My best day yet of Geocache riding

Today I set out on my daily work out ride, and went to a few new spots in the hackensack/paramus areas. I routed across a park in Hackensack, NJ called Borg Park, and found my first trackable geocache coin. This coin has a serial number on it, as so that you can track where it has been. I took it and left some other goodies. After visiting a few more destinations, I returned home to look up the history of this piece. I came to find that this little gem made it all the way to me from Southern California, and it is now my responsibility to move it to another spot that starts with the letter "B".

I hope to gather more of these trackable items in my rides, because it certainly makes riding a lot more interesting. Tomorrow my plans are to trek out to the woods of the Harriman State forest to do some wild camping with only a backpack overnight with a friend who has never really done camping like that before. My only real concern are the bears that are in abundance in that park. Im not really worried though, because I know we are the most dangerous things living in that forest lol.

I will post some updates as my day goes on tomorrow. I picked a trail that has 2 very interesting geocaches along it, and we will do our best to seek them out, as well as leave very nice things inside of them.

Bike snob

I always get a laugh from this website.
Www.bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com
Check it out sometime

Sunday shred Sum up

Got a great night sleep into Sunday morning. Woke up, made breakfast, and I was amazed at how fast I was able to pack up camp with my ultralight set up. After packing up, I prepared for a ride back to the secret lake of Fridays ride. I rode out with friends to the lake, and saw some of the biggest fish I've ever seen in fresh water. The bass we saw had to be over 25" long! We caught some salamanders and tried to cast some hooks to hopefully bag a monster. We caught nothing.
On another note, I hid my first geo cache. I called it "biker bottle by the lake" you can check it out on www.geocaching.com under the code GC3EVYH
We rode back to camp a few hours later and made a great lunch and relaxed for a few hours. Overall this weekend was a great success! It really connected me to nature and gave me confidence that I can survive outdoors with the minimal gear.

Next bike adventure I plan will be one night with a trail that takes 2 days to complete. I'm very confident that I'm able to do it!

Things that were useful/useless

Yes List-
-bright headlamps(2)
-hammock
-a good locking knife
-butane lighter
-newspaper
-harbor freight tarp(but camo)
-socks

No List-
-pop up shelter
-couch
-fishing stuff
-second sleeping bag
-second big backpack
-less food

Maybe List-
-Alcohol stove(bring more fuel)
-better mess kit
-pajamas

Night 2

Well today I see that in far better if a bike rider than fisherman. I wanted nothing more than to catch an ESPN worthy bass, but alas I ended up with nothing. Oh no wait, I did manager to catch a giant crawfish! I didn't even knew crawfish existed this far north, let alone that big! At that point, I gave up on fishing, and just collected a whole bunch of fire wood.
For dinner tonight, I made chef boyRdee beefaronie with soup and bread. Another epic camp meal which saved a crawfish's life. I washed my plates off and prepare for another night sleeping in the hammock. Tonight I put a heavier sleeping bag on, so it should be a night in perfect comfort.

9 miles into the unknown

This morning I set out for a solo ride onto some trails I never ventured down. I went left today at the trail I took yesterday and followed it in a big loop back to where I started. It solved a few mysteries to me about the layout of the land and where certain trails end up. I mistakenly went into a private hunting/fishing resort, and was kindly guided in the right direction once I told them what I was doing there. While I was trespassing though, I did get to stop at a really cool rock formation which I was able to get a few pictures of. I'm now back at camp, getting ready to prepare some lunch.

Fish-2 Dan-0

Made it through the night fine. The wild turkeys were so loud all night long. My toes were a little cold, but otherwise, my hammock set up worked very well. Not a single creepy crawly and a very comfortable sleep. I found a really big salamander walking around, much bigger than id ever expect to find in PA. That sucker was anout 5 inches long!
I woke up at about 7 to try fishing again. Got 1 bite, but hooked no fish. Then my lure got stuck in a tree. Epic fail. I have some more hooks and I'll try again at dusk. I'm just enjoying some coffee, bread and oatmeal and changing my clothes before I head out on today's ride. Check back for new map and update.

Nightfall

It's night time here. I failed at fishing before, but I collected a bunch of wood and I have a nice fire going. I made soup before with bread for dinner and I'm sitting here relaxing. I find that I really didn't need most of the stuff that I trucked out with me. The alcohol stove is only useful to use when there is no fire already. It was pretty weak heating up my can of soup. I just made a smaller fire and it heated up in like 2 minutes.
I don't feel beat up from my short rise and things are overall good. It's not even that cold. I'm in a light sweatshirt and baseball hat and I feel plenty warm.

Tomorrow I want to go left at the pipeline and see where that takes me. Check out my map I made from my ride before. Perhaps I will also have better luck catching a fish in the morning as well.

First few hours

I arrived and picked a spot to spend the night, then set out on the trail. I've gone about 4 miles in and just had to stop to relax and take in all of the wonderful scenery. It's amazing how much wildlife you encounter on a bicycle rather than a loud ATV. I've already seen dozens of deer and no people!
In a little while, I plan to bike back to camp, collect some firewood, and try to catch a fish to cook. If that fails, which it probibly will, I've brought soup and rice to cook as well.

Campin. Fo realz!

Today I'm embarking on my first mountain bike camping trip of the season. I plan on driving up to the spot, parking, then going for a good ride on the trails, then return to set up camp and catch some fish to cook. I'll update my progress along the way.

Tour de fuck you

Today I went on an epic 20 plus mile ride through NYC. I took a bus to penn station, and rode from there, to union square, to the times-up.org shop just over the Williamsburg bridge. I attended an occupy wall street meeting at the times-up spot then set off to a friends place in Williamsburg. There, we worked on a moped and played around in an awesome yard filled with many, perfectly restored aluminum streamline campers. From there, I decided to bike ride the entire way back to Bergenfield. The journey was long, but so worth it, and it prepared me for any cardio endurance I could encounter on my mountain rides.

Brutal 22 mile loop

Today I took a local trail out across a few towns for a 22 mile loop. This was a bit farther than I've ever ridden in a day, with a mix of trail and road riding. I had a good time and my total trip took me about 3 hours to complete. I packed a lunch n had a nice meal on the trail.
It's looking like Thursday I will be taking my first trip to ride solo on a long trail in pa. I'm going to go up a night early and spend 3 nights camping hopefully all in my hammock set up.
I wouldnt consider the pa spot total wilderness, because I always have the option to stay at his house if all goes wrong. This however will be my test of all the skills I have practiced thus far. I have a menu planned and all my gear set. Today's ride was without my heavy pack though.

Long ride and BBQ

Today I took a long ride with full gear through the ramapo mountains. I rode about 10 miles into new trails, then set up my gear. The Windblock came in handy this afternoon, because it got so windy when up at the mountain peaks.

After my ride today I was very tired and came home to the first BBQ of the season at my friends house. It was very relaxing to have good food and a warm fire after such a long ride.

Local rides, geo caches N spokes!

Today I stayed local. I rode a few local spots in my town and found 3 geo caches. It was really cool to see that there were more than one geo cache locations in my own town. I can't wait to search for them in ramapo and the Harriman.
I also made my purchases for the various spoke sizes I will need to complete my wheel set. My new bike is getting closer to being done everyday! My girlfriend also told me she will be buying me a really nice brake set so my project will be almost done! Basically all I need is a cassette, tubes, handle bars and shifters and I will have my new bike. I can't wait for the first day of riding my new rig. I wanna go somewhere new and awesome.

Yesterday solo ride and geo cache

I started off my ride yesterday with a cardo intense hillclimb. I set out alone to meet some friends hiking at the palisades cliffs. I started at the scout camp in alpine and with no stops, made it all the way up the hills and to the spot at the cliffs in no time. A few months ago I would not have been able to do the whole ride without stopping.

When I finally found my friends, I found that they were geo caching and I tagged along to find the boxes with them. It was very cool to find the hidden box and I downloaded the app as soon as I returned home. The rise back downhill was much faster and easier. I tried to just haul ass and pedal as fast as possible for my ride back to the truck.

One day closer to camping

Today I got the last of my gear together to go camping with just a pack on my back. I got a compression sack for my sleeping bag, and a mosquito net for my hammock. It all fits nicely into my backpack also.
I also put the bearings into my new bike. It's looking pretty sweet so far and in really pumped to shred on it. Pack is all set, bikes are almost ready.
I also had a cup of coffee on my alcohol stove. It heats up water so fast!
In upcoming posts, I'll do a write up of my total pack of gear while I'm out and setting up camp!
As if this afternoon, I feel I am ready to go anywhere with just my pack, bike and the thrill of adventure ahead.

Short ride to test some gear

Today I went for a short ride into some wilderness to test some of my gear. In sold on hammock camping, and I don't think the yellow tarp tent is good for stealth camping. I found that I can get a pretty penny for my go-lite shangri la 1 tarp tent on eBay, so my plans are to recycle it for some nice quality cammo tarps for lower visibility. I should be going on my first overnight stealth bike camp trip later this week. I also discovered today that rubbing alcohol is a terrible fuel for my stove. Couldn't get the damn thing lit today on my outting when all I wanted was a damn cup of coffee. I'm sure next time out will be much better from what I learned on today's experiments.