T-minus 1 day: Pittsburgh to DC to Catonsville

Final Preparations

Food

So what do you possibly eat during a 375 mile ride? Basing my experience on a prior 200 mile road  ride, I was able to go through 3 peanut butter and jelly (PBJ) and 1.5 zip lock sandwich baggies of a potato/kale concoctions. Figuring we were not going to stop for food, I packed 5 PBJ's, 3 snack bags of potato/kale, 2 snack bags of trail mix, 1 snack bag of cashews,  1/4 lb of beef jerky, and 1/4 lb of beef sticks. For supplements there were three things that I discovered that help me on long rides.

1. Having a stable stomach. Nothing could end a trip early or reduce your performance than having stomach issues. Ginger is an awesome anti nausea and stomach stabilizer. I brought 2 zip lock baggies of candied ginger.
2. Maintaining sodium levels. At my first solo race at the Leesburg Baker's Dozen I developed the name "Salt Lick". By the end of the day, my face was completely caked with salt. Since cramping is not fun, I drink straight salt water and eat two Salt Lick pills every hour.
3. Taking the secret endurance sauce. At the aforementioned Baker's Dozen race, I was introduced to the secret sauce of endurance racing. Caffein. Not being a coffee drinker, I was surprised at how caffeine boosted my energy and performance levels.  While I prefer drinking Cokes on my ride, Double Expresso Cliff Energy Gel shots with 100 mg of caffein was significantly more portable. 

3 PBJ's. This took up a lot of space

Potato and Kale conncoction 

Enough food for 375 miles?

Weather

The weather looked promising except for a chance of rain on the first day. We just hoped the C&O wouldn't be too muddy the following day.

Water

There hadn't been a good freeze, so we were hoping the GAP water pumps were still active. I couldn't get an official answer before we left, so we had to hope that water would be available ever 10 miles. 

All Packed Up

The final manifest of my gear. 

Sleeping system

1. Fleece pants
2. Thick fleece shirt
3. Tyvek suit
4. Thermal underlayer top and bottom
5. 50 degree sleeping bag
6. Hammock with hammock straps
7. Hammock rain fly
8. Sleeping bag liner (I later removed this and added the fleece pants)
9. Tyvek stuff gab with hammock straps
10. Balaclava
11. Lightweight micro fiber towel-I wanted to make sure I was dry before going to sleep.

Riding gear

1. Camel back with 2.5 liter capacity
2. Pearl Izumi shoe covers
3. 1 long sleeve riding shirt
4. 1 riding jersey
5. 1 riding bib
6. 1 spare riding bib
7. 3 pairs of gloves.
8. 2 pairs of wool socks

Phone and electrical

1. iPhone 5s with a weak battery
2. Morphie external battery 4000 mAh
3. Anger external battery 3000 mAh
4. 1 lighting charger

Miscellaneous

1. First aid kit. 
1. Tampon.  I read about using a tampon to prevent serious trauma bleeding! Stay tuned on it's involvement later in the trip.
2. Advil
3. Pepto
4. Iodine
5. Life straw water filter
6. Emergency blanket x2. Since we were hammocking in potential wet weather, I threw an extra in there to be safe
7. Band aids
8. Rubbing alcohol 
2. Tooth brush/tooth paste
3. Paracord
4. 4-5 chemical hand warmers 

All bagged up

1. 1 20L dry bag-that held all my sleeping equipment and next day change of clothing.
2. And old North Face waist pack that held 90% of my food.
3. A cheap High Sierra camel back from Costco that stored my rain jacket, shoe covers, and bike pump and the all important first aid kit.
4. An Iberia top tube bag that held my phone, phone batteries, candied ginger, salt, and salt pills.
5. Bontrager seat bag that two tubes, two CO2, bike levers, and a multi tool.

Rental

We wanted to pack up our bikes the day before so we could launch promptly at 3am. I reserved the previous day before our early morning departure.  Since this was a bike expedition, what better way to pick up the care rental than by bike!

The attendant said he's met only 2 other people who picked up
their car by bike in the past three years.  

One bike in. Need to find a picture of the rest of the bikes . . .

When we loaded the bikes up-all that we needed to do was go to sleep and drive to Pittsburgh.

Next up; Day 1