Nov 15 '06 - 978 W, 5 I - Vote Good + 12 :: Bad - 5 Bike Scouts of America: Car Camping by Bike
Published November 15, 2006 by C.I.C.L.E.
By Liz Elliott
Many years ago, we would pack up our ‘79, eight miles-to-the-gallon, eight cylinder Ford Econoline van and head for the hills of Montana on a car camping trip. We would pack up containers with our cooking supplies, food, toiletries, and other varied luxury camping accessories. We always packed like we were never coming back.
This last weekend the newly formed Bike Scouts of America also went car camping, but this time it was by bike. About 18 or so people decided to load up their bikes with camping gear for an overnight excursion just a couple of miles outside of the seemingly never ending sprawl of Los Angeles.
This trip wasn’t about efficiency, it wasn’t about carrying only what was necessary and keeping the load light. It was a camping trip designed to be done by car, but without one. We brought an outrageous amount of supplies and gear, things most sane bike campers would have dumped off the side of a cliff after the first few hundred feet into their journey.
One Bike Scout leader cruised on an Xtracycle packed with about 50 lbs. of gear, and another towed a 70 lb five foot flatbed trailer bogged down with heavy containers full of gourmet grub, cookware straight from their kitchen, and a few rolls of toilet paper (just in case). Their motto for making it the 12 miles from their home to the trailhead was “easy does it.”
Our caravan included three Xtracycles, five trailers (a few weighting over 100 lbs.), and a lot of bulging panniers. One rider carried their gear in a 20 gallon Rubbermaid box affixed to the top of their rear rack.
The Bike Scout leaders had also decided that it would be a lot of fun to project a movie in the forest, and thus we had to pack in not just the movie projection equipment but the gear to power it -- which included an inverter box, several car-like batteries, and a bicycle generator.
We all definitely earned our merit badges after the first river crossing, and it was somewhat reminiscent of the “go west” pioneer days of yore. The bikes and their riders replacing the stubborn oxen, and bicycle kiddy trailers replacing the covered wagons. Shoes were lost in the mud, feet were soaked, and teamwork was essential for getting everyone safely across.
Meanwhile a couple on a Saturday morning stroll were compelled to take their video camera off the scenery and put it spot on the crazy scene before them. We had a wagon train of sorts spanning the trail, and it was slow going over the next two river crossings, which would prove to be much more challenging then the first. We were only going for an overnight journey, but we looked like we were never coming back.
Luckily, just as our group was beginning to wear down, we spotted the campground sign. We pulled in and surveyed the campground. Sometimes life gets a little ironic -- it turned out that the Boy Scouts of America, also traveling by bike, had similar plans that weekend as well. We the Bike Scouts of America came prepared to live it up in the lap of camping luxury -- only thought possible at one time by car. The Boy Scouts came prepared to rough it. Where we had super size tents that would comfortably sleep a full grown elephant, they had a couple tarps strung between the trees to keep the dew off their sleeping bags. Where we hauled in store bought fire wood bundles, they foraged for fallen branches. We ate deli sandwiches and made shish-kabobs and quinoa, they most likely ate tiny packets of dehydrated beef stroganoff. They also offered to chop kindling for our fire so the little scouts could get some extra practice in... thank goodness as that was the one thing that I forgot to pack, my double edged ax.
That night we all huddled around a small fire as we had a limited supply of wood and glanced over to see two roaring Boy Scout Fires.... the self reliant bastards! But we ate like nobody’s business, and we had smores. Some of us crawled into warm sleeping bags for the outdoor movie theater presentation of Whale Rider.
The next day we ate a hearty breakfast and half the group decided to have a impromptu meditation circle, while the other half talked shop and covered other earthly matters. Then it was off on our wild food hike with Christopher Nyerges, where we learned to identify edible plants and a few poisonous ones like hemlock -- which looks really tasty, but as you know, looks can be deceiving. We also learned to make rope out of Yucca and that we could wash with it as well. An incredible wild foods salad and wild watercress soup topped off the hike and a fabulous weekend.
The question remains, will we do it again? You betcha! Maybe we will pare down a bit on the supplies, and some will plan to bring extra pairs of dry socks, but we were all unanimous in our decision -- the Bike Scouts of America will go car camping by bike again.
http://cicle.org/forimages/details.php?image_id=702
More posts about the trip on SurviveLA:
http://survivela.blogspot.com/2006/11/yucca.html
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Scouts collecting fallen dead wood for fires? I’m surprised, thats illegal in every park in calif. I’ve ever camped in. As well as disruptive to the ecosystem. oh well. Tread lightly. Yuccas are also a protected species I believe. Have fun, maybe I’ll join you guys some time…
dave (Email) - November 15 '06 - 19:25
Yeah… I too was quite surprised that no signs were posted anywhere prohibiting the collection of firewood. As far as the Yucca is concerned, we did only harvest about 9-10 blades from the main plant, which was quite large. I believe that this particular Yucca will survive. But yeah… you should come out for the next one, it was a lot of fun.Shay (Email) - November 16 '06 - 13:04
I still have my necklace made of Yucca rope, and I’m wearing it proudly
It was an awesome weekend, where the journey was just as important as the destination.
Thank you, Shay and Liz!
Enci (Email) (URL) - November 16 '06 - 20:12