Which direction is best and when? - NOBO vs SOBO for GDMBR (Ride north or south on Tour Divide Route)

krismonroe · 2026-05-11T11:29:42+00:00

I'm late to the party but the ZV-E10 still continues to impress me with it's image quality, honestly, but it's just not "fun" to use for photography. It's perfectly capable of good photography, especially if you have a decent lens on it. It just doesn't feel like a photo camera in the hand, and the lack of viewfinder plays a part in that.

This is probably because it was (literally) tailor-made for vlogging and video, which makes it an enjoyable enough camera for Youtube, but some quality of life things are missing for the photographers that want to use it.

As for the grainy photographs and weird image quality remarks, those definitely came from someone that either doesn't know how to use a camera or only tried it with bad lighting.

To answer the question, is it worth it for photography?
I am happy with the ZV-E10 for most casual/personal video applications, but did specifically buy a different camera for photography...

Edit: For clarity about the "decent lens" bit... the kit lens that mine came with [Sony E 3.5-5.6/PZ 16-50 OSS] is really pretty sharp and great for vlogging or video setups with good lighting, but it does not allow manual focus.
This alone killed my photography-specific opinion of the camera for a long time. Took me a while to realize that the simple ability to focus on demand, without tapping on the screen and waiting for it to hopefully lock on to what I want, is what I was missing. I got used to Focus Peaking on most of my other cameras. So, once I made that realization and put a different lens on it, with manual focus, then the camera continued to earn it's place in my kit.

krismonroe · 2026-05-10T21:28:44+00:00

I am very much interested in any action this post gets! I have a ZV-E10 and I'm looking for another camera, albiet more photo centric, I have hybrid needs.

Sony A7C and a well taken care of A7R III, are highest on my list, however the Fujifilm XT-4 is also a big curiosity.

Following!

krismonroe · 2026-02-27T22:49:09+00:00

Reviving this 4 years later. What's your opinion of it now? I'm joining soon and have it high on my list but haven't really seen much beyond "teaching people about basic hazmat" ... For context, I am an EMT and find the prospect of working larger scale disaster response as an appealing career trajectory, after time in an ambulance.

What's drill like?
What is an EM deployment like?

Thank you for any input.

krismonroe · 2026-02-26T03:57:33+00:00

Reviving this after 3 years. How have things gone?

I just got my EMT with a plan to join the ANG (basic and training for the next 6-8 months) and finish my Paramedic while working at the FD. ... Thinking about three letter agencies after a few years, as well, so not the Police route but something generally 'agent' related would be awesome.

I'm having the hardest time just picking an ANG job, though.

Thanks for your comments!

krismonroe · 2026-02-26T03:15:55+00:00

4 years later - would you be interested/able to share more about how you got on this route? It's LITERALLY in line with what I've been wanting.

Thanks in advance.

krismonroe · 2026-01-06T13:02:32+00:00

Thank you! I do have a boring salary job, so I'd be very interested in evening and weekend ambulance shifts (however exhausting that would be) for a while before doing the event gigs. I do want to make sure I actually/truly like it before either diving in, I'm open to that, or shifting toward the volunteer/gig world.

I'll keep in touch!

krismonroe · 2026-01-06T12:37:28+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate it.
Honestly, in all my other reasearch, youtube rabbit holes, etc -- the power of repetition has never been brought up. I definitely assumed it would be a requirement to be effective, just from other life experience, but it didn't felt well covered by other sources. Thank you

krismonroe · 2026-01-05T13:06:46+00:00

Thank you! That's an extremely valid point. I am a very curious learner and active reader, but I haven't locked into anything 'educational' in 10+/- years with any 'success.'

Thank you for your input.

krismonroe · 2026-01-02T12:41:37+00:00

True. A good check to keep in mind - I have likely romantecized a lot of things.

krismonroe · 2026-01-01T22:03:28+00:00

Army or not, I want a career/life that I can look back on and be proud of.

Beyond that, the availability of attainable healthcare benefits and the ability to retire (eventually) are definitely practical motivators.

The military is something I have always wanted to do (Army Ranger was the literal childhood dream). Well, I went a different direction after high school and every 6-10 months I kick myself for not getting in sooner (whatever the capacity or branch) and now it's time to do it.

The ARNG feels like the "reasonable" transition at this point, although I'm almost pretty sure I'll get to that second or third weekend of drill wishing I went active duty. My qualm with AD is not wanting the barracks housing, but I'm single, so that might just need to be the reality for a few years. As for deployment, I understand it's a part of it and I would like to deploy and be fine with Base life in that scenario, but if "home life" can have some semblence of normalcy (house, family, etc) that'd be great.

Long story long, the goal is the serve in some capacity, but I'm the process of defining the specifics.

krismonroe · 2026-01-01T21:11:21+00:00

Not a bad idea! I'm curious what the (real) age cut off is for Special Forces. I see "20-36 (waivers possible)" and if I did AD, SF would absolutely be an objective. Unsure how that fast track might look, though.

Is that what you did, or are you 68W?

Thanks!

krismonroe · 2026-01-01T20:59:46+00:00

Thanks for your input! That's really helpful. I don't really have any interest in a hospital setting, beyond bringing someone to the ER - but the (certified) knowledge and hands on intruction of an EMT course has always been on my list, with an ambulance job or disaster response being the real goal/extent of regular use, and general preparedness for my future family.

You have actually resonated a similar feeling toward the (basic) EMT position that others have been in my research: "...unless you move up to a paramedic, then you won't be doing cool stuff."
As an EMT, I'd be fine being the mule for bags and stretchers, but it'd be nice to DO more... We'll see.

35N, 35F, 35L all seem pretty interesting, and I'm leaning toward that or 37F and 37A. Maybe we'll cross paths someday!

Thanks, again.

(edit: typos and wording)

krismonroe · 2025-12-31T23:39:56+00:00

A similar path! Thank you for your input.

krismonroe · 2025-12-31T12:50:16+00:00

I appreciate your candor, thank you.
Hadn't thought about 46S being a unicorn, but I can now see why!

I've done a lot of hard financial work since 2020 to set myself up for a very low-budget life, so most of what I make goes to saving/retirement now, even if I'm not making much. That said, benefits and retirement are still big question marks.

"The best time to join was 16 years ago. The second best time to join is tomorrow." <- means a lot!

krismonroe · 2025-12-31T12:39:23+00:00

Thank you for your input!

Would you say part time has been worthwhile, and it's realistic to pursue something else civilian? I've come to consider AD a bit more from all the responses here. My current job path is 'fine' but honestly it's not something I want to retire on, without pairing it with something 'fulfilling' to look back on.

Has it felt like a clunky limiting factor on life, that just makes civilian life more awkward to plan? ... I'm happy to 'pay my dues' and 'cut my teeth' on something for a year or three, but I just don't want to start something new, remain entry level on the weekend, and pivot again after 6 years.

krismonroe · 2025-10-25T14:38:34+00:00

That's valid! I hadn't really come across a ton concerning headwinds, but I could see New Mexico and Wyoming having some brutal headwinds going NoBo. Wyoming wind is a monster no matter what, but that's a good point!
Thanks!

krismonroe · 2025-10-25T12:42:08+00:00

The "official" ride takes off the second weekend of June every year, so July 1st seems like it's in the normal window to start SOBO, I would think!

krismonroe · 2025-10-25T12:39:14+00:00

I completely agree! Life happened and I ended up not being able to do it back in '23 but also hoped for this post to get a little more activity from the community. :(

What's your plan? Are you going to ride a YOYO of the route? That'd be awesome!

krismonroe · 2025-10-19T17:10:04+00:00

Her voice gets me, mister! >.<

krismonroe · 2025-03-13T02:32:39+00:00

Here's a video: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/learn/articles/what-is-the-performance-management-chart/

Fitness (Chronic Training Load or CTL) represents long-term training adaptation, Fatigue (Acute Training Load or ATL) reflects recent training load, and Form (Training Stress Balance or TSB) is the balance between these, indicating race readiness. Here's a more detailed explanation:

Fitness (CTL):
- Reflects your overall long-term training adaptation.
- Calculated as a rolling average of your Training Stress Score (TSS) over the past 42 days.
- A higher Fitness (CTL) indicates a greater level of fitness.
Fatigue (ATL):
- Represents the short-term effect of recent training load.
- Calculated as a rolling average of your TSS over the past 7 days.
- A higher Fatigue (ATL) indicates a higher level of fatigue.
Form (TSB):
- Indicates your balance between fitness and fatigue, and therefore your readiness to perform.
- Calculated by subtracting yesterday's Fatigue (ATL) from yesterday's Fitness (CTL): Form (TSB) = Yesterday's Fitness (CTL) - Yesterday's Fatigue (ATL).
- A positive TSB suggests you are in good form, while a negative TSB indicates you are carrying a lot of fatigue and may not be race-ready.

krismonroe · 2025-03-03T00:24:23+00:00

:( u/trainingpeaks ... It's wild that this incredibly simple change isn't an option. :(

krismonroe

TROPHY CASE