Just Another Bike Overnight
Just returned home from another bike overnight (our 4th) to the same lake we’ve been going to. The high temperature was in the mid 90s and pretty miserable.
It’s about a 20 mile ride to the lake and our route is almost entirely through agriculture. Other than the sunflower field, the ride to the lake was uneventful. We arrived at the lake mid afternoon and the hottest time of the day.
We stopped at the “bait shop” for beer, ice and our camping permit. Before going to our campsite we stopped at the boat ramp for a while and watched the county fire department launch boats and practice water rescue. The head guy (I don’t know his title) with the firemen come over to talk to us and asked where we were headed. He assumed we were just making an overnight stop on a tour. This misassumption has happened to us before. Turns out he’s a bike rider also. After we had our fill of watching the firemen we rode around to the other side of the lake and picked out a campsite. We chose the same spot as last time. We drug the picnic table into the shade and opened a beer. Our beer of choice this time was Frio Light. It was pretty good. Really light and refreshing and a low abv.
For dinner we once again cooked one of the Knorr packaged rice dinners. This one was mushroom flavored rice and pasta to which I added canned chickpeas. I served it with canned, fermented mustard greens and flour tortillas. After dinner we just sat and chilled with another beer before riding up to the bathroom/shower building where we showered off the sweat and gravel road grime.
Sleeping was just as miserable as the other times. There was a threat of rain and It had started to sprinkle so for the first time we put on our tent’s rain fly. THis of course made it even hotter. Later in the night once we determined the threat of rain was over we removed the rain fly which helped a little with the air flow. Overnight It dipped down to a tolerable temp but didn’t stay there for long. This time coyotes and a frog were the biggest overnight noisemakers.
We got up at first light and I made coffee. Breakfast for me was flour tortillas with peanut butter and for Nova a bagel. At home I make my own peanut butter but when camping I take Jiffy that comes in a single serving package. After breakfast and packing up we rode over to the bait shop for a cup of their coffee which we sat and drank by the lake before heading home. As we were leaving the lake we noticed a biplane overhead. We later seen it parked at an airstrip which is beside the sunflower field. Wish we would have seen it land.
Despite the heat and another sleepless night, we did enjoy our little outing.
Riding along cornfield. 
Sunflower field. 
Sunflower. 
Sunflower selfie. 
Old farmstead. 
Our bikes parked at lake office. 
Fire dept practicing water rescue. 
Giant swan float. 
Frio light. 
Canned mustard greens were really good. 
Supper. 
Geese. 
When leaving the lake we’d seen this plane in the air.
You do know the definition of insanity? Also look up MSR Hike Thru tent.
Yes lol. One thing we are pretty happy with is our tent. REI Passage 2 I believe. Real easy to set up, seems pretty durable and we really like each of us having our own door. Just looking at that MSR though it looks so much lighter. Really I think my biggest complaint about sleeping is probably being confined to the narrow air mattress. I’m just accustomed to having so much more space to toss and turn at night.
The REI Passage tents are decent tents, and pretty inexpensive for what they are for. But yeah, you can definitely get lighter. I had a Passage 1 and then went to a Marmont Eos 1. Lost at least a pound of weight.
Thanks for the input.
I’m with Chris on this one, it’s too hot to sleep! Wait for cooler weather. After watching your videos on Instagram, you experience ferocious winds! Wow.
Yes definitely looking forward to trying this in cooler weather. When out and about yesterday I think the wind was around 20mph and at one point we hit a gust that nearly stopped us in our tracks. Fortunately we only had to go about 2 miles directly into the wind.
Yay to another bike camping trip! But the heat and humidity do sound miserable. The humidity is one thing I don’t miss about the US east of the Rockies. We do get hot out here, but not humid.
Are you going to try to camp into September and October? You should have some decent weather still, and less humidity.
Thanks. Yes we definitely plan to camp this fall. Maybe some more bike overnights here and we’ll probably take a trip by car which might include some car and bike camping.
Come to Vermont seeing as you’re both retired.
We plan to just not sure when. Thought maybe this fall but don’t know we’ll get around in time. Have things we’re taking care of at home before we take off.
After a few bike tours with #3 son, we don’t even consider bringing a tent any more. We still tour and like you, I could never get any good night’s sleep in a tent. Cheap motels are a good enough alternative to sleeping on the ground. As you probably know now. (Hopefully).
Kind of just stepping out of our comfort zone with this having never camped before. Right now it’s just to entertain us around here. We’ll see where it goes from here if anywhere.