My apologies for not getting this out yesterday. I had a classic. One of my cats decided that the DSL data line would be better if it weren’t connected. The fact that this occurred coincidentally with my making some modem and router connection changes led to a long and erroneous troubleshooting. Oops!
· It will be early Autumn.
· We will be riding at elevation ~ sometimes in the 4,000 to 6,000 foot above sea level range.
· We will be riding in the southern Great Smoky Mountains.
· Expect at least one rainy day.
· We are being supported by drivers carrying the luggage.
If you combine those first three points, you can roughly translate them to this, “Prepare for anything.”
It could be warm and sunny, it could be cool, it could be cloudy, it might rain. We could see all of this on the same day. I don’t think snow is very likely.
Generally, in that region, at that time of year, it’s fairly dry and sunny. The norm is overnight lows in the upper 50s to low 60s, with day time highs in the mid 70s.
Our plan has us riding during daylight hours, but I would recommend a good strong tail light on general principles.
Think Layers:
When planning for any given day, a combination of arm warmers, a wind vest, a rain shell, and possibly leg or knee warmers makes a lot of sense.
A Few things you might bring:
- Light tights
- One long sleeved jersey
- Wind jacket
- Rain jacket
- Hat with a bill (can be worn under helmet in rain
- Helmet cover
- Wool socks
- A hat that can be worn under your helmet
- A pair of light full fingered gloves
- At least one more pair of shorts than you think you will need
- Spare pair of cycling shoes
- A cue sheet holder
- Zip lock baggies
- Shorts lube
- Sucreen
- Camera
To dry wet cycling clothing quickly, first fold the item as small as possible and and squeeze out most of the water. Then open I tup and lay it our flat on a towel. Roll it tightly inside the towel, and wring the towel. Finally hang the damp item overnight.
To pack cycling clothing very compactly, first roll it up tightly. Then place in an appropriate sized zip lock baggie. Insert the crevice tool of a vacuum cleaner in the baggie and zip it mostly closed. Use the vacuum cleaner to pull the air out of the clothing and the baggie, and then pull the tool out, while the vacuum is still running. Finish closing the baggie.
Give some thought to the idea of carrying extra clothing on the bike. We are planning to do this on lighter bikes, but you will need to have some way to carry rain shells, arm warmers, etc while riding. Likely, you won’t want to be wearing everything you carry at any one time. A very light, small back pack could be the answer. Possibly you have a very capacious seat pack. Do consider it.
On Monday: A Ride Report and an Update
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