Among my many great memories is our trips to the music store to flip through new and used LPs. Sometimes I'd take a risk on something in the dollar bin and we'd bring it back to our dorm room for an audition. If it "sucked" we'd actually smash the record against the wall or frisbee it into the night (we were not ecologists at the time, that's changed).
Once in awhile, we'd spin something incredible and sit back enjoying the perfect mix of guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.
I'm looking forward to an s24o with iPods pre-loaded with our current favorites. Nick has been exploring in the area of Country Music (me too -- NEVER would I have predicted this) and I'm looking forward to sharing some recent finds in the genre I like to call "bands trying to sound like Joy Division."
We'll ride out to the one of our sites, plug in some powered speakers and listen to some songs as if it were the early 80s and we were in our old dorm room. For a few hours, our lives will be as uncomplicated as they were back before they unfolded like giant, unweildy maps. We'll ride back to our current, wonderful lives with new energy and new appreciation for our good fortune to be mobile, musical, and in touch.
D
The surf season has arrived in Santa Barbara
The s24o-minded surfer is loathe the fight for a parking space amongst the notoriously over-sized surf vehicles. Why drive to the break when you can do what I did this morning -- load the bike with the board, towel, and a coffee-filled thermos and ride to the ocean. Not all surfers are lucky enough to live within riding range of their favorite spot. But my challenge is this. If you DO live within 10 miles of a break, use your bike rather than your car. It's an easy way to get extra fun and exercise out of your surfing habit.
A bicycle can carry ANY size board. I regularly spot a surfer with a stand-up paddleboard or SUP pedaling along the bike trail to the ocean. He has the board on a simple trailer that looks fit to carry an ocean kayak.
Bicyclists get the best parking. There's nothing as satisfying as riding by the parking lot, down a hill and right to the sand for the fastest vehicle-to-line-up entry short of dropping from a chopper into the take-off zone.
Here's a link that has live video of one of my favorite breaks. If you see a happy surfer on a bike, it might be me.
CowaBikeA,
Don
Dear s24o community,
It's still Thanksgiving but hours after the big meal. I'm out in the garage/office tapping at the laptop beneath a row of bicycles that hang from the rafters. I am thankful for a lot of things. I am very thankful for the natural world and how wonderful it is to experience by bicycle.
Jane (the almost 10-year-old) and I rode the Goleta Beach today. We rode in a good headwind while enjoying clean air and giant clouds left over from yesterday's first rainstorm of the season. We stopped at a picnic table and hat a hot tea from the thermos while looking out over the Pacific Ocean.
The whole trip, including a stop at my office, took less than two hours. But we'll both always remember this fine day.
Happy Thanksgiving to all,
Don
Dodging raindrops, counting fireflies, the Crane Family takes Five Rivers by long-tail bicycle and, after you read their account here, you'll wish you were a member of the Crane Family.
"In total: 16 miles, 18 hours, 4 happy people!"
I'll be on an s24o soon celebrating another year as a middle-aged dude. But when I ride, I feel exactly the way I felt in this picture from the late 1960s. I don't feel that way in the car.
Don
I used the same trailer that I used to load with babies. This time, I loaded it with a Coleman stove, a cooler, some chairs, and beach toys. Those former babies, now cyclists of some accomplishment, rode on their own or served as stokers.
If Fathers' day is about dads spending a day in a way that celebrates fatherhood and favorite things to do, our bike-to-the-beach morning hit the mark perfectly. We laughed, adventured, ate breakfast burritos, climbed trees, and talked. It's good to be a cycling dad with cycling kids.
Fathers Mark and Don
This is darn wonderful!
A group of families. No cars. Camping!
By Mark McClure
An S24O site founder
In my quest to lighten my load for mountainous O’s,
I’ve decided to forgo my gasoline stove and carry only
a photon stove.
I’ve been messing around with pop-can alcohol stoves for
a couple of years now. They’re dirt cheap – you can buy one
on eBay for about $20 – and Zen elegant. Here’s a really informative article about them.
Alcohol stoves are ideal for S24’s. They are very light (20 g), trouble-free, silent, clean-burning. They’re amazingly stingy with fuel; a couple tablespoons will bring a liter of water to boil. Although I treasure my old brass Svea with its patina of tours, the reality is it’s noisy and demands patience and even an adroit user can easily wind up with a fireball. Also, the fuel is poisonous, stinks if leaked, and is hard to find in small amounts.
There are many readily available forms of suitable alcohol, like methylated spirits, Heet (yellow bottle), even drinking alcohol of sufficient proof.
Drinking alcohol – ethanol – is the ideal alcohol fuel because it is non-toxic. How many stove fuels can claim that? Also, if ascending mountain passes, it is the most concentrated of all alcoholic beverages, so you can take less. In fact, a tablespoon of Everclear or my personal favorite, Spirytus, a Polish vodka, is the equivalent to a can of beer, a fact which makes it real easy to have way too much.
I think the stove will satisfy all my needs for a quick overnighter where all I want to do is heat things up, especially water, instead of true cooking. I’ll post a report on our return.
Field Reports:
“A beautifully quiet experience; no deafening roar whilst awaiting the pot to boil.”
“As I recall, the stove worked great. Everclear certainly is flammable!”
It’s important to remember the power of a capful of of sprityus
- Mark “Make it a Double” McClure
