Originally Posted by
indyfabz
The one of the tunnel and the one before it are from the east slope of the NorPac Trail, whish in 9 miles in western Montana up to Lookout Pass at the border with Idaho. (Rode I-90 down from the pass instead of continuing down on the trail. The two above that are from the Mickelson Trail in the Black Hills area of SD.
Most of my "modern trips" out west have been two weeks long. (Back in '99 I rode across the U.S. In '00 I did a seven week tour from the PNW down to SW Colorado.) The bike is a Surly LHT, which is designed for heavy loads. 36H RhynoLite rims. The originals wore out after 7 years. Conti Top Touring II tires in 35c size. (The actually measure 37c.) Terry Men's Liberator saddle. The bike is not designed for singletrack, but does reasonably well on things like unpaved Forest Service roads. I have been incorporating more and more dirt into my tours. Getting off the highway often offers more nature opportunities (See below from 2019.) And, of course, usually less traffic. Have a flight booked to Missoula again this June. A good amount of dirt is planned.
I usually don't ride at night when I tour, but I do sometimes start at dawn. A headlight can also come in handy in bad weather/fog. But I needed it for that trip because I rode the Route of the Hiawatha Trail that has numerous tunnels, including the St. Paul Pass Tunnel, which is 1.66 miles long and completely dark.
Just got time.
I finally understand after reading the description of your rides. These dirt roads and trails were segments of a longer tour where you detoured off the main highway route to take the trails and unimproved roads as a plan. I should have realized this, there is not going to be dedicated trails and dirt roads for hundreds of miles.What is the wheel base of the Turly? I can not imagine how a dedicated touring bike set up for long distance road touring would handle on a dirt path for an extended distance loaded for self sustain. It must have been some work, especially with the drop bars. But even with strong touring rims, you wore out a pair in seven years. Did the dirt have anything to do with this? Those rims must have to be very strong for what you put them through. How many spokes are on them. I ask because there was a guy on BF who was trying to do self contained long distance touring on a Cross Bike and was popping spokes and everyone was suggesting a certain style spoke,double butted I think, or telling him to go up to a higher spoke count wheel. I guesse the Turley can accommodate 35mm tires being a pure touring bike. Did you have to make a compromise between effeicency and durability? That must have been a hard choice. You still had to pedal hundreds of miles.
Great Pictures,Great Tours, Interesting Places. With your experience you ought to think about organizing an annual BF Tour for all comers so people can put a face on some of these initials and could try something they would never dream of on their own. The people taking these tours and posting the great pictures have got to give more descriptive descriptions of just where they are and the distances involved so people can place themselves there. Do you have any fall color pictures in your vast museum of photographs. I would like to see some, I am fascinated by that. There has been only one up to now...Thanks,mjac