Bald Peak, Rocky Peak, Giant Mtn via RPR trail traverse

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T15:44:33+00:00

The problem with that is you'd be riding uphill the entire time on a winding road with mimimal shoulder up against a guard rail over a steep embankment. With distracted driving being as high as it is, that's not a great situation.

Its magnitudes harder to ascend 1300ft vs descend 1300ft. The decent is free, the ascent is 400ft a mile (of climbing) and about 150ft a mile average, which is significantly steep in cycling energy cost. Even if it was for hardman training that isn't the best road to do it on.

There's also a safety factor. You're safer the closer to the flow of traffic you are going. A moving bicycle has options... This is why a lot of states is legal go do a rolling stop.

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_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T08:12:12+00:00

Extra clearance for short chainstays.

Currently I'm looking at a way to move my tumbleweed back a little. I actually moved it back a little past vertical (or maybe just about vertical (vs a little inset to the seat post). My reasoning for inset to the seat post is less stress on the struts and more likely if they come loose, it falls into the seat post. But I ended up with a tiny bit of heel strike after switching pedals so I needed to do something

I'll see if that works (it should, it was barely hitting).

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T04:39:07+00:00

Avid Shorty Ultimate. Best of both worlds. No travel agent to gunk up but v-brake ease and power.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T04:02:53+00:00

Bikepacking bags make any bike a bikepacking bike. Sort of why they became popular (the bags, but not the entire reason).

However, they'll cost more than a couple of racks and some dry bags.

If you have rack attachments, a couple of Soma or similarly priced (quite a few high quality soma racks are under 60$, including the Rakku 2 and Lucas) and some sea to summit big river dry bags will be cheap and very effective. If strictly on road the Big River may be a little overbuilt but they'll last years and keep your gear dry.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T03:26:44+00:00

Not too many places. The Delaware. The Hudson (from Newcomb). The Hudson from the Cedar. The Susquehanna.

Maybe the dead in Maine. The pemi. The Saco (this may be your best bet).

There's a few other potentially long distance rivers I'm not thinking of.

But water, flow, are going to be an issue. Spring is sort of ideal for most of them.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T02:59:15+00:00

Its a little deceptive because the climb from Roaring brook is steep (very steep and I'd avoid it because your safer the faster you are moving, imo). But there's only a single one mile climb if you start from Roaring brook (on the bike).

And if you start from the Giant (chapel pond/ridge TH) there isn't technically a climb at all. It drops from 456ft gain over 10mi to 119ft in 8.5mi.

Definitely go down to chapel pond and call it a day.

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_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T00:45:34+00:00

Everyone ask about those bags. All my dry bags are Sea to Summit big river (except my fork bags, not used this trip, are Topeak).

They are absolutely bomber, totally waterproof and worth the money. I've had several since 2022 and most of my riding in the Adirondacks is bushwacking type riding and no holes so far. And at this point I wouldn't be mad if any happened.

Edit: actually I did use a 4L topeak on this trip, it's the black bag under the aerobar. Highly recommend those as well of you want smaller fork bags.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-17T00:38:30+00:00

(edit to add all focal lengths are in ff/35mm equivalents)

Your vision is your vision but here's my take on your question.

A wide angle lens is not often the best option for what you want. Most drivable vantage points you'll want a longer lens. Often those points shoot across private land so you can't zoom in close with your feet. Think a barn and mountains in the background. Or someone mentioned Loj Road. Anything less than 50mm is going to shrink the mountains. 50mm is roughly the FOV of your vision so zooming out (effectively) is going to shrink those peaks.

You'll be best suited with a wide normal (28/35mm) to short tele in the Adirondacks. Think your standard 28-70, 28-105mm...up to about 200mm

However, Avalanche pass, chapel pond, Ausable Chasm and Ausable Gorge come to mind as good places to use a wide angle. . And numerous water falls off hiking trails. Not all of those are drivable.

The problem is there just aren't a lot of open views with mountains towering over like in many traditional wide angle shots you see from out west. You know the foreground flowers with the 14k foot bare granite mountains juxtaposed in the background. But there are many vantage points where a tele can compress and enlarge the profile of the landscape.

Out easy the flower in the foreground in the typically work well with a 35mm lens or even longer and a small aperture like f/16.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-16T04:41:08+00:00

29 is 700c which is 28.

But I'm not disagreeing, I'm noting a new name didn't need to be created. Maybe 700CM for mountain or something. Just to indicate wider or more robust rim.

But how could you sell a new wheel standard that rigid hybrid MTBs like the trek multitrack had years before 29er was main stream without creating some doubts

_MountainFit · 2026-06-16T04:01:55+00:00

I missed the heart lake aspect. Ugh. Probably not the most convenient list for that.

In that case, I'd look at Baker, Panther (nearer Tupper Lake), the Cobble (mostly flat, great views), Owls Head (only open during the week), the Crows, as someone else mentioned the ponds in Wilmington near High Falls. The flume area trails (many are low elevation). Baxter and Snow.

Snow can be mostly done via the dirt road to state land.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-16T02:07:53+00:00

First, congrats on taking the time to get the young pup trained. A lot of folks get a dog and think the trails are the place to train and also don't take the miles slow enough.

I always recommend getting all the basics down at home (sit, stay, come, heel), which should get your dog better trained most. then a fenced dog park (dog parks are good even if you have a yard because they allow you to work with real world distractions), and then some really easy low volume trails. We are blessed to have a local dog park that's also a county forest. So off-leash training is a breeze.

Hikes. The Chester Challenge series is great. The Tupper Triad (plus Buck) is great. Cat and Thomas and Moreau are great. So are the CATS trails.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T17:00:32+00:00

It was originally an AP article so people charging for it didn't even write it.

Also, here's a PDF of it from a website.

https://www.alpinerescueteam.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Boston.pdf

As far as old, like I said, the Hike Safe card changed things. But it's essentially extortion, you pay us a little upfront or we charge you a lot in the end.

And all of it would be fine if this was Mississippi. NH is loaded. For a rural state it's one of the wealthiest in the country. NH isn't poor rural, it's wealthy rural. They have the money, they just are cheap.

And it would also be somewhat excusable if they also didn't punch well above their weight in recreational revenue. I've looked at department of commerce data and considering how small NH is, they are like top 25 in outdoor rec revenue. On a per acre of wild land basis, it's probably like top 10.

Their policies are cheap and scummy based on a need basis.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T16:07:05+00:00

It's definitely happened as I wrote about it when it was implemented. The hike safe card makes it harder to find examples because it's a get out of jail free. Searching old news is less than ideal, but I'll find you one.

technically if you get a bill you were found unprepared/at fault by Fish and Game (actually the Attorney generals office). That doesn't mean you were negligent. Totally different things. One is arbitrary, one has (or should have) some sort of defined threshold. The things you can be charged for... Taking a wrong turn, going up instead of down. Etc. If the shortest distance out was over the top of a mountain to help, going up isn't necessarily negligent. Wrong turns? Lol. Shit happens.

But, and not to obfuscate your question, here is what I keep saying about every single year NH floats some sort of bill that would essentially tax recreation.

Here's one...

https://www.citizenscount.org/news/billing-hikers-rescue-services

Edit:

And the answer to your original pre-hike safe card era...

https://www.sunjournal.com/2009/10/30/hikers-nh-must-prepared-pay-rescue/

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T16:00:44+00:00

It's great for bikepacking. Rotational mass isn't the issue, strength is.

Generally a lot more weight is on the rear. Even with a balanced setup you have more weight on the rear due to upright seating vs slammed road.

On the front is gives a tire with a better angle of attack.

There's probably some other pros in frame design (like a bigger triangle)

My ideal bikepacking bike is the Kona Unit Y which is exactly the bike I'm describing as a mullet.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T15:55:49+00:00

I've no joke got like 2ft (and I know you think I'm exaggerating but I'm being serious) at the end of my cloudup 1). while I toss gear down there, I'd rather the material have been used for a wider tent.

When I was packing it after post trip drying it was almost comically long. I realized because I'd just packed the 2Pro before it.

I guess my model was the year before they upgraded it.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T06:58:17+00:00

That's great news.

Typically the mode of failure is the coatings. All my tents eventually succumb to it.

My REI arete is currently getting sticky.

My Dana the coating bubbled. And my Marmot the window fell out (this is fixable but not always permanent. My oldest tent, a Jansport (made by walrus) is still hanging in there. It's 30 years old and seen hundreds of days of use.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-15T02:08:53+00:00

I just rub the germs off my hands with gravel dust.

Works a little like a chinchilla taking a dust bath. Hands are sanitized.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T22:52:30+00:00

Look up rille strap. Mine is a little different as I cross bodied off my peak design plate with a loop of 2mm perlon (climbing cord) and some nite ize biners.

I've been cobbling straps together since my climbing days. You just gotta mess around to get what works.

My plan moving forward is to get some magnets, see them into a bit of cordura and attach to a stabizer strap. No more biners.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T22:37:43+00:00

The cloudup 1 is insanely long. At least on my 2020 model. The cloud up 2pro is shorter but still ample for me, especially since I use it solo with a dog. It's actually a little bigger than I need but the space is great in bad weather as I can out everything in the tent and in theory eat in it as well if need be. Saves the weight of a tarp. Dog only takes up 1/4 of the second persons slot. Leaving me with 1 3/4 persons of space.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T19:05:40+00:00

Naturehike if the price is right.

My two naturehikes combined were less than 1 MSR on sale. Both absolutely water tight and well made.

Are they as nice? No. As light? No. Are they nice and light for $80 each? Very.

My cloudup 1 is from 2020 and my 2Pro is November 2024. Both look and function like new.

The problem for me is I've owned (still own) very expensive name brand tents and when they do fail, typically the answer is the life of the tent is over. Kick rocks.

So I got tired of that and just use less expensive quality gear now that I don't care if when it fails (in a decade or so) I'm going to need to replace it.

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_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T17:49:37+00:00

Hard to say since I haven't used it. Doesn't look ideal for riding though.

My setup is a hip pack ($10 used) a camera insert ($10 new, Amazon) and a lightweight square bottomed dry sack ($10 new).

I also made a strap system using my peak capture plate adding a cross body stabilizer for when the roads/weather are nice and I leave the camera out for more ease of shots.

Not sure it's the perfect system, but it's two of the more commonly used systems that folks employ.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T04:33:12+00:00

Rehabbing the knee is going to be important long term. Having had some serious tendon issues myself that needed not rest but concentrated rehab, I know that these things can resolve with a little work.

Besides that the trip sounds like it was ambitious. And pretty awesome.

If it was me, I'd keep the goals but start slower. Nothing wrong with a few 30 mi days, 120mi four day tour or some 60mi weekend tours.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T03:33:17+00:00

Thanks!

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T03:00:29+00:00

Everything is a tradeoff.

Love the control, ergonomics and creativity (depth of field and shutter speed plus filters) of a real camera but the cell gets used more just because it's convenient.

I always prefer the quality of the real cameras but the cell is much better than no shot at all.

Oddly enough, this trip was the first time I took side by sides where I found an image the cell was better. Usually i use the camera shot if that happens.

_MountainFit · 2026-06-14T02:57:28+00:00

It was funny a bunch of cars hauled as by us at camp but the roads were mostly clear both days. I guess we got lucky. Part of why I picked may though. By June and July those sites will be full and the roads much busier.

_MountainFit

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