▲ 24 r/hilleberg
Windy night up high in Wyoming
Winds were ripping the other night in Wyoming. Glad I took the time to stake all the guy lines out after this photo. No flapping or shaking. Very comfortable night and this tent was overkill for this weather even.
u/laurk — 15 days ago
▲ 4 r/sailing
Northern Lake Michigan Sailers - what rig do you have?
Question for you. When dreaming up a future, and going harbor to harbor from Ludington say, north to Traverse City, nearby islands, and Mackinac Island, what kind of cruiser recommendations would you recommend? What challenges do you face when sailing in these areas (eg slip space, no reservation options, slips too small, slips too expensive, etc.)
I’m dreaming up a Tartan 3600 in Grand Haven or nearby. Wondering more of what it’s like when sailing out for weekends or weeklong journeys. Also wondering what it’s like owning in this area for day sails and upkeep and winterizing etc.
Let’s start a conversation!
About me, I’ve been sailing my whole life on small boats on Torch Lake. Looking to expand to deeper waters. Wondering where I could live in western Michigan to make ownership a reality with access to traverse bay. Maybe the move is more 25’ and under on a boat lift and dock on Torch for day sails only and winterizing it myself. Maybe that’s where my biggest bang for my buck is.
u/laurk — 1 month ago
▲ 2 r/bikepacking
our bikes - krampus and ice cream truck
A popular ride that's been done lots. I'll give my experience and opinions here still!
https://bikepacking.com/routes/cathedral-valley-loop/ look to comments here for inspo, latest conditions, and updates.
Bikes: Surly Krampus and Ice Cream Truck
Conditions: 60s/40s, blustery esp Sat night and Sunday morning. Cloudy. Little bit of rain. Beat the snow storm by 45min on the drive back home. It nuked, and stuck to the ground!
When: April 23-25, 2026.
Couple things: the hotel where most people seem to park or start from was full and when asked to park there they said they will have no room so don't count on this unless you stay there. Wild to me because the parking lot is so big. The pool is closed until they can get a tech out there to fix, I think I heard another week or so. Call to confirm if your forecast is looking toasty and you plan to stay here after. You can park at the pullout just down the road closer to the Cathedral Valley entrance. No issues.
DEFINITELY take the county gravel road instead of the paved highway. Cuts off about half the highway miles with beautiful gravel road. As soon as it connects to the highway the shoulder also widens so more room for bikers from this point to the river crossing road.
Also, there's so much water! Cathedral Valley side had, I counted, 4 cattle troughs flowing clear with good water just off the main route maybe 50ft off the road. Bring a filter and use this so you don't have to carry so much water. Water also flowing at the spring marked on the RideWithGPS map here (where the abandoned truck is), and maybe also water about a mile off the main route called Rockwell Spring just after Bentonite Hills. Maybe good camping here? This is also a 4x4 connector back to your car just in case. One particularly good camping spot was off the access road to tempe of the sun/moon. There was water right near the Temple of the Sun/Moon access road (just east on the main route maybe 200ft east past the access road) flowing via solar panel pump in a cattle trough. NO need to cache water for camp here like we did. I'd personally rely on this next time without a special trip but also in peak season on a weekend you can risk it because there are many-many cars on the tour to help you in the pinch. With this itinerary we never needed more than 3L of water capacity.
With the water situation, I recommend two nights or giving yourself the FULL day to explore the Cathedral Valley side. Doing this on a Sunday with "sunday scaries" and rushing to get out is not the move in my opinion! Gypsum Sinkhole, the Morrell Cabin, Temple of the Sun and Moon and Glass Mtn, and the south desert and cathedral valley overlooks! All these take time and are very worth it.
Day 1 (14mi) and we camped at the spring with the abandoned truck (mediocre camping, cow patties, but flowing water, maybe better camping at Rockwell Spring??).
Day 2 (43mi) we biked up to the highpoint for lunch with south desert overlook along the way, down the chunky descent to super fun and fast cathedral valley roads to the Gypsum Sinkhole, and then camped along the road to Temple of the Sun/Moon on BLM land.
Day 3 (16mi) easy fun miles out to the car. These mileages include all the side trips. Average speed was around 8mph if that helps for planning.
I loved this itinerary since Temple of the Sun and Moon can be a sunset/sunrise side quest with bikes unloaded. A very fun activity after getting to camp and eating dinner. Once you get to your car, head to town for lunch (I recommend Capitol Burger food truck in Torrey, opens around noon so take your time getting out, double check their facebook to see if they will be around).
The campground at the high point was not crowded and had picnic tables and a pit toilet with TP. No water. Reliability of getting a spot here is very good especially as a bikepacker. There were two campers on Saturday there and lots of space to pitch tents. Plenty of spots to camp elsewhere down the valley if it happens to be full, just get yourself to BLM land or get a backcountry permit (free) from Capitol Reef NP (requires in person pick up I think).
If you want to do it in a overnight so you have the campground and overlook for sunset/sunrise, a weekend itinerary I would recommend starting in the late morning on Friday, biking to the campground at the route highpoint enjoying the south desert overlook side quest (30-60min) along the way (total bike time 5 to 6hrs not including stops), enjoy sunset and sunrise at the cathedral valley overlook near the campground (there is one picnic table here), then Saturday don't rush, stop at the cabin, sinkhole, Temple of the Sun/Moon, Glass Mtn, etc. and then enjoy the rock features and washes all the way back to your car timing it right before dinner. Grab a drink and snacks at the car, and drive back up Cathedral Valley to the rock areas with cool campsites to make yourself some dinner and enjoy another night of camping in this beautiful area. Or head over the Hanksville for dinner and camping in town, shower, etc. Then Sunday morning head back. This will set you in the best state of mind and give you all the time to enjoy as much as this bikepacking trip has to offer.
u/laurk — 2 months ago
▲ 77 r/bikepacking
Most people that know this route probably got influenced or relied heavily on the post from the bikepacking.com trip report here: https://bikepacking.com/routes/cathedral-valley-loop/
There are key changes and recommendations to this itinerary I think might cater to bikepackers like me so let's get in to it.
I recommend splitting it up in to two nights or if you do an overnight don’t rush the cathedral valley portion. so many side quests that are amazing. We did 14mi, 45mi, and 16mi.
Day 1 (14mi) We started late around 6pm friday,
taking the county dirt road for the first half of the paved road section (Do This!) and then rolling in to the abandoned truck with the spring for water. There’s a better shoulder right after the county road meets the hwy so taking this county road route is great for multiple reasons. The evening started windy but calmed down and was dead quiet.
Day 2 (45mi) we had the whole day to go 43mi to camp with a 2mi sunset detour around Temple of the Sun/Moon and Glass Mtn area. So amazing! We stashed water at the road to the Temples where there was a campsite near the wash on BLM. Wish we hadn’t because a) there was a perfectly good cattle trough with flowing clear water at this junction, and b) it took 1.5hr round trip to do this and it ruined the surprise of the views for this section. This is such a good day and it’s nice to split the elevation gain and loss for the day rather than have mostly all up hill one day and mostly all downhill the second day. Camping day 2 forces you to enjoy the views and take your time and do all the view points and attractions like the gypsum sinkhole, the historic cabin, and south and cathedral valley overlooks along the way. And then do a sunset or sunrise visit to glass mtn and temples of the sun and moon. Really windy at times and some rain but no accumulation. It calmed down a bit but you could tell the weather was turning.
Day 3 (16mi) mostly downhill nice road. cool rock features through rising and falling terrain as you go through washes. terrible head wind for us here but the slight downhill cancelled it out.
I loved this loop. A true gem for Utah bikepacking. No permits. Good camping. Great views. More water than anticipated. Interesting site seeing. Good road grade percentage.
The things i didn’t like are all the cars near peak season on a weekend dusting you and not making it feel remote. Be mindful of the rain as it will get too muddy with a lot of rain and the betonite areas will make it impassable for a bike or car. Most of it is sandy tho so i imagine these areas would be okay.
If you look closely at google earth you can spot about 4 cattle toughs on the aerial on the cathedral valley side. use them! it’s crazy to me that people don’t filter water more on this trip and just carry it all. We carried max 3L which was excessive. And with so many cars in peak season you can afford to not have to play it so safe. I’m curious about camping not at the abandoned truck and instead camping near Rockwell Spring just after bentonite hills. there’s a 4x4 road that goes to a wash with a spring looking at the map. i’d try that over camping near all the cow patties of the spring near the abandoned truck. If you’re nervous about relying on these cattle troughs, you can just take the time to drive up to confirm. Maybe you can try and call the ranger station to see if they has info.
if i were to do it in a overnight weekend, id take friday off, start late morning, crank to the cathedral valley campground and do sunset and sunrise at the overlook there. Day 2 i’d give myself the entire day to do day 2 and get to the car around dinner time, then drive back up cathedral rd to camp at the cool campsites near the rocks about 5-10mi back. Grill up some burgers and drink beers with the friends and enjoy being out there. then drive back sunday. trying to prevent the Sunday Scaries on day 2 is a good move i think.
Bikes: washboard roads and some chunk up near the high point of the route approaching the campground. I’d say if you’re keeping miles mellow for site seeing then a hardtail with suspension is the comfort choice. If you want to go for a fast time doing it on a drop bar gravel or rigid mtb with 40mm tires or more is totally fine but with all the sand and washboard and some chunk it’s not the ideal choice imo. Fat bikes do great out here with all the sand so my wife’s ice cream truck was great. I road a rigid Krampus w/ 2.6” tires. Given how much type 1 fun it was and no need to carry that much water (no need for fork mounts) i would have just put the suspension fork on. This was the first bikepacking trip for this Krampus and after never quite being happy with my bikes on these utah trips, i was finally satisfied. it was a perfect rig for the trips i like to do.
Gear Review: first time trying the BA Tiger Wall 3 - Platinum. My wife and i usually use a zpacks duplex or a xmid 2 pro. I wanted to try this semi-freestanding tent since we have to bring tent poles anyway and a lot of these areas have poor staking ground for a non-freestanding. It was very mediocre in the wind but the space and features were nice. it was a little creaky with the fabric moving on the poles in the wind. and the fabrics… just so thin. The vestibule areas seemed to not do well in the wind especially. seems a lack of support here in the design. If it wasn’t so windy it would have been a good tent. I would have preferred our xmid 2 on this trip.
I love the front bag. Top loader over roll bag any day of the week for me. My wife hates her roll bag (first gen rogue panda, came with the bike). I have the swift ind zeitgeist and love it. Maybe looking for an easy on-off support for it though. maybe something like the Twisted T Bar rack from swood.
The frame bag… $290 from rogue panda but daaaamn it’s so good. fills every corner of the frame, looks great, zippers are so beefy and nice and easy to open. I’m very glad i splurged for this.
Vitoria Mezcals are everything people say they are. Such an upgrade from the surly dirt wizards. They are fast, comfy, tough, look cool.
u/laurk — 2 months ago