Odyssey Catchup: Test Rides, GPS Tracking, and more

In the last 2 weeks, in the mad dash to make sure that I'm ready, at least from a packing list point of view, for this expedition, I've done a few longer rides and an overnight camping trip.

The first weekend of test rides was to set out with the bike fully loaded for the trip, but to do a 50 to 60 mile loop from the apartment. Starting out is a little strange, as the handlebars and bike handling drastically change with the addition of a bunch of weight, not least of which is about 10 pounds of liquids. I was doing well for the first half of what turned out to be a 66 mile test ride, but as the day got longer, I started making mistakes about taking breaks and consuming enough water. Despite all the jokes about the wet, cool summer we've been having, I can attest that there have been some days that were clear and hot enough to bring on heat exhaustion in the unprepared and stupid. I compounded this with a 30 mile ride the next day in similar heat and again didn't drink appropriately. However, otherwise, the legs felt good for 100 miles in 2 days.

2 weeks later, it was time for an overnight camping trip to do a real test of the proper gear being on the bike and a stab at starting to sort gear into appropriate locations and levels within the Panniers. 51 miles each way on back to back days, with breaks every 12-15 miles and consuming just over a quart of water in that distance resulted in feeling great. While not a good example of the hill climbing that will be required on the real trip, I'm sufficiently satisfied that even with the bike loaded, the bike has low enough gears to climb most reasonable grades.

Speak of hills, looking at Google Maps using the Terrain layer instead of satellite is really cool, and somewhat frightening to look at central Pennsylvania. Check out this map segment, by Pittsburgh standards, that section on the left above Northern Cambria is pretty hilly(by RI standards, it'd be mountainous...8)

On the Gear Front, the bad news is the Dynotec Solar charger is a no go. I've returned the unit to the manufacturer. After corresponding with them, they suggested using a USB port to charge the device, which seemed to work a little better than using the wall charger, but what it really turned out is that there is something wrong with the connections, as sitting on a counter undisturbed, the units charging light will go out, even though the unit was only plugged in for a few seconds and was completely drained. The other problem was that the solar panel was just too small to give the battery a significant charge in a reasonable amount of time. In my experience, a week sitting on a roof or a sunny window sill didn't give the unit more than a minimal charge.

I've replaced that with a larger secondary battery pack from FastMac that should nearly quadruple my running time between mandatory recharging. I'll just make it a point to stop by libraries, cafes, etc where I can recharge the backup battery while I'm waiting. The bonus is that the FastMac iV also includes a superbright LED, which gives me a third flashlight for the trip. The second is a Petzl headband mounted LED lamp on loan from a friend.

One of the reasons I'm so concerned about power is that I'd like to provide semi-accurate, semi-live GPS track recording, or a live tracker via a web portal. I believe what I'll be using is the InstaMapper website with their GPSTracker app. While I'd like a super accurate GPS track of my exact travels, the battery drain is pretty big. While not a lot less, I think it may be more useful to be able to have my position plotted to within a mile for emergencies, and with the position posted every 15 to 30 minutes, except in an area with a lot of turns, it should be accurate enough.


GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Odyssey Route: As Final as it Gets

After much stressing, and a way too busy life, the 4th of July holiday has given me time to focus on getting the map finalized. Coupled with having a pseudo-decision from Family to have a large gathering on August 15th at the "country estate". On the upside, this means I'll have an enforced rest day. Downside is it forces a 100 mile day, assuming I don't choose to sag the last 100 miles into Pittsburgh. Of course, getting to the farm also implies a bit of a northward jog. Perhaps I'll redo the route off of the water gap to remove the need to work north again on day 7. This means I now have semi-fixed dates of travel. Leaving Providence on Saturday the 8th, arriving Patchinville, PA on Friday the 14th, Arriving Pittsburgh on the 16th. Only question now is how to get back after spending a couple of days in Pittsburgh visiting friends.

There comments embedded in each days route about my expectations for that days riding, unfortunately, I wanted to keep the entire route on a single page, so I eliminated all of the routes that would have indicated the more southern route implied by following the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Route to Norristown and then catching PA Bike Route S.


View Prov to Pitt Bike Route in a larger map

Odyssey Gear: Devotec Solar Charger

In researching solutions for portable charging, I found the Devotec Solar Charger that seemed to be a good fit to my needs. 1800mAh storage battery, rechargeable from a built in solar panel, USB port, or wall socket... essentially, all the features of a Solio unit except for the swiveling triple panel and a little less expensive.

The unit is nice and small, perhaps even a little too small. I like that it has an LED on it to indicate if it is receiving enough solar power to charge, and the LED varies in intensity with different lighting conditions. It has a second LED labeled charge, but I've not yet seen it lit.

It comes nicely packaged and well equipped with changeable tips to charge darn near any device, and with a USB female converter, almost any device that isn't represented can probably be covered too. (like, say a digital camera with a funky not-quite mini-USB connector).

Only downsides I've found so far is that there is no way to figure out how much of a charge is currently stored in the battery. Reading the instruction sheet only indicates that the charge light comes on when the unit is fully charged using a USB or wall socket, presumably to prevent overcharging/overheating.

I've also had some issues with getting it to connect to my iPhone and charge it, almost as though there is a slightly loose or mismatched connector, as jiggling the connector yields the charging connection tone. In theory the unit when fully charged can recharge the iPhone just short of twice.

Since I can't see how charged the battery is, I can't gauge how much power is being collected and stored on a sunny day on my kitchen window. Based on 2 attempts at charging the phone, the answer, at least on cloudy days is, unsurprisingly, not much.

Self-Supported Odyssey planning

Setting new goals to challenge myself for the year, I've decided that one of this years cycling goals is a one week self-contained trip. I'll be making a series of posts tagged under "cycling" and "odyssey09" to share the planning and hopefully completion. For my first such trip, I've settled on cycling from Providence, RI to Pittsburgh, PA sometime in late July or early August.

I'm still gathering the equipment, thinking about how much and what gear I want to carry with me, reading a lot, and planning the route.

So far, for equipment, I'll be using my Breezer Liberty, to which I've already had added a Jannd front rack and some extra battery powered blinkies. I have a pair of sealed pannier's in the REI Novarra brand, and need to acquire another set. I haven't determined the size, as I don't konw if they would be okay as front panniers and to get a second set with larger volume, assuming using them for lighter items (clothing) or if I should invest in a set of panniers marketed as front's for their smaller size.

The route is pretty well decided, though exact details will be pretty fuzzy until the moment my wheels go by. I've been looking at a couple of different routes to intersect with the Adventure Cycling Atlantic coast route in northeast Connecticut, somewhere near North Woodstock. From there I'd follow their route as far as Norristown, PA. From there, I'm thinking to use PA Bicycle Route S to get across the state and follow the Great Allegheny Passage into the city. Since Route S follows the trail for a portion of its length, this should be okay. Hopefully I'll have a google map up with a route track on it to share soon.

I anticipate needing to do on the upper end of 60-80 miles each day in order to complete the journey in a week, have a little time to visit with friends, and then catch the train (I hope) back to Providence. I have some trepidation about being able to get the bike back home by train as I don't think that it can be checked through. One of the annoying features of Amtrak service is the lack of baggage services on many trains on the routes that I find myself using (across PA only one of the 2 trains each day has baggage service).

For the remainder of the gear, I anticipate that I'll be taking a tent for wet/cool nights, a small hammock for warm nights and a small stove. From reading Ken Kifer's anecdotes and suggestions, I'm hoping to do a little back country camping, at least in Connecticut where campgrounds are not located at suitable distances for my use. I also need to figure out in the next couple of months if a smaller tent would be a good investment. I'm hoping to do a couple of weekend or overnight excursions within the state to test my gear and loading choices. Expect updates as those occur.

To supplement any printed maps I take, I'm hoping to use a GPS device with maps along the way to help resolve last minute routing decisions, assist when lost, or really need to find something like a motel or McDonalds (for the bathroom, of course). The problem I'm foreseeing with any of the electronics I might bring is keeping them charged. I've considered purchasing a portable solar charger, such as one of the models from Solio. Since I expect the device to be off most of the time, I might be able to go a whole week on a single charge, but it would be a real pain to be wrong on that account.

And most importantly, on the safety side of things, I just received my new RoadID. I opted for the updated style which provides a phone number that emergency personnel can call to get my personal, vital information. Or, they can login to a website to get my emergency information such as blood type, insurance info, contacts, etc. I expect this will be somewhat more useful than the simple list of names and numbers of the old ID, as I have the ability to update the information available at any time without having to get a new ID.